Generally speaking, a computer firewall is a kind of software program that works by preventing unauthorized access from or to a private network. Firewalls are considered as tools that could help enhance computer security including those that are connected to a network like the internet or LAN. Firewalls are an important part of an extensive network security framework.
A firewall will isolate the computer from the internet through the use of a wall of code that check every individual packet of data when it arrives at either firewall’s sides – outbound or inbound from your computer – know if it will be blocked or allowed to pass.
Firewalls can further improve the security of your computer by allowing granular control over what kinds of system processes and functions have access to the networking resources. Firewalls could use different kinds of signatures as well as host conditions to deny or allow traffic. Even though they seem complicated, firewalls are quite easy to install, setup, as well as operate.
Many people believe that a firewall is a device that needs to be installed on a network and it will control the traffic that moves through the network segment.
But, it is also possible to have firewalls that are host based. This could be done on the units themselves, like with ICF or Internet Connection Firewall. Generally, the work of these two firewalls is the same. They prevent intrusion and offer a strong way of accessing control policy. In simple terms, firewalls are nothing but a unit that protects your computer.
What Is The Job Of A Firewall?
Firewalls do the following things:
Validate access
Protect resources
Control and manage network traffic
Report and record events
Work as an intermediary
What And Why You Need A Personal Firewall?
It is crucial to know why you need a firewall and how it can help you secure computing. We have to understand the objective of information security since it helps us to know how a firewall will deal with those needs.
With today’s high speed Internet Access, you connect your computer electronically to a huge network over which, unless you’ve got a personal firewall installed, you will have restricted control and from which you will have restricted protection. Until lately, unless you have worked for a company that offers high speed internet access.
But just like anything, there are drawbacks to high speed internet connection. But there is an irony to all these. The feature that makes it attractive is also the reason that it’s vulnerable. It’s like connecting to the internet through a high speed internet connection is just like leaving your house’s front door open and worse, unlocked. It’s because high speed internet connection possesses these following features. It has a constant IP, a high speed access, and an active connection.
Protect Yourself With A Personal Firewall
Now that you already have an idea that you’re extremely vulnerable when you are online on a high speed internet connection, what should you do next? You have to learn how to defend your computer and yourself.
You need a firewall when you surf the internet when you are at home and you are using an always on broadband connection. You connect to the internet through a public WiFi network in an airport, café, or park. You run a home network that needs to remain separated from the internet. You want to remain updated about when a program on your computer tries to connect to the internet. Most personal firewalls can be configured so you can easily make security policies that are suitable for your personal needs.
Call SpartanTec, Inc. and learn more about managed firewalls from our team of experts.
Recently the US branch of the global telecom company T-Mobile disclosed a security breach that impacted a small percentage of its customer base.
Specifically, the breach revealed certain information belonging to a small number of the company's prepaid cellphone users.
The exposed data included customer names, billing addresses, account numbers, rate plans, plan features and user phone numbers. The company stressed that no payment card information or passwords were compromised.
T-Mobile has contacted and has begun working with law enforcement agencies to further investigate the matter. If you were among the impacted users, you should have already received an SMS today from the company. If you haven't received a notification and you're concerned that you may have been impacted, you can get a definitive answer from T-Mobile by contacting them at privacy@t-mobile.com.
The FBI has reported an increase in ransomware attacks and has put in place a plan to combat this crime. Once a server has been determined to contain ransomed data, the FBI is taking down the server. Companies need to be aware that even if they pay the ransom they may not get their data returned because the server was confiscated by the FBI.
This has been a fairly good year for Telecoms in general. Other than Sprint's data breach earlier in the year, this is only the second data breach in 2019 involving a major Telecom company.
As breaches go, this one is quite minor, and odds are quite small that you have been impacted by it. Again though, if it's something you're worried about, the company has made it easy to get peace of mind. Overall, T-Mobile's handling of the incident has been better than average. In the weeks ahead as the investigation draws to a close, if there are new details to be learned, the company will no doubt disclose them when and as they are able.
With 2019 rapidly drawing to a close, it seems unlikely that we'll see a spate of Telecomm data breaches. 2019 is likely to be remembered as a year where the Telecomm companies dodged a bullet. Overall, the total number of data breaches continues to surge higher, a trend which is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
Contact SpartanTec, Inc. if you have any doubt that you data may be compromised. Complete this form for a FREE online audit of your network.
