Archive for the ‘Security’ Category

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The Latest Wireless Exploit – Your Secure WiFi May Not Be Safe

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

This past week many people were treated to a new wireless exploit.  This latest vulnerability affects WiFi routers, so your secure WiFi connection, may not be so secure.

A little history; for many years setting up secured WiFi networks required some skill level.  While this was fine for companies who provide computer and IT services such as ours, it did come at a cost to the end user.  The manufacturers in all their infinite wisdom came up with a simple method for people with little or no skill level, to setup a secure WiFi system.

This past weekend, code was released on the Internet which breaks the security on many WiFi routers in 2 to 10 hours.  Some of the wireless routers affected are from the following manufacturers: D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, Buffalo, TP-Link, and ZyXEL.

The code takes advantage of the 8 digit PIN used to verify the connection between computers when using a button to set them up.  The manufacturers have yet to respond with a fix.

If you are really serious about keeping your data safe, call or vist www.HITmanSafe.com to request a free Data Disaster Audit and Review. HITman Services can Eliminate the HI-Tech Frustrations in your life. We are a full service IT and technology provider located in Clifton Park, NY.

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Data Loss and Your Risk

Friday, December 23rd, 2011

It seems as though not a week goes by that there is not some news regarding a major system breach.  The government in it’s infinite wisdom, has created new regulations which could put a small business out of business in the event they have a security problem.  The interesting part about this, is many of the most severe computer break-ins happen in the government!

Smartphones are increasingly being used in business.  People who would not have given a second look to these years ago, have now joined the bandwagon. And now that they have a smartphone, they naturally need to have access to their company information.  They regularly send documents and spreadsheets from the office to their mobile devices.  While email is far from secure, the main concern when information is received on the smartphone, is its portability is also a very weak link.

Most never realize the implications they and their company will face if their they are the cause of personally identifiable information getting out.  How many people set pass codes on their devices?  How many encrypt their data?

I was talking with a client a few months ago and she mentioned that she has lost her mobile device in the past.  Several years ago I was in a conversation with a person who served on a board with me, and he said a person he  knew lost a laptop with medical information on it.  He also said there was no protection on the notebook.

If you carry a mobile device it is your obligation to make sure it is secure.  If someone got their hands on it, at that point it becomes very easy for them to create a social engineering attack on you and those whose information is on your device.  If the identity theft is against you, you’re the one who is going to be spending countless hours on correcting the situation.  If the identity theft is against someone else and you are listed as the cause, you could be facing thousands and thousands of dollars in fines.

We are currently offering a free Data Disaster Audit and Review to businesses in the Clifton Park, Albany and Saratoga area.  If you’d like some free tips, give us a call or fill out our online form at www.HITmanSafe.com.

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Just How Secure Are Your Electronic Medical Records?

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

More and more doctors and medical facilities are using electronic medical records.  The soon (hopefully not) to be implemented health care law will require electronic medical records for everyone.  But just how secure will the electronic medical records be?

If you lived in Lawrenceville Georgia, you would seriously be questioning the security of the Gwinnett Medical Center’s IT systems today.  The Gwinnett Medical Center which is located near Atlanta, had to shut down the majority of their network yesterday.

The medical center’s network was infected with a virus.  This could have been caused by a variety of reasons, such as system which had not been updated or a user doing something that they shouldn’t be doing.  Regardless of the reason, this was a major incident, affected a lot of people and in a facility which focuses on saving lives.

One would think that the fault lies with the people running the IT department.  While this is a possibility, most people outside of the medical IT field are unaware that many medical devices use standard operating systems such as Windows.  While this is not necessarily a bad thing, the makers of these medical devices prohibit keeping the systems updated with the latest patches; this is a horrible practice and one which temps disaster.

Why would any company, especially one which designs and builds medical equipment forbid updating their equipment?  Their concern is the devices may no longer work.  This is so contrary to common sense it is hard to believe.

Unfortunately caveat emptor, is meaningless here as once the government gets involved and forces organizations to use certain systems, the situation is out of our control!

We are currently offering a free Data Disaster Audit and Review to businesses in the Clifton Park, Albany and Saratoga area who would like some options to help Eliminate HI-Tech Frustrations.  If you’d like some free tips, give us a call or fill out our online form at www.HITmanSafe.com.

