Don't Be a Terrorist -- Eric Magill of FlexITechs --March 26, 2013

FlexITechs Newsletter

Tech News from FlexITechs

March 26, 2013

In This Issue

9 Years for FlexITechs!

Don't Be a Terrorist

It's Trash, Not Recycling

BizTech -- Secure the Perimiter

FlexITechs
Now in Its
Ninth Year

FlexITechs is now in its ninth year of serving Sussex County residents and businesses.

After two years as the computer services arm of our sister company, Sussex County Online, FlexITechs was formed to better define the computer services offered by owner Eric Magill.

We thank all of our customers who have made it possible for us to reach our 9th year!

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Sincerely,

Eric Magill, FlexITechs

Don't Be a Terrorist...

If I were to write a GEICO® commercial for computer security, the punch line would be: "Don't be a terrorist".

I'm not trying to scare you - too much - but I think it's important that you be aware of the scams, tricks, hacks and threats that try to separate you from your money or steal your personal information, or make you an unwitting accomplice to hacktivists and terrorists.

That's why my e-letters focus so much on your computer's security.

Theoretically, your computer, and you by extension, could become a pawn in a terrorist attack against the United States if you don't take care of your computer's security.

How Hackers Could Use You

Consider, for instance, a terrorist group that infects thousands of computers with remote control software that allows the hackers to control those computers. What can the hackers do with those computers (known as zombies, with an army of zombies known as a botnet)?

It can use those computers to mount a coordinated attack against a specific target, such as an attack that floods the target network with so many simultaneous requests that the network - say the U.S. Department of Defense or a financial institution- is brought to a screeching halt.

Unable to access the network resources necessary for defense or business purposes, the country could be vulnerable during that time or investors and account holders could be prevented from performing necessary financial transactions.

Armies of infected computers, known as "bots", could bring down critical networked infrastructure such as power grids, nuclear plants or hospitals that would cause untold harm, even death.

Maintain Your Computers, and Yourself

Those scenarios, while difficult to pull off, are not far-fetched, and why it's so important to maintain anti-virus and anti-spam software and ensure that Windows and third-party software updates are installed on YOUR computers and devices such as cell phones and tablets.

Be don't rely on technology alone to protect you. You must be vigilant. The most sophisticated, expensive network defenses are of no value if the users behind them allow attackers through by clicking links and opening file attachments in unsolicited emails, or a host of other hacker tricks.

We are only as strong as the weakest link in our ever-more connected networks, and that includes us, as well as our machines.

For more information on this topic, visit the Read.gov web site's cyber attack web page at http://www.ready.gov/cyber-attack.

Deleted Items -- For Trash, Not Recycling

Lately, we've seen an alarming number of clients storing documents and emails they want to keep in all the wrong places - documents in the Recycle Bin just to get them out of the way; emails in the Deleted Items folder to de-clutter the Inbox.

There are a couple of reasons you don't want to do this:

You will eventually empty your Recycle Bin or your Deleted Items folder accidentally and lose all of those documents or emails;
It results in unnecessary bloat on your computer
It creates unnecessary confusion on your computer

If you are in the habit of storing documents and emails in these folders, try the following instead:

For emails, create a folder called "Old Emails" or "Archived Emails" or something along those lines and store all of your old emails that you don't want cluttering up your Inbox but think you might want to keep or need someday for regulatory purposes or to settle a dispute. You can create more specific email folders, too, such as a folder for each customer or for financial documents, etc.
For documents, create categories of folders in your Documents folder (My Documents on older systems like Windows XP) and store the emails there. A business, for instance, might want to store all documents for a specific customer in a folder for that customer alone. A consumer might want to store all financial documents in a folder called "Financial".

You get the idea. You'll be able to find your old emails and documents more easily and not run the risk of accidentally deleting them forever.

BizTech -- Network Perimeter Security

While anti-virus, anti-malware and anti-spam software remain staples on corporate network desktop computers, the best network security solution is often to stop malware and other infections before they reach the server and desktops.

This is accomplished with what's known as a Network Perimeter Security solution. Network Perimeter Security solutions are typically specialized appliances or desktop computers with specialized software.

The appliance or computer is placed between the Internet and your network, blocking any external threats it knows about before they even reach the network.

For instance, a malware-laden email that reaches the desktop can still infect a protected computer if the employee, which often happens, unwittingly clicks on a link or file attachment in the email.

With a Network Perimeter Security solution, the offending email would be blocked before it reached the employee's desktop, theoretically preventing any damage since the employee would never receive the email to unwittingly click on the infected links and attachments.

The same goes for infected web sites that inflict drive-by infections on desktops, usually from infected ads on the site.

The best Network Perimeter Security solutions can also provide monitoring capabilities to check for violations of Acceptable Use Policies, ad blockers, firewalls, intrusion detection and blocking of malicious applications.

They can spit out daily, weekly or monthly reports that show network activity and violations by user or IP address.

The key to all of them is that they block the malicious threat before the threat gets on your network.

For more information on a Network Perimeter Security solution for your company, contact Eric Magill at 537-4198 or by email at ericm@flexitechs.com.

We thank you for your past business and hope we can continue to fulfill your technology needs in the future. If you have any questions about current technology issues, feel free to contact us at 537-4198.

Sincerely,

Eric Magill
FlexITechs

http://www.flexitechs.com

Microsoft Small Business Specialist

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