VPN is an abbreviation for Virtual Private Network. A Virtual Private Network allows to establish a safe and encrypted connection to access the public internet securely. VPN hides the user’s online identity by real-time encryption of the traffic sent or received over the internet. This makes a VPN more secure than a private WiFi hotspot.

How Does VPN Work?

In order to understand how VPN works, let us first understand the path followed by data when a user accesses the internet.

When a user sends a request to a website over internet, the data is sent or received via Internet Service Provider (ISP). Any request sent by the user is first redirected to the ISP server and then transmitted to the online service or website. Similarly, data sent by the website in response to the user request is first sent to the ISP server, which then sends it to the user. Thus ISP server has details pertaining to user’s identity, browsing history, online communications, etc. Hackers can also gain access to these details by targeting ISP servers.

VPN acts as a tunnel that bypasses ISP server. When user connects to internet via VPN, the traffic between the user and internet is sent via secure server of the VPN instead of the ISP server. VPN server acts as source server for the user. This can be understood in a stepwise manner.

1. User sends data to a website.
2. The data is received by the VPN server.
3. VPN server sends the data to internet.
4. Traffic received from internet is received by VPN.
5. VPN then serves the traffic to user.

As a result of the process, the user has no direct interaction with the internet. This keeps user’s identity and internet surfing history private. Additionally, VPN encrypts the traffic to ensure further security in case the server is hacked.

What Are The Uses Of VPN?

VPN can be used for a wide array of purposes:

1. Staying Anonymous Online: ISPs can keep an eye on your online activity including services or products you search for. This information holds high value on dark web. Using a VPN for online activity helps in keeping your credentials and online activity hidden and secured.
2. Ensure Security On Public WiFi: Public WiFi are not secured and lack data security configurations. Low security makes it easier for hackers to compromise the WiFi and eavesdrop on the traffic moving across the server. Using VPN when accessing internet over public WiFi helps in ensuring data and credentials security.
3. Data Security: Comparable to ISPs, many apps collect user data and sell it to marketing agencies. Using a VPN prevents apps from attributing data to user’s IP address, thus, ensuring data security.
4. Content Access: Content streaming platforms might publish some content for targeted locations only. For example, some shows might not stream outside US. However, users can use a VPN to mask their location and access geo-blocked content irrespective of their physical location.

To know more about VPN or how to securely browse internet, contact Centex Technologies. You can contact Centex Technologies at Killeen (254) 213 - 4740, Dallas (972) 375 - 9654, Atlanta (404) 994 - 5074, and Austin (512) 956 – 5454.

Year 2020 has witnessed a great rise in number of cyber-attacks, specially Ransomware attacks and Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks including phishing, spear phishing and whaling. These attacks result in data and financial losses. Another reason that has resulted in hike in threat of data threat and data exfiltration is increased number of remote employees due to COVID-19.

The major risk involved in data loss is associated with storing data on-premise or endpoints. Thus, it has become imperative for businesses to adopt a cloud-first approach to data protection.

Here is a step-wise approach to implementing cloud-first data protection strategy:

• First step is to determine if you can trust the cloud service provider’s platform. Analyze if the service provider can meet the data storage requirements of the organization and has the capacity to adapt to any changes to organization’s backup and recovery plans in the future. Check if the provider can:

                  Support all cloud models including private, public and hybrid.

                  Protect data on servers, desktops, mobile devices, and third-party cloud apps.

• Know about the data security practices implemented by the cloud service provider. It is important to ensure that organizational data should be encrypted both in flight and rest to avoid unauthorized access.
• Be prepared to combat a data theft attack by designing a well-defined data recovery plan. Ask the cloud service provider, if there is a recovery action plan such as redundant data centers, secondary data center at a different location, etc. for such situations.
• Relying solely on manual processes to back up mission-critical data can be ineffective. As organizations create a large amount of data everyday, manual data backup and management is no longer feasible. Also, processes such as Cloud, DevOps, and automation movements account for a dynamic business environment which further solidifies the need for automated backup policies.
• Consider the level of tech support that the organization would require in case any issue with cloud backup or cloud data management is detected. It is important to have a pre-hand knowledge about how to contact the cloud service provider to reduce the response time. Ask the cloud service provider if it offers different support channels such as Email or chat. Also, make sure that the provider offers 24*7 support across different time zones.

What Are The Benefits Of Cloud-First Approach To Data Protection?

• Cost savings
• Scalability
• Streamlined and coordinated approach
• Reduced human error
• Improved recovery abilities

For more information on cloud-first approach to data protection, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.   

Data anonymization is the process of protecting private or individual sensitive information by either erasing or encrypting the personal identifiers that form the connection between an individual and stored data. This helps in retaining the data while keeping the source anonymous.

What Is the Need For Anonymization Of Patient Data?

• Data science including collection and analysis of patient data is of immense importance for improving healthcare. It forms the basis of healthcare research for improving drug discovery, predicting epidemics, designing advanced cures, etc.

However, the law requires healthcare researchers to keep the PHI (Personal Health Information) of people secure. So, the only way of using patient’s data for research is to get their consent beforehand. This places a limitation on the data sets as some patients may decline the consent. Data anonymization lifts certain restrictions as it removes the patient’s identifiers and renders the data anonymous. It provides healthcare researchers the ability to access extensive, coherent, and historic data that can be built upon without damaging patient trust.

