Recent cyber breaches at Target, Sony, and The White House reveal one
simple truth: Online security is everyone’s concern. As larger
businesses take steps to secure their networks, less secure smaller
businesses must develop their own cyber security plans, finding the
right tools for their needs, as well as their budgets.
Here is a list of online security tools for small businesses. There
are tools for cyber defense and secure communication. Included are
encryption applications, security testers, secure communication tools,
password apps, online security platforms, an open threat exchange, and a
cyber security planner for small businesses. Nearly all of these tools
are free or have free plans.
Online Security Tools
FCC Small Biz Cyber Planner.
By the Federal Communications Commission, the Small Biz Cyber Planner
is an online resource to help small businesses create customized cyber
security plans. Create and save a custom cyber security plan for your
company, choosing from a menu of expert advice to address your specific
business needs and concerns. The site also has a Cybersecurity Tip
Sheet. Price: Free.
FCC Small Biz Cyber Planner.
Surveillance Self-Defense. From the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Surveillance Self-Defense
is a guide to defending yourself and your friends from surveillance by
using secure technology and developing careful practices. Get a security
starter pack to assess your personal risk, protect your most cherished
communications and information, and start thinking about incorporating
privacy-enhancing tools into your daily routine. Price: Free.
Open Threat Exchange. Hosted by AlienVault,
Open Threat Exchange is an open threat information sharing and analysis
network to put effective security measures within the reach of all
organizations. Open Threat Exchange provides real-time, actionable
information for all participants. AlienVault also offers a free ThreatFinder to quickly analyze a network for compromised systems and malicious communication. Price: Free.
GnuPG. GnuPG,
also known as GPG, is a complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP
standard to encrypt and sign your data and communication. GnuPG is free
and can be freely used, modified, and distributed. GnuPG does not use
any patented algorithms. Price: Free.
Hotspot Shield.
Hotspot Shield creates a private and encrypted connection on public
Wi-Fi networks, protecting data from hackers and identity thieves.
Hotspot Shield Elite masks your IP address to ensure an anonymous
browsing environment. Hotspot Shield intercepts various forms of malware
from reaching your computer. Its suite of anti-malware tools protects
you from over 3.5 million known malware threats, phishing sites, and
spam. Price: Basic plan is free. Elite account is $29.95 per year.
Hotspot Shield.
Tor Project.
Tor is a distributed, anonymous network that connects users through a
series of virtual tunnels, rather than by direct connection. It allows
organizations and individuals to share information over public networks,
without compromising privacy. Tor has a variety of uses for businesses.
Tor enables businesses to check out accurate competitor pricing,
without being flagged by a competitor’s server and fed inaccurate
information. Primarily, Tor keeps a company’s traffic patterns
confidential. Price: Free.
Tails OS.
Tails is a live operating system that protects you through privacy and
security features. Tails uses tools to encrypt your files, emails, and
instant messaging. Leave no trace on the computer you are using unless
you ask it explicitly. All online connections are forced through the Tor
network. Price: Free.
Boxcryptor.
Boxcryptor is a tool to encrypt your files in the cloud, no matter if
you use Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, SugarSync, Box.net,
or any other major cloud storage provider. Boxcryptor is available for
Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows RT, Blackberry
10, and Google Chrome. Price: Basic is free. Unlimited Business plan is $96 per year.
ProtonMail.
ProtonMail is an email app that focuses on privacy and security. Its
end-to-end encryption ensures your data is already encrypted when it
reaches ProtonMail’s servers. You can send and receive mail from users
not on ProtonMail. Logging into a ProtonMail account requires two
passwords. The second password is used to decrypt data on your device,
so ProtonMail never has access to the decrypted data or the decryption
password. Price: Free.
ProtonMail.
VeraCrypt. VeraCrypt is a free disk encryption software, based on TrueCrypt and developed by IDRIX.
VeraCrypt adds enhanced security to the algorithms used for system and
partitions encryption, making it immune to new developments in
brute-force attacks. Price: Free.
Qualys FreeScan. This tool, by cloud security provider Qualys,
is a tool to scan your network, servers, desktops, or web apps for
security vulnerabilities. Detect security vulnerabilities and the
patches needed to fix them. View interactive scan reports by threat or
by patch. Test computers against SCAP security benchmarks. Price: Free.
OnionShare.
OnionShare is an open source tool that lets you securely and anonymously
share a file of any size. You host the file on your own computer and
use a Tor hidden service to make it temporarily accessible over the
Internet, generating an unguessable URL to access and download the
files. The person who is receiving the files doesn’t need OnionShare.
All she needs is to open the URL you send her in Tor Browser to be able
to download the file. Price: Free.
HTTPS Everywhere.
