IT Security Blog

Web browsers and web hosting companies

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With the advent of various web browsers, website hosting companies are vying to prove their one-upmanship by providing a wide variety of flavors of web hosting services to woo the customers.
It’s a known fact that internet in future is the destination for all the marketing requirements, hence the web hosting companies are leaving no stone unturned in this cut throat competition to gain their foot hold in this billion dollar industry.

These companies provide a wide variety of choices to the customer to choose from ranging from one time activity to continuous partnership wherein the website gets maintenance on behalf of the clients. This in turn generates another source of income to these companies.

The websites are custom made to suit individual preference and requirements. Some may want a personalized site while the other would be looking at having many options made available and would want to have it as interactive as possible.

These companies help generate plans provide attractive color schemes and creative ideas coupled with the best of rates in the industry so that they would be able to have a strong foothold in the industry.
Akin to the cell phones, where at one point of time even receiving a phone call had a bomb charge, today various providers are vying to provide the best of service at the least of charges. Even the website hosting companies have made it a reality to think of having a website, voila it comes to creation for you regardless of the budgetary constraints or lack of knowledge to maintain it. All one has to do is type web hosting companies and hit enter!

Europe to Enjoy Enhanced Data Service Center Security Courtesy of NTT

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Businesses – especially large multinational companies – rely heavily on data center services. With practically everyone depending on technology to carry on their businesses, this is but part of the natural progression of things. Of course, there is always the issue of security; and that’s where entities like Secode AB come into the picture. Secode AB is a company that specializes in managed security services, or MSS. As a matter of fact, they have been at the forefront of this industry in Europe for many years. They’re known for providing high quality managed data center service, and earlier this month, another big player entered the playing field. NTT Communications, which is definitely one of the most recognizable names in the world of technology, communication, management solutions, etc., has acquired Secode AB. The acquisition was announced earlier this month, although the exact terms have not been released to the public. What is important is that northern European customers who have a great need for security services for data centers will be enjoying the benefits that both companies can offer. With all the resources of NTT backing Secode AB up, businesses operating in northern Europe can be more assured of 24/7 services to deal with the ever present security threats. Some areas that are covered include intrusion detection and prevention, log management, vulnerability analysis, data-loss prevention, anti-virus and anti-spam, managed VPN/firewall, and mobile security.

This development is sure to be welcomed with open arms by concerned parties all over Europe.? Current Secode SEO Trygve Reinertsen will continue to head the new subsidiary.

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Tape virtualization guidelines

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mainframes

Greg Schulz of Computerworld shared some guidelines of tape virtualization. Tape virtualization is one of the popular topics when it come to storage. Some of the said advantages of making virtual tape libraries would include improvement of the performance of the back up, archiving and other related processes and smooth transition (from tape-based to disk-based).

Here are the ten points he raised in his article:

1. Integration of VTL in your business continuity, conditions of your site/location.
2. Storage devices to be attached to the VTL.
3. Projected storage capacity needed in the future.
4. Backup, archiving, etc. software supported.
5. Support of differencing or single-instance repository capabilities.
6. Determine if you are looking for a turnkey solution.
7. Resiliency and redundancy needed.
8. Security level needed.
9. Tape device and library emulation for your environment.
10. Necessary changes to your current setup.

The questions he raised in his article really make you consider your needs and the conditions of your system. All these questions will help you evaluate if you would use virtualization. You cannot just decide right away if you will use VTL because it could affect your system in a major way.

It is always good to look at the possibilities before arriving at some decisions like this one. It is best to do a full study before you spend on it. One of the important things you also have to consider would be the people who would be in charge of this project in your company. Who will be the ones in charge of the study and the follow up in case you do push through with it. Your data will be at stake so it is better to be safe than sorry.

Scan Storage Devices before Enabling

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Viruses and malware issues are far from being a thing of the past. On the contrary, they seem to grow large by numbers as each day passes. Thus the works of security software companies have their work cut out for them. There is not definite date to which such threats and intrusions would wholly be resolved.

Scanning Protocol

For the time being, it would be advisable for people to scan third party storage devices such as diskettes, USB drives and mobile storages to be safe and sound. These wandering viruses can attack at any time and this is a fact anywhere computer related materials are concerned.

Files can go as far as infecting the executable files, hence document, excel and compiled scripts are baits for immediate infection and malicious intrusions. Software applications also have their limits as their development teams cater only to a specific genre for known harmful files. But it is better to lower the risk of intrusion than not having protection at all.

[tags]scan, spyware, virus, infections, spyware, malware, trojans[/tags]

Viruses Preying on Removable Storage Devices

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The growth in the use of removable storage devices has been evident in the past years and while they mainly just carry files made up of audio, video or simple documents and worksheets, they are vulnerable to virus attacks. How do they get them? Well for one, you never know if the original location of the file you were working on was virus free. This is assuming that you are transporting the file from one PC to another.

Also, you can never be too sure that once you plug on the usual USB drive from one computer to another, viruses may sneak past you. They may be equipped with anti-virus software but somehow you have to be amazed at how they breach the computer guards and make their way on USB drives.

So what is a person to do? Well for one, stick to the old practice of scanning a removable storage device first before you open any file on it. It may take a long time to finish, especially if the device is large in terms of capacity but nothing beats waiting than making sure you are protected.

Further, people fascinated with these miniature storage devices could care less if their files are infected. Sometimes it is not the file but the operating system that these storage devices contain. But make sure about it that while they have operating systems of their own, they do not have virus protection. Just be cautious, since that is the best you can do for now.

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When In Doubt, Don’t Click the Link

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We are all aware of the various scams that are rampant over the web so don’t be surprised if you find them suddenly making their way to your mailbox. While it seems that being more aware of attachments and pictures in emails has been covered, email scammers are still on the go and they have made the whole process simpler. These days, they do it using simple links that are sent via email and one click alone can make a difference. A difference towards the worst that is.

URL direction to a certain site will always be dangerous. Especially if you find it suddenly stressed in your email, be cautious. For one thing, identify if you know the sender. If you don’t know them, don’t click on the links. Actually, if you don’t know the sender, then it would be best to delete the message and don’t bother reading it. For sure, you know to whom you have given your emails so you should know better.

They were all the rage last year, but image and file attachment spam is definitely out in 2008, as spammers abandon complex techniques for simpler URL-based methods.

Around 90 per cent of all spam messages are now URL based, according to a recent report from IBM’s Internet Security Systems (ISS) X-Force, Big Blue’s Internet threat research and development team.

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The best way to protect yourself from these scammers is to just be careful. Don’t click on links as if you are interested. Research a bit and look for scams. Or better yet, if you see bad English composition in the email coming from someone you don’t know, then consider it scam and spam.