Aruba ClearPass Part 2

Is your business prepared? Today’s organizations face a complex IT infrastructure, more exposed to cyberattacks than ever. The Internet of Things, an always-on mobile workforce and BYOD make visibility into your network more challenging and critical.

Identifying what’s on your network is a never-ending challenge. Not only do you need to prevent malicious users from gaining access, you have to protect against unauthorized devices and applications.

Businesses today embrace the idea of anywhere, anytime connectivity, but often ignore the need for secure network access control. Many employ a “laid back NAC” solution. Others choose the same vendor for security and network infrastructure. Both these approaches give the illusion of security, even compliance, but in reality, leave extensive security gaps.

As an Aruba ClearPass expert and partner, Convergent Technologies Group can help you reduce time spent identifying devices on your network, enforce policies, and protect your network. We will help you address questions, like:

• What’s on my network?

• How do I simplify mobile security?

• Can I limit mobile devices without limiting productivity or increasing security risks?

• How do I unify internal and external security tools?

Get started by taking this brief assessment to help you determine your network’s level of security and see how your business might be at risk. To enforce security standards throughout your enterprise, you need secure enterprise network access control (NAC). 

Aruba ClearPass is changing the NAC space, helping companies understand what’s on your network and keeping your information secure. This is an important first step in building a strategy to take control of what’s connecting to your network to keep your data secure and your business safe.

For more information about what the Aruba ClearPass solution can do to defend your network, contact Convergent Technologies Group at sales@ctgva.com or 804-353-5307.

Thin Client Technology Is Game Changer for Mobility

By Doug Carter

HP and Windows have launched a new rugged product that is going to change the game on how companies manage their mobile workforces.

The new HP Elitepad 1000 G2 TC Tablet is a rugged Thin Client that offers all of the functionality of a fully loaded table – delivered with the value, security, manageability and long life that corporations love to have.

With 5.7 million more Thin Client units implemented in 2014 and 7.8 million projected worldwide by 2018, HP has certainly set the bar high for its competition with the new Thin Client rugged tablet. Offering improved technologies in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Desktop as a Service and Cloud Solutions, combined with a Windows-embedded operating system, HP has claimed the top rung in the worldwide market for Windows-based Thin Client tablets.

What can customers expect from this rugged mobile Thin Client tablet?

To start, this tablet delivers a consistent experience with trusted and familiar standard tools for system administration, along with user-friendly applications that are intuitive, interactive and integrates with existing infrastructure. This tablet also offers the best:

Security: Because security is on the forefront of everyone’s thoughts these days, HP and Windows offer comprehensive security on this amazing unit, combined with HP’s TPM, NIST, Fiber NICs, Multiple Authentication Solutions and HP Easy Shell, Windows provides BitLocker, AppLocker, Write Filters and Predictable Security Update Schedule.

Cloud Power: Microsoft Azure provides a reliable platform customized to meet customer needs. Azure RemoteApp on HP Thin Clients allows customers to run business applications and to scale to meet their business demands, with easy configuration and remote management.

With Office 365, customers have the capability for security-enhanced, cloud-hosted office applications, business-class email with Outlook WebApp, and instant messaging, voice and video calls with Skype.

Connectivity and Communication: A critical part of field reporting is connectivity and communication. The Thin Client with embedded Gobi (Verizon/AT&T) and 2D/3D Barcode reader – aligned with the same hardware and driver ecosystem as Windows desktop operating systems – provides easy access to drivers for printers, scanners, card readers and headsets. It provides high-fidelity communication in the VDI environment or the browser-based cloud. With Microsoft RDP/RFX, Citrix HDX, VMware Vie, HP RGS provides the most complete protocol support for virtualization technology.

Value Add from HP Software: HP Device Manager, HP Velocity and HP Easy Shell provide a rich software ecosystem to optimize the ease of deployment of HP’s Thin Client tablet.

Based in our North Carolina office, Doug Carter is the mobility account manager at Convergent Technologies Group.

The HP Pro Slate 12 – The Perfect Tool for the Modern Law Office

By: Daniel Bendele

Before transitioning to the technology field, I spent time in a traditional general practice law firm,and in a non-traditional lobbying setting. Looking back on my time in both settings, I wish I would have had access to a tool like the Pro Slate 12.

