IT Security

Validating Safety of Url’s

February 15, 2011 by Raul Colon 1 Comment

Today I was talking to a friend of mine who was sent a URL which pointed him to malicious website which took over his facebook account. After talking to him I quickly started searching for free web tools to check urls.

I went ahead and asked a fellow colleague @kelvinlomboy in the IT Security Field to help me identify web tools that can check the Url’s safety.

After a few minutes @kelvinlomboy provided the following link to @lennyzeltser’s blog on “Free Online Tools for Looking Up Potentially Malicious Websites”.

As an example I choose AVG Threat Labs for my personal blog RaulColon.net. Once it has verified the website it brings the following information:

Current Safety of Site
No active Threats where reported
Site Popularity
Server Location
Compromised Web Pages in the last 30 days.
Threat Types found in the last 30 days

I personally thought it was not a great free web tool.

Next time you have a question regarding an Url feel free to check out @lennyzeltser’s list or visit AVG Threat Labs. So when in doubt feel free to use the links provided for some effective tools.

Have you found any other tools that keep you safe on the Internet that you would like to share?

Photo Credit

Filed Under: IT Security Tagged With: IT Security, phishing, Spam

Week 7: Disaster recovery

April 6, 2009 by Raul Colon Leave a Comment

Now it is time for that strategic thought that the boss is always doing with eyes closed: “What would happen if…?”
You need a disaster recovery plan. For a small, independent business, it is a bit different than a bigger group.
What would happen if the building burns?
How will you recover?
Remember those off-site backups?
How will you get in contact with your insurer, employee(s), and customer(s)?
You probably need a copy of that data on paper, in your fire safe at home or in the safe deposit box. What if the pipes freeze and break?
Can you raise the inventory off the floor a bit on some shelving?
What if the place is burglarized?
What do you need to re-start within the week?
List it and at least sketch out a priority list of things to do.
What if one of your customers gives you their influenza and it takes you a week or two to get back on your feet?
Short-term disability insurance, health insurance, something like that might be useful. What if you are in an auto accident and it takes you a couple of months to get back on your feet?
Long-term disability insurance might be worth a look. (Car accidents are far more common than fires, floods, and locust invasions.)
Now that you have planned out what you can do, and put some of the plans in place (off-site backups, recovery plan), it is time to think about business continuity insurance.

← Week 6

Main Article 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Your Small Business Assets

Filed Under: 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Small Business Assets

Week 6: Reduce liability

April 6, 2009 by Raul Colon Leave a Comment

Look for “pinch points” that trap small fingers, cracked sidewalks, seasonal slick spots where people walk, and such. Any places you do not want customers into? Solve them. Your lawyer will hate you. He loses fees. Your insurer will like you. They (and you?) save money. Your customers probably, will not even notice, until they cannot sue you because they slipped on the ice.

You have to think like a four-year-old boy (they get into trouble; I know from personal experience). They stick fingers into places fingers should not go (pinch points). They stumble over the pattern in concrete. They pour sodas down your office printer. (OK, maybe will take a month or two to fix all these, but now you have the list, and can tackle each one as you have time and money.) And, now that you have reduced the obvious hazards, consider business liability insurance.

← Week 5 – Week 7 →

Main Article 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Your Small Business Assets

Filed Under: 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Small Business Assets Tagged With: IT Security, Planning

Week 5: A backup routine

April 6, 2009 by Raul Colon Leave a Comment

What if your business gets burglarized and the accounting computer is stolen?
You probably drop your receipts at the bank every night, or at least once a week, have a fire safe for the records you keep on-site, and a key to lock that fire safe.
If your business gets caught in a fire you would like to rebuild your records quickly.
Back to our computer-savvy friend: have them write you a simple script to dump your data files to a big thumb drive (budget $50 ~ 100 per drive), or buy a backup program.
Take backups of your data, and the installation disks and license numbers for each of your software programs, and drop them in that same safe deposit box you put your tax and other records in.
Store those off-site from your business. Take the backups on Friday night, drop them off Saturday morning when you do your banking.

