FTPplanet.com Blog

May 09, 2008

File Transfer Security - What is your level of choice?

When using a file transfer process, does security ever become a concern? For everyone utilizing file transfer, security really means encryption of a file transfer.

What level of encryption do you require? Respond with comments -- It's a good topic for discussion!

==> No Security (simple transfer)
==> Basic Security (128-bit SSL)
==> Strong Security (256-bit AES SSL)
==> Advanced Security (PGP plus Secure Hashing SHA 512)

Posted by Erik Small at 08:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

May 08, 2008

WEBNAR TODAY: Six Steps to HIPAA Compliance

Ipswitch is participating in another webinar today, this time focusing on issues and problems in the healthcare industry.

Here's a link to sign-up for today's 2pm ET webinar:

The speakers bring a nice combination of industry expertise, proven solutions, and a real life customer example.

Greg Shields Resident Editor, Realtime Windows Server Community Contributing Editor, Redmond Magazine, Virtualization Review Magazine, & MCP Magazine

Kelly Brady Manager, Technical Services
Greater Rochester Independent Practice Association (GRIPA)

Kevin Gills VP Product Management
Ipswitch File Transfer

And to help wet your appetite, here's an excerpt from the email invitation that Ipswitch sent me: "For healthcare organizations, data security is both an operational and regulatory imperative. A hospital or billing office that fails to protect a patient's medical records faces the threat of losing customers, whether they are patients, doctors, or other healthcare organizations, tarnishing their reputation and eventually losing competitive advantage.

With increased government regulation and oversight in the form of mandates such as HIPAA, no organization that deals with patient or medical records can afford to ignore the very real challenge of ensuring data security, integrity, and privacy."

Join the webinar today at 2pm ET!

Posted by Hugh Garber at 08:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

May 06, 2008

Turn a negative into a positive!

Here's some good insight on FTP all the way from an Australia. Wayne Saunders shares his concerns with the traditional FTP protocol and offers some suggestions to protect the security of your file transfers.

"Some of the negatives about FTP is that it isn't very secure. Passwords and such are sent in clear text, so people looking in could find out passwords easily.

To minimize these problems with security you have to use SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) or FTPS (FTP over SSL) which add on more security and encryption when transferring files.

So, even though FTP is one of the most common ways to transfer files over the internet, it does have its problems with security and efficiency, but it does have its advantages with being able to resume transfers and how it doesn't discriminate against Operating System or computer platform."

I think that Wayne is 100% right. These days it's hard to go a whole week without hearing about a new data breach or security vulnerability... There are bad people out in cyberspace who are on the prowl for unsecured victims.

Surf Safe. Take precautions. And do me a favor and always use encrypted file transfer protocols like SSL / FTPS and SSH / SFTP!

Posted by Hugh Garber at 04:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

May 05, 2008

Ten ways to keep your laptop safe

Are you a traveler with a laptop? I'm sure many of you (like myself) bring a laptop on any trip...business, vacation, long-weekend out of town. I found this informative article on the Sunday Business Post with 10 pointers to ensuring you don't have any security mishaps with your laptop.

My favorite:
9. GPS trackers
In recent years, GPS tracking devices have taken off. The principal drivers behind this technology are twofold: to keep an eye on cargo being transported (such as the Omniscout device) and stressed parents worried about the whereabouts of their kids. In the latter category, devices such as Teltonika's GH1200 and Kiditel use mobile sim cards, which can text your phone if they stray beyond a certain area. These cost about €120 each, plus a mobile charge.

Ten ways to keep your laptop safe

Posted by Erik Small at 08:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

May 02, 2008

FTP between servers?

Here's a great question that I was asked yesterday:

Question: "Is there an FTP client that lets you transfer files directly between one server and another? I want to avoid having to first download to my computer and then uploading to the second server."

Answer: Absolutely! WS_FTP Professional has the advanced capability to easily perform server-to-server transfers. Simply open a connection to Server #1 in the left pane..... Open a connection to Server #2 in the right pane..... Highlight the files you want to transfer.... And then simply push the green transfer button.

Posted by Hugh Garber at 07:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

April 30, 2008

Beyond FTP

As you can tell from a slew of my previous blog posts, there is indeed life beyond FTP.

Sure, FTP is everywhere (literally and figuratively).... But security concerns as well as business emphasis on manageability, confidentiality, integrity, availability, compliance, auditing, etc have brought along a new breed of file transfer solutions that deliver more robust and system-wide solutions for business and enterprise organizations.

Some of those new security and feature capabilities have made their way into file transfer clients (my recommended one being WS_FTP Professional).... And many more into the server side of things.

Anyways, here's an interesting article from IndustryWeek that highlights some perspectives on Managed File Transfer solutions. Enjoy the read!

Posted by Hugh Garber at 07:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

April 28, 2008

FTP Hosting

FTP Hosting services are great for people who don't have access to a server to store their files on. Basically, the service provides online storage on a hosted server. You basically rent space on their remote server.

Here's a nice overview on some of the details of FTP Hosting services. The article also touches on the inefficiencies and security concerns with relying on email to transfer and share files.

