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How to get DFARS 252.204-7012 compliant and legal

December 31, 2017 is an important date for many in the DoD world. For those with contracts subject to DFARS 252.204-7012 it might feel like an overwhelming and impending date. I am sure this is another heavy responsibility thrown onto your plate with the expectation you get it done.

How to get DFARS 252.204-7012 compliant and legal2023-02-07T07:54:22-08:00

5 warning signs that shadow IT lurks in your company

Here is a blog by our friend Joe Stangarone of mrc's Cup of Joe Blog. He writes about the dangers of shadow aka stealth IT and how to spot it. Shadow IT is basically software and services that enter your company network without your knowledge or permission. Here is his blog....

Summary: A growing trend, “Shadow IT” is a term used to describe IT systems and solutions built and/or used inside organizations without the approval of the IT department. This could include anything from employees emailing spreadsheets back and forth to entire departments licensing third-party, cloud solutions behind IT’s back. The problem: Since Shadow IT usually happens on the sneak, IT departments don’t know where (or how much) it’s happening. Is Shadow IT lurking in your business? Read this article to learn the warning signs. 

 

Like it or not, Shadow IT is probably alive and well in your organization. Recent surveys find that it’s not only growing, it’s far more rampant than business leaders realize.

What can you do about it? In past articles, we’ve explored a few ways to address and reduce risks of Shadow IT. We’ve looked at:

That being said, there’s still a problem: You can’t address Shadow IT if you can’t see it. How do you know whether or not Shadow IT lurks in your company?

 

5 warning signs that shadow IT lurks in your company2024-04-21T19:36:30-07:00

We got your picture even without a microwave

his is a picture laden blog. There might even be a picture of you. We had our Open House on March 9th and I can’t be more proud. Kristian, Sara, Bernice and Teresa did a fantastic job promoting and organizing the event. The office looks great. We beat our attendance target. What surprised me the most was the energy at the event and how long people stayed to network, chat and learn about new stuff.

Here are some fun pictures. Some are a bit sentimental for me.

A sentimental photo, here we have Juan Lopez (a 20+ year veteran of Alvaka Networks), Yvonne Clemens (a 20+ year client of Alvaka Networks), and Rex Frank our first service manager and now an industry icon in what else… service management.

We got your picture even without a microwave2020-04-08T23:06:37-07:00

Alvaka Networks Open House Invitation

Orange County, CA - Alvaka Networks moves to larger headquarters in service expansion driven by security, DFARS/NIST 800-171 and IT uptime and performance management demands The 24x7 world of the internet is driving companies to operate in real time [...]

Alvaka Networks Open House Invitation2023-02-07T07:58:55-08:00

The latest trends in government contracting

Los Angeles, CA - 2017 is going to be highlighted as a banner year for some DoD related contractors, and a sad downturn for others. Why? DFARS 252.204-7012 is going to define new winners and losers in defense contracting. Within [...]

The latest trends in government contracting2019-12-13T12:51:08-08:00

How Top Tech Trends will affect your livelihood

Long Beach, CA - If you have not attended Adaptive Business Leaders annual presentation “Top Tech Trends” you should plan on it next January. This year was another stupendously insightful presentation on what we should expect from technology in the [...]

How Top Tech Trends will affect your livelihood2024-04-21T19:34:17-07:00

Bad Backup, bad bankruptcy

Orange County, CA - Always make sure your backups are in good working order. Here is a story of a company reports to be out of business because they lost 300 GB if their IP and company operations history - GitLab.com melts down after wrong directory deleted, backups fail. The story mentions Gitlabs.com outgrew the cloud and that is why this happened. No, they simply had bad backups and they did not check to make sure they had an ability to recover before doing work on the storage system. Data loss disasters can happen in the cloud, too. So make sure you have your backup operations in order. Disaster can strike in innumerable ways no matter your IT operation model.

Backups need to be constantly examined to make sure they are working. Here is a partial list of questions you should be asking when doing your due diligence:

Bad Backup, bad bankruptcy2017-09-18T00:47:29-07:00

New Year’s Resolutions for IT 2017

Now that you have settled into the New Year it is time to focus on you New Year resolutions for IT or you risk a bad year. It is February 1, 2017 and you now have all the year-end closing of the books, inventory, etc. behind you. Now that your head is cleared up it is time to get more focused on IT.

This blog is a compilation of ideas from Team Alvaka Networks:

1.       Roger Nixon said, Keep moving forward by backing up… the importance of good backups for sustainability of a business when things go wrong. Actually almost everyone at Alvaka said something similar. Roger is right. If you have not recently done a complete review of your back up systems you are at great risk. Ask yourself and test whether –

a.       Is your backup system running? Is the scheduler running backups at the appropriate intervals?

New Year’s Resolutions for IT 20172024-04-21T19:33:36-07:00

What is CEO fraud? c/o KnowBe4.com

Irvine, CA - CEO fraud is a phishing scam in which cybercriminals spoof company email accounts

and impersonate executives to try and fool an employee in accounting or HR into executing unauthorized wire transfers, or sending out confidential tax information.

The FBI calls this type of scam "Business Email Compromise" and defines BEC as “a sophisticated scam targeting businesses working with foreign suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments. The scam is carried out by compromising legitimate business e-mail accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds.”

In the time period from January 2015 to June 2016, the FBI reported a 1300% rise in lossesfrom this type of fraud. Most victims are in the US (all 50 states), but companies in 100 other countries have also reported incidents. While the fraudulent transfers have been sent to 79 countries, most end up in China and Hong Kong. Unless the fraud is spotted within 24 hours, the chances of recovery are small.

Four Attack Methods

Understanding the different attack vectors for this type of crime is key when it comes to prevention. This is how the bad guys do it:

What is CEO fraud? c/o KnowBe4.com2019-11-19T21:29:11-08:00

Auto-fill Phishing Attack – This is scary. You better turn off your browser’s auto-fill feature.

There is interesting breaking news from web developer and hacker Viljami Kuosmanen as reported in The Guardian - Browser autofill used to steal personal details in new phishing attack.

 “The phising attack is brutally simple… when a user fills in information in some simple text boxes, such as name and email address, the autofill system, which is intended to avoid tedious repetition of standard information such as your address, will input other profile-based information into any other text boxes – even when those boxes are not visible on the page.

Disabling Autofill in Web Browsers

Google Chrome

1.       At the top right, click on the Settings icon (represented by three vertical dots)....

Auto-fill Phishing Attack – This is scary. You better turn off your browser’s auto-fill feature.2024-04-21T19:39:44-07:00