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Easy and Essential Cyber Security Habits: Part 2

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It’s never too late to start new cyber security habits so why not start now

Let’s begin Part Two of our series where we’ll be exploring the ways you can keep your passwords safe and secured.

Ah, yes, passwords. Something we all use daily, but don’t think twice about securing, even though we should. Here are a few practicalities you should consider when it comes to creating and resetting your password.

Protect Your Passwords!

It’s human nature to want to store our passwords somewhere convenient for easy accessibility, i.e. it’s written on a post-it or on your notes application, but it is easy to see why this is a big no-no; we are making it way too easy for us to be targeted.

Instead, put your passwords in a secure place such as LastPass or Password1. This way, all your passwords will be securely stored in one place. This will also relieve you of the task of remembering every single password to every one of your accounts.

Don’t Reuse Passwords!

Resist the temptation to using the same password for all your accounts. Don’t use passwords that you use for your business accounts or your personal accounts and don’t use passwords you use for your personal accounts for your business accounts. Just don’t reuse passwords in general. Trust us, you’re just setting yourself up for trouble!

It Shouldn’t Be So Simple!

Don’t make your passwords simple. Your passwords should not be ‘password’ or ‘123456’ or something else that is obvious. Use a combination of numbers, symbols and capital letters in your passwords.

Use a Two-Factor Authentication!

When possible, use two-factor authentication. This provides an extra layer of security when logging into an account.

Often with two-factor authentication, it will require the user to receive a one-time password via text message or email, in order to verify the correct user of the account.

Secure It!

A fool-proof way to ensure none of your passwords will be stolen by hackers is by installing proper cyber security systems on your digital devices. Make sure you are also updating your cybersecurity systems often to be one step ahead of the game.

Check out Part Three of this series, which includes tips on how to improve your smartphone cyber security habits!

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Easy and Essential Cyber Security Habits

Blog Post / By Lisa Ly

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It’s never too late to start new cyber security habits so why not start now!

With our four-part blog series, Easy and Essential Cyber Security Habits, we will be giving you tips to help you create and improve your cyber security habits, keeping you protected and productive all year long.

Part 1: Where to Start?

In order to put cyber security habits into practice, you need to have a starting point, so without further ado, let’s get started.

Think Before You Click!

First and foremost, think before you click on anything. Be careful of any suspicious links that may appear in an email, on social media or on a website. These links tend to be loaded with malware or viruses that ends up wreaking havoc your computer or phone when clicked on.

It Sounds Too Good to Be True!

Just like how suspicious links can lead to the unleashing of malware or a virus, an email with an insanely good offer that requires you to click on a link or fill out your personal information is probably a scam as well. Good rule of thumb, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is!

Don’t Use the Wi-Fi!

Often you may find yourself at a cafe or a store or some other place that offers free Wi-Fi. Sounds safe enough, right? Well consider the fact that it may be UNSECURED public Wi-Fi, it isn’t as harmless you may think. So, what exactly does this mean to you?

This means you shouldn’t use it! Unless you absolutely need to, using unsecured public Wi-Fi puts your data at risk for being hacked and stolen! Our advice? Steer clear of using public Wi-Fi unless you know for sure that it has security protection; you just never know the intention of others especially with Wi-Fi being so accessible to everyone.

Have a Backup or Two or Three!

When it comes to cybersecurity, you can never have too much backup of your data. That being said, you should already have an additional place where all you save all your data, documents and other digital files as a backup, so in the event that you do end up being hacked, you still have all your data securely stored somewhere else. Regularly backing up your data is a great proactive way to take preventative measure against data loss.

Encryption is Key!

There is value in having your data encrypted. If you do get hacked the hacker would have a difficult time of getting your data. And if any of your devices were to be stolen it would give you an extra layer of security before remote wiping the device.

Don’t Deny

Don’t think you aren’t a target. Anyone can be hacked, have data stolen, get malware or get a virus. You need to take measures to prevent it from happening.

Wow, so many useful and helpful tips to keep good cyber security habits! In Part Two of our Easy and Essential Cyber Security Habits series, we’ll be exploring what you can do to keep your passwords safe.

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Google Ransomware Map

Blog Post / By VPLS Marketing Team

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Did you know? Every 40 seconds, a business is targeted with a ransomware attack!

