Eitex Success Story

Our success as an IT Support business is dependent on a number of factors such as great customer service, our technical expertise and our back office solutions, which when combined enable us to provide the level of support demanded by our clients.

But there are other factors involved in running a successful IT Support business and our Eitex Blackburn Regional Director was recently interviewed by the Lancashire Enterprise Trust.  For his insights see their article entitled “My Success Story – Eitex”

Eitex Provides Visionary IT Support



IT Support provider Eitex, have been selected by a Blackpool based charity for the visually impaired to support their computer systems.

N-Vision, who provide services and support to anyone with reduced vision living in the Blackpool, Fylde and West Lancashire area were referred to Eitex by FusionCRM, the company providing the charity’s customer relationship management solution.

“We frequently work in conjunction with FusionCRM and this referral ensured the client got the best possible service at a price that works for them,” commented Lee Hezzlewood, Eitex’s Regional Director for Lancashire.

“We even made sure the client was able to take advantage of our May Special Offer for Lancashire based customers.”

This meant that, although the initial quote and service negotiations were completed prior to the offer being announced, N-Vision was able to benefit from Eitex’s “3 Months Free IT Support” offer for new customers in the Lancashire region, saving them a considerable amount of money on their standard IT Support rates.

“At Eitex we believe in creating Win:Win relationships with our clients, and as such we were happy to ensure they received the best possible price for our fantastic IT Support service,” said Mr Hezzlewood.

For more information about N-Vision and how they support the visually impared visit their website http://www.nvision-nw.com/

Secure Thinking: Data Backup Considerations

Data is vital to modern businesses. Some say it's the life blood of a business. After all we live in the information age.

But do we all protect data and information to the best of our abilities? Do we ensure we can recover from its loss, corruption or theft?

In information security parlance are we properly protecting its CIA - Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability?

Most businesses take some steps to backup their data. This can be using traditional methods such as tape drives to newer techniques involving optical media, removable USB storage or even online backup solutions.

If you're not backing up your data then you should be. It's inexpensive and might just save your business one day.

But backing up your data is only half the story. Having a backup is meaningless if you can't recover your data in the event of an incident.

You need to test that you can restore your data on a regular and random basis. This exercises your solution and ensures it is actually doing what you expect of it.

Another consideration is the age and technology used. If your infrastructure, devices and backup software are more than a few years old you may have other problems should you experience a significant incident or disaster with your systems.

If your incident takes out your current infrastructure can you replace it to actually recover your backups?

Without compatible technology and software your data may be inaccessible without expensive and time consuming 3rd party services.

Then there are online solutions. There are many of them out there and they are fairly inexpensive but which one should you choose?

Depending on the data and the legal or regulatory requirements you may need to think very carefully. Your data may fall under one jurisdiction while it's residing on your servers and PCs in your office but whose jurisdiction is it under the control of on the backup storage? What are their data protection, privacy and security laws like?

Is the data stored encrypted where only you can access it or can the staff at the service provider actually access your data, with or without your permission?

These are all things you need to consider when selecting a backup solution. It isn't a simple choice based on price so think carefully and ask the questions above. They might just stop you going out of business.

In the meantime if you are looking for an online backup solution why not contact us on 0845 071 4690 or visit www.SecureThinking.co.uk and ask us these questions?

Secure Thinking: How's Your Business Continuity Plan?

