3 Key Reasons To Monitor Your Employee Computer Usage

Unless you monitor your employee computer usage, you are opening yourself and your business up to huge risks. In this day and age, computers and the internet are an essential part of doing business, but they are also a gateway for lost productivity, intellectual property theft and huge liabilities to your business. And considering that it's never been cheaper or easier to monitor your employee computer usage, it would be downright negligent not to do so. Here are the 3 key reasons to monitor your employee computer usage.

Key Reasons To Monitor Your Employee #1: Lost Productivity

You never know what your employees are up to on their computers when you are not looking, and these hours of lost productivity can cost your business tens of thousands of dollars a year. You are paying your employees to work, not to chat, play games or type personal emails, so you need to monitor your employee computer usage to ensure that such abusive behavior is not going on behind your back. When you identify the major culprits, you can then pull them aside and deal with them accordingly, as well as make an example for the rest of your employees of what not to do.

Key Reasons To Monitor Your Workers #2: Protect Business Assets

When your employees have access to your computers, they have the means of accessing all your business assets stored on that computer. That may include customer data, secret financial information and other proprietary secrets that you would not want to fall in to the wrong hands. That's why it's so critical to monitor your employee computer usage to ensure that they don't copy these assets onto their own portable drives or email them to your competitors. Otherwise you could potentially lose hundreds of thousands of dollars and see your business suffer irreparable damage.

Key Reasons To Monitor Your Employee #3: Malicious Software

When your employees visit certain sites, or receive personal emails, they potentially open their computers up to all kinds of malicious software. These malware programs have the potential of damaging your computer hardware, infecting your entire network and even stealing important data and information. The damage of such an attack is potentially huge and extremely costly, and it can easily be avoided simply when you monitor your workers computer use to ensure that they don't inadvertently visit a potentially damaging site or open a dangerous email file attachment.

Security Services and Training in Information Security and Computer Security

Many information security consulting firms offer security services and training, but it can be difficult for a client to differentiate between them, especially when lacking any background in the constantly-changing field of information security. The growing threat to computer systems and networks from outside attackers and insiders means that the need for information security services has never been higher. So what should you look for when considering which computer security company your organisation should hire?

To begin with, security services and training is an extremely wide field, and needs to be narrowed down to specific offerings. For example: what kind of services are priorities for your organisations' particular situation, and which others are "nice to have" but not immediately necessary?

In addition, what kind of training is needed by your particular staff in your particular situation? If it were possible to produce an off-the-shelf solution that would cover all situations, then someone would have marketed one by now. But in fact both information security services, and training services, need to be highly customised to the particular needs of the client. This means that your organisation will need to hire security services and training from a specialist information security company.

What should you look for when considering the offerings of competing firms? Having prioritised the computer security services your organisation requires, you should start with the following basic checks:

· Does the firm have a lot of experience in providing the given service (e.g. penetration testing, network monitoring, regular scanning, interim security management).

· What qualifications and professional memberships are held by the people who will carry out the work?

· If there is potential access to sensitive data, have the professionals involved been checked for a criminal record?

· What references can they supply from past clients for this kind of service?

Another question to ask is whether the firm is currently providing this service - the more clients it has for this service, the better. This is because the field of information security is changing so fast that skills can easily become out of date, unless there is ongoing involvement in a related project.

Training should not be viewed as an optional extra. Without appropriate training, all the security services and recommendations could be rendered useless. If a key staff member is unclear about how to proceed, or lacks the necessary information security training, then the money you have spent might well be wasted. The human aspect of computer security is often overlooked, yet it is this avenue that is responsible for a huge number of successful attacks in recent years.

In short, security services and training can offer real value to your organisation, but only if the information security consulting company is carefully selected, and only if staff training is included as part of the package.

Security Infrastructure - Vital for Nations' Top Brass, Vital for Your Business

Without a solid network and security infrastructure in place, no business can run smoothly. Indeed, a lack thereof can cause a company to severely slow down, especially in the face of persistent problems. The resulting down time leads to lost revenue, which over time can break even the most financially sound business.

All of this explains why even industries like the military and healthcare, which are backed by governmental support and resources to get them out of a variety of other jams, don't take their chances when it comes to security infrastructure. In fact, they place profound emphasis on their network and security infrastructure.

One recent key example of this is the Indian Navy, a naval base of which, Yahoo! News recently reported, "was commissioned at Kavaratti"... "to augment the security infrastructure at the strategically important Lakshadweep Islands." This group of islands is situated 200 to 440 km off the coast of the South West Indian state of Kerala.

Yahoo! News explained the rationale behind this pumping up of the coastal security infrastructure in this way, "A firmer footing in the islands, which spreads out to some of the busiest shipping lanes of the world, would provide the necessary wherewithal to the Indian Navy to discharge its responsibilities suitably."

The U.S.'s pioneer Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) movement is also putting security infrastructure front and center. Part of the new health law, NPR defines Accountable Care Organizations as the "latest model for delivering services [that] offer doctors and hospitals financial incentives to provide good quality care to Medicare beneficiaries while keeping down costs."

