Are you handling Credit Card Payments? Let us help you become PCI compliant!

While we are all working towards making our businesses run as smoothly and safely as possible, one of things you may have overlooked is making sure you client’s financial information is as safe and secure as possible.

Credit Card information is a critical piece of information that you need to be aware of protecting. It is not hard to do so but you need to put the right protection in place to help you do this.

We find many small businesses still using simple home routers or just your Internet Provider’s modem for your connection to the Internet. That is just not the right piece of equipment to do this. You need to call one of our security experts to provide suggestions on how you can easily create a secure environment for your business.

We suggest Sophos Security products primarily to do this for you. The first line of defense is to put in place a business class firewall that will provide the following protection:

• ·         Intrusion Protection for those trying to break into your network and detection of outbound traffic that needs to be secure and managed
• ·         Control address, port, protocol and specific application traffic and behavior patterns.
• ·         Perform NAT (Network Address Translation)
• ·         Detect and block spoofed IP Addresses
• ·         Inspect data traffic for malicious activities

While this is a good first step in creating a protected environment, it is not the only one you need.

Again, contact one of our security specialists that can provide you with a complete analysis and recommendation for your business.

Gizmodo Posting describes Simple Security Flaw that opens up quite a few routers at risk…

View Gizmodo Post

SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab has discovered the flaw in a driver referred to as NetUSB. The driver, as its name suggests, is installed on routers to allow computers to access USB devices over a network.

The driver contains an error known as a buffer overflow, which can occur when a device sends its name to the router and it’s longer than 64 bytes. The researchers claim that the simple overflow can be used to crash the router, using denial of service of attacks, and even execute code remotely.

Among the Company’s products that are affected include Netgear, D-Link, TP-LINK, Trendnet, and Zyxel.

Solution: TP-LINK has started releasing fixed firmware. The status of affected products can be found in the affected product list above. For additional information also see CERT/CC vulnerability notice: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/177092

Workaround: Sometimes NetUSB can be disabled via the web interface, but at least on NETGEAR devices this does not mitigate the vulnerability. NETGEAR told us, that there is no workaround available, the TCP port can't be firewalled nor is there a way to disable the service on their devices.

Here is the link for SEC-Consult’s Report

The new Linksys is looking a lot like the old one…

It is hard to believe that it is a full year since Belkin purchased the home networking division of Linksys from Cisco but there it is…

At CES this week Linksys is showing a version design of its WRT1900AC dual band WiFi router that appears to be inspired by the original WRT54G. The planned retail price of this unit is $299.99 and is updated from the old series of routers to support 802.11ac. It has four antennas now with a faster 1.2GHz processor, eSATA and USB 2.0/3.0 connectivity ports and four gigabit LAN ports. Maximum throughput will be 1.3 Gbps on the 5GHz band and up to 6700Mpbs on the 2.4GHz band.

The WRT1900AC is also the first Linksys router to include a Network Map feature designed to provide a simpler way of managing settings of each device connected to the network. Linksys VP Mike Chen justified the $300 price tag by saying in the announcement that the WRT1900AC "will be the most powerful router in its class on the market. We have spared no technology expense to make this router a prosumers’ dream."

SC Magazine awards Sophos Mobile Control v3.5 a 5 Star Rating

Sophos Mobile Control v3.5

QUICK READ

• Strengths: Easy to deploy and manage with a vast set of features.
• Weaknesses: Administrator guides could have had a few more visual elements.
• Verdict: If the documentation was just a bit more complete, this would be a perfect-scoring product. Even so, Sophos Mobile Control receives our Recommended designation.

Read the full article here…

SonicWALL announces end of support for Gen 4 Firewalls

Press Release from DELL SonicWall announcing the end of support for Gen4 Firewalls on July 1, 2013.

End of Support for Gen4 (and older) Dell SonicWALL firewalls will commence on July 1, 2013. All Gen4 firewalls, regardless of whether they are covered under a stand-alone support contract or through a Comprehensive GMS support contract, are subject to the same End of Support date.  Our records indicate that your customers rely on one or more of these appliances:

Call us to discuss your options.

