One might say that network security is a living organism, constantly changing, ebbing and flowing with the ever-expanding breadth of new technology. This should be a concern for business owners using digital networks as an efficient way to conduct work and provide services. There are certainly ways for companies to secure their networks and servers, but there is always a cyber criminal waiting to find cracks in any system. Keeping this in mind, here are some major cyber problems heading into the New Year:

Passwords – 2012 was certainly a rough time for many computer users – at least for those who didn’t choose creative and tough-to-guess passwords. This was especially true for many celebrities who got their email accounts hacked by choosing security questions a simple Google search could crack. With the advent of brute force password attacks potentially behind us, it seems like more and more hackers are gaining legitimate access to accounts by merely guessing passwords. Make sure your company has a strict system for creating difficult passwords.

Mobile – The ability for business owners and employees to run an entire network on a smartphone or tablet is nothing sort of awesome. However, hackers are increasingly interested in gaining access to your phone’s information as well – whether you are playing Angry Birds or swiping a client credit card using a reader like Square. Keeping your smartphone as up-to-date with security as your office network is a major concern going into next year.

Clouds – The cloud-based system of data management is a cost-effective and simplistic way of storing your company’s information whilst keeping it synced across many devices. As small and medium-sized businesses begin to adopt this technology, clouds will need to become more secure, providing the safety that business information needs.

To help prevent any cyber crimes like theft or data attacks from happening at your business, please contact an independent network security company.

If you have used Dropbox, Google Drive or one of the other cloud storage platforms, you know how present cloud computing has become in the digital age. Instead of storing all of your data simply on a hard drive, many users are now syncing their files, music and other information on digital drives that exist in the “ether” of a data cloud. This simplifies the process of accessing files from many locations, including smartphones, tablets and any other digital device you might use consistently.

For this reason, many small and medium sized businesses are looking at cloud storage as an option. Not only is it inexpensive, but it also allows an entire company to easily connect to the information they need. However, there are security concerns with these networks amongst some companies. A recent article from eWeek cites a survey taken of businesses aware of cloud computing options. The results were certainly mixed:

“The survey found 21 percent of respondents cited data security as the biggest concern while the location of where the data was stored came in at 7 percent. Backup-related costs, user-related data loss and service provider stability all ranked at 3 percent. Overall, 59 percent said that all of these were concerns with respect to storing data in the cloud.”

The article says that businesses were supportive of the cloud movement however, even considering the security concerns. Three-quarters of respondents rightly think that cloud computing will become more present in businesses all over the world. Also, businesses are taken a safe approach to the cloud, by backing up digitally and physically:

“…68 percent said a comprehensive backup solution that protects both cloud and on-premise applications is desired, more than half (52 percent) said the solution must be fast and highly secure…”

As your business moves into a new age – possibly with cloud capability – make sure you research your options and have your network security enforced as you do so!

Over the last few years, the United States has been involved in a lot of tech news that might be surprising. Of these stories, the most interesting was certainly the Stuxnet virus attack that the U.S. government sent to a series of computer networks running nuclear plants in Iran. By unleashing this dangerous virus on these systems, the plants were unable to operate. This type of attack has become a major factor in U.S. intelligence and military work, seeing as the majority of our enemies’ systems are based on high tech computer networks.

Although these operations have been successful, the most recent story is decidedly different. According to Naked Security, a French newspaper is claiming the U.S. government planted spyware on the French government’s computer network :

“According to the newspaper, the malware attack took place in May 2012, shortly before the second round of presidential elections in France, but has been kept secret until now. The newspaper alleges that the hackers used simple social engineering tricks to worm their way into what should have been some of the best secured networks in France.”

Social engineering testing is a method used by third party security companies to determine how employees of a company react to emails containing hidden viruses and malware. Whether or not the U.S. had something to do with the spyware on the network, it seems as if the French government could have used some social engineering testing. The article says:

“Workers at the Élysée Palace are said to have been befriended on Facebook by hackers, who then sent their victims a link to a what purported to be a login page for the Élysée intranet site. In this way, it’s claimed, login credentials were stolen.”

This just goes to show how important testing your system for cracks is, whether or not they are hardware-driven, software-driven or caused by employees clicking on bad links!

The main thread of discussions in this blog is about keeping your personal computers and business networks safe from the prying eyes and swift fingers of cyber criminals all over the world. It is not a secret that the instances of malware attacks, system cracks, etc. have grown over the last 5 years, especially because of the advent of smartphones. However much attention has been paid to these concerns is not light, but improvement is still needed in our government’s infrastructure.

