Cyber Security Defense Strategy: 7 Steps to Effective Network Segmentation

Many of today's networks have a flat structure that sets up no barriers between disparate systems. Organizations may wall off SCADA systems from the rest of the network, but they fail to limit unnecessary communication paths between other network nodes. Too often, systems like CCTV, manufacturing control, alarms and building access control live on the perimeter of a network with no limits on internal access. For example, attackers can compromise the workstation that maintains access control functions. They can then disable door keypads, compromise building security, steal data and manipulate power distribution.
In a world that has seen exponential growth in cyber security threats, network segmentation limits an attacker’s movements, protects proprietary information and prevents unauthorized access to sensitive data. The process brings together logical groups of users, applications and assets. It then ensures that these groups don't interact unnecessarily with one another. The key is to balance segmentation for cyber security with the organization's need for agility and rapid workflow. It's a long-term process, and the implementation timetable will differ depending on the size and complexity of the organization.

1. Take an Inventory of Machines

Few organizations know exactly how many machines they own. They also may not know who's using those machines, and they may not even know where to find what they have. For this reason, taking an exhaustive inventory of every machine is crucial to starting the network segmentation process. These machines may fall into these categories and more:

• Windows and UNIX servers
• Development servers
• Financial servers and workstations
• HR servers
• Security devices
• Other network infrastructure

In particular, pay attention to equipment that’s controlled by system administrators. One compromised system administrator laptop can give an attacker access to a wide range of functions and employee credentials.

2. Decide How to Protect Each Machine

A Windows server in one location may not need the same level of protection as a Windows server in another location. Therefore, after taking a machine inventory, categorize the machines according to the type of protection that each machine requires. Once you know what you have and what it does, then you can make decisions regarding how to protect each asset.

3. Take an Inventory of Personnel Including Which Machines They Can Access

Make a list of every person in the company and which machines they can access including workstations, notebooks and mobile devices. Then, ask yourself whether these people actually need every machine they have. In the previous step, you decided how to protect each machine according to its characteristics and functions. Now, make more decisions about protection by factoring in whether the receptionist or the CEO is using the machine.

4. Create an Initial VLAN to Isolate a Low-Maintenance Group

Instead of trying to tackle a company-wide segmentation, start by creating a virtual LAN (VLAN) for a low-maintenance group of workers. Good choices include the legal department, accounting and human resources. Start by monitoring the group and monitoring all traffic in and out of the servers so you can understand what the group accesses and how workflows actually happen. As you learn to understand your initial group, you can expand your segmentation efforts to other groups.

5. Create a Default Deny Ingress Rule for Each Group

Starting with your pilot group, develop a default deny ingress rule so that other users, machines and applications can't interact with that segment of the network. Every time you implement a new default deny ingress rule, prepare for some problems. For instance, if the CEO can no longer access a desired financial report, prepare to apologize profusely and to quickly fix the problem.

6. Prepare for New Equipment Needs and Personnel Training

Old equipment may not be able to handle your segmentation. For example, you might have to purchase a new router if the old one can't implement your new access control list. Also, you'll have to train personnel to navigate through your segmented network. They should understand why they no longer have access to certain areas.

7. Refine Your Groups Over Time

No matter how much time you spend trying to understand business drivers and workflows, you're going to make mistakes that people will find disruptive. Refine your group structure and protection strategies as you learn, and give yourself a generous timeline to implement a full network segmentation strategy.

Read More

Need for Speed: How to Keep All Your Devices Running Quickly and Smoothly

Have you noticed that your computer, tablet, or phone is not running like it used to? Your device may run super fast when it’s brand new, but after awhile it is common for it to slow down. There are several reasons that your device might be acting sluggish, but know that these problems aren't just due to old age. There are a few things you can do to help get your device back to it's top performance level. Read ahead to learn about a few ways you can help your device speed along and prevent it from slowing down in the future.

Get Rid of Unnecessary Files and Apps

Tablets and smartphones tend to get filled up fast with apps, because it’s so easy to connect and download them. This can result in too many apps piling up on your device, many of which you never use. Go through your apps from time to time and delete the ones you don’t need. You can even delete those that you only use once in awhile and download them again when you need them. You'll be surprised at how many apps you accumulate over time, and even more surprised at how much your device speeds up once they are cleared away.

