Windows Server 2003 End of Life Approaching

Network
13
Apr 2015

server-2003-grave800

With Windows Server 2003 end of life fast approaching, find out why it’s essential to migrate systems sooner rather than later to avoid problems.

The official date for Microsoft to end their support for Server 2003 is July 14 2015. We’ll outline here why businesses ought to update their systems in a timely manner to prevent difficulties and disruption to business operations.

End of Life Impact on Business

For businesses running Windows Server 2003, it’s important to consider the fact that Microsoft will stop releasing security updates and patches; leaving systems open to vulnerability on a network.

High priority should be given to a migration strategy ASAP to protect the IT infrastructure from any risk of attack due to, what will soon come to be, un-patched vulnerabilities.

Another significant consideration is third party vendors also ending their support of their programs running on Windows Server 2003. Resources and efforts to continue to support the soon-to-be legacy operating system will be reduced to focus on supporting newer OS builds.

Why Migrate?

Now is the time to migrate all Server 2003 machines to be sure that:

  • Any new vulnerability can be patched and updated to help lock down security.
  • All crucial applications can continue to be supported by vendors.
  • A newer operating system will also help improve performance.
  • Receiving faster response times to any given issue as well as access to quick fixes.
  • Complying with HIPAA regulations as it states under section 164.308 (a)(1)(ii)(B) that such security measures need to be in place to lower the risk of vulnerabilities to a manageable degree.
  • Complying with PCI section 6.1, which reiterates the same safety measures as HIPAA, stating for all businesses to protect their systems from vulnerabilities by applying updated patches from the vendor.

If a high majority of Servers in a data center run Server 2003 past Microsoft’s end of support period, this will infringe on both HIPPA and PCI regulations, especially for those businesses covered under it.

Windows Server 32-bit Issues

Another known problem to consider is a design flaw of the memory pool for Server 2003 32-bit systems when running newer third party applications.

Any third-party applications running on this particular version of Server 2003 are known to take up paged pool and non-paged-pool memory. The problem arises from these newer applications depleting both paged pool and non-paged pool on the already limited Server 2003 32-bit systems.

This particular problem originates in the boot.ini file which specifies a 3GB limitation option. This setting causes the memory to be first allocated to a program running within the server causing the page-pool or non-page pool memory to diminish. Many newer programs require a larger amount of memory to be “pooled” causing the server to lock-up. This usually leads to a server crash.

Final thoughts

windows-server-2003-end-of-life1-940x589

We suggest to plan a migration to Server 2012 R2 or Server 2008 R2 assuming your business operations really need a dedicated server. It can take some time to approve any change requests and to plan a migration within an organization, therefore it’s best to start now to ensure the least amount of disruption to business operations.

For more ways to securely migrate your old systems, contact your local IT professionals.

Read More

Internet as a Utility: What Does This Mean For You?

Network, ,
09
Apr 2015

The internet has recently been classified as a utility by the FCC. Read our article here to find out what this means for you and your business.

As of February 26, 2015, the Federal Communications Commission ruled to classify broadband internet as a utility. This is a landmark achievement for individuals and groups supporting net neutrality or the movement to ensure the internet remains free and open to the public.

According to FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, the decision was needed to protect innovators and consumers preserving the internet’s role as the “core of free expression and democratic principles”. The two other commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Cyburn who voted in favor of the decision are also supporters of net neutrality. Cyburn cited the important role broadband internet plays for low-income families as their only opportunity to get access to the internet. Other notable supporters of the net neutrality include Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Netflix, and President Barack Obama.

But not all the parties are happy with the ruling. Internet service providers (ISPs) such as Verizon are expected to sue the FCC and make a court appeal on its recent policy decision. Verizon claims that instead of making the internet free, it’s actually putting the network under stricter government control. Instead of price reductions to internet services, it will likely help promote the emergence of higher or new taxes since the new ruling can discourage the entry of new ISPs that would ensure strong competition.

What does this mean to personal or home broadband users?

FCC_Chairman_Tom_Wheeler

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Credit FastCompan.com

 

How will this new FCC ruling affect ordinary broadband users in the United States?

  • Better and wider access. Once a product or service is classified as a utility, the government is recognizing that it has become an essential part of daily living similar to water and electricity. This means having broadband internet is already a right for the public including those living in remote areas.
  • No more blocked content. Some web pages and content, even if they are lawful, are blocked due to geo-targeting or marketing only to certain locations. The new ruling prohibits unlawful blocking of content.
  • Eliminating the data capping problem. Perhaps, the most significant effect of the FCC ruling is the elimination of data capping concerns. If you are using broadband or wireless internet, you certainly have experienced slower and even hampered internet connection even if your internet provider has promised an unlimited plan or higher speeds. Have you also noticed that wired internet is faster than broadband internet? It’s not really about signal or connection but the speed throttling practices of ISPs.

How about websites and corporate users?

This is certainly good news for website owners and corporate users of broadband internet or the internet in general. The new ruling will eliminate the existing paid prioritization or pay-to-play fast scheme of ISPs. For websites and companies who need massive bandwidth and speeds like Netflix, they often need to pay more to ISPs just to ensure their viewers can experience uninterrupted media streaming.