← Week 4 – Week 6 →

Main Article 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Your Small Business Assets

Filed Under: 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Small Business Assets Tagged With: Backup, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery, IT Security

Week 4: Safety First

April 6, 2009 by Raul Colon Leave a Comment

All data that has been entered to your books and into your accounting program needs protection. It would be a shame to lose all that data, so, let’s tighten up and harden that box.
You want an Internet security program that includes a personal firewall, antivirus software and anti-spyware. Budget about $150 and an hour or so to install, configure (according to directions) and update it.
One copy per computer you have, whether at home, work, or a laptop you carry around. If you are in the habit of leaving your computers on, it is very feasible for someone to attack the computer and copy, remove or destroy the data. We are locking that down through this process.
When you finally upgrade to a new computer, do not just give the old one away without wiping the hard drive. Deleting everything will not work. I’ve found everything from birthday greetings to budgets to business proposals on “deleted” drives. Back to your friendly computer person, and ask for a secure wiping program that will over-write the disk at least seven times. Launch it and let it work for a day or three. Then give the computer away. (I don’t give any disks away without wiping. With diskettes, I prefer to take them apart and physically destroy them. Thumb (USB/flash) drives are crushed.)
When your administrative assistant moves on to a different job, change the passwords on your computers and firewall. Chances are he had the passwords and logon information. While people usually bear you no ill will, there is always one person somewhere who is willing to do something wrong. Sometimes even good people do the wrong thing when presented with an opportunity too good to pass up.

← Week 3 – Week 5 →

Main Article 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Your Small Business Assets

Filed Under: 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Small Business Assets Tagged With: Data Privacy, IT Security, passwords, Planning

Week 3: Wireless Security

April 6, 2009 by Raul Colon Leave a Comment

How would you like your “office/business park” to see what checks you print out each week? No

Get out the manual for that wireless access point (WAP) that you bought and stuffed under a desk when you got it working.

Does it mention any thing about a firewall? If not, budget about $150 for one that combines firewall, router, printer port and wireless access point. Did you ever configure it? See if you wrote down the password to get back into it, or read up on how to re-set it to the default, because we start there. This will cost you about a day, so Sunday pick up some pastries, a pot of coffee, and plan on some work.
- Select a non-routable address range for your office net work.
- Select a password for the administrative account. No words from a dictionary or profanity (too easy). Pick something with numbers, letters, capitals, and special characters (shift-numbers). Write it down, seal it in an envelope, and drop it in your safe deposit box or fire safe at home so you can find it again. Do not use your business name or your birthday. If they let you change the adminname, write that down too, and pick something other than “boss,”or “administrator.”Use something totally unrelated to your business.
- Read that manual and learn how to properly configure the access point.

← Week 2 — Week 4 →

Main Article 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Your Small Business Assets

Filed Under: 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Small Business Assets Tagged With: IT Security

Week 2: The Paperwork Begins

April 6, 2009 by Raul Colon Leave a Comment

Do you have a crosscut Shredder? Stay away from the strip shredders they are more for convenience than security.
Get a mid-range crosscut shredder (about $150- $300)
Everything paper goes through the shredder: anything with addresses, credit card info, schedules, phone numbers, and travel itineraries.
“Why?” Well, criminals and people with malicious intent like to “dumpster dive” for those juicy credit card numbers and passwords. It gets the “diver” maybe USD$15, and you get to spend 10 years cleaning up your financial reputation. (You just knew there was more paperwork.)

← Week 1 — Week 3 →

Main Article 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Your Small Business Assets

Filed Under: 7 Week Plan to Safeguard Small Business Assets Tagged With: IT Security, Planning, Small Business

Week 1: Secure the Physical

April 5, 2009 by Raul Colon Leave a Comment

Week 1: Secure the Physical

Check your door locks at each entrance: throw bolts long enough (the kind with the rotating rod in the bolt)
Verify if you might need anti-theft bars. If there is skylight, perhaps it needs to be covered with a solid barrier.
A list of people with keys. Do they still need them?
Inventory of fire alarms, smoke alarms, extinguishers. If you don’t have them hit the hardware store. Make sure you put the alarms up according to instructions.
Communicate any improvements to the insurance company they might offer you a discount
You can later consider an alarm systems connected to an alert/answering company to call the fire or police departments.
I would also verify the cost of some surveillance cameras they have gone down in price and add great value in protecting your all assets.