Social media has been at the center of several high-profile political dramas of late. The major platforms came under fire for not doing enough to monitor political ads and other content. The major players on the social media landscape are all responding in different ways to the backlash. Recently, Twitter announced some new policies that will likely be in place before the time you read these words.
Beginning on November 22nd on Twitter, the company's new political content and cause-based advertising policies will forbid the paid promotion of certain content. This includes any content that references government officials, ballot measures, referendums,
regulations, legislation, candidates, political parties, or government officials. This change essentially renders it pointless for candidates for political office, or for PACs and Super PACs that may be supporting them to purchase Twitter ads.
As details about the company's new policies came to light, even supporters of the idea were quick to criticize. They pointed out that issue-based advertisers would also be punished by the changes. Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey clarified. He said that issue-based advertisers will be restricted, rather than banned outright. He also said going forward, they will be unable to target users based on demographic factors like race, age, or specific location. Although general location (state and province-level) would still be allowed.
This is a decent compromise position that doesn't leave issue-based advertisers thrilled. However it is broadly seen as a step in the right direction. One thing the new policy change doesn't address though, is the matter of disinformation on the platform, which tends to spread like wildfire.
All in all, the changes are generally positive, but they should be seen as a first step only. Social media has unfortunately become a cesspool of misinformation, and no one seems to have any good ideas on how to go about changing that.
Call SpartanTec, Inc. in Myrtle Beach if you need help in securing your network, devices, business, and customer information from all possible threats.
In case you weren't already aware, Disney recently launched a new video streaming service called Disney+ which has been driving Netflix and other established streaming services crazy with fear and apprehension since it was first announced.
If the early indications are any clue, Netflix has little to worry about, but Disney has their hands full.
Mere hours after the service was launched, complaints started flooding in, and not just on Disney's website. Angry customers were taking to Reddit, Twitter, and other social media outlets to complain that their accounts had been hacked the same day they began using them.
As this was happening, hold times at Disney's support center surged past two hours, which only increased customer frustration. Worst of all, researchers quickly discovered tens of thousands of Disney+ user account details for sale on the Dark Web, with prices starting as low as $3 per account.
If you were one of the lucky customers who didn't get your account hacked, your experience with the service still may not have been stellar. Many users who could get on it had complaints that they were either completely unable to stream the offered content, or that the streaming speeds were so low that the videos were essentially unwatchable. These reports, however, were largely drowned out and lost in the shuffle given how many users had their accounts hacked on day one.
One thing that's conspicuously absent from the Disney+ service is a two-factor authentication option. While this isn't a magic bullet that would have solved all of the company's launch day issues, it would have made it significantly more difficult for hackers to disrupt the launch of the service to the extent that they did.
Disney will no doubt survive and recover from the debacle, but as of now, they have a well-deserved black eye over the affair.
Are you aware of what you employees are accessing on the web? Do you have the necessary firewalls in place to protect your data and the data of your customers? Give SpartanTec, Inc. a call if you have any doubt.
When it comes to the technology plan or managed IT services that your business needs, a one-size-fits-all or a cookie-cutter approach isn’t what you need. A proven process should be set in place if you want your business to move forward. A reliable firm will work with your company’s in-house IT manager to address certain concerns during the proprietary business and onboarding process review.
This involves the following:
Evaluating your business IT against the industry standards
Identifying technology risks and determining business impact
Concentrating on sequencing top priorities that address business risks
Prioritizing IT initiatives that support the initiatives of your business
All these information will then be used to create recommendations, which will be provided during the consultation. After that, the IT professionals will create a plan, budget, and roadmap from the comprehensive onboarding and business process. They will also take into account suggested business intelligence solution, application integration and selection, could advisement and strategy, industry compliance and security, remediation plan, cybersecurity action, business continuity solutions, and disaster recovery.
With a co-managed IT service, we will improve your internal IT department. The model used for the co-managed IT services will overlay the tested and proven procedure onto your existing IT structure. These experts will work with your tech team to create a technology plan that is aligned with the kind of business you have and assist in managing your daily IT operations, where you could make the most out of your investment.
