Businesses are under constant attack from a variety of network security threats. Cybercriminals hack databases for passwords for unauthorized access to your network. Undetected Malicious software (malware) can trap and forward passwords. Viruses can infect your hard drive and destroy application data and files without your knowledge. Businesses large and small face these network security threats on a daily basis; larger organizations, however, may have more resources to fight attacks.

Cloud-based computing adoption is increasing among many businesses. According to the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) Annual trends in Cloud Computing study, 60% of business owners reported having 30% or more of their IT Systems in the cloud. Additionally, research firm IDC predicts cloud-computing solutions to total $24 billion by 2016.

Recent high-profile data breaches, such as those that occurred at Neiman Marcus and Target, have brought privacy breach notification laws into public debate. In the event that your company’s secure information is compromised, it is important to understand privacy breach notification laws and standards.

The name Heartbleed OpenSSL Vulnerability (aka Heartbleed bug) is as scary as it sounds. Some reports say up to two thirds of all secure websites (e.g. those with a web address starting with a green https://) are using OpenSSL. It has been reported that Google was first to discover the Heartbleed bug that compromised sites including Yahoo, Tumblr, Flickr, Amazon, and other websites relying on OpenSSL for security. This security breach may provide hackers access to accounts, passwords, and credit card information.

According to Microsoft, support is ending for Windows XP after April 8, 2014. Technical assistance, including automatic updates that help protect your PC, will no longer be available after this date. Microsoft will also stop providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP.