FAQs

What is a Web-based attack?

Web-based attacks are conducted by hackers and/or criminals with the intent to either obtain control of a company network, steal valuable information, place code on the organizations network or web server, and to breach the company’s external security. Common Web-based attacks are phishing attacks, drive by virus/worm downloads, and other forms of malicious code that can create havoc on an organizations data and infrastructure.

What can a Web-based attack do to a small business?

Web-based attacks present even more danger to SMB and home users because most SMBs and home users do not deploy the same layers of security such as antivirus, IPS, and web filtering that larger organizations institute.

What dangers do small businesses face when not properly securing their web access?

The internet continues to evolve as a threat to organizations and home users due to hackers’ abilities to circumvent security solutions such as firewalls and anti-virus. Malicious code housed on websites can be easily downloaded onto an end users machine if their current systems are not properly patched or if the anti-virus solutions are not up to date. Web filtering allows end users to automatically be protected by blocking access to fraudulent and malicious web content.

What types of attacks does Secure Office Web Filter protect against?

Secure Office Web Filter protects organizations from all of today’s web based threats, including download of viruses and worms, spyware, keyloggers, phishing attacks, pharming, and other forms of malicious code (malware).

What are malware, spyware, keyloggers, etc.?

• Adware: Any software application in which advertising banners are displayed while the program is running.
• Keyloggers:: Also known as keystroke loggers, a keylogger is a software program that monitors each keystroke a user types on a specific computer's keyboard.
• Malware: Any program or file that is harmful to a computer user. Thus, malware includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware, programming that gathers information about a computer user without permission.
• Phishing: Email fraud where the perpetrator sends out legitimate-looking e-mails that appear to come from well known and trustworthy Web sites in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from the recipient.
• Pharming: A scamming practice in which malicious code is installed on a personal computer or server, misdirecting users to fraudulent Web sites without their knowledge or consent.
• Spyware: Software that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge.
• Trojan: A program in which malicious or harmful code is contained inside apparently harmless programming or data in such a way that it can get control and do its chosen form of damage.
• Virus: A piece of programming code usually disguised as something else that causes some unexpected and usually undesirable event. A virus is often designed so that it is automatically spread to other computer users.
• Worm: A self-replicating virus that does not alter files but resides in active memory and duplicates itself.
• Bot: A program that operates as an agent for a user or another program or simulates a human activity. Surfbots, used to facilitate Internet use, often include spyware. Spyware programs are sometimes known as spybots.

I am not worried about my employees’ productivity. Do I still need a service like Secure Office?

Secure Office does improve employee productivity by filtering Internet use to only business-related tasks, but also provides a shield against hackers and criminals that are using the Web as a highly successful method to gain access to confidential and sensitive business information.

How does Secure Office Web Filter protect against Web-based attacks?

All Internet requests are instantaneously matched against the Internet use policy to ensure that access to sites with malicious code is blocked.

What happens when Secure Office Web Filter detects spyware or keylogging applications?

Spyware and keylogger applications collect and communicate confidential and sensitive information to entities outside of your organization. When these applications attempt to communicate, Secure Office detects and blocks the attempt so that no information is transferred. The end user does not see a block page, but the block is recorded and included in reports.

Is my existing firewall and antivirus software sufficient to protect my company against Web-based threats?

No. Firewalls, anti-virus, and intrusion prevention solutions alone cannot prevent attackers and criminals from accessing confidential information or introducing malicious code onto an end users system. A true layered approach, which includes web filtering and web security adds additional protection to mitigate possible network breaches.

Does Secure Office integrate with other security technologies?

Yes. Secure Office integrates and is a complementary technology to existing security technologies.

What are the advantages of Secure Office Web Filter versus the competition?

Secure Office Web Filter offers industry leading web filtering and web security technology from Websense employed as a managed service offering. This means that there will never be a large download of a URL database to an end users machine, which can ultimately affect machine performance. Secure Office offers unparalleled ease of operation and can be up and running in minutes of download.

How does Secure Office provide a lower total cost of ownership to organizations?

Priced much less than server based web filtering solutions, Secure Office provides the same level of protection without the cost or maintenance of server based solutions.

Do we need to install any software on our site?

A small application is installed on each computer that is protected by Secure Office. The installation is achieved by a simple click on a download link, the application installs automatically and Secure Office is up and running in minutes.

Does Secure Office require any special hardware or IT services?

No. All hardware and management software is centrally hosted and managed by Secure Office.

Will Secure Office Web Filter slow down our Internet access?

No. Secure Office provides enterprise-level protection without delay in Internet access. When an employee clicks on a Web site, a very small packet of information is sent to the central Secure Office servers located in our secure facility and an instantaneous decision is made to allow or block the request.

What is the Internet access policy enforced by Secure Office?

Secure Office enforces an essential filtering and security policy focused on protection from web-based attacks, improving employee productivity, limiting liability posed by inappropriate web surfing and reducing bandwidth consumption from non-business related applications.

What happens when a user tries to access restricted content?

When Secure Office determines a Web request violates the Internet access policy, a block page is immediately displayed to the user that initiated the request.

How does Secure Office Web Filter work?

