1. Don’t Transfer Money

Always pay for items you buy online by card on a secure payment page, by cheque or by cash, in person. However desperate you are to secure an item, never transfer money into the seller’s account, as you may never see the goods or your money ever again.

2. Check that Payment Pages are Secure

Before you enter your card details on a payment page,make sure it is secure by checking that the address starts with ‘https’ (the ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’)and there’s a padlock or unbroken key symbol in the browser window.

3. Use a Credit Card

Still talking about payments, remember that you have more chance of getting your money back in the event of problems if you pay by credit card rather than debit card. Some sellers may charge a premium, but it could well be worth the extra for your peace of mind.

4. Use Auction Sites Safely

At Christmas time, many of us buy from online auction sites. Always use trusted and well-known payment methods instead of paying sellers directly. Read the site and seller’s conditions. And for your personal safety if you’re collecting in person, take someone with you or let people know where you’re going.

5. Check Out Bargains With Care

If you find or are emailed about an item that seems just too much of a bargain, it could be a scam, fake goods or it doesn’t match the description. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

6. Use Social Networks Safely

Social networks are a popular medium for scams – and are becoming increasingly so. If you see a post promising something free of charge, free entry to a Christmas competition with a fantastic prize or perhaps an offer that seems just too good to be true, consider very carefully before following it up.

7. Use Email Safely

An email urging you to click on a link to reveal a special offer, to open an attachment containing some great news, or to “confirm details” or “reset your account”, could well be a scam, even if it appears to come from a reputable source. If in doubt, delete the email and don’t respond to or forward it.

8. Look After That New Smartphone or Tablet

If you’re buying or get bought a new smart phone or tablet, protect it by downloading a reputable internet security App, and make sure it’s safeguarded with a PIN. Install parental control software on kids’ mobile devices, and chat to them about how to use the internet safely.

9. Remember To Log Out

When you’ve finished your online shopping or banking session, always log out of the website or app… it only takes a second. Sometimes, just closing the window doesn’t mean you’ve logged out, and someone else could gain access to your account and personal details. Don’t forget to check and save purchase confirmation emails.

10. Make Sure Wi-fi Is Secure

At home or other premises you know, make sure the Wi-Fiis secured. When you’re out and about – in the café, the pub or a hotel for example – you can’t guarantee it’s secured even if you have to enter a code. When you’re shopping, banking or making other online payments, it’s better to connect with 3G or 4G, even if it’s slower.

11. Beware of Scam Phone Calls

If someone posing as a retailer calls you to confirm an online purchase, it could well be a scam. The idea is that you won’t remember the purchase, and call your bank. However, the fraudster stays on the line, and tricks you into revealing your financial details. If this happens, hang up, don’t call back, but report it.

12. Check Bank Statements

Check your bank and credit card accounts regularly for irregular or unauthorised transactions. If you spot any entries you don’t recognise, contact your bank without delay. Make sure your bank has your up-to-date contact details so they can alert you if they spot anything unusual.

Credits to getsafeonline.org

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We all hear the news, Shellshock, Heart Bleed, Crypto Locker and more, but we have a firewall installed right – so why worry?

I guess if your first response is, “we don’t have or don’t need a firewall”, then you have already started down the path of a network compromise at some point in time.  It doesn’t matter how big or small our companies are, we need to at least have something at the perimeter of our network.  It needs to handle Deep Packet Inspection and really Application Control – we need the ability to monitor what information is traveling around our network and what it is trying to do.

That firewall is only ever going to be as good as the last update it received about Advanced Persistent Threats and that is probably going to be down to the fact of whether your firewall has an active threat management service or not.  We quickly fall into the trap of not renewing those security services – look, “the firewall is doing its job, I am not letting anyone in to my network that should not be, so why renew the firmware, security services, or warranty, I will just replace it if it fails”.

Everyday the field of view changes for a firewall.  Without active firmware updates, warranty and support services, it is like a sitting duck.  It is a frigate out in the ocean that no longer has any weapons on board or everything is seized up.  Sure it is a deterrent, but one day someone will get a little bolder and test it out.  Quickly and without much notice your files could all be encrypted and you find someone pressuring you for a Bitcoin payment to release them back to you.

Don’t get caught out.  A firewall is only as good as its last update.  Get those subscriptions up to date, they are going to help you finish strong.

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The move to the cloud has forced us to take a closer look at our connections out to the internet. A good download is one thing, but upload has become the crucial definer – why?