Protect Against Viruses

PC users know that viruses have the potential to wreak havoc with their computers. The same is true for some tablets. Like Mac computers, iPhones and other Apple devices don’t have a high risk of viruses, but if you have an Android or Windows device, you should head to the app store and download a good anti-virus app. There are plenty of anti-virus apps and programs, some are free, and some cost money, but the most important thing is that you download one of these protection systems as soon as possible.

Close Programs and Apps When Not in Use

Tablets and smartphones are not really designed for easy closing of apps, and generally all the apps you use stay open all the time. You can get a task manager, which is an app that will automatically close multiple apps with one touch. Similar programs exist for computers. These can close unnecessary background processes that are using memory. You may not realize how many apps you have running, but if your battery starts to drain quickly, this could be because you're running too many apps at once. Closing out of programs you have been using will help out a great deal when it comes to giving your device a little speed.

Avoid Flashy Personalization Options

Devices and computers promote cool technology like “live” wallpapers that move and high quality graphics and icons on the desktop. According to professionals of thelocalcircuit.com who specialize in laptop repair in Denton, TX, these things use a lot of memory and slow down your device. Resist the temptation to use flashy personalization options and go with basic wallpapers and icons because these can really put the brakes on your device and make it difficult to complete simple tasks.

Clean Your Screen

For touch screen devices and computers with touch screens, something as simple as neglecting to clean your screen can slow things down. If you don't clean your screen regularly, tiny substances will build up on the surface of the screen. You might not even be able to see anything on the screen, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything there. Cleaning your screen will allow the device to recognize your touch more quickly, allowing you to perform tasks right away. Plus, cleaning your screen will clear away any germs or bacteria that might be lurking on the surface.

Keeping you device at top speed is easy; it just takes some regular maintenance on your part. A good method is to run through a short series of maintenance tasks on the same day you do a regular backup. That should keep your computer and devices in top shape and keep you more content as you quickly run through tasks without any loading or extra frustration.

Read More

Why is Security for Your Business Important?

Did you know that in 2010, over 1000 workplace homicides took place in the United States according to the CDC? Did you know that 2% of all sales revenue, on average, is stolen annually by employees?

Did you know that having on-site security reduces your chances of being robbed by 85%?

These are just a few of the reasons why every business, regardless of size, income level, or specialty, needs to focus on protecting their business both physically and electronically.

Workplace Homicide and Assault

Workplace assaults reach in the tens of thousands annually. Each instance opens a company up to a potential lawsuit. These lawsuits can add up to millions of dollars in damages and legal fees for the companies and so investing in some security can be a very smart move.

Strong HR polices aren't always a deterrent from homicide or assault in the workplace. Having on-site security present can reduce liability in the event of something unfortunate happening. Security can also reduce the chances of an attack occurring at all. When managing a large company and mixing all different types of personalities you should definitely invest in some physical security to protect your employees and the company's assets.

Theft

Theft is a major problem in the workplace. Whether it be physical property stolen or intellectual property stolen it can pose a serious problem. Companies report between 2 and 5 percent of their income has been lost due to theft both within the company and outside. This can be theft of office supplies, computer equipment, or currency by employees. It can also mean theft of merchandise by customers which could be avoided if precautions are taken. With items like security locks from Security Centers in Southern California you can be sure to protect your business from thieves.

A security detail can monitor the entire company to ensure profits are not walking out of the door. The cost to protect against theft is a fraction of the overall cost of theft in a company. A visible security guard can reduce theft by as much as 50% or investing in some anti theft security software can help guard your property from malicious intentions.

Identity Fraud

Identity theft costs American companies nearly $25 billion per year. Scams pilfer another $2 billion from corporate coffers. While no one can completely prevent all forms of identity theft or scams, having security teams monitoring email traffic for key words or known phishing attempts can dramatically reduce the likelihood that it happens in your company.

Having a computer security expert working to protect your business can save another 3 to 7 percent of anticipated profits annually. Corporate security is not longer about physical security. Computer security is just as important.

Experts expect the rates of computer scams and identity theft to continue. Estimates put total losses at over $50 billion annually by 2020.

Hiring a team of security professionals and security software can help protect your online and physical assets can seem expensive but the price of not acting can be significantly greater if your business is compromised.

