As a big fan of tech I tried to put myself in the position of having no access to anything and believe me I would survive all of five minutes. What was quite interesting though was it was not so much the devices I would miss but rather something else. The internet or I suppose you could say the connection.

Let me explain this, in my made up scenario I imagined that my phone was non-existent much like in the mid-nineties, which made me think how could I replace the services?

• To make a call – phone box,
• To send a message – fax,
• To send an email – ?,
• To update social profile – ?

As you can see the pattern goes on.

Lets replace the phone with my laptop:

• To write a program – paper
• To draw a picture – paper,
• To play a game – console,
• To email – ?,
• To check facebook -?

It is becoming obvious that it’s not so much the devices we rely on its the internet or a network.

If you were to take this same example and apply it to a modern business with servers, multiple connected devices and users.

How long would it be before the business fails?

I believe it would be a matter of days for an organisation that is making millions would come tumbling down, just imagine some of the biggest businesses in the world would instantly fail having a massive effect on the worlds economy and structure.

So what it is it I am saying you ask?

20 years ago businesses were heavily reliant on local systems and computers, the hardware its self, business processes were a lot slower.

Whereas now it is apparent that it is no longer the device it’s the connectivity and the speed that information can be retrieved that they rely on. Devices can be replaced and backed up pretty easily these days, companies even back up to the cloud (internet).

So what can businesses do to prevent such disaster?

Over the last decade we have seen a boom in business continuity, which would ensure the backup and access to business data in case of a massive disaster. This rarely applied to the backup of your network connection or internet connection!

Lucid IT Security are now selling Business Internet Continuity (BIC) from ALVEA, a satellite connected internet solution which can be used as a service or as a backup. What this does is allow a business to have the peace of mind that if their connection fails or drops it will automatically switch over to the installed solution.

In my opinion this service is invaluable and I can only imagine that it won’t be long before businesses will have to implement internet continuity plans to ensure they pass those dreaded audits.

I would love to hear your opinion on this, don’t forget to check out the Business Internet Continuity page or for further information please contact us.

The TLS protocol is based on Netscape’s SSL 3.0 protocol; however, TLS and SSL are not interoperable. The TLS protocol does however contain a mechanism that allows a TLS implementation to back down to SSL 3.0. The most recent versions of all major web browsers support TLS. The TLS Working Group which was established in 1996 continues to work on the TLS standard.

Lucid IT Security Joins Forces With ALVEA Services – Offering a 30 Day Free Trial of Cloud Storage

Established in 2006, Lucid IT Security provide tier one IT Security solutions to organisations in both Public and Private Sectors across the UK. The majority of solutions being deployed have been central to helping these organisations comply with the myriad of regulatory standards that need to be addressed by businesses today. Lucid IT Security are always looking for ways to improve the solutions that they provide and have joined forces with ALVEA services to offer managed and cloud based security solutions.

Lucid IT Security

Lucid are pleased to announce that they have become one of the primary resellers for ALVEA Services. Offering the ALVEA Service infrastructure enables Lucid to promote an increasingly holistic approach to IT Security.

ALVEA infrastructure is a comprehensive enterprise cloud service designed to bring the full benefits of secure IT on demand to organisations of any size. This includes the ability to provision cloud system servers, files and networks in minutes and then to pay only for what you use, whilst at the same time being assured that your data is secure and always accessible.

Lucid IT Security and ALVEA Services bring you Managed and Cloud Computer Services including:

• Cloud Attached Storage
• Managed Content and Application Delivery
• Secure End Point Back Up
• Business Internet Continuity
• Anti Virus
• Managed Firewall

All delivered through a single easy- to- use platform.

Carl Burman Managing Director of Lucid IT Security says:

“Alongside ALVEA services, Lucid is well placed to assist our clients with achieving relevant compliant IT standards. The decision to offer the ALVEA proposition was an easy one and is now proving to be the right one. We are confident that our technically led approach to IT security consultancy in conjunction with our bespoke professional services and certifications will help us to build on the success of previous years as we seek to continue adding real value to our clients.”

Lucid IT Security are so confident in being cloud storage providers, they have agreed to offer free cloud storage for 30 days to anyone who would like to sample the cloud based solutions. The idea of implementing a free trial is to allow people the chance to get a taste for one of the latest movements in technology ‘The Cloud’ and see what all the hype is about.

