Northeast Region

According to a Reuters article 1 in 3 IT staff have snooped on colleagues email, or other electronic data. Surprisingly over 40% of those IT staff polled stated that they had peeked at confidential data to include emails that was not part of their professional role.

As I read the article further, one item struck me as a worthy note that IT personnel should consider. IT professionals that leave an organization maintain knowledge of sensitive passwords. Hence someone that has left your organization could potentially be looking back into your network, even after they have left employment. According to this article less than 9% of organizations ever change critical system passwords, thus exposing a potentially serious security risk.

So something to consider is to revisit your schools technology security plan, and insure that your critical passwords are secure. Some commonly overlooked areas of security neglect include wireless routers, server passwords, and other network items that still have a default password that was setup by the manufacturer—and has never been changed by you (the user).

I myself was reminded of the importance of wireless security a few weeks ago as I noticed my home wireless network dragging. I initially thought my wireless router was failing, but upon logging into my routers admin configuration area I noticed an IP not approved by me to be on my network. Yes, I did have it encrypted with WPA-PSK but someone still managed to gain access to my network. As I pondered what steps to take, I remembered that I had never changed the default password to gain access to my routers admin area. So anyone picking up my SSID broadcast with the right tools could crack my wireless connection. To solve my problem I enabled MAC address filtering, changed my wireless admin password, and my network now runs smoothly.

If you’d like to read the IT Reuters article click here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25263009/

Posted by Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez at 11:25 AM | Permalink-1109 | Comments for IT Snooping? (0)

Are you a heavy Internet User? Someone who has a plethora of gadgets at home that utilize the Internet, such as Xbox 360, PS3, Skype, Vonage, and or Media streaming boxes. If so Internet Service Providers are moving towards setting Internet usage limits on subscribers. Just like standard home service utilities, such as water, gas, or cable, ISP’s are going to start charging for the amount of Internet you use. Yes, it has come down to charging for the bandwidth that a person uses at home.

Why would ISP’s start to initiate a limit on Internet usage you might ask? Simple, like other utilities that we all pay for, certain people use more of a service than others. You might be a person that only uses the web to browse sites, occasionally share photos with family, or upload documents to a website you’re taking an online class through—and so your usage is somewhat normal.

On the other hand there are folks who download videos, music, play online video games, and or utilize a larger part of the Internet portal than Joe Normal. Thus, coming to our mailboxes soon will be packages of Internet usage that will breakdown how much juice we get in our Internet connection. Individuals wishing to buy more Internet bandwidth will have to pay more, and will also pay more when they go over their allocated space.

If you would like to read the whole article click the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/technology/15cable.html?ref=technology

Posted by Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez at 9:25 AM | Permalink-1108 | Comments for Are you a heavy Internet User? (0)

According to a recent article by the Associated Press the Internet is becoming increasingly a dangerous place to surf. The web surfing threat has increased in recent years due to infected domains created in foreign countries, where Internet domains are created easily without much regulation.

The Internet Security Software Company McAfee conducted a study recently that determined that domain names with the .hk for Hong Kong, .cn for China, and .info for Information posed the most serious threats to Internet users.

The danger that one faces when browsing in sites with the aforementioned domain clusters is that those sites are more apt to contain malicious code that can infect your computer and launch attacks on other computers. Also, these sites are littered with viruses, or Trojan’s that can create a backdoor on your computer that would allow someone to glean your computer for critical information such as your bank account information, social security number, or other information useful to identity thieves.

In order to insure that your computer’s are secure it is very important to insure that your Internet Security software and or Anti-Virus software has the most up to date definitions. There are many commercial products that can lockdown your computer, such as Norton Symantec Software, McAfee, ZoneAlarm, and BullGuard.

To view the complete article select this link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24966835/

Posted by Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez at 3:40 PM | Permalink-1102 | Comments for Internet Browsing Risks (0)