December 19th, 2009 | 
Author: What if I told you that human error was more responsible for data breaches in 2008 than hacking? What if I told you that hacking was third on the Identity Theft Resource Center’s (ITRC) categorized list of data loss methods? The reality is that cyber security is a people problem first and a technology problem second.
More Awareness, Less Reliance – I’ve walked into propped-open back doors of more manufacturing facilities than you can shake a stick at, and more often than not waltzed right up to a machine control panel, hooked up my laptop, and started pounding away at the keyboard while smiling and waving at trusting operators I had never before met in my life.
Use Passwords, Use Them Well - But password laziness and ignorance is still the number one vulnerability for computer systems. I understand how painful it is these days to maintain all of the user names and passwords in our lives these days. However, it is the world we live in and we must accept it and follow these bare minimum password practices:
Utilize Automatic Updates - Many computer viruses and other exploits rely on software vulnerabilities that are typically patched within days or weeks. However, it is not at all unusual for me to see network servers out of date by more than a year. Another common problem is for antivirus subscriptions to expire, preventing the virus definitions from updating.
Clean House - Every program loaded on a computer is a potential vulnerability. The fewer of them there are, the better. A typical Windows PC has loads of “crap-ware” installed on them that can and should be removed using the Add/Remove Programs option in Control Panel. Additionally, there are Windows Components that should be removed if not used.
Finally, there are usually Windows Services running by default that are not used. This particular cleanup is generally left to computer professionals, as it is not always obvious which of these is required and disabling the wrong service can lead to “unexpected behavior.”
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Posted in Advance Technology