Passwords, it's all change...(again)

Once again 'lack of' security has hit the headlines with the Yorkshire Building Society being found guilty of leaving an insufficiently secure laptop overnight, leading to it being stolen. To compound this, it was left with hand written password notes!! We have also very recently heard of many thousands of PayPal accounts compromised through iTunes and the huge financial company Zurich 'losing' an unencrypted backup tape. The impact of all of these cases means that many of their customers have had their details in the hands of unscrupulous individuals.

How many times do we have to be caught with our doors and windows open before we take it seriously?

Just having the details of existing accounts is not enough to assume the users identity, there is also another piece of information that is paramount..the password .

So, are your passwords strong enough?

Did you know that experts have found t is possible to break an 8 digit password in approximately 2 hours?

The good news is that should you choose to add 4 extra characters to your password, it will take 17,134 years to make the password snap.

There are many ways we can help ourselves to limit the possibility of our passwords being broken. They include;

• Having a policy to change it regularly
  
• Making sure we always use unrelated/complex words
  
• Maybe start to use full sentences as a password?
  

If you would like further help or advice on security related to your IT, we have experts on hand ready to take your call.

02380 386586

The price of watching TV online

I have picked up a fair bit of news relating to the growing trend of watching TV online, when not in the UK.

Many of our customers ask us how they can watch services like BBC iPlayer and ITV Player when they are on holiday or working overseas.

Many people don't realise that it is not possible to watch these services unless your internet connection is directly attached to an Internet Service Provider often from the country of origin.

The licensing laws are quite strict, which restricts the use of such services, including Hulu and SeeSaw.

The Internet is, however, littered with services that profess to circumnavigate these controls, but at what cost?

Many of these services work by creating a link between your computer and a special server on the Internet which will mask your actual location and pretend you are linked in from somewhere else.

This connection is (in most cases) a V.P.N. This stands for Virtual Private Network and is not at all uncommon to travelling business people, as it is used in many instances for them to connect from their computer to their office.

The danger with this type of connection is that the server you are attached to could gain access to your computer and whilst you are watching your favourite episode of East Enders, all of your data is being copied from your computer.

The moral of the story is, always be sure you know who you are creating a VPN connection with!

If you have experienced any issues with this type of technology, or would like any advice, please feel free to contact us at www.hjsessentia.co.uk

Blackberry Services – Not Global ?

The 'IT' news has been full of speculation as to the possible security risk posed to the national security of some countries, by using Blackberry services.

Every single email that is sent to and from a Blackberry Handset, at some time in its life, travels via the Blackberry Servers, provided by the manufacturers called RIM (Research In Motion).

The reason given for looking at banning Blackberry services (including email and messenger) is because potentially confidential information is routed out of the country of origin, before delivery to the intended recipient.

Some Governments are looking at this as a risk that does not need to be taken, so much so the UAE will be banning these services from October 11^th 2010.

The interesting thing about this is that whenever anyone discusses the best, high security way for business, from big to small, to provide email services on the move in the most secure way, the answer is Blackberry!

In relation to many services, Blackberry has the most security and control possible over the user's handsets. It is possible to execute many commands to a Blackberry handset, including blocks on lost or stolen handsets, installing new applications, setting up (provisioning) new handsets, as well as tracking all emails sent and even viewing text messages. All communications between a Blackberry and the servers the information travels through is highly encrypted.

So is it that the governments are unhappy with the security, or is it more likely that they are unhappy with not being able to break the security?

If you are interested in Blackberry and would like to know more, please feel free to get in touch with us at www.hjsessentia.co.uk