The Little Geeni

IT Networks though simple, require extensive planning to ensure stability, yet we often encounter businesses that are acquainted with the imperative role networking plays in the efficient functioning of their company.

Informed business entrepreneurs often opt to upgrade their networking systems to suit their organizational structure. Although upgrading is an expensive, time consuming process, its benefits are ten fold. Though, there are some small size companies that insist on having a Windows XP workstation function as a network server, this decision may eventually lead to decrease in efficiency and productivity of the entire Information Technology environment.

Network Consultants should always analyze the nature of your business so as to recommend a networking/Information Technology system that would be the best fit for your business. IT Consultants should evaluate both hardware and software requirements to guide your company through the pros and cons of various networking options that your business may be considering.

From a network consulting standpoint, these are five common problems that are either neglected by businesses or not included in the overall planning of the Network Infrastructure.

Disaster Recovery: Although entrepreneurs are risk takers they provide for all contingencies. While they insure their store and goods against fire, theft, natural calamities, etc., in many cases they ignore the need to implement a disaster recovery plan for financial records, employee payroll and client data. Losing valuable customer information to a fire would result in temporary chaos and a financial drain. Therefore, a data recovery system should be available to restore normal operation within 24 to 48 hours. There are several options to evaluate depending on the size of the business. A good Technology consulting company should be able to assess the needs and accordingly recommend an IT recovery plan that is fool proof yet affordable.

Redundancy: Although businesses are advised to maintain an alternate or redundant source of power supply for critical servers, many entrepreneurs ignore this simple loss prevention method in order to save a few hundred dollars. For example, servers that process customer credit card transactions are not exempted from the probability of failure and if not backed by a redundant power source, it may lead to a major financial loss. The point that I am trying to get across is that important network equipment should be identified and a redundant plan should be implemented to provide against unforeseen circumstances.

Network Security: Viruses are not strangers to the world of computers and internet. While performing technology analysis and auditing we come across businesses that have servers on DMZ without network security measures like a simple firewall. We have seen instances were employees had full access to the network server running virus inviting programs like Limewire. An obvious result of this would be a slow network. In most cases, passwords for workstations, servers etc. are identical and shared. Impermeable network security plans should be implemented especially when business IT infrastructure holds confidential information of clients or individuals that may become a risk as well as an embarrassing situation if lost
or stolen.

Network Speed: Businesses always focus on maximizing efficiency and productivity at the lowest cost and what better way to achieve this goal than to minimize wastage of employee time? Speed of IT networks depend on many factors from simple network security policies to restrict P2P software to intelligent switching hardware. You may be surprised but network infrastructure cabling (Cat 5, Cat 6, and Fiber Optics) also makes a significant difference on the performance of the entire network.

Expandability: Change in networking structure is an option that should always be open for clients. To plan ahead is important as a business need not overhaul a huge part of their network to see an insignificant benefit. A simple example would be to anticipate network storage requirements of data. Clients often overlook the importance of discussing options with consultants to make sure their IT system remains adequate for at least 3 to 5 years. The aim should be to minimize dollars spent without hindering the quality of work being performed by employees.

Consultants are professionals and while their recommendations should not be overlooked, they should not be adopted blindly either. As a customer you are entitled to know the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of every suggestion made. Request layman’s explanation for every problem encountered. Most importantly, ensure that the 5 major and basic areas are covered in the initial audit reports or recommendations made by any Technology consulting company.

Onsite Chicago is Technology Consulting company for business in the Chicago area. Featured in major newspapers they are considered one of the top business network consulting firms. To view a complete list if IT services from Network Management, Network security and data / telephone cabling please visit Chicago Business Network Consultants page.

Computer Security Business, Common, Networks, Overlooked, Problems

Nowadays, implementation of wireless networks is very common. There are very less clutters in a wireless network, so it is a convenient way of network implementation and management. The troubleshooting of wireless network is easier than wired networks, so people prefer having wireless networks at workplace as well as at home.