Taking and transcribing notes for clients and potential clients is one of the most time consuming tasks for any attorney, paralegal, or legal assistant. In a business where time is often the determining factor in how much money the firm is bringing in, any tool that can help increase the amount of clients you are able to work with and decrease the time needed for each client is beyond essential. The Pro Slate 12 and its accompanying HP Duet Pen is an absolute game changer.

The Pro Slate 12 is an Android based tablet that allows you to take handwritten notes on the tablet or on a separate sheet of paper and have those notes transfer as text instantaneously to the tablet. Once the notes are on the tablet, they can be stored securely in the Google cloud and then transferred to whatever medium you'd like (Microsoft word, PDF, it even integrates with Tabs3 and Practice Master).

Not only does the tablet change the way attorneys and their staff can take and store client information, but it is also possible to access important research tools like Westlaw and Lexis via their Android apps. This is another game changer for the mobile attorney as it allows you to research relevant case law on the go. Along with making your research capabilities mobile, the Westlaw and Lexis apps on the Pro Slate 12 could save your firm thousands of dollars on printing costs, by allowing attorneys and their staff to easily identify relevant case law without printing unnecessary cases.

My previous legal experience allows me to see just how great of a tool this tablet could be for lawyers and their staff, but I’m certain the Pro Slate 12 could save time and money for business people in a myriad of industries. Whether you are an accountant interviewing clients, or a doctor/nurse speaking with patients, the ability to easily and securely take paperless notes is a major technological evolution. 

Here at Convergent Technologies Group we work tirelessly to not just find you the best hardware, but to find you solutions that put your business ahead of the curve. If you would like to see the Pro Slate 12 in action, contact our office and we will be happy to come and show you how this fantastic tool can help keep your company at the front of the pack.

Daniel Bendele is a SMB Account Manager for Convergent Technologies Group.

Mobility Delivers Flexibility, Durability to Field

By Doug Carter

Business and services don’t happen within the confines of a traditional 9-to-5 home office anymore, so why should your technology?

Some mobility applications are easy to recognize, such as police departments and other emergency responders looking to access safety information and relay time-sensitive event information. Those mobile connections directly support smart decisions that save lives.

All mobility applications might not have that element of human drama, but those are increasingly becoming lifelines for growing businesses and organizations in the modern economy. Across virtually every customer segment today, we’re fielding requests to deploy mobile solutions, such as utility and telecommunications field crews having constant access while on the road. Retailers want tablets that allow them to meet customers out on the sales floor, not just at the stationary cash register. Physicians want portable tools that allow them to bring real-time access to medical data into patient exam rooms, while still meeting increasingly more stringent privacy requirements.

To make all that happen, CTG first works to understand precisely what our clients want to accomplish beyond conventional office walls. With that information, we can develop a comprehensive approach that delivers what our clients need – and sets a foundation that allows them to continue to seize the opportunities of mobile as it evolves virtually daily.

Personally, I came to CTG to support this segment with more than 20 years of law enforcement and investigative experience in strategy planning and execution within the public sector and enterprise markets. Does anyone remember doing things the first ways that we went mobile, which required lugging cumbersome laptops, looking for telephone landlines to connect by modem and crossing your fingers that it would work? We’ve come a long way with powerful (and streamlined) new options – but we still advise our clients to think critically on the best ways to implement mobile solutions, starting first and foremost with protocols that safeguard their information.

At the same time, remember that devices are not mobile, people are. With the extreme work challenges and environmental conditions that our customers face, they want to know their products are going to work every time. Not most or part of the time, but every time. Simplicity to the end user and quality assurance that data collection and communication is going to be there when it counts. In the field, time is everything and communication is key to making critical decisions that could save someone's life. That is why we have secured great partner relationships that we and our customers know can be trusted.   

Over the coming months, we’ll talk more about our different partners and how we deploy their products and services in the field for our customers. For now, let’s talk about the initial questions we ask of clients pursuing mobile solutions, including the initial investment in rugged vs. non-rugged (commercial grade) technology.

