Here is the IDSA Blog. We will share some ideas of current interest in IT. Hopefully we will help you stay informed and maybe even entertained.
One of the main causes of internal security incidents is the poor visibility and management of access rights information.
Windows 10 contains several key client security improvements. These improvements focus on three key areas — resistance to attacks, protection of information, and identity protection and access control.
How does it do this ?
One of the main causes of internal security incidents is the poor visibility and management of access rights information.
Three major factors contribute to complicate management:
- Access Rights: The rapid increase in the volume of data to protect and the diversity of data sources has expanded the scope of information to secure. Employees must not only have access to their own data folders, but also to folders from other departments, SharePoint data, Exchange mailboxes etc.
- The dynamic nature of organizations: the increasing mobility of users and changes to their work environments complicates the structure and permissions required, so day to day management of permissions can be very time-consuming.
- The complexity of using traditional tools to manage permissions in a Windows environment: the analytical functionality of these tools is quite limited and does not make it easy to audit and modify access rights.
How can we simplify management of AD permissions in a complex environment ?
You have written a disaster recovery plan (DRP) with a clear set of procedures to recover and protect your business' IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster. Your plan is a comprehensive description of the consistent actions you will take before, during and after a disaster, be it natural, environmental or man-made.
But just how complete is your DRP ? Here are 8 critical points that may be missing from your existing plan:
Enterprise data breaches are occurring all-too-often. Many enterprises overestimate the ability of their firewalls and current data access policies to keep their confidential data safe from prying eyes. We strongly recommend identifying sensitive data, determining who should have access, and applying effective strategies to protect access to the data. Encryption is one important strategy in protecting unauthorized access to data.
Encryption makes data unusable in the wrong hands. It reduces the risk that sensitive data can be read by the wrong individuals. Thieves steal devices such as laptops and smartphones. People leave iPads in pockets on the back of airplane seats and USB drives in taxis. Employees snoop in file shares they shouldn’t really see.
Driven by the rise of mobile devices, data is finding its way onto third-party cloud storage by the gigabyte – with or without company approval. But the speed of business today dictates that IT doesn’t get in the way of data portability. This leaves IT in a difficult position. Data must be allowed to freely move from device to device so users can access that data anywhere, anytime. At the same time, if mistakes are made, the business must not be severely affected by unencrypted data compromises.
What is the best approach to encrypting sensitive data files ?
The year 2015 has already begun and there is plenty to do to improve your IT to better serve your business. Here is a short list of 5 ways you can protect your important business systems and support the growth of your business.
Should organizations use password safes to store and/or share enterprise passwords?
In spite technology improvements with applications using biometrics and strong authentication, the « classic » password remains the most common method for protecting access to enterprise data.
Today, with the multiplication of applications including Web, B2B, B2C, banks, devices, social media and e-commerce sites, the number of passwords to manage and maintain for each individual for each application is multiplying exponentially even as the associated risks of having a weak password are increasing.
With all the recent high profile successful hacker attacks on e-commerce, banking and government sites, it is becoming clear that we need to employ passwords which are more complex and if possible unique for each application accessed.
How can we create more secure passwords and remember them ?
Do you really want each person in your enterprise to make decisions about IT and data security?
More and more organizations are beginning to realize that Dropbox/iCloud/iWant "shares" represent a significant risk to data privacy and allow individuals to move company data to a private cloud where it can be moved and replicated ad infinitum.
Wouldn't it be great if you could give users what they want and yet maintain control so that they don't begin to generate phantom IT departments somewhere in the cloud?
Who would have thought that the very tool we all rely on to provide secure access to web sites OpenSSL has opened the door wide to one of the biggest security risks encountered to date? How frustrating to all IT professionals lie ourselves who followed best security practices.
There are complex conditions as to whether your data may or may not have been retrieved, and you should assume details like passwords may have been stolen, but a blind reset of everything could actually make it more likely that you lose your details. You need to reset passwords once a provider has patched.
If you are responsable for IT in your organization you will need to take the following steps:
XP is dead, or at least it should be booted out of your organisation ASAP. Sure it still works and it has been a great workhourse since it was launched in 2001. XP may you Rest in Peace. But nothing in IT lasts forever and 13 years is practically an eon in computer time.
Finally, it is time to move on to Windows 7 or even better Windows 8.
(More on this to come ...)
There are no more security patches and in any case the hundreds of updates make XP run like a tired limping well-loved dog.
Microsoft is not to blame. The Windows maker has made several newer, much better versions of Windows since it launched the extraordinarily popular XP, but global economics and inertia combined to give XP a shelf-life far longer than any had realistically come to expect.
So here are the top 10 reasons to move to Windows 8 now.
