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Business Continuity Experts, Here To Answer Your Questions

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  View The Experts HERE

  View answered questions below


“Another of our laptops went missing this month. There's been so many scandals about lost laptops that we don't want to be the next high profile casualty! We want to make it so that the laptops are useless to thieves, and more importantly so that nobody can access our spreadsheets and databases!”


“Our IT people keep talking about NAC. What is the threat and should I spend money on it?”


“With more and more of our employees getting wireless routers at home, the implications of our wireless security are increasing. I know that we're secure in our offices, but what safety measures should I encourage them to use in their own homes? Or, worse, in Starbucks!”


“Our company can no longer rely on using usernames and passwords to access our networks and different systems. Due to the number of passwords people need to remember, our technicians are forever dealing with forgotten passwords, our employees writing them down to remember them or using easily guessed words. What alternatives are there for a company with around 2000 desktops?”


“We need to send our clients very confidential and restricted information on a regular basis. We have been sending all documents by courier for safety reasons, but this is slow and expensive. I don't dare sent emails across our server. What can I do?”


“We're looking at investing in a security solution which apparently covers all threats. Our concern is that we will spend the bulk of our budget on one and then new threats will come out and make it obsolete (like ipods when they came out). What can we do to future-proof?”


“We are a small company, and have recently installed IM. Should I be worried about security risks, if so, what can I do to combat these, and ensure the safety of our information?”


“What can be done to make IT security professionals a respected and valued voice to senior management? How can we get the attention of senior management controlling the purse strings?”


“What would you say are the highest risk areas in a network operations environment? We’re putting our budget together at the moment and I wondered if there are areas we are missing which should get more focus.”


“When using SSL VPN’s, do email attachments travel through the encrypted tunnel”


“We are considering changing our website so that it affords our clients the ability to make online payments. What are the risks associated with doing this?”


“If a virtual machine host is hacked, what are the consequences? Would the hacker then have access to all of the Virtual Servers?”


“We have just entered a scheme where we are committed to take a number of students on work experience each year. I want to limit the data and programs they have access to, but as some pc’s are shared I’m unsure how to do it for just the work experience staff.”


“Do I really need to go to the cost and inconvenience of having Anti-Virus software installed on our computers that don’t connect to the internet? We have never done so before (and never had any problems) but an IT consultant has advised it.”


“Our client spreadsheets and databases are password protected so that only our employees that need access have it. One of our big clients said this wasn’t good enough though. How can I ensure that only certain people have access?”


“Recently, we have taken on more employees and have added more email addresses which obviously go through our servers. We have a system which marks potential spam as the messages get delivered, but I believe that too much time is being spent opening and looking at this spam so our teams aren’t as productive as they could be. What else can we do?”


“After some incidents where we had to dismiss staff for violating our email policies by sending sensitive information outside the company, we decided to tighten up security by installing CCTV, filtering software and performing spot checks on machines. This has worked and increased productivity but now I think that employees are simply calling each other to communicate everything that we’ve blocked on their PC’s. Is it legal for me to record their calls as a countermeasure?”


“Laptops usable at home are a benefit we have always provided for our sales team, but they keep using them for god knows what and downloading spyware and malware from home. What can I do to stop them? I don’t want to just take away this perk.”


“All our internal systems run Windows. I know that there are always patches being released but keeping all the machines up to date is a nightmare. Is it safe to wait and update the systems weekly, if not – what is the recommended wait time, or system for installing these updates? ”


“Is it possible to set any IM application so it will only send typed text and only to certain people? I’d like to do this for my entire company as it will help save money on phone calls between branches. Can I also ensure all conversations are stored?”


“We just changed to a higher rated antivirus package at a higher expense, but I am being flooded with complaints that it has slowed systems down. I’ve signed up for 2 years but do have a 3 month cancellation period; So, what I want to know is if the better products always slow systems down, or can I choose one that doesn’t?”


“I want to train my staff to not cause security problems rather than spending a lot of money implementing systems they will only try to work around. What is the best sort of course? We’re based in London.”


“My company’s network administrator uses VNC to help assist him in supporting out users computers. Being able to remotely view people’s systems makes his role a lot easier due to geographical issues. However it does concern me that people outside of our network might gain access to these remote machines if the VNC software is installed. Is this possible? ”


“I am looking after the IT for my company after our IT manager left under a cloud. It appears that when we replaced our machines 18 months ago the licenses for the operating systems on 35 machines were not genuine. We do not have the budget until April to purchase new licenses but cannot afford to be without the computers. What options are available to allow us to use these machines?”