Businesses are fragile things. They can be affected in their success by
a whole host of factors including market forces, consumer habits, and
changes in attitudes.
But many aspects of your business success are firmly held in your own
hands. You can develop an agile approach allowing you to change your
model based on market forces, you can adapt your products or services to
take into account consumer demands and you can keep track of people's
opinions to ensure you keep with current thinking and attitudes.
But how would you cope with a major incident that occurred to or in your
business?
Business continuity and disaster recovery are essential tools designed
to protect your business should the worst happen.
If you make use of technology in your business and particularly if it
forms the backbone of your operations you need to make sure you have a
Disaster Recovery Plan.
Disaster Recovery is the process of recovering your technical systems,
data and applications to a level which allows you to continue operating
your business.
Sometimes a DR solution will only recover key systems - just enough to
keep you going in the short term until a full recovery can be performed.
A technical disaster or incident can be caused by a number of internal
factors including technical faults, accidental damage caused by errors
or malicious activity.
Disasters can also be caused by external factors such as power cuts,
floods or property damage.
The key to an effective DR plan is to evaluate which systems,
applications and data are key to your operations and ensuring these are
recovered first. There is no point spending time and effort recovering
your marketing database when your customers aren't getting the products
they've ordered or the services they've bought.
Getting your DR plan right can mean the difference between having a
business in serious trouble and your customers not even knowing there
was a problem.
A Business Continuity Plan is similar in many ways to a Disaster
Recovery Plan. The main difference is that the BCP deals with more than
just technology.
Your BCP covers all aspects of your business, from offices and desk
space, communications, operations, to incident response, staff safety
and public relations.
Whether you decide your business needs a full BCP or merely a DRP you
should be aware that having one and making sure it is up to date and
tested can be the difference between your business surviving and growing
and it's complete failure.
There are many statistics out there but the general consensus is that
businesses experiencing a major incident and who don't have an effective
BCP will go out of business within 6-24 months of the incident.
You have insurance to cover you should the worst happen. A Business
Continuity Plan or at the least a Disaster Recovery Plan should help
protect you in the same way - by ensuring your business survives
whatever is thrown at it!
Our philosophy is simple - plan for the worst, hope for the best!
For more information or a free BCP/DRP consultation contact Secure
Thinking on 0845 071 4690 or visit http://www.securethinking.co.uk/

Secure Thinking: Law Firm Fined Over Data Breach

Controversial law firm ACS:Law has been fined £1,000 over the data
breach which saw personal details of 6,000 people exposed online
following a hack attack by rogue activist group Anonymous.
The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham would have imposed a
fine more in the region of £200,000 had ACS:Law not recently ceased
trading.
He also criticised their security controls, saying "The security
measures ACS:Law had in place were barely fit for purpose in a person's
home environment, let alone a business handling such sensitive details."
The ICO has been criticised for not imposing a heftier fine but claim
their hands were tied by the fact the company was no longer in business.
It will be interesting to see in the future how the ICO will treat a
business who experience a similar incident and who don't or can't shut
down their operations ahead of a hearing.
Even decent sized law firms would struggle to pay a fine of £200,000 for
data protection security breaches. It is therefore imperative that
security controls are implemented and tested to protect your business
and any internal networks that may potentially be exposed to the Internet.
Security consultant Lee Hezzlewood of IT Security specialists Secure
Thinking said, "Businesses need to be aware of the risks. All companies
are connected to the Internet and therefore need to ensure they have
effective controls which are tested on a regular basis."
For more information on effective data security controls visit
http://www.securethinking.co.uk/

Secure Thinking: Osama bin Laden and Online Scams

So Osama bin Laden is dead eh?  Killed by US troops in Pakistan apparently.

Do you want proof?  Well we'd all like some proof.  We'd like to see video footage of the assault, we'd like to see Mr bin Laden's body and all the DNA and facial recognition evidence. 

Not because we're ghoulish, although some most definitely are, but because we're a sceptical bunch who don't always believe what we're told until we see it with our own eyes.

The problem with this in an online world is that there are many links being posted on websites and social media such as Facebook and MySpace which claim to show just such footage.  There are emails doing the rounds which you are encouraged to pass on to your friends which also claim to show proof or evidence.  But do they?

The answer is NO! NO they don't!  But they are trying to infect your computer with spyware and viruses, or get you to pay for and install bogus anti-virus software by claiming you are already infected.

