Small And Medium Businesses Are Not As Safe As They Think

Network Security is extremely important in this age of digital technology.  Companies such as Sony and Google, two HUGE companies with some of the best technical people in the world, have been hacked.  That has to say a lot.  If a company like Google or Sony can be hacked, why can't a smaller company be infiltrated?

Many small and medium size businesses think they are safe because of their size.  They feel that hackers and people with malicious intent will not want to harm them, because there are bigger fish to fry.  In fact, this is most likely the opposite.  Small and medium size companies are targeted primarily because they think they won't be. They put basic security on their network, don't lock down their wireless, and usually forget about it.  That's when the hackers strike.

Because people know that these businesses don't worry to much about their security, they are targeted.  People are easily able to infiltrate their firewalls, obtain customer or employee information, release a virus or a trojan, and then get away with it, usually without being caught.  This is a huge problem for companies who cannot afford to fix their network if they are infiltrated?

So, what needs to happen?

Companies should always have a high level of security no matter the size of their business.  Next Generation Firewalls from Palo Alto Networks, or Network Security solutions from TAG, is a great way to protect your company and assets.  These products and services are not extremely high priced, and can give you the peace of mind that your network, and the people using it, are secure.

To learn more about network security solutions, join MAC Source on October 11th at 11am eastern time and view our Network Security webinar to learn about the solutions we offer, and find weak links within your netowork.

You can sign up by clicking here.

Prevent Identity Theft and Your Company's Reputation by Filling in the Holes Before They are Found

by Matthew Frank - Inside Sales Representative at MAC Source Communications

I'm no Internet security expert and I don't claim to be one.  I can't hack a website, break into a bank account or send someone a malicious code through e-mail that will let me take over someone's computer.  But, I have "acquired" people's passwords before.  It's fairly simple.

I discovered a while back that it's not that hard to do it in online games.  I found out that people used their game account password for the trading room password.  I would try out the password on their account and see if I could log into it (it would knock them off the game).  About 1 in 20 worked.  I got into people's accounts and took their items.  I must of repeated this at least a dozen times in a period of 3 months.  Then I got bored and stopped playing.  That was it.  That was my extent of "acquiring" someone's password.

Unfortunately in this day and age, people tend to go much deeper than online games (and guessing people's passwords).  Examples like Wikileaks, AT&T, and Citibank all come to mind.  These global companies, these multi-billion dollar companies are being hacked and information much more important than a sword or ring from a game are being taken.  People's identities are being stolen.  There livelihoods are being destroyed and someone is making off with a lot of money.

So, what do you do?  Do you restrict your employees from going to any websites that could potentially be harmful?  Do you block all outside communication on your network?  How about telling employees that they cannot even sign onto a website such as linkedin.com which is made for the workplace.  Many companies require their employees to make passwords with letters, #'s, and symbols.  I will tell you from personal experience, that the human brain can only remember so many combinations.  I have had to reset my password for my direct deposit at least 8 times in a month in a half before finding one I could actually remember.

Yes, I will agree that by locking down websites, blocking people having outside communication on the network, and making employees choose there password by using so many different types of characters that their head explodes is a great way to protect everyone, but it keeps down employee moral, and unhappy employees are less productive.  In fact, it's been proven that employees that are given more freedom at work, are happier, more productive, and their caliber of work is much higher.

What should be done is find the right solution.  Get a Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) from a company like Palo Alto Networks.  It allows you to monitor what your employees are doing, how long they are on a website or application for and tweak the security protocols.  In fact, you can actually give someone access to Facebook without them playing games.  Let the marketing have access to posts and responses from customers and clients, but block the games.  Don't want outside people using your network?  Great!  Block them, or limit what they use.  Isn't technology great?  Only a few years ago you could either block or unblock Facebook.  It was Black or White.  Now there are a number of shades of Gray.

There are companies, like TAG Solutions, that will do something called "Social Engineering".  Basically, TAG will try to get into your company and find human error.  They may pretend to be an employee, or some worker (mailman, repair man, delivery person, etc...).  Then they go in and try to get sensitive information.  This shows vulnerability in the company they infiltrate.  They will find the holes in a company's security.

