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Bitdefender – How to test GravityZone VA

Scenario

You downloaded and installed a Bitdefender Gravityzone virtual appliance and you need to test the product but you have only a free trial license that you can you use only on cloud solution exclusively.

Solution

To register for a trial for the on premise GravityZone, please use this link: https://www.bitdefender.com/business/free-trials/ (You will need to use a different email address).
When filling out the required form, select only one of these on-premises products: Bitdefender Security for Virtualized Environments, Bitdefender GravityZone Security for Endpoints, Bitdefender GravityZone Security for Exchange, Bitdefender GravityZone Security for Mobile.

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Speed of a remote backup

To build a backup environment it is recommended to follow the 3-2-1 rule.

  • Make 3 backups
  • Make 2 backups on different media
  • Make 1 backup in another location than the source data

To carry out the third tip, we very often think of the Cloud; it’s a great solution but the costs are still quite high if we need to move TB. If, on the other hand, we have to save some GB, the solution is attractive.

For companies that need to move TB of data, a solution can be backup to a remote location, for example connected with a vpn. The costs of saving the data will therefore be absorbed by the purchase costs of a fairly large NAS unit.

Let us try to detail such a solution.

Backup speed in vpn

The speed of the backup will be determined by the slowest internet connection speed between the 2 locations. Let’s suppose that the 2 offices are able to communicate at the speed of 300 Mb / s.

300 Mb / s = 300,000,000 b / s

300,000,000 b / s / 8 = 37,500,000 b / s = 37.5 MB / s

To move 1GB of data over a 300 Mb / s network, it will take 1,000 / 37.5 = 26.7 seconds

To move 1GB of data over a 100 Mb / s network, it will take 1,000 / 12.5 = 80 seconds

Backup software all have the ability to perform incremental backups but the first backup that is performed will inevitably be very long. So it needs to be planned carefully.

If we want to move a 20GB virtual machine across a 300 Mb / s network, it will take about 27 minutes. It will take us 2 hours and 15 minutes for a 1TB virtual machine. The incremental backups of the various software on the market, in “normal” conditions of server activity, allow subsequent backups to arrive at times equal to 20% of the first backup.

Choice of Backup NAS

The source site data is stored on Nas at the destination site. It is clear that choosing a NAS equipped with a 10Gb / S ethernet card does not improve our remote backup since the transfer speed of the vpn is less than 1Gb / s.

Could the NAS disks further decrease the copy speed? To answer this, let’s take a look at a table that tries to give a value to the write speeds of the various disk systems. We took the data from the wikipedia site and then processed it.

Drive

(Type / RPM )

MB/s

(64KB block, random)

MB/s

(512KB block, random)

MB/s random

average

MB/s

(large block, sequential)

MB/s sequenzial

average

FC / 15 K 9.7 – 10.8 49.7 – 63.1 33,3 73.5 – 127.5 100,5
SAS / 15 K 11.2 – 12.3 58.9 – 68.9 37,8 91.5 – 126.3 108,9
FC / 10 K 8.3 – 9.2 40.9 – 53.1 27,9 58.1 – 107.2 82,65
SAS / 10 K 8.3 – 9.2 40.9 – 53.1 27,9 58.1 – 107.2 82,65
SAS/SATA / 7200 4.4 – 4.9 24.3 – 32.1 16,4 43.4 – 97.8 70,6
SATA / 5400 3.5 22.6 13,05 47,1 (estimate)
SSD 520 520

Backup software normally writes disks sequentially, so numbers in hand, even a sata 5400 hard drive could be useful in our scenario. Buying hard drives above 7200 rpm, on the other hand, would not lead to an improvement.

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Sicurezza del computer

L’antivirus non fornisce sicurezza

Se avete montato un antivirus sul vostro computer non siete al sicuro.La minaccia dei virus non si combatte solo con l’antivirus. L’antivirus, semplificando, è un contenitore di tutti i virus scoperti nel mondo fino ad oggi; l’antivirus controlla i vostri file confrontandoli con il suo contenitore : quando vede che il file corrisponde ad uno di quelli immagazzinati vi segnala e blocca la minaccia.

E’ quindi chiaro che l’antivirus è efficace solo se trova un virus che era già stato segnalato da qualcun altro nel mondo. Non può fare niente per le nuove scoperte.

Ci sono inoltre dei virus che non si manifestano come tali se non dopo che l’utente, Voi, li avete attivati. Sono tutti quei virus che vi arrivano come allegati nelle email e che passano quindi la scansione dell’antivirus. Quando ci cliccate sopra, state lanciando un programma: il computer non può autonomamente decidere che quel programma, lanciato da voi, sia un programma malevolo; siete voi che comandate e quindi siete voi che infettate.

