NetStandard Inc. | Kansas City Data Center Blog

As a bank executive, what are your top IT concerns?

1. Over spending on information technology and hurting return on assets.
2. An IT infrastructure that really doesn’t meet your bank’s needs.
3. Employees unable to do their work because network applications or workstations aren’t responding as they should.
4. Information security weaknesses which might allow customer information to be stolen and misused.
5. Poor examination results because the examiners judged your policies and procedures to be less than adequate.
6. Over dependence on a single bank employee for IT.
7. Sending confidential backup tapes home with an employee. What if the tapes are lost or stolen?
8. A disgruntled or careless employee damaging your information systems.
9. Important systems going down or important information being corrupted. Can you restore operations quickly?
10. A board of directors unhappy with the situation.

NetStandard is a well-established technology firm which understands the special needs of community banks, information security, and the regulatory environment. Our staff includes network security specialists, Certified Information Systems Security Professionals, a former federal bank examiner, and engineers with a wide array of skill sets.

Please come by our booth at the KBA Technology Showcase, and let’s discuss these issues. You will see the NetStandard booth directly in front of you as you enter the exhibition center at the Wichita Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Robert Jenkins, CISSP
Office (913) 262-3888, ext. 228
Cell (816) 582-5670
Fax (913) 262-0660

In order to secure your computer network, it’s essential to harden your network servers and workstations. This is done through:

• establishing strict security settings
• disabling unnecessary roles and services
• preventing the installation of any unneeded software applications, and
• keeping the operating system up-to-date with the most current security updates and service packs.

Microsoft has tried to make a portion of this task easier through the release of its Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series. The Toolkits address the following operating systems and applications:

• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
• Windows Vista SP1
• Windows XP Professional SP3
• 2007 Microsoft Office SP1

A key component of the Toolkit Series is the GPOAccelerator Wizard. It’s a free automated tool, and according to Microsoft:

The GPOAccelerator creates all the GPOs [Active Directory Group Policy Objects]that you need to deploy the recommended security settings for your environment. This functionality saves many hours of work that would otherwise be needed to configure and deploy security settings manually.

A Group Policy Object or GPO is a collection of policy settings which define security, user rights and system behavior. The GPOAccelerator Wizard creates the GPOs automatically based on Microsoft’s recommended Security Baseline Settings. Once created, you can then use Microsoft’s Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) to install the new GPO’s and check the results.

If you would like to learn more, check out Microsoft’s TechNet Security Blog.