Top 10 IT Security Recommendations to Avoid Being Fooled

With April Fool's Day coming up, it's a great time to consider ways of preventing your customers, users, business, and yourself from being fooled by spammers and other high-tech malefactors. To get some advice, I spoke with, Craig Speizle, the executive director and president of Online Trust Alliance (OTA), a member-driven organization committed to helping businesses protect themselves and their customers against any potential security breach that could compromise identities as well as consumer trust.

These recommendations are targeted at small to medium businesses (SMBs), though Fortune 100 companies could benefit from implementing these suggestions if they're not already doing them. To put some context around the advice, Speizle says, "There's a recurring trend of some of the common breaches or incidents that some simple precautions, some simple operational disciplines, could have resolved. It's estimated by multiple organizations that 90 percent of the instances could be prevented. Most companies aren't doing these things, because they're concerned with running their business; they're not security professionals."

Speizle says these fixes are the low-hanging fruit that's often overlooked. They're vendor neutral and cross platform, and they can be done within a matter of a few days with little or no acquisition cost or upgrading costs. So why aren't people already implementing these measures? "Quite frankly," Speizle declares, "it's like a lot of things—we all have the best intentions, but we lose sight of things."

So without further ado, here are OTA's top 10 recommendations to help businesses and government agencies protect their customers' and employees' personal and financial data from being compromised.

1. Use up-to-date browsers. Upgrade all employees to the most current version of browsers that have integrated phishing and malware protection and privacy controls, including support of "Do Not Track" mechanisms and controls. Such controls provide users the control on third-party data collection, usage, and sharing of their online browsing activities, while balancing out the value of ad supported online services. Further, protect site visitors by notifying them of insecure and outdated browsers that lack integrated anti-phishing, malware protection, and online tracking privacy controls. Consider terminating support for end-of-life browsers with known vulnerabilities by preventing logons and providing instructions to upgrade.

"I would say the two leading browsers are Firefox and Internet Explorer 9," Speizle states.

2. Establish and maintain a Domain Portfolio Management program. This includes monitoring look-alike domains and tracking renewals to prevent "drop catching" of expiring domains. Domain locking is recommended to help guard against unintended changes, deletions, or domain transfers to third parties. Such programs and practices can help protect a company's brand assets and consumers from landing on look-alike sites compromising trademarks and trade names.

Speizle explains that companies need to proactively monitor for look-alike domain names that are registered. "I'm sure you've had it happen where you've typed in something wrong by one letter, and the browser comes up with a site where you have to think twice. 'Is this the site? What am I looking at here?'" But what malefactors are doing is capturing that traffic, and potentially, they could be using that site to defraud customers. This monitoring is something you can do yourself, and there are also companies that offer this monitoring as a service.

2011 New Mustang Parts Showcase

Each year we scour the floors of the annual Las Vegas SEMA show preview the hottest new parts coming at you from the host of manufacturers that keeps us in Mustang mods. This year was special because of the arrival of the new 2011 5.0 Mustang. There was no shortage of new items for that car as well as every other Mustang going back to 1965.

Here are some of the hottest new performance parts and automotive eye candy for your Mustang in 2011. We would like to thank our friends at Stage3MotorSports for making this section possible! And note that a lot of the hot new parts on the market are available from them!

With the popularity of their decorative aluminum engine covers for the 2005-2009 Ford Mustang GT models- BBK engineers were looking for another affordable way to further dress up the under hood appeal. By utilizing a design that is built as a die casting – BBK was able to deliver a pair of performance valve covers that are both lightweight and a great value. The precise finish of the die casting also allowed for a chrome plated version without the expense of extension polishing as with standard cast units. These Mustang GT valve covers are sold in pairs and are available in a great looking durable titanium powder coat or the show quality chrome. No modifications are required for installation. More information from BBK Performance.

Magnacharger has rolled out this new TVS based supercharger system for the first generation EFI 5.0 small block Ford engines. Featuring the same technology that has been so popular in the past decade for the Ford modular motors, the TVS supercharger system offers the same low end grunt for the venerable small block Fords. Assembly comes with all parts needed for full installation including fuel rails shown. May not be smog legal in all 50 states. The perfect addition to your Fox, SN-95 Mustang or even classic Mustang depending on the engine assembly used.