Next Generation Firewall's

I am always amazed at what I find when evaluating or installing a Next Generation Firewall of what I discover.

I recently placed a Palo Alto PA series firewall into someones network. They were having a difficult time identifying what there users were doing. Within 15 minutes of placing the firewall into the network, we discovered someone with bit torrent. The bad thing was that bit torrent was incoming, meaning users on the Internet were using a machine on that network to grab movies or other possilbe items stored on that machine.

Bit Torrents are also a good way to pickup and distribute viruses. 

This was also affecting bandwidth. I believe that the bit torrent was eating the available bandwidth, affecting the critcial work the client needed to perform.

My recommendation has been for sometime is to get a good firewall that can also identify were users are going. This will allow you to track down people or users who are potentially abusing the polices you have in place. It also prevents good employee's from doing bad things.

The Internet is a very dangerous place these days. With the botnets running around and with how easy it is to pick up spyware and malware, I would recommend that you consider a good next generation firewall that will help keep your network safe. Not doing so could put you and your users at great risk.

You can sign up for a eval here http://jsotechnology.com/demo/jso-security/utm.html.

You can also download the AVR report from Palo Alto networks and discover the most current network risks. http://www.jsotechnology.com/_pdfs/AVR.pdf

The 10 most Hacked Passwords

You have more than likely watched a movie or seen a TV show were someone sits at a computer makes a guess at a password and gets in.

You always question it, thinking to yourself is it really that easy?

It can be really easy. The best way to crack a password is to use the names, dates and things that might be important to the user. (Examples are Wife's Name, Kids Name, High School Name, Birthday).

A recent study by Imperva found that:

• The shortness and simplicity of passwords means many users select credentials that will make them susceptible to basic forms of cyber attacks known as “brute force attacks.
• Nearly 50% of users used names, slang words, dictionary words or trivial passwords (consecutive digits, adjacent keyboard keys, and so on). The most common password is “123456”.

The report also found that these are the top 10 most common passwords.


1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123


My recommendation for a password strategy is to use a phrase and take the first letter out of each word in the phrase. For example. I went to school in 2010. The password cold be Iwtsi2010. That is a difficult password that is easy to remember.

I have discovered if you make the password you have very complex, you have a difficult time remembering it.  This usually leads to a a password that is written down on sticky note and can be found on a desk. This is almost worse than a weak password.


Also do not forget to use separate passwords for your Bank and trading accounts. If you primary password is compromised, you at least have a different password for these critical accounts.


(The Link to this study can be located here http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=8742)

The 4 ways a manager can stress out employees and how to Avoid it

With the current economy, almost all departments are doing more with less. IT is no exception to that rule. The issue with pushing an understaffed and overworked department can lead to a huge problem: employee burnout.

These are some key management mistakes to avoid and to help keep the stress level down

Keep it exciting

A job that is not interesting or boring can lead to burnout. See if you can shift work around and give your staff some variety.

Don’t Be Lax On Employee Discipline

Don’t over look boorish or bad behavior. That can cause frustration and resentment with certain employees.

Take The Time To Listen

Everyone likes to be heard. Most people become frustrated and depressed if they feel their concerns are not heard. Take the extra time to listen and reassure your employee’s.

Flex Time

If you can, allow some employees who are overworked to flex their time. It might allow them to help out more at home or allow them to avoid a stressful communicate. With the right employee and structure, Flex Time can really help keep up employee morale.

Thoughts on an Article in the Wall Street Journal on Online Bank Fraud

I was reading the Wall Street Journal today and they had an interesting article about Online Bank Fraud. It was an article about the dangers of online banking. The premise of the article was a small business owner in California had 100,000 stolen from his bank account. They got about 50,000 of it back. The other 50,000 went to a bank in Europe were mules (someone who gets the stolen money) started to withdraw the money from the bank account.

How this happened is the CFO had some spyware on his computer that transferred his username and password to the hackers. Whenever I read an article like this I always shake my head as common sense was not applied. My first rule of thumb is if you are doing to does online banking make sure that has virus and spyware protection on it. This is a first layer of protection against an attack such as this.

The second thing I would be doing is investing in unified threat management (UTM) or a next generation firewall. Not only do these look for viruses, they also can implement web filtering and prevent the computer from reaching the intended attacker. Web filtering can block access to websites that contain malware and spyware; it can also protect employees from going places they shouldn’t be. Fortinet and Palo Alto networks are two vendors that make Firewall appliances that do what I describe above. Both are very effective in helping prevent an attack such as this.

I would also look a good spam filtering solution. Numerous cloud based (hosted) solutions exist that are very inexpensive. A good spam filter will keep viruses, phishing and other attacks from hitting your email. A phishing attack is the most common. Someone creates an email that looks like your bank in an attempt to collect information. I never open emails from my bank. If they need me, they will call me. Most banks will not contact you for important account information with email. My favorite cloud based email filtering solution is MX Logic. They make an easy to use product that is well supported and very effective.

