Some companies allow employees to freely access social media sites online. But, are companies opening the door for their networks to be hacked in the process? Many employees these days use Smartphones to gain access online, but are these employees opening the door for companies to lose sensitive data and have their networks hacked by malicious hackers?

It is no secret that Facebook has struggled with security issues. The security firm, Sophos, noted in 2011 that employees accessing social media may open the door for companies to be phished and also have malware installed inside their networks. Concern is growing so deeply over employees posting photos, responding to posts, tweeting, and tagging that some companies are rethinking their stance on allowing unlimited access to Facebook, Twitter, and more. Did you know 51 percent of British companies agreed with the security firm’s findings that social media opens the door for sensitive data to be lost.

Why companies see Facebook and Twitter as a threat to Security

It is no secret that the 2010 attack on Twitter via micro blogging has increase fears among businesses that employees may download something from a social networking website that will allow the company to be hacked. Did you know that Sophos security firm’s survey found 43 percent of users on a social networking website receive a phishing attack? Another 40 percent, on Facebook for example, were infected with malware. Some businesses restricted access to Twitter as well. Others have constituted a policy that employees who have minimal access to sensitive information may access Facebook etc. Employees who are considered high security may be restricted from using Facebook or Twitter.

It may not take an attack, however, for a business’s network to slow down and affect customer sales. With traffic slowed to a crawl, this can affect your employee’s productivity, keeping employees from being able to communicate with customers and also other employees.

Why some businesses still use Facebook

Should businesses ban social websites completely if there is a danger that hackers will have access to sensitive information? What if these websites are used in for social campaigns? This may be a good way for a business to interact with customers and engage customers in conversation. This is why businesses may not want to ban social things entirely and still allow access to this medium. It may benefit businesses that are willing to also have some sort of security in place and still use a social media websites.

Isn’t it nice to know businesses do not have to give up social use websites entirely? Do you know that many businesses do not have their security up-to-date? At Leeds Data Recovery, we also offer our 15 years of experience in many other data recovery services so that your documents stored on Raid arrays and your sensitive data, and more is safe. We can help you recover lost data from internal and external hard disk drives.

Certain business applications that hold sensitive data related to customers and business processes are usually at high risk from malicious viruses and hackers. In order to protect this sensitive information, businesses need to incorporate cost-effective security measures. In short, businesses should consider changing their client/server applications to effective and secure web applications that not only provide extensive security, but also offer an efficient delivery platform.

When hackers or viruses attack websites, they can cause embarrassing and costly disruptions in the services of the company. If web security test measures are not taken properly, business can be affected severely. Not only do businesses fail to maintain the trust of users, they also experience great business loss. Besides, businesses are susceptible to data stealing attacks.

The most common state for a business is vulnerability. It regularly needs patches to properly manage web application security. In order to save the normal operations for being disrupted, businesses need to employ patch management. It is a complex operation and requires an expert IT team to manage the deployment of patches that are urgent. Regardless of the patching process efficiency, protection from attacks cannot be guaranteed.

There are a number of techniques hackers can use for example, SQL injection, buffer overflow, cross site scripting, and denial of service. Vulnerabilities are used more than the configuration issues during attacks. This is because it is easier for hackers to exploit vulnerabilities since the patching process is usually not efficient enough. However, the only way to counter this problem is by an online web application security service.

Web security test can ensure if the security processes in a company are in compliance with the rules and are efficient enough to respond quickly. The online system ensures that the vulnerabilities are located with respect to the hacker’s point of view so that the problems are addressed accordingly and efficiently.

Web application security testing scan can easily reveal vulnerability to cookie manipulation, file inclusion, remote, URL redirection, script language error, PHP code injection, Net exception, command execution, installation path disclosure, SQL injection, and many more.

In addition, a web security test will also check website components’ vulnerabilities such as third party applications, directory permissions, directory indexing, backup files, HTTP methods, web server technologies, web servers, and more.

Therefore, businesses really need to focus on online web application security services to make sure their sensitive data and critical processes are safe from viruses and hackers.