They will do security and awareness training, vulnerability management, risk management, penetration tests, and much more.  TAG will find the security loopholes in your company (because every company has security holes), and make suggestions to fix them.  If you wan't, they will even go so far as to actually patch up the holes rather than just suggesting remedies.

Both of these solutions will help companies prevent identity theft of their customers and employees, help protect against theft of passwords and valuable information, and in the long run, save companies money.  Because, in the end, what costs more: patching up holes before they are found or fixing your company's reputation once you are infiltrated?  I would go with option one.

If you want more information on these solutions visit our website at www.macsoureinc.com or contact Liz Rizzo at erizzo@macsourceinc.com

Cybercrime claims 1 million victims a day

By MSN Money partner on Thu, Sep 8, 2011 11:27 AM

In the US alone, more than 74 million people were victims of some form of cybercrime last year, leading to $32 billion in direct financial losses.

This post comes from Jeanine Skowronski at partner site MainStreet.

Americans have gotten all too familiar with cybercrime during the past year, following large-scale data breaches at Citibank, Sony and Epsilon, but the problem may still be worse than you think.

According to a report from antivirus software manufacturer Norton, global cybercrime has claimed 431 million adult victims in the past year, costing countries $114 billion in direct financial losses. That figure jumps to $388 billion when you factor in the value that victims place on the time they spent recouping the losses.

Last year, in the U.S. specifically, more than 74 million people were victims of some form of cybercrime, leading to $32 billion in direct financial losses.

After extrapolating survey results, Norton found that every second, 14 adults worldwide are victimized by online fraudsters, which is more than 1 million people every day.

Examples of cybercrime include emailed viruses and malware (still the most prevalent offense with 54% of respondents saying they have experienced this type of fraud), online scams (11%) and phising messages (10%), which attempt to obtain personal information through deceptive links in emails. The figures are based on surveys of 19,636 people in 24 countries.


Norton says those types of online scams have become more prevalent partially due to growing popularity of smartphones, which offer another digital platform for fraudsters to exploit.


The company cites in its report that, when looking at global estimates, cybercrime costs world governments more than the marijuana, cocaine and heroin black markets combined. Based on stats from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, those illicit trades cost $141.1 billion, $85 billion and $61 billion, respectively, for a total of $288 billion.


We did some digging and found that cybercrime losses more than surpass some countries' entire GDP, such as Iceland ($11.82 billion), Malta ($10.41 billion) and Barbados ($6.23 billion). It also dwarves productivity losses due to insomnia ($63.2 billion), long-term care obligations ($33.6 billion) and March Madness ($1.8 billion), though having that money back would do little to solve the country's astronomical debt problem.


For link to original article click here


Want to protect your company from security breaches?  Contact Matthew Frank at mfrank@macsourceinc.com or Liz Rizzo at erizzo@macsourceinc.com for more information.


Visit us at www.macsourceinc.com

How to Protect Your Business In the Age of Technology

by Matthew Frank - Inside Sales Rep at MAC Source Communications

If you have ever watched the movie "Catch Me If You Can" you know that it was fairly easy for Leonardo DiCaprio's character to become someone else and steal millions of dollars from companies.  He was able to print his own paychecks, make new ID's, and then when all is said and done, he was able to disappear.  This all took place in the 1960s, before personal computers, before cell phones, before social media.  And the guy was less than 19 years old.  Oh, the movie was based on true events.

Now, its 2011, and we have things like personal computers, iPads, Cellphones, and Social Media.  In fact, we have so much technology, that people are constantly exposed.  What does this mean?  It means that people are just as exposed, if not more exposed than in the 1960's.

To combat this, you have a few options.  You can lock down all your electronics.  Password protect and encrypt every device you have and even then that doesn't give you 100% protection.  You can never go on the Internet again (although, lets be realistic, I would be crying after about 2 hours), or you can be smart about your technology.

The first thing to do is to look at your business and say "Am I properly protected?"  Do you have all your security features in place?  Is the wifi at your company secure?  Is your firewall setup properly?  Do you monitor everything your employees do online to make sure there is no malicious software coming through and people are being productive?  What about guest access to your wireless network?  Do guests have the ability to go on your network without having the ability to get into the private information on there?  Think about these questions for 2 minutes.  Good, now here are two solutions.

