Confused about cybersecurity? You’re not alone
At one point or another, nearly everyone has had a moment of cybersecurity gone wrong. Whether it’s a bit of spyware downloaded from your personal email or a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack launched against your company’s network, experiences with security threats are not especially rare these days.
But understanding the odds and ends of cyberthreats is something that still eludes the casual computer user. Terms like malware, spyware, DDoS, botnet, advanced persistent threats, we know they’re bad news, but beyond that they’re just jargon used by IT guys and technology pundits. Even those who do claim to understand the nuances of cybersecurity have a tendency to confuse the details or explain them unclearly.
What to Consider when Building a BYOD Strategy
In my last blog, I touched on the first part of crafting a BYOD program: define your goals, assess your risk tolerance, and identify the key stakeholders in your program’s development.
The next step? Build your strategy. Here are a few things to consider:
Determine who will be allowed to bring their own devices
Many companies choose to slow roll BYOD, enabling only certain groups of employees in the first round and then opening it up to more employees at a later date. This allows them to test the waters before they dive right in.
Bye-bye $200K Cell Phone Bill
OMG was my first reaction when I read an article about a man ringing up a $200K cell phone bill. The man is deaf and mute. He uses his cell phone as his primary way of communicating. He didn’t know about roaming charges and got hit for roaming on 2000 text messages and countless video downloads. Here is the article for your reference.
So think about the liabilities companies face today with employees using their corporate or employee-owned mobile devices for both work and personal use. Many companies pay for their employees’ mobile phone usage charges, how do they protect themselves from misuse or abuse and ultimately limit their financial exposure?
Cloud computing can be traced to 3000 B.C.?
As humans evolved, they started earning income. And with regular income, a secure way to store currency became important. That’s when people began using safes at home, and many were happy with this approach.
However, they eventually realized that moving safes from their home to the cloud was more effective in safeguarding their wealth rather than keeping it in-house. Records suggest the earliest “cloud safes” started around 3000 B.C. And the oldest cloud safe – dating back to 1472! - is still in operation today.
A day in the life of a SOC Engineer
Arrive at work a little early to get ahead of the day. I have some tickets to confirm, work, and close. On top of that there are new engineers to be trained on Virtela processes and tenured engineers to be trained on new, more advanced features. And then there is refresher training for all.
Today my focus will be training. Virtela’s Managed Security Services is growing and our group has doubled in engineers in all tier groups. We have a very diverse group of minds and experience. There’s a significant amount of collaboration and cross-training. There are expert engineers for every device and every security concept.
VDI for a Globally Available Virtual Workforce
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is taking precedence in the enterprise more than ever. The cost benefits of large deployments are hard to overlook. Why are we seeing such a slow adoption rate? I believe there are 3 key factors slowing the momentum.
- VDI technology is still hindered by bandwidth delay. Working on a LAN is extremely usable for the average employee. The speeds of processing and usability are near real-time with the latest thin clients. Recently, we can include streamed HD graphics and content to benefit developers. Over a WAN or open Internet is a different story, and there are still large gaps in usability in this architecture. It is improving everyday and more and more people are starting to tackle the problems.
Consumerization of IT: Have your cake and eat it too
We can probably all agree by this point that smartphones have been good for business. And not just smartphones – tablets, Facebook, Twitter – all those technologies we like to use during our lunch breaks or when vegging out of the couch have also proven beneficial, in one way or another, in the workplace.
Now more than ever, companies are letting people take their personal devices to work or surf social networks in the office – a trend that’s often referred to as “consumerization of IT.” A more accurate title, though, may be “causing frustration for IT.” While employees and executives may appreciate the consumerization, it can create serious headaches for the IT departments that have to account for them.
Is my network optimized?
To answer this question, a thorough network assessment is needed to understand to current situation of network traffic – knowing what devices and applications are on the network and how they affect network performance.
Specifically, the first step is a Knowledge Transfer engagement where we learn about the customer’s network infrastructure, network map, configuration, etc. before beginning the network assessment, as well as a detailed configuration and performance audit. As part of the program, the entire network is scanned to identify any chronic issues, faults, configuration mismatches, patch update history, network topology, etc
Virtela Felt Right at Home at Cloud Computing Expo
We just got done unpacking our booth from last week’s Cloud Expo in New York City. Cloud Expo is one of the biggest conventions focused on cloud computing and services, and the event proved to be a great place to meet with other cloud enthusiasts.
The hype around cloud computing has been snowballing and is evident in the exponential attendance growth since Cloud Expo’s inception in 2007. Many attendees who stopped by our booth were curious about the next steps of cloud development – how will the cloud move forward? Well, that’s a topic that deserves its own blog post.
POS security challenges persist, but managed security service providers can help
In recent years, cyber security threats to point-of-sale (POS) devices have become a growing area of interest for many of our customers. Given the threats that now face companies handling credit card information – with the resources of small to mid-market businesses – and the new standards of the updated PCI DSS, many of our clients are wisely looking for ways to ensure their POS security practices are as effective as possible.
I recall, not too long ago, one of our clients in the airport restaurant business had installed an airport kiosk POS system and also offered free WiFi which people could browse the web while waiting for their flights. In most cases, securing this service shouldn’t be a problem. However, during lulls in the workday, some employees would sometimes attempt to plug their own personal laptops directly into the access link, thereby circumventing the security gateway measures, such as network access control, IPS, URL filtering, port security, and logging. This poses several issues with physical security, as well as acceptable use policies, etc. The most critical issue is potentially compromising the POS system security and logging altogether. Due to gaps in monitoring processes/capabilities, these issues would often times go unnoticed by the IT staff – when the local area management points this out, it would be a black eye for the IT director