Since clouds are relatively young these days and boasts easy getting around with data, they are particularly not immune to spyware, data theft and low privacy. Hence, for people opting for the cloud, there are three key issues affecting database security.

Incoming data, even sensitive ones entering an enterprise is itself a major online threat. Being outsourced, it does not come under the jurisdiction of IT departments, which exerts control over in-house programs. Where once local businesses had firewalls and other protocol, now all outsiders are insiders.

One of the basic concepts of cloud computing is that, customers do not know where their data is located. It’s just there on the air is one remote server and from where the data flexibility comes from. Hence, the servers hosting this data may also vary the capacity time and again depending on certain circumstances. This may result in an uneven configuration that would hinder the functionality of some technologies we are dependent on.

As providers do not possess restriction security standards, it’s up to the organizations to ensure the security of their own data. Providers should then give sufficient rights, visibility and physical control over all activity to and from the company. For ensuring data security, local businesses ought to possess user admin rights and their own monitoring squad with pass codes for entry in data centers to retrieve and manage data.

Data centers and clouds can be modified to further fortify data they contain, but still, maintaining ease of access for its consumers. Think of a data center as a mighty locker room. Every company has a key to its own locker and has certain privileges over its data and delivery of its own services. But, the consequence may be lack of performance and availability of cloud resources for every customer on the cloud. That is to say customers are required to “pay homage” not only to the cloud provider, but also to the company as well.

The best solution that exists for customers of cloud computing that provides computer security, data security and mutual benefit to end-users without depleting the advantages of the cloud or making a major transfer of power necessary is:

• Education of end users and small companies of the location of data.
• Provision of privileges and rights to company owners, administrators and consumers to an extent of transparency to increase data security.
• Enhancing physical security and cloud police to an in-depth level.

Put together, the three options if used individually or together can to an extent appease all parties utilizing and providing cloud services. An antivirus plan or firewall can be furthermore offered to small businesses to safeguard their businesses.

Hence, one has to remain knowledgeable about internet security and risks when running a small business.

What is termed as Internet Security?

Internet security is the safeguarding of one’s own data from being stolen, lost, accessed, modified, copied or used by users who are not allowed to. Information and data of a company is its lifeblood and an act of violation to its data can harm it a lot. Hence, security is highly necessary for the integrity of a company. In fact, so large is this need that giants like Bing, Yahoo and Google employ entire teams and have exclusive systems for maintaining their security from any online threat.

The biggest thing at stake of any attack is obviously its data. In cyberspace, malicious code and criminal groups are frequent and any small business is vulnerable to them. An attacker aims to gain control of computers within the enterprise and almost all malwareaims to damage the system. Upon getting access to the files stored on the computers, many different acts of sabotage, abuse or theft can occur.

Vital data that may get lost may include company information, client credit card numbers, customer data and other lists. If data theft does happen; the unfortunate result is loss of trust from customers, heavy financial loss, loss of market credibility and the list goes on.

Even worse than that, is that the attacker does not stop there. Since entire systems are linked and transition from various systems can be carried out in no time at all, the attacker can be able to focus on another system and under the cover of the previous one, be able to infiltrate it. After hacking, the “owned” computer can be manipulated to do the attacker’s actions.

If the other system owns or runs any kind of small business through, its portal can be destroyed, removed or replaced with other types of media. If in turn, the activities of the other system are classified or illegal, the loss of data can not only cause the afore-mentioned damage, but can also lead to other organizations turning against that system.

Protection

As horrific as it does sound, the situation is not hopeless. As an owner of a small business, there is a lot one can do to protect their assets and data. Knowledge of the surrounding online threats and personal business strategy is a key component finding a solution to this problem. One does not have to be a security analyst or something like that to understand the problems and motives of other parties around them. By understanding how all the factors lie, small businesses can strengthen their stance to preserve their own interests.

You needn’t bother yourself with state of the art security systems and expensive resources to protect your business. In fact, according to a recent study by Symantec, 82% of all users could have avoided a data loss attack by simply following an effective cyber security plan.