Read More

Transfer Content Safely: Avoid Information Overload Using a Torrent Search Engine

If it is used properly, bittorrent is one of the safest ways of transferring content. The reason why this is the case is because the torrent file contains metadata about the files that are to be shared and the bittorrent client subsequently checks the content received against this metadata.

The safety checks in place should ensure that any discernible difference in the content received will be discarded as a result of these measures.

Using a bittorrent client like www.Vuze.com will help to ensure that malware cannot be added to any torrent once it has become active meaning that any data that is damaged during this transmission process will be discarded an re-downloaded, ensuring a good level of security.

On the assumption that you already have a working knowledge of bittorrent, here is a look at how you can go about finding the content that you want and avoiding an information overload.

Different torrent search sites

There is an incredible amount of content currently available in bittorrent and it is estimated to be somewhere in the region of 25 PetaBytes of content that is available spread across in excess of 20 million active torrents.

These are split into public and private torrent search sites and the general consensus of opinion is that private torrent sites are preferable as they offer several advantages over their public counterparts.

With a private torrent site, you not only get the privacy aspect due to the fact that only members are active on torrent, but you should also enjoy cleaner torrents and greater speed, due to ratio enforcement which ensures a well seeded torrent.

The negative aspect of a private search site is that some of them can certainly suffer from over-zealous administrators policing them and a greater level of rules and regulations to overcome.

Unwanted features

It is a sad but true fact of life that even the best public torrent search sites can be plagued by scam links, adverts and toolbar downloads.

It is therefore really important that you make use of a web browser that has advert blocking capabilities so that you can hopefully eliminate all those unwanted features. Firefox offers an additional feature called AdBlock Plus and with Adblock Plus PopUp you can make all those scamming adverts and non-existent downloads disappear into the background.

Common deceptions

Avoid the scam links that offer you things like a Trusted Download and Sponsored Links and the toolbar downloads are often annoyingly placed very near to the Download Torrent button, so take a moment to check what you are clicking before you go ahead.

Do not be tempted by the adverts that do make their way onto the torrent search site, not all of them are completely questionable but why take the risk? Simply avoid downloading them to save you from any potential subsequent problems.

Key criteria

Your goal when it comes to finding a good public torrent search site is to find one that offers genuine and healthy torrent so you can get the content you want without any complications.

A good torrent site will often contain a large index of torrents backed up by a comments and ratings system, excellent search filters and sorting capabilities.

Also, make sure that you are uploading and downloading only files that do not infringe upon any copyrights.

Stick to this key criteria and you should be able to achieve your goals and achieve a safe transfer of content.

---

About The Author:
Richard Miller is an avid web user for work and play. He enjoys turning in his years of navigating the information superhighway into blog posts to give the average user direction for understanding and maximizing the internet's capabilities.

Read More

Your First Web Hosting Account: What You Really Need to Know

If you've read even one article about what to look for in a web hosting plans (or more likely these days read several articles that just re-stated that one article!)  you will see that they blather on and on about the importance of a feature like Wordpress over another feature like Joomla or how important bandwidth, storage space and many other plan items are to the future success of your website.  What these articles completely disregard is how utterly unimportant these features are to the average person looking to get a web hosting account. 

The main difference between Basic Plans and Advanced Plans isn't th e features it's the webmaster who will use those features.  Even a basic plan for beginners contains many features that an advanced webmaster will want and use.  The key is to know how to use these features.

Most beginners could care less about knowing what MySql or PHP is.  They just want a website that looks good and advertises their business.  Some of the more adventurous new webmasters might explore some of the plan offerings like subdomains or content management but for the most part they will use only a small amount of the features provided by a webhost.  For example, a new webmaster may only use the host's website builder or they may use the Wordpress blog builder feature.  That is likely all they want or need.  All the other features are meaningless to them.

So, what does all of this mean?  It means that if you are a beginner don't waste your time comparing plans and packages as almost all web hosts these days offer the same features.  Instead, focus more on other aspects of the web host such as reliability, speed of servers and whether they have the features you know that you need. 