These scams are designed to fool users of social networks into installing software so that they expose themselves, their user IDs and passwords and their credit card and financial details to organised criminals!

This free advice from Secure Thinking costs you nothing, but be very careful what you click on - it might cost you more than you think!

Secure Thinking: What Victims of the Sony Hack Need to Know

If you use Sony's PSN or SOE services there are a number of risks that
you're now exposed to.
Depending on the level of access gained by the hackers and the
information they were able to glean you could be exposed to some or all
of the following:
1. Credit Card Fraud
Issue: Some credit card details have been taken by the hackers. Sony
claim this information was encrypted and that the details from the SOE
attack date back to 2007.
Risk: Your current credit card details were included in those that were
stolen and the hackers have been able to decrypt and use them or sell
them on.
Precautions: Keep an eye on your credit card statements and notify your
card issuer of any suspicious or unauthorised transactions.
Alternatively, if you're very worried you could cancel your cards and
get new ones. It's also possibly worth keeping an eye on your financial
history and credit rating via someone like Experian to make sure you
haven't been the victim of further fraud.
2. Identity Theft
Issue: It appears that an awful lot of data was harvested in the
attacks. Alongside the credit card details which may have been
compromised, Sony have admitted that users names, addresses, dates of
birth and other potentially useful ID information has been compromised.
Risk: The criminals behind this kind of attack are after exactly this
type of information which they can use themselves or sell on to other
professional ID thieves. You could become the victim of partial or full
identity theft. This could put you at risk of significant financial
loss, reputational damage and could cost you a considerable amount of
money, merely to correct the damage.
Precautions: Fairly similar to credit card fraud – you need to keep an
eye on all your credit, bank and any other financial transactions. In
addition, it's a good idea to check your history on a regular basis and
possibly even take out ID theft insurance – but check with your provider
that you're covered retrospectively, otherwise you could be paying out
for nothing.
3. Online Compromise
Issue: The hackers have gained valuable information on millions of
users, including usernames and passwords. Many users use the same
account and password credentials across many different online and
offline services. This can range from using the same username with
multiple online services such as Hotmail and Gmail to using the same
password for Facebook and you online bank account.
Risk: If you reuse the same credentials across multiple platforms and
one of them is compromised then they all are – it is only a matter of
time before your other services are accessed. This can lead to a whole
host of problems, from someone posting questionable "status updates" on
Facebook or Twitter, to them attempting to access your online banking,
or even manipulating your friends into giving out their personal details.
Precautions: Change your passwords! Don't reuse the same passwords on
multiple platforms, particularly social and financial systems. And
don't always trust that your friend is the only person using their
social networking account – it may have been compromised.
4. Social Engineering
Issue: The sheer number of people who have had some or all of their Sony
account details compromised makes it very attractive to criminals
attempting different approaches. Some will use the simple ID theft and
credit card fraud approaches. Others will attempt to gain access to
other online resources. Yet another set may attempt to "socially
engineer" the individuals concerned – which essentially means to "con"
them into giving out other details by making them believe they are being
contacted by a legitimate company (including Sony themselves!).
Risk: You might take a call or receive a letter, email or social media
contact informing you that you're the victim of Sony's hack or some
other related issue. If this happens you will be asked to prove you are
the person concerned, and so you will be asked for other "security"
details. All of this information can be used to further compromise you
financially, steal your identity or access other online resources.
Precautions: Don't take off the cuff calls or other contacts at face
value. Be suspicious. Tell the caller that you will call them back,
get their name and office details and then call the main switchboard
number of the company they claim to be from. Do the same for emails and
letters. Remember, no legitimate organisation will ask you for your
full password or PIN number for an account.

Hopefully, nobody will ultimately fall victim to the criminals who
masterminded the attack on Sony. Unfortunately that's pretty unlikely.
All anybody can do now is to defend themselves to the best of their
ability and take precautions to limit the damage that can be inflicted
upon them.
This kind of attack, where major corporates are targeted, is likely to
occur more and more as service provider's offer ever increasing online
services to an ever growing online community.

