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Do you think a router or firewall makes you safe from hackers? Not necessarily. Do you think they won’t attack you because your business is so small? Don’t count on it. Hackers might grab your IP (Broadband address “IP”) to hack others, store illegal information or test the latest trojan.

The checklist that follows will help you protect yourself against determined hackers and the many problems they can cause.

Create a written security policy. If you own your own business and have employees, tell them in writing what they can and cannot do on the Internet. Employees should know ahead of time that downloading music, movies and the like will get them into trouble…and in some situations, can be illegal and you could be responsible! And, of course they should be mindful of the fact that downloads can carry hidden viruses.

Do quarterly or monthly vulnerability assessments. More than 300 new vulnerabilities aka bugs in software/hardware arise every month and any that you fail to fix will provide an open door for hackers. With freeware and commercial tools (nessus.org, eeye.com, qualys.com) readily available, it’s foolhardy to skip this step.

Patch. Make sure you regularly download the most recent patches for your systems.

Build in redundancy: high-availability and WAN-WAN fail-over. Redundancy is always needed. You can’t rely on one connection to the internet or one firewall. If your firewall fails, it should fail-over to another firewall; if the broadband dies, it should fail-over to another broadband or dial-up connection. Think of this as insurance. Businesses need to run smoothly, and with technology costs dropping, it makes economic sense to use these safeguards to avoid the risk of losing customers or sales.

Divide Information into Groups. Internal hacking is even more popular than external hacking. If you have sensitive information on your servers, you might want to build separate zones for it behind your firewall. Everyone shouldn’t be able to see HR files or client information. Put your Web site in a separate zone behind your firewall too. Hackers can attack via an exposed Web site.

Filter content. This cuts down on liability and increases productivity. If your employees view certain Web sites, they may be creating risks of lawsuits, spyware and viruses. If they download something it could be a trojan, virus or other malware that could throttle down your business. And don’t just block questionable sites. Remember, most online purchases occur between 9AM and 11AM - prime time work hours. You could curb this and make online shopping opportunities a benefit instead of a right by allowing staff to surf during lunch hour but not during normal business hours. Most users waste an hour a day surfing the Internet, which could cost a company with 25 employees up to $150,000 a year in productivity.

Server/workstation Anti-Virus and Gateway/Firewall Anti-Virus. About 98% of businesses have AV on their servers and workstations. Make sure all your servers and workstations have updated AV as well as gateway AV, which is now available on most legitimate firewall solutions. Since viruses can shoot through the gateway, why not stop them there instead of letting them into your network where they could attack an unpatched on non-updated workstation. It pays to be paranoid

Use log reporting. Would you like to know where users are going, what type of bandwidth they’re using and who is hacking into your sites? Many tools can take syslogs and put them into graphic reports. With these reports, you can spot problems, such as excessive bandwidth use or visits to questionable sites, and

determine what to do about them.

Install anti-Spam and anti-Spyware programs. Spyware is out of control. A recent survey of 3 million computers found 83 million instances of Spyware, usually traceable to downloads from the Web. There are many fine anti-spam and anti-spyware solutions are available such as Stopzilla and SonicWALL. Make sure you have both and verify that they are constantly updated.

Secure your telecommuters and road warriors. They could be your weakest link. Hackers can crack the remote worker and traverse back into corporate. With SSL VPN (Secure Socket Layer Virtual Private Network), secure VPN clients and the low cost of a solid ICSA (Legitimately tested firewalls….ICSAlabs.com) firewall appliances, there is no reason not to be secure remotely.

Secure wireless access points. Wireless access points create huge vulnerability in most networks. What looks like a great firewall solution isn’t so great if it has a wireless router behind it. Wireless routers are easy to hack and they’re usually set up without security. Although most companies have policies banning wireless but it’s easy for employees to find rogue access. Secure wireless access points are available, and worth what they cost.

Updated ICSA firewalls. [did a few paragraphs before] Don’t think of the firewall as plug and play. It has to be constantly updated with firmware and signatures to thwart the latest attack, outbreak, and intruder. Most vendors have aggressive promotions for their newest firewalls and you should take advantage of them. Having an older solution, a freeware solution or a basic software solution that the vendor isn’t updating with firmware isn’t secure enough.

