Tag Archive for: PathMaker Group

An Overview of Digital Forensics and Electronic Discovery

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

Digital forensics and electronic discovery involve the collection and analysis of electronically-stored data. Together, these two fields of electronic security cover the entire digital information spectrum. To find out more about what each one is and when or why you may want to hire an investigative team to perform digital forensics and electronic discovery procedures for your company, continue reading this article.

What is digital forensics?

Digital forensics entails the thorough examination of electronic storage devices. In the process, electronic systems investigators identify, collect, maintain, and analyze the data stored on an electronic device. After doing so, they produce results based on their analyses that are defensible enough to be upheld in a court of law. Deleted, damaged, and encrypted files are all included in the analysis and the data explained in the results.

What is electronic discovery?

Electronic discovery, or e-discovery, is the process of gathering electronic data so that it is readily available and can be stored on a variety of electronic storage devices. This data is gathered and stored via:

  • Information and identity management.
  • Collection and preservation of all data.

When good e-discovery practices are employed at a company, e-discovery records can be sent to a team of digital forensics investigators for:

  • Processing, analysis, review, and presentation of results.

When are these processes necessary?

Electronic discovery should be practiced by any company that stores sensitive data and records that are crucial to future business. Digital forensics should be employed when a company needs to draw on its performance history to justify a decision made in the present, as well as whenever a company is facing legal action. A forensics team can ensure the files and digital history stored on your computer that support your case will provide you with valid courtroom evidence.

Are you a Dallas-based business owner who is looking for services in the field of electronic security and identity? If so, call PathMaker Group at (817) 704-3644 and ask about our electronic discovery, digital forensics, and identity management services today!

 

Using IBM DataPower XI50 Appliance to Secure XML-based Web Services

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

Congratulations!!! Your IT organization, and more importantly your company, now enjoys the benefits of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). These benefits include return on investment, code mobility and maintenance, agility, improved scalability and high availability.  But along with these rewards come some disadvantages.  These include degradation of application server performance and increased security concerns and risks.  The XML-based Web Services in use in your enterprise easily expose back-end systems to customers and partners.  Your Web Services pass through your enterprise network firewall and are based upon SOAP, XML and HTTP.  These all combine to introduce new threats and security exposures within your enterprise infrastructure.  These new type of threats can consist of some of the following below:

  • XML Denial of Service
    • Slowing down or disabling a Web Service so that service requests are hampered or denied
  • Unauthorized Access
    • Gaining unauthorized access to a Web Service or its data
  • Data Integrity and Confidentiality
    • Data integrity attacks of Web Service requests, responses or underlying databases
  • System Compromise
    • Corrupting the Web Service itself or the servers that host its Read more

Giving Thanks at PathMaker Group

/0 Comments/in /by

This week is Thanksgiving and I have a lot reasons to be thankful. I enjoy my job, I work with great people, and we provide a valuable service to our clients by helping them make sense of an extremely complicated industry.

About ten years ago I set out to establish a company that would last and that would be comprised of people who enjoyed working together.  This didn’t happen accidentally.  From day one, the purpose and approach to building this company has been intentional and disciplined. And it’s not just been about finding good people or even great people.  It’s been about finding the right people.

When you examine PathMaker Group, you see . . .

  • People who successfully maintain a healthy balance between work life and personal life
  • People who are growing by fully understanding and utilizing our unique gifts and abilities, and as a result are making a significant difference in our work, families, communities and beyond
  • People who are committed to developing as leaders and passing on our lessons through coaching and mentoring
  • People who work in a culture promoting creativity and fun and thus produce standard setting thought leadership
  • People who achieve top-tier results because of our passion and commitment to discipline, quality and client satisfaction Read more

Identity Management in Higher Education

/0 Comments/in , /by

Introduction

Technology plays a crucial role in the universities and institutions where students, alumni, faculty, and staff depend on high-tech services and tools to study, live, work, and play. As these institutions embrace the Internet for student services, administrative systems, research projects, self-service, and profile management, online security is at a premium. Users must feel protected for web channels to grow and enhance the user experience. At the same time, compliance mandates have become more complex and university breaches become more numerous; both which threaten the institution’s assets and brand name. Institutions that cannot meet this security demand will suffer.

PathMaker Group can help prepare educational institutions for these challenges by developing solutions for:

– Centralizing application access control.
– Providing strong, multi-factor authentication.
– Providing sophisticated real-time risk analysis and access prevention based on events and rules.
– Automating routine account management activities.
– Meeting regulatory requirements for reporting and attestation.
– Enabling new modes of inter-campus interactions.
– Protecting user identity data with a secure, scalable and highly available infrastructure.
– Bridging islands of user identity information across a variety of infrastructures. Read more

IBM Pulse 2012

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Business Without Limits!

Pathaker Group is an IBM Premier Partner with the sales and technical certifications required to sell and implement an ever expanding array of best in class security solutions from IBM. Be sure to put Pulse 2012 on your calendar and stop by the Solution Expo and visit our booth. Business partners and customers will learn how IBM is shaping the IT Security Landscape with newly acquired technologies and integrated solutions to meet the growing challenges that we face.

