Tag Archives: passwords

Are your IT systems secure? (Page 1 of 2)

Email has changed the world of communication for businesses, but it’s also proven to be highly vulnerable to outside influences. Hackers, scammers and identity thieves are always out there putting your business at risk. All it takes is for one employee to open an email attachment for a virus to infect your whole network – or worse, give unauthorized access to your business’ confidential information. So how can you keep your business safe?

Tips for getting the best computer network security

Hire a computer security consultant When it comes IT security services, professional protection can’t be overrated. With enterprise data issues, you can’t afford to wait for your computer network security to be compromised before taking action. A computer security consultant can customize professional computer security solutions to help you minimize enterprise data risks, avoid data breaches and personal information leaks, and address security risks and malware before you end up being a victim.

Build safe IT systems A computer security consultant can help protect you from hackers by designing computer network security that’s built around limited access to your technology infrastructure. Don’t let the notion of convenience give you a false sense of security when it comes to who should have access. The number of people with access to all of your systems, equipment and software should be limited to you and your most trusted employees. And the best computer security solutions minimize risks with a unique set of email addresses, logins and servers for each user or department.

Protect yourself with passwords A password is the first line of defense against unauthorized access to your computers and networks. But use a weak password, and you make it that much easier for an attacker to gain access. All sensitive data, equipment and wireless networks should be protected with unique usernames and passwords for specific individuals. Strong passwords are harder to crack, even with the latest password-cracking software. Your password should contain letters, numbers and symbols, and it shouldn’t be easy to guess. And if you happen to create a document listing all company passwords, it’s important to encrypt that with its own password as well.

Inoculate your systems with anti-virus software Every computer is vulnerable to a variety of viruses, worms and trojans that lurk on the Internet. These malicious software programs can wreak havoc on your computer network security, damaging your computer and files, or even stealing passwords and stored data. Purchase a good anti-virus software program and make sure that it is always up to date. Some network providers even offer this for free. Also, check to see that your anti-virus software checks for spyware, adware and any other malware that could be hiding on your computer.

Keep confidential data on your own network While Cloud computing helps businesses improve efficiency and cut costs, there are risks involved. The third parties who house your data on remote servers often have their own security issues. When it comes to IT security services, have your computer security consultant keep your confidential data on your own network. Keep it off the Cloud.

Are your IT systems secure? (Page 1 of 2)

Email has changed the world of communication for businesses, but it’s also proven to be highly vulnerable to outside influences. Hackers, scammers and identity thieves are always out there putting your business at risk. All it takes is for one employee to open an email attachment for a virus to infect your whole network – or worse, give unauthorized access to your business’ confidential information. So how can you keep your business safe?

Tips for getting the best computer network security

Hire a computer security consultant When it comes IT security services, professional protection can’t be overrated. With enterprise data issues, you can’t afford to wait for your computer network security to be compromised before taking action. A computer security consultant can customize professional computer security solutions to help you minimize enterprise data risks, avoid data breaches and personal information leaks, and address security risks and malware before you end up being a victim.

Build safe IT systems A computer security consultant can help protect you from hackers by designing computer network security that’s built around limited access to your technology infrastructure. Don’t let the notion of convenience give you a false sense of security when it comes to who should have access. The number of people with access to all of your systems, equipment and software should be limited to you and your most trusted employees. And the best computer security solutions minimize risks with a unique set of email addresses, logins and servers for each user or department.

Protect yourself with passwords A password is the first line of defense against unauthorized access to your computers and networks. But use a weak password, and you make it that much easier for an attacker to gain access. All sensitive data, equipment and wireless networks should be protected with unique usernames and passwords for specific individuals. Strong passwords are harder to crack, even with the latest password-cracking software. Your password should contain letters, numbers and symbols, and it shouldn’t be easy to guess. And if you happen to create a document listing all company passwords, it’s important to encrypt that with its own password as well.