If you are like most online business owners that are using a wireless network, you are likely unaware of the potential dangers to both your business and the safety of you and your customers data. In this article, I’m going to discuss 4 different threats that you must be aware of when it comes to operating a business over a wireless network.

Many think that if they have the latest router, combined with the latest in security software, they are all set and having nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Any type of equipment or security measures you take only act as deterrents. If someone really wants to break into your network, they’ll come up with a way to do so. The good news is that most hackers will go after sites that have lax security procedures.

The top 4 threats to your wireless network that you need to be aware of include:

1. Sniffing

This type of threat involves hackers that use software programs called sniffers that are able to scan the traffic on a network. All the hacker that has this software has to do is use it in areas with many networks until they lock onto an unsecured wireless network.

2. War Driving

With this threat, the hacker only needs a wireless device – such as a laptop or PDA. They simply drive around until they pick up an unprotected wireless signal from homes our businesses. These people will record your wireless id information, along with your physical address and post it in online databases so that others will know where there is an unsecured network, ripe for the taking.

3. Evil Twin

In this threat, your access to a legitimate wireless access point is blocked. Then, without your knowing it, you’re redirected to a second access point that is managed by a hacker. Any information you transmit is accessible to the hacker. Keystrokes are also able to be captured, which means any passwords you type in are now in the hands of the hackers. This type of threat is most common in public access points, such as restaurants and airports.

4. Wi-fishing

This is similar to the evil twin threat in that it takes you to what looks like a safe access point. By utilizing common SSIDs of public Wi-Fi spots, your computer will automatically connect to the hacker’s network. Same situation with the evil twin set up – the hacker can grab all of your information that you type in while connected to their network.

Needless to say, the real threat with these and other wireless network threats is that the risk to your bottom line is in danger. While some hackers only do what they do to see if they can do it, or to be a simply annoyance, thieves that get involved in wireless threats are not of the harmless variety. They can cost you plenty.

Why is it that every time we look at Washington DC we see questionable activities borderlining on corruption or outright illegality? Perhaps this is one thing that both sides of the aisle agree on – they seem to agree this is acceptable, it’s not. Let’s take these recent issues with email scandals. We have the DNC being hacked by a Romanian Hacker and Hillary Clinton’s illegal private email server with official State Department correspondence on it, some of it Top Secret but all of it, none of anyone else’s business especially foreign entities and spies.

There was an interesting article in Homeland Security News; “Democrats brace for more e-mail leaks,” posted on July 26, 2016. The article stated:

“The FBI on Monday said the agency is investigating the hacks of the DNC computer networks. Democrats are worried that the Russian government hackers behind the DNC hacks may have gotten their hands on other politically embarrassing e-mails and documents, and the hackers would release these e-mails and documents between now and November in an effort to increase Trump’s chances of winning in November. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks and its current top editor, who said that the release [of the DNC e-mails] on Friday was the first in a series.”

Basically, the emails that caused the DNC Chairwoman to resign are the tip-of-the-iceberg. Just as what was revealed from Hillary Clinton’s private email server turned out to be much more than she admitted when interviewed hundreds of times on the subject. If the DNC is corrupt and worked to undermine one of its own candidates in the primary process for another one, they’ve dishonored every democrat voter in America, and therefore they need to get their house in order and should probably sit out the rest of this election until they de-corrupt their activities and change-out their leadership. Free and Fair elections are crucial for a free society, but half of our electorate has been snookered and lied to.

If more emails do come out which show collusion which WikiLeaks notes is the case, then there could be another reason for a potential indictment of Hillary Clinton, even if she has temporarily dodged the first one with her misuse of classified material on her illegal server circumventing the State Department’s protocol. It hardly matters who hacked the emails in either case at the time, the question now is what information were in those emails, and what will they reveal about just how bad our political process has gotten and just how corrupt our leadership at the highest levels really is. Think on that.

The best possible way how to protect your website is to take a few action steps to prevent possible attacks. Here are a few recommendations.