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If It Can Happen to Santa Clause It Can Happen To You

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Over the weekend while taking a break, I happened to see a segment of Fred Clause which was on TV.  It was ironic as what was being shown actually happens to lots of businesses, and if it can happen to Santa Clause, it can happen to you.

An “efficiency expert” was sent in by the board of directors to take a look at how Santa runs his operations, and if Santa received 3 checkmarks, would be terminated.  Like some employees and contractors, the representative from the board had nefarious intentions.

An opportune moment presented itself and the “expert” started shredding important documents.  When the “expert” confronted Santa about the missing documents and asked about his backups; Santa replied nothing like this had ever happened before so they have no backups.  This was Santa’s third check mark and he was set for termination.

Being a movie all ended well.  But you and I don’t live in a movie set and if something can possibly go wrong it will.  Don’t get caught in a trap like Santa.  Not everyone has your best interest at heart and it pays to have backups to protect your data and digital assets.

We are currently offering a free Data Disaster Audit and Review to businesses in the Clifton Park, Albany and Saratoga area who would like some options to help Eliminate HI-Tech Frustrations.  If you’d like some free tips, give us a call or fill out our online form at www.HITmanSafe.com.

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Protecting Children When Using The Internet

Friday, November 4th, 2011

Early mornings at our Clifton Park IT office, usually is a good time to get a lot of work done as it is quiet.  A recent morning I took a phone call from a woman who had some security questions about locking down the family computer to protect her children when using the Internet.

It was a great call because this woman was more knowledgeable than most on methods to help keep her children safe.  Her question was about password protecting the BIOS on her computer.  This is a very good method to locking down a computer to limit access.   I explained the additional steps she would need to take and that the safest place for a family computer was in the kitchen or family room as it can be easily observed by everyone.

Child predators are lurking everywhere on the Internet and children do not understand the realities of what can and often does happen to unsuspecting children.  Law enforcement does a good job of helping to keep the predators at bay, but the ultimate responsibility resides with parents.  It was wonderful to be able to offer advice to someone in the community who understood the implications of unfettered access to the Internet.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Attorney Client Privilege and Technology

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Almost everyone knows about the attorney client privilege and what transpires between a lawyer and client is confidential.  But when technology comes into play, all that is said may go beyond the ears of the lawyer and client.

Very recently I had a person visit the office of our IT company in Clifton Park.  The salesperson was trying to sell marketing services to me and was from one of the major phone book providers.

During the conversation, this person mentioned that for companies who used their designated phone numbers for tracking, they (the phone book company) has the ability to dial in and listen to calls, and then went on to mention how this person has done just that.

While I kept a poker face, I was outraged by this.  While many companies have phone systems which allow the conversation to be taped, I have yet to run across one in an attorney’s office.  And the companies always make an announcement that the conversation will may be recorded.  But to have an outside person listen in on a conversation which one of the parties (or maybe both) believe the information will be kept confidential, yet is not, is simply unbelievable.

Moral of the story; if you’re making a call to a doctor or lawyer and you want your information to be kept private, you may not want to use the number published in any of the phone books.  And if you do, you might want to ask the person if the conversation is being recorded.

If you’re serious about keeping your data safe, visit www.HITmanSafe.com.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Data Disasters

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

Data is a critical and key component to business and data disasters can strike without a moments notice.  The statistics are very grim for business which don’t prepare for the inevitable, as many never survive.

Many people I talk with regarding business security and continuity are poorly prepared in the event they lose their data.  Computers get hacked, hard drives and other components fail; folders and files get deleted; and computers get stolen.

Several months ago we received a call from a client with a critical issue.  The controller was working on her financial spreadsheets.  She decided to clean up the folder on the server and inadvertently deleted all of the spreadsheets.

As our client had been running our HITman Safe System, we were able to retrieve every spreadsheet very quickly.  We verified the versions were correct and there was no data lost.

While the controller is very good with computers, stuff just happens and mistakes get made.  As long as the proper plans and procedures are in place to mitigate damages, we can usually come through ok.

For more information on our HITman Safe System, go to www.HITmanSafe.com.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Your Data and The Businesses and Organizations You Entrust With It

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

It always amazes me how willing people are to give out confidential information.  And I’m not talking about the younger generation who have grown up with computers.  Your data is yours; and the businesses and organizations you entrust with it may not really care for it as much as you do.

While some states have very strict guidelines, such as Massachusetts; imposing additional regulations only serves to increase the cost of doing business which typically gets passed on to consumers.  While regulations have their place, they are not a panacea.