At least according to Lockheed Martin Corp., the number one supplier of the Pentagon. In a story from Yahoo News, Lockheed Martin has been receiving a higher number of attacks on its networks than in years past. That is not to say that the U.S. isn’t responding:

“U.S. officials have stepped up their warnings about cyber attacks on U.S. banks and other institutions in recent months, warning that attackers are developing the ability to strike U.S. power grids and government systems. Lockheed officials declined to say if any of the attacks they had seen originated in Iran, which has been linked to recent denial-of-service attacks against U.S. financial institutions.”

The article says that Lockheed Martin is a major factor in the security of U.S. government technology, supplying the country with network security and information technology support. The company is concerned about how the increase in attacks has affected not only the U.S., but the company’s suppliers as well:

“…Lockheed had seen “very successful” attacks against a number of the company’s suppliers, and was focusing heavily on helping those companies improve their security. [A Lockheed executive] said a well-publicized cyber attack on Lockheed’s networks in May 2011 came after the computer systems of two of its suppliers — RSA, the security division of EMC Corp and another unidentified company — were compromised.”

This story proves that network security isn’t a simple process that’s over once you contact the right IT experts. It’s never over – a fluid process that takes constant work and attention. If the U.S. government has problems with its system, you more than likely have trouble with yours. Get that fixed today.

Companies utilize a number of services to execute in-house processes and provide customers with a product or tool. When it comes to developing an in-house infrastructure, it can be useful to use content management systems based solely online – a prime example being Basecamp. Furthermore, businesses may find a cloud storage system like Dropbox or Google Drive to be useful as a means of coordinating workflow and backing up files. However, security problems have been hitting some of these companies that rely solely on web-applications.

A recent report from NetworkWorld cites a survey that was taken of 240 companies, finding than almost half of these businesses had a security breach caused by a web app:

‘“Eighteen percent reported that the breaches cost their organization $500,000 or more,’ says Forrester in its survey report published today. The 240 participating companies, based in North America and Europe, also acknowledged the data breaches related to Web application vulnerabilities had a negative impact on the reputation of the individuals responsible for application security, as well as the overall corporate brand.”

A number of problems were listed in the article, primarily difficulties that companies have had with usage of web applications. The concerns ranged from speed of data creation to insufficient means to protect information. This type of security branch can have wide-ranging implications. It is important to realize the possibilities that web apps offer while also taking the importance of security into your company’s infrastructure.

If you decide to use web applications as a means of backing up or further securing an existing system, make sure you work with your staff to ensure that your network security is blocking any unauthorized access. You can always work with a number of network security companies to help you with this process.

The iOS 4.3.x home screen, as shown on an iPhone 3GS. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hacker groups have been claiming a number of successful ‘missions’ wherein personal information was pilfered and obtained in a number of different ways. Just recently, one group hacked LinkedIn, a popular networking website, compromising more than 12 million passwords to accounts. Beyond that, Yahoo’s email system faced the same type of systematic hacking, with the successful theft of thousands of its users’ passwords. Normally, these groups claim the hack and the affected company responds with new security measures. However, that’s not the case with the latest hacker claim.

According to InformationWeek, a recent hack and release of 1 million Apple Unique Device Identifiers (UDIDs) has the FBI backtracking on ‘hacktivist’ group AntiSec’s claim that these UDIDs were gathered from an agent’s breached laptop. The article says:

“AntiSec said via the Par:AnoIA website that the data ‘was involuntarily provided by Special Agent Christopher Stangl, whose notebook was breached by AntiSec. Among the data on his notebook was a file named NCFTA_iOS_devices_intel.csv which contained a list of 12,367,232 Apple iOS devices including Unique Device Identifiers (UDID), user names, name of device, type of device, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, ZIP codes, cell phone numbers, and addresses.”

For its part, the FBI took to social media microblogging platform Twitter to deny this claim, saying that AntiSec was making “totally false” assertions. The article says that regardless of who is telling the truth, at least one security expert says the data is legitimate. Apple has not said whether or not the hacked UDIDs are real, but one thing is for sure, they can be used for malicious purposes:

“To be clear, the released database is sanitized so you cannot perform this type of surveillance today. But with the full information that hackers claim to have, someone can perform this type of surveillance. This implies that the FBI can track Apple users.”

To check whether or not your Apple device’s UDID has been hacked, visit the link below:

Check Your UDID