Tag: Data Security

Firewalls

tinsleyNET Firewall Services
tinsleyNET Network Security

Protecting your private network

You might be a home user with a handful of devices connected via wifi or you might be a multi-office organisation running an in-house hosted commerce website, either way you need to protect your network at the point it connects to the internet to prevent unauthorised access, block access to untrustworthy sites, and watch for suspicious activity.

What it does

The firewall is often the outer-most line of defence around your precious data. At the perimeter it needs to be flexible enough to let you work uninterrupted, but robust enough to protect against the barrage of probes and attacks it’s likely to face. It should be configurable and dynamic to be able to adjust to your needs and to be able to identify the latest threats.

Hardware or Software

Both have their advantages and in a corporate situation, both can be used to offer multiple lines of defence against attack.

A hardware firewall will usually by faster at processing data and so reduce any potential bottleneck. They can be configured to use real-time virus checking on incoming data, monitor outgoing data for suspicious activity and provide advanced tools like reputation management, unified threat protection and bandwidth shaping.

Software firewalls have the advantage of being cheaper and easier to mange. They are installed on the device you are protecting so are portable with that device . They can offer more refined controls per device or per app, and can be configured to alert you to unexpected behaviour.

But I don’t need one at home

tinsleyNET Network Security Services

With more and more home devices becoming ‘smart’ the number of internet connected devices you have might be more than you think. You should be managing your internet connection because ultimately, you’re responsible for the content downloaded.

In a number of recent ‘botnet’ attacks on major sites, home internet connected devices that had been compromised were used in the attacks.

A number of home security devices, specifically those with cameras or microphones in them, have been compromised and their content streamed live to the internet.

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We can help you with with selecting, supplying, installing and managing a firewall that’s suitable for your needs. You might just need to protect your home WiFi connected devices, or you might need a corporate firewall that allows remote users to access the company network from anywhere in the world, but you do need a firewall.

Anti-Virus

tinsleyNET Data Security
tinsleyNET Data Security

Protecting you from the video nasties…

Back in the 1970’s a ‘neat little self-replicating automata’ was released on the ARPANET (the predecessor of today’s internet) that was called “the creeper“. Not a virus in the way we think of them today, it was more of a test of code and concept, the only ‘payload’ was a line of code reading “I’m the creeper: catch me if you can”. In the following years, code would be written that became the basis of several types of virus; Worms, Trojan, Boot Sector and Malware.

The early viruses were intended to test concepts or as jokes and went out of their way to protect users data. In the late 1980’s that changed, IBM wrote a program to detect the first encrypted virus and clean an infected system, but didn’t release that to the public until a second version of the virus began to spread on the BBS systems of the day. And so began the battle between the virus writers and the anti-virus writers.

Evolving The Virus Business

tinsleyNET Security Services protecting you against Ransomware

Jump to today and we have many different types of computer virus and many many different viruses in each type. Viruses have become big business for criminals, with nearly all viruses designed to generate income for the coder or their superiors. The latest ransomware viruses can generate large payouts by infecting many smaller users, this is a better business model than infecting a smaller number of large companies and helps keep the virus out of the media and so out of public attention.

It’s not just Windows

The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards - and even then I have my doubts.

Microsoft Windows was the most popular operating system in the 1990’s and as a result it became the biggest target for virus writers. This spawned the urban myth that only Windows based computers could get viruses, but that’s not the case.

The first ‘wild’ virus to spread was purely an Apple-based virus. Apple and Linux based computers have seen a recent rise in the number of viruses intended to infect them. The same goes for mobile phones and devices, Android, Apple’s iPhone and even the old Nokia phones and Windows Mobile are all susceptible to virus infection.

The rise of IoT devices, like smart TV’s, fridges, thermostats and so on have not gone unnoticed. Several recent ‘botnets’ have been shown to be comprised of a large number of infected smart home devices. Hackers have exploited the often poor security on smart devices, and the fact that many don’t get post-sales software updates to take control of them. Often the hackers are after the processing power for attacking other networks or running malware that won’t immediately be noticed by the device owner, though there have been instances of devices being specifically targeted to spy on users, making use of cameras and listening devices.

What should you do?

As an individual you may think that you’re too small to have to worry about antivirus, wrong. It’s a lot easier for virus writer to target a large number of small unprotected users than it is for them to target fewer, better protected companies.

Home users need to consider all the devices on their home network, from computers to smart devices like lights and speakers. These devices are all potential targets. It’s sensible to protect your home network at the point of entry (your broadband) and then further protect devices that can go outside your home network (smartphones, tablets etc) as well as devices that hold particularly valuable information, such as banking information, passwords for any internet accounts, and your photos.

As a company, you should be using a multi-layered security plan with a reputable antivirus application as a part of that plan. You should never use just a single product or technology, as no one product can guarantee 100% virus detection.

A company should look at perimeter and internal security, preventing hackers getting in from the internet and stopping any devices that become infected away from your network bypassing that security.

