What you don't know can hurt you...

A lot of my blog is devoted security threats and issues.   While I cover the majority of these issues, in some cases the threat outstrips my capabilities.

In these cases I have a great referral partner with Red Team USA.   Their services cover the gambit of from threat analysis, security / breach testing, to development of policies and procedures to ensure security at your home or business. Here is an excerpt from an excellent 30 min presentation, 

"Despite what many believe, cyber-security is a risk management issue that must be addressed by the leadership of the company. In many cases the problem is funneled to the IT department. The company leadership cannot avoid dealing with this issue. If a breach occurs, the IT department, whether internal or outsourced, will not be held liable. It is the leadership of the company and its management who will be held responsible for the loss and associated fallout.

Taking active involvement, making clear decisions about security, and putting the right pieces in place is the only way for companies to reduce or eliminate the liability associated with a breach (loss of money, time, and reputation)"

I highly recommend that if any of the above resonates with you and your current situation, get in touch with Red Team USA.  Your first point of contact should be Alfred Gizzo, click on his name to email him.  He can walk you through a very helpful 30 min presentation and answer all of your questions. 

Thanks for your support!

Thanks for your support last weekend at our recycling event.   We shredded / recycled over 1200 lbs of paper and 3000 lbs of electronics.   Thanks to our sponsors Rocky Mountain Driveline and Denver's Moving Boxes.  We hope to see you next year!

Be aware of the mail that you receive

My wife's business just received a invoice from DNS Services to renew. She asked me if she should pay it, my answer, "Who is DNS Services?  We use a different provider for our domain registration, hosting and back up." So I took close look at the bill, tell me if you see it,

Did you see it, here it is highlighted, 

The old "pay the bill we will transfer the doamins and services scam".  The price for the service is about triple what you would pay elsewhere, and once transfered you are then captive to the provider.

Keep you eyes open and check you bills. 

Paypal tries to limit your rights

Here is a important message forwarded to me from Albert Stern.  I work with PayPal on a daily basis and I and not heard of this.  

http://lifehacker.com/5951884/paypal-wants-to-limit-your-legal-rights-heres-a-way-around-that

Check out the implacations of what Paypal is trying to do.  If you are in any way concerned about your rights of leagal redress conerning Paypal being curtailed, I sould suggest sending the letter in. 

A bad buy at any price

Here are two hard drives that I recently had to recover for a client.   The client had been convinced to buy a used computer with used parts.   Purchased a year ago for approximately $200.00 and about $100.00 in services she showed up at my office with one dead and one failing drive. The only drive that was eventually recoverable had 487556 hours on it, approximately 8 years of constant use.  The other non recoverable drive had an even older manufacture date. I asked if she had know about the age of the hard drives, she indicated that she had no idea.

There is a lot of discussion on the life span and MBTF (Mean Time Between Failure) of hard drives, but if given a choice, I would choose a hard drive with less than almost 8 years of usage on it.

In the end the client paid for a new computer, and my services just less than one year since the purchase of the used computer.   Used computers do not make financial sense, in many cases, such as this one, you do not know what you are buying.