Install [OK? yes] intrusion prevention software [is this software (yes) or do you hire a specialist to handle it? In any case, please give a couple of examples]. Since no firewall can stop everything, intrusion prevention “IPS” and detection “IDS” are imperative. IPS/IDS solutions are usually updated rapidly and add another layer of protection to your environment. You need them for remote workers too. Basically, using them means hiring an outside team of security engineers [OK? si] to update your firewall and repel constant attacks.

To make it easy for you, here are some companies that have perfect internet security for small/medium businesses:

Good luck……fear the unknown.

www.sonicwall.com

www.watchguard.com

www.juniper.com

For more information, visit www.onestepdata.com.

Most people associate the name Comcast with cable television. However, Comcast actually can provide many more service than just cable TV. The company not only is the leader in television entertainment, but also provides service like digital phone (VOIP) and Internet services to its customers.

Broadband high speed Internet is one of Comcast’s most well-known non- television services because millions of families are already using the service to get an incredibly fast Internet connection. For people who have been using dial-up to access the Internet, broadband is capable of completely changing the web-surfing experience. Dial-up is slow and often frustrating to use. It often doesn’t allow for downloading video or music content because the files get corrupted before the download can be complete. Dial-up also ties up phone lines, making it difficult to get important phone calls. Broadband solves all these problems because it works up to 100 times faster than a dial-up connection and leaves the phone line free for use. This makes it perfect for uses like downloading music, video clips, and even full-length movies. It also allows your entire family to use the Internet at once without dragging down the speed noticeably.

With Comcast’s high speed Internet, it is also possible to get features to keep your computer and children safe while surfing the Internet. A firewall can be added to your subscription to protect yourself from identity theft or computer problems. For children, Comcast offers plenty of special kid-safe web content like music, games, and photos.

Comcast is also able to provide you with the necessary hardware to get you connected to the Internet, such as the modem and even wireless routers. Wireless routers are able to make the system extremely convenient because they let you create your own wireless network within your home. This allows family members to access the Internet from any computer within the house and also to operate entertainment devices and other gadgets that rely on an Internet connection.

A service that is increasing in popularity, but still not very well known, is Comcast’s phone service. There are many reasons that switching to cable television for phone service makes sense, not least of which are the service’s many included features like voice mail, call forwarding, Caller ID, and call waiting. These services, as well as unlimited local and domestic long distance calls (including to Canada) are included in the normal calling plan. This makes the plans very cost effective and convenient compared to normal phone service. With this phone service , it is also possible to access voice mail through the Internet with any of the calling plans- a very convenient feature for the times you are away from home.

Even with all the newer service that Comcast Cable is offering, it still is the nation’s leader in cable television service. With its selection of over 270 fully digital channels, the company truly offers something for everyone. There are even many high definition television options for people looking to upgrade from standard definition. Digital Sports Packages and on demand programming offer other popular options for entertainment. Plus, every programming package includes an electronic program guide that makes it easy to see what it playing.

Comcast Cable’s wide reach of different services makes it easy for families to get all their telecommunications needs met with just one company. With the high quality and many features available within each of these services, it is possible to get both a higher level of convenience and quality by using Comcast as your provider. The current Comcast deals are terrific. It is time to switch to the best cable company with the best cable deals.

A recent research revealed that 80% of the computers today is
infected with these dangerous spyware and most of the users are
not aware of it. (Your computer could be infected by now too.)
The most dangerous fact is, even though the anti-virus software
is running, these software can even pass it and take over your
PC.

Have you experienced any of the following? * Awesome popups come
out of nowhere, when browsing the web * Home page reset to some
other site

How can this happen?

- The components installed when viewing certain sites, starts up
and running as soon as it’s finished installing (or after the
page is completely loaded) and with every windows startup since
then. Their job is to collect information and report (or
transfer) it to an external computer.

What is deceptive software? (Reference: www.microsoft.com)
———————————————-

Spyware and unauthorized adware are two examples of “deceptive”
software. Deceptive software includes programs which take over
your home page or search page without first getting your
permission. There are a number of ways deceptive software can
get on your system. A common trick is to covertly install the
software during the installation of other software you want such
as a music or video file sharing program.

Whenever you are installing something on your computer, make
sure you carefully read all disclosures, including the license
agreement and privacy statement. Sometimes the inclusion of
adware in a given software installation is documented, but it
may appear at the end of a license agreement or privacy
statement.