• Second reason that emphasizes the importance of genuine anonymization of patient data is that patients may be reluctant to seek medical attention if they fear that their PHI may be shared with someone. Genuine anonymization helps the healthcare institutes in offering privacy assurance to their patients.
• An information leak or disclosure that an individual has tested positive for STIs such as HIV/AIDS can invite discrimination or social stigma. Anonymization of such data helps in reducing the risk of such disclosure and maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of patient data.
• Another reason for incorporating genuine anonymization of patient data in the healthcare industry is to keep the data secure from cyber criminals who may cause a data breach and negatively affect the patients.

What Data Anonymization Techniques Can Be Used?

Data Masking: Real data is hidden by altering values. For example, a mirror of a dataset may be created and the value characters may be replaced with symbols such as ‘*’ or ‘x’.

Pseudonymization: The private identifiers such as name, address, etc. are replaced with face identifiers or pseudonyms.

Generalization: Some of the identifier data is removed while retaining a measure of data accuracy. For example, removing house number from the patient’s address while retaining the road name.

Data Swapping: It is also known as shuffling or permutation. The dataset attribute values are rearranged so that they don’t correspond with original values.

Data Perturbation: The original data set is modified by adding noise to the data and rounding off the numbers such as age or house number of the patient.

Synthetic Data: An artificial data set is created instead of altering the original dataset based on patterns and statistical analysis.

For more information on the importance of genuine anonymization of patient data and methods of implementation in healthcare, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

Companies accumulate large amount of data every year. The data may include important information like trade secrets, customer information, client database, product/service information, marketing strategies, etc. It is important for the companies to keep this data secured to prevent financial, trade and reputation loss. However, an increasing rate of data breach incidents indicate that most companies fail to secure their data.

Here are some common mistakes that the enterprises make leading to loss of data:

• Lack of Security Testing: New security features are launched at regular intervals. While it is recommended that businesses should update their security features with newer versions; the switch should be made after proper testing. The companies make the mistake of skipping the beta phase of testing (a testing phase where vulnerabilities of a new security feature are detected and rectified by the technical team of organization). Implementing any new security feature without thorough testing puts the business data at the risk because hackers get the chance to exploit the vulnerabilities and launch a data breach.

• Forgetting To Map Data: Data movement is an essential component for managing the operations of any business. As the use of online resources is increasing, data movement forms the basis of marketing/ sales strategies, collaborative meeting of on-shore & off-shore employees, process handling between different teams, etc. As the data is regularly moving, it becomes important to keep a track of it. Mapping data is the process of marking the origin, journey and destination of data flow. It also involves keeping a track of every person who interacts with the data, and the changes made to it. This helps the data monitoring team to detect data handling patterns and recognize unexpected interactions at an early stage. However, companies usually commit the mistake of neglecting this important process.

• Relying Solely On Anti-Virus: Although it is important to install anti-virus software into the computer systems of the organization to detect the malware; it should not be treated as the backbone of the cybersecurity strategies of the organization. Businesses make the mistake of relying solely on anti-virus software instead of installing other security measures that can detect and flag potentially malicious incoming data before it enters the network.

• Using Outdated Versions Of Security Networks: When considering security networks, companies have to pay attention to three aspects namely security software, security hardware and internal network of company’s systems. Companies often update one or two of these aspects which leaves them at the risk of improper integration of security networks. The outdated versions lead to vulnerabilities in the system which can be exploited by hackers.

It is advisable for the businesses to focus on proper cybersecurity strategies to prevent data breach instances.

For more information about ways to secure data, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

Most of the employees at workplace connect their mobile devices to secure corporate networks. The trend is gaining popularity as it offers flexibility and convenience. However, this has given rise to concerns over security, privacy and connectivity. With the rapid adoption of BYOD culture by organizations, there is a requirement for more dynamic security solutions. Without a MDM (mobile device management) software, business information on lost or stolen devices will not be secured and can lead to loss of data. Also, personal devices used by employees have increased exposure to malware and viruses that could compromise confidential data.

This results in a rise in number of incidents involving data breach and hacking. Such events are detrimental for a company’s reputation among customers and other business partners. As there is an increase in corporate cyber-attacks, businesses are seeing the value of comprehensive MDM solutions.

Mobile device management is a system that is designed for IT administrators to secure policies, permission rights and applications across multiple platforms. It enables easy monitoring of all mobile devices to safeguard all business applications and credential assets. The organizations, through MDM software, can have complete control over their data.

For effective results, MDM solutions should be executed effectively. Essential criteria for successful MDM solution are:

• Enforcement of security policies and passwords
• 24/7 monitoring and fully manageable
• Cloud-based system (to have automatic updates)
• Remote configuration and monitoring
• Restricting access to specific data and applications through Geo-fencing
• Remote data wiping to prevent unauthorized access
• Data restoration facility for corporate data
• Rooting alerts for any attempts to bypass restrictions
• Logging for compliance purposes
• Remote disabling of unauthorized devices
• Scalable – to accommodate new users and sophisticated devices
• Device troubleshooting
• Device location tracking

Other factors to be considered while implementing MDM solutions are:

• Architecture: MDM software should be implemented depending upon the preferences of an individual business. Even with the increase in cloud services and infrastructure; organizations still have some systems that are run in their own data centers. In this case, solutions are required for on-site, cloud and hybrid options.
• Direction: MDM solutions should be opted by a company depending upon the development of the enterprise. It should best fit current and future needs of the business.
• Integration: It is essential for MDM solutions to comply with the existing security and management controls of the business. The right software will enhance both security and efficiency, enabling IT administrators to monitor and control from a single access point.

For more information about Mobile Device Management, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375-9654.