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Is Your Data REALLY Safe on the IBM i (AS/400)?

  “AS/400 is built to be safe and reliable.” “No one makes viruses for the IBM i. There are no known cases of malware, either.” “IBM has amazing IBM i server security, so we don’t have to worry about vulnerabilities.” Do these statements sound familiar? Perhaps you’ve come across these claims in the industry, heard someone say something similar at...
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Managed File Transfer: It's More than SFTP

  For many, MFT and SFTP are a package deal. You can’t seem to have a managed file transfer solution without relying on an SFTP server to secure your file transfers. But this leaves a lot of people wondering—is managed file transfer only useful for SFTP file transfer automation? The reality is, MFT is far more than just an SFTP (SSH File Transfer...
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5 Ways to Protect Your Financial Organization from a Data Breach

  While several industries, including business and education, make up a big portion of yearly data breach counts, banks and credit unions aren’t left risk free. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), the banking/credit/financial sector totals 5.8% of 2017’s data breaches as of June 30, 2017. That’s up two percent from 2016’s first half...
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Are SSH Keys or Passwords Better for SFTP Authentication?

SFTP passwords or SSH keys? That’s the question often asked by IT professionals when setting up authentication on an SFTP server. There’s some debate on whether SSH keys or passwords are better at protecting and validating company SFTP servers, and the consensus is never official. Questioning what the best SFTP security best practice is doesn't have an...
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Data Breach and Incident Response Plans | 2017 Templates & Resources

As we continue to put our data online, through social media channels, cloud storage, and email attachments, we open ourselves up to the possibility of data breaches and other attacks. The answer to this problem isn’t to stop using the internet, of course. But organizations today need to pay serious attention to their cybersecurity gaps, put guidelines...
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WinSCP Free SFTP Client or an MFT SFTP Client?

  If you’re looking for a SFTP client to use for your organization’s file transfers, it might be tempting to go with one that’s free—and bonus points if it’s open source. Often enough, these SFTP clients meet the minimum requirements for most network administrators, they’re easy to install (without taking up much space on your hard drive), and they don...
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Are Your Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Secure?

  Since moving to Electronic Health Records and modern EHR technology, the healthcare industry has taken great strides to enhance patient care, internal workflows, and business-to-business communication. These improvements bring organizations closer and closer to full integration with others in the industry; a goal that will, once fully achieved, help...
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Two Cybersecurity Takeaways from the Equifax Data Breach

  It’s been nearly a week since Equifax went public with knowledge of a massive data breach—perhaps one of the biggest to date. There’s no word yet on who is or isn’t affected, but it’s very likely that 143 million Americans (45% of the U.S. population and 80% of those who have a credit report) are now at risk of identity theft. What data was...
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Why You Should Implement a Third Party Vendor Assessment Program

  Third party vendors are incredibly useful. They allow businesses to automate certain processes they can’t do themselves, like implement payroll services to compensate employees, and bridge gaps in their technology. But while the money, time, and brainpower freed up by outsourcing tasks is a huge positive, third party vendors have their downsides....
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The Benefits of Empowered Employees: Why a Good Security Awareness Program Matters

  Every organization dreams of how they’d like to implement cybersecurity successfully. In dreams, the execution is perfect: requirements would be met or exceeded, employees would be fully educated on security risks, and data would never be threatened by renegade phishing scams or careless user errors. But in reality, faced with time and resource...
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10 Easy Ways to Protect Your Data at Work

In a recent survey of UK workers, over half the employees who participated across 1,000 organizations admitted that they open suspicious email attachments. More than 80% also said they open strange attachments if the sender appears to be someone they know, and “one in five said the business they work for has no policy on how to handle email attachments, or they have not been made aware of it.” ...
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USPS Eliminates FTP, Requires Secure File Transfers

Early this year, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced the elimination of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) from their business practices and policies—a change that strengthens the security of their data transmissions and addresses recent audit findings. What does this mean for you? The change is still in transition for now, but after August 31, 2017, mailers and shippers will need to...
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7 Steps to Protect Yourself Against Corporate Spear Phishing

Anyone with an email account is used to spam. It happens one day: you get that first unsolicited email, and then a flood of ads, flash sale offers, and foreign bank transaction requests rushes into your inbox. In that moment, the battle for your virtual sanity begins. But while spam emails are mostly harmless—you tend to see them from a mile away and respond accordingly—spear phishing emails...
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8 Ways to Protect Your Healthcare Organization from a Data Breach

In 2020, there were 642 data breaches of healthcare organizations. That’s a new record, up 25 percent from the previous year. In these breaches, the records of millions of Americans were exposed. These incidents occurred at all types of organizations in the industry, including clinics, insurance providers and their health system business associates.   If you’re in the healthcare industry...
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The State of File Transfer Security

Note from the Editor: This article shares highlights from an older report. For the latest on data security and best practices for keeping file transfers safe, visit our Data Security page or check out the latest additions to our blog. The 2017 Cybersecurity Trends Report was recently released by Crowd Research Partners. The report covers many aspects of cybersecurity, such as general...
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How to Create a Cybersecurity Policy for Your Organization

  The cyberattacks and data breaches that make the news are usually the ones that happen at big corporations like TJX or Home Depot. But every organization, large or small, needs to be concerned about cybersecurity. According to Security Magazine, the average cost of a data breach for a small business is between $36,000 and $50,000. And while the...
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Still Using SHA-1 to Secure File Transfers? It’s Time to Say Goodbye

  Securing information is rising in importance for organizations worldwide. Using outdated technology is extremely risky, yet many organizations continue to do so because of legacy systems that don’t allow them to upgrade, lack of resources and time to upgrade, or they are simply unaware of the risks. The commonly used SHA-1 algorithm is a perfect...
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SFTP vs. FTPS: The Key Differences

With so many options for transferring files, it can be confusing to answer the most important question: what is the best way to secure your company’s data during transfer? Use this article as an introduction to the differences between two mainstream secure FTP protocols, SFTP and FTPS, and which is the best choice to protect your file transfers. What's the Difference: SFTP vs. FTPS Both FTPS...
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No Such Thing as a Free File Transfer, Part 2: Cost-effective Security

    With new corporate data breaches in the news seemingly every day, it’s no surprise that security is a top concern for IT professionals. However, file transfers are an area where many companies are still vulnerable. Most file transfers still use FTP, a protocol that comes with inherent risks. Other common file transfer solutions, like file...
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No Such Thing as a Free File Transfer, Part I: How MFT Saves Time

      Every business engages in some kind of information exchange, whether it’s a small retailer attaching an invoice to an email or a hospital sending hundreds of patient records between departments. Some methods of exchanging files, like a basic FTP server or a file sharing app, seem like an inexpensive way to deal with your transfers. In the...