Sophos UTM Connected: What's new in UTM 9.1

Published on Feb 18, 2013

A 3 minute overview of the new features and benefits of Sophos UTM Connected (UTM 9.1) The video explains how this release delivers faster wired and wireless connectivity in a secure and reliable way.

Our latest release, Sophos UTM Connected, lets you protect your users on the move against web-based threats and strengthen your wireless connectivity. At its heart is the software version 9.1 which is engineered to make our proven protection faster and even easier to use. Why Sophos UTM Connected? It’s all about creating ultra-fast wired and wireless connectivity in a secure, reliable way.

Sophos (Astaro) UTM H/W refresh program is here!

Upgrading to the new UTM9 version software may not be available if you have older Astaro hardware. See table below:

The previous table provides on overview about ASG/UTM hardware models and revisions supported by UTM 9, where each revision belongs to one of the following categories:
“Not Supported”
 UTM 9 will not install
“Not Recommended but Supported”
 UTM 9 will install
 Warning at install time about possible performance issues
“Fully Supported”
 UTM 9 will install
 No warnings

The program is available beginning July 16th, 2012 and ending March 31st, 2013. Delivery of the replacement units will begin September 12st, 2012. Every ASG appliance is eligible for participation in the program – in advance registration of serial number is required.

There is a one-time discount that will be given directly to you the customer. This depends on the model that your are replacing. See table below for what would be your discount:

Contact us for the proper procedure to follow to take advantage of this discount. 1-800-640-7506.

Cisco stumbles with its Cisco Connect Cloud

Owners of E2700, E3500 and E4500 models recently discovered that their router login credentials stopped working following an automatic firmware update, and instead they were asked to sign up to the new Cisco Connect Cloud platform to regain access. If they sought to avoid this by rebooting the router, they reportedly lost control over their advanced settings.

To make matters worse, the Connect Cloud service came with a supplemental privacy policy that explicitly allowed Cisco to peek at a user's "internet history," "traffic" and "other related information." If Cisco discovered you had used your router for "pornographic or offensive purposes" or to violate "intellectual property rights," it reserved the right to shut down your cloud account and effectively cut you off from your router. Cisco has deleted this offending paragraph but the initial intent of it is disturbing.

The new Cisco Connect Cloud app helps either manage the router itself (think parental controls) or tap into other devices around the home, including AirPlay sharing and remote camera monitoring. There's even a new SimpleTap hardware integration platform that will pair third-party WiFi gear.

While all of this on the surface sounds great, I can’t help but wonder if this is just another one of those services that doesn’t take off. There is a lot of promise but if they don’t get other vendors onboard it isn’t going to go anywhere.

For more information on this service go to Cisco Cloud Connect.

News: Researcher finds vulnerability in WPS protocol

Stefan  Viehbock has just discovered a major security vulnerability which allows someone to use a brute force attack to access a WPS PIN-Protected network in about two hours. According to Viehbock, a design flaw allows the WPS protocol’s 8-digit PIN security to fall dramatically as more and more attempts are made. This flaw after each failed attempt will cause the router to send a message stating whether the first four digits are correct while the last digit of the key is used as a checksum and then given out by the router in negotiation. This results in what was a 100,000,000 possible choices that was initially considered for WPS security level to drop drastically down to around 11,000.

The reasoning behind the original design was to make it easier to bring new device onto your home network more easily especially for unskilled home users. This method now allows it to be much easier for hackers to break into a secure Wi-Fi network as well.

"A few weeks ago I decided to take a look at the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) technology,"Viehbock said in a blog post. "I noticed a few really bad design decisions which enable an efficient brute force attack, thus effectively breaking the security of pretty much all WPS-enabled Wi-Fi routers. As all of the more recent router models come with WPS enabled by default, this affects millions of devices worldwide."

US-CERT said in its warning that there is no known fix to the security problem. Instead, the group recommends that users disable the WPS function on their routers. The warning lists several wireless router vendors as selling devices that are affected by the security hole: Buffalo, D-Link, Cisco Linksys, Netgear, Technicolor, TP-Link, and ZyXEL.

US-CERT indicated in its warning that it notified router vendors that are affected by the security issue in early December, but so far the vendors have not offered a response nor have any of them issued statements.

