Astaro Blog

Just about anywhere you go you will find a Wireless Wi-Fi Network. Your local Starbucks, hotels, bars, and even department stores now offer customers wireless access to the Internet. The question then comes to mind; are you secured when connecting to these Wi-Fi networks? This questions especially important this time of year when everyone is out doing their holiday shopping.

As 2011 comes to a close and we prepare to usher in a new year it is time to reflect on transgressions from the past 12 months and on how we can better ourselves in the coming year. In addition to making resolutions to lose weight or exercise more, we at Astaro, Sophos Network Security, urge you to consider committing to resolutions that will help secure your personal and business networks. Below are some suggestions for resolutions. At the turn of the year, it has become a tradition for many to seize the opportunity to leave one or the other bad habit behind and start anew.

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Firewalls, routers, intrusion prevention systems, web content filters, mail gateways, application servers, authentication servers, host-based intrusion prevention, end point client software.

Studies show that physicians who study in large cities prefer to stay there and it can be difficult for rural areas to attract doctors. Additionally, as training costs rise and doctors look to large city hospitals for their careers, rural areas in states like such as Minnesota and Indiana have noticed a shortage in doctors. Short of opening medical schools in remote areas of the country there is little these small towns and counties can to do attract doctors. Working in a remote area with few facilities and less resources and peers can be difficult and states like Texas are looking to new legislation to help attract and retain young doctors.

There is a lot of hype and confusion about cloud computing, what it is, and what it isn’t. Here are some resources I use, and ones I recommend for understanding the fundamentals of cloud computing and cloud security. You will not find any “cloud will change everything” nonsense here (it won’t). Nor “cloud is nothing new” nor “cloud is completely new” nonsense, either (cloud computing is a mix of old and new ideas and technology, it is mostly evolutionary, but in some cases revolutionary).

Wireless networks are present in most homes and businesses, but the convenience they offer can open unsecured paths into your network. Late last year the Google WiFi issue made people aware of how carelessly they treat their data on a day-to-day basis. The Street View cars simply collected data that was, metaphorically speaking, ‘floating around in the air’ anyway, and that, in theory, was also accessible to everybody else - they did not hack into any of these networks. Anyone with a reasonable grasp of technology can collect WiFi data these days, so it is important to strengthen your wireless network’s protection.

I have been fortunate enough to attend several Security BSides events this fall, I have seen a lot of good talks and been engaged in several great conversations. Two talks, one at BSides in Dallas/Ft. Worth and one the following week in Ottawa touched on similar issues that really resonated with me.