It is important to note that you will also need file transfer client software to transfer files from your computer to the hosted server. The linked article recommends a few of the usual suspects, including my favorite, WS_FTP Professional.

"WS FTP - as file transfer client software, it is the most popular. With the help of this secure software, you can quickly and easily manage all the digital information. It helps to compress files into .zip format during file transfer. It guarantees security of data with the help of 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) keys and SSL transfers."

Posted by Hugh Garber at 07:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

April 25, 2008

Post-Data Breach decisions

FTPplanet often talks about data breaches and the importance of setting up a plan before a breach happens and especially after a breach is exposed. It's a hot topic in the market of data transfer and file encryption. Here's a follow-up article in SC Magazine to Hannaford's data breach and what measures they have taken to avoid a security breach again.

http://www.scmagazineus.com/After-breach-Hannaford-details-IT-security-remodel/article/109341/

Data breaches hit hard for larger organizations and not necessarily affect home file transfer users, but many of us here at FTPplanet feel it's important to stay on top of the latest trends and issues hitting the file transfer market in the business world.

Posted by Erik Small at 08:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

April 24, 2008

Reminder for Free Webinar today: Will Your Business Be the Next Data Breach Headline?

Don't Forget - A free live webinar is taking place today with STORES Magazine. The webinar focuses on these critical questions:

-- Who has access to your sensitive files and data?
-- What is the impact if your sensitive company information is
compromised?
-- When and what is the information being exchanged?
-- Where and to whom is your data being sent?
-- Why would you let employees/partners share your files over insecure FTP, email or IM?
-- How does regulatory compliance affect the way your data needs to be handled and audited?

Register on the Ipswitch File Transfer website now:

http://www.ipswitchft.com

Posted by Erik Small at 11:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

April 22, 2008

FREE Webinar: Will Your Business Be the Next Data Breach Headline?

Data Breaches.... Securing Private Information.... Compliance Requirements.

These are important topics that I've been blogging about for a while now and I'm looking forward to listening to this Thursday's webinar titled "Will Your Business Be the Next Data Breach Headline?".... And I thought some other FTPplanet readers would be interested in attending as well.

Here are the webinar details:

Topic: Will Your Business be the Next Data Breach Headline?

Date: Thursday, April 24, 2008

Time: 12:00 p.m. EDT

Moderator:
Rick Gallagher, Publisher, STORES Magazine and LPinformation

Speakers:
Dr. David Taylor, CISSP, Research Director, PCI Security Vendor
Alliance and the Founder of the PCI Knowledge Base

Kevin Gillis, VP Product Management,
File Transfer Division, Ipswitch, Inc.
PCI Security Standards Council Member

Come join me in listening to a star-studded cast of industry experts highlight some of the recent data breaches and provide some recommendations on how to help prevent your business from becoming the next data breach headline.

Sign-up for the webinar and reserve your spot

Posted by Hugh Garber at 07:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

April 16, 2008

Denied? Let’s try again.

Here are some great insights from Justin Gerharter on the need for strong passwords. Seems he recently upgraded his file transfer server to one that includes encrypted protocols, extensive logging and probably a slew of other secure file transfer administrative controls.

Here's what he saw when poking into the log data:

"I thought it would be entertaining to review the logs from the weekend to see what kind of shenanigans went on with it over the last few days. Of course there were attempts to access it by three or four different IP addresses.

The entertaining part was the usernames they attempted. There where the usual suspects like root, admin, test, guest, anonymous, etc. How about “bitch” for a username? Gee... I wonder what the password would be for that user? What about CyberJohn? Is that the nickname of Eliot Spitzer? I realize that these were automated attempts but come on. Bitch? Seriously? In case you are wondering the password for bitch was sonofa. You’d think after the 50th time of getting “connection denied by client IP” their automated attempts would be smart enough to stop but they weren’t.

The one thing the log review did enlighten me to was the need for complex usernames as well as complex passwords. Kind of scary how close a couple of the attempts were to actual user names."

Justin's last comments are VERY important and it brings us back to my recent ranting about the need to use strong passwords, whether or not required by the server administrator or not. Just do it!

Posted by Hugh Garber at 07:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

April 15, 2008

Today is the day - Tax Returns

For all the procrastinators compiling their tax returns today -- good luck!

Tax season reminds us of the importance of data protection, as personal information is shared between various parties. Tax documents need to be shared with your accountant....should it be sent through email, fax, hand-delivered? Transfering files through a secure file transfer process is a good option. The importance of file security applies not only to everyone's annual April 15 deadline, but throughout the year when dealing with personal banking, healthcare records, mortgage or loan approvals, etc.

Continue to check-in with FTPplanet for a daily dose of file transfer news, help and easy-to-use Discussion Forums.

Posted by Erik Small at 08:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

April 11, 2008

Online Offer: WS_FTP Home with 1-year of Support

There's a special promotion running on the WS_FTP website for 20% off a single license of WS_FTP Home. This includes 1-year of full technical support and automatic updates. Be sure to use the link on the right side of the page labeled: "Special Limited Time Offer".

Happy Friday from FTPplanet!

http://wsftp.com/products/ws_ftp_home/

Posted by Erik Small at 08:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page