Google Maps displays ransomware attacks against medical, educational and governmental organizations as reported across the US with the Ransomware War Map. This map provides users with the name and industry type of the attacked organization, the location of where the event took place, in addition to the date and time the incident occurred. Also provided with the map is information on whether a ransom was paid to the attacker in the aftermath as well as a link to the full story for those who want to learn more about the attack.

Google Maps Ransomware War Map

What is Ransomware?

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) defines ransomware as, “a type of malicious software, or malware, designed to deny access to a computer system or data until a ransom is paid.” Ransomware has become one of the biggest challenges for security analysts today and is currently one of the most dangerous malware attack platforms actively in use on a global scale. Recovering files has become very difficult resulting in some organizations having to pay the ransom to recover files with no guarantee of regaining access.

How can you protect your organization in addition to utilizing this map?

VPLS offers a full breadth of Managed Security Services to protect your organization. Whether that be in the form of a total Managed SOC Solution or employee training to become human firewalls, we are ready to protect your organization from the inevitable malware attack, so contact us today!

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Personal Backup: When is Enough, Enough?

Blog Post / By VPLS Marketing Team

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Backing up your data on a regular basis is one of the most crucial practices for technology users; this ensures that your important data will never be completely gone, hence you have saved it in another form or at another place for safekeeping. On a large scale, enterprises are prime examples of how to properly back up data as they have various sources of backup strategically and conveniently spread out. Their backup sources include an on-premise option, backup stored at a data center, as well as backup stored using cloud services.

But what about when it comes to backing up personal data? Does one naturally take the same precautions as they would for their professional data? Do you go to the same great lengths to ensure that you have access to your irreplaceable pictures, important documents, and even forms of identification in the case of an emergency? If you have answered “no” to these questions, then it’s time to discuss why we need to view and prioritize backing up our personal data with the same importance as our professional data. So, without further ado, let’s delve right into why backing up your personal data should be a natural part of your tech life routine.

Why You Should Backup Your Data

First things first; let’s identify why backing up personal data is important to us. In this fast-paced world where it’s easy to choose convenience over logic, we tend to only rely on one source or place to store all our personal files. Whether that place be our phone, laptop, or desktop, the mere thought of disaster striking or the idea of losing our sole source seems too far-fetched to even cross our minds at all. That is, until it actually happens to you and in an instant, you lose all your personal files such as your important school assignments, pictures, and signed contracts, with no way of retrieving of any of it back. It is at that moment, you realize that you should have spent the extra time and effort in saving your items onto at least one more place that could have prevented your upcoming hardships in trying to recover from your data loss. Don’t do this yourself!

What to Do

Now that we clearly see why it is important to have backup for your personal data, let’s talk about why it’s always good practice to have more than one backup to keep yourselves well-prepared should the unpredictable happen. A great place to start is to have at least three backups of your personal data in different forms – your hard drive such as the one on your computer or your laptop as it does not require internet to access your files; a USB device being that it is small and portable making it convenient for you to carry it around with you in addition to it not requiring internet to use either; and finally, a cloud service like VPLS’ cloud services that you can access using any device with internet that makes saving changes to your files quick, easy, and efficient; whenever you make a change to your file on the cloud server, the change would automatically update the file everywhere else the server is connected to.

Finally, we are now ready to address the question on everyone’s mind: How much backup is enough backup for your personal data? And the answer to that question is simply that, there is no such thing as “enough” backup for your personal data; in other words, the limit does not exist. It all really depends on how you feel about your data; if your files are important to you, then you would do everything in your power to ensure that you will always have a way to access your saved data and files regardless of what may happen. But if you really could not care less about your photos, school papers, electronically signed contracts, ID forms and so forth, then go ahead and continue to only save them onto just your trusty laptop and hope for the best, since clearly, you are not equipped to handle the worst…Don’t set yourself up for failure; Backup your personal data today!

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5 Things You Need to Know about Windows 7 End-of-Life

News / By VPLS Marketing Team

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Just like everything else in this world, all good matters must come to an end. The once ahead-of-its-time Windows 7 is no exception to the rule. The official end-of-life for Windows 7 is on January 14, 2020. The date is fast approaching, leaving users wondering what action they need to take afterwards. Fortunately, the experts at VPLS can provide the answers to guide you in the right direction to ease your concerns and address all the questions you may have about the aftermath. So without further ado, let’s dive straight into the 5 Things You Need to Know about Windows 7 End-of-Life presented by VPLS:

1. What exactly happens after January 14th, 2020? What does “End-of-Life” even mean?
After January 14th, better known as the official date of “End-of-Life”, Windows 7 users will not receive the automatic updates from Microsoft sites unless they are willing to pay for the extended support. The term “End-of-Life” applies to the idea that there will no longer be any technical support available to assist users with any Windows 7 related matters. A great example of this is Windows XP. You are still able to install it, but the state in which you install it will be the best that it can be; it literally does not get any better–not in a good way.

