Archive

Archive for August, 2008

The Importance of Getting a Checkpoint Engineer to Secure Company Network

August 28th, 2008

You can strengthen and enhance your company’s internal and perimeter network security by getting the services of a certified Checkpoint engineer. Security vulnerabilities of private and public networks are real concerns that should be addressed decisively.

Without a Checkpoint engineer that could arrest vulnerabilities, your company could face serious network losses. The database and sensitive information stored on your company’s server can also be exposed to hacking. By hiring a Checkpoint engineer, loopholes in your VPN, private networks, and security gateways, could be prevented effectively.

The Benefits of Getting a Certified Checkpoint Engineer

A Checkpoint engineer will be able to implement solutions and manage your company’s network security against hundreds of dynamic application level attacks. A Checkpoint engineer has the expertise in the following checkpoint technologies:

VPN-1 VE
Firewall / VPN
Unified Threat Management
Remote Access
Intrusion Detection & Prevention
Endpoint Security

A Checkpoint Engineer Can Safeguard Your Gateway

A Checkpoint engineer would be able to plug your network against intrusions by implementing perimeter gateway security solutions such as IPS-1 and SmartDefense. Check Point intrusion prevention solutions provide precise, real-time attack mitigation, granular forensic analysis and flexible deployment options. Check Point intrusion prevention solutions are delivered as dedicated IPS appliances or software, and as intrusion prevention that is integrated into Check Point security gateways.
Intrusive traffic will try to merge with legitimate traffic by hiding behind spoofing methods that can bypass network passwords and security checkpoint. A Checkpoint engineer can secure the network gateway against such traffic thus preventing intrusion at the point of entry by using SmartDefense. This maintains the most current preemptive security for the Check Point security infrastructure. To help defenses stay continuously ahead of today’s constantly evolving threat landscape, SmartDefense Services provide ongoing and real-time updates and configuration advice for defenses and security policies found in SmartDefense.

Firewalling Against Denial of Service Attacks

Another important function of a Checkpoint engineer is to establish a firewall solution that will prevent denial of service attacks.

Denial of service is a serious problem that could crash your network resulting to extended outages and network downtimes. Your clients and legitimate users will not be able to access the network if it is experiencing denial of service attacks.

A Checkpoint engineer can deploy a proactive double firewalling solution that screens unidentified data signatures even before it reaches your network gateway. In this way, your network will not experience downtimes caused by such attacks.

Hire a Checkpoint Engineer to Prevent Phishing Operations

Probably the most compelling reason why you need to get a Checkpoint engineer is to prevent information theft. Hackers are always on the look out for vulnerable networks to phish for usernames and passwords. Phishing these information and data would enable hackers to mine your server of important personal records such as credit card numbers, customer list, and trade secrets. ZoneAlarm ForceField is the first virtualized, on-demand browser security solution to enable consumers to bank and shop online, or surf dangerous areas of the Internet without fear or limitation. Built from the ground-up specifically to fight the emerging classes of browser-based Web threats, ForceField also erases all personal information after a Web browsing session to further protect consumer privacy online. Features include browser virtualization, powerful anti-phishing technology, ZoneAlarm’s Spy Site Blocker (also found in the award-winning ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite) and additional dangerous download defenses.

Without a Checkpoint engineer that will implement multiple protocol security nets within you network, the company’s servers and client applications would become easy targets for Phishing operations. Your company’s reputation will suffer and you can lose customers if your network will not get proper security attention from a certified Checkpoint engineer.

Where to Find a Reliable Checkpoint Engineer?

You can simply post a wanted ad if you want a Checkpoint engineer for your company. However, this is tedious and you have no guarantee that applicants really have enough experience to implement complicated security solutions.

To make your life easier, you can check some of the best online security consultants and B2B security websites. These companies can offer superior network security services. They usually have an onboard certified Checkpoint engineer and experts that can help your network ward off malicious attacks.

Bsecure is a Sydney based Network Security Services company that provides affordable assessment, consultation, design and implementation services in all areas of network and information security.

Computer Security , , , , , ,

Hiring a Security Consultant Can Bulletproof Your Network

August 20th, 2008

In order to minimize network penetration vulnerabilities and reduce the risks of attacks, you will need to employ the services of a network security consultant. A security consultant could help your IT personnel in managing company networks. Security trainings can also be provided by a security consultant especially if your company is deploying a new network security solution.

However, it is not easy to find a network security consultant nowadays. As the security industry consolidated, numerous consultancy firms have been integrated into the business of large security companies. Your choices now are limited to those giant security companies, which could be very expensive, or get the services of a regional security consultant that operates near your company premises.

The Advantages of Getting a Local Network Security Consultant

Hiring a security consultant that operates near your company headquarters is cost beneficial. Security consulting provided by giant companies could involve big overhead expenses. By hiring a regional security consultant, your company could get expert security services without hurting corporate financials.

A regional security consultant can also deploy faster troubleshooting services precisely because they operate near where your servers are located. Fast service is a big advantage because attacks and penetration problems can happen too quickly. A delayed solution could mean lots of trouble for your network.

Normally, a regional security consultant can provide personalized service. That’s because these local consultants work for firms that have relatively small client base. So each security consultant or expert service providers will be able to offer longer and dedicated services in order to keep your company in their accounts.

How to Choose the Best Security Consultant

Research is important in order to find the best security consultant in your locality. You need to double check the credentials and expertise of a security consultant and determine if he/she is the right one for the job.