Malicious Code (Spyware/Viruses/Trojan Horse/Keyloggers)

Malicious code is everywhere and you may never know where and when it would attack. So, keep yourself well-sheltered under some good antivirus software. Yes, no matter how childish that sounds, a great lot of people ignore it. Not only do you need a proper antivirus, such as Norton, Kaspersky, ESET, Panda or McAfee, but it has to be maintained on the go. Updates are highly necessary, so are installing recent patches for your browser and OS.

Malicious programs constitute the largest number of cyber attacks ever reported with incredible losses resulting every year. Malicious code can be secretly installed on your business’s computer and can delete critical files, steal passwords, unlock security software, mess up the user accounts causing numerous other bothersome issues.

To prevent is better than to cure they say and here is the advice to you:

• Install, use and update an appropriate anti-virus program, complete with internet security, anti-malware and firewalls on every computer in your network.

• Ensure that each has a working firewall set up. These can also be secondary options in the security suite or a different program. So, choose your security wisely and according to the needs knowing its capacity and features well.

Hacking (through stolen or mobile device) 

It may be hard believing, but stolen mobile devices contribute a lot to hacking and data breaching problems faced by large companies and small businesses. Stealing is not only a loss in terms of money, but the consequences requires a company to contact all affected customers, notify them, retake statistics, incur damages and not to mention the damaged reputation and legal issues:

You should always encrypt all data that it contains, when transporting or transferring data on a hardware portable device. Only decryption programs that are in the hands of the company can henceforth decode the data. Secure all data under password or encryption key. Encryption is the last chance your data has, if it falls into the wrong hands. There are other measures you can effectively use, but they can vary from situation to situation. It’s simple and it is mighty effective most of the times to keep local businesses running.

As the big game comes into the fray, the expense is larger with giants of the enterprise hiring full-time security staff and analysts to maintain network and data security. But, not every company can afford such luxuries, so here is a guide to small companies in maintaining their internet security:

Attacks on the enterprise

1. 1.    DDoS (Denial of Service of Attack)

A DDoS is a jamming of company servers caused after the attacker by sheer mass of sent media (messages, emails and such means) in an attempt to choke up a business web server by overloading it. A web site can remain out of action for long periods of time following such an attack that may cause loss of potential customers, complete outage of services and can suffocate small businesses to a shut-down.

1. 2.    Viruses and Malicious Code

Malicious code or in other terms; malware, spyware and viruses are probably the most common type of menace to internet security. An electronic virus like a biological virus is a type of software that is programmed to multiply and disable computer functions.

Such script can enter a computerized system through email, downloads or by using infected hardware or software. Today, along with the internet viruses, worms and Trojans can get access to any one logged into the cyberspace.

• Viruses can cause quite some damage depending on their purpose. Viruses are the “foot soldiers” of malicious codes and cannot replicate themselves, but can, through executable code, infect and damage system files.
• Worms are independent production machines of malicious codes that always cause damage to networks, because even when doing nothing, it’s consuming bandwidth. Its purpose is to infect as many computers as possible with copies of themselves that modify and change files.
• A Trojan horse is a harmless file that does not do anything except harbor other viruses. Think of it as the transports of malicious code. It can also stay within a victimized system while allowing a remote system to take control of the former.

At the worst, viruses can erase your computer’s hard drive or render it useless. Hence, small businesses are advised to keep secure back-ups, so that important data cannot be completely lost or damaged beyond repair.

Good security systems do quite a lot in keeping away the malicious code. But, even more important is the strategy of your business. Random viruses, rootkits, adware, and spyware are something we have to fight throughout the cyber age. Similarly, keeping individual criminals and potential attackers at bay is something that you can avoid for your business. In other words constant vigilance is necessary. A good system set-up provider and administrator privileges can also aid you in maintaining internet and data security for your small business.

You might be wondering what could be the possible solution to get rid of such risks where you can lose your important data, your Mac machine on stake and your credit card info is not safe. Frankly speaking, MacKeeper is the ultimate solution, as it an authentic and genuine software bundle for Mac.

What is MacKeeper All About?

MacKeeper is a product of ZeoBIT LLC., which is a reputable award-winning company producing best antivirus and MacKeeper scam protection tools over the past few years. MacKeeper being a product of this reputable firm is a bundle of premium utilities and tools, which is especially designed for Mac OS X.