HTTPS Everywhere is a browser extension that encrypts communications
with websites, making your browsing more secure. Many sites on the web
offer some limited support for encryption over HTTPS, defaulting to
unencrypted HTTP or filling encrypted pages with links to unencrypted
pages. HTTPS Everywhere fixes these problems by rewriting requests to
these sites. HTTPS Everywhere is a collaboration between The Tor Project
and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Price: Free.
Electronic Frontier Foundation – HTTPS Everywhere.
The Guardian Project.
The Guardian Project creates secure apps, open-source software
libraries, and customized mobile devices to protect communications and
personal data from intrusion, interception, and monitoring. Apps include
Orbot, which bring the capabilities of Tor to Android, and ChatSecure, a mobile-messaging app integrated with “Off the Record” encrypted chat protocol. Price: Apps are free.
Ghostery.
Ghortery is a tool that shows users what is tracking them, such as
cookies, web bugs, beacons, ad networks, and web publishers. It enables
users to control the access to their information, creating a speedier
browsing experience. Its enterprise solution, Ghostery Marketing Cloud
Management, enables companies to expose and eliminate security blind
spots in their marketing cloud, improving performance and profitability
of digital assets. Price: Consumer tool is free. Contact for enterprise pricing.
Mitro. Mitro
helps you manage and share your passwords easily and securely. It
automatically records your user names and passwords as you log in to new
sites, offers to automatically log you into sites you’ve visited
before, and allows you to securely share your passwords with peers. Your
data is encrypted before it ever leaves your computer, and Mitro has no
access to the data. Price: Free.
Wickr. Wickr is a
secure private-messaging app. It’s like Snapchat for grownups. Send and
receive encrypted messages, pictures, videos, audio files, and
documents. Set the expiration time on all your messaging content.
Protect your conversations from being tracked, intercepted, or monitored
by anyone — including Wickr. Remove all deleted messages and media from
all your devices so they cannot be recovered. Price: Free.
Wickr.
OpenDNS.
OpenDNS is a recursive DNS network with cloud-delivered security
products that protect distributed networks, Wi-Fi hotspots, and
employees from malware, botnets, phishing, inappropriate content, and
advanced attacks. Its Umbrella platform automates protection against
known and emergent threats, and stays up-to-date without admin
intervention. With OpenDNS there is no need to reroute all connections
through proxy or VPN gateways to secure mobile users or remote offices. Price: Basic is free. Umbrella Professional is $28 per user per year.
CloudFlare.
CloudFlare is an online optimization and security platform, protecting
your website from a range of online threats from spammers to SQL
injection to DDOS. Adding your website requires only a simple change to
your domain’s DNS settings. CloudFlare has mitigated two of the largest
DDoS attacks recorded: a 300Gbps DDoS attack that flooded Spamhaus, the
spam fighter, in March 2013, and a record-breaking 400Gbps attack in
February 2014. Price: Basic plan is free. Premium plans start at $20 per month.
Random.org.
This form allows you to generate random passwords that are then
transmitted to your browser securely and are not stored on the
Random.org server. Random.org also has randomizer mobile apps. Price: Free.
TripWire SecureScan. SecureScan, from Tripwire,
is a free vulnerability scanning for up to 100 IPs on your internal
network. Schedule weekly or monthly scanning. SecureScan uses the same
enterprise-class vulnerability-scanning platform behind Tripwire’s
premium vulnerability products, Tripwire IP360 and Tripwire PureCloud
Enterprise. Discover your networks, your vulnerabilities, and how to
manage risk. Price: Free.
Tripwire.
Burp Suite.
Burp Suite is an integrated platform for performing security testing of
web applications. The suite includes an intercepting proxy, an
application-aware spider, a scanner, a repeater, a sequencer, and an
intruder tool. Its tools work together to support the entire testing
process, from initial mapping and analysis of an application’s attack
surface to finding and exploiting security vulnerabilities. Price: $299 per user per year.
OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP).
The OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) is an integrated penetration testing
tool for finding vulnerabilities in web applications. It’s designed to
be used by people with a wide range of security experience and is
helpful for developers and testers who are new to penetration testing.
ZAP provides automated scanners as well as a set of tools that allow you
to find security vulnerabilities manually. Price: Free.
Samurai Web Testing Framework.
The Samurai Web Testing Framework is a live Linux environment that has
been pre-configured to function as a web pen-testing platform. It
contains open source and free tools that focus on testing and attacking
websites. Included are tools used in all four steps of a web penetration
test. Price: Free.
Silent Circle.
Silent Circle develops applications, services, and devices for
encrypted communications. Silent Circle’s flagship device, Blackphone,
is built from the ground up to be private by design. Blackphone boasts a
combination of a custom operating system with hand-picked application
tools optimized for security. Silent Circle also offers a suite of
privacy apps for encrypted voice, video, conference calls,
file-transfers, and peer-to-peer communications on iOS and Android. Price: Plans start at $12.95 per month.
By Sig Ueland
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