So, you have finally decided that the days of turning on your appliances yourself are ancestral! “I am no longer a caveman!”, you say to yourself as you yell at your Alexa to play that one song you haven’t been able to get out of your head all day. However, what you may not know is that those who have “home automation” have taken numerous hours planning, configuring, and testing to have everything work correctly and reliably. Home automation is the future, but if you want to take part, you must have a carefully laid out plan, as well as the tools and knowledge to do so correctly. What makes having a “smart home” so wonderful is that at any given point you can decide to add or remove smart devices at your leisure! The possibilities are only limited to how far we have come technologically speaking! Many of the devices you find in a home today are made with the idea of setting up a “smart home”. Regardless if you have an iPhone and Android device, you can take part in having a “smart home”. Even Amazon has their device, Alexa, that has been designed to be used with home automation. However, these devices are not plug and play. Time must be set aside in order to properly prepare your home. If you are still reading, it probably means you are interested in learning about what you will need in order to take your lame home to “Smart Home”! Well, I have good news and some bad news. The good news is that today you will learn exactly what you need in order to do so; the bad is that it doesn’t come cheap (if you want it done correctly). The following is what you’ll need: A Plan: First come up with a plan. What do you want to be automated? Do you want all the light in your home automated or just the ones in the living room? Do you want parts of your home left out, such as the garage, but have the rest automated? Figure out what you want to be automated and where before purchasing anything! Chose a Controller / Hub: Decide what you are going to use to control all your smart devices! You have many choices so make sure you pick one you are most comfortable with. Do you enjoy Amazon? Perhaps Alexa is the choice for you. Do you favor Google? Google assistant is a great way to have your Android Device as a controller! Maybe you fancy iPhone; Apple is another great way to use your phone with your “smart home”. Perhaps you want to use a different brand not associated with a major corporation; then you should look at Wink! Are you loyal to Samsung? Well, have I got news for you! Even Samsung has its smart hub controller for you to utilize: SmartThings. Make sure you take your time when decided on which controller you want to use! After all, this is how you will interact with your “smart home” once it is set up; make sure it is the product you are most comfortable with! Wifi-Network: You don’t need the $500 router that has 17 antennas and allows for the NASA quality download and upload speeds, but you will need quality! With quality comes a stronger, more stable connection with a wider range. Consider investing in a nice router from Asus or TPlink! We guarantee you will have a better experience if you do! Schedule: As we said earlier, setting up “smart home” takes numerous hours of planning, configuring, and testing to have everything work correctly and reliably. There is no easy road when it comes to home automation. If you want it done correctly, set aside time so that you can ensure it works! If you don’t have time, consider higher someone who can do it for you! I hear Hammett Technologies is good at setting up smart devices and networks! What You Can Do with a Smart Home Now that we have all a plan set in place, have decided which controller we want to use, have purchased a reliable router for our network, and have time on our hands, we can begin to play around with smart devices! There are countless devices out there today that can be used with a smart home. Everything from lights to those cute robot vacuum cleaners, just about anything can be set up for use in a “smart home.” Below are some of the possibilities, and this is just scratching the surface! Possibly the most popular smart device to buy is the lights! Philips Hue lights are a great example of this, although there are cheaper options out there that do the same thing. Hue bulbs allow the user to set timers for when they come on and even have RGB capabilities; perfect for those “set the mood” moments. Next, we have the thermostats! These are great for those who are often away from home for long hours and wish to keep the gas & electric bill low! You can have the thermostat lower the temperature while you are away and raise it while you are on your way home! This way, during those cold winter nights, you can come home to a warm house, without having to keep it warm all day! Or perhaps you are cold in bed and don’t want to get up! You can raise the temperature right from your bed and eliminate that chill in the house from under the covers! Last but not least are Smart Locks! Do you worry about packages getting stolen? Do you want to see what happens to your home while you are away? Get a Smart Lock! You can feel confident with one of these installed on your door. Many come with cameras nowadays and allow you to create virtual keys for family and friends! No more trying to find your keys in the dark, hold your
