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http://newicemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/secured-protective-software.jpg

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- Avoid clicking links which look like gibberish, are sent to you by unknown persons or that seem unusual for the person who sent it.
- Be wary of attachments as they are a popular venue for viruses. Look for common file extensions like .docx, .pptx, .pdf, and .jpg. Even so, be careful, some viruses masquerade as images! god .exe or .com files unless you trust the person intended to send you one of those.

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Disaggregated systems try to unlock the NVMe conundrum

Cloud DR: Key choices in cloud disaster recovery

Chances of success with SAP are only 50-50

Download Current Issue

Email security is a priority for all businesses, with the growing threat of hackers, viruses spam, phishing and identity theft, as well as the need to secure business information.

What are the different ways to secure your email and email users?

Email security is a multi-layered discipline which can involve using several types of security software and security technology.

As well as implementing security packages, good security practices and policies for your staff are also essential in securing your email communications.

Network security systems, that can protect the business as a whole, are also worth considering as these can help to block hackers and identity theft.

What email security settings should you use?

Make sure you use a spam filter, and scan your email attachments. Research has shown that nine out of every ten viruses that infect a computer reach it through an email attachment.

Instant messaging protection and email spyware protection are also available with many security software products, as are personal firewall tools, which come with the operating system and with many security suites.

Identity protection and content blocking can also go some way to help protect the user's desktop, so ensure that these settings are optimised.

Can I encrypt my emails?

Lawyers and accountants are key users of email encryption software, which often comes as a hosted service or plug in module for Microsoft Outlook.

Email encryption technologies exist to protect individual sensitive emails. Software such as OpenPGP allows you to encrypt emails between the sender and recipient, to boost the security of the emails.

Email encryption uses a public key encoding system which has been termed military grade security because it is so hard to compromise.

What email security policies should I have?

Most businesses have trained their staff in the basic email usage rules and best practises, such as not opening emails from unreliable sources or clicking on web links in emails that you can't trust for sure.

However, there are also other good usage policies that can help to secure your email and the business as a whole.

These include such things as using the bcc option with integrity, so that spammers do not get hold of large lists of names. Judicious use of the Forward and Reply All buttons are two other practises that can help to secure business communications.

It goes without saying that email and PC logins should be based on strong passwords, rather than ones that are easy to guess. Passwords should be changed regularly to maintain security, and never shared or displayed indiscreetly.

What security features does Microsoft Exchange Server have?

One of the most popular business email platforms, Microsoft Exchange Server has a number of built-in email protection features.

Among these are anti-spam and antivirus, as well as additional integrated filtering and multi-engine scanning capabilities, deigned to provide advanced protection.

The email platform also has compliance controls, to help firms meet legal and regulatory compliance requirements.

Exchange Server 2007 now has some confidential messaging components which will encrypt internal and Internet-based messages to help protect the confidentiality of those messages in transit.

Email Security Resources

Microsoft Exchange Server
The popular Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 messaging platform has encryption, antvirus and anti-spam security features incorporated into the software.

Microsoft Exchange Hosted Encryption
Microsoft has a hosted Internet-based encryption service for Exchange users. Microsoft Exchange Hosted Encryption provides policy-based encryption from sender to recipient with no end-user training or software installation.

Sophos PureMessage for Microsoft Exchange
Sophos PureMessage for Microsoft Exchange is part of the vendor's email security and data protection line and blocks spam, viruses, spyware and phishing. It scans all inbound, outbound and internal email and Exchange message stores.

Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange
Symantec Mail Security 6.0 for Microsoft Exchange is a high-performance, integrated email security suite, offering protection against virus threats, spam, and security risks while enforcing internal policies on Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003/2007 servers.

Websense Email Security
Websense Email Security provides email protection by blocking inbound and outbound email threats at the network gateway. It also guards against blended threats, offers granular policy control and reporting; and protects confidential data within email and attachments.

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Disaggregated systems try to unlock the NVMe conundrum Cloud DR: Key choices in cloud disaster recovery Chances of success with SAP are only 50-50 Download Current Issue Email security is a priority for all businesses, with the growing threat of hackers, viruses spam, phishing and identity theft, as well as the need to secure business information.

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https://casit.uoregon.edu/faq/security/safe-computing

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- Avoid using excessive Facebook application. Many aplications are fronts for viruses or account hijackers.
- Close suspicious windows and pop-up ads by using Alt-F4 rather than the X button.

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Facebook: Self-XSS, clickjacking and survey scams abound

With so many users, Facebook is a target for scams; it can also expose your personal information far beyond your group of friends.

