The bad guys are real, especially on the Internet. In fact, the bad guys of the Internet are worse than those in real life. At least you can SEE the ones in real life and defend yourself or flee. The baddies of the Internet come into your house, sit on all the furniture, make a mess, and steal your stuff….all while you are in the kitchen hanging out unaware!
No amount of security will stop them from attempting to break in and nothing is foolproof.
Business managers continue to want to justify getting all the "good" out of their capital equipment purchases. Computer equipment should no longer be put in this category. Computers replaced on a 4 year lifecycle will deliver higher productivity for your staff, reduced (or no) downtime, and more overall profit for your business.
The saying, "common sense is not so common" applies to IT security more than we would like to admit. We all have our areas of expertise, but it is now 2021, which means you are participating in IT security whether you like it or not. Here are three common sense ideas you can commit to right now that will make your IT experience more secure.
The idea of people actually setting money on fire is pretty humorous. Watching it happen in real life is less satisfying, wasteful even, so let's stop doing it with our technology spend! A proper technology roadmap will link your spending to business results on an ongoing basis.
Stringfellow Technology Group (“Stringfellow”), based in Nashville, TN, has acquired CTC Networks (“CTC”) based in Franklin, TN. CTC was founded in 1993 and provides managed technology services to the healthcare, manufacturing, and life science industries.
Do you ever wonder how that email address you type in actually gets delivered? Understanding the basics of email delivery will enhance your understanding of how phishing and spam attacks work. This is a bit technical, but worth understanding as an end-user.
Email was not designed with security as a requirement. In fact, all "security" that involves email was bolted on after the fact. Here are four areas that were bolted on that should be part of your secure email basics.
Utilize MFA, for real
We have beat on this drum for over five years now, and people are still not using it.
Imagine driving without lines on the road, speed limits, or the need to have a license. Now you know what using email for business communication is like...complete and utter chaos. Sure, it's better than riding a horse to work or sending a telegram, but the value of using email as a communication tool is decreasing daily.
The remote work shift puts the management of devices, applications, and data front and center in the security discussion. The firewall, local Active Directory, and VPN solutions typically don't scale or take into account the vast number of variables when users want to work from any device at any time.
We covered the basic security options that are available to all M365 plans here. This is the equivalent of locking your doors at night, a good idea, but not enough if you have someone that really wants to get into your house. Unfortunately there is no equivalent of a "safe" neighborhood on the Internet, if you are utilizing email you will eventually be targeted for a break-in!
The biggest attack vector for breaking in is email.