Running on Mac OS X 10.5 or higher, MacKeeper includes a slew of utilities and tools, such as system cleaners, a world renowned antivirus, optimization programs and many other bundled apps.

Since viruses have smashed built-in security system of Macs, they are now free to breaching the very close guarded ecosystem of your computer machines. But, with the rise of number of Macs in use, the Mac will surely take up quite a space on the radar of malicious codes. So, you would need the antivirus badly; we must say keeping in mind the recent Mac Defender attacks.

What it offers and why?

Well, MacKeeper boasts 9 slick utilities and its most promising feature is that customers can get all 9 apps in one bundle for just $39.95, which is nearly a tenth of the price of all these components put together. In order to facilitate its users with complete system security, MacKeeper produces high quality tools are reasonable prices so that its users across the globe can take benefits out of them. Some of it features are:

• The antivirus: MacKeeper being a ZeoBIT built antivirus is ranked among the top 10 antivirus systems throughout cyberspace. Even, better is that the value this antivirus is priced at nearly a ninth of what other security suites are on the market.
• Undelete: With its Undelete option, users can undo any unintended or accidental action to set things right, once again.
• Fast Cleanup: The Mac like any computer gets cluttered, slow and lags after long periods of time. What with all the updates and data stored there?
• Wise Uninstaller: Known to be the only comprehensive uninstaller for Mac, Wise Uninstaller allows users to completely remove applications from their Macs.

Hence, MacKeeper is simply a group of tools that is necessary for the well-being of your Mac and its functions far surpass that of any other utility. You can see it for yourself by just using its trail version!

Legions of Mac users are becoming a victim of recent surge of malware attacks online. While surfing the web, the swindling trick sends users to phony websites, which claim that their system is infected with a virus. The user is then asked to download an anti virus software called “MacDefender” to solve the virus issue.

This so-called anti virus, “MacDefender” is basically malicious software. Its sole purpose is to steal the credit card information of users, which at the end of the day, is used for fraudulent purposes. Some of the most common malwares out there are “MacDefender”, “MacProtector” and “MacSecurity”.

What’s the Solution?

Apple is yet to release Mac update to halt malware attacks. This is something of a major concern to Mac users. The recent rise in malware attacks has put a question mark over the security of Mac OS X.  The need of malware protection has resulted in use of additional software that provides protection against malware. MacKeeper malware protection is one of that exceptional software out there that caters for the protection of Mac users against malware. Plenty of users have used MacKeeper — malware is no longer a problem for them.

What is MacKeeper?

MacKeeper, an award winning application utility bundle, is a production of ZeoBit. It was launched in 2008, and is currently in 1.8.2 version. It is a package of 16 essential apps that offer a unique methodology of system maintenance and care. Utilities included within MacKeeper serve for the needs of Security, Optimization, Cleaning, and Data control. MacKeeper is a well-programmed software that not only provides you the services, but also 24/7 first-rate technical support to facilitate your queries and issues. It is available from its own website and also from Apple for just a price of $39.95.

What are the symptoms of malware?

There are different ways through which malwares spread. These are attached with freeware applications and mostly appear when you visit any malicious website. A fake window appears in the guise of an apple-type application. The program then starts scanning your hard drive. While scanning, a pop up appears and downloads anti virus application on your system, and then you are asked to pay $ for the license of that anti virus. In some other cases, malwares also hijack your browser and display pornographic sites, and also redirect you to sites that may result in identity theft.

How to remove malware with MacKeeper?

Unfortunately, if you’re one of those victims of recent malware attacks and experiencing weird problems with your Mac, you’re recommended to install MacKeeper and get rid of them instantly. Right after the installation, MacKeeper anti virus runs a detailed scan of your system and removes all types of malware (i.e. worms, wabbits, viruses, Trojans, and spyware). However, the effectiveness of MacKeeper is just not limited to removal of malware. It also protects your Mac machine from probable malware threats by keeping a track of what websites you visit. In case you come across any website containing malicious scripts, it will right warn to quit the browser. That way, you can not only save your Mac from potential threats, but also remove them. 

When it comes to communication, everybody knows that computer is the fastest way of communication from one business to another. So, internet security and computer security, both are quite vital elements to run good business affairs in today’s uncertain environment.