What we need to do is attempt to defend ourselves and improve the
security of the services provided online, designing them with security
in mind from the start rather than implementing security as an afterthought.

Secure Thinking: IT Security Specialists Join Burnley Bondholder Scheme

East Lancashire based Secure Thinking, a company specialising in IT and Information Security solutions today announced that it had joined the Burnley Bondholders Scheme to help promote the town as a place to do business.

The Bondholders scheme is an "innovative and powerful network of organisations who believe what is good for Burnley is good for business."  The scheme was set-up to promote Burnley and change the view of the town as being a run-down, deprived area of stereotypical empty mills, cobbled streets, flat caps and whippets.

Secure Thinking's contribution is more than just financial.  Lee Hezzlewood, the founder of the company is a Burnley lad, born and bred.  His background makes him proud and defensive of Burnley and he is keen to see the town prosper.

"Burnley and East Lancashire region is a fantastic area with amazing countryside and warm, welcoming people.  The problem is that the media typically depicts the place as run-down and deprived.  Whilst some areas are deprived, just like in any other decent sized town, there are also some truly great business leaders, innovation and opportunities in the area.  And I want to do what I can to promote them."

Secure Thinking was created to help other businesses protect themselves and their clients from loss of data, identity theft and online fraud, and Lee believes that it's hi-tec companies like his which will lead the regeneration of the region and turn it into a truly great place for business.

"Companies are becoming much more cost conscious and looking at better ways of operating.  With modern communications and technology, companies don't need to operate from City based, fixed offices with huge overheads.  Instead, they can look at reducing those overheads and allowing staff to work with more freedom and operate from locations offering better value for money.  In my view, Burnley is just such a place."

Secure Thinking's New Anti-Spam & Email Filtering Solutions

IT Security Specialists Secure Thinking have teamed up with CronLab to help SME businesses safeguard themselves and their clients from the dangers posed by spam email.

"Spam is a growing problem and a major threat to businesses both in terms of security but also for productivity," commented Lee Hezzlewood, Secure Thinking's Managing Director.

"If your employees inboxes are full of unwanted and unsolicited emails then their work is going to be affected because they are having to take time sorting the emails and filtering the wheat from the chaff.  On top of this you have the real threat of malicious intent, of emails which harbour viruses or link to infected websites and the dangers of phishing attacks, where emails are designed to fool the recipient into parting with sensitive information by making them believe they are responding to a legitimate request."

Secure Thinking's spam filtering solution is available as either a cloud based "hosted" service or via the use of dedicated appliances, which take minutes to install and set-up. 

Either solution can be used for incoming and outgoing spam filtering, the latter ensuring your business doesn't become the source of spam resulting in your email being blacklisted should your own security be compromised.

There is also the option of stripping off email attachments and replacing them with a link, reducing the size of emails and inboxes for your company and your clients.

If you want to know more about Secure Thinking's Spam Filtering solutions contact us on 0845 071 4690 or email info@securethinking.co.uk and we'll be happy to discuss your requirements.

IT Support Company Helps Lancashire Students Improve Communication Skills

Lee Hezzlewood, East Lancashire Regional Director of national IT Support company Eitex has been spending time back in school.

When Darwin Aldridge Community Academy asked for volunteers for their Words for Work program from local businesses, Lee whose business interest also include being a director of IT Security Specialists Secure Thinking, put himself forward without really knowing what he was letting himself in for.



"My initial understanding was more around helping the students with written communication," said Lee. "But when we attended our training it became apparent that the program had wider goals - to help the children with all aspects of verbal and non-verbal communication."



The Words for Work program is part of a national scheme intended to improve the communication skills of year 9 children (13-14yrs) and involves business volunteers showing the students how key communication skills are used in the real world of work and business.