You should also look for a security consultant that has extensive experience in network security deployments, administrations, and troubleshooting. Look for references and perform inquiries with other companies that previously employed the services of your target security consultant.

Important Steps before Hiring a Security Consultant

Before you hire a security consultant, you have to determine which area of your network needs security improvements or upgrades. This is to ensure that you can hire the right security consultant with the proper expertise for your company’s needs.

For example, if you need to upgrade the security of your client applications and mail servers, then a consultant that focuses on this area should be your logical choice.

There are also consultants that can provide comprehensive services to general security issues confronting a company. On the other hand a network design security consultant could provide valuable help in building a network or managing each component of your network for optimization purposes. These consultants can also provide trainings for your IT staff on matters of general network security.

Getting the services of consultancy firms performing network security could enhance not just the productivity of your network but also improve its integrity. A security consultant could help in developing measures that can protect your network from vulnerabilities and security risks.

Bsecure is a Sydney based Network Security Services company that provides affordable assessment, consultation, design and implementation services in all areas of network and information security.

Computer Security , , , ,

Four in 10 Company Networks in the US are not Secure

August 12th, 2008

In a poll of 455 IT executives in US SMBs, 42% said their networks were not secure even though 96% and 93% of respondents respectively said they had anti-virus and a firewall installed. 80% said they also used spam filtering. This may indicate that small and medium sized businesses are starting to doubt the effectiveness of traditional perimeter security products in protecting them from other security threats, including data leakage and network breaches.

Conducted by eMediaUSA on behalf of GFI Software, an international developer of network security, content security and messaging software, 39% of respondents to the survey said email viruses are the greatest risk to network security, followed by internet downloads (22%) and hacker attempts (10%). Only 7% considered insider attacks and the threat of portable storage devices – such as USB sticks, CDs, floppies, smartphones, MP3 players, handhelds, iPods, digital cameras – to be the greatest risk.

The survey also reveals that 32% of the US companies surveyed had suffered a breach over the past 12 months mainly due to a virus attack (69%), followed by infected internet downloads (30%) and loss of hardware, such as laptops (24%). Only 2% reported a breach involving some form of fraud or identity threat.

Commenting on the results, Andre Muscat, GFI’s Director of Engineering, said: “Email viruses top the ‘greatest threat to network security’ list and this does not come as a surprise. It is one of the easier attack routes and this is confirmed by those respondents who reported a breach. While companies are aware of, and are focused on, tackling viruses and malware, they appear to be giving sparse attention to other equally dangerous threats such as data theft and leakage from endpoints such as connected USB sticks, iPods and PDAs on the network.”

According to the survey, only 19% of the respondents said they had deployed an endpoint security solution on their network. This indicates that few companies may consider the fact that an employee’s iPod or USB stick can be a threat and used to copy data from the network or else install unauthorized software or upload viruses and malware.

“There are other issues as well. How many companies are aware of vulnerabilities on their network that are not addressed through Microsoft’s regular updates? At the end of the day, it boils down to education – from the top of the organization down to the users – Our survey shows that just under half of the respondents believe security could improve if employees were more aware of security issues, while 25% believe that management should also have a better understanding of security matters,” Mr. Muscat added.

On a daily basis, IT executives are most concerned with downtime (71%) while more than half of the respondents said daily user support was a concern. One in five said compliance was a daily concern; while a mere 3% indicated eDiscovery to be a daily issue.

When it comes to choosing the type of security measure to adopt, just under 90% said they used a software solution with 55% opting for a combination of software, appliances and hosted services.

The full survey can be found at: http://www.gfi.com/documents/rv/smbsurvey.pdf

Computer Security , , ,

How to Secure your Network ?

August 4th, 2008

Network security is a method of preventing your computer network from the unauthorized user access, email spoofing, Trojan horses, denial of service, hacking, viruses, spyware and intruders etc. There are different securities mechanisms are being employed to protect the network. If a hacker gets control of your computer or network, he can send viruses or steal your company’s confidential data. Similarly if any computer in your network is infected with the viruses or spyware, all other computers will also be infected if no proper security system has been implemented. Securing a network is most important job description of the network administrators, security specialists, network engineers and IT managers. You can secure your computer network by the following security methods.

Network Security Tips

Use Virus Protection Software

Don’t open unknown email attachments

Use regular backup of your critical data

Make boot disk

Use Firewall program

Authenticate users

Implement Security Policy in your network

Keep an inventory of your software and hardware and make a list of all the devices.

SCAN TCP/UDP services

Don’t provide more rights to the system resources than necessary.

Perform the network security testing and find the holes and fix them.

Place your server at very safe place.

Prepare an Assistant Network Administrator and train him/her about all the security related matters so that he/she can control the network in your absence.

Monitor the user’s activities on the internet and block all the unwanted websites, web applications which have security risks.

If you have wireless network then the following methods are very helpful in securing your wireless network.

Wireless Network Security

SSID (Service Set Identifier) –

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)

TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol)

MAC Addressing (Media Access Control)

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)

Encryption

B. Bashir manages this website Networking Tutorials and regularly writes articles on various topics such as Computer Networking, Network Troubleshooting Tips Wireless Networking, Computer Hardware, Certifications, How Tos, Network Security Guide and computer tips.

Computer Security ,

Powered by Yahoo! Answers