Strong passwords

Make sure your passwords and user names are strong, not easy to guess, at least 8-character long password. Use not only characters, but also numbers and special characters in the passwords. If possible, do not use easy to guess administration account names, like ‘admin’, ‘administrator’ or ‘root’.

Back up

Back up all the data regularly. Do not forget, that your data are not only in the database (e.g. WordPress database), but also on your server file system. Back up those files too. It is usually OK to back up every week, but if you update your website frequently (e.g. you’re running a busy blog), backup every day. It is not that complicated, there are many tools that can help you.

If you are running a WordPress blog, it is easy to install “WP-DB-Backup” or “WP-Dbmanager” plugins that help you backup your database automatically. Just set it and forget it. They will email you the backup file of your website every day or every week. Use also “WordPress Backup” plugin that will back up the files on the server (yes, I know, those plug-in’s names are almost identical). This plugin works the same way as the previous ones – just set it and forget it.

Updates

The easy way to stay ahead is to make sure you use the latest versions of the products (e.g. the latest version of your WordPress). This way all the known errors and security problems are fixed there.

However, this is a double-edged sword. The major software upgrade usually has a lot of new code, thus a lot of possibilities for security problems. So the safest way is to use older major software version with all the security fixes.

For example, the newest major version line of WordPress is now v. 2.9, and the latest fix version (minor version) is 2.9.2. The older major version was 2.8, with the latest fix 2.8.6. This version (2.8.6.) could be the good, stable version to use.

Recovery

When you website or blog was hacked, first, do not panic. If you have your data properly backed up, you didn’t lose much. Contact your webmaster or hosting company to help with the recovery. It is also good contact the hosting company. They probably already took some steps to prevent the hacks or even made some actions to recover your files.

WP-Dbmanager plugin also offers the easy database recovery option, so you can recover the database easily. However, make sure your other files are OK too. The hacker attack can have different forms. Sometimes the website is only changed at some places, sometimes all the files are messed up, sometimes the whole database and file system gets deleted. If you do not have your data backed up, there is nothing you can do, so be sure you have you back up system up today.

Change passwords

During the recovery, change all the names and passwords and all the access data for the new installation. And if you used the same names and passwords somewhere else, change them there too. As you can see, the recovery is not that easy. When building a business web site make sure you hard work is not lost. So make sure your website gets backed-up regularly.

Who is the target audience for this book?

Make no mistake. This book is not targeted for computer professionals. If you have a degree in Computer Science or just know a lot about computers, you won’t learn anything from this book. This book is targeted to children in the middle school age group, but it would also be a good introductory book for adults.

That said, what does the book talk about?

What is the science of computer forensics?

Computer forensics is a two-part process. First, data is retrieved and then the data is used. It is different from other forensic sciences because the data usually stands on its own and does not need to be interpreted.

What are the many duties of a computer forensics technician?

While doing their job, computer forensic specialists must preserve evidence, not introduce viruses or worms into a system, handle data properly, keep evidence within the chain of command, reduce the impact of the system’s analysis on any businesses affected, and make sure privileged information is not divulged.

Following those rules, computer forensic professionals find hidden files, swap files, and temp files used by the operating system and by applications. They access these files and protected and encrypted files, searching for information relevant to the case. They analyze the data found, especially in areas normally considered inaccessible. They perform an over all system analysis and list all relevant files. They provide an opinion of the system’s layout and who authored which files. They make notes of attempts to delete or protect files, and they provide expert testimony and/or consultation in court as needed.

The book gives definitions for commonly used words, or jargon, in the industry.

A hacker is someone who is really interested in a piece of technology and learns all possible about the technology.

A cracker is someone who uses their hacker knowledge for bad.

Hackers are white hat, and crackers are black hat hackers.

A phreaker was a person who scammed the telephone company to get free long-distance calls.

Spoofing is mimicking a website (or an email) so the receiver thinks the sender is someone else.

Phishing is trying to get information from people, like their user accounts and passwords, and social security numbers.

A virus is a program, attached to another program, that infects a system when the program is opened. The virus can’t do anything unless the program is opened and ran.