Next Generation Firewall:

Most companies have firewalls that block everything coming through a specific port.  The problem with this, is that it blocks things that are both good and bad.  Who wants to block the good?  Facebook for instance, is a great tool to use for marketing, but most companies can only turn it on or off.  They can't choose what features they want on, or what they want blocked.

With the Next Generation Firewall from Palo Alto Networks, you can control what applications and content come through on your network.  That means, that you can allow Facebook, but limit it.  Block games, but give employees the ability to read their messages.  Stop them from posting pictures (especially if you have sensitive information in your company that cannot be leaked) but allow them to post status updates or update the company page.  What about monitoring what sites employees are on?  Don't have time right?  Well, this firewall is a great device, in that it can generate reports for you in a nice and clean format so that you can see what is coming through your firewall.  You can see who is viewing something, what they are viewing, and how long they are viewing it for.  It also gives you graphs and tables, because lets face it, to many words can turn anyone away.

Social Media:

The second way to protect your company is by understanding how people get information.  Facebook is a staple in most people's lives.  The problem is that most people keep it open for anyone to see, and lets be honest here, will friend anyone.  To understand how people get information off Facebook and use it for bad intentions, you need to understand how to do it yourself.  On Tuesday September 13th, 2011, join MAC Source Communications and Information Security Expert and Penetration Tester, Steve Stasiukonis, to learn "How to Rob a Bank With Facebook."  Steve will explain how white collar criminals leverage the use of common people, processes and technologies to infiltrate the internal workings of your network. He will share his real world experiences on how he and his company used these techniques to breach the networks of numerous banks and other financial institutions.  This is a Webinar, so you don't even need to leave your office.

For more information on both ways to protect your business visit www.macsourceinc.com

Also, you can contact me at 585-368-2101 or Elizabeth Rizzo at 518-694-3904 for more information.

Juniper Networks Earns Back-to-Back Win and Receives Top Honors from Solution Providers for Superior Products, Support and Channel Partnership

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 30, 2011 — Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) today proudly announced it has earned the 2011 CRN Annual Report Card (ARC) "Company of the Year," sweeping the entire Enterprise Networking Infrastructure category. The coveted award marks the second year in a row Juniper Networks has won the ARC in this highly competitive category.

"This back-to-back win and sweep of the entire enterprise networking category offers a great testimony to the disruptive leadership, technical innovation and channel partnership that differentiates Juniper Networks from our competitors and helps us drive even greater business value for our channel partners worldwide," says Juniper Networks' Senior Vice President of Worldwide Partners Emilio Umeoka.

Umeoka and Juniper Networks Americas Partner Chief Frank Vitagliano accepted the honor at the 2011 XChange Americas Conference earlier this month in Denver, CO.

"This is a great win and a significant endorsement of the value, trust and respect Juniper Networks has earned within the Americas channel partner base and worldwide," says Vitagliano. "From breaking into the switching market four years ago with the Juniper Networks® EX Series, to the recent announcement of our QFabric data center solution, Juniper Networks continues to deliver the disruptive innovation channel partners need to meet the dynamic business and technology demands of the enterprise. These are exciting and defining times in Juniper Networks' history and we want to thank our channel partners for their continued advocacy and adoption of the new network."

Recognized as one of the IT channel's top honors, the CRN ARC serves as a definitive benchmark of relationships between vendors and their channel partners. The 2011 Everything Channel ARC research team surveyed more than 3,600 solution providers across 21 categories to evaluate their satisfaction with vendors' products, support and channel programs. The results serve as an industry standard for measuring excellence within the channel community.

"When it comes to the strength of relationships, quality of products and return on partner programs, solution providers want to hear from their fellow VARs about the IT vendors that consistently exceed expectations," said Kelley Damore, vice president, editorial director, Everything Channel. "The ARC gives solution providers the opportunity to share feedback and recognize the vendors who truly demonstrate channel excellence. We congratulate Juniper Networks for being recognized as the best of the best in the category of Enterprise Networking Infrastructure."

To view a slideshow of all the organizations named to the 2011 ARC visit www.crn.com.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks is in the business of network innovation. From devices to data centers, from consumers to cloud providers, Juniper Networks delivers the software, silicon and systems that transform the experience and economics of networking. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net).