However, wireless networks are more vulnerable to security flaws along with the convenience and easy approach of implementation. Even a person with less IT knowledge can easily access an unsecured wireless network and use unethically. Therefore, it is very important to restrict unauthorized access of wireless networks available at home or at your workplace. There are some standard security measures of securing your wireless networks from unauthorized access. In order to secure your wireless network, you can adopt following actions:

Restrict Wireless Network Broadcasting
The default setting of your Wi-Fi router allows automatic network broadcasting so that devices with wireless access feature can detect the wireless networks available in range. Choosing this default setting makes your wireless network open to everybody. To restrict automatic wireless network discovery you can disable this feature. Go through your wireless router manual to learn how to disable this feature.

Enable Data Encryption
Data Encryption is a well-accepted protocol to secure wireless networks. Nowadays, almost every Wi-Fi router or access points come with WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) or WPA (Wi-Fi protected access) encryption schemes. By enabling any of these two encryption schemes, you can restrict the access of your Wi-Fi network.

Choosing Strong Network Password
While enabling data encryption, you are required to set a password to allow access to your wireless network. Choosing a strong password is very important to achieve required level of security. An ideal password is combination of alphanumeric keys and comprise of several characters. Avoid using your name, Date of Birth, or other common things as a password for your wireless network.

Activating Firewall
All wireless access points come with an in-built firewall to stop unauthorized incoming and outgoing connections through your wireless network. Learn how to use and customize this firewall for maximum level of wireless network security.

By following above instructions, you can secure wireless networks at your home or at workplace and enjoy the benefits of going wireless without any worries.

Computer Security Ensuring, Networks, Security, Wireless

1. Change the default passwords as most network devices have a pre-configured default password and these are easily found online.

2. Install a firewall directly onto your wireless devices (a host-based firewall). Attackers who directly intercept your wireless network may be able to by-pass your network firewall and so this does not offer sufficient protection.

3. Restrict access — only allow authorised users to access your network. Each piece of hardware connected to a network has a MAC (media access control) address. Restrict or allow access to your network by filtering MAC addresses. The MAC address is a unique identifier for networking hardware such as wireless network adapters. A hacker can capture details about a MAC address from your network and pretend to be that device to connect to your network. MAC filtering will still protect you from majority of the hackers. Find the MAC address for your network adapters on your devices by following these steps:

1. Go to Start > Run

2. Type command and press [Enter]

3. Type ipconfig /all in the command prompt window and press [Enter]

4. You can view the physical access address in the information displayed.

4. Check the user documentation to get specific information about the MAC Filtering process if you have any more queries.

5. Encrypt the data on your network. Encrypting the data would prevent anyone who might somehow be able to access your network from viewing your data.

6. Protect your SSID (Service Set Identifier — An SSID is the name of a WLAN). The SSID on wireless clients can be set either manually, by entering the SSID into the client network settings, or automatically, by leaving the SSID unspecified or blank. A network administrator often uses a public SSID that is set on the access point and broadcast to all wireless devices in range. You can disable the automatic SSID broadcast feature to improve network security.

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Computer Security Networks, Secure, Tips, Wireless

The reason why wireless networks are more vulnerable than wired networks is that because the data is transmitted through the broadcast radio technology that works on the same microwave radio band (2.4 gigahertz) as cordless phones, instead of a dedicated cable.

It is possible to be intercepted by hackers, especially if there is not a firewall installed because the networking transmissions are broadcast indiscriminately. Drive by hackers and casual intruders can pick up the radio signal 20 to 50 meters and as much as 500 meters if there is sensitive equipment. It is estimated that 30 percent of all wireless networks have already had a hacking attempt made, even though it is illegal.

Your wireless network can become contaminated with a virus, if another wireless computer taps into the network and has it, contaminating your server and the other computers on that network.

When wireless networks came out, they were more convenient and often a higher speed access than traditional wired networks. It soon became evident that they were easier to be compromised since multiple users were using the same broadcast signals. If a server is not secure, encrypted and firewall protected, it can cause data loss of confidential information and virus attacks that can make a system vulnerable to crashing.

Many government agencies are no longer using wireless networks because of the security issues. For most other usages, a wireless network is suitable, as long as it is firewall protected properly, but you may want to consider the additional security of a wired network, if you handle sensitive information.

The safest thing is to have an IT or network security audit done to evaluate the multiple computers on your network, whether wireless or wired, for security and firewall needs. Businesses that transmit data, store crucial customer information like credit cards and other confidential information need to be especially aware of the consequences, should the information fall into the wrong hands.