UK Version of 4 Channel Bond Equipment

If you have your documents located in the cloud, could be on OneDrive, Dropbox, SkyDrive, Sharepoint etc, then getting hold of them is easy. You click to download and within a few minutes your file is accessible locally. What happens once you have made your changes? The typical upload speed is around 800Kb/s – on average much less than 10% of your upload.  As a result your upload takes over 10 times longer.

This for many is just an inconvenience, so what if it takes a little longer to upload?   What if you start to use other bandwidth sensitive services like VoiP, video conferencing or data tracking. Suddenly that large file upload affects the quality of your voice call or the video conference you are viewing. Achieving the best upload speed possible is becoming the holy grail of moving to the cloud.

If you are based close to the CDB, or lucky enough to have NBN, then moving to a faster technology like Fibre or EFM will be cost effective, but the further you move away from the centre the more costly these solutions become. Is there an alternative?

Joining multiple broadband connections together, in what is called a bond, can provide the solution you are looking for. There are numerous ways of doing this and over the last 10 years we have tried most of them! Every option has its pros and cons, but at the end of the day you need a solution that just works and is reliable.

To make the best of the bond we need to provide the broadband connections as well. This is because we control the connections at the Layer 2 level and therefore need to receive the L2TP tunnel directly from the provider. Once the connection arrives on our equipment it is bonded with any other lines, you have with us, that have the same IP address allocation. On average we see around 80% of the combined download speed and up to 90% of the upload.

What about pricing?

Some key things to note. The hardware for each customer site costs almost $2000, and we warranty that for the entire period of the contract. We also INCLUDE the rental and activation of the ADSL lines for the bond and that is included in the monthly rental as well. The only thing you will need to provide is the physical phone lines for the ADSL to be activated on. If you need new lines installed that may cost you $299 install and the monthly line rental, so do bear that in mind.

MONTHLY FEE INCLUDES – ADSL, EQUIPMENT RENTAL AND SUPPORT

We are getting ready to launch this service offering here in Australia so why not indicate your interest by letting us know your details and we will contact you with some more information.

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…. Hackers recently broke into payment systems at several northwestern U.S. restaurants and food service companies via a remote access account belonging to one of their vendors.

…. Authorities may have finally pinpointed the source of the massive Target security breach that allowed hackers to swipe the credit and debit card information of up to 40 million customers. So who’s the culprit? One extremely unfortunate HVAC maintenance man.

But you may not have thought they could relate to you.  Often we spend so much time focussing on stopping people getting in to our network, that we forget about the contractors and service companies that we use.  Generally these vendors need simple remote access to our network and we turn to remote access applications that avoid difficult firewall changes, as they originate their connections from within your secure network.

Does this pose a risk?  Of course it does.  You are now at the mercy of your contractors and service companies.  Their security may not be as good as yours – the password to your Teamviewer, or Logmein account, may be stored on a piece of paper, or just saved in their browsers cache for ease of use – as soon as that password is known, access to your network is quick and simple.

Don’t get caught out – seek advice today if you think you could be vulnerable to compromise from the access you have given out sourced companies.  There are ways to make things more secure, yet simple and we are here to help.

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WatchGuard XTM 330

I was privileged to listen to a great communicator and businessman – Tim Lowe, the other day.  There was one phrase that he used several times while he was speaking and that was – “There must be a way”.

This got me to thinking – we live in an information world where what we need is at our finger tips, but if we can’t find the solution within a few minutes we are conditioned to give up.  I believe that for a business to survive we need to adopt that one phrase – “There must be a way”

Yesterday a customer got in touch as they wanted to purchase a WatchGuard XTM 330.  No hassle I thought and rang distribution to see if there was any stock.   There was no stock, but one was due to arrive that day, so we would be alright.  As the day progressed the magical shipment turned from being that day to over a week later – the sort of supply chain issues I am getting used to here in Australia.  My conditioning was to go back to the customer and let them know they would need to wait.  I then got to thinking, “There must be a way”

The great thing of being part of a company that is based in Europe is that I can often fly hardware in to Australia quicker than it can be shipped from one side of the country to the other.  I knew this was an option, but the customer ideally needed it for today.  After some calling around I was able to find someone with 2 units in stock.  They were 10% more costly and it was going to take a couple of hours to get the account open and for me to be able to purchase.

