A massive rise in high-profile hacks and sensitive data leaks has shown us all that digital security is no joke. Cisco’s report comes right on the heels of a K-mart announcement claiming it’s experienced a security breach. They’re far from the only ones – other organizations that have experienced breaches include Target, Ashley Madison, Sony, the IRS, VTech and many more.

Anthony Stitt, the Australian and New Zealand security expert for Cisco, believes that this decline in confidence is because software vulnerabilities are proving more difficult to patch than ever:

“I think the declining levels of confidence that we’re seeing is in response to the fact that the number of software vulnerabilities that are appearing every year seems to be growing and that an organisation’s ability to even do fairly as basic patching seems to be declining over time. Compromises happen, breaches happen, but what’s the organisation’s level of preparedness to be able to deal with that quickly and easily? Because certainly the number of vulnerabilities are not going away – an organisation’s ability to patch and keep criminals out doesn’t seem to be working.”

According to Trustwave Holdings, 98 percent of applications scanned for problems were found to have one or more vulnerabilities.

With the right amount of time, it’s not particularly difficult for unscrupulous individuals to take advantage of these vulnerabilities, many of which have not yet been discovered by official IT or security experts working for the affected organization.

For example, the IRS didn’t announce until May 2015 that tit was able to close a security hole which had been open since February of that same year. All that time, it was being used by hackers to gain sensitive information. More than 300,000 taxpayers were affected, as fraudsters stole info like names, Social Security numbers, addresses and more directly from the IRS website. This is a government agency we’re talking about here, one that is responsible for not only protecting the taxpayers it services, but also its own sensitive information.

It just goes to show that any organization can experience a breach. That doesn’t mean there’s no way to increase confidence in your security. In fact, if you handle things correctly, you can lower the chances of experiencing a breach significantly. Many of the aforementioned attacks happened because the affected companies were not vigilant about maintaining their security.

Check out this infographic on how some infamous cyber-security vulnerabilities of 2014 affected data:

Photo Credit: incapsula.com

Why You Need a Technology Estate and Security Maintenance Team

Managing the technology estate of a large organization or company is difficult enough, and that’s before said company goes through any kind of growth or restructuring. Because of this, you absolutely need a dedicated team working full time on maintaining technology systems, security and all IT-related tasks.

If you’d prefer not to have the team on your own payroll, you can hire a third party to handle the work. There are plenty of security providers out there that specialize in network and infrastructure monitoring, software and hardware maintenance, and much more.

Without delving into the particulars, one of the more obvious roles of a security team would be to ensure all software and hardware is up to date and running smoothly. There tends to be a lot more vulnerabilities in software applications and systems that are outdated. To improve security, it’s best to install all upgrades and security patches as soon as they are available.

The problem is this can be difficult to stay on top of if you already have a long list of other responsibilities. Updating a system becomes a lower priority, and security suffers by proxy. If you have a full-time team managing updates, there’s a lot less to worry about.

Tighten up Data Policies for Everyone

There’s only one way to protect sensitive data, and that’s to lock it down as much as possible. Of course, encryption is always necessary when it comes to data storage, but external storage and how it’s used is just as important. For instance, employees should never be allowed to transfer confidential data to an external storage device – such as a USB drive – and take it with them off the job. This is even more crucial in environments where employees are allowed to take their work home, or when a company has BYOD (bring-your-own-device) policies in place.

The solution to this is to provide employees a portable work device that is encrypted and has access to the appropriate systems, both locally and remotely. If they need to work from home they can simply take their work device with them, and all sensitive data remains protected and secured behind active security protocols.

As for encryption, it should be used on any and all devices used within the organization, including mobile devices, laptops, desktop computers, external hard drives and storage options, and anything else that fits the bill.

Educate Your Team, and Plan for Emergencies

Unfortunately, breaches are inevitable no matter how secure a system, network or device is. What happens during and after a breach, however, makes all the difference. That’s why it’s extremely important that you educate and train your team for emergencies, even if they aren’t part of your IT or security department.