Consigli per una buona protezione del computer

  • Usate un servizio di email dotato di un sistema antispam e antivirus efficace. Diminuirà il numero di file che arrivano.
  • Pensate. Leggete la email, non cliccate sui link senza sapere cosa state facendo. Passate con il mouse sopra il link senza spingerlo : vedrete l’indirizzo al quale si collega e se l’indirizzo non centra niente con il soggetto che vi ha mandato la email… è un virus
  • Pensate. Leggete bene i pulsanti nei siti in cui navigate, non rispondete sempre “si” o “consento” senza aver riflettuto.
  • Usate Office 365. La maggior parte dei virus opera dentro i file di Word, Excel che vi mandano. Office 365 con le impostazioni di sicurezza attivate rende i virus non eseguibili.
  • Backup : fate un backup periodico dei vostri dati su un supporto vicino a voi (chiavette usb, un altro computer, sistemi nas)
  • Backup su Cloud : fate un backup periodico in un posto “lontano” dal vostro computer: il cloud è in questo caso, uno spazio su internet in cui memorizzare i vostri dati

Come vedete, tra i consigli, non abbiamo citato l’antivirus….. ma male non può certo fare.

Ricorda che :

L’UNICO ANTIVIRUS EFFICACE SEI “TU

E noi ti possiamo aiutare. Contataci alla 051-790428 o alla email info@mecdata.it. Metteremo al sicuro i tuoi dati

  • Usa il nostro sistema email, velocissimo, sicuro e sempre disponibile e aggiornato su ognuno dei tuoi dispositivi.
  • Affidati a noi per la gestione della tua licenza di Office 365.
  • Affidati a noi per la costruzione del nostro economico sistema di backup in locale ed in Cloud
  • Permettici di insegnarti ad usare al meglio e in maniera più consapevole il tuo computer.
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Which operating systems do Azure Backup support?

Operating System Platform VERSION
Windows 8 64 bit Enterprise, Pro
Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate, Enterprise, Professional, Home Premium, Home Basic, Starter
Windows 8.1 64 bit Enterprise, Pro
Windows 10 64 bit Enterprise, Pro, Home
Windows Server 2016 64 bit Standard, Datacenter, Essentials
Windows Server 2012 R2 64 bit Standard, Datacenter, Foundation, Essential
Windows Server 2012 64 bit Datacenter, Foundation, Standard
Windows Storage Server 2016 64 bit Standard, Workgroup
Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 64 bit Standard, Workgroup
Windows Storage Server 2012 64 bit Standard, Workgroup
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, 64 bit Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Foundation
Windows Server 2008 SP2 64 bit Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Foundation

Source Microsoft

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Against cryptoviruses

The cryptovirus or ransomware can enter into our computer. No matter what we are trained to recognize suspicious emails. Sometimes we are tired, distracted and our level of attention is lowered. “They” are increasingly clever and good at making us make mistakes. We open attachments that we should not open. At this point, the damage is done. The virus encrypt a file at a time very quickly: we estimated that the virus is able to encrypt 10,000 files in 30 minutes. After encrypting files on your computer, it starts to encrypt the files of all network folders where able to enter: servers, your colleagues’s of computers. The damage can be incalculable. In our experience there is no anti-virus that can counter it. When the virus starts to encrypt your files, you do not notice anything until it’s too late, when everything is over: the virus manifests itself by changing the image of your desktop with a message: “All your files are encrypted . If you want to get them back you have to pay a ransom. ”

If we had realized the infection once it has started, we would have definitely lost something but we could limit the damage.

Based on these considerations, we have created a very simple program that checks the contents of your personal folders and alerts you via email if a virus is altering the content. The alert can only be sent to you or in conjunction with other email addresses. After receiving the message, turn off, without hesitation, the computer by pushing the power button: better to risk breaking the power supply, which can be replaced cheaply, rather than losing all your files.

The program is completely free and you can download it here: MECDATA DAWN OF JUSTICE. Our response to CryptoVirus.

Once installed, launch it. The program will ask you, the configuration. The only thing you need to enter is the list of email addresses that you will need to alert in case of infection.

At this point, the program starts and you can see the icon on the bar at the bottom. Through this icon you can enter again in the configuration to add or change email addresses.

For lovers of performance, This program is running 18 Mb of RAM and does not impact on the processor. It does not work on Windows XP.

We sincerely wish that there is useful, but if it were, in the last test, the scanner detected the infection only two minutes after the beginning of the same.

We suggest you install it. It does not solve, but improves.


Our additional tips

  • Do not open attachments to emails from strangers, especially if they are not email you expect.
  • Double check your emails from people you know
  • Do not disable the macro block of the products such as Microsoft Word or Excel
  • Back up files regularly
  • Backup up in cloud
  • Do not create file shares and folders with permissions to ‘Everyone’
  • Share folders only to users or groups strictly necessary