Additionally, the FCC classification will improve internet media competition. New ventures won’t be discouraged to spend more just to gain faster speeds. This will eventually result in expanded internet use and provide further media options to the public.

It’s important to note that the FCC doesn’t plan to meddle with each ISP’s pricing scheme and engineering decisions.

For more information on how the FCC’s ruling can impact your business and operations, contact your local IT professionals.

Read More

3,000 Patient Data Breach Emphasizes Security Importance

Security,
08
Apr 2015

Data_Breach

A Wisconsin based Chiropractic clinic has leaked data from approximately 3000 patients. Read the story here and learn how to protect your data.

The chiropractic clinic in Wisconsin had to notify all 3000 of their clients regarding an incident which involved their data being breached. It had come to light late November of last year when it was realized that an ex-employee and chiropractic practitioner had extracted critical client information.

The former employee had access to client data to carry out their daily role in the clinic. They went a step too far by stealing client information away from the business. The information breached included details such as client’s names, direct contact details, date of birth, insurance information and even social security numbers. The perpetrator soon resigned after carrying out the dirty deed. Officials believe that this was a classic ploy to solicit clients for the perpetrator’s own gain.

What was the motive?

Without a customer base, there’s no business. So what makes customers highly valuable besides what they may spend on your product or service? In short, it’s their data. With client data, a business will have a deeper insight into the demographics of their client base, along with contact details and other personal information. There is much power to be gained by having a list of hot leads.

In this case, this former employee has stolen the business right from under the clinic’s feet.

How to protect your business from data breaches

Although it’s easier said than done, simply setting up protective measures to safeguard your business information is an essential step.

Practical solutions that can be implemented right away

Non technical solutions

  • Be sure to carry out background checks to ensure that potential employees have no criminal offences- especially if it pertains to fraud. The same can be done periodically for existing staff.
  • Have new and existing staff sign a disclosure document to protect the business’ data, where breach of data can lead to liability.
  • Training and educate staff on what constitutes potential data breaches.
  • Have your attorney update your company’s T&Cs to protect the business in the event of a breach.

For more ways to secure your data and systems, contact your local IT professionals.

Read More

What is RAID and Should Your Business be Using it?

hardware, Office IT,
02
Apr 2015

What_Is_RAID

Find out what RAID is and whether your critical business systems need it. Learn all the basics to ensure your data stays secured regardless of your set-up.

RAID is short for “Redundant Array of Independent Disks”. The “I” in RAID can also be referred to as “Inexpensive”, which can also be true.

RAID stores your data across multiple hard disks for the benefit of:

Providing faster volume– Quicker to access data

Facilitates redundancy– Allowing seamless data access when a given number of disks fail.

In other words it helps prevent data loss when a hard drive fails by allowing the other hard drives to pick up the slack

One thing to bear in mind is that RAID data redundancy configurations are not immune to malware attacks, natural disasters and data beaches. As mentioned before, what it’s good for is preventing against hardware failure and maintaining uptime.

Popular RAID levels

Different_RAID_Configurations

RAID levels refer to how hard disks are configured to work alongside each other. There are three common RAID configurations that you’ll mostly hear about:

  • RAID 0- offers the benefit of fast access to read and write data by having it distributed across the disks. The main disadvantage is that it offers no protection when a drive in this arrangement fails, as it’ll be the missing piece that jeopardises this arrangement leading to unreadable data.
  • RAID 1– Mirrors the data in drives paired together. This offers better failover protections. In the case of one drive failing the data would still be available on the other disk whilst the failed drive is replaced. It also comes with the disadvantage of using up half of the disk space that is used to hold the mirrored data from the other disk. This means it’s a more costly solution.
  • RAID 5– provides the best of both worlds, with data redundancy and faster access to it. It distributes data across all disks like with a RAID 0 setup and covers data with parity. In the case of failover, it’ll recover data like it does with RAID1. You’ll need to consider the minimum number of disks required for this setup, which is three, and uses one third of the disk capacity to hold the disk parity information.
  • JBOD– Stands for “just a bunch of disks”. It’s not really considered to be a RAID however it is available alongside other RAIDs as a choice on most varieties of storage boxes. This only bunches a group of disks into one volume, where data will be filled until it becomes full and then moves onto the next available disk. With this, there’s isn’t any benefit of faster data access and redundancy. This is only good to use as a last resort.

What is RAID suitable for?

RAID is not really suitable for standard desktop computers, unless there’s a reason to store hundreds of gigabytes worth of critical data. Instead, it’s better suited on all servers and NAS (network attached storage) devices that share content and resources or that hold large amounts of data.

NAS devices simply act as additional storage that can be plugged into a network.

Since managing storage volumes on servers and NAS devices can seem like a headache to maintain, we suggest using an automated RAID management system such as SHR.

SHR by Synology, stands for Synology Hybrid RAID. It’s not even essential to know about all types of RAID setups as SHR takes care to quickly configure storage volume and deploy it according to your requirements.  Unlike the classic RAID setups, SHR allows anyone to maximize their disk usage. There’s a lot more flexibility too, where you can scale up with additional disks within an already configured volume.

For more ways to secure your data and systems, contact your local IT professionals.

Read More
1 2