A worm is like a virus, but it can replicate itself without other programs being opened.

A Trojan horse is a program that pretends to be a different kind of program.

Denial of Service (DoS) is when a cracker tries to prevent a system from being accessible by its normal users.

A company with many customers and a sustained increase in revenue are one thing, but a company with a good customer base and retention rate with poor security is prone to disaster. One clever hacker can ruin a company by stealing user information, breaking into bank accounts, or sabotaging servers. Without proper protection, customers’ personal information is held at significant risk and therefore, so is a business. Exposure of confidential information can lead to lawsuits, and lawsuits are never good for a company. Fortunately, there are many ways to protect the company servers from malicious hackers.

Most companies install a basic firewall and security software on their servers. Low-cost hosts provide the most elementary security solutions that are only intended for small businesses. One thing that people do not know is how the largest target of hacker attacks is small businesses. Using ecommerce merchant software hacking tools, hackers can break through a server and search for sensitive client banking information. Not only would a security risk put clients in a bad situation, but it ruins the credibility of the business in question after a successful attack is made.

The only sure-fire way of making sure that a company website is totally secure is to hire a team of security professionals to hand-test the vulnerabilities in a system. These professionals use a variety of methods of ethical hacking through a server, using penetration testing to search for vulnerabilities and weaknesses in code and software. When they finish, they will give a list of security risks and ways to patch them up.

How Does It Work?

The security experts act like “hackers,” using both common and uncommon methods to compromise a business’ server security. This helps give e-businesses a better idea of where their security systems or servers need improvement before going live. Maintenance announcements on a site will be posted during testing hours, as clients could experience slower service during the “hack” attacks. This service often includes a source code review. Seeing that a business is constantly working to maintain their servers will also give clients the feeling that the business is professional, and cares for the operational status of their servers.

Hiring security professionals is more cost effective than losing clients’ personal information. Avoiding potential lawsuits is almost always worth the cost, especially when dealing with customer security, which has an appreciable effect on customer retention. If customers feel that a website is safe and that their information is secure, they tend to return to that business for more products and services.

Choosing the best internet security software for your needs doesn’t have to be a complicated task. All you need to do is look into a program that you can use on your computers AND mobile devices. Some security and antivirus labs allow licenses for multiple devices, and will even offer different price ranges depending on the number of devices you wish to protect.

Internet security suites are often more comprehensive than the standard antivirus program, as the full suites offer protection from a wide variety of threats – not just viruses and malware. A firewall is an important feature, as it will defend PCs from malicious web pages. Additional protection includes browser tools that help prevent phishing attempts by hackers.

Hacking and phishing is all about making money. Spreading a traditional virus isn’t very profitable, so its other problems such as ransomware, adware, and data-stealing Trojans are what you really need to watch out for.

It’s not uncommon for programs to have vulnerabilities that could potentially be exploited by hackers or viruses. The ideal internet security software will perform vulnerability scans to ensure that all essential patches are present. Any missing patches will be applied as necessary.

There is also behavior based detection to consider. You’ll definitely want your antivirus program to be able to tell the difference between good programs and bad programs. But what if you install a legitimate program that it’s not familiar with and it mistakes that program as being “bad”? One approach to this that some security programs offer is “sandboxing”. This type of function allows unknown programs to run, but keeps them isolated so that they don’t fully access your system just in case they really are dangerous.

Global Networks of Internet Security Software

The best internet security software companies have extensive global networks that consist of thousands of “cyber warriors” on every continent to deliver 24/7 protection against all new and emerging threats.

You should always expect a 100% guarantee. From the very second you first subscribe, the security suite should keep your devices virus-free. In the event that your PC or mobile device still gets a virus, the company must give you a refund.

Read reviews on the best internet security software. Look over independent test scores from labs such as AV-TEST as well. Norton products by Symantec has won numerous awards over the years, including PC Mag.’s Editor’s Choice Award (nearly 40 times). There are several subscription / purchasing options. Choose Norton Standard (1 PC or Mac), Norton Deluxe (up to 5 devices), or Premium (up to 10 devices).