Each user that will be filtered installs a small application on their computer. This application communicates with the centralized Secure Office Web Security Filter. When a user enters a web address (or clicks on a link), the request is checked against the Websense URL Master Database. If the site is in a blocked category, the user will receive a “block” page which explains why the page is blocked. If the site is not in a blocked category, the user will proceed to the site without interruption.

What is the difference between traditional web filtering tools and the managed service deployment of Secure Office?

With Secure Office, the database of URLs and filtering policies are all a managed service, meaning there is no need for individual database download or policy setting by the end user.

Will Secure Office work for a company with multiple locations?

Yes. Secure Office is a scaleable, centrally managed solution with no restriction on number of users or locations.

Are there limits to the amount of users that can be protected per installation of Secure Office?

No. Secure Office is a scaleable, centrally managed solution with no restriction on number of users or locations.

How does Secure Office maintain its database of URLs?

The Secure Office database is maintained by the global leader in Web security and Web filtering, Websense. The database is updated automatically to Secure Office servers on a 24 hour basis, the end user never sees the database updates as it is a managed service.

Are there monitoring and reporting capabilities within Secure Office?

Yes. Secure Web-based monitoring and reporting capabilities are included with Secure Office, accessible via the Secure Office portal. Portal access is password protected to ensure privacy and security. Authorized users within your organization can access the Secure Office portal via the Internet.

What types of reports are available with Secure Office?

Secure Office provides interactive reporting with daily, weekly and monthly information on:

• Top blocked Web categories
• Top allowed Web categories
• Top blocked individual Web sites
• Individual user detailed Web activity within each category

How often are these reports updated?

The Secure Office reporting database is updated daily.

Can I evaluate Secure Office before purchasing?

Yes. Simply follow the steps on the registration page, and within minutes you will be up and running with Secure Office.

How much does Secure Office Web Filter cost?

Visit the pricing area for current pricing information.

How is Secure Office sold?

Secure Office is an annual subscription with both monthly payment and annual pre-payment options. Pre-paid annual subscriptions receive a 10% discount.

What are the system requirements for Secure Office?

Pentium 4 or greater

40 MB of free disk space

512 MB of RAM

1 network interface card (NICs)

Microsoft Windows® XP Home edition SP1 or later (32 bit)

Microsoft Windows® XP Pro SP1 or later (32 bit)

Internet Explorer 6 or later

Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0

Press Room

Friday November 30, 2007

Media Contact

Total Tech
Ronnie Manning
For Total Tech
rmanning@1totaltech.com
(619) 822-2239

Holiday Shopping Season to be a Potential Drain on Employee Productivity for SMBs, alerts Total Tech

Fraudulent e-commerce websites present dangers to employees and SMBs

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 30, 2007 – Total Tech, a provider of innovative internet security solutions, today announced that the current holiday shopping season can be a potential drain on employee productivity and a possible security threat for small and medium businesses (SMB). According to Websense®, within the past year, shopping websites categorized in the company’s URL database have grown by 30 percent. With hundreds of thousands of online retail stores, the temptation for employees to conduct online shopping during business hours increases every year.

According to a BIGresearch survey conducted for Shop.org, 54.5 percent of office workers with internet access, roughly 68.5 million people, will shop for holiday gifts from work, up substantially from 50.7 percent in 2006 and 44.7 percent in 2005. To maintain employee work flow during the holiday season, Secure Office provides SMBs with an enterprise-class web filtering solution that allows adaptable management options to be placed on internet browsing activities.

The deployment options of Secure Office allow for flexible policies during high browsing times like the holiday season. An organization may allow a certain amount of time per day for their employees to use their high speed connection or perhaps allow free shopping after business hours.

Available as a managed service from Total Tech and powered by technology from Websense, the industry leader in Web security and Web filtering, Secure Office is seamless to install and is active and protecting within a matter of minutes. Unlike server based web filtering and web security software, with Secure Office there is no large URL database download to the server or on end users’ machines and no software maintenance.

“As the depth and breadth of the internet continues to grow, so do the amount of online retailers,“ said Ken Hamilton, CEO of Total Tech. “The time savings and convenience of online shopping when compared with the hassle of brick and mortar retailers is instantly recognizable, however, it’s important that this convenience isn’t abused while on the clock. It’s also vital for employers to protect their employees and networks from hackers and criminals looking for easy prey during the holidays.”

Online criminals are getting smarter and much stealthier in their attack method. As more buyers head to the internet, so are hackers unleashing phishing attacks and posting fraudulent websites to steal user information such as credit card and social security numbers. In fact, last December, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, there were an estimated 28,500 unique phishing websites reported.

Additionally, if an employee were to visit a fraudulent holiday shopping website that has been infected with malicious code, that program can automatically be downloaded onto the user’s machine without their knowledge or consent, putting data at risk. With Secure Office, the threat of visiting a phishing, fake e-commerce website, or accidentally browsing a page infected with malicious code is eliminated by automatically blocking access to corrupt and dangerous websites.

Secure Office is available today as a managed service from Total Tech.