Data security is essential, both backing up and encrypting the information. Under data security laws you are required to protect any information that could identify an individual (a customer, employee or supplier for example)

tinsleyNET IT Servces Consultants #WeCanHelp

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We can design and implement a security solution that suits you or your businesses needs. We can help protect all your IT assets regardless of where they are and how they are used. We can assess your existing data security and give you a report identifying good and bad practices.

Protecting your precious data

tinsleyNET Backup Services
tinsleyNET Data Backup and Security

Data Backup

Backing up your precious data is essential, but it needn’t (shouldn’t) be complicated or time consuming.

We can design and implement a backup plan that fits your needs, from backing up your family digital photos from your smartphone, to securely encrypting highly confidential corporate information.

Having a robust backup procedure in place and regularly testing that it meets your needs and is secure is an essential part of your data security solution, let us manage that for you.

Personal Precious Data

Many people use an external USB connected Hard Disk Drive to backup their family photos, some are simply saved on your phone. How many times have you heard a plea for a lost or stolen phone to be returned because they contain all of someone’s precious memories?

Inexpensive external hard disk drives are not infallible, in fact they are more prone to failure than the hard disk drive inside your computer. If an external hard disk does fail, the chances of successfully recovering data from them vary greatly, but in our experience it’s often a long, slow and costly process with no guarantee of success.

You need a backup solution that just works silently in the background, but one that you can rely on if the worst happens.

Business Precious Data

With so much of what we need to run a business now being digital based, having a secure and reliable backup of your business data that is regularly maintained and tested is essential.

It’s no good thinking you have a backup of everything you need only to find out that, when your backup becomes your last hope, it’s missing some critical data or is significantly out of date.

Backups need to contain everything you need to get your business up and running the the shortest amount of time if something catastrophic happens.

It’s not just backing up…

Your backed up data is your final fallback if things go wrong. If you accidentally delete something and have no other way of getting it back, your backup needs to come to the rescue.

But what if you save over a file? imagine you have a spreadsheet with all your client data on, you’ve been keeping it up-to-date for five years, then something happens and you accidentally save over it with some other data. Most basic backup solutions will simply write that accidental data over your backuped data too, thinking it’s keeping your backup up-to-date.

We provide solutions that allow you to go back into any file’s history and see how it was at any point in the past since the backup plan started, so you can recover and earlier copy of the file and recover your otherwise lost data.

tinsleyNET IT Servces Consultants #WeCanHelp

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We can design and provide backup solutions that will help protect your data from accidental deletion, loss of hardware or ransomware attacks.

Many recent malware outbreaks that used encryption to hold the user to ransom, also encrypted connected online data such as backups.

Our solutions run 24/7 but are not accessible to any virus that gets onto your computer, meaning if ransomware does get hold, as a last resort you can simply scrub your existing setup and start again from scratch in minimal time.

WannaCry : Massive Global Malware Attack

tinsleyNET Admin
tinsleyNET Security Services

Malware attack infects PC’s globally

You have probably heard on the news that millions of computers around the world have been infected with a piece of ransomware, have you checked if your home and business PC’s are protected? Read more

Man accidentally ‘deletes his entire company’ with one line of bad code

tinsleyNET Admin
tinsleyNET Social Media Services

“Man accidentally ‘deletes his entire company’ with one line of bad code”

OK, It’s going to turn into one of those urban myths that unsuspecting journalists or well-meaning Facebook friends post from time to time, but behind the PR there is a serious note or warning.

[The Story, The Truth] Read more

UK Cybercrime in global top 5

tinsleyNET Admin
tinsleyNET Security Services

UK Cybercrime is increasing

A recent report on Internet Security and cybercrime has shown that UK users are among the most targeted in the world, with both home users and businesses being attacked daily, and over half a billion personal records stolen in 2015.

The report highlights some shocking statistics that show just how big the cybercrime problem is. Read more

Cyber Crime 2015

tinsleyNET Admin
tinsleyNET Security Services

Cybercrime is becoming big business

The total number of individuals in the UK who have been the target of cybercrime jumped in 2015, with nearly 44% of consumers in the UK who have now reported cybercrime.

2015 was responsible for 22% of those, with the average cost to the user at £1300.

Of those who reported cybercrime, shockingly nearly half said they had not taken additional precautions while on the internet, such as changing passwords. Read more

Could your WiFi router be hosting a backdoor allowing hackers to access your network?

tinsleyNET Admin
tinsleyNET Network Security Services

Wifi Routers could be compromised

Several new exploits have been identified recently that are designed to attach your home or business router from inside, and install code to allow hackers to open a backdoor to your network and your data.

The exploits are designed to get into a network either by infecting devices that go outside of your firewall, such as mobiles, tablets and laptops, or by tricking the user into downloading a malicious file. Once inside the network, the malware gets to work on your firewall, attempting to inject code into the firewall that will allow external code to be added to innocent web pages. So you might be viewing the BBC site for example, and the code adds advertising and other unwanted scripts to the page as it passes through your firewall, meaning the page you see if very different from the one served up by the BBC servers. Read more