Security

The old line ‘What you don't know can't hurt you’ is dead wrong when it comes to network security. What you don't know is exactly what will hurt you.

SD-WAN (the software-defined wide-area network) offers a way to create a private network from widespread consumer internet connections without limiting their connectivity.

In this article, we'll be creating a baseline that will only be for Windows servers that will only have critical updates with an auto-approval of two days. Let’s make this happen in PowerShell.

Active Directory (AD) is a Microsoft® software solution to directory services. It locates resources and can handle millions of objects in a single domain, but it can also do a lot more.

You can get a leg up on a potential attacker by figuring out what processes are running under an administrative account in your organization. One way to do that for absolutely free is to use PowerShell!

Providing fast access to applications and data while protecting digital assets are the two biggest challenges faced by network administrators. Performance and security represent the two-pronged mission that administrators find themselves facing every day.

As IT pros already know, when we speak of ports, we mean the 16-bit virtual ports used when interconnecting systems i.e. during communication over protocols such as TCP or UDP and not physical connections on the system such as USB, HDMI etc. See the OSI model and list of port numbers and their assigned function if not an IT pro. Port 80 is commonly used for HTTP activity, for example, and many applications communicate using assigned default ports.

In many jurisdictions, there is a legislative or accounting requirement to store data for a minimum of five years. Easier said than done. That's why multiple data backups are necessary.

Windows event logs are a tool that every cybersecurity and IT professional should have in his or her arsenal. They can be used locally for troubleshooting or centralized for network awareness. When utilized centrally, powerful software known as a Security Information Event Management (SIEM) can be utilized to parse and search log files. But what if you are working locally?  Is there an efficient method to do the same? You will find the answer to these questions lies in Microsoft’s most powerful tool belt, Microsoft PowerShell.

Improper configuration changes to a network—or even just one server on a network—can cause huge issues. They can degrade network performance, shut down key services, and even result in noncompliance with regulatory standards like SOX, PCI, HIPAA and FISMA. And they can compromise network security.

According to the SANS Institute, Port Scanning is one of the most popular techniques attackers use to discover services that they can exploit to break into systems. In this article, we will discuss some best practices you can employ to defend against attackers and prevent potential network breaches.

Many companies that never dreamed they’d be developing their own software are having to “roll their own.” Sometimes it’s an internal-use-only, as a custom layer over an existing platform like Salesforce, sometimes as a product they’re selling. This is what has driven the DevOps methodology over the past several years.

One relatively simple and common tool that provides additional valuable analysis into security incidents is log management.

A lot can change in a decade. In so many ways, we’re living in a completely different landscape than we were just ten years ago, and workplace technology is no exception. We’ve moved workloads to the cloud, introduced BYOD policies, and now rely on workplace wi-fi way for all corporate provisioned devices. All of this network activity puts enormous stress on enterprise networks, and IT teams need to be able to keep track of it to keep things humming. That’s where enterprise network bandwidth monitoring tools come into play.

Every device, OS and application in your IT environment generates a record of activities in the form of log files. These audit trails of activity provide valuable information when investigating security breaches and when submitting regulation compliance reports.

The following is an excerpt from our Network Monitoring blog at whatsupgold.com/blog.

For most IT organizations, network monitoring is an essential tool. Network monitoring tools play an important role in letting IT pros get complete visibility into the status of network devices, systems, and applications, keeping the IT team aware of problems with services, networks, application performance, and more.

Log data can be a tremendous resource for protecting digital assets against cyber attacks. Trouble is, trying to make sense of all the logs generated by IT networks is like pointing a fire hose at someone dying of thirst. They’re desperate for a drink, but they simply can’t handle that much water all at once!

For most IT organizations, network monitoring is an essential tool. Network monitoring tools play an important role in letting IT pros get complete visibility into the status of network devices, systems, and applications, keeping the IT team aware of problems with services, networks, application performance, and more.

For years, there have been concerns of the Chinese government building backdoors and spying capabilities in to phones and hardware built on their soil, and now it seems those concerns are coming to head with a recent Bloomberg story that alleges that Chinese government agents installed thousands of spy chips into servers used by Amazon, Apple, and the US government. How true are these allegations, are our servers safe? In this article, we’ll attempt to figure out what—if anything—happened, and how IT pros should react.

Monitoring traffic on the dark web is the kind of thing that IT administrators worry about, but they can't do anything about. Now IT can pinpoint who and what is accessing the dark web from corporate networks with WhatsUp Gold.