For more information:

• Wikipedia Entry about WPS Protocol Specification
• Stefan Viehbock’s Original Blog Post
• CNet’s take on this Vulnerability

ASG V8 Support–Problems and Work Arounds

PR:Open issues with 8.2 and 8.201

Article Number: AKB001197

They plan to fix them version 8.202. This list can also be found at http://www.astaro.com/lists/Known_Issues-ASG-V8.txt.

ID18567 8.200 "MIME blocking inspects HTTP body" is broken
Description: By enabling "MIME blocking inspects HTTP body" in the HTTP proxy, there might be some cases where the recognition of the MIME type fails and files cannot be downloaded.
Workaround:
Fixed in: 8.202

ID18653 8.200 If the HTTPs-Proxy is enabled, login to some websites may result in "Internal server error"
Description: By using the HTTPs-Proxy, some websites requiring authentication might not be reachable. This happens on websites using HTTP keepalives using POST requests.
Workaround:
Fixed in: 8.202

ID18769 8.200 If virus scanning of a website failed, no error message is shown in the browser.
Description: If virus scanning of a website failed, no error message is shown in the browser. Instead, the user gets a blank page.
Workaround:
Fixed in: 8.202

ID18695 8.200 Policy routing in combination with Application Control may cause problems
Description: Policy routing in combination with Application Control may cause problems. This is caused by wrong connection handling.
Workaround: Disable Application Control.
Fixed in: 8.202

ID18604 8.200 Web Application Firewall mixes backend websites
Description: In case multiple virtual web servers exist with exactly the same settings but listening on different interfaces, the WebAppication Firewall mixes the real web server sites. This only happens, if the first entry in the domain list is the same for all involved virtual web servers.
Workaround: Make sure that each virtual web server's first domain name is unique.
Fixed in: 8.202

This article can be found under "https://support.astaro.com/support/index.php/Open_issues_with_8_2_and_8_201"

PR: Astaro RED 10 Revision Now Available

New Astaro RED 10 Revision Now Shipping

The successful solution for branch office security, Astaro RED, has undergone an upgrade with major new enhancements. The new revision is now shipping.

We are pleased to announce that the revision 2 of our successful RED 10 appliance is now shipping from our warehouses.

The new revision offers the following major enhancements:

• USB port for connecting 3G/UMTS modems for WAN failover via mobile networks
• Dual firmware support, which keeps the unit alive - even if someone pulls the plug while the unit is downloading and flashing a new firmware
• Additional status LEDs allowing for easier diagnostics

Please note: The new revision is supported by all Astaro Security Gateway (ASG) software releases starting from V7.508. However, the USB port requires at least V8.200 running on your central ASG.

RouterSoft-Allows you to turn your notebook into a secure wireless router.

I recently spent a two week period in training in a Raleigh, NC where my hotel room only had a single “Wired” internet connection. While this was great for my notebook being directly tied to the cable connection, my other wireless devices would have been unusable if I hadn’t brought an Access Point with me on the trip. In this situation I could have used this software on one of the two notebooks I had brought with me and turned it into a router that would have provided a secure wireless connection for all of my wireless devices. Then I could have had one less device in my kit bag to drag along with me on the trip.

There are many other situations that this software product can help you with as well. Allows the wireless connection that you are using on your notebook to be shared with other devices. Why is this important? If the connection is a rented link like in a hotel, you could expand that link to multiple devices through the single interface. Share the Aircard you have in your notebook with multiple devices. Use your imagination I’m sure you can come up with other situations that may make this piece of software useful to you as well.

RouterSoft works on any machine running XP, Vista or Windows 7 operating systems. When setting up your network router it forces you to assign a password to access your network and it creates a secure, encrypted link between the machine that is running the software and your wireless devices. You can demo the software for free by downloading from their site. The demo has a time limit on it of 24 hours. They have two other pricing plans as well. If you want to buy the annual subscription it is $9.95 and they also have an unlimited version for $29.95. So it is very reasonable and much less expensive then purchasing a hardware access point or router.

Keep this product in mind when you get into a jam and need to expand your capabilities on the road. It may be a wonderful utility that will solve your wireless problem.