Users need to remember that Facebook makes money from its advertisers, not users. Since advertisers want to get their message out to as many people as possible, Facebook shares your information to everyone, not just your "friends." And most recently, Facebook's facial recognition technology automatically suggests that friends tag you, unless you turn it off.

Scams on Facebook include cross-site scripting, clickjacking, survey scams and identity theft. One of the scammers' favorite methods of attack of the moment is known as cross-site scripting or "Self-XSS." Facebook messages such as Why are you tagged in this video? and the Facebook Dislike button take you to a webpage that tries to trick you into cutting and pasting a malicious JavaScript code into your browser's address bar. Self-XSS attacks can also run hidden, or obfuscated, JavaScript on your computer allowing for malware installation without your knowledge.

Facebook scams also tap into interest in the news, holiday activities and other topical events to get you to innocently reveal your personal information. Facebook posts such as " create a Royal Wedding guest name" and " In honor of Mother's Day" seem innocuous enough, until you realize that information such as your children's names and birthdates, pet's name and street name now reside permanently on the Internet. Since this information is often used for passwords or password challenge questions, it can lead to identity theft.

Other attacks on Facebook users include " clickjacking" or "likejacking," also known as "UI redressing." This malicious technique tricks web users into revealing confidential information or takes control of their computer when they click on seemingly innocuous webpages. Clickjacking takes the form of embedded code or script that can execute without the user's knowledge. One disguise is a button that appears to perform another function. Clicking the button sends out the attack to your contacts through status updates, which propagates the scam. Scammers try to pique your curiosity with messages like " Baby Born Amazing effects" and " The World Funniest Condom Commercial - LOL". Both clickjacking scams take users to a webpage urging them to watch a video. By viewing the video, it's posted that you "like" the link and it's shared with your friends, spreading it virally across Facebook.

Clickjacking is also often tied to "survey scams" which trick users into installing an application from a spammed link. Cybercriminals take advantage of news topics, such as the Osama bin Laden video scam, which takes you to a fake YouTube site in an effort to get you to complete a survey. Scammers earn commission for each person that completes it. Taking the survey also spreads the scam virally to your Facebook friends.

In theory, new Facebook security features provide protection against scams and spam -but unfortunately they're mainly ineffectual. Self-XSS, clickjacking and survey scams essentially did not exist just a few years ago, but they now appear on Facebook and other social networks on a daily basis.

Our recent social networking poll also asked computer users which social network they felt posed the biggest security risk. Facebook is clearly seen as the biggest risk with 81% of the votes, a significant rise from the 60% who felt Facebook was the riskiest when we first asked the question a year ago. Twitter and MySpace each received 8% of the votes this year, and LinkedIn only 3%.

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Facebook - Social Media Security | Protecting from Security Threats on Social Media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus - Data Threat Detection and Prevention | Sophos Security Topics - Virus, Malware, Web, Antivirus and Social Media Security Trends

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With so many users, Facebook is a target for scams; it can also expose your personal information far beyond your group of friends. Users need to remember that Facebook makes money from its advertisers, not users. Since advertisers want to get their message out to as many people as possible, Facebook shares your information to everyone, not just your "friends."

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https://ist.mit.edu/security/tips

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- Reduce the res of identity theft. Securely remove sensitive date files from hard drive, which is also recommended when recycling repurposing your computer.
- For highly sensitive information, consider encryption. Encryption makes files unreadable by any but the authorized user.

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Sophos security consultant Carole Theriault has some tips for companies who want to better protect their data. Over to you Carole...

Sophos recently surveyed almost 1200 people about how their companies deal with data protection.

The results of the survey, presented at a data security summit hosted by Sophos and data security law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, showed that 36% of respondents were concerned about the additional complexity that could come with data protection legislation, and 16% were worried about the possible associated costs of compliance.

The study also showed that 50% of respondents felt that the laws were not robust enough, while a whopping 87% said that organisations should be forced to publically disclose data breaches (something that many firms could find embarrassing, of course).

So, why do companies care so much about protecting their data? As I see it, there are two principal reasons, both of which lead to financial losses.

First, the kicking a company's reputation takes if a data breach is plastered all over the papers can be seriously painful.

Remember when retail giant TJX (parent company of TK Maxx/TJ Maxx) had details of at least 45.6 million credit cards stolen by hackers? The knock-on effect, of course, hammered at the company's reputation.

The second reason has to do with complying with legislation.