The program at Darwin Academy consisted of 8 volunteers working with the students for 6 weeks. The first week the students made a presentation to the volunteers and then had their presentation skills and performance assessed with recommendations from the volunteers on how to improve their approach.



The second week involved the students and volunteers interviewing each other with ideas and suggested improvements again passed.



Over the remaining 4 weeks the students and the volunteers split into groups with the objective of creating a product highlighting good communication skills and then presenting it to the other groups.



The final week was supposed to be where the groups each presented their product to the other teams.  But unfortunately one of the groups hit a rather major snag, as Lee explains.

"Our group was making a short slide-show based film with sound effects and music.  Unfortunately, the finished product was placed on a USB memory stick in the care of one of the students who didn't make the session.

"It left the other members of the group devastated and they were worried how they were going to get around it!"

By a twist of fate, the school had decided to do yet another presentation of the products to a wider audience including the Principal Mr Loughran, and so an additional date was added to the program.

"This gave us a great way to  turn our disaster into a massive positive.  So between Imelda O'Keefe of IMS Coaching [the other volunteer in the group], the students and myself, we decided that the "Release Date" for our film would be after Easter and so we left the audience with a little bit of background on our project and a teaser as to what the final product will be like," said Lee.  "All the volunteers thought this was the best lesson the students could have learned - how to turn what should have been a disaster into a really positive outcome."


The final presentations will now be held on the 6th May at Darwin Aldridge Community Academy.

Eitex: National IT Support Company Helps East Lancashire Graduates

Eitex, a national IT Support business with offices in Nelson have improved the prospects of at least one local graduate by utilising the services provided by Pendle Borough Council’s Graduate Placement Scheme.

The scheme is designed to help local graduates find employment with local businesses, ensuring skills and experience is retained in the region whilst boosting the local economy.

Lee Hezzlewood, the Regional Director in charge of the Lancashire side of the business said “Although our Lancashire IT Support services are new for the organisation, we had a requirement to take on additional resources. There is a growing demand in the region for quality IT skills, particularly as more and more businesses attempt to make use of technology to improve their effectiveness and profitability.”

Marc McKinlay is the lucky graduate who was snapped up by Eitex, and Lee continued, “Marc has a range of skills and experience, which when added to his qualifications, bring significant benefits to our business and will enhance the quality of service we provide to our clients.”

Marc joined Eitex on the 1st of March and, after spending a couple of weeks training at Eitex’s UK Support Centre in Batley, Leeds is now fulfilling the role of 2nd line local support for Eitex customers across Lancashire and providing remote support to customers across the rest of the UK.

Secure Thinking: Data Breach Costs Continue to Rise

A recent survey by Symantec has highlighted a continuing rise in the costs to business of data security breaches, with the average breach now costing £1.9m.
It also reported a staggering 31% of incidents were caused by employee negligence - losing laptop computers, mobile phones and USB memory sticks containing critical data.
The costs to business of data breaches are made up from the money spent investigating the incident, resolving technical issues, staff training and damages - to clients and to legal and regulatory bodies such as the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
In addition, when a data breach occurs, there are the costs involved in replacing existing customers who leave because of the incident with new customers.
Much of these costs can be reduced or avoided by implementing a holistic approach to information and data security. This approach involves developing appropriate security policies, implementing relevant business and technological systems, investing in a program of employee training and awareness, and then testing and measuring the effectiveness of your controls.
At he end of the day, regulatory responsibilities and so-called compliance are generally only a box ticking exercise. Having effective data security controls is about more than just ticking boxes.

Eitex: Protecting Your Data - Laptop Encryption

At Eitex we are being asked more and more about how busy professionals can protect the business critical and often sensitive information they carry around on laptop and netbook computers.

The simple solution to this problem is to encrypt the laptop disk drive so that only the owner of the computer can access the data.