Inoculate your systems with anti-virus software Every computer is vulnerable to a variety of viruses, worms and trojans that lurk on the Internet. These malicious software programs can wreak havoc on your computer network security, damaging your computer and files, or even stealing passwords and stored data. Purchase a good anti-virus software program and make sure that it is always up to date. Some network providers even offer this for free. Also, check to see that your anti-virus software checks for spyware, adware and any other malware that could be hiding on your computer.

Keep confidential data on your own network While Cloud computing helps businesses improve efficiency and cut costs, there are risks involved. The third parties who house your data on remote servers often have their own security issues. When it comes to IT security services, have your computer security consultant keep your confidential data on your own network. Keep it off the Cloud.

5 Website Security Issues You Should Be Aware Of?

Technology has become more advanced, and with it, hack attacks in the online world are increasing at an alarming rate.

Hackers use known vulnerabilities in third-party softwares to target your website and web server, and use it for their advantage.

The effect of this maybe just defacing of your website, stealing your confidential client data, or even worse, use your server resources to perform illegal activities.

There are some simple tips you can leverage to strengthen your website software and sleep with peace of mind.

  1. XSS or Cross Site Scripting
  2. XSS occurs when a hacker embeds scripting code into a web form or url, and run malicious code to change your web visitor’s experience and steal passwords or other data.

    XSS can also be persistent nature, where an attacker can manipulate a specific web page and show it as a login screen to users. The recent XSS comment hack on WordPress 4.2 is an example of such permanent loophole.

  3. SQL Injection
  4. SQL injection occurs when a hacker uses a web form field or URL parameter to manipulate your database. Almost all web platforms have a database and generally open source CMS platforms maintain dynamic aspects of the website in database.

  5. DoS or Denial of Service Attack
  6. Denial of Service (DoS) or Distributed Denial of Service (DDos) attacks are by far the most notorious kinds of attacks.

    That is because, any level of hacker with a small investment can bombard a victim website, with millions of requests, and make them look like they are legit users.

    This eventually crashes the web server, and makes the site offline, requiring manual intervention to bring it back online.

  7. Weak Passwords
  8. We should all use complex passwords, because the weakest link is all it takes to break the chain. It is imperative to use strong passwords for admin areas, but equally important for all users to protect the security of their accounts.

    One account compromised can lead to another and that could lead to admin account hacked. It is recommended to have passwords with minimum 8 letters, digits and special characters to avoid quick password guesses.

  9. Brute-force Attack
  10. These attacks are trial-n-error methods to guess your username and password. Weak passwords are prone to getting hacked easily.

    Methods like temporary blocking of IP and accounts, and multi-factor authentication, help mitigating such attacks.

  11. Code Injection
  12. Websites with file upload capability, or sites missing proper client and server side form validation, can be dangerous.

    The risk is that any file uploaded, could contain a script which can be leveraged as root-kit ie. administrator access to your website.

    Lack of form validation on simple form fields could lead to malicious code being inserted into the database, and could cause undesirable results in your website.

  13. Unencrypted Protocol
  14. An unencrypted channel allows man-in-middle attack to steal information from your users.

    It preferred to use security certificate SSL, whenever passing personal information between the website and web server or database.

  15. Debug Mode on Production Server
  16. Some developers may accidentally enable debug mode on the live production server, which dumps extensive error logs to the browser.

    Thus a hacker can obtain valuable information about the softwares used by the webserver and target his attack much better. Its crucial to hide as much internal information about server to minimize and delay the attacks.

  17. Old Software Versions
  18. It may seem obvious, but ensuring you keep all software up to date is vital in keeping your site secure. This applies to both the server operating system and any software you may be running on your website such as a CMS or forum.

    When website security holes are found in software, hackers are quick to abuse them.

  19. No Backup Plan
  20. No matter how much vigilant you are, attackers can find new loopholes to doom your website. So besides prevention, you should also have a backup-restore plan.

    Just in case your site is compromised, you should have a team which can quickly restore the last known backup, and avoid reputation and sales loss.

    Coversine provides a simple affordable solution to all these problems. Your own security professional who will maintain your site’s uptime, performance and security, all-in-one for as low as $10 per month.

    The subscription takes care of performance checks, and regular updates to softwares and apps as well.