ROKI Technical Solutions

09/25/2020

Be Intentional

Create a remote workforce atmosphere of engagement and genuine connection. Be intentional in preparing and orientating employees for the remote workforce culture. Establish clear expectations. Make each team meeting count with intentional purpose and opportunities to engage and contribute in a variety of ways. Intentionality is an essential practice, particularly when we cannot readily "see" our people.

09/16/2020

Stay Focused On Goals, Not Activity

It is important to manage expectations and stay focused on goals when embracing a remote workforce. Don't worry as much about what is being done. Instead, concentrate on what is being accomplished. If we are meeting our goals, then great. If not, we need to look into the situation further. It is all about accomplishment, not activity.

09/11/2020

Filter For Mission, Values, Outcomes And Role.

Remote workers are often frozen out of regular-office human interaction, so on-target overcommunication is critical. Help them get aligned with mission, the values that truly matter to them, as well as the outcomes they love delivering to others and their natural role in any situation. This will keep them truly motivated and working with you longer and more productively.

09/04/2020

Trust Your Team.

Sometimes, companies are not willing to embrace a remote workforce because there's an uncertainty about whether or not the work will get completed at the same level as if they were in the office. To combat this belief, set up work-from-home guidelines, such as emails must be responded to within 24 hours, use text for urgent matters, and no calls between certain hours to make sure teammates are not working around the clock.

09/03/2020

Align on Value.
Vendor management is more than getting the lowest price. Most often the lowest price also brings the lowest quality. As the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” Be careful not to short-change the vendor by trading off quality, as this could have a profound impact on your own business. The key is for both sides to align on what constitutes a good value. You should be willing to pay more in order to receive better quality. If the vendor is serious about the quality they deliver, they won't have a problem specifying the quality details in the contract.

08/31/2020

Acknowledge good work.
Don’t be one of these bosses who only gives feedback when you’ve got something to criticize! By providing your staff with positive feedback it will help to build their confidence and encourage them to get more involved in the future, so it’s vital that you acknowledge their achievements and the effort that they are putting in. Encourage creativity and ensure that everyone is clear about what is expected of them.

08/28/2020

Build positive working relationships.
It’s important to get to know members of your team individually, not only on a professional level but on a more personal level too. When you put the effort in to get to know a bit more about how your colleagues are doing and what they are interested in, it will build a much better rapport among the team.

08/27/2020

Scan TCP/UDP services -— Turn off or remove unnecessary services. Unneeded services can be the entry point attackers use to gain control of your system.
Establish a strong password policy -— Weak passwords could mean a compromised user account.
Don't trust code from non-trusted sources.
Block certain e-mail attachment types -— This list includes .bas, .bat, .exe and .vbs.
Don't provide more rights to system resources than necessary -— Implement the concept of "least privilege".
Perform your own network security testing -— Find the holes before the attackers do!
Implement "defense-in-depth" -— Don't rely on just one control or system to provide all the security you need.

08/26/2020

Make sure you have a security policy in place -— The security policy is the formal statement of rules on how security will be implemented in your organization. A security policy should define the level of security and the roles and responsibilities of users, administrators and managers.
Make sure all of your operating systems and applications are patched with the latest service packs and hotfixes -— Keeping your systems patched will close vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers.
Keep an inventory of your network devices -— Develop and maintain a list of all hardware/software components, and understand which default software installations provide weak security configurations.

08/21/2020

I was asked by a client to develop a "best practices" guide for securing Microsoft IIS 5.0. In my search for supporting reference material, I came across a very informative document called The 60 Minute Network Security Guide on the National Security Agency Web site (www.nsa.gov). The document is only about 40 pages long, but it's packed with valuable pearls of wisdom on how to secure your network enterprise, including specific information for Windows and Unix systems. The document is what is known as a "best practices" guideline for network security.

The official website for NSA -- the National Security Agency National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS). NSA leads the U.S. Government in cryptology that encompasses both signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (now referred to as cybersecurity) products and services...

08/20/2020

Access points and routers all use a network name called the Service Set Identifier (SSID). Manufacturers usually ship their products with a default SSID. For example, "linksys" is typically the network name for Linksys devices.

Knowing the SSID does not by itself allow your neighbors to break into your network, but it is a start. More importantly, when someone sees a default SSID, they view it is a poorly configured network and one that's inviting attack. Change the default SSID immediately when setting up wireless security on your network.