Most computers have a password which is used to prevent access to the software, applications and data in a casual fashion.  Passwords, and particularly strong passwords* are a vital component in preventing unauthorised access to information and applications.  However, they only protect systems that remain in the physical possession of the owner.

Once physical possession is compromised, as in the case of a lost or stolen computer, then there are ways of bypassing the logical access controls imposed by usernames and passwords.  Such bypass techniques can be as simple as using a brute-force password cracking tool or just simply removing the hard disk drive from the machine and plugging it in to another computer.

This can be a particular problem in the case of mobile computers, where the opportunity for loss or theft is far greater than machines protected by a secure physical environment.

Encryption of the hard drive can protect against the dangers highlighted above.  It means that, in effect, if the computer is lost or stolen, the data cannot be accessed by the new owner without the password or pass phrase used to perform the encryption.  In addition, where whole disk encryption is utilised, the system cannot even be started unless it is completely reinstalled - overwriting any data on the disk drive.

So if you want to protect your mobile computers, or even your office based ones should you feel the need, then contact Eitex and we will be more than happy to go through your requirements and help you decide on the best solution for your business.


* Strong Passwords should be at least 12 characters long and consist of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and special characters such as !'#@"£$ etc.  They should not be made up of dates, names or dictionary words - even obscure ones!

Secure Thinking Opinion: Cyber Crime Costs UK £27bn a Year

News out today that cyber crime costs the UK economy £27bn a year makes
for worrying reading.
Most of the "costs" to the UK economy fall into 2 areas - £9.2bn in
intellectual property theft and £7.6bn in industrial espionage.
Both of these categories are areas where losses would occur with or
without the internet, and indeed the internet may have simply made these
types of activity easier to perpetrate. So blaming "cyber crime" does
nothing to address the issues because it's very likely that technical
solutions will do little to reduce the activity.
Another interesting statistic is that the government is looking to spend
£650m over the next four years to tackle the problem. That equates to
less than £163m a year. So in order to solve a problem that costs the
country one-sixth of its national debt the government is coughing up a
bit of loose change?
If the problem is really as significant as it is alleged, then a
concerted effort must be made to tackle it. Looking at the problem from
both the bottom up and the top down.
How do we do this?
Well, organisations need to build security into their very existence -
educate their staff, design their processes and procedures, their
systems and solutions with security at the very core of everything.
Develop and implement software and hardware, networks and infrastructure
that is secure at inception, not look at security as an afterthought, as
is generally the case now. And this needs to involve ALL organisations
of ALL size because the smaller businesses feed into the larger, and so-on.
This is where the government needs to provide guidance and direction.
Use some of the "loose change" to help fund initiatives which raise
awareness of security issues with people, organisations and businesses
at the bottom of the industrial, commercial and governmental food
chains. We need to educate people from the start, in schools, colleges
and universities, as well as in businesses on how to protect themselves,
their friends, colleagues and associates, their data and their privacy.
Let's make information and "cyber" security a topic for the national
syllabus in the same way that diet and exercise are today.
Improving the understanding of the threats, the risks and the defences
within the population at large will improve security. But this must be
done in a way that ensures the real buy-in and understanding of people.
While security is something done by "someone else" we will see an
increase in the figures released today, with little or no impact from
the government's initiatives.

Eitex: Accountancy Firm Case Study

We have a new client, let's call him John, who runs a small, local accountancy business.  John has become a client of Eitex since the following story occurred because he felt he needed a more reliable IT support solution, as you'll see.

John has a Windows 2008 server he uses for file and print services within his organisation.  The server provides all of the storage for his business documentation, client records, and key financial details of his 1200 accountancy business customers.  This information is critical to his business as an accountant.  The files stored on his server are particularly important in December and January, John's busiest time for completing quarterly VAT returns and personal tax returns for his clients.

However, on the 20th January this year, the RAID controller in John's server failed, causing a random write corruption of his data. 