Decide which security suite would be best for you and use a Norton coupon to get a good deal. It’s definitely among the top internet security software and offers a broad range of protection from all types of threats.

The cyber world is full of acronyms and one of the most important is SCADA. SCADA is short for “supervisory control and data acquisition” and refers to a computer system that collects and analyses a constant flow of data. A SCADA system is used to monitor and control some of the most essential systems in the world. SCADA systems are used in plants and on sensitive equipment that handles energy, oil, water, gas, waste treatment, nuclear power, transportation, and/or telecommunications at the business or national level.

A SCADA system is the “brains” of these mission critical operations. The computer system gathers real time data and provides information about the status of the utility and transportation systems at every point. It reports on leaks, flows, environmental conditions, and breeches. Computer systems today are designed to eliminate as much vulnerability to outside breeches as possible, and to report when a system has been hacked, modified, or even when new exposures have been created.

Yet reports emerge regularly about SCADA systems that have been penetrated. As recently as April 2009, there was a report by the Wall Street Journal that hackers in China and Russia were attempting to hack into the US electric grid. What is truly interesting about this situation is the fact the hacking was not detected by the companies controlling the grids. It was uncovered by US intelligence agencies.

Penetration Closes the Windows

This very recent case of SCADA system hacking is a prime example of the need for regular system penetration testing. Securing essential infrastructures from internal and external hackers is a matter of constant diligence and assessment and that is why continual system monitoring is always required to be in place on a SCADA system.

SCADA penetration testing performs two major functions. First the continual security analysis assesses and monitors the system within its internal environment. This testing alerts operators to hacking originating within the organisation. It will also report on vulnerabilities that are system weaknesses creating windows for hackers to enter through.

The SCADA penetration testing also monitors the system externally. The purpose of this testing is to prevent hackers from outside the organisation from entering the SCADA system. As the US electric grid example clearly indicates, critical systems such as utility systems have exposure to a range of criminal intrusions, from the hackers looking for a challenge to their computer skills, to terrorists hoping to cause chaos.

SCADA penetration testing will mirror the connections of the SCADA system to all external systems. This is essential for replicating the kind of hacking activity that defines external attempts to access a computer system. The penetration testing will include analysis and assessment of existing interfaces such as the following.

* All connections including to internet and servers

* Connections to Remote Terminal Units (RTUs)

* Firewall systems

* Intrusion detections systems (IDS)

The assessment of vulnerabilities conducted as part of SCADA penetration testing involves a number of activities.

* Recreation of system architecture for creating and testing malicious code

* Check for vulnerable open ports on network and insure unknown ports are instantly identified when created

* Monitor backup operations

* Perform ongoing security checks and provided warnings and fixes

* Analyse and monitor all software vulnerabilities at all levels including registry, servers, and production terminals

* Analyse and monitor inter-computer communications

* Test for attacks on networks employed through content or code filtering and changing

* Test for security holes created by problems such as unsecured code or buffer overflows

SCADA penetration testing is comprehensive and tests the system both internally and externally. Hacking can originate on-site or remotely, occur within or without the system, be initiated by employees or non-employees, and occur through software or hardware vulnerabilities. SCADA penetration testing will review and assess current system operations and that provides the framework for continual protection strategies and tactics.

CNet had an article a while ago an article entitled Data breach incidents are increasing which told the following tale:

In the recent past, about 30 percent of large organizations would suffer a data breach each year. This figure remained roughly consistent from 2005 through 2007. But in a November 2008 survey the figure had risen to 56 percent. So why is this happening?