At the end of the day I kept the sale, made slightly less money, but the customer got what they needed when they needed it.  Time will tell if that effort will turn in to additional sales for that customer, but I did it and that made me feel good.

I wonder what else we can achieve if we just starting saying, “There must be a way”

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Have they only just realised?  The border of your network is the first point of call, by the time it has got through that and to your users computers, most of the battle is lost.  The facts point to desktop anti-virus only stopping around 45% of viruses and with the advent of “Zero Day” attacks we are at a place where an hourly update to a virus signature is too long.  It can take some companies several days to identify and roll out updates for their software.

Do I think that desktop and server virus software is truly dead? – of course not!  Do we say because someone is wearing a seatbelt while in a car that we don’t need to strengthen the chassis and create crumple zones in case of accidents?  Software Anti-Virus is a tool that forms part of the arsenal that we use to combat data loss, but the border for now has to be the place where the most concentrated effort should be put in.

If your border does not have a firewall running Deep Packet Inspection and Threat Prevention then you have a gap in your network that needs closing quickly.  By checking the content of packets leaving your network as well as what is actually trying to use the protocol (its behaviour) will help shape and form policies that not only protect your network, but help recover wasted bandwidth used by applications that are allowed uncontrolled and unmonitored access through your borders.

Don’t rely on just desktop Anti-Virus, times are moving on, it is important to keep up.

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If you have seen Peppa Pig, then you may know that there is one character, above all, that just seems to run everything.  Miss Rabbit – is a Mum, runs the local aquarium, corner shop, breakers yard, christmas tree centre, the list goes on.  She can fly, dive, drive a truck and a train, her skill set is endless.

We know in our working careers that we gain a lot of experience in many areas of our industry.  Does it mean we can do all the roles to the best of our ability – not normally – it does though mean we understand each of those roles a little better for having experienced it.

It is the same with IT.  Can one company cover all the bases – not normally, or if they do they lack in a few of the areas and excel in others.  I know where my core skills are and I stick to those, but that does not mean I can’t help in other areas, it is that I just know my limits and when it is time to put your hand up and ask for assistance.

Shiloh has for many years worked with partner companies that help fill in those experience gaps where needed.  I don’t believe it is a sign of weakness to say to the customer you don’t know, but you work with someone that does.  IT Consultancy is about finding the right product and solution for the customer and not about owning or controlling the whole solution.

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My first site (at the time of writing) has around 1500 products in it and should grow by a further 2000 over the coming weeks.  It is certainly labour intensive getting all the data in, but the community that support it, develop add-on module and additional solutions, make it what it is.

Everyone has an opinion and I am sure you have your preferred ecommerce software, but for something I could run on my own servers, with no license fee, Magento ticked the boxes.  I am now just about to start a second installation for a new client, so it will be interesting to see if I have fall for it further over the coming weeks.

Have a look at my first work in progress – firewalls4now.com.au

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Yesterday I was in the Brisbane CBD and was on the hunt for a photo that maybe portrayed where I am at in that journey.  I am at a stage where I want to focus on very specific areas of my expertise and help clients maximise their IT spend.

Having run a business through some of the toughest times of recent years we have seen in Europe, I believe, gives me a greater insight in to future proofing those purchases and managing our infrastructures for the coming, less certain years.

Australia is an amazing country of vibrance and raw determination, but there are technologies out there that can broaden our horizons, revolutionise the way we work and often change the way we think about IT working within our businesses.   The greatest businesses will be those that use IT as a tool, not as a necessity.

Did I manage a good selfie – I’m not sure, but it got me to thinking and chatting to a few friends along the way.

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With easy access to stock photos and everyone telling you they have their own servers, data centre space or onsite staff across the whole world, it is becoming so difficult to see the wood for all the trees out there.  You want to make an informed decision, but are not sure what is truth and what is an embellishment!

I love templates, they give a structure for a site that kicks things off and gets the creative side of things motoring.  I am driven by a set of images first and the text follows after the layout is done, that is why a template works for me.  The key though is to use real imagery and to make your story transparent.  Every image on this site is owned by me, is often taken by me and is of equipment that we host, own or manage.

There is a real story to be had through these images and the site which conveys something of where Shiloh Computers has come over 27 years and continues as the story unfolds – and if you are wondering I have used the PRO version of the Colorway theme, which just quickly and easily suited the needs to get this site running as the office in Australia has only been open 2 weeks !

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