“Our sales staff are encouraged to have rapport with our clients as this is beneficial to sales. The clients keep sending joke mails through some of which are against our IT policy (rude or potentially offensive) and obviously put our employees at risk from our policy. The other issue is that on occasion we have received viruses from the attachments these clients send through. We don’t really want to tell our staff they cannot trade emails with our clients, but how can we properly filter the good from the bad in terms of attachments and content?”


“Recently we have started using VOiP for handling the majority of our calls. The company that supplies our VOiP uses a VPN for routing which seems to work quite well. My question is, are there additional security measures that we should be considering when using VOiP in preference to a more typical telephone system? ”


“We are just expanding following a couple of very good years and will have 18 offices across the UK. Until now we have managed with an IT manager who went from site to site as and when needed. Now we will be spread a lot thinner with over 200 miles from the most outlying offices, what are the best options to allow our systems to be managed remotely? ”


“I have heard that there will be far less for small businesses to worry about when Microsoft launches their new operating system ‘Vista’ with its own security package. Is it worth waiting for this to be launched before investing in any updated hardware and software? ”


“We recently had to give a number of our employees written warnings after they accessed email accounts and sent prank (internal) emails. The problem is that either machines were left logged in whilst people were away from their desks, or the passwords were very easy to guess, in 3 instances were the names of the peoples children! We have tried to implement a stronger password system, but people keep forgetting them and have taken to writing them down and storing them close to their machines. This is obviously not good enough – so we are wondering what options we have left apart from some form of biometric system (fingerprint scanners or something)? ”


“"Our offices were recently ‘ram-raided’ but fortunately nothing was stolen as they failed to gain access. It has put us firmly on the back foot though. What options are available to backup our entire systems and keep them safe asides from physically carrying backup’s around with us? If we need to recover our systems we need to do it as quickly as possible, because without the systems in place, we cannot trade!" ”


“I am an IT manager within a mid sized company and the nature of our business means we do have a number of partners we work with. My MD has asked me to ‘acquire’ the information held by these partner companies without their knowledge so we can add the information to our own databases. This feels wrong, but I am not sure how to tell me boss that I don’t want to. Help.”


“We have our work email addresses, but also use web based mails while at work like hotmail, yahoo and gmail. I think that other people at work have been reading my personal email from these web based systems which seems wrong. Can they do this? If so, can I stop them?””


“We have been receiving emails that look like they are from a legitimate source, but when people have clicked the links on them, software has been installed onto their PCs. This has happened three times now and can waste a whole afternoon to sort out. How can we prevent this?”


“"When our employees access their emails, they simply type in their username and password either from their desktop, or remotely from our web based corporate system. Recently one of these was accessed without the users’ knowledge so I realized we need additional security but there are so many options! What is the best and most cost effective solution?" ”


“All of the security measures that our IT team have implemented seem to have slowed down our overall network, from the anti-virus and real-time detection capabilities on the desktops, through to the filtering and checking as any traffic comes through our servers – and I believe the logging of everything happening on the network. Is all this really necessary? If so, what can be done to speed our systems up in other ways? It’s costing time and causing frustration!”


“I noticed you have trials for a number of antivirus products for smartphones on your newsletter and website. Are these really necessary? I don’t know how my phone could get a virus or what harm it could do!”


“I’m concerned about the data stored on our computers and servers. Our computers are obviously secured in our offices overnight and we back up our information on a regular basis, but I am worried about someone stealing these and being able to use the information. How can I protect ours, and our clients’ data? ”


“We're opening a new branch, which we need to equip with new PCs. My former colleague has recently swapped from a Microsoft operating system to a Linux one as he says that it is more secure. Is this true? We store client's bank details so security is important to us.”


“ Our anti virus package has expired. I'm looking for something that will stop viruses, adware, malware and generally protect our 16 desktops. Would a package of 'AVG anti-virus free edition' and 'Spybot search and destroy' do the job? I'm obviously looking to be cost efficient, but I also want to make sure that we are safe.”


“My employees use Windows Messenger, which we implemented because it is cheap and easy for contacting each other and certain clients. I'm concerned that this is difficult to monitor though. Is there a way of restricting people on their contact list and content exchanged?”


“We run 1500 PCs and laptops. Although we are very well protected for our emails, our employees are allowed to access the internet at lunchtimes. I'm concerned about content and the potential threats to our networks, but I don't want to change our IT policy to become too strict. What can I do? ”


“After seeing your competition question about data theft from within, I have become concerned. We have no policy for protecting our information from theft by our own employees! We hadn't thought of that! What can we do to protect ourselves”

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