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November
2008
In this issue
►From
Jay's Desk
►Personal
Identity Threat
►Avoid
a Data Disaster on the Road
►Hiring
Your Own Internal IT Staff
►The
Weakest Link in Network Security
►Virtualization
Overview
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 As
I was on my last set of meetings for the year, I was
sitting at O’Hare waiting for a flight (Gee, that’s
something new). While I was sitting there watching
the clock and reading the USA Today, I was
going over all of the things I needed to check while
I was out of the office. A couple of the items that
just eat at me 24/7 are system backups, and Malware
getting into a client's site. The article I was
reading at the time was in USA Today on
November 12, 2008 Money Section. The company in this
article had an internal website, which was accessed
from the outside by Cyberthieves. These Cyberthieves
added a message on the internal site (they somehow
were able to get a user name and password). The
message was for a new charity the company was
supporting. However in this message was a
virus/Trojan that disabled their anti-virus and went
about infecting other machines on the network. While
it was infecting other machines it was also sending
the contents of the MyDocuments folder on each
machine to somewhere in Turkey. This is becoming a
more common event. No longer are these hackers going
after names and credit card information - instead
they are now looking for items they can sell for
more money. Items like company business plans, trade
secrets on products and services, and pricing/cost
to make a product. This is not a good thing for any
business, let alone a small business. But how do we
stop it?
The
Cyberthieves are no longer just hacking into a
system, trying to guess at passwords - they already
have user names and password to get into your
systems. Who gave them this information? Our
employees, at some point in time, someone
called/emailed into the company and asked for it or
the user names and passwords are so simple it is
easily guessed. So what can we do to make sure we do
not become part of this statistic?
Well we
could disconnect from the internet and ban e-mail.
However I have been told that is not my best idea.
What we need to do is training, training and more
training. Let employees know that using their kid’s
name, or husband’s birthday is not a secure
password. Giving out user names and passwords over
the phone to someone they do not know is another no
no. When I type these things up I think: do
people really do this? But the same thought about
spam. People will click on that link. So part of
what I am going to focus on next year is finding
some better security to protect our clients.
I do want to wish everyone a VERY fulfilling
Thanksgiving! Also since we have two big projects
running through January we have put off our annual
holiday party until early to mid spring. I know
everyone is disappointed about not getting in your
5000 calorie snack. But your doctor will thank you! |
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Beware This Latest Threat to Your Personal
Identity |
| by Scott Jordan, President, DELTEC It is really
too bad, but the reality today is that we can’t be too trusting any
more. It seems like there is some criminal around every corner ready to
dupe us into giving up personal information and then stealing us blind.
The only solution is to be vigilant, and sadly, a little paranoid.
 The latest of the schemes
already has a name. It is called “vishing.” If that doesn’t sound
descriptive, don’t worry, it will make sense soon. Many of you may
remember hearing of a technique called “phishing”, a play on words that
basically names a social engineering technique used to steal your
identity, or at least parts of it. The phishing technique relied on an
email sent to you, apparently from a trusted source, such as Microsoft,
eBay, or a major bank, asking you to follow a web link to “reactivate”
or “update” your account. The email, link, and everything was cleverly
disguised to look very legitimate. However, the link, of course, led to
a site that happily collected your personal information directly into a
criminal’s database for later sale on the black market. The term
“phishing” then was coined as a nomenclature for the practice of fishing
for credit cards, social security numbers, bank account numbers, and the
like.
Read more |
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Avoid a Data Disaster on the Road |
by Christopher Elliott
reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center
 Reliable
information can make or break your next trip, whether it's the ability
to cultivate a business contact, ensure accurate company records or keep
you safe.
In other words, your PC
data is priceless. You just can't afford to be without it. Consider:
Travelers are relying on
accurate information to ensure their security, according to a survey by
American Express. In an age when terrorism is a persistent threat to air
travel, who can blame them?
Most companies have strict
policies regarding the use of a corporate travel agent and company
charge card, according to a Runzheimer International poll. In other
words, meticulous record-keeping is now more essential than ever.
Some 25% of all business
travelers miss having access to their internal company systems, British
market research firm Continental Research recently concluded. It's not
hard to guess why: having the latest information keeps them productive.
Put another way,
information is more than power. It's the thing that powers your business
trip. That is why I have outlined the steps below to help you avoid
losing one of your most precious assets while on the road.
Read more |
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Thinking about hiring your own internal IT
staff - think again! |
Outsourcing your IT brings additional
business value
by Stuart R. Crawford, V.P., IT
Matters, Inc.
Businesses today wrestle and grapple with the thought of hiring their
own technology support staff to support their daily need for IT support
without fully understanding the risks and the costs associated with
having their own team of technology professionals.
Business owners, C level
execs and Managers are attracted to the idea of having a team or a
consultant readily available within shouting distance down the hall,
basically having an IT resource committed to them 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week. However, many of today’s business owners across the country are
not aware of the total risks their business is exposed to by electing to
bring their technology support in-house.
More often than not it is
purely a cost based decision, on the surface it may appear to be more
cost effective to hire a consultant or employee who is committed as a
full time employee. CFOs and Accounting Managers often look only at the
cost of having their IT outsourced and or attracted to hiring someone
for a few thousand dollars a month as part of their staff will save
their company in the long run. This is not the case in reality and by
having a full time employee will actually end up costing business today
more in the long run.
So what are the advantages
of having an IT Partner who focuses on delivering a complete managed
technology solution? |
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The Weakest Link in
Network Security
By Peter Alexander
Reprinted with permission from Microsoft Small Business Center
Your
small-business network may be protected by firewalls, intrusion detection and
other state-of-the-art security technologies. And yet, all it takes is one
person's carelessness, and suddenly it's as if you have no network security at
all.
Let me give you an example. In March
2006, a major financial services firm with extensive network security disclosed
that one of its portable computers was stolen. The laptop contained the Social
Security numbers of nearly 200,000 people. How did it happen? An employee of the
firm, dining in a restaurant with colleagues, had locked the laptop in the trunk
of a SUV. During dinner, one of the employee's colleagues retrieved an item from
the vehicle and forgot to re-lock it. As fate would have it, there was a rash of
car thefts occurring in that particular area at that particular time, and the
rest is history.
The moral of that story is clear: No
matter how secure your network may be, it's only as secure as its weakest link.
And people--meaning you and your employees--are often the weakest link. It's
important to note that poor security puts your business, as well as your
partners, at risk. As a result, many enterprises and organizations, such as
credit-card companies, now specify and require minimum levels of security you
must have in order to do business with them.
So what can you do?
Virtualization Overview
by Jane Cage, COO, HTS
We
live in a world that constantly forces us to “do more with
less”. Employees are expected to be more efficient.
Multi-function devices are becoming the standard on many
desktops. We multi-task by answering email, talking on the phone
and reviewing a spreadsheet – all at the same time.
We
shouldn’t be surprised then that IT departments are asking the
same of their fileservers. When server utilization gets
measured, we find that many servers have much more capacity than
they actually use for the majority of the time. With so much
excess capacity – why not run more than one server on a single
machine? That’s what virtualization is all about -- one physical
machine running more than one server operating system.
Virtualization is a “hot” technology right now and
here are some
of the reasons why:
Laugh a Little
Not what we say
about our blessings,
but how we sue them, is the true
measure of our thanksgiving.
--WT Purkiser
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Voice
(260) 422-3979
Fax (260) 422-5775
Street Address
1938 Inwood Drive
Fort Wayne, IN 46815-7111
www.tspec.net
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