By having an IT security audit done on your system, you can discover any vulnerabilities and protect against them. Typically, they will do audits that involve external penetration tests and internal management tests to uncover any possible threats, intentional or by ignorance of protection on the part of users.

Not only can security be compromised through wireless networks that are not properly secured, but wired networks need to have proper security software and firewalls working on their server to assure protection, on an internal, physical basis.

An IT security audit will evaluate the environment of the server, whether wireless or wired and any weak links in the security including the physical location and access to the server and settings for anti-virus and firewall programs.

Wireless networks have gained in popularity due to the ease of installation, especially in older buildings and the cost is less to install than cabling a wired network. The chances of contamination of data, information loss and virus or hacking by intruders may not be worth the cost savings, due to the vulnerability of wireless systems.

Computer Security More, Networks, Than, Vulnerable, Wired, Wireless

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 Company, Four, Networks, Secure

CHELMSFORD, MA–(Marketwire – October 27, 2009) - Arbor Networks®, a leading provider of secure service control solutions for global business networks, today announced that Neo Telecoms, one of the premier infrastructure and IP transit operators in Europe, has selected Arbor Networks Peakflow SP platform (“Peakflow SP”) to deliver network-wide visibility and security against distributed denial of service attacks, together with comprehensive peering and transit analysis that will enable them to reduce peering costs, improve traffic engineering and perform network troubleshooting.

The de facto standard and security platform of choice for a majority of the world’s leading service providers, Peakflow SP leverages IP flow data to deliver a unique combination of pervasive visibility into network, application and routing traffic with real-time detection, mitigation and comprehensive reporting of network anomalies, all from one fully integrated platform. This enables Neo Telecoms to manage the impact of security threats as well as network issues.

“Pervasive visibility into network, application and routing traffic allows Neo Telecoms to make more informed decisions about security incidents, transit partners, network architecture, customers and new IP services,” said Raphael Maunier, Neo Telecoms chief technology officer. “The Peakflow SP platform is purpose built for sophisticated IP-based networks like Neo Telecoms.”

“Neo Telecoms is enabling the Internet Economy across Europe, delivering a full suite of innovative IP-based services to regional ISPs, international operators, SMB’s and international enterprises,” said Patrick Sonou, Arbor Networks country manager for France. “Peakflow SP delivers the security, visibility and control over the network that Neo Telecoms’s requires to maintain its leadership position.”

Arbor Peakflow SP also dramatically improves traffic engineering and capacity planning by correlating real-time topology information with traffic data. Peakflow SP allows Neo Telecoms to optimize their network and reduce costs by providing detailed visibility into the traffic that is leaving or entering their networks via peering or transit links. Peakflow SP provides insight into critical information such as BGP routing, MPLS VPNs, QoS and applications such as DNS, VoIP and P2P — enabling Neo Telecoms to automatically recognize hot spots and engineer the network for lower costs, higher performance and new services. Key benefits to Neo Telecoms include:

– On-Demand Packet Analysis – Deeper visibility into the network and traffic for troubleshooting, fault prevention, performance monitoring and security forensics. — Global Geography Reports – Analyze peering traffic by geography, market, most used services and threat activity. — Expanded Transit Peering Reports – Gain a better understanding as to where their customer traffic is destined beyond initial peers.

About Arbor Networks

Arbor Networks is a leading provider of security and network management solutions for global business networks, including more than 70 percent of the world’s Internet service providers and many of the largest enterprise networks in use today. Arbor’s secure service control solutions give customers a single, unified view into their networks’ performance, helping them to quickly detect anomalous behavior, mitigate threats and enforce policy. This translates into actionable business intelligence to generate new forms of revenue and to maintain a competitive advantage.

Arbor also maintains ATLAS — a unique collaborative effort with 100+ service providers across the globe sharing real-time security, traffic and routing information. No other entity today has both aggregated this much real-time information about what is happening across the Internet and developed the means for cross-provider collaboration that informs numerous business decisions.

For technical insight into the latest security threats and Internet traffic trends, please visit theASERT blog.

Note to Editors: Arbor Networks, Peakflow, ATLAS and the Arbor Networks logo are trademarks of Arbor Networks, Inc. All other brand names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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