Case in point: yesterday I visited a business establishment which falls under several federal laws regarding data security.  Their security measures consisted of one paper sign taped on a wall and a plastic sign on a door, they both read “Secure Room Authorized Personnel Only”.  If this works as well as the no gun signs on bank doors and drug free zone signs, the data must be secure!  The door was next to a sliding glass window and the lock on the door was cheap and had a twist button to unlock it.  A person reaching an arm through the window could unlock the door, but that would be unnecessary as the door was wide open and only one person in the building.

Earlier this month one of our lead application developers and I had a meeting with a fairly large business organization.  The organization kept very confidential records regarding its membership, which if it fell into the wrong hands could cost the business member thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, or perhaps even worse.  We drew up a proposal for the organization based upon the criteria we received from their staff.  During a phone call with the director of the organization, I was told that security really wasn’t that important to them; driving home my point.

Before giving control of your information to another person, company, or organization, you just might want to have them show you how they protect your information.  As with almost everything, it is our responsibility to take the proper precautions with our information, as we will be the ones cleaning up the mess.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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Preparing for Disaster

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

There is an old saying, “Plan for the worst and expect the best”.  That is a good mantra to live by.  Many though never prepare for disasters thinking it will never happen to them or their company.  And many that do, don’t test their plans to make sure they will really work when needed.

How many different types of events do you plan for?  Are they for business or family? Between the time I started this article and the time I got back to writing it, we experienced a 5.8 earthquake on the east coast, hurricane and tropical storm rain and wind, flooding, tornado like wind and flash floods.  It was interesting to see how many people reacted with almost panic and waited until the last moment to get food and prepare.

For businesses; what would happen if you our your employees were unable to get to work?  Flooding, fire, trees down, snow and ice are some of the naturally occurring weather related events which could cause this to happen.  How about power outages?  This happens at our office several times a year.  Business must go on!

File deletion and damage to data is potential crisis for almost every every business, whether unintentional or not.  Not long ago we received a call from a client stating a senior staff member had accidentally overwritten critical files.  Fortunately we had a plan in place and were able to resolve the issue within a very short time span.

At home we could lose power or become home-bound.  Fire could break out in the middle of the night while at home or a hotel.  A gas leak could force you out of your home for an undetermined amount of time.  The possibilities are numerous and it is foolish to take the attitude “that can’t happen here or to me.”

While you may or may not have developed a specific plan to handle disasters such as an earthquake, it is possible to put one together quickly in the event of an emergency.  When the planes hit the buildings on 9/11, Mayor Giuliani didn’t have a specific plan for such a disaster, but he did have many other plans from which he and Police Commissioner Kerik pieced together to handle the terrorist attack.

Now is a good time for all of us to sit down with our families and co-workers to review possible events and what we can do to mitigate the issue. Make sure everyone knows the plans and review them on a periodic basis.  Most importantly test them before you need them.  As you find holes, make the proper adjustments.

Our personal safety, the safety of our family, and the continuity of our businesses is our responsibility, not the governments!

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.



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Email Safety and Security

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

Many people don’t think twice about what they send in an email.  Some of the issues can be chalked up to blind ignorance and others to just not caring.  But email safety and security should be taken seriously.

Last year a hacker was prosecuted for breaking into Sarah Palin’s email box.  Recently officials from the U.S. Government had their email accounts hacked.  Additionally there have been numerous accounts of women who had their email accounts hacked.  The perpetrator was looking for nude and erotic photos the woman may have sent to their spouses and boyfriends.   In a similar case earlier this year over three thousand woman’s email accounts were broken into for the same purposes.

There are many methods hackers or others with ill-intent use to break into email accounts.  If the person is know, they can watch over the shoulder as the email password is being typed in.  Keystroke loggers can be used.  Brute force and dictionary attacks can be attempted.  There are many methods which can be used to access a person’s email account.

So what can be done to make email safer?  The first rule of thumb should be to not send any pictures in compromising situations.  Imagine applying for a teaching position and a nude photo gets sent to the board of education.  This also holds true of making any statements which could come back and bite you.  The second precaution is to not use the same password for email as ones which are used for website accounts.  The password should also be fairly long and complex and changed regularly.

Email is here to stay, at least in the foreseeable future.  Hackers and others who look to financial gain or retaliation for something they perceive as done to them, are not going away.  Therefore is up to us to try and keep our information safe.  I say try because if there’s a will, there’s a way.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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