John called his one-man-band IT support provider (let's call them OMB Inc for the sake of argument - no relation to any real company) to get the system fixed as soon as he realised he couldn't simply reboot the server to fix the problem.  Unfortunately he couldn't get hold of OMB Inc immediately, but as John knows they're usually very busy he left a voice mail.

By lunchtime the next day, John still hadn't heard back from OMB Inc so he called them again but still got diverted to voice mail.  Again John left a message, stressing the urgency as his clients would expect their tax returns to be completed on time otherwise John would be liable for the fines heading their way!

As it was now weekend John decided to leave the issue until Monday morning, but vowed to chase the it up 1st thing with OMB Inc to make sure he had the time to complete the work on behalf of his clients.

So at 9am on Monday morning, John called OMB Inc yet again to try to get his problem solved.  Again the call was answered by an electronic lady asking him to leave a message and to press 1 for more options.  Unfortunately, John knew that pressing 1 wouldn't get his system up and working so he called us here at Eitex.

Now at this point, we were coming in to a situation cold.  We knew very little about the set-up and configuration of John's systems and very little about the problem other than John's machine was down and wouldn't come back up in any useful way.

Our engineer arrived on-site about 11am and spent the 1st hour identifying the problem and attempting to fix it to no avail.  After this time, he realised we would need replacement parts so we ordered them through our approved partner program for urgent next-day delivery - John was happy to pay for this.

The next day, our engineer was waiting on the doorstep for both John and the parts.  Once everything had arrived, the parts were fitted, tested and the system was brought up.  At this point, the engineer along with John performed some integrity checks on the disks and filesystems and to their horror discovered a corruption of the data.

Obviously, having the system up and running was a major step forwards but without a good backup John was in a terrible pickle.

Luckily though, the tape backup solution John had been using proved, in this instance, good enough to recover the majority of his data.  The only actual loss were the updates and changes made on the day of the crash, which had to be made again.

Happily, through a combination of hard work and long hours John managed to complete all of his client's work before they were hit by late submission fines. And you'll also be pleased to hear everything is OK with the chap at OMB Inc - he was happily away on a 10 day skiing holiday in the French Alps at the time.  When he eventually called John on the 29th January he was politely informed that his services were no-longer required.

(This story is a work of fiction based on real events.  Names have been changed to protect the innocent.)

Secure Thinking Opinion: Hackers Infiltrate Oil and Gas Companies

News yesterday that hackers have been wandering round the networks of major oil and gas companies for years may come as a shock in some quarters.

But industrial and national espionage is huge business and the companies involved should have taken steps to prevent such attacks and should have systems in place to alert management far quicker.

The fact that they don't have adequate security controls, a programme of security penetration testing to measure the effectiveness of their controls and appropriate monitoring and alerting systems in place is a damning indictment of their management hierarchy.

Financial institutions implement such systems and testing as a matter of course. And while there's no guarantee that they will stop all such attacks having a defensive mentality improves the overall level of security.

The oil and gas industry is worth astronomical sums of money. This in itself makes the companies involved attractive targets for corporate and national espionage.

But surely, with the sums involved they could afford to invest in a proper programme of security penetration testing, invest in a "defence in depth" approach to their IT infrastructure, implement high quality alerting and monitoring systems and an effective management team?

The costs of not doing so for the organisations in question may be about to be highlighted.

Secure Thinking Opinion: Teachers to Search Pupil's Phones

I have just read an article on the BBC News website about proposed new powers for school head teachers which will allow them to search for mobile phones and even check the content of the devices.

As a parent I'm torn on this matter. I can see the logic and potential benefits of child protection and the prevention of bullying. But I can also see the issues around serious invasions of privacy, data protection and confidentiality.

Mobile phones these days are more than just telephones. They have the power to be used for a huge range of purposes including internet access, email, online shopping and banking, social networking, taking photos and videos as well as the more traditional phone and text uses.