There are an increasing number of laws being passed which puts the onus on the companies to better safeguard their data. The UK's Information Commissioner's office (ICO) was empowered in April this year to impose fines of up to £500,000 (US $763,000) on companies found to have breached its data protection principles.

At the moment, legislation varies from region to region, which makes it difficult for security companies to offer up specific and concrete advice to everyone.

So, you basically need a data protection legal expert to assist you, so you know what you need to do in your specific geography. However, we can give you some general guidelines. These are designed both to make the job of a hacker much more difficult, and to help you protect against accidental data loss.
Ten top tips for protecting sensitive data in your organisation from theft or loss

1. Encrypt all confidential info. Keeping sensitive information inaccessible from prying eyes.

2. Use hard-to-guess passwords. Enforcing good password usage is key to stopping hackers crack into your systems.

3. Keep security software up to date. New malware is being released all the time and spreads at alarming rates. Updating your software automatically is key to defending against the latest threats and vulnerabilities.

4. Danger USB! Unauthorised use of USB storage devices could lead to data being lost from your company. Control usage with security software.

5. Knowledge is power. Find out what your local legislative requirements and review your security strategy to ensure you are compliant. They will be able to advise on what type of technologies, processes, and policies are required by law.

6. Prepare for disaster. Create a plan of action to follow if a severe data breach takes place. Swift reaction can make a huge difference to legal ramifications and corporate reputation.

7. Education is key. Find an engaging way to explain to staff the value of data and talk through the technologies, policies and best practice. Have employees be part of the army safeguarding sensitive data rather than keeping them in the dark.

8. Encourage - rather than punish - employees who report potential data loss or breaches. The information can help you mitigate against costly risks.

9. Don't lock it all down. Employees today need a lot of online freedom to be efficient and effective. Locking everything down will only encourage employees to find nefarious workarounds. Talk to them, find out what they want, and figure out a way to give it them in the safest way possible.

10. Back seat bungles. It's all too easy to leave a laptop or smartphone, containing sensitive information in a taxi or a public place. Data should always be encrypted, but also use a remote wipe facility if devices are lost.

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Ten tips for protecting sensitive data in your organisation

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Sophos security consultant Carole Theriault has some tips for companies who want to better protect their data. Over to you Carole... Sophos recently surveyed almost 1200 people about how their companies deal with data protection.

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- Regular scheduled backups can protect us from anything unexpected. Keep a few months worth of backups and make sure the files can be retrieved if needed.
- Make regular backups of important data to an external hard drive, to your deparments or your own server space or even to CD/DVD or a thumb drive.

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The first rule of the royal society for keeping-your-hard-work-and-data-safe is: Always, always back up. The second rule is "it's not that hard so get off your duff and do it." It's the latter that most of us have issues with. Including myself.

We'll discuss emotional motivation later. (You'll laugh! You'll cry!) First, let's take a walk on the safe side to see how simple it is to back up everything right now- before your inevitable data disaster occurs.

Simple options

Method A: Fork over $50 to $100 a year and back up the data from all your PCs and mobile devices to online storage such as Carbonite, Google Drive, iDrive, iCloud, Mozy, or SkyDrive. Choose the service that supports all (or the largest percentage) of your devices, and use the downloadable app that the service provides to maintain a mirror of your files on your local PC.

Of course, this method works only if you have regular access to enough upstream bandwidth to handle all your essential data.

Method B: Consolidate the data from your mobile devices onto your primary computer. Buy the fastest, most capacious external hard drive you can afford-two, if possible. Use the Windows built-in app (the File Recovery tool in Windows 7, or the File History tool in Windows 8) to create a system image and a recovery CD/flash drive. Subsequently, use Windows Backup to back up your important data daily, weekly, or monthly to the hard drive. Create a backup of your backups to an online service if practical.

Using Method A, Method B, or a combination of both will protect 99 percent of PCs 99 percent of the time, though it's worth noting that local backups restore far more quickly.

You can stop reading now-unless, of course, you're a seeker of the perfect backup plan, or you want some practical advice. In that case, keep going.

The platinum rule

It doesn't get any more basic in backup than the rule of three. To lower the risk of data loss to the freak-karmic-event level, you must have three copies of your important data: the original, a backup of the original, and a backup of the backup. The secondary and tertiary copies should be in different locations: Ideally, keep one on premises (local) for swift restores and recovery, and keep one off-site where it isn't subject to the same physical threats (lightning, flood, theft, and the like). Remember that the rule of three is a practical minimum-an extra copy here and there won't hurt.

