{"id":1020,"date":"2008-08-03T13:39:15","date_gmt":"2008-08-03T17:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2014-11-14T16:01:33","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T21:01:33","slug":"simple-steps-lead-to-huge-internet-security-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2008\/08\/simple-steps-lead-to-huge-internet-security-gains\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple steps lead to huge Internet security gains."},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether breaches in Internet security cause annoyance, compromise sensitive information, or force huge organizations to a standstill, each incursion means lost productivity and the costs associated with downtime. Yet, \u201ca number of small, easy-to-implement actions can vastly improve any organization\u2019s Internet safety,\u201d according to Manoel Oliveira<\/strong>, director of the Technology Center in the College of Business Administration.<\/p>\n

[flv:http:\/\/business.fiu.edu\/newsletters\/BusinessNetworks\/2008\/08\/videos\/oliveira.flv 500 334]<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>, he said, is to install and regularly update a reliable anti-virus protection program to screen out viruses\u2014thousands of which are created daily.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>, pay attention to notices about security updates to the operating system and applications and install them immediately. These fixes or patches target efforts by \u201cexternal entities to reach into your computer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Third<\/strong>, exercise care when reading emails with attachments, especially those with an exe extension, which will be installed on your system if you open them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may be installing dangerous software when you install an executable (exe) file attached to an email, even if it appears to be a harmless program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fourth<\/strong>, install a firewall to prevent unwanted requests from entering your network. Oliveira suggests a firewall software program or actual hardware, which \u201cis more powerful because it is dedicated to the task.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifth<\/strong>, he said, use strong passwords.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever use words from the dictionary, your birth date, your kids\u2019 birthdays, or your spouse\u2019s name, for example,\u201d he said. \u201cUse phrases that make no sense, vary capital and lowercase letters, and include numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

While acknowledging that this complexity also makes passwords hard for the user to remember, Oliveira urges people to find a rule that makes sense to them.<\/p>\n

Sixth<\/strong>, exercise caution about downloading and installing programs\u2014such as free software\u2014that can monitor your activities and send information to outside sources without your knowledge.<\/p>\n

Seventh<\/strong>, always be sure financial information is encrypted, a process that scrambles the material when it\u2019s in transit and which the recipient decodes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a padlock icon appears at the bottom right hand corner of your screen, you will know your communication is being encrypted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Also, to protect against \u201cacts of God,\u201d such as weather-related problems, back up all work regularly, including programs, in case program installation disks have gone astray or also are damaged.<\/p>\n

Oliveira highly praises the Computer Emergency Recovery Team (CERT) and its web site www.cert.org<\/a> for providing invaluable information. And although many other threats exist, these tips, and others from the CERT web site, can keep the Internet a boon rather than a problem for organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether breaches in Internet security cause annoyance, compromise sensitive information, or force huge organizations to a standstill, each incursion means lost productivity and the costs associated with downtime. Yet, \u201ca number of small, easy-to-implement actions can vastly improve any organization\u2019s Internet safety,\u201d according to Manoel Oliveira, director of the Technology Center in the College of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[1669],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24131,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/24131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}