You hear from your office’s IT department all the time about how important it is to keep your computer safe while at work. That includes not opening email attachments you weren’t expecting, not sharing your password, and not using USB drives when you don’t know what is on them. What you might not hear as much is how important it is to continue these same safety measures in addition to further protection when you leave your company’s network.

For those of you that take your laptops home or on the road, click here for a great article about using wireless hotspots, including in your own home.

It describes some basic measures that you can take to protect your information when using public wi-fi hotspots, whether for personal or business use.

SDN’s supervisor of corporate IT, Amos Aesoph, also suggests the following:

1.  Make sure your home wireless network uses a password
2.  When entering your username and password on web pages, make sure the address begins with https:// so that the connection is encrypted
3.  Do not use the same password you use to log into your company’s network for other online, less secure accounts.

Looking for more ways to keep your computer protected? Click here for 5 essential tips to keep your computer safe.

Ashton Hofer
Marketing Intern

The growth of wireless networks with organizations in last ten years has been astonishing to the point where wireless has gone from being seen as a convenience to a necessity.  Users have come to expect wireless access throughout schools, business, warehouse facilities, and more.

Unfortunately, in the haste of deployment, security concerns can get overlooked.  A wireless network is set up with encryption and it’s assumed to be secure from outside intruders.  The truth is, only the most advanced levels of encryption (WPA2) are secure from outside intrusion as is seen from a recent ZDNet story that tells us not even WPA with Pre-shared Key is safe (well…it’s safe…for 60 seconds, which is how long it takes to be hacked).  Add this to the fact that end users plug in their own wireless devices without IT approval (this does happen) along with the challenge to support legacy devices with limited encryption options, and the task of securing wireless can be downright daunting.

Read the attached story from ZDNet and call SDN if you have concerns about securing your wireless network and the integrity of your organization’s data.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=23384

Jered Schock
Senior Account Executive