Co-managed IT solutions generally include:
Continual standards alignment and dedicated network admistration
Development of an effective technology strategy
Preventative maintenance for the network as well as the end-point environment
Managed end-point security
Escalation support for your in-house IT-department
The utility of virtual assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home are undeniable. They're just genuinely handy devices to have around.
Unfortunately, they're also prone to abuse and exploits by hackers and unsavory developers. They can be used to spy on and even steal sensitive information from unsuspecting users.
This is not new in and of itself. Security researchers around the world have, at various points over the last couple of years, sounded the alarm about weaknesses and exploits. To the credit of both companies, any time this has happened, both Amazon and Google have responded promptly, plugging gaps and shoring up the security of their devices.
Unfortunately, every few months or so, new exploits are discovered. The two companies are essentially playing Whack-A-Mole with security flaws, which appear to have no end.
Recently, security experts published two videos, one for Alexa and one for Google Home. Each demonstrated a simple back-end exploit that anyone with a DevKit could employ. The exploits revolve around inserting a question character (U+D801, dot, space) to various locations in the code. Then they introduce a long pause during which the assistant remains active and listening.
To give you an idea of how this could be exploited, one of the example videos shows a horoscope app triggering an error, but the presence of the special character introduces a long pause during which the app is still active.
During the long pause, the app asks the user for their Amazon/Google password while faking a convincing looking update message from Amazon or Google itself. Given the long pause, few users associate the poisoned horoscope app with the password request. It seems like it's coming from the device itself.
It's both sneaky and troublesome, and worst of all, even when both companies move to address this issue. By this time next month if history is a guide, there will be others. We're not saying not to use them, but when you do, be very mindful.
Call SpartanTec, Inc. now and let our team set up an effective IT strategy to protect your devices and network from all kinds of online threats and exploits.
Are a small to medium size business that is in need of better security for your computer systems and client data? Maybe you have been searching for a local IT company that can provide the support you need. The first search term you may think of is probably not Managed IT Services. Managed services, is by far one of the most poorly developed search terms on earth. Although managed services is used mostly in the technology arena, the name does not effectively represent managed services, what they have become and why you need to select a provider of managed services for your business.
The Types Of Managed Services
Generally speaking, managed services are provided by an IT service provider or what they refer to as managed service provider (MSP). However, that does not always need to be the case. There are power MSPs, waste MSPs, as well as supply chain MSPs. But in most cases, the term refers to computer security and other Information Technology (IT) projects. If you want to better understand what a MSP does, it makes a lot of sense to understand how the MSP model came about.
The History of Managed IT Services
Before a Fortune 500 list, many small businesses, had IT equipment such as switches, routers, and servers that would periodically go down and need maintenance. If Ford’s production line were to shut down due to a router linked to one of their suppliers, they could not get the parts in a timely manner (often referred to as Just In Time Inventory). Imagine what that will cost in terms of dollars, productivity, and time. There’s also no means to determine if something was broken or was about to break, you learned that the internet was down when the production line ceased to function. Businesses (and the government) soon determined there had to be a better way.
Network Monitoring & Management and SNMP
Now, there’s SNMP or Simple Network Management Protocol. Developers and manufacturers seeing this require built in SNMP into their software and hardware which permitted a few users to easily and quickly control a lot of devices rather than relying on internal organization support to scale. The idea of Network Monitoring and Management came to be. Technicians can see all the log files from every router in a single location and check errors before a device instantly stopped. This solved the problem with scale, however, the issues still remained. Reliability. Things still malfunctioned with SNMP. The Break/Fix or Things Break/We fix it model was every common and it had to be improved.
What’s Wrong With The Break/Fix Model?
Developing automobiles is the primary business of Ford and not to manage internet connections between different locations. Despite the ability to scale, firms realized that they required to outsource to professionals, however, they also required a method to control the costs and lower the outages. On one hand, having a dedicated team for things that may break a couple of times would be expensive and on the other hand, an outage of just one day could blow the budget for the whole year. Additionally, even if they spend all of this money to redo the network with SNMP, they lacked the expertise to manage it properly.