The third item I would do is making sure you are patching computers monthly. A good patching cycle will insure that we are protecting computers from attacks from vulnerabilities in the software that they are running. Most small businesses should look at a managed service provider. They can automate patching at a low monthly fee and ensure your computers are updated.

The fourth item is a matter of common sense. Most people at times go to websites or click on something they shouldn’t be. My suggestion is if you are doing Internet banking, it should be on a computer that is used the least. If you are going to go to questionable websites, do not do it on the computer you are doing banking. Also, be careful of phishing emails. About 3-4 year ago my wife was close to falling for a phishing email. She was ordering a bunch from EBay at the time. Someone was attempting to act like EBay or PayPal. She was about to enter her Social Security number into a website that was clearly a hacker. I thankful caught it in time and was able to educate her on the dangers.

The big issue in the article is who is responsible for the money loss. The company in the article blames the bank stating they were not secure. I argue that the business was not very smart or secure and the responsibility lies with them. The banks cannot protect against ever attack.

We at JSO can offer advice on how to secure your computers and network to help prevent an attack such as this. An attack like this could put someone out of business or cause their insurance rates to go sky high. The sad thing is this could have been avoided with a little once of prevention.

You can find this article here Wall Street Journal

Communicating with End Users: 4 ways to make sure your email is read

Make the subject line matter


Sending email reminders to end users to remind them of polices, tips and advice is a key to prevent serious IT related problems.

End users receive thousands of messages every week and many are either overlooked or ignored. Writing an effective email that will be read is a challenge. When you sit down to type up your email, key that in mind.

Remember the order of the email. The best way to get emails skipped is to hide or bury the important information. The key point you would like to get across should be in the subject line of the email. Example, “Network Maintenance tonight at 6:00pm. Save your files and log off your system”.

This will allow people to see the important point without opening the email.

3 more tips

Put the most important information first - Once the email is open, no one will keep if the information is useless or unimportant

Use Lists –If you have a bunch of information, it will be easier if they are broken down into bullet points

Proof Read – This is a critical step that is easy to forget. A good way to remind yourself: Don’t fill the “TO” filed until the email is completed. That will ensure you will not send the email out until you are ready.

Windows 2008 R2 New Features

I held a seminar on Windows 2008 R2 last week. In preparing for that seminar, I was able to learn about all of the exciting features in this new operating system.
64 Bit Only
The first and foremost change is Windows 2008 R2 is 64 bit only. You can not get a 32 bit verison. So, you will need to make sure that the server you are installing it on is 64bit.

Offline Domain Join
The second exciting feature is the Active Directory recyle bin. In the past if you deleted an item from Active Directory, you had to restore it from backup tapes. You know have the ability to restore a deleted item from the powershell command line. You do need the domain to be in Windows 2008 R2 functionality mode.

Windows 2008 R2 also has the ability to allow computers to join the domain without being online. If you have a computer that is Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2, and you have the need to join it to the domain you can do it.

Branch Cache
Branch Cache allows for caching of files in a slow network such as a WAN. You can have a central file server and if you are in a remote location, accessing files can be slow. With Branch Cache you have the ability to create a cache on your local machine or a Windows 2008 R2 server. If you access a large file, it will come across much quicker. It will also be cached and anyone else who needs the file will have access to it without having to go across the wire.

Direct Access
Direct Access is an interesting feature that I need to test in our lab. Direct Access gives you the ability to connect to the Domain anywhere over a simple VPN tunnel. If you need a resource that is on your network, direct access will make a VPN tunnel and allow  you to get it. You need Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 to access this feature. It uses IPV6 and Windows Certificate services.

I have already deployed about 10 Windows 2008 R2 servers and I am overall happy with it. It seems to be very fast and stable. If you are considering upgrading, I would consider Windows 2008 R2 as an option.

Rebate for Virtualizing Servers

The State of Wisconsin has a very awsome program going on. They will give you a $250 dollar rebate for virtualizing server and desktops. The program runs until June 30th, 2010.

If you are considering a Virtualization project, this is something that can help you out.

I have listed details from the email I recieved on the subject.

announced on December 15, we have two new incentives targeted at the IT Energy Efficiency:


1. Server Virtualization - $250 cash incentive for each server virtualized

2. Thin Client Conversion - $60 cash incentive for each PC replaced with a thin client

To review all the requirements for our IT incentive programs, please read through our Information Systems Incentive Application.

We also encourage you to review the Focus Green IT Web site. This Web site provides information and fact sheets related to the programs we offer in three IT energy efficient categories:

1. Desktop solutions

2. Server solutions

3. Supporting equipment solutions

If you are thinking about a virtual server project, know might be the time.

You can always call us at 414-455-0719 and we can help or provide you more information.