Criminals are constantly using a bevy of tools to gain access to systems and information they shouldn’t, like ransomware, Trojans and keyloggers, phishing emails and websites, DDoS attacks and even the occasional brute force attack. All employees should be trained to spot problems, or at the very least should be able to recognize when something shady is happening so they can file a report.

Educating employees will also help protect them off the worksite while they’re browsing from personal computers and devices. It’s still possible for criminals to attack employees by extracting knowledge and information from them when they’re not at work.

Photo Credit: neomam.com

Always Browse Behind a VPN

Firewalls are a no-brainer when it comes to security, but few know that browsing should always be done from behind a VPN or virtual private network. A VPN is designed to mask the true IP address of a system, protecting both the anonymity and privacy of those using it.

Why is this important for an organization or business? It keeps the activity and data of all employees protected from outside prying. Most VPNS also offer an advanced form of security to encrypt any and all data being transmitted via the system. Data packets are encrypted, meaning even if someone is able to hack into a network or listen to what’s going on, they’re going to have a hard time translating the data without the proper encryption key.

Photo Credit: visual.ly

Incorporate a Data Backup Routine

Every business or organization that handles a great deal of data or sensitive information should already have a backup routine in place. That is, should data be lost, backups can be used in place of the originals.

Backups should be given the same care and security because criminals can still use this information if they get their hands on it. There are service providers that will handle all the steps and maintenance for backing up a system. This is the preferred method for many companies, because the service provider will maintain the backups, monitor security and supply the necessary hardware.

This is one of the most important forms of protection you can offer clients. There are many ways criminals can alter or scramble data after they’ve gained access. If you only ever have one copy, after they destroy it you lose it completely. With data backups, at least you have the option to restore data for your clients and employees after an attack.

A Symantec report from 2013 claims that 47 percent of enterprises lost cloud data and were forced to restore from backups. In addition, 66 percent of all organizations attempting a backup had their operations fail. Furthermore, 13 percent of those instances were caused in the first place by hackers who deleted the data.

The takeaway here is that no matter where your data is stored, backups are always necessary and should be a regular part of your security protocol.

Boost Confidence in Your Digital Security

Following these steps won’t completely prevent a breach, but they can help you prolong it from happening. Having a strategy in place for your team and backups to access during and after an attack will help your damage control process significantly, as well.

Just remember, anyone can become the target of a hacker and when they want in, it’s incredibly difficult to keep them out. Security is no joke, so do what you can to bolster it and improve confidence.

Sarah Landrum is the founder of Punched Clocks. Follow her on Twitter @SarahLandrum.

The post How to Increase Confidence in Your Data Security appeared first on Colocation America.

Research from an energy consortium called The Green Grid found eco-friendly practices are not treated like as much of a priority by some firms as other matters. Furthermore, 43 percent of respondents said they had no strategies in place to boost energy efficiency. If that sounds familiar, don’t worry. The tips below offer creative and worthwhile ways to make your data center as kind to the planet as possible.

1. Don’t Keep the Environment Quite as Cool

Even though the recommended temperature for data centers is between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, ENERGYSTAR data indicates it’s common to keep the temperature up to 10 degrees colder than the minimum in the range above. Furthermore, statistics indicate you could save up to five percent in energy costs for every degree you increase the server inlet temperature.

2. Install Air-Side Economizers

There’s no way to get around the fact that data centers must be kept cool year-round. However, if you live in a place characterized by lengthy winters and cool evenings, take advantage of the natural conditions by installing air-side economizers at your data center.

They pull in cool air from the outside and are especially effective when your data center’s operating temperature is normally on the higher side of the suggested range above. Speaking about air-side economizers installed at a data center in Texas, an IT specialist from Cisco suggested using outside air to cool the premises for more than half the year in the video below:

3. Shut Down Non-Functional Servers

You may be surprised to realize up to 30 percent of the energy consumption in your data center could be related to servers that aren’t actually doing any computing tasks. Periodically check to make sure the only servers running are those that are crucial for current operations. Take the others out of commission, and your energy consumption levels should shrink.