Juniper Networks and Junos are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. The Juniper Networks and Junos logos are trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.

Need products from Juniper Networks?  Contact Matthew Frank at mfrank@macsourceinc.com or Elizabeth Rizzo at erizzo@macsourceinc.com

You can even check out MAC Source inc. at http://www.macsourceinc.com/

Why Spending Money On A New Communications System Can Save Your Company Money And Keep Your Customers Happy.

by Matthew Frank - Inside Sales Rep at MAC Source Communications

Old phone systems are the worst to deal with.  I call people all day to try and sell them new products such as next generation firewalls, video conferencing equipment, wireless routers or access points and even new phone systems.  When I call into a company and I hear a phone system that is more than 5 years old, it annoys, angers and frustrates me all at the same time.  This is because most companies don't think about this simple peice of communication that to be honest, can help you gain or lost customers in a blink of an eye.

If you have an older phone system for your business, think how it affects you and your customers.  A customer calls in, hears a recording, and is stuck in directory hell.  They have to go through 6 or 7 prompts before they can get to a secretary or somone who answers for them.  Its annoying, frustrating, and can cause the customer to hang up and not want to call back.  Now, your probably thinking "well my company has online support 24/7 and we have e-mail support as well, so its not a big deal."  Actually it is.  How many people actually use the online support or e-mail?  Honestly.  And Trust me, I have used live online support through multiple companies, and I find it to be less helpful at times.

Many people, such as my parents who are not particularly tech savvy (mom if you are reading this, its true, and dad, if you are reading this, when did you learn to use the computer?) are used to picking up the phone and calling into companies.  They don't want to e-mail or use live tech support.  They don't care about how many live support reps you have online or that you will get back to them in 24-48 hours.  The phone is instant, and they want to talk to someone live and hear a voice.  Being stuck in directory hell is not fun for them, and I've seen them and their friends more then once return a product and buy a competitors because it was easier to get through to that other company.

Basically, what I am saying is, if you have an older system, upgrade it.  It may seem like its a big expense, but in reality, its a one time thing every few years.  If you think about it, the cost to upgrade your system is a lot less then losing customers to another competitor because of a simple phone directory or older system where you can't get through to someone.

Let MAC Source Communications help you by attending our Avaya/Nortel seminar (and yes, you can attend even if you don't use Avaya or Nortel).  Click here to sign up.

You can reach me at 585-368-2101 for more information about our events and products we offer.

Identity Theft. The Ease of Becoming Someone Else

by Matthew Frank - Inside Sales rep at MAC Source Communications

I'm not actually telling you how to do the stuff in the title, it's more of a way to grab your attention. 

I called up my phone cable company a while back and figured out how easy it was to change the agreement we had in terms of service and channels.  I didn't have my account # so they asked me to verify my birthday and the last 4 digits of my social security #.  Not my whole social security # but the last 4 digits.  To me, this is not safe, let me tell you why.

First off, anyone can go on Facebook, Twitter, or even my Linkedin account and see when my birthday is.  In fact, I make it publicly broadcasted (I guess I like all the "HAPPY BIRTHDAYS" I get on that day).  Secondly, most places you go to, or things you sign that ask for your soocial security # only ask for the last 4.  It's really easy to get it.  All you would need to do is get my birthday, year I graduated from my college, and my mother's maiden name, and you could get my transcript for my college (which has my college ID on it and that allows me to reset your password to my college account).  Then you have all my personal information including either my full social security # or at least the last 4 digits.  It's that simple.

I have a friend who, in the past couple of years has been fighting identity theft.  Someone opened up a credit card in his name and ran the bill up, then left him to be stuck with it.  When he called to dispute it, the credit card companies told him it was his card.  They told him, he signed up for it, he ran the bill up, and they weren't going to help him.  He was stuck with a $6,000.00 bill he couldn't pay.  That destroyed his credit to the point where he needed a cosigner to sign for his apt when he was clearly making triple the income he needed to be making to sign it.

Identity theft is real.  The best way to stop them, is to think like them.

Join MAC Source Communications and Information Security Expert and Penetration Tester Steve Stasiukonis on September 13th from 11:00-11:45 am to learn how to "Rob A Bank With Facebook" and protect your business from people with malicious intent.

You can sign up by clicking here