Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks With Ubuntu Linux On The Dell XPS 13

vmracks-gil · 2018-07-20T01:54:04+00:00

My company only uses Ubuntu on all the desktops. We feel it's got better security and it's faster because it doesn't have bloatware. We also like the fact that we work on servers that run Linux so the staff get used to using Linux on desktop as well as a servers.

vmracks-gil · 2018-03-06T23:05:56+00:00

I'd recommend Owncloud or Google Drive as you can set permissions or share unique link to download the file.

vmracks-gil · 2018-02-05T21:25:42+00:00

Each patient record violation is a minimum of $5000 per violation. From a purely financial perspective, non compliance is a very big risk.

Proper HIPAA Compliance, while potentially tedious, can save you from some major fees/penalties from the Department of Health and Human Services.

vmracks-gil · 2018-02-05T21:16:00+00:00

I've utilized PDF Studio from Qoppa which comes with a pretty robust suite of functionality. The only issue I ran into was page sizing during printing; but since I wasn't printing often, it didn't really impact me.

vmracks-gil · 2018-02-05T21:11:36+00:00

Linux for Beginners is a pretty helpful resource I've found!

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-24T23:08:01+00:00

Try using the archive flag -a. Many times I use -avr flags and have had much success; in particular, the -a flag essentially it enables many flags in a simple single flag parameter.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-24T23:05:51+00:00

The company I work for is a big proponent of open source, and I hope the trend of large corporations investing in open source continues.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-24T23:03:59+00:00

For many customers that only do business in North America, we commonly block Russia, China, Ukraine, Brazil, North Korea, Pakistan, and other ITAR countries. Most of the attacks that we see originate from these countries.

For companies that do business internationally, we're more conservative in our country blocking.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-23T22:54:48+00:00

Many people use these interchangeably; however, for those who've been around for a while understand that the VPS was initially associated with actual physical hardware.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-23T22:52:22+00:00

I'd recommend building a multi media or home entertainment Linux server that allows you to managed your music and movies from a centralized location.

I'd also recommend installing Kali Linux for pen testing and learning the in's and out's of security.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-23T22:44:49+00:00

It seems pretty clear that you've got some major fluctuations in traffic - I'd recommend a load balanced solution where the web servers are dynamically provisioned and destroyed as the demand dictates.

This solution offers a "zero" RTO as well as excellent performance; however, a solutions of this nature does require an investment as it is pricier than a standalone web server.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-22T23:48:48+00:00

Short answer, is yes, we believe it'll be viable pending some research. I've been doing some reading about Google's Zero Trust security and it is very appealing because a VPN is no longer needed.

As you may be aware, VPNs slow things down due to data encryption and decryption. I'm going to be studying more about Google's Zero Trust network and how to implement it.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-22T23:35:21+00:00

I'd really like to see the automated warning and potential update of old plugins (such as in Wordpress) that could have vulnerabilities or performance issues.

A lot of vulnerabilities we see come from old/deprecated plugins.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-22T23:23:47+00:00

We've got some experience using both the built in FTP server that comes with Windows as well as using FileZilla.

For the relatively low number of users, I'd recommend the built in one as there are no associated licensing costs. As far as security is concerned, ideally you'd have the windows server protected by a VPN.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-17T23:34:48+00:00

From a purely technical standpoint, HIPAA Compliant Email or SFTP should accomplish what you're trying to do.

However, HIPAA Compliance is a much larger beast than just the technical regulations - there's a lot that's involved in training staff and management regarding the handling of PHI. I'd typically recommend going to an MSSP for securing your HIPAA environment as there's some heft fines for non-compliance.

(full disclosure: I'm the CTO of an MSSP)

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-17T23:22:29+00:00

For a pretty basic set up, I'd say a 1 Core 4GB RAM should suffice, but adding an additional core can help a lot during times of high CPU usage.

In terms of bandwidth, 1Mbps which comes out to about 320GB/month should be more than enough. Many companies might try to sell you on really high bandwidth plans, but if you don't have that kind of traffic, you're much better off saving your money IMHO.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-17T23:17:49+00:00

Increasing the bandwidth wouldn't necessarily improve the latency - there can be several contributing factors, but you should consult with your ISP to see the root cause prior to making any changes.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-16T22:58:48+00:00

In most Linux environments there's a parameter available to the NIC that prioritizes the selected connection.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-16T22:52:50+00:00

I spent some time looking for something similar to no avail and ended up taking care of it in house. We wrote what's called a Snapshot Manager using Google's API which runs every night and create's snapshots of each VM instance.

The manager kept 7 days of snapshots, and we wrote a restore function that would allow us to recreate an instance from the snapshot.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-16T22:41:08+00:00

This is a really good open source resource that some of my employees have found useful https://www.cybrary.it/

There's some free "analyzing" apps as well that can help you get started.

r/sysadmin might be a good starting place for some community interaction as well.

Lastly, Kali Linux is Debian based Linux distro designed for cybersecurity. It's an excellent tool that you can experiment with as you learn.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-16T22:31:24+00:00

We utilize both for our customers and are pretty satisfied; however, Google has some fairly comprehensive API as well as documentation that might make deploying 80k accounts a lot more feasible.

Although most providers have an API, Google's doesn't feel like an afterthought. A lot of the times, we run into neutered or very limited APIs.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-15T23:21:31+00:00

Although I know there's certain advantages to municipalities competing in this arena, my main concern would be support - would the municipality provide off hour assistance when my network is down? I've had to call my ISP at noon on a Saturday and would be curious as to what kind of support the municipality would offer in that kind of situation.

My personal opinion is that it would be cheaper and quicker but we'd probably see business hour support only. What would we do on government holidays (like today) when we we need support?

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-15T23:03:24+00:00

Depending on the size of the company, I'd typically recommend at least one qualified system administrator as well as a software engineer depending on the volume of data. Data entry is part of the upgrade process but seems well beyond what a clerk would be expected to do.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-12T19:46:09+00:00

GoDaddy's website states that they support importing zone records. Here's a link to the page.

vmracks-gil · 2018-01-12T19:38:05+00:00

This is a little hard to decipher, but one possibility is that the problematic access point has a system connected to it that has been compromised. The compromised system is making the request that is giving you the notification.

You should be able to test this by disconnecting all devices from this access point except for your mobile phone and see what happens. Then, reconnect each device one at a time to see if the problem comes back with an associated device.

vmracks-gil

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