Here are 10 reasons:

1. Insider Dealing Many company insiders and recent leavers are ready, willing and able to kill to collaborate with outsiders and have sufficient knowledge to help outsiders break in to areas of a network where critical data is stored. Every news story that tells of a data breach is also an advert to dishonest employees that highlights ways to boost their income. The paucity of stories about hackers being caught acts as a further incentive.
2. The Recession The devil finds work for idle programmers to do. Those programmers who have no moral scruples and lose their jobs are likely to turn to hacking as a worthwhile pursuit. They will often have sufficient knowledge and contacts within companies they’ve worked for to be a genuine threat.
3. The Black Hat Economic Ecosystem If you want to be proficient at Photoshop there are many sites of the web that can help you. The same is true if you’d like to set up a Black Hat business. There are many opportunities, including some that have minimal risk. For example if your the kind of geek that creates exploits you can simply auction them off for others to use. If you’re into writing viruses there are hundreds of sites out there offering source code starter packs. Even the hacker community thinks Open Source is cool.
4. The Attack Technology is Impressive (so its users don’t need to be) The time when Black Hats needed a Ph D in computer science is long gone. Anyone who knows how to download and install software can take a trip to the dark side. There are web sites that sell fully functional hacker toolboxes at prices of a few hundred dollars. I’ve been told that if you know the right hacker clubs you can even get well-designed root kits. That’s frightening. The root-kit is the WMD of the malware world.
5. IT Security Technology Aside from the fact that some IT security technology is ineffective, like AntiVirus (always slamming the stable door after the horse has bolted), right now there is no vendor selling a comprehensive IT security platform which has the ability to manage all threats. Even if such a product set were available most companies would be unable to afford it. Truth is that getting through the security barriers that most organizations have in place just isn’t that difficult.
6. An Absence of Forensic Information Among the inadequate defenses that many companies suffer from is the simple lack of good audit trails. With insider fraud it is often the case that even if you know who pulled off the fraud it isn’t easy to actually prove it, because of the absence of log records. Some estimates suggest that only one in three internal hacks can be proved via digital forensics. This fact acts as an incentive to insider fraud or collaborative fraud that involves insiders.
7. Hacker Resources: Botnets It may not occur to you to think this way, but a hacker with a well organized botnets actually has more computing resources than your organization. Botnets often run to tens of thousands of computers and have been known to be larger than a million. A hacker with a botnet is well armed and dangerous. He would be able to multiple attacks at the same time, denial of service plus spam assault plus virus assault plus attack through recent vulnerabilities. The point of such an attack is to keep the IT security staff overwhelmed while you slip in surreptitiously and plant a back door. It will be very hard to identify the one attack that made it through because of the surrounding noise.
8. There’s a Market for Stolen Data. You can pull off direct scams, like the recent one hacked in to a bank and raised credit limits on a few hundred cards and then had people all over the globe taking money out from ATMs on those cards. The problem is that you need a big team – although that particular raid netted $9 million, so I guess it could afford a big team. But if you manage, for example, to steal a whole file of thousands of credit card details, you cam always sell the data. Prices of $30 per credit card are not unknown and if you get the PIN number of the card (a difficult data item to get your hands on) then it could be $500 per card. There are markets out in cyberspace where you can sell data-not just credit card data, but Social Security Card data (for US citizens), birth certificate data, billing data and driving license data (all of which can be used to set up bogus bank accounts).
9. The Remote Hacker Is A Safe Hacker Sometimes hackers get caught but remote hackers get caught far less frequently. As a hacker, there’s a good deal of sense in making it look like you’re working from abroad even if you’re not. Throw a bit of Russian into your code or use a few characters from an Arab or Chinese keyboard and always work through botnet PCs that are actually abroad. Keep your money in a convenient offshore account in the Cayman Islands or at least pass all your ill-gotten gain through there. Despite the fact that banks get hacked all the time, when did you ever hear of Cayman bank being hacked?
10. Success Breeds Success Above all else, success is breeding success. Until the risk/reward ratio for hacking activities changes the Black Hats are going to make a good living. Right now the vectors are all in their favor. The recession is ensuring that less money will be spent of IT Security and it will delay the move to more secure operating systems (i.e. to Vista from XP). Even if better security products (like whitelisting products) gain further traction, the growth will be slow and it will be many years before genuine authentication is so widespread that is begins to close the loopholes through which the hackers so deftly navigate.