One issue we deal with in serving the small and medium sized business community is the placement of servers and network equipment in server rooms that equate to a wiring closet. In most of these situations, these closets were not originally designed to house electronics. They have been converted from broom closets, coat closets, and in one instance, a server shared …
Is there an Apple Mac battery pack explosion risk from a possible exploit?
Could your Apple Mac Macbook, Macbook Pro or Macbook Air be a ticking timebomb? According to one researcher, yes. An interesting article over on PHYSORG.com states that a researcher with Accuvant Labs will be demonstrating an exploit on current Mac models that could result in a battery pack actually exploding if the vulnerability is leveraged by hackers. It seems that …
Considering Storage, IP Surveillance, Security, Wireless or Switching for your business? Thought about D-Link?
Everyone is familiar with Cisco products, but not everyone may realize there are alternatives which can affect your bottom line drastically while providing an identical feature set and experience. D-Link is a leader in the field and their products can often times go head-to-head with Cisco. D-Link offers: Wireless network equipment, like access points, managed wireless switches for large scale …
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Apple Mac hardware failures… (hard drive, power supply, video card) Why so high?
Here’s a question for you all… Why is the apparent rate of hardware failure higher with Apple Mac products than with Microsoft Windows based products? Homeland Secure IT’s typical client is a Windows based small or medium business, and a little less than 5% of those businesses and individuals have Apple Mac products that we support as well. A larger …
Secure IT Alert: CERT Issues Security Recommendations to Prevent Cyber Intrusions
Homeland Secure IT Alert for Wednesday, July 21st, 2011 The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team has issued their recommendations for protection against network intrusions. I have included the entire document below, but the most current version of the document can be found here. Please keep in mind that these recommendations are not related to any one platform. These are …
Sensitive data on your computers? Get it encrypted… NOW!
The Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System notebook that was stolen from an employee’s car this year has caused concern for many individuals who’s records were contained on that device. (Story Here) What can you do to protect your data from prying eyes in the event your notebook or even a desktop computer is stolen? Easy, you can utilize disk or file …
Secure IT Alert: Windows Critical Updates Address Wireless Bluetooth Attack & More
Homeland Secure IT Alert for Tuesday, July 12, 2011 If you are running any current version of Windows, then Microsoft has something you want, and need. Today’s “Patch Tuesday” brings a correction to a Bluetooth vulnerability that would permit an attacker to gain complete control over your machine. Here’s the rundown from the Watchguard Security Center: Severity: High 12 July, …
Have you received a letter or email from the RIAA? Unsecured access points could cause this…
A friend of our was near tears recently when they received the following email: From: abuse@charter.net <abuse@charter.net> Subject: [xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx] Notice of Copyright Infringement To: user@someaddy.com Date: Saturday, July 22, 2011, 5:51 PM Dear Charter Internet Subscriber: Charter Communications (“Charter”) has been notified by a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, that your Internet account may have been involved in the exchange …
Hacking: The Good, the Bad and the Murky (From IEEE Spectrum)
Over on the IEEE Spectrum site is a neat article on “The Two Faces of Hacking” which was last updated on July 6, 2011 as of this writing and it shows a graph of hacks, which is interactive to allow you to select only the “Good”, “Bad” or “Murky” hacks or any combination. The graph was created to outline the differences …
Data Security: You returned your computer, but where’s your data???? #scary #datasecurity
Recently, Staples Business Depot did the unthinkable, they sold computers that had been returned, and the hard drives contained the previous owner’s private information according to an article on the www.cbc.ca news site which states, “Staples resold laptops with customer data, audit finds“. The article goes on to say that 54 of the 149 computers tested that were ready to …