« April 2008 | Main

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 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 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 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 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 digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page