What about reviews? At this point reviews are basically worthless as so many can be bought or a competitor can launch negative attacks so you can never be sure if a good review is really a good review or a bad review is a real bad review.  Instead, ask around.  See who your family and friends use for their web hosting company.  What has been their experience?  Do they like the service?  Hate it?  That is a much better guide to figuring out what web host to go with.  As I mentioned earlier, if you are new to all this website builder stuff almost ANY web hosting plan you go with will have what you need to create your website and upload it to the internet. 

One last note of caution - while it doesn't matter what web host you go with as their offerings will almost always be very similar don't go with a web host that is too cheap.  They will usually have a bunch of extra fees that you don't know about when you sign up or their service will be so bad that you will want to leave.  The normal price for a web hosting account is in the $5/month to $10/month range.  Usually if you get a plan or hosting package in that range it will be a decent web host. 

Read More

Not Your Mom's Antivirus Software: 7 Ways That Antivirus Is Evolving to Meet Today's Threats

When antivirus was developed, an antivirus software provider would learn about a piece of computer malware. It would then record the code and enable its software to scan a computer for the malware signature. Soon, security companies began to share information about the viruses they detected. Consumers benefited from their combined efforts to stop malware in its tracks.

As the Internet has expanded and the number of connected devices has grown, the sheer volume of malware from phishing emails, from malicious websites and from other sources is more than signature-based antivirus solutions can handle. Also, today's malware is designed to morph and change to evade signature-based detection.

By nature, antivirus software is reactive. It may protect individual machines from known threats, but it doesn't stop attacks until those malware signatures are detected. Fortunately, the best antivirus software is evolving to handle today's threats. Instead of becoming obsolete as some experts have argued, antivirus has evolved in seven primary ways to become more relevant than before.

Behavior-Based Blocking

Antivirus software and deep discovery tools can detect malware based on how a snippet of code behaves. By using data analytics to review the patterns associated with known malware, behavior-based blocking identifies code with similar characteristics or operating patterns to existing malware. In addition to pattern analysis, behavior-based blocking tools analyze the reputation of the source that transmitted the code. They also sandbox suspicious pieces of code, running code in a silo to expose malware without infecting the network or end-user devices.





Web Browser Integration

Today's antivirus solutions can analyze websites and prevent users from opening pages containing malicious code. Working as a browser extension, antivirus software can greenlight safe pages and red-light potentially dangerous pages. Many antivirus extensions also incorporate privacy tools, and they allow parents to control which sites their children can browse.

Network Access Monitoring

Modern antivirus tools log network access events. They record each time a user accesses a database, a set of files or a server and make note of any unusual patterns. For example, the software may send out an email alert if a user tries to access data from an unfamiliar IP address. Also, IT can review employee logs to see if data was accessed using an unfamiliar browser or from an unusual location.

Whitelisting Approved Sites

Instead of just blocking known malicious websites, applications or data, today's antivirus tools allow IT to take a whitelisting approach to security. By default, end users have access to nothing online unless it's authorized by IT. Whitelisting removes the burden of trying to detect every possible malicious site or application. Instead, users are given access to only what they need, and they avoid exposing the company to dangerous or malicious sites that may escape threat detection tools.



Early Warning Services

Security companies are competing to sell products, but they also work as a community to protect consumers and businesses from malware threats. When one company's antivirus tools detect a new threat, that company shares the information to keep threats from spreading.

Web Crawling

Some antivirus tools offer Web-crawling tools that crawl websites looking for malicious executable code. The tools then blacklist dangerous websites from the company network, and they provide an early warning to other security companies that keep the malware from spreading.

Application Isolation

Instead of detecting threats and then quarantining them, some antivirus tools isolate applications from a computer's operating system. Applications work as they should, but if any code from the application attempts to make changes to the operating system, the suspicious code is isolated and then discarded when the application is closed. Bromium creates a microenvironment for every task an application executes. Its vSentry solution detects any code's attempt to propagate, persist or compromise the microenvironment. Polymorphic malware can be eliminated even on unpatched computers, and IT can have a full view of the attack forensics.

Ignore the hype that says antivirus is obsolete; it's still an important component of any security strategy. Security companies are constantly incorporating value-added services into their antivirus solutions. Simply put, today's security programs have made significant advances from your mother's antivirus software.