As MedCityNews pointed out earlier this month, however, as more data for care coordination and population management is shared as result of ACOs, "IT departments will be asked to make clinical records available to increasing numbers of loosely affiliated clinicians and staff." This tendency will, in turn, result in a slippery slope in terms of managing distributed authentication and protecting privacy.

One of the ways the publication suggested dealing with this issue is the emplacement security infrastructure and agreements. Then, "any clinician can leverage the community trust fabric, using their existing [electronic health records, or] EHRs and organizational credentials, to send data to another clinician."

As a final example of security infrastructure's importance, "Security Week" recently highlighted a letter from General Keith Alexander, director of the NSA and current commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, to Senator John McCain. Therein, Alexander stressed "that legislation is needed for 'information sharing and core critical infrastructure hardening.'" He added "that if the Department of Defense is to defend the nation against cyber attack, it must be able to see those attacks in real time."

The same set of security infrastructure solutions government leaders and organizations rely on to keep their country safe can obviously solidly protect businesses as well. That solution set should include:

Technology that improve response times An amelioration in the stability of the network Seamless integration of hardware and software Improving the network's availability Offering reliable remote connectivity Adding flexibility Enhancing security Top 5 Reasons to Check Website Security   Why Ignoring IDS Could Lead to Substantial Damage for Businesses   

Benefits of Background Check Services

Background check services are available for everybody to use. A lot of people wonder what the benefits of using such a service are, and there are a lot of benefits of using a check service.

Businesses and people can use these types of services to find out if somebody has a criminal background. The best thing about getting a criminal check is that it will provide details on a national level. This means that a business or a person can see if the person has a criminal record nationwide and not just on a local level. This can be helpful to anybody who wants to find out if a person has warrants or any convictions against them on a national level.

Companies can also verify prior employment when they run a check on an employee or a potential employee. This means that a company can find out whether or not a person has actually worked for the employees they say they worked for. A company will be able to see if a potential employee has the necessary skills needed to perform the tasks for the job they are applying for.

Background check services can also provide people with address history. This means that a person can find out where a person has lived throughout the years. This information can be useful to an employer or even law enforcement.

People can also find out whether or not a person has been locked up. This is another good reason why people should use background check services. Companies will usually want to know whether or not they have convicted felons working for them or if they are about to hire a convicted felon.

A background service can also provide people with a driving record check. This is great for companies that are thinking about hiring a person to perform a driving job. A company will be able to see if the person they are considering hiring has a bad driving record or a clean record. This will allow the company to make a wise hiring decision.

Background check services can also provide people with education details. Sometimes a company will require a person to have a degree of some sort, and a background check will verify a person's education. This will allow a business to make sure that the person they are thinking of hiring meets the education requirements that the company has. People can also verify that a person holds specific professional licenses and a check can also verify references.

Background check services can also provide other useful information. There are many other reasons why somebody would want to get a back ground check done. A person may want to hire a caregiver or a babysitter and a check would be useful. Companies can also get background checks for many different reasons, some of them were mentioned above. There are many ways to get a check done and getting a check done is very easy to do and all companies should get one done.

Top 5 Reasons to Check Website Security   Why Ignoring IDS Could Lead to Substantial Damage for Businesses   

Sentry Pigeon Review - Does Sentry Pigeon Really Offer A Proper Website Security Solution?

Sentry Pigeon Review - A candid look at Munchweb's latest product offering.

After having purchased this training course and having delved into it fully, I can give you a real overview of the pros and the cons of investing in this security training designed for the non-technical audience out there.

What Is Sentry Pigeon?

Although Sentry Pigeon has a rather curious and somewhat ambiguous name on the surface, it is actually the WordPress website security solution recently released by one Chris Much (aka Munchweb) and promises a combination of reports and videos that encompass everything you need to know about securing your WordPress blog from hackers attacks and other undesirables out there on the World Wide Web.

What Does Sentry Pigeon Consist Of?

Sentry Pigeon consists of a well written and easy to follow PDF guide that takes you through the individual steps required in securing your WordPress website.

This isn't just your typical digital download product that has been highly touted as a professional offering which eventually falls flat. Having fully reviewed and implemented the methods and techniques covered in the guide, I can safely say that I feel better protected from the hacker community lurking out there on the Internet looking to do harm to my websites.

As well as the guide there are a series of 25 videos presented in the "screen capture" family of videos (where you effectively watch "over the shoulder" of the trainer to see exactly how and what they are doing in the training demonstration).

What Do The Sentry Pigeon Videos Cover?

As well as being easy to follow, the Sentry Pigeon videos contain a variety of techniques on how to secure your WordPress website such as;

How to change the file and folder permissions to give you the best protection for your Web host files and folders Scripts and additional code that is a must to add to your The best WordPress plugins out there that are not only free but also offer the best automated protection for your websites Tactics for reducing the likelihood of a hacker gaining entry to your Web server through FTP or your WordPress blog itself Modifications that you can make to the WordPress login interface to lower the chances of your website being hacked by a method known as Brute Force Attack

This shapes up to be a comprehensive training course but unfortunately there are some downsides to the overall offering, the main points I will go through with you just now.

