Category: Technology

ICT infrastructure upgrades for higher quality access to broadband

Jo

The internet has long been hailed as an inclusive and democratising resource proffering a staggering supply of information and useful services. However, many people still feel left out of the so-called age of information by the singular fact of living in a community where high-speed web connections are harder to obtain. Good news is on the way, however, as certain companies are getting behind ICT infrastructure developments that aim to bring an end to these unjust circumstances. Investments are being made, for example, in creative upgrades and corporate outsourcing drives that will help rural estates integrate into the online world through next generation access and community broadband set-ups.

We often hear the term ‘online community’ these days in reference to social networks created between friends, acquaintances and fellow professionals in the virtual realm. Evidently these networks can serve us well, particularly when they make organizing events and meetings or sharing documents or articles easier. For some time, rural inhabitants have experienced difficulties in reaping the benefits of such web-based communities, though they may have counterbalanced their technological lack by strengthening connections and communications in the physical realm. More and more, however, rural estates are having it both ways thanks to the success of community broadband: they are finding themselves in a position enabling them to maintain the strong contacts they have cultivated locally through slower means, as well as gaining in the online stakes. It really is a win-win situation.

Community broadband projects thus have a social as well as a professional function. Moreover, next generation access works to answer the requirements of both households, who may want to save time and resources by carrying out everyday tasks such as shopping and paying bills online, and businesses whose expansion and success has become unavoidably dependent on taking advantage of their presence on the internet. That is why ICT infrastructure upgrades represent such a serious and significant undertaking. Indeed, a great number of local councils are showing their support for the companies investing in improvements to internet access. In the north of the UK, in areas such as the South Yorkshire towns and cities of Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster in particular, many business centres and science parks actually count on the technological innovations making broadband better: their very survival depends on the advantages that are sometimes only accessible online.

Please visit http://www.broadbandvantage.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Vulnerability management upholds the safety of computer systems across the globe

Stuart

Computer systems deployed to hostile environments are automatically at risk of having their vulnerabilities exploited, with grave economic, and even physical and humanitarian, consequences. It is therefore absolutely vital that the vulnerability management industry stay on top of its game. Penetration testing and vulnerability assessment of the highest calibre is needed in order to avoid large-scale incidents of international importance, as well as countless problems for business resulting from hacking activities.

Companies and large organisations rely ever-increasingly on technology to carry out even the most core functions. This enables an unrivalled level of efficiency, but obviously it also introduces unprecedented levels of security risks. While dependence on technology grows and the level of sophistication of the technology rises, release cycles grow ever more brief, which makes the security environment an ever-changing landscape where the goalposts are constantly being shifted.

Good quality penetration testing can be a greatly rewarding cost-saving service. Attacks are simulated in a variety of ways, using various methods, in order to identify specific vulnerabilities in the system. Generally this is achieved by being able to identify the path into the network that a black hat hacker would be able to take.

The risks represented by security breaches, of course, have consequences for not only businesses, but also transport and communications systems, water and energy supply systems, and nuclear power plants, other than a huge amount of sensitive data locked in information technology systems.

An example of the latter occurred early this year, as the New York Times reported Google’s admission that hackers had successfully assaulted the internet giant’s Gaia password system. The information pertaining to Google’s various web services of millions of people and businesses are accessible through the use of a single password, and hackers were able to exploit vulnerabilities in the program. They managed to infiltrate the computers of several Google staff members in China. The incident led to a huge amount of tension between the United States and China, and culminated in Google’s withdrawal of its services in the country, with massive financial ramifications. The attack was said to be aimed at accessing the gmail accounts of human rights activists. There is a possibility, according to experts, that they were able to detect vulnerabilities in the system which Google itself is unaware of.

All types of measures are being devised by vulnerability assessment firms to cope with such a challenging situation. Vulnerability management must be performed with the use of all available means and resources, including black box, white box and grey box penetration testing in order to highlight future risks to computer systems.

Please click http://www.surecloud.com/ for further information about this topic.

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