To provide you with the tools you will need to fulfill Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance mandates. There are many Scanning Vendors Approved by the Payment Card Industry however typically your merchant processor will have one that they work with.

It is YOUR responsibility, as a merchant accepting credit and debit card payments, to safeguard customer card data. Your business is at RISK if you are not PCI compliant. It is essential that you understand that Visa and MasterCard could potentially assess fines if you are not compliant as soon as possible.
If you have questions or need help getting started in the compliance process, call On-site Tech Support at 619-717-8070 or for further details on PCI compliance, please visit www.pcisecuritystandards.org.

1. Server Administrator Username & Password – This can not be hacked or reset.  If they have it and you don’t, your only option is to rebuild your server from the ground up.
2. Network Router, Firewall, & Switch Usernames & Passwords – This hardware controls the traffic on your network.  A few minor changes and all network traffic stops.  That means no email, no internet, no access to shared company data.    
3. Domain Name: (yourcompany.com) – Make sure that your web page address is under your companies name and that you have the Username & Password to the registrar.  (i.e. Network Solutions, Go Daddy, etc. 
4. 3rd Party Applications – Usernames and Passwords for any 3rd Party Applications used on the network.  Accounting programs like QuickBooks or Mas90; CRM programs like Act!, SalesLogix, or Salesforce.  
5. Remote Access – Who has remote access? Why? What do they have access to?  How are they accessing it?  VPN, RWW, Log-me-in, GoToMyPC, other?  
6. Network Map – Basic Map of Network if Possible. This can be created from scratch, but any maps help to learn the ins and outs of the network very quickly.
7. Software Licence Keys – Do you own your software licence keys or did you rely on your IT vendor to procure them for you? Are you sure they are legal or are you using the same MicroSoft Office Product Key on all your computers. 
8. Usernames and Passwords – Almost everything in your office has a username and password, hardware and software.  Just because you have a username and password does not mean it is the master administrator username and pasword.  
9. Warranty Information  - What happens if your server hardware fails?  Is it still under warranty?  Do you have that warranty information?  If not this will be a long and costly process. 
10. 10.  Website – Username and Password for Hosting Account for your Website.  Your website is most likely hosted/stored somewhere out on the internet and not on your local servers.  Do you know where it is and the passwords to access it?

I knew this wasn’t going to be good.   There were over 75,000 customers in that database and he was trying to email them to his hotmail account.  Since i was a bit late to the game, I watched and waited until the email came in to the hotmail account and then went to work.  I already had the VNC window open, so when I saw a lull in activity I deleted the email, emptied the recycle bin and logged out of the hotmail account. 

Next I used one of the great features of K2 Live Connect – Remote Command Shell.  It gives a remote command shell without the user being aware of anything.  I changed all the passwords on the laptop and used the remote shutdown script in the Agent Procedures. 

Of course he tried to log back in, but since I changed thepasswords, his efforts were foiled! (it seems like an appropriate word) 

As of now we still do not have the laptop back, but the email has been deleted and as an added measure, I scheduled an automatic reboot every 7 minutes when the machine is on.

Here’s why…

You may have been told, and believe, that because they have anti-virus software and a software firewall, that your network is ‘secure.’ You have been misled. One of the more common stunts hackers pull is breaking through a software firewall to hijack a server. Once they gain access, they use YOUR server to send spam and viruses to millions of users – in a matter of seconds!

This is bad for two reasons:

1. Your company’s server and email gets ‘blacklisted’, which means the big email delivery hubs (such as Google, Verizon, etc.) flag all of the emails coming from your server as dangerous and will not let them through. It could take days or weeks to get your company’s name cleared. In the mean time, you are without email.
2. Your valuable clients, prospects and vendors (and anyone else in your contact list) start getting inappropriate ads and invitations to XXX-rated web sites from your company. Not good!

The best way to make sure this never happens to your business is to invest in On-Site Tech Support’s Managed Firewall. This investment in the security of your company is well worth the small price tag. Your company cannot afford to have a weak link in your network security that any hacker can break through. Let On-Site Tech Support start protecting you today!

Sign up for On-Site Tech Supports ‘Hacker-Prevention Security Audit’ (a $300 value) for FREE if you mention this post! We will come on-site and perform rigorous security checks on your current system to assess your risk of outside intrusion. While on-site, we will also:

• Test your backups to make sure your data is safe and secure
• Check your patches and other security maintenance to see if they are all up to date
• Examine all software and hardware components for security vulnerabilities

Call 866.220.0709 or Click here to sign up.

Think back to the last time your server went down and you were not able to conduct business – Do you remember how frustrating that was? Or, maybe you experienced a virus or data-erasing disaster – Do you remember how difficult and expensive that was to resolve? In today’s business environment, there are very few business activities that do not rely heavily on your computer network, email and data programs. When any of these components work improperly, business grinds to a halt – and you lose valuable time and money!

With technology becoming ever more imperative to your business operations and hackers and viruses becoming more sophisticated about accessing your network, you simply cannot afford not to monitor the health and security of your network at all times. A network monitoring system is a great way for a trained professional to watch over your computer network system for slow or failing components, security breaches, and alarms that signify trouble is brewing. It can also detect signs that your backup solution is not working, that you are running out of space on the server, or that a firewall is not functioning properly.

The question is this – If network monitoring is so important, why aren’t more small businesses insisting that their IT service provider put a system in place?

1. Lack of knowledge – The reality is that many businesses do have their systems monitored and the bigger and more sophisticated the business is, the more critical this becomes. Unfortunately, many IT providers that service small businesses do not know of or have the tools to provide monitoring services. As a result, many small business owners are not being offered this critically important service.
2. Complacency – If it isn’t broken, why fix it? Please allow us to rephrase this in more realistic terms – If it isn’t broken, it eventually will be and it will cost valuable time and money! Remember, we do not wait to get robbed before we start locking our doors…we lock our doors to prevent a robbery. Network monitoring is an extremely important preventive measure that On-Site Tech Support utilizes to ensure that businesses do not get robbed of valuable time and money due to computer system failures.

Would you like to know how healthy, secure and reliable your network is? Sign up for On-Site Tech Support’s 30-Days of Free Network Monitoring for your entire office. You can see firsthand how secure and reliable your network is. There is no cost or obligation after 30 days and at the end, you will have a clear snapshot of:

• The security of your network against viruses and hackers
• How employees are using the Internet and email
• If your backups are actually working
• Any looming problems in hardware malfunctions, space issues, reliability, etc.

Call 866.220.0709 or Click here to sign up.