4. Upgrade Your Air Compressors

According to an infographic from ABB, up to $281 million is sacrificed due to ineffective cooling systems. That’s why it’s such a good idea to think seriously about making worthwhile upgrades. The infographic also suggests the payback you’ll see from deciding to revamp a cooling system in your data center may be evident in as little as two years.

Photo Credit: abb.com

One smart way to improve an existing cooling setup in a data center is to switch from older load/unload air compressor designs to more modern variable-speed drive compressors. The newer types may bring average energy savings of as much as 35 percent.

5. Consider Ultrasonic Humidification Methods

Air conditioners and air handlers used in data centers both need humidification units to keep humidity levels consistent. Traditionally, data center managers use infrared and steam canister isothermal methods. However, eBay is one example of a mega company that opted to utilize ultrasonic techniques to achieve static humidity levels in the environment.

Ultrasonic methods vibrate water molecules to produce a fine mist. Unlike isothermal options, ultrasonic humidification does not produce heat. Case study data from eBay includes a comparison table that shows the company saved over $50,000 by using eight ultrasonic humidifiers.

Photo Credit: energystar.gov

6. Engage the Power-Saving Feature on Your CPUs

The CPU may be responsible for up to half of total power consumption for a server. However, there’s a simple action you can take to combat excessive usage. See if your CPUs have a feature you can enable solely to save power. Many data center managers eventually find out their facilities have such CPUs but were unaware the power-saving capability existed.  

If a CPU has that built-in feature, it’ll switch between several performance modes to keep power consumption to a minimum. Even better, you won’t have to reset anything on the CPU to make the new setting kick in.

7. View Climate Change as a Long-Term Concern

Last year, an interactive, circle-shaped infographic was released that allowed people to place their cursors over certain sections to see the emissions impact for certain countries. The data collected was from 2012 but only became available mid-2015. As it turns out, over 14 percent of global emissions can be linked back to the United States. As you can see from the chart below, that’s a slight improvement over totals for a timeframe that spanned between 1990 to 2011:

Photo Credit: wri.org

If that’s concerning to you, think about following the lead of some data centers in the United Kingdom:

• They’ve signed a Climate Change Agreement (CCA), which has allowed them to qualify for tax incentives.
• Since the United Kingdom has one of the largest data center industries in the world, it makes sense people are trying to be proactive.

In fact, the United Kingdom was somewhat of a pioneering country because, prior to the time the CCAs were introduced in the data industry, the only other sectors that abided by such agreements to reduce climate change were associated with manufacturing. Supporters believe as the data industry adopts climate change-reducing practices, those decisions will have a widespread effect to prod data center managers who are reacting more slowly or not at all.

Even if it’s not possible to qualify for similar tax breaks, it’s still smart to realize climate change is an international concern that certainly won’t go away. If anything, it’ll become more and more of a pressing matter as years pass.

With that in mind, try to understand how any alterations you make so your data center uses energy more effectively don’t just look good for your bottom line. They could be serving the greater good by protecting the Earth for our generation, as well as future generations.

8. Become Committed to Your Plan

Earlier, you discovered how it’s not common for data center managers to have existing plans in place to promote energy efficiency. Hopefully, the suggestions above have proven you can make noticeable changes just by doing something as simple as adjusting a data center’s internal temperature.

No matter which techniques you choose to embrace, remember the best results are often seen by people who are decisive in their methods and willing to follow through with their plans. Your commitment, combined with measurable results, may be the factors that help your data center eventually be admired as one that has led the way by making energy efficiency a major and ongoing concern.

Sarah Landrum is the founder of Punched Clocks. Follow her on Twitter @SarahLandrum.

The post 8 Ways Data Centers Can Be More Energy Efficient appeared first on Colocation America.