There was a time when we were used to hear about data theft and insecurity of the leading businesses online, but unfortunately, over the past few years, this devastating situation has prevailed all over every kind of business. Even, the local and small scale businesses are no more secure now.

What are the reasons behind small or local business insecurity?

There are plenty of reasons behind the insecurity of even small scale businesses online, few among them include, but are not just limited to online data theft, credit and password theft, hacking of websites, use of someone’s data and website for evil activities, but a lot more others. Let’s have a deep look at all of them one by one and try finding solutions to save these small scaled local businesses from massive destructions in future:

Online Data Theft

Online data theft is one of the biggest threats for any business that is available on the vast horizons of internet. By this, we mean, ‘insecurity of the sensitive data’ placed online. Different website owners have established online systems of data collection and addition, which is insecure in many ways, as any hacker, with the help of malware can pick up that data and utilize it for his evil purposes.

Credit Card and Password Theft

One of the other threats or insecurity can be to your credit card information and passwords of you email addresses or websites. Once a malware, Trojan, worm, virus or keylogger gets automatically installed on your system, your credit card info or passwords may be transferred to another host computer that can be of some hacker or some evil-minded person who can utilize this precious information for transactions on you name, publishing some nasty content on your behalf or sending immoral emails to your social circles. This way, you can be well demoralized as well as can be left hand to mouth.

What is the remedy?

Well, to void data being lost or getting insecure, one should always go for a domain name that offers Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secured (HTTPS) services. The reason is that sites having https at the start usually carry antimalware, antiviral and anti-theft system installed that keep on scanning your data for any insecurity. This is just one option. The other option deals with the installation of antimalware or a good antivirus shield with online data protection features, which enables you to control your MAC or PC data automatically through continuous scanning.

If you’re looking for a mix up of data security as well as the authenticity of ‘keep grooming’ local business, just log on to http://www.glocalmix.com and enjoy the freedom of a highly-secured business where you can take a sigh of relief!

Despite having significant cost-saving benefits for small businesses, such as prepaid access to functional software programs and powerful hardware devices, a cloud does have its internet security perils too. If you wish to latch onto the cloud with your business, then remember these five data security and privacy concerns when choosing the service provider:

1. Secure transference of data via a URL that has “https” preceding the main address is until now the best option you have in protecting your online cloud activities. To ensure the authentic and safe transfer of data online, you must choose websites supporting the “https” code. Furthermore, your data must always be encrypted and authenticated using industry standard protocols.
2. Software interfaces or APIs are tools that are used to interact with the cloud services. A weak API may result in company problems related to confidentiality, integrity, availability, and accountability.
3. Securely stored data is highly essential and as we stated before, encryption is more than necessary for preserving your data on the cloud. When on provider’s server, make sure all your data is encrypted and before signing up for a potential provider’s services, firstly, ask their methods of securing your data during transfer and access.
4. For unknown users, your data is out of bounds, but it can still be accessed by members of the company, whereas, you have no major controls over them. You can solve this by not including any sensitive personal information about yourself for the time being in the cloud and secondly, ask time and gain for an agreement to be signed highlighting the provider’s level of access to your data.
5. For each cloud service shares, its provider offers a slew of shared resources, like space on the provider’s servers and other parts of the provider’s infrastructure. Clouds using hypervisor software utilize it in the creation of virtual boxes in the provider’s hardware for each of its customers. Despite being totally divided, these containers have been subjected to attacks that target the shared technology inside them. Again, data encryption is your biggest hope, with which, providers can prevent unwonted intrusion of other customers in those virtual containers.

Some would go for it, some won’t, but these factors can help you survive the initial stages of the cloud computing evolution until it gets better. For all the online threats faced by the premature introduction of cloud computing, its benefits for local businesses are more than enough. Get yourself a good provider, agree on a contract and take the necessary steps so as to get the best out of cloud computing in order to protect your data and secure your system.

Browser vulnerabilities 

There is not a single web browser that is not prone to security holes, such as the CSS bug in IE6, 7 and 8 where an e-mail is sent to users containing a link to a web page with malicious code. The code may contain spyware or malware, but mostly installs a Trojan on the computer without the user knowing it. The user need not install or click on anything, simply visiting the portal can get the virus inside.