The classic example of a trinity backup is the aforementioned Method B: the original data on your PC or laptop, the first backup on an external hard drive that's disconnected and stored safely when not in use, and a third copy safely harbored at an online storage service.

The more modern version is Method A, which assumes that the online service you use is properly backed up in multiple geographical locations. That should give you your three copies, but for the sake of paranoia-with a nod to corporate short-sightedness-we'll assume the third copy is on your local computer and maintained by the online service's app.

What to back up

Before you can know how you should best back up, you must know what you need to back up. The choice is ultimately yours, but I recommend protecting anything you might want or require later that you can't re-create: electronic documents (tax stuff, business stuff, any hard copies you've scanned and discarded), artistic creations, memorabilia (photos, videos, your old band recordings), or pretty much anything whose loss would evoke extreme negative emotions. Wondering about your downloaded movies, music, and other purchased media? You can always download those items again later, though if you're ambitious enough you can back them up as well. I don't bother. Note that If your data is spread over multiple devices, you'll need to consolidate it. More on that later.

Though not strictly necessary, it is especially convenient to have a complete backup of your desktop or laptop (ideally with your mobile-device data on board), as described in Method B. It's by far the quickest and easiest way to restore your operating system, applications, and data, should your system succumb to hard-drive failure or a malware attack. This procedure is referred to as disaster recovery, and it requires a boot disc/flash drive created by the backup/recovery software. Without a disaster-recovery backup, you'll wind up restoring the operating system and applications individually from scratch.

Where to back it up

This is an easy one. I'm going out on a limb here and guessing that you don't have a tape backup drive. You may not even have an optical drive. If you do, there's nothing wrong with keeping a backup or two on disc, but that's your concern. I think old technology that slows down the process stifles motivation.

If your broadband connection has enough upstream bandwidth, back up to an online file-hosting service. Using such a service is pay-to-play, but costs a fraction of what it costs to recover data from a failed hard drive. It's also ridiculously easy-you just set it and forget it.

Obviously, many people don't have sufficient upstream bandwidth, or a data set small enough to make the online option viable as a complete solution. In that case, reduce your backup set (what you select to back up-don't remove the data itself) to the bare minimum, keep it online, and then back up the rest locally using storage drives you attach to your computer or network.

ROBERT CARDIN
NAS boxes such as the Western Digital My Book Live are great for storing your backups remotely.

For local backups, use an external USB 3.0/eSATA/FireWire/Thunderbolt drive, or if the data set is small, use a USB 3.0 flash drive, also known as a thumb drive. Use two drives and alternate between them if you don't plan to back up online, or ideally, even if you do. With hard-drive space costing about 5 cents a gigabyte, and flash costing about 60 cents per gigabyte currently, you can afford it. Don't use USB 2.0 unless you have to: It's slow-and once again, older technology demotivates.

Alternatively, you could use a network-attached storage box. Gigabit ethernet is as fast as USB 3.0, and a NAS box lets you back up multiple computers on a network without having to drag a box from location to location. Most NAS boxes support rsync, which allows you to mirror one to another in a remote location (such as your aunt's house)-a possible alternative to online backup.

How to back it up

Ah, the nitty-gritty. Here's how to back up once you have your backup repository (a hard drive or other device) and/or service in place.

First, select your disaster-recovery and backup software. Windows 7 and 8 both offer integrated applications that can create complete system-recovery images, though in Windows 8 it's somewhat hidden under Control Panel > All Items > Windows 7 File Recovery. Alas, the restore routine isn't particularly robust, and it can fail with as simple a change in hardware as replacing your hard drive with a smaller solid-state drive. In this case, you can still have the PC mount the system image as a virtual hard drive, but only after reinstalling the operating system manually. A surer bet is to use a third-party tool, such as Acronis True Image or R-Drive Image, that isn't as fragile when it comes to restoring to different hardware.

Once you decide on the software, the basic procedure is as follows:

1. Run the software.

2. Select the destination for the system backup. This will be the external drive you purchased as a backup repository, a NAS box, or even a shared location on another PC.

3. Select the partitions (C:, D:, or the like) that you want to back up. You should select all of them the first time around, excluding the destination drive for the backup. (Most backup software prevents you from selecting the destination partition/drive.)

4. Run the backup process.

5. When the process is finished, put the backup media in a safe place (if applicable).

6. Create your recovery media (CD/DVD/thumb drive).

For backing up just your data, Windows has its own capable backup application, but you can find dozens of backup programs that are easier or more versatile, including notables such as Acronis Backup & Recovery and True Image, Easeus Todo Backup, Genie Timeline Backup, and NovaBackup. If you're using an online service, the service will provide a backup application. Most of the time it'll create a local backup on your external hard drive at the same time it backs up online.