2. Will Windows 7 still work after End-of-Life?
Users will still be able to install Windows 7, however, they are going to be vulnerable to security threats as there will not be any more updates to upgrade your system against new and advanced cyber threats. It goes without saying that security is the most important aspect of a system!

Fun fact: A couple of years ago, you were able to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 free of charge, but since then, this offer is no longer available. In order to upgrade now, you must purchase it. On the flip side, an offer that is currently ongoing is if you are using Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 Pro and you purchase Office 365 business, Microsoft will provide you with a free license to be upgraded with Windows 10. VPLS offers Office 365 Business and serves as a great way to modernize your system.

3. Should I still use Windows 7?
Just because you can use Windows 7 after expiration, does not mean that you should. It is not advisable to keep on using the software due to the very fact of its vulnerability to cyberattacks, particularly to one called Zero-day, a computer-software vulnerability that is unknown to, or unaddressed by the software maker or antivirus vendors. Although your business might not be aware of the software vulnerability, it might already be known by attackers who are secretly exploiting it.

Pro-tip: It’s good to understand that your defense is in layers – your Operating System (OS) layer is one of your layers of your defensive strategy – it’s just as important as your firewall layer and your network layer. It is unacceptable if your OS layer is not functioning properly.

4. What would be the next steps for anyone to get past their Windows 7?
Go straight to Windows 10. Windows 10 was developed with the consumer’s best interest in mind, being that it is simple to use without needing their technical support. Heed our caution about Windows 8: steer clear from Windows 8! Windows 8 is the antithesis of Windows 10 and was created to be extremely complicated so that users may be super dependent on Microsoft technical support.

5. How does one go about obtaining Windows 10? How can VPLS help?
VPLS provides Windows 10. Additionally, VPLS can help you run a test on your workstation to assess and overcome any incompatibility you may have. A good rule of thumb is that if your workstation is around 7-10 years old, it’s time to replace it. You don’t want to be running computers older than 7 – 10 years old because you are risking them dying on you at any minute, causing data loss.

If you are still on the fence regarding this matter, here are more reasons why you should let go of Windows 7:

Software is going to advance with or without you– people want to use different platforms. Windows 7 would not be able to support the new software because companies will not develop for Windows 7
Hardware will advance without you – you will be left behind – affecting your printers/scanners/cameras/phone.

Ransomware attacks a business every 14 seconds costing companies more than 8 billion dollars yearly!
Vulnerabilities can and will lead you to a plethora of problems that can be costly and long-term.
If you are still planning on keeping and using Windows 7 post “End-of-Life” even after reading these reasons, it’s time to ask yourself these key questions to re-evaluate your thought process: How important is your data? Is your data not important enough where you want to keep it vulnerable?

Finally, if you need one more push to get rid of your Windows 7 after January 2020, consider this: Without defense, criminals can constantly hit your organization with bad emails and phishing links. All it takes is one person in your company on Windows 7 to click on a wrong email or link and it can shut down your entire business…Do yourself a favor; don’t risk it.

To learn more about our Office 365 Services, contact VPLS today!

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Managed Infrastructure

Blog Post / By VPLS Marketing Team

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VPLS provides managed infrastructure that helps businesses secure their devices. In this blog, we are focusing how our managed infrastructure specifically helps schools keep their important data safe. We pointed out three types of infrastructure that we manage and that we find important for schools.

Wireless Security

Wireless networks can be easily exploited because they use airwaves for communication and wireless-enabled laptops are everywhere. The common problems of wireless networks that cause them to be so vulnerable are poor or older access point technology, lack of knowledge amongst employees about security precautions, and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. With the increase in use of wireless-enabled devices among employees, confidential data stored on these devices, and ease of engaging in risky wireless behavior, wireless security has become more important.

This can be especially dangerous for schools, as personal devices are using the school’s network and students and teachers might be unaware of the dangers that could arise when they are connected to an unprotected network. Implementing a wireless security system allows the school to discover vulnerabilities, prevent cyber attacks, and assess threats by controlling who gets access to a network.

