Bahamas Information Security Technology and Education Center

"When there are multiple people using your computer and/or you store sensitive personal and work-related data on your computer, it is especially important to take extra security precautions."

Source: United States Computer Emergency Response Team. Click here to learn more about security at US-CERT!

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From Microsoft...

Posted: 17.03.2009
Updated: 01.12.2011
by Jeff Thompson

Keep Windows up to date and your PCs safe - with
Microsoft's Security Updates and Tools!

Protecting Your Identity

Protecting against identity theft should not be an issue of cost but one of conviction aimed at making eBusiness safer and combating the numerous Internet Crime Schemes categorized by Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Whether academia, industry, government, or private, BISTEC provides partner solutions that are effective, and affordable in combating Internet Fraud. Preventive steps at major academic institutions like Harvard University are real life examples of how Internet Fraud is affecting the preservation of privacy and personal identification.

Whatever your business objective, we at BISTEC offer you cost effective and proven solutions designed to defend against Internet Fraud, data loss, and other malicious threats aimed at compromising your privacy, data integrity, economic value and personal identity.

For the business minded, covering risk and meeting regulatory compliance is also a legitimate concern. For you, we have solutions such as ITGovernance (to name a few) which addresses those business risks and compliance requirements.

Whether for private or professional use, we offer cost effective solutions which are focused on protecting your Internet presence. And yes, there are a number of really great identity theft services that can cover all of your needs - if you reside in the USA and are in possession of a credit card from a US credit institute. Other than that you need an acceptable alternative which is better than what you may have now. So start protecting your personal identity with state of the art security products manufactured to suite your needs.

We also provide Business Training services to assist you in making a decision on what protection is right for your business. We can conduct training specific to your information security needs. Our goal is to introduce the highest level of security awareness to the Information Technology infrastructures in the Bahamas. See what services we are offering homes and small businesses.

Regular Data Backups contribute to Business Continuity

There are always two sides to a coin and even with good virus protection and anti-identity theft software, something is bound to go wrong; a testimony that even the most experienced IT Professionals can confirm. Regardless of the cause, data recovery is an essential part of any conformance initiative and business continuity plan. Aside from employing measures to protect against Identity Fraud, equally important is having a backup strategy to restore lost or damaged data to its original state, and with little down time.

I spend a great deal of time testing products which means I need a system that is reliable and a data recovery program or programs that can get me back up and running quickly whenever disaster strikes - which happens more often than anticipated. The bottom line is, you're going to need to restore a system or maybe data to its original and operable state at least once in your life. If you don't then you're one of the happy few - congratulations! Whether a single computer owner or a business, you need a disaster recovery plan. Disaster Recovery Statistics show that the consequences of not having a proper disaster recovery plan is detrimental especially to small businesses. A disaster recovery strategy is not something implemented at the time of a disaster, it entails among other things a backup strategy which is performed daily to maintain services, consistency, and recoverability; it is a part of business continuity.

Be Prepared - Not Sorry!

From a home user perspective - when disaster strikes - you're more than likely going to have to spend a great deal of time either waiting for someone to fix your problem for you or you'll spend time doing it yourself. From a business perspective there are extreme case scenarios where many never recover. Although there are many methods and services provided for data storage - online storage, tape storage, imaging, disk storage - your strategy will be dependent upon what method and services you can afford and how long you can afford to remain out of business. Key words are

To home computer users this may sound worse than it really is - If you have the right plan and product(s) to help you out of a given disaster. However, for some businesses the absence of a recovery plan can mean economic ruin, or unnecessary and often time overwhelming financial investments to restore business continuity.

Unfortunately, whether business or private, many of us do not plan for or understand the need for a disaster recovery plan and as a result suffer high economic loses.

Why Have A Backup Recovery Plan?

There are many reasons for having a backup plan, and while the magnitude of damage or loss is different between a home owned computer system and a business operated one - the underlying reasons for protection are equally the same - to be prepared for possible emergencies. As previously mentioned, the type of back-up and preventive strategies considered will be appropriate to your budget. For the sake of simplicity, the remaining paragraphs of this article will be directed at home users and simple system and data backups using commercial products. If you own a business and would like to know which disaster recovery plan is best for your business then contact BISTEC and schedule a visit to discuss your needs.

Which Backup Product is Best For Me?

There are many good products on the market to assist in getting you up an running in a fraction of the time you would normally take to re-install dozens of application, drivers, updates, etc. - despite having have a vendor setup CD/DVD at hand. Chances are you've added dozens of other products since buying your little toy. And even if you have a documented list of all the applications, patches, fixes, BIOS and firmware updates, when disaster strikes - you will spend valuable time just getting back to a stage where you realize that you forgot something. Either your graphic driver is the wrong type, or your SATA or SCSI drives aren't mirrored anymore because you forgot to load third-party drivers, or you just simply forgot to include some changes made to your system since receiving your computer.

For those of you who take care of your computers, because they mean more to you than most people care to understand, you know how frustrating it is when disaster strike. Unfortunately, this happen when we least expect it - that's the logic in Murphy's Law. So when things do go wrong, no need to be angry at the wife because she downloaded files from a bad site, or the girlfriend because she stopped the anti-virus program from running during an update (every time), or at your child because you let him/her play games on your computer with administrator privilege and some program files turned up missing days later. Now your system doesn't work like you want it to and there is no one to blame. Or is there?The 2009 Data Backup Software Product Comparisons reveals how affordable products from even the best backup software vendors are. Top names like Acronis and Genie Soft - among other - are products really worth investing in.