Read More

Now It Is The Time To Get Mobile Website And Apps

Present generation uses their mobiles to shop, book and gaming in websites. They love to get anything from everything in their mobile phones. With mobile banking and mobile customer services most of the business and financial service providers have made the mobile the most challenging platforms to promote business and services. This made most of the businesses and service provides to make their website available on mobiles. As a businessman or service provider there are some important factors to consider about mobile version websites.

Normal website won’t work; get mobile versions

There is no doubt almost all types of mobile phones support internet. Hence, your customers have the tendency to search for your products and services in their mobiles. But your normal websites find it so difficult to get loaded in the mobiles and takes comparatively long time. This makes the customer worried and chances are a lot to think about other better options. Hence make sure that you have developed mobile version of your website to make it readily and easily available on the mobile web. Mobile browsers will promote website designed with simple but superb features. Hence it is your time to get mobile versions for your website.

Know about mobile web

Screen of your Smartphone is nano in size when compared to desktop or laptop screen. On mobiles you have to use to fingers in the place of mouse. Hence smaller text and link will not entertain the mobile user. This is the reason why the website should be completely rebuilt to suit the requirement of mobile web and the users. Your website should have larger test, clearly visible buttons and links to make the website experienced satisfying for the mobile users.





What makes you stop using mobile browser?

Even though mobile web browsing is getting more demand, the problem is that still there are lot of website which are not optimized for mobile web. With normal versions it appears as it is in the mobiles giving a partial look. The customer or user can find small texts, broken links, missing images and more. He or she needs to zoom everything to get a clear look. On the other mobile web optimized website gives clear visions of the website making the browsing easy and fast. Hence make sure that you have mobile version for your website to keep your mobile customers satisfied.

Mobile apps for instant access

Even though mobile versions gives quick access to website through mobile web, present generation expect something more from mobile. This is why mobile apps are so hot and popular on mobiles. Now the saying is that without mobile apps, mobile is just a electronic scrap. Yes, everyone needs mobile apps for their most visited websites. Mobile apps are icon shortcuts that can be easily placed on your homepage of mobile devices. This helps the user to get access to the websites or services without making any searching or typing. It gives straight access to web address.

Information at finger tips

It is all the amazing benefits that made apps to rule mobile web world. Users can get the information right at the finger tips. With just a touch on the mobile app, it serves the users with what he or she really needs. There is no need to save the website link. These are really small icons with professional business face linked to the mobile version websites. Hence, it is so easy to get access to your website without searching and typing the website address. You can directly visit the website without checking for search or title bar in the search engines.

Benefits of mobile apps

It is hard to do business in feature without mobile apps. We can found unexpected and amazing increase the numbers of mobile apps. Thousands of mobile apps introduced to web world every month. Here are some of the important benefits of getting apps for your business.

Benefits to business

• Perfect reinforcement of brand
• Effective loyalty building
• Enhanced visibility
• Increases accessibility
• Easy access to on-the-go consumers
• Quick exposure through mobile devices
• Increase sell-through

Benefits to customers

• Easy reach to products and services
• Quick and effective notification of product launches and special events,
• Access to contact information with a single touch
• Directions to route map to location form wherever the customer is
• Fast and instant appointment scheduling

Do mobile apps give complete experience?

It is better to answer this question with NO. Even though there are several benefits for mobile apps, advertisement placing on apps, storage space for apps, unavailability of apps for website and more can sometimes make the mobile user to think twice before downloading the app.
This is the reason why most of the businessmen develop unique and professional apps exclusively for their business. This makes their app free from any unwanted advertisement and keeps it purely for their business. Once a customer gets satisfied service through mobile apps, then there is no doubt he or she will not look for another option.

So which is best?

So which is best mobile web design of mobile app for you? The answer should come only from you. It is way how you use web on your mobile devices that makes the best option. If you use mobile web rarely then there is no need to download and store the app. But if there are some websites that use regularly, then it is best to get the mobile apps downloaded and stored in the home page for quick access. Now the time is yours to evaluate your mobile web usage to take the decision.
But whatever it is, one thing is sure. Without mobile web or mobile app you can’t hold the future customers with your business.

---

About The Author:
Adrian is a blogger who work as a web designer and coding expert in UK. He in his free time blog about web design companies at his blog - http://bigdropinc.net/. You may check more about these companies at his blog and how it can help.

Read More