• Rugged products are designed to take a lot of abuse. These devices are resistant to heat, cold, vibration, water (spills/rain), fog/salt, dust and accidental drops. Trust me, all of that can happen on the road – sometimes at the very same time. Initial products were developed on the roughest military front lines, so you know they were built to be dependable.
• The more you handle mobile devices, the more rugged they should be. Think about the end game. Will your employees be constantly moving devices in and out of commercial trucks? Then I would certainly recommend rugged computers, as commercial or consumer grades will not hold up. Our rugged partners back up their belief in their products’ durability over time with competitive warranties.
• Think about if you really need a keyboard. A rugged device could be a tablet or a computer. Before you make the investment, consider what you expect your crews to do from the field – now and a couple of years down the road. If you decide a keyboard is important for occasional reporting, you could augment a tablet with a non-rugged Bluetooth keyboard.
• Windows or Android? Again, consider how your mobile technology will interact with what you are using back at headquarters.
• Assess how mobile devices will connect outside of WiFi. Understand who your carriers are in your service area, so you invest in the right internal air cards.
• Make it easy for your people to do their work. The mobile products we recommend feature Quadra Clear Screens, which means your people are able to view information even in direct sunlight. These feature amazing clarity.
• Determine whether your field crews need a camera. Tablets today come with great cameras, providing for an all-in-one solution that eliminates stand-alone cameras, photo cards and cumbersome cords.

Investing in rugged technology is, rightly so, a significant investment. But these products and solutions are designed specifically for operations on the go, offering the right approaches to make mobility a competitive advantage – whether in streamlining information access for emergency responders to save lives 0r helping you find better ways to meet your customers where they are.

Based in our North Carolina office, Doug Carter is the mobility account manager at Convergent Technologies Group.

The 4 P’s for Securing the Road Warrior (Part II)

By Jeff Garell

Whether you're hitting the road for business or personal travel, making sure you keep your company or individual information secure should be the top of your list. In yesterday’s blog post, we discussed Plan and Prepare. Today, let’s tackle the last two topics: Prevent and Purify

Prevent 

Now that you're on the road, you need to be a little more aware of your surroundings – whether making sure you collect everything after passing through the X-ray station or sitting in the airport lounge waiting for your flight. Be sure all of your stuff is accounted for and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER put anything of value in your checked luggage.

Clothes and toiletries can be replaced relatively cheaply compared to your tech gear, fancy cameras, and the like. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, the less gear you bring, the less you have to worry about tracking.

Once you've navigated the Transportation Security Administration and airport gauntlet, you've arrived at your destination. And it’s smooth sailing from here, right? Not really. There are still potential threats all around, and your prevention steps go beyond the physical safety of your gear:

1. Check the room safe: Is it big enough to fit all of your electronics if you want to ever leave them behind? If not, what can or should you do? This is a tough one. You can choose to take the risk and leave it behind, try to hide it somewhere (between mattress & boxspring? Duct Taped to the outside of the building?), or you'll just need to take it with you. Whatever you choose for this trip, you might need to consider paring down your pile before the next one so you can fit your gear in that safe next time.

2. Be aware of housekeeping: I tend to not make much of a mess, even on the longest of trips, so I often leave the “Do Not Disturb” sign on my door for the duration of my stay. If I run into the staff in the hall, I'll explain (and often sign something) that I don't want my room cleaned. If I need something such as fresh towels, I’ll call or go to the front desk and make the request. How does this help? If no one is supposed to ever be in my room but me, then the key card access logs will be easy to narrow down. Additionally, I have walked down the halls during housekeeping time and have often seen many doors left open while the staff members work their way along the corridor. In fact, I've approached my room while it was getting cleaned, walked right in, grabbed a couple of things (my notepad), and walked out without being challenged as to whether this was my room. That’s when I decided this was a better tactic. If you want to get your room cleaned, take everything of value with you.

3. Validate the Wi-Fi: This advice applies to your visits to the Starbucks, Panera and anywhere else that doles out free Wi-Fi. Here’s one spot where you'll want to do some practicing before you hit the road so you have the process down. Whenever I sign on to the Wi-Fi, I'll quickly scan the network (using nmap) to see if I can find any other devices on it. A properly configured guest network should block “conversations” between guests on that network. If it doesn't, you should seriously reconsider whether you should use that Internet service. If I can see your device, then I can see your traffic and capture your data.

In addition, at hotel check-in, verify the Wi-Fi network name so you connect to the correct one. I recently stayed at a well-known hotel chain that uses something along the lines of "IBahnxxxx" (with the x’s being a number) as its guest network, but, when looking for it, I saw several variations of “hotelName_Guest” access points. If you connect to the wrong one, you're now connected through a stranger’s “access point,” and someone could decrypt your session in what’s called a Man-in-the-Middle Attack. Had I not checked, I probably would have connected to the more obvious access point names.