Service Level Agreements Come Into Play
Companies required a way for the IT Managed services provider to feel the burden when something malfunctioned and that’s when the idea of “Service Level Agreements,” came to be. Ford need to spend money to have these intricate networks set up, however, the MSP will be responsible for servicing it, monitor it, and in case of an outage, fix it within the period specified in the contract, because if not, the service provider will be liable for the outage, hence, the term, managed services. Other services were included as time went by, such as Backup and Disaster Recovery, Server Management, Help Desk, Network Security, and more. It went beyond more monitoring. It became a bunch of bundled services that are managed by a service provider. It is easy to translate that specific model to power outages, subpar water quality, or a problem in the supply chain and how the manage services term makes a lot of sense.
SpartanTec, Inc. is your local Managed IT Services provider. We work with small to medium size businesses in North and South Carolina to ensure your computer systems are functioning and safe from outside intrusion.
Call us today or complete out Contact Us form to schedule a time for an in-depth review of your systems.
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What You Need To Know About Managed IT Services
Posted by spartansue On October 31, 2019
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IT Support
Are a small to medium size business that is in need of better security for your computer systems and client data? Maybe you have been searching for a local IT company that can provide the support you need. The first search term you may think of is probably not Managed IT Services. Managed services, is by far one of the most poorly developed search terms on earth. Although managed services is used mostly in the technology arena, the name does not effectively represent managed services, what they have become and why you need to select a provider of managed services for your business.
The Types Of Managed Services
Generally speaking, managed services are provided by an IT service provider or what they refer to as managed service provider (MSP). However, that does not always need to be the case. There are power MSPs, waste MSPs, as well as supply chain MSPs. But in most cases, the term refers to computer security and other Information Technology (IT) projects. If you want to better understand what a MSP does, it makes a lot of sense to understand how the MSP model came about.
The History of Managed IT Services
Before a Fortune 500 list, many small businesses, had IT equipment such as switches, routers, and servers that would periodically go down and need maintenance. If Ford’s production line were to shut down due to a router linked to one of their suppliers, they could not get the parts in a timely manner (often referred to as Just In Time Inventory). Imagine what that will cost in terms of dollars, productivity, and time. There’s also no means to determine if something was broken or was about to break, you learned that the internet was down when the production line ceased to function. Businesses (and the government) soon determined there had to be a better way.
Network Monitoring & Management and SNMP
Now, there’s SNMP or Simple Network Management Protocol. Developers and manufacturers seeing this require built in SNMP into their software and hardware which permitted a few users to easily and quickly control a lot of devices rather than relying on internal organization support to scale. The idea of Network Monitoring and Management came to be. Technicians can see all the log files from every router in a single location and check errors before a device instantly stopped. This solved the problem with scale, however, the issues still remained. Reliability. Things still malfunctioned with SNMP. The Break/Fix or Things Break/We fix it model was every common and it had to be improved.
What’s Wrong With The Break/Fix Model?
Developing automobiles is the primary business of Ford and not to manage internet connections between different locations. Despite the ability to scale, firms realized that they required to outsource to professionals, however, they also required a method to control the costs and lower the outages. On one hand, having a dedicated team for things that may break a couple of times would be expensive and on the other hand, an outage of just one day could blow the budget for the whole year. Additionally, even if they spend all of this money to redo the network with SNMP, they lacked the expertise to manage it properly.
Service Level Agreements Come Into Play
Companies required a way for the IT Managed services provider to feel the burden when something malfunctioned and that’s when the idea of “Service Level Agreements,” came to be. Ford need to spend money to have these intricate networks set up, however, the MSP will be responsible for servicing it, monitor it, and in case of an outage, fix it within the period specified in the contract, because if not, the service provider will be liable for the outage, hence, the term, managed services. Other services were included as time went by, such as Backup and Disaster Recovery, Server Management, Help Desk, Network Security, and more. It went beyond more monitoring. It became a bunch of bundled services that are managed by a service provider. It is easy to translate that specific model to power outages, subpar water quality, or a problem in the supply chain and how the manage services term makes a lot of sense.
SpartanTec, Inc. is your local Managed IT Services provider. We work with small to medium size businesses in North and South Carolina to ensure your computer systems are functioning and safe from outside intrusion.
Call us today or complete out Contact Us form to schedule a time for an in-depth review of your systems.