Specifically valuable for schools, or any large entity, VPLS offers managed wireless security services, 802.1X, which provides network authentication to WIFI and other types of networks. 802.1X makes use of Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), a protocol which expands on authentication methods. 802.1X has high wireless security because EAP requires the user to connect to a wireless network through an access point which then requests identification data from the user and transmits that data to an authentication server. The authentication server communicates with the access point to validate the identification and the user is then able to connect to the network.

Network

VPLS’s DUO Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) services ensures strong user and data security through robust authentication methods which clarify users are who they say they are. MFA uses a combination of passwords and biometrics such as finger scan, face recognition, etc. To address the concern of cybersecurity, many companies are implementing MFA because it is one of the best security measures an organization can implement to protect a business and its users and data. According to MarketsandMarkets, MFA market is expected to reach $12.51 billion by 2022, proving that more and more people are realizing its importance. So, why do schools need MFA? As BYOD is growing in schools, MFA is necessary to provide protection against breaches on these devices and keep students’ and teachers’ information safe.

Firewall

Firewalls are important to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. This helps keep devices within a school’s network safe from being attacked over the internet and protects confidential information by controlling access to specific websites and blocking malicious users outside of the network. Management of firewall services is very important because it is any businesses’ first line of defense against hackers and other unauthorized external users. VPLS’s FortiGate firewall services filter incoming and outgoing network traffic, allowing authorized information to flow freely between devices, allowing smooth and safe use of network for the school.

VPLS Orange County and Los Angeles County California

Let us help you make your school safe from hackers. Our firewall, network security, and wireless security services will ensure that students’ and faculty’s data are secured. Contact us today for your managed infrastructure needs!

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The Importance of Managed SIEM Security in School Districts

Blog Post / By VPLS Marketing Team

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When it comes to cyber-security, K-12 school districts have more to lose now than before. In addition to new threats and breaches, cyber-security can also prevent schools from achieving and maintaining unique K-12 requirements, such as FERPA and CIP, which can lead to numerous funding and liability issues in the long run. Educational institutions are especially susceptible to a multitude of cyberattacks. Along with unexpected breaches, overlooked access points in data systems can provide cybercriminals an entry to obtain classified and valuable data.

While onsite Security Analysts can help monitor your school premises, many signs or evidence of cybercrimes remain buried within your extensive data log which can go unnoticed for long periods of time. Inevitably, some attacks will also go undetected due to human oversight. This is why having VPLS Managed Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) services at your school environment is extremely crucial to help prevent this form of serious data and revenue loss.

Having Managed SIEM Services by VPLS at your district helps Security Analysts identify any potential attack that may cause immediate damage, calling for a quicker response to take preventative action. Our Managed SIEM services record all security-related activities, such as malware related activity patterns, as well as other suspicious activities, like multiple login attempts, and will alert analysts with a detailed report on the incident, ensuring the right people are aware of what is going on. VPLS Managed SIEM services can also help your K-12 environment be FERPA, CIP, and PCI compliant by backing your school with proper legal and operational specifications. VPLS Managed SIEM Services protect and strengthen any vulnerabilities you have within your data system. Experts at VPLS accomplish this by continuous vulnerability monitoring and regular network vulnerability testing.

Why choose VPLS as your Managed SIEM Service provider?

VPLS is an AlienVault Gold Managed Service Provider and deploys AlienVault Unified Security Management (USM) to protect thousands of endpoints. Our team of experts are highly skilled and experienced in IT Solutions across-the-board to ensure only the most reliable and professional assistance for your environment. Learn more about how schools can benefit from cyber security.

To learn more about our Managed Security Information Event Management, contact VPLS today!

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The Important Difference Between Backup and Disaster Recovery

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What is a DDoS Attack?

A DDoS attack can be much worse than a simple DoS (Denial of Service) attack, because unlike a DoS attack, its DDoS cousin is generally launched from multiple computers and multiple Internet connections, and these attacks are very often global in scope, being distributed by botnets. If your website were to be victimized by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, it could be completely engulfed by junk data, and shut down by the sheer inability to handle all that incoming traffic. Of course, there would be no way to halt the attack either, because it would be impossible to block any single address thought to be the culprit. So what can be done to prevent the possibility of a DDoS attack on your company servers?

Kinds of DDoS attacks

There are several types of DDoS attacks which criminal-minded individuals can unleash on unsuspecting websites, and all of them will result in major downtime if the site is not protected somehow. The first type of DDoS attack is a straightforward traffic attack, in which tons of data packets are sent directly to the target website, some of which are malicious in nature, and are intended to penetrate network security for the purpose of exploiting the site.