Now, I will go over what I see as the true pros and cons of the Sentry Pigeon WordPress security training package:

PROS:

Extremely well priced offering. You would be hard pushed to buy a similar mainstream or commercial WordPress security course for the price Munchweb have set. Sentry Pigeon covers all the major aspects of implementing a solid security "blueprint" on your WordPress based website or websites. The PDF report is well written, presented with easy to understand text and overall it is jargon free. Perfect for the intended target audience The videos are well narrated and cover a whole host of aspects within the WordPress security arena, some of which I must admit I had never heard of before Actually implementing the techniques and methods discussed in the videos and the PDF report are very straightforward. Nothing has been left to chance by the course designer.

CONS:

The narrator of the videos, although clear and concise may cause issues for some people that have difficulty in understanding certain dialects and accents These aren't the best "scaled" videos, you may find it irritating to not see the "whole picture" when watching the training videos At the time of writing, there is no option to maximize the videos on the screen. This is overcome by pressing CTRL & the + key to zoom in but it can still be a bit irritating for those of you used to viewing training videos in full screen The videos cant be downloaded to your computer so the content must be viewed online. The PDF report however be downloaded.

And My Overall Impression of Sentry Pigeon?

With various options available on the market, both from commercial companies and "Indie" companies, Sentry Pigeon had to not just be good, it had to be concise, to the point, accurate with the content and above all else provide real value to those that invest their hard earned in the training it provides.

Thankfully, aside from the negative points above, I feel that at the end of the day Sentry Pigeon delivers what it promises to the point that you will not only feel more comfortable with how secure your websites are, but also increase your overall knowledge of how and why we increase security levels on our WordPress blogs and websites in the first place.

I can recommend Sentry Pigeon as a solution that not only will tick the above two boxes, but will provide you with solid knowledge for the foreseeable future.

Top 5 Reasons to Check Website Security   Why Ignoring IDS Could Lead to Substantial Damage for Businesses   

Internet Anonymity: 5 VPN Providers That Are And Aren't Serious About Privacy

Not all VPN providers are the same. Among the differences that are the most common worried about by the customer, (besides cost and reliability,) are logging, and who the provider answers to when information requests are made. But often this information is difficult to distinguish when it is contained in the complicated legalese and documentation that is called the "Terms of Service."

Because of this, many are looking through the terms, and asking VPN providers a lot of questions, so here is a simplistic outline of how serious 5 highly popular takes the Anonymity issue. The most common questions to be addressed here are:

Are any logs kept that would enable a 3rd party to match time stamps and IP addresses a particular user, and if so, what information is actually logged? What jurisdictions does the provider answer to in the event a query for data is made, and what are the requirements in which they will release the information requested.

1) BTGuard

Maintains absolutely no logs of any kind. According to their Administration they would have to maintain at least 4TB of information daily to store the logs. The company is in a Canadian jurisdiction, but because they maintain no logs, no information can be shared, either with 3rd parties or governments.

2) Private Internet Access

They also keep no logs of any kind, and instead of using Static, or Dynamic IPs, they use shared IP addresses. This makes it impossible to connect any user to any IP address or time stamp. On their website they also encourage their customers to use anonymous payment forms, like bitcoin, and anonymous emails, to help maintain the anonymity. They are in the US jurisdiction, but have gateways in Canada, the UK, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Their choice of the US jurisdiction was intentional though, as the US requires no data retention. Information is never shared with third parties, unless there is a warrant or court order. In these cases though, there are no logs to surrender.

3) Torrent Privacy

Maintains connection logs, but doesn't keep the IP addresses in them. They only keep these logs for 7 days, and maintain that it's still impossible to find out who has been using their service. Seychelles is their jurisdiction, so a special lawsuit is required to force them to relinquish the logs, though they do have servers in the Netherlands, US, and Sweden.

4) TorGuard

TorGuard maintains logs that are deleted on a daily basis., and say that they can't keep them any longer due to storage capacities that would be required. Since no IPs or timestamps are kept, determining who used the connection at any given time would be impossible. Based in Panama, they have servers in the Netherlands, Ukraine, Panama, and Romania. Information is never shared with any third parties, unless court orders compel them to do so. Even with this requirement satisfied, the lack of logs would comprise a lack of data to satisfy the request.

5) iPredator

They maintain that no IPs are stored, and that few issues have occurred, and that accidental divulgence has never happened. The main jurisdiction is in Sweden, but they intentionally keep the organizational data mixed, which makes it virtually impossible to legally gain access to any kind of data they do not want to divulge.

All of the providers listed above are high quality personal VPN services and seem to take their customers privacy and anonymity very seriously. If there are ever doubts as to the security of data that could possibly be shared with outside sources, the "Terms of Service" should be read slowly and carefully, then reread. Legalese is a language all unto itself, and if not taken in a bit at a time can serve to confuse more than clarify.

Top 5 Reasons to Check Website Security   Why Ignoring IDS Could Lead to Substantial Damage for Businesses