IT Security Blog

Installing CCTV Cameras

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Closed Circuit TV Cameras (CCTV) have indeed become a new face of overall protection and security. At the rate that security is breached and terrorism growing rampant these days, it is apparent that any place or business establishment needs to work up its security measures to ensure maximum protection for the innocent consumers and people who are unaware of threats that may come their way.

But one issue that has been heard all throughout the world is on their reliability. You can monitor various activities but then what? What action would you take? If you do, would it be enough to avoid any accidents that may suddenly occur.

Apparently, many establishments just want to avoid the trouble. Mischief lingers anywhere these days and the best thing that you can do is to try and avoid them. Compared to the early days, tighter security through videos allows the place owners to monitor abnormal and suspicious behaviors to which the proper steps to avoid them can be done.

The list goes as far as advanced security measures such as the high security of sealed places where new technology as thumbprints, eye scanners and card swiping for better monitoring of accessing people limits the list of potential breaches in a certain area.

This has helped a lot and in times where something unfortunate may happen, investigators can have a better time catching culprits thanks to these hidden monitors. These days, that is why most mischievous people have made it a point to survey before attacking. Sadly, some of them have found a way to get around CCTV security as well.

iPhone Passcode Issue to be Patched

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Here is another loophole for all iPhone enthusiasts and it has something to do with a security hole that has been categorized as a minor glitch by apple. Apparently the immediate resolution for this security hole is to reset the settings but the real issue has to do with potential openings given to attackers that can exploit the security holes and get access to files or maybe even do some mischief as most hackers are known to do.

Apple spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock said, “The minor iPhone security issue which surfaced this week is fixed in a software update which will be released in September.”

There is a simple workaround, Bowcock said: iPhone owners can simply change the settings so double-clicking the emergency button returns a user to the home screen, which will present a password login field if password protection is turned on.

Source

So a patch will be released by September and hopefully this issue will die down. But expect new problems to crop up once this has been settled. Being in the limelight and open for criticism is bound to result in a lot of things that should be considered and apparently iPhone has to be ready for them.

For a gadget that costs a lot, the iPhone is in for a lot of rougher sailing from the users and the critics. But before we advance a bit, it would be best to see first if this security glitch will be resolved with their so-called patch software due for release.

Users Should Set their Passwords Independently

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As far as security when it comes to computer or network access is concerned, does the real beef in being safe and secure really lie in passwords? There are about billions of potential combinations before a hacker can be able to find out your password but just the same, there are other ways to get it like phishing or probably common passwords that some take for granted these days.

Unless you have been among the many victims of being hacked for access on certain programs or events, chances are you may not even care if and when another person would suddenly gather interest in hacking your account. Surely, not all people may have something interesting to go all through the trouble of but just the same, the bragging rights and distinction of being able to crack the access granted to a certain program, site or email is still vulnerable.

Passwords are slowly losing their use. They are indeed security precautions but perhaps the best person to make sure that they still serve their purpose would be the person who is given access. It is not all about making it hard to guess but making sure that you are the only one who knows it by heart and mind.

Also, do not be content with being assigned one. You should have the freedom to set your own password without anyone knowing it. This is one thing about security administration these days. Administrators should not be the only one to set passwords but the actual users themselves.

Secure Your Wireless Networks with Authentication Codes

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Today, we see a lot of places that have Internet access. And it is not about plugging up your laptop to cables. They are wireless. With that in mind all you need is a Bluetooth adapter that can detect these wireless networks. Normally you can surf away. But for some networks, there are codes that you have to input since not all air born Internet access is free for some places.

They would normally have a common username and password for people to use. Owing to the fact that they can make money from it or make it a privilege from patrons who avail of other services, wireless Internet is really more of an add-on. For others however, it is about security as well as routers in place can be susceptible to malicious files such as viruses which can be injected if some network administrators are not careful.

You really cannot blame such networks from employing such defensive security measures. At the rate that hackers and harmful files can be solicited over the web these days, safeguarding you equipment and files is a definite priority. Internet access through wireless technology is indeed a breakthrough but it also provides a threat for networks that are not careful on who can access them.

Hence, outside that of trying to control the number of devices accessing a network, it is a security measure to configure wireless networks and limit the ones who are given access. There is no telling what things may occur, and normally they are not favorable.

Root access and security

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root prompt

This is something that is not really new news but it is important nonetheless. For Linux users, there are certain things that you cannot do if you do not have what is called ‘root access.’ Basically, if you are not the super user or admin, you will not have access to certain commands.

Why restrict access?

There are certain applications which you would not want your users to install on their computers. Take for example peer to peer apps. If you allow your users the permission to install them, you could have some people sucking up the bandwidth. In a company wherein downloads of files from clients are important for your daily operations, this is a scenario you would like to avoid. If there are users with such apps, you would have to really trace them and monitor them so you would be able to cut down their internet access. Also, another thing is that they might unintentionally download some things that would let your system be infiltrated by worms and all that.

Sudo and sudoers
One way that you could give users a bit of access as admin is to put them in a sudoers list. Sudo is the command to let a user act as if he is the super user or root. The nice thing about it this is that there is also control as to which commands in particular could be run by certain users. If you will use create a list of sudoers, or those users who will have sudo access, you have to use visudo or sudoedit because there is a particular format for the /etc/sudoers file.

[tags]linux,security,access[/tags]