Homeland Secure IT encourages the use of backup solutions to complete your disaster readiness plan. One of our recommendations is to implement remote, cloud based backup. Even if you have existing onsite backup, it gives you an extra layer of protection. We partner with some of the biggest and most trusted names in offsite, cloud based backup providers such as …
The Global Hard Drive Shortage is Becoming an Issue for Computer Repair / Service Businesses
Yesterday I wrote about the hard drive shortage due to the flooding in Thailand (here)… At the time, we were not actually feeling the affects, however, 24hrs later, we sure are! The same terabyte SATA drives which sold for 60 dollars back on October 3rd, are approaching 140 dollars each today, and many vendors have sold out of them. Those …
What does it mean when your ISP changes DNS servers?
I received a phone call from Charter Business earlier today reminding me that they have deployed new DNS servers and that I should adjust my equipment to use them. Fortunately, none of our equipment even looks at name servers other than our own in-house server. But does yours? First, let’s look at what DNS is…. The simple explanation is: DNS …
Which security standards and awareness compliance requirements apply to your organization?
I came across a very handy document from www.securingthehuman.org that explains which security standards and awareness compliance requirements might apply to your organization. It is by no means a complete listing, but gives the one minute run-down of the majority of the biggies…. — Last Updated: 19 July, 2011 1. Executive Summary The purpose of this document is to identify …
mysql.com website hacked and used to serve malware to visitors
In what is becoming way too common, the popular site, mysql.com was exploited, and used to distribute malware by redirecting visitors to another site this week. Anyone browsing to mysql.com yesterday would have been redirected, and without even being prompted, then likely been exploited themselves by the software running on the rogue website which apparently looked for vulnerable browser plugins …
Cisco OnPlus service available now to small & medium businesses
Large businesses have full-time IT staff or fully outsourced IT support that provide monitoring of their infrastructure and keep them up to date and now small & medium (SMB) businesses can have the same level of support when it comes to devices on their network. Cisco OnPlus works by allowing Homeland Secure IT or your Cisco SMB service provider to place …
SSL encryption broken – Proof of concept demo later this week #ph33r
My first reaction to the news that read “Hackers break SSL encryption used by millions of sites – Beware of BEAST decrypting secret PayPal cookies” was, “What took ’em so long?” The article above gives all the details you can stand, and a quick search of Google for news articles will tell you everything else you want to know. The …
Apple’s Mac OS X Lion poses enterprise security risks (this is not a repeat)…
Using Mac’s in your enterprise? You will want to read this article http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/26/mac_osx_lion_security_hole/… This is kind of a big deal, as it underscores that Mac OS X Lion machines simply fail at LDAP, a basic part of enterprise network integration. In short, if you bring these Macs into your environment, once authenticated, they simply don’t care which password is entered, they …
Don’t trust those external portable USB hard drives with your important data!
I’ve posted this before… External, portable, USB hard drives are convenient to store some data on, but dang it, don’t put everything on one and trust that it is forever and always going to be there for you. These devices use 2.5″ hard drives like you would find in a notebook computer, and while there is nothing wrong with those …
Secure IT Alert: Microsoft to unleash a ration of updates in August Patch Tuesday….
Homeland Secure IT Alert for Friday, August 5th, 2011 Tired of boring Tuesdays? Feeling deprived by Microsoft? Well, coming this Patch Tuesday, something to make every Microsoft user smile! Updates! You read that right, Microsoft has updates galore coming your way! They cover every current version of the Microsoft Operating system including the almost forgotten Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, …