Bandwidth attacks are those which unleash tremendous volume of junk data against a site, resulting in a huge loss of bandwidth and network resources for the website. Another very popular type of DDoS attack is the application attack, which targets the applications layer of a website and leaves it without critical applications to carry out normal functions. There are other types of DDoS attacks as well, but all of them involve overwhelming system resources in some way with unwanted and illegitimate data, such that the network is unable to handle the huge increase in traffic, or is left without valuable resources which are needed to carry out important system functions.

Why Krypt is the Best Anti-DDoS Solution

Because most DDoS attacks involve directing massive amounts of junk packets or other data at an intended victim site, any really effective solution would need to be able to handle that overwhelmingly excessive data, so that system resources don’t become bogged down and rendered useless. For this reason, there is nothing which works better for your Bare Metal and Cloud Server equipment than Krypt’s anti-DDoS solution – right from the moment that the origin traffic is detected, it is re-directed to scrubbing centers all around the globe.

This allows up to 1800 Gbps of traffic to be handled, and all the bad traffic is filtered out of those transmissions, so that only clean, relevant data is forwarded back to Krypt servers, where your company’s network has been situated. Clients of Krypt can select the level of traffic-scrubbing coverage which suits their budget and their circumstances, and rely on the fact that there will never be any flood of data which reaches their servers, to cause traffic problems resulting in downtime.

It's Simple...Choose Krypt!

Krypt was originally founded back in 1998, in Newport Beach, CA, and was at that time focused on providing web and shell services for clients. Because the company had a staff of extremely experienced and knowledgeable professionals, Krypt quickly became an industry leader and expanded its service offerings to become a full-service hosting provider. With two headquarters locations in Orange, CA and Bangkok, Thailand, Krypt has now become a global company capable of providing the very best web hosting services on the cloud. Contact Krypt today to learn about the many other services offered by the company in addition to top-notch protection against DDoS attacks.

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How to Strengthen Your Defense with Krypt’s Anti-DDoS Solution

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What is a DDoS Attack?

Kinds of DDoS attacks

Why Krypt is the Best Anti-DDoS Solution

It's Simple...Choose Krypt!

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The Important Difference Between Backup and Disaster Recovery

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It is a common, but disastrous misconception to think that backup and disaster recovery are the same. This confusion can cause a plethora of data security issues that can potentially hurt the company and damage its brand. Many believe that just a backup alone is enough to prevent data loss in the event of a disaster. However, a backup process is only the beginning stage of a necessary disaster recovery plan. In order to guarantee a business’s data is secured to the fullest, companies need to have a disaster recovery plan in place.

Join VPLS as we delve into what the difference between a Backup and a Disaster Recovery is and why it is extremely necessary to have both for your IT organization.

What is Backup?

Backup is the process of making copies of files as an alternative in case original data is compromised.

What is Disaster Recovery?

Disaster Recovery is a set of procedures designed to protect IT infrastructure in the case of a disaster.

Now that we have identified what each of those procedures consist of, let’s have an expert explain the importance of utilizing both at your tech environment. Darryl Vidal, VPLS’s Director of Operations, shares his input on why it is always best to have both backup and disaster recovery for your company: “You have to do both; if you have a backup but no disaster recovery, your backup could be lost for good [with no way of recovering it].”

We take data loss very seriously here at VPLS, our team has come up with a handful of solutions and services to ensure that our customers’ data is secured even in the most unpredictable worst-case disaster scenarios! The following are some VPLS services designed to help prevent data loss for your IT organization:

Colocation Services

VPLS Colocation services offer geographically-diverse data centers located all over the world to store our customers’ physical backup with 24/7 monitoring and support. Our physical storage is backed up to the cloud for additional security and surveillance.

VPLS Backup and Replication

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

With the help of our business and internal infrastructure, VPLS DRaaS services can gain experience and expertise in real-world situations to create disaster recovery plans for companies of all sizes. VPLS partners with leading software companies who specialize in disaster recovery to provide reliable and quick recovery.

Managed Cloud Backup

VPLS partners with reputable vendors such as Veeam to guarantee our customers reliable Managed Cloud Backup plans. With Veeam Cloud Connect, the need for VPN tunnels is eliminated and users are able to monitor their backups while having full visibility to storage data.

For more information about VPLS’ Backup and DRaaS options and services, please contact us today!

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