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   

Why Should I Only Trust A Website With SSL Encryption?

It seems that the world revolves around the internet these days, with about ninety five percent of daily life somehow relating to computers and internet use in some way. Bank transactions, shopping, family updates, and even wills and trusts can be done online. SSL encryption ensures that secure information is kept safe. The SSL certificate is free to obtain, which means that webmasters and website developers do not risk losing anything in order to have the certificate. If a webmaster or web developer does not have an SSL certificate, they risk losing business, web traffic, and their integrity.

SSL encryption protects sensitive information as it is transmitted on the internet. SSL certificates work by providing a mixing up the words, letters, and numbers entered over a secure connection. Thieves cannot do anything with this information, assuming that they are able to see it in the first place. That means that when a consumer makes an online purchase, an unscrupulous hacker cannot steal their credit card number. SSL certs also protect bank account numbers, addresses, national insurance numbers, and the like Consumers on an SSL protected site know that their information is safe, and that they can browse with confidence. SSL certificates contain two keys. One is private and one is public. A private key will unscramble all information that the public key has scrambled. This is only half of the story.

SSL certs also authenticate both the website and the client. Authentication is crucial. SSL certificates are created for verified businesses and specific domains. These certificates are like having a birth certificate and social security card when applying for an identification card. It ensures that the website is owned by the company that is represented on the website. It is the same as sharing your birth date and with your doctor versus sharing that same information with a complete stranger.

SSL security provides as much piece of mind for the company as it does for the consumer. SSL certificates ensure that a company will not be responsible for contacting clients and informing them that their information has been stolen. It helps a company preserve its reputation and its integrity. It also makes it harder for hackers to steal information by going into company files. It ensures companies that the internet is not only safe for their clients, but that it is safe for the companies themselves. It costs nothing to get an SSL certificate, so there is no risk in adding one to a website. The bigger risk would be in operating, or doing business, on a website without security.

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

How To Reduce The Chances Of Your Website Being Hacked

All types of websites are prone to hacking. Even your own email address is prone to hacking at any point in time. For as long as there is a site that could be hacked and information that could be exploited, your website is never a hundred percent safe. This could very much damage your account as well as your reputation if the hackers have managed to exploit your identity with negative intent. It can be worse if you are running a business and your hacked website starts getting in the way of your sales, operations and reputation management.

This is exactly why you have to at least reduce the risk of your website being hacked. While there is still no known definite way of eliminating hacking, it is just important that you stay on your guard so that chances of your website being affected by it will be lessened.

One way to reduce the risk of your website being hacked is to secure your account. Make sure that you nominate a password that cannot be easily tampered with. It would also be better if you refrain from broadcasting around what your password is. If you can, change your password periodically to avoid predictability. Also, use different passwords in your various online accounts.

Another way of keeping your website safe is to name only a few trusted people as administrators. It may be you and your assistant or your IT personnel. Having only a few people who know how to access your website can minimize the risk of a lot of the others accidentally forgetting safety precautions in terms of website security and eventually putting your account in danger of being hacked.

Finally, it would definitely help you keep your website safe from being hacked if you always monitor activities within it. Spending even a few minutes of your everyday logging in to your site gives you a brief update as to the happenings around it. You would then be able to distinguish if something wrong is happening or if some of your posts are deleted or if there are comments about your content that are unexpected.

All in all, it comes down to preparing your website for any possibility of intruders. Knowing what you are up against would also help so that you can enhance the basic guidelines above. Your online security may seem a minor concern but it is definitely not.

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