About Lucid IT Security

Lucid are dedicated to their clients and work closely with them to understand their requirements thus enabling them to deliver security solutions which are both cost-effective and tailored to their individual client needs. Lucid’s consultants will provide no obligation on site and web based demonstrations of products in their portfolio, offer honest and accurate assessments on infrastructure and security issues and pride themselves on providing exceptional levels of service to clients.

To read the full press release visit PRWeb.

The PCI DSS is a multifaceted security standard that includes requirements for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design and other critical protective measures. This comprehensive standard is intended to help organisations proactively protect customer account data.

The PCI Security Standards Council will enhance the PCI DSS as needed to ensure that the standard includes any new or modified requirements necessary to mitigate emerging payment security risks, while continuing to foster wide-scale adoption.

Ongoing development of the standard will provide for feedback from the Advisory Board and other participating organizations. All key stakeholders are encouraged to provide input, during the creation and review of proposed additions or modifications to the PCI DSS.

The core of the PCI DSS is a group of principles and accompanying requirements, around which the specific elements of the DSS are organized:

Build and Maintain a Secure Network

Requirement 1: Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data
Requirement 2: Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters

Protect Cardholder Data

Requirement 3: Protect stored cardholder data
Requirement 4: Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks

Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program

Requirement 5: Use and regularly update anti-virus software
Requirement 6: Develop and maintain secure systems and applications

Implement Strong Access Control Measures

Requirement 7: Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know
Requirement 8: Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access
Requirement 9: Restrict physical access to cardholder data

Regularly Monitor and Test Networks

Requirement 10: Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data
Requirement 11: Regularly test security systems and processes

Maintain an Information Security Policy

Requirement 12: Maintain a policy that addresses information security

ALVEA infrastructure is a comprehensive enterprise cloud service designed to bring the full benefits of secure IT on demand to organisations of any size. This includes the ability to provision cloud system servers, files and networks in minutes and then to pay only for what you use, whilst at the same time being assured that your data is secure and always accessible.

Lucid IT Security and ALVEA Services bring you Managed and Cloud Computer Services including:

• Cloud Attached Storage
• Managed Content and Application Delivery
• Secure End Point Back Up
• Business Internet Continuity
• Anti Virus
• Managed Firewall

All delivered through a single easy- to- use platform, for more information view our ALVEA services page!

People responsible for Denial of Service attacks generally target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers, such as online banks or credit card payment systems. A common method of attack involves saturating the target (victim) machine with external communications requests, such that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so slowly that its is effectively rendered unavailable.

In general terms, DoS attacks are implemented by either forcing the targeted computer(s) to reset, or consuming its resources so that it can no longer provide its intended service or obstructing the communication media between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately. Denial of Service attacks are generally considered to be violations of Internet Service Provider (ISP) acceptable use policies, and several countries have passed legislation to punish the perpetrators of said attacks.

In the UK, the maximum penalty for committing a Denial of Service attack is 10 years imprisonment under the Police and Justice Bill 2006.

These are application layer firewalls that use proxies to process and forward all incoming traffic, though they can still frequently work in a transparent mode that disguises this fact. However, if this uses too much processor time, the higher-level inspection can be disabled so that the firewall functions like a much simpler network address translation (NAT) gateway.

P2P networks are typically used for connecting nodes via largely ad hoc connections. Such networks are useful for many purposes. Sharing content files (see file sharing) containing audio, video, data or anything in digital format is very common, and real time data, such as telephony traffic, is also passed using P2P technology.

A pure P2P network does not have the notion of clients or servers but only equal peer nodes that simultaneously function as both “clients” and “servers” to the other nodes on the network. This model of network arrangement differs from the client-server model where communication is usually to and from a central server. A typical example of a file transfer that is not P2P is an FTP server where the client and server programs are quite distinct: the clients initiate the download/uploads, and the servers react to and satisfy these requests.

When you send a message using asymmetric cryptography, you encrypt the message using the recipient’s public key. The recipient then decrypts the message using his private key. That is why the system is called asymmetric.

Because asymmetric ciphers tend to be significantly more computationally intensive, they are usually used in combination with symmetric ciphers to implement effect public key cryptography. The asymmetric cipher is used to encrypt a session key and the encrypted session key is then used to encrypt the actual message. This gives the key-exchange benefits of asymmetric ciphers with the speed of symmetric ciphers.

Firewalls are usually used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks and Intranets that are connected to the Internet. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.