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What 12 Security Things Should I Focus on to Be Defensible in 2016?
Here is a sneak-peek and what is likely my most important blog for the upcoming New Year. This is just a partial teaser....
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Irvine, CA - I was recently asked by a roundtable of CEOs to advise them on network security. They had a lot of questions and a lot of misinformation. I was surprised as this was a group of technology company CEOs and what I quickly found out is that they did not know much more than my non-tech company CEO clients. From that discussion they asked me to come back and present to them a short list of actions they should take in 2016 to better secure their systems. Initially I wanted to present them with a list of 10 things they should focus upon. For anyone that knows, it is easy to create a list of 100 things that should be done to secure a system. However, I decided in order to make the list actionable and not overwhelming I needed to focus on the 10 things I have seen in the past year or two that have caused the most real-life grief for our new and existing clients. I wanted to keep the list to 10 items, but I had to fudge a bit and expand to 12 core items. Then I added three bonus items for those who are over-achievers and another three for those in regulated businesses like healthcare, financial services and Sarbanes-Oxley.
This list is not complete nor absolute. It is a list I have created largely in order of my perceived importance based upon the real-life hacks, breaches and other maladies related to failures of network security to keep the bad guys out. You will need to assess the requirements that are appropriate for your firm. If you are looking for a good place to start, I offer up my suggestions below.
1. You need to do a vulnerability assessment or security assessment. It is impossible for you to know what actions you should take to properly secure your systems without first doing an assessment. Assessments are common practice at many firms, yet completely ignored at others. It is fairly easy for you to order a vulnerability assessment and the best part is that it takes very little time and participation from you and your IT staff. The cost for this service ranges from a few thousand dollars for a very small firm to several tens-of-thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for larger enterprises. These should be done at least once per year just like your financial audit.
2. Patching for Software Security Updates is perhaps one of the most overlooked and under-rated security measures you can implement to better secure your systems. I maintain that good software patching measures are in some ways more important than your firewall. A firewall is a formidable device that once it gets set-up has a number of ports opened up so that your firm can transact business. That is where it gets weak. Through these legitimately opened ports attackers will send nasty payloads that compromise your system, often without you knowing. Imagine a hardened castle all buttoned up, but the draw bridge must be opened in order to conduct commerce. Through that legitimately opened bridge come the sneak attacks, the scammers, crooks, mischievous and spies....
David Geer asks, "Did Microsoft shove Windows 10 down people’s throats?"
Irvine, CA, - Here is an article on Windows 10 in which I contributed to the efforts of David Geer of CSO Magazine. While I am a happier user of Windows 10 then Windows 8 [...]
You’re the Non-technical Boss with Responsibility for the Network…
How do you know your most important functions of your network are working? How do you manage technical people whose work you don’t fully understand? This week I have seven simple questions to ask and I provide you some tips on what answers you should expect.
Backup and Disaster Recovery is one of the most important functions in Information Technology management to assure the future viability of your firm. But backup and DR is a function you don’t really know is working until you really need it and that is not the time to find out it is not working as planned. My recommendation is that you bring this topic up in your next meeting with your IT team. Here are the questions I suggest you ask:
1. How is our backup system running? (Let your IT person talk. Be patient and don’t interrupt. Let them tell you all they can.)
2. Are we getting any error messages from the backups? (Error messages are not....
A Revelation that Leads to a Revolution
This morning on the way to the office I was listening to Bill Handel’s broadcast on KFI640 AM. This morning he did another one of his Success from Scratch segments that feature somebody that created success from nearly nothing. They are always good stories.
This morning’s story was an exception beyond compare. I don’t normally share stories that I find touching and inspiring as I feel like they are just “feel good” stories that while interesting it is not necessarily worthy of the time of others. But this morning was different.
The story is of Richard Montanez, the son of a
Google to Offer Irvine, California Residents with Blazing-Fast Broadband Speed
If you didn’t ready know, Alvaka Networks is located in Irvine, California. Irvine is known for their tech industry and is the 3rd largest city in Orange County with a population that is skyrocketing. This may be why Google has decided to expand their fiber broadband service in one of the fastest growing tech hubs. As of now, this gigabit service will only be available to residential customers. So what does this mean for the competition such as AT&T, Time Warner and Cox communication who have been slow to offer high-speed options at affordable prices? The average broadband speed across the U.S. is just under 12 megabits per second. Google Fiber’s network offers basic monthly Internet for $70 per month, or Internet and television for $130 monthly.
BlueCross BlueShield Announces August 5th Data Breach Discovery
Tustin, CA - The most interesting part of this BlueCross BlueShield announcement is not that they found the breach on August 5th. What is interesting when you read further into the announcement is that they [...]
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