Companies protect you from this form of attack by refraining from using any browsers with known security loopholes and choose one with a clean record. Chrome, Opera and Firefox are trustworthy browsers with immediate patching of security loopholes noted about them.

Vulnerabilities in Adobe PDF Reader, Flash, Java 

The vast availability of programs, such as Adobe Reader, Flash and Java allows them to not only be vulnerable to attack, but also disseminators of malware. Similarly, with internet explorer, they do contain security holes, but providers can patch those up in no time. But, when companies are not able to download or install the patch, the problem occurs, because malicious code from this medium can be run automatically in the background, these programs get their Trojans installed almost instantly.

Again, without the user being conscious about it, a Trojan will gain access to the system and place it in a botnet. In comparison to Windows attacks, there have been a large number of Adobe, Java and Flash exploits. Java and Flash specially are more “effective” ways of transferring spyware and have a greater reputation malicious code disseminator.

Such kinds of online threats are located on numerous websites with malicious data having the ability to penetrate through several layers of Flash, Browser and OS security systems. A browser plug-in can help you filter out the spyware or prevent pages from playing automatically.

Vulnerabilities in Web 2.0 applications 

As technology advances, security holes also keep on advancing and seeking new methods of assault, such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) or through SQL Injection. In this case, the vulnerability lies in the incorrect implementation of AJAX, which in itself means the method for exchanging data asynchronously between server and browser. A famous example of this type of virus was the MySpace worm developed by a hacker recognized as Samy. The hacker was famed for getting user information and accessing profiles of millions of MySpace members.

Little can be done for such utilities except to stop using the service entirely until a fix gets released. It is, hence, wholly the responsibility of the manufacturer to make sure that its applications are safely and correctly programmed or users can use the Web Application Firewall as a precautionary program.

There are more security holes small companies have to navigate past, but for the time being, the above is enough food for thought on the subject.

Smartphones are gaining popularity for their portability, usefulness and their multi-purpose uses. All these characteristics only make cell phones more prone to data security issues with different ones being discovered every other day. For instance, cell phones have a whole new type of worm targeting their systems called, “iWorms.” Until recently, another worm; the ZeuS botnet was also discovered to be infecting cell phones.

The later using HTML forms on the affected user’s browser would obtain their mobile phone numbers and then send a text message that is in fact a malware package labeled  SymbOS/Zitmo.A!tror “Zeus In The Mobile” to the number! The malware, that intercepts and diverts banking transactions, would then get installed in the background.

For mobile devices and related local businesses, another threat lies. Taking Apple users for instance, we have those who want to evade SIM card restrictions from certain network providers or use applications that are not provided for in the Apple store and hence, do a process known as, jailbreaking to remove the usage and access restrictions set up by Apple.

Through, jailbreaking users gain root access to the command line to the OS of that device, which for our case is Apple iOS, but yet again, there is a catch with the whole jailbreak process and that is it makes most “jailbroken” devices highly-vulnerable to malware attacks.

We can take the example of SSH password that most people do not change after performing the jailbreak, which is what affects Apple products in the first place as their Apple’s default root password is “alpine” as nearly about everyone knows. This is then a major failure to the whole concept of jailbreaking. If left in its state without changing the password, the device is then open to any unauthorized third-party access.

Zero-day assaults on operating systems 

Zero-day attack is a phrase used to describe a threat that uses a previously unknown vulnerability that has no patch as a gateway for the attack. In other words, even the manufacturer of the program catches it in the face by surprise only on the actual day of the attack or maybe even afterwards. This is the jackpot for a hacker and the attack is really dangerous, as it is not only a sabotage attempt, but it is in fact capturing a system that provides direct remote access to hackers.

No extra tools, browsers or Java are required for the above mentioned case to happen. The target system must only be online. There is no solution to zero day attacks, because patches cannot be utilized and emergency measures can only be provided to decrease losses while limiting online threats.

The scope of this type of attack can be seen to rise in the near future, as Windows is not the only one to be the subject of a zero-day exploit. Macs have recently been victim of the MacDefender malware and the reason was because the number of Mac systems is on the rise.

Luckily, for us, security patches and antivirus updates are being churned out at a healthy rate too. So, it’s not all gloomy as it seems!