Security Recommendations

• Firewalls
• Virus Protection
• Intrusion Detection
• Browser Object Detection
• Hijack Detection
• Spyware Detection
• Website Filtering
• SPAM Blocking
• Regular Backing Up of Data
• Physical Hardware Inspection
• Backup Power Suplly
• Disaster Recovery Plan
• Redundancy

Threats
Here is a list of just a few of the possible threats to the safety, security, and well-being of your computers:

• Malicious e-mail messages
• Malicious web pages
• Hackers
• Power Failure
• Fire
• Theft
• Disgruntaled employees
• Employee Accidents
• Natural Disasters
• Others

Firewalls
A firewall is your first line of defense against denial of service attacks, hackers and some forms of viruses, worms, and spyware. We recommend that every persistant connection to the internet be through a quality firewall. Firewalls come in two types: hardware and software. For the average office we use both types. All Internet traffic is routed through a hardware firewall before reaching any computers. We use and like hardware by:

• Cisco Systems
• Linksys
• Netopia

For advanced networks we might also install a computer as a dedicated firewall/router. We have had good success with with this using inexpensive computers running the Linux operating system.

We also recommend that each computer have its own firewall software installed. This adds an additional layer of protection and will go far to prevent the spread of viruses between computers. Note that not all viruses come in from the Internet. When considering security, one must not forget activities by disgruntaled employees. We use and recommend:

• Norton Firewall
• Norton Internet Security (includes Norton Firewall)

Virus Protection
Viruses can come from e-mails, web pages, or even software installed from CD-ROM. Most infections are the unintentional result of normal computer operations, such as opening an e-mail. Some are the result of intentional malicious behavior by a disgruntaled employee. We use and recommend the following anti-virus software:

• Norton Anti-virus
• Norton Internet Security (includes Norton Anti-virus)

For those looking for a free anti-virus software we really recommend that you buy Norton. If you don't mind sacrificing some security, however, and are on a tight budget, we recommend:

• AVG Anti-virus

Intrusion Dectection
Coming soon...

Browser Object Detection
We use and recommend:

• BHODemon
  

Hijack Detection
Coming Soon...