4. Turn it off: No, not your glowing personality, but your device. If it’s connected to Wi-Fi and you're not using it, turn it off. Just closing the lid of your laptop isn't really good enough for a motivated enough attacker. If you're connecting to an Ethernet port (wired), then be sure to disconnect the cable. Many IT departments enable something called Wake-on-LAN (WoL) so they can turn your machine on remotely if they need to do maintenance; leave a machine on the wired hotel network, and your laptop could be turned on while you're away. If you've followed the advice about encrypting your drive, then there’s much less to worry about regarding WoL.

All right, your trip is nearly over, and it’s time to check out. You hung on to those room card keys right? I ask because there are hotel systems that will put some of your personal data – and, in a few cases, your credit card info – in plain text on that card. These systems are getting phased out, but I certainly won't trust that the hotel I'm in has the latest and greatest software or systems – even if it’s new. Every key card comes home with me and gets friendly with the shredder.

Purify 

OK, finding a “P” word for remediate or fix was a little challenging. So by "Purify", I mean when you get back home (or to the office), it’s time for a heavy duty scan by your anti-virus/anti-malware tools.

If you have an IT department, ask what you should do given available tools. For the most part, you're looking to make sure that you don’t share something picked up while on the road. Some people take this to an extreme by fully restoring their equipment with backups they made before traveling. Unless you're going to a hacker conference, this is probably not necessary, but some will still do it.

This might seem to be a pretty daunting list of things to think about - and these rules apply whether you're on vacation or on a business trip - but given the potential loss you could experience, it’s well worth the effort. I hope you've picked up a few good ideas that will help keep your gear and data safe while on the road.

Happy and safe travels!

Jeff Garell is a co-founder of Convergent Technologies Group.

The 4 P’s for Securing the Road Warrior

By Jeff Garell

I travel pretty often in my business – not as much as some, but more than others – and I've found some pretty common sense methods to make sure my equipment and data remains safe.

Those simple action steps each start with the letter P: Plan, Prepare, Prevent and Purify.

Plan 

Do I really need to bring all of this?

Every time I go on the road – whether for a simple overnighter or a longer trip – I evaluate the tools I expect to need. On many trips, I’ll really only need a tablet and my cell phone. I follow this routine because the less I bring with me, the less chance there is to lose something – not to mention the lighter my travel load will be if I don’t need my laptop, extra monitor, mobile hotspot, power bricks/chargers, as well as various cables and power strips for all of it. Sadly, occasionally I need to haul all that gear but fortunately not too often.

The key to making this work is ensuring that you will have the tools (software) you need on the devices that you chose to bring. In the past, I’ve tested that I can perform the majority of my work on a tablet by putting away my laptop and just using the tablet in the office for a week. While I recognized a small productivity hit and I surely wouldn't want to do it long term, that test showed that I can work effectively on many trips with a much smaller tech footprint.

Paring down your gear means less chance of leaving something behind or taking your eyes off the pile and having it walk away without your knowledge.

Prepare

Once you've decided what to bring, take time to ensure your data is safe.

The first thing to do is make sure important data is backed up. I know: Backups are boring. But it’s better than the total freak out you’ll experience when you realize it’s gone. I'd highly suggest making copies of anything important you’ll need on the trip. Leave one copy with a colleague at the office and put the other on a USB drive that does not get tucked into your laptop bag. If that bag gets stolen or left behind, then there was no point in the extra backup. This extra backup will allow you to purchase or borrow another machine and still make the most of the trip.

Just as important is making sure you have run updates on your operating system, current anti-virus, and that your laptop firewall will be on (or that you know how to turn it on) when you're traveling.

If you carry any confidential or regulated information (think HIPAA, proprietary/financial data, or the super secret plans for your island lair), make sure you are using whole disk encryption. This encrypts your entire drive and requires a password before the operating system even starts. It’s an extra step on every boot but is critical if you have data that needs an additional layer of security. Should your laptop get stolen, then all you've lost is the laptop (you did back up your data already, right?). Yes, it’s a pain in elbow to have to buy a new device but much less so than having your confidential information out in the wild.

And when you're not using your laptop, shut it down completely. Your laptop’s sleep/hibernation mode does not cause the drive to be in an encrypted state.

Tomorrow: Prevent and Purify

We covered a lot of ground today, so we’ll finish the discussion tomorrow, when we’ll share some additional practical tips to use every time you travel.

Jeff Garell is a co-founder of Convergent Technologies Group.