December 2012 IT Business Consulting Newsletter

2012 End of Year Security Summary

By Tom K

Cyber-space isn't getting any safer. The bad guys continue to make a great living picking the low hanging fruit.

Maintaining basic security measures will keep the fruits of your labors out of their reach. Our Year End Security Summary tradition reviews the core basics along with a few advanced topics.

So please, as you prepare for this New Year, take a few minutes to review these simple but necessary security items:


Seven Security Basics:

• Centrally managed Corporate Anti Virus Protection
See Protect Your Company from Viruses and Malware with Enterprise Anti Virus Systems

• Centrally managed Windows Updates
See Centrally Manage Microsoft Updates Across Your Enterprise For Free!

• Centrally managed Corporate Spam Protection
See Got Spam? Eradicate Spam and Email Viruses BEFORE they get to Your Environment!

• Use Secure Passwords – don’t make it easy for the bad guys to get in
See Secure Passwords - You need to get this right!

• Have staff lock their PCs when they leave their desks – most attacks come from inside!
See Protect your Company’s Data and Reputation... Lock Your PC!

• If you provide public WiFi, isolate it from your business network
See Securely Implement a Public Wireless Hot Spot

• Deploy a Firewall at every point where your networks connect to the Internet


A few Advanced Topics:

• The departing Employee – turn a security nightmare into a simple inconvenience
See Departing Employee? How to Process them Gracefully and Securely

• Lock down access to your Corporate Bank Accounts – they’re not insured!
See Protect Your Company Bank Accounts

• Educate your staff to Phishing threats – how to spot them, what not to do...
See Don't Be the Big Phish


If you’d like help ensuring your network security is up to snuff, or you have any questions concerning any aspect of Corporate Security, I’d be happy to discuss this with you at your convenience. Feel free to contact me at TomK@TomKConsulting.com, or via my cell 443.310.5110.


Next month I’ll review an instance where a very well protected client network got hit with a very nasty virus...
and discuss how this can happen to you, and how to prevent it. See "An Anti-Virus Gotcha"