Companies risk being held ‘hostage’ by IT without proper IT process documentation
Written by Kevin McDonald, Alvaka Networks. Originally published April 2016 on TechTarget. Kevin discusses the crucial role of IT Process Documentation. It seems that not a day passes without news of another high-profile hack, embezzlement of monies and data, or even [...]
HIPAA Security: Don’t Neglect Physical Workstation Security Safeguards
With all the recent headlines regarding cyber security breaches, it is easy for companies to forget about the physical security controls they must put into place. This crucial element of the HIPAA Security Rule will vary in implementation depending on [...]
Three things healthcare organizations can do to help protect their organizations from cyber risk and security breaches
By Oli Thordarson, CEO of Alvaka Networks I was recently asked to write a short column on “What three things healthcare organizations can do to help protect their organizations from cyber risk and security breaches?” for the ABL Organization. It [...]
Legal quicksand: Shrink-wrap and click-wrap agreements – Part 2
Typical Shrink-Wrap Terms and Conditions While the type of terms and conditions found in shrink-wrap agreements vary greatly from vendor to vendor, there are a number of common themes. In general, shrink-wrap agreements include the following potentially problematic terms: [...]
Legal quicksand: Shrink-wrap and click-wrap agreements – Part 1
Shrink-wrap and click-wrap agreements are the fine print you see, among other things, when you click through terms and conditions in accessing an online service (e.g., in connection with a cloud computing service) or as part of the installation [...]
DFARS 252.204-7012: Terms to know
DFARS 252.204-7012 requires that, as a DoD contractor, your organization and your subcontractors must obtain certification of compliance. The deadline has now passed to meet DFARS compliance rules that put cybersecurity safeguards on what the U.S. government calls 'controlled unclassified [...]
Smoke testing is a term used to describe the testing process for servers after patches are applied. 
Estimating an average time for patching servers and PCs can be a bit tricky. It can vary from one month to the next, depending upon the number and complexity of the patches released by your software vendors. You must consider all versions of operating systems and have a complete inventory of all your application software to do this job correctly. Our experience has shown that manual patching of systems takes on average of about 1.5 hours each.
This is a basic cost calculator for you to compute your typical monthly cost for patching your servers, PCs, laptops, tablets and associated application software. It also forms the basis for you to begin calculating your Return on Investment for software patching, or for comparison with alternatives to the manual process of patching operating systems and application software—such as Patch Management as a Service, also known as Vulnerability Management as a Service.