Sometimes deceptive software gets silently installed on your
system without any warning at all. If you use Internet Explorer
as your Web browser, this can happen if your Internet Explorer
security setting is set to its lowest value. Make sure to keep
this setting at the medium level or higher. Doing so will help
you control what is being installed on your computer.

Have you ever had an experience where you were repeatedly asked
to accept a download even after you said “no”? Creators of
deceptive software often use such tricks to get you to load
their software. If this happens to you, do not click “yes”.
Instead, try to close the Web page that first asked you to
accept the download by hitting the “X” in the corner of the
window. Alternatively, quit Internet Explorer and restart it to
begin browsing the Internet again. If you visit a Web page that
continually displays these tricky pop-up windows, that Web site
may not be worthy of your trust.

—————————————————————–
– Your computer may be infected by now, but you may not know.
Just have a checkup with a software specifically designed for
it, to know the current status of your computer. You must clean
infections once you find it but you can’t top it at that. The
spyware might reinfect your PC. So it’s highly recommended that
you run a firewall on your system after the clean up. This will
allow you to monitor every single communication that occurs
between your computer and the external world and block the ones
that are harmful. The firewall acts as a barrier between your PC
and the external world (Internet / Network).

A good spyware detector recommended by most people is, NoAdware
at http://noadware.cjb.net and it shows you all the infections
and potential dangers in great detail. It’s free to scan but not
to clean. It’s a good idea to have a scan even if you have no
idea of cleaning, since you will know the status of your PC in
great detail - at least you will know whether you have any
spyware on your PC at all! (Most of the time it’s there, but you
don’t know! So, don’t be surprised to get a list of over 30
suspicious components detected!) Scanning will also give the
advantage of giving a try to clean it out, provided that the
infections are minor and you (or a friend) have a fair knowledge
on windows file system. (Registry settings, Cookies etc. and how
to modify them.)

You must run a firewall. In many new operating systems(eg.
Windows XP), there is a built-in firewall. Google search on how
to activate it. Others may try one at http://www.download.com

You may have a question by now. What is the purpose of these
spyware? Even though we cannot give an explicit and clear cut
answer, we can safely state that everything boils down to the
urge of more profits. How? The spyware collects all your
personal information and transfers it to an external computer.
The information is reviewed by a software in the receiving
computer and then delivered targeted popup ads to the infected
PC. There are many things that spyware does in addition to this.

If you have some technical knowledge about your PC, here’s a
technical explanation on what trouble does the spyware cause.

1. An extra process is running to monitor and log your
activities. 2. Constant transfer is taking place between your PC
and the spyware server. (This is a two-way transfer)

Firstly, the extra process in itself is an undesired process and
it contributes to slow down your PC. Second point is the most
harmful. It transfers logged info on the infected PC to the
external PC (Spyware server) and then the external PC transfers
targeted popups to the infected PC. (Targeted popups are popup
ads that are delivered based on user interests. User interests
are analyzed by special software running on the spyware server,
using information transferred by your PC as input.) Since many
extra processes are running (eg: monitoring processes,
transferring processes etc.), your RAM (memory) will be shared
and as a result, your PC will run slower. This also slows down
your Internet connection speed because a lot of transfer is
taking place and your total available bandwidth is shared.

In short, PC with spyware is like a dumping ground for snakes.
Once its there up and running, it can do almost anything with
your PC.

* NOTE: A useful tip - When you clean up your PC and close the
door for those harmful programs with a firewall, you can block
many popups. But still, there can be some popups. There are
popups integrated to websites you visit, and we must to do
something about them. There are many popup blockers available on
the net, but I highly recommend installing the Google toolbar,
which has a quality pop-up blocker integrated to it. It also has
some other useful features and is highly customizable. Download
it free at http://toolbar.google.com.

The most risk is for people who use Internet Explorer, as it is
the most popular web browser and that very fact has drawn more
attention of many malicious software developers. All of us want
to make our PCs good and clean, right? So advise your friends
about this, or if you had this article by email, just forward it.

Happy surfing..

I need to install a good firewall system at home to protect the kids from all the internet dangers. Which are the best ones? Are they free or do you have to pay for them?

There is a free one now

http://www.k9webprotection.com/

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