Articles In Security

By Michael Hawkins, Posted in Infrastructure, Security

In Part 1 of this series, we began talking about best practices for firewall policy rules that are applied to outbound access to the Internet. In Part 2, we’ll briefly discuss the human element and then circle back to actual policy prescriptions.  Effort vs Risk – The Human Element The firewall administrator is the person (or team) responsible for maintaining a secure firewall policy including the “outbound to Internet” rules. Sometimes the firewall admin role falls to a less... read more.

• July 11, 2022

By Timothy Karl, Posted in Infrastructure, Security, Support, Virtualization

Citrix recently released the first new LTSR version of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops in over two years. Here is what I feel are the top 5 new features and enhancements available in 2203: #1 - Microsoft Teams Optimizations Citrix has added a lot of functionally to Microsoft Teams optimizations over the last two years that were until now only available in current releases. These new functionalities in the latest LTSR release include: App sharing Multimonitor screen sharing DTMF support Proxy server... read more.

• April 15, 2022

By Michael Hawkins, Posted in Security

This is part 1 of a discussion around wide open outbound Internet access policy. We encounter many clients that have no outbound restrictions in place on their firewall policy. Their firewall is essentially wide open to the Internet, because they allow any machine on the internal network to make connections to any explicit Internet host on any service port. Essentially, they have a rule (or rules) that says “allow my entire internal network to reach all Internet destinations for any application for a... read more.

• April 15, 2022

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

The PCI Council published a blog announcing the coming of PCI DSS version 4.0 at the end of March 2022 https://blog.pcisecuritystandards.org/countdown-to-pci-dss-v4.0. The blog contains a PCI DSS Version 4.0 Implementation timeline. The new standard document, the Summary of Changes v3.2.1 to 4.0 will be released along with the Report on Compliance ROC Template and Attestations of Compliance AOC documents at the end of March 2022. The Self-Assessment Questionnaires SAQs will be available shortly after. Tr... read more.

• March 17, 2022

By Michael Hawkins, Posted in Security

 All organizations have edge firewalls. Alas, they also operate firewall policies that are usually far too open and permissive. Current world events being what they are, now is an urgent time to check your edge security. Accordingly, Gotham Technology Group has prepared a ten step program to help you achieve a fully secured edge. Do not allow the Internet to access dangerous protocols in your environment. Close ports that are not needed and seriously consider closing ports that may seem to be needed... read more.

• March 02, 2022

By Michael Hawkins, Posted in Security

It is that time of the year when the festive spirit comes out of all of us and we spend additional time with our families and friends. At the same time though, hackers and criminals become more focused on finding ways to wreak havoc or extort ransom money from unprepared victims. It is for that reason that we are taking a quick look at three key security technologies that are a crucial part of any ransomware strategy. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Data that is exfiltrated from an organization and falls into... read more.

• December 20, 2021

By Nancy Rand, Posted in Security

In November, Troy Leach, Senior Vice President, Engagement Officer for the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), and Suzie Squier, President of the Retail & Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC), discussed the protection of payment data during this holiday season.   https://blog.pcisecuritystandards.org/be-on-alert-this-holiday-season In October, the PCI SSC blog focused on their Work from Home Security Awareness Training, which is available from the council.... read more.

• November 29, 2021

By Gotham, Posted in Security

This is a guest blog from Proofpoint, a leading cybersecurity company that protects organizations' greatest assets and biggest risks: their people. Today’s organizations face a variety of challenges and security risks, ranging from ransomware to phishing campaigns. For this reason, many organizations invest significant time and resources to detect and prevent external threats. But one area that is often overlooked is the insider threat. There are three primary types of insider threats: Malicious:... read more.

• September 20, 2021

By Gotham, Posted in Security

This is a guest blog from Proofpoint, a leading cybersecurity company that protects organizations' greatest assets and biggest risks: their people. Today’s organizations face a variety of challenges and security risks, ranging from ransomware to phishing campaigns. For this reason, many organizations invest significant time and resources to detect and prevent external threats. But one area that is often overlooked is the insider threat. There are three primary types of insider threats: Malicious:... read more.

• September 20, 2021

By Michael Hawkins, Posted in Security

It is worth revisiting some of the basics of ransomware in order to remind ourselves of why we need so many security controls to protect against it. How does ransomware get into our computers? The most common path is through an email that contains attachments that are infected with the malware. In this scenario, infected PDF files are very common, but Microsoft Word and Excel files and other types are seen also. Another common infection path is browsing to an infected web site. These sites will usually pop... read more.

• September 13, 2021