Winner Takes It All: Why Net Neutrality is a High Stakes Game
There’s an almighty tug-of-war going on between the telcos and the Web companies over Net Neutrality rules. It’s a contentious issue that divides two continents. The current US administration favors the telcos, while the EU wants an Internet that continues to encourage Web company innovation and protects consumer privacy rights. The stakes are high. Should the current rules change, then telcos and ISPs will no longer be obliged to treat all web content equally. It will mean Web companies may have to pay more to distribute their choicest content while the surfing habits and purchase histories of ordinary customers could be sold to the highest bidder. For customers who value their privacy, VPNs are a great way to avoid website traffic analysis and preserve secure Internet connectivity.
read moreThe summer holiday season brings extra risk for restaurants and hotel chains
US retailers have been having a tough time of late. Shifting consumer tastes and the rise of online shopping have forced a number of stores to cease trading. While conventional stores may not be hiring for the summer like they used to, there’s still plenty of seasonal work to be found in hotels, restaurants and the hospitality sector in general. Restaurants and hotels are already popular targets for cybercrime. On top of this, the busy summer season brings an influx of newbies to join the workforce, adding an extra risk dimension for employers to deal with. From remote Point-of-Sale connectivity, to summer season workers using their mobile phones to look up or share company information, hospitality chains need a comprehensive VPN strategy so they can be assured that sensitive data remains private and secure.
read moreThe next major incident is simply a matter of time
When WannaCry dominated the headlines, manufacturers fell over one another to make a statement. On the whole, the comments can be divided into two groups. Some reminded customers that not patching software is negligent and others claimed that it simply would not have happened with their software/hardware/service. How true is this? One can hardly imagine that organizations such as hospitals or Deutsche Bahn would not have any protection software, employ incompetent administrators, or have not heavily invested in security technology. Security products and services were almost certainly available to the affected organizations; however, they were unable to neutralize this threat.
read moreOlder ATMs Under Fire as IoT Starts to Bite
The ATM celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Some of the oldest cash machines still in use today date back to an era when network security was relatively unsophisticated. Protecting connections between large numbers of disparate ATMs and the banks’ processing centers using VPNs is relatively straightforward. Yet, some banks have not yet taken adequate protective measures. As the Internet of Things gathers pace, the need to protect machine-to-machine communications is becoming urgent. Cybercriminals’ recent success in carrying out remote attacks on ATMs is a timely reminder of how important secure remote connectivity has become for M2M environments.
read moreHow to Enable a Secure Cloud VPN
Cloud computing has been around now for about a decade. It offers companies the chance to lease computing resources and services on-demand over the Internet from cloud services providers. In this way, companies gain the freedom to quickly scale IT systems up and down in line with changing business circumstances as well as keep up with the latest technology advances. The cloud services model is also a lot more cost effective than equivalent in-house deployments. Yet, despite all of this, many organizations still hesitate to embrace cloud services citing remote access security concerns, especially when employees are connecting to cloud applications when on the road. To address such concerns, providers can offer their customers remote access out of the cloud or VPN as a service.
read moreThe EU General Data Protection Regulation
Data protection is considered important, the Federal Data Protection Act is well established and German companies really should be absolute experts in data protection by now. However, a quick reality check shows that data protection is not quite as advanced as it might seem either due to lack of knowledge or deliberately ignoring data protection and profiting from selling customer data. Some readers may however take comfort that data protection is taken somewhat more seriously in Germany in comparison to the rest of the world where privacy and data protection issues are not even considered by decision and policy makers.
read moreThe Secret to Effective Remote Access VPN Management
The growing number of employees using multiple personal and company-owned mobile devices to connect to corporate networks is, according to Ponemon Institute, the biggest endpoint security threat today. In this environment, VPNs play a vital role in encrypting remote communications to keep sensitive and confidential company information exchanges secure and private. Large organizations may have many thousands of endpoint devices accessing the network at any given moment. Managing all these individual components is time-consuming and complex. However, a centralized remote access VPN management system can greatly simplify the process. The secret is in combining intelligence and automation to make remote access management as secure, efficient and productive as possible.
read moreProgress through partnership
A VPN needs both a client and remote gateway. While NCP offers a complete solution with Secure Enterprise Client and Secure Enterprise VPN Server, some manufacturers only develop their own gateways. Client software is then purchased from another company such as NCP. This type of cooperation is rare in the security sector, as the compatibility of the products is very important and may not meet all the requirements of a given scenario. This is not the case at NCP which shows that partnerships without compromise can be achieved in the security sector. NCP has been working with Juniper Networks for many years and this partnership recently reached a new level of cooperation.
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