If you want something more along the lines of Apple's elegant and easy-to-use Time Machine (which combines full system backup with data backup), Genie Timeline may be what you seek. You'll also find continuous backup products, such as Stardock's KeepSafe, which perform a full data backup (no OS or applications) and then look for and back up changed files at short intervals (such as every 5 minutes). If your data set changes quickly (or if you don't like scheduling backups), you can opt for real-time backup. NTI's Shadow, for instance, performs a full backup, after which it hooks to the operating system and saves files as they change.

After you've installed your software, follow these steps:

1. Run the software.

2. Select the files and folders you want to back up.

3. Select the destination for the system backup. This will be the external drive you purchased as a backup repository, a NAS box, a shared location on another PC, and/or your online backup service.

4. Run the backup process. (Make a full backup of all your data the first time.)

5. Verify the backup.

6. When the backup process is finished, put the backup media in a safe place (if applicable).

7. Repeat as necessary-daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on how often things change and how risk-averse you are.

Tip: After your initial full backup, perform incremental backups (backing up only the changes since the last backup) or differential backups (backing up all changed files since the initial full backup) to save time. Start over with a new full backup once a week if you're backing up daily, once a month if you're backing up weekly, or once every four to six months if you're backing up monthly. Note: Never, ever delete the old backup until the new one is finished.

Step 7 and the tip above describe what are affectionately known as backup methodologies. There are far more complex ones, but complexity, like slow technology, demotivates. (Unless, of course, you're being paid a lot to back up something. I'm guessing you're not, if you're reading this primer.)

Getting the data off your devices

Although free online backup and storage space is available for each major mobile platform (5GB for iOS/iCloud, 15GB for Android/Google Drive, 7GB for Windows Phone/SkyDrive), centralizing the data from all your devices can be a tad more complicated. With Google Drive and SkyDrive, you get local copies of your files on your PC if you install their respective apps. Just add those files to your list of locations to back up, and you're golden. Or, you can simply copy stuff over from the appropriate folder when the device is attached to your PC via USB.

The same is true with iOS, to a point. Apple's implementation of iCloud is currently, let's just say, different. Depending on the app involved, you may need to sync its data or docs using iTunes, or you might have to use whatever online storage option the app employs (Dropbox is common) and then copy the items onto your PC from there.

Consolidating data for imaging

Some users (including yours truly) prefer backing up to image files, largely because it's easy to mount such files as virtual hard drives for simple browsing and recovery. However, to make this approach feasible, you need to consolidate all the data to be backed up onto one dedicated partition-say, "D:" for "Data."

You can redirect all the "My" folders (My Documents, My Photos, My Videos, and so on) to this partition. Quite often, you can also redirect individual programs that normally store information in the hidden Users\ Username\AppData folder. Of course, there's always some piece of software that won't play nice: Google Drive and SkyDrive folders, as well as iTunes backups of your iOS devices, can't be relocated. Someday.

The promised motivational speech

Due to its high incidence of profanity, I can't link you to the most famous lost-data support call in history. But I can summarize: A user sent in a laptop to have a motherboard replaced, and the company replaced the hard drive. With no backup of what was apparently a two-year project, the user goes on one of the greatest answering-machine tirades in history. I've never found out whether the user got the hard drive back or whether the drive had failed.

How would you feel if your Great American Novel disappeared, or if your wedding video or pictures of lost relatives vanished? Your term paper? Your tax data when the IRS comes calling? Use your imagination and channel whatever sense of dread you possess for motivation. Back up. Now. Yes, now.

Really. Now.

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The absurdly simple guide to backing up your PC

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The first rule of the royal society for keeping-your-hard-work-and-data-safe is: Always, always back up. The second rule is "it's not that hard so get off your duff and do it." It's the latter that most of us have issues with. Including myself. We'll discuss emotional motivation later. (You'll laugh! You'll cry!)

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- Strong passwords use a combination of letter, numbers, and special characters. Create a different password for each important account and change passwords regularly.
- Use Keepass, which manages all your passwords so you can save them and avoid entering them all the time.

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4 Ways to Create a Secure Password - wikiHow

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How to Create a Secure Password. For almost every account that you make online, you are required to make a secure password. Choosing one that's difficult for others to figure out requires the creation of unlikely letter and number...

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- When installed, the software should be set to scan your files and update your virus definition on a regular basis.
- Keep your anti-virus suite up-to-date so it can catch the latest viruses and malware.