Computers around the world are continually generating records that occur. While some of these are routine checks, others are hostile, aimed at gaining access to or even destroying your network. However, by checking and reviewing the log files, you can stay on top of these issues. From malware, damage, and loss and legal liabilities, log files contain all the day to day information of your network. Therefore, it is important to practice event log management daily. It must be collected, stored, analyzed, and monitored to meet and report on regulatory compliance standards like PCI and HIPPA. WHY LOG MANAGEMENT IS IMPORTANT Every transaction and event that takes place on a machine on your network generates a log file. Microsoft-based systems use Windows Event Log files. When working on Windows, monitoring the event logs is crucial. Windows Event Log files all contain crucial information, but of all of them, the Security Log is the most important. The security log provides log in events as well as what each user is doing. It is vital that your IT security team understands the Windows Security Log to spot a vulnerability or attack accurately. However, this information can be overwhelming and exhausting to look through. If you use an Event Log Management tool, you can accurately and precisely navigate through log files, allowing you to find that single file that is causing an issue. Event Log Management is a crucial component in ensuring security and compliance, and it is essential to review all logs. SECURING THE CASTLE The top priority for any company should be security. Keeping the company safe from outside attacks that aim to disrupt customer’s data, exploit employee data, or crash a company’s server. However, attacks from the inside are just as real and can cause catastrophic damage. This is not to say that keeping your network safe from the outside is any less important, but you must be mindful of an attack from the inside. Perhaps you have an employee who is curious about financial records and wants to start drama among the workers or an employee who is upset about a decline for a promotion or pay increase and wants to delete years of data. These employees can create a backdoor into the network or give themselves admin privileges, attempting to fly under the radar from security. However, if you have a well-established ELM strategy, you can monitor these internal attacks accurately and stop them before they turn nuclear. PCI – DSS AND HIPPA COMPLIANCE Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) provides IT professionals that handle consumers credit cards data. Any business that claims PCI compliance have to be able to show compliance in their yearly audit. If it is discovered that they are not, denial of processing and storing credit cards can occur. HIPPA requires a reliable audit trail to protect the personal data of all medical patients. HIPPA has two different significant rules: Privacy and Security. Medicaid and Medicare require, along with building an IT infrastructure and strategies to protect against threats to personal information, but there must also be preparations made for investigations of security breaches should they occur. Furthermore, you must be able to provide enough information to be able to establish occurred events, when they occurred, as well as what or who has caused them. Ways to Manage Events and Logs There are numerous ways to go about handling the logs for your networks, and WhatsUp Gold offers some of the best ways to do so: 1. Define your Audit Policy Categories Audit policies in Windows record the security log events found on your network’s log files for your company. With Microsoft Windows NT systems, audit policies have to be put in place manually on each server and workstation. However, Windows 2000 and 2003 Active Directory domains allow for Group Policy, which enables you to set universal audit policies for groups on the servers and even the domain. 2. Log Records Are Merged Automatically By default, decentralized records, such as Windows events logs and Syslog files, record their log activity. However, if you want to gain a “big picture” view of what is going on within your network, admins in charge of security and compliance need to be able to merge Windows event logs and Syslog files into one another in order to be able to monitor thoroughly, analysis, and report. It is necessary that you maintain your log data! Many compliance standards require data to be stored up to seven years. However, if you automate the process, life can become much more accessible. Automation can assist in data retrieval and the longevity of log data. It is important to remember: Archived logs must be readily obtainable. Automation helps reduce the risk of corruption. The larger the company, the more users and machines. With more users and machines comes an increase in bandwidth and network traffic, which will only further complicate the log file. Automation can greatly assist in making sure all data is collected. Usually, administrators use an event log management tool to record log event data from the servers and workstations. Make sure you find an event log management tool that supports a method to re-import collected log files into the database if they are needed. 3. Event Monitoring, Real-Time alerts & Notification Policies While your company may have most, if not all, Windows-based machines, it is important to branch out from the Windows event log monitoring system. Consider using Syslog as well. They have support for switches, routers, firewalls, IDS, as well as support for UNIX and Linux based systems. Most products that perform real-time scanning and monitoring of logs require the use of an agent. However, if you can find a software package that can be used without an agent, go for it. This avoids many issues upon initial setup and continued maintenance. Every company has a different classification of what they find important, and what they want to be listed in the logs. The one security research