Check out some info from IBM about Pulse!

“Pulse 2012 returns to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas March 4-7, 2012 and we invite you to take part in the action! Experience first-hand how organizations in every industry are using Visibility Control Automation to improve the economics of their business infrastructures and speed the delivery of innovative products and services.

With over 7,000 attendees including industry-renowned speakers, Pulse 2012 is your ticket to hundreds of technology leadership sessions, industry-focused breakouts, and technical skill-building workshops. At this year’s conference you’ll have an opportunity to network with colleagues, participate in hands-on labs, and attend our largest-ever Solution Expo. Don’t miss this significant event!

The Pulse conference is now accepting session submissions! Visit the IBM Speakers page for the timeline, benefits and guidelines, or to answer the Call for Speakers today!” (IBM) Read more

Security and Identity Management Solutions for the Healthcare Industry

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Do you work in the medical or healthcare industry? Is your company in need of security or identity management solutions? If so, here are some of the key ways in which PathMaker Group can provide value in this field.

Enterprise Single Sign-on Doctors and nurses have a lot of passwords to manage as well as using shared workstations creating potential issues around people sharing a user ID to an account and people leaving an application or patient information open on a shared workstation. With ESSO, PathMaker Group can give the users a secure way to store all their passwords and automating the login and logoff process.

  • ESSO can be paired with an RFID badge – a quick tap of the badge can log a user on or off from the workstation, saving the time of entering the user ID and password over and over again as they switch between machines all day. A proximity sensor can be added to workstations to automatically lock them when a user forgets to tap out as they walk away from the machine.
  • Shared Workstation Management – Shared machines can be configured to be locked when an ESSO user leaves the workstation. When the next user comes in, any apps left open by the prior user can be gracefully closed to prevent the new user from having patient access under the prior user’s account.
  • Context Management ESSO can further streamline the process of accessing patient records across multiple applications. Tools, such as CareFX Fusion Context Management, provide the ability to script the sharing of patient identification across applications, removing the need for constant searches and patient lookups. Read more

Addressing NIST’s New Risk Management Framework

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) created a series of publications that provide guidance for federal agencies on the implementation, certification and accreditation of federal information system security. The same guidelines hold true for all commercial agencies/companies as well.

So the question that comes to our mind What is NIST’s New Risk Management Framework? NIST describes the RMF model as a series of six repeating steps designed to identify the security mechanisms necessary for an IT system, implement those protections, and validate their proper operation over the systems lifecycle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more

Security and PCI-DSS Compliance

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

The question of whether compliance makes your networks secure often comes up when performing Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) remediation and audit work. Many believe that compliance with the PCI-DSS means their networks are secure from exploitation. Unfortunately this is not the case. Passing an independent PCI audit usually indicates reduced vulnerability for those PCI related areas tested, however the PCI segments are usually a small portion of the overall networks.

The payment card industry has one goal in mind and it is not to protect or provide security for your network. Their goal is to protect credit card and card holder data. They do this to limit their potential liability and transfer responsibility for that liability to the entities that provide, accept, use, store or transfer credit card and card user information. That is almost all businesses and many institutions here and around the world. Read more

The Importance of Hiring an Experienced, Qualified Security Assessor for Your PCI-Compliance Audit

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

With the stiff penalties associated with failure to meet standards set by the PCI Security Council, ensuring that your company remains compliant and avoids security breaches requires regular PCI compliance audits. Hiring qualified security assessors can help you avoid a number of potential pitfalls associated with audits. Opting to hire the most experienced candidates offers a number of benefits, including:

  • Getting it Done Right
    In 2004, CardSystems Solutions was hacked, resulting in 263,000 stolen credit cards and roughly 40 million compromised. This breach occurred despite their security auditor giving them a clean audit just three months prior. Hiring experienced PCI compliance auditors to perform your audits lessens the likelihood of potentially costly mistakes.
  • Continued Security
    Experienced PCI compliance auditors not only understand current standards, but they understand the areas in which the current standards fall short. This allows you to proactively anticipate security risks and protect your customers’ data. Understanding the current problems, as well as the next generation of threats, allows you to remain in compliance and prevent costly security breaches. Read more

Different Types of Incidents that Can Result in Compromised Network Security and Information

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Network security is an important consideration for any business that is connected to the internet, but especially for businesses entrusted with sensitive customer information. Penetration testing and PCI compliance are important safeguards for protecting customer data, but what are the ways in which customer data might become compromised?

  • Malware
    Malware is one of the most pervasive network security threats these days. Malware is a comprehensive term to describe viruses, worms, Trojan horses, tracking cookies, and many other types of threats that include malicious code or software that aims to breach your confidentiality. They can be detected and removed with most software security suites.
  • Cybercrime
    While malware attempts to breach your security from inside your computer, cyber criminals attempt to breach your security from afar. Hacking and cyber crime causes tens of millions of dollars in losses every year. One way to prevent cybercrime is to have an IT security professional perform penetration testing on your system to find loopholes and close them. Read more