In addition, there is the likelihood that future technology will take us down the route of contactless payments with mobile phones.

So the question is should teachers and school officials have the authority to search devices containing this kind of data? And what if the device is security protected or encrypted as Secure Thinking would recommend? Will schools be given RIPA like powers to force pupils to hand over password?

And then what of accusations aimed at teachers of breaches of privacy where they do access data on a phone? And where is the line drawn with access to social networks and other resources for which a phone can be used as access but isn't a actually "on" the phone?

When you really look into the implications I believe such legislation should be blocked in favour of a more common sense and pragmatic approach.  Perhaps a solution where phones are merely confiscated for the day if they are being used by pupils.

Secure Thinking When Online

If you run a small business or you manage the HR department of a large organisations you may well be aware of some of the issues surrounding staff use of social networking sites.

Social networking sites such as Facebook, professional networking sites like LinkedIn, and the various personal and professional blogging facilities, not to mention the micro-blogging sites like Twitter provide everyone with an opportunity to communicate with others with whom they have an affinity, voice their grievances and raise awareness of issues.

The problem for businesses and employers is when employees over-step the professional/social boundary.

If employees use social networking to make comments about the company, fellow employees, management or customers it can have a dire effect on business, perceptions and relationships both inside and external to the organisation.

Whilst many companies are aware of this and take some steps to mitigate the risk, it is often only done using a stick.  The general approach appears to be to discipline anyone who oversteps the mark - even when those marks aren't clearly defined.  This leads to further frustration and ultimately a breakdown in relations between employer and employee.

At Secure Thinking, we believe that this approach is wrong and have now decided to do something about it.  We are therefore offering a new awareness service - Secure Thinking When Online - where we will come on site at your company, or other location, and present to your staff about the risks of online behaviour, why the rules exist and how to protect themselves in their everyday internet based activities.

Secure Thinking: New Year's Resolution

It's that time of year again when we all make new year's resolutions.  It's pretty much par for the course.  We will be all enthusiastic for the 1st few days or maybe even weeks (if you're really keen).  Then it will all tail off into nothing.

The same story happens every year - why should this be any different?

Well how about setting a New Year's Resolution you can stick to?  One that will enhance your professional and business reputation?  One that will bring huge benefits to your organisation?

The New Year's Resolution I'm talking about is to call Secure Thinking and let us see if we can help you improve the Information Security within your business.  We can look at your current  information security policies, procedures and controls and investigate whether they are effective and are protecting your business interests.

We can also help you out with ongoing information security management which can plague businesses and is frequently ignored by busy owner managers.

So whatever information and IT security needs you may have, whether you require help with business processes such as security policies, procedures and standards, with employee education  in the form of awareness, guidelines and training, or with technical solutions such as anti-virus, encryption and secure backups, contact Secure Thinking now and make this year's resolution one that truly benefits you and your business!

Eitex: New Year's Resolution

Are you making a New Year's Resolution?

It's that time of year again when we all make new year's resolutions.  It's pretty much par for the course.  We will be all enthusiastic for the 1st few days or maybe even weeks (if you're really keen).  Then it will all tail off into nothing.

The same story happens every year - why should this be any different?

Well how about setting a New Year's Resolution you can stick to?  One that will enhance your professional or business life?  One that will bring huge benefits to your organisation?

The New Year's Resolution I'm talking about is to call Eitex and let us see if we can help you improve your use of IT within your business.  We can look at your current  IT systems and investigate whether they are performing to their maximum or whether there is room for improvement.

We can also help you out with ongoing IT support issues and technical computer problems which often plague businesses and are frequently left unfixed by many IT support providers.

So whatever IT needs you may have, whether you require help with hardware such as printers, laptops, servers or mobile devices, with security in the form of anti-virus, anti-spyware or device encryption, or with software solutions such as CRM, Exchange or Microsoft Office, contact Eitex now.

Make this year's resolution one that truly benefits you and your business!