About Total Tech

Founded in 2004, Total Tech is a Network Security Solutions Provider, offering software solutions and professional services that secure organizations from emerging network security threats. Total Tech accomplishes this by providing proactive critical network security solutions that complement and support traditional business security measures. Total Tech products and services are maintained by certified technical professionals that are committed to supporting the needs of our customers. For more information, please visit www.1totaltech.com.

Press Room

Monday November 12, 2007

Media Contact

Total Tech
Ronnie Manning
For Total Tech
rmanning@1totaltech.com
(619) 822-2239

Total Tech Launches New Managed Web Security and Filtering Solution for SMBs

Total Tech’s Secure Office brings industry leading security and filtering technology to smaller deployments that prefer a managed solution

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 12, 2007 – Total Tech, a provider of innovative Internet security solutions, today announced the availability of its patent-pending Secure Office Managed Web filtering and Web security offering that provides enterprise-class Web security and filtering technology to smaller businesses without the need for an investment in computer hardware, software or IT services.

Powered by technology from Websense®, the industry leader in Web security and Web filtering, Secure Office brings proven Web filtering technology to SMBs. Available as a managed service from Total Tech, Secure Office can get users up and running within minutes, and there is no large URL database download to the server or on end users’ machines.

The importance of having Web security has grown as the Internet continues to evolve as one of the most beneficiary, yet dangerous, technologies for SMB users. According to the SMB State of Security (SOS) survey of 450 IT managers and employees within the United States, conducted by Dynamic Markets Ltd., and commissioned by Websense, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) fail to take adequate steps to reduce the risk off data loss from Web-based security threats. The research shows that while 46 percent of SMB IT managers say they have software to protect company confidential data, 81 percent do not use software to block the use of peer-to-peer applications, control the use of instant messaging (76 percent), or stop spyware from sending out information to external sources (47 percent)

For SMBs, the Internet is an essential tool to conduct business activity, such as sales, payroll, accounting and inventory management over the Web. Protecting these assets is critical to business; unfortunately, hackers and criminals are using the Web as a highly successful method of gaining access to confidential information. In 2006, Websense Security Labs™ reported a 100 percent increase in Web sites designed to install malicious code such as keyloggers, screen scrapers and other forms of crimeware, which can enable an attacker to collect key information about end-users and specifically target companies.

“As a small business, we do not have the large IT departments that larger organizations are able to use. We needed an effective Web security and filtering solution without draining our limited resources,” said Kerry Cooper, president, Cooper Enterprises. “Secure Office was the perfect solution for our needs. Since the technology is managed by Total Tech and powered by Websense, we do not have to worry about the day-to-day maintenance of the solution to protect our company from Web-based threats.”

Without a Web filter in place, if an employee accidentally visits a Web site that has been infected with malicious code, that program can automatically be downloaded onto the user’s machine without their knowledge or consent, putting data at risk. With Secure Office, the threat of accidentally browsing a malicious page is eliminated by automatically blocking access to corrupt and dangerous Web sites.

“Hackers and criminals are attacking with new techniques that can completely bypass traditional security solutions, such as anti-virus,” said Ken Hamilton, CEO, Total Tech. “Secure Office brings a level of Web security to the SMB market that has previously been available primarily to larger enterprise organizations. Our managed service provides SMBs with a proven, highly effective means to protecting their employees and network from today’s most aggressive Web-based threats.”

“Secure Office is an innovative offering from one of our key channel partners that leverages the unique content protection capabilities of Websense,” said Leo Cole, vice president of marketing, Websense. “We support this effort and support our channel partners who launch groundbreaking initiatives designed to bolster security for businesses.”

Benefits of Secure Office Include:

• Managed service – no local maintenance or URL database download to client locations.
• Use of the industry’s leading URL database from Websense -- Secure Office is powered by the most up-to-date and accurate URL database available, delivered by the market leader in Web security and Web filtering.
• Continuous database updates – the database consists of more than 30 million URLs updated daily, adding new URLs while removing dead links, ensuring accuracy.
• Ease of deployment – as a managed service, organizations can quickly install Secure Office within minutes.
• Ease of management – with its Web-based user interface, SMBs can quickly manage which Web filtering policies are active and running.
• Pre-defined policies – Secure Office comes with pre-defined policies to support SMB Internet use management needs.
• Active reporting – through a Web-based interface, Secure Office offers granular reporting to help SMBs
track Internet use and dangerous or undesirable Web surfing.

Secure Office is available today as a managed service from Total Tech. For more information, please visit www.mysecureoffice.com.

About Total Tech

Founded in 2004, Total Tech is a Network Security Solutions Provider, offering software solutions and professional services that secure organizations from emerging network security threats. Total Tech accomplishes this by providing proactive critical network security solutions that complement and support traditional business security measures. Total Tech products and services are maintained by certified technical professionals that are committed to supporting the needs of our customers. For more information, please visit www.1totaltech.com.

Total Tech International, Inc. Website Privacy Statement

Total Tech International, Inc. (a California corporation, dba "Secure Office Technologies") Website Privacy Statement

1. Acknowledgement and Acceptance of Terms

Secure Office Technologies is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Statement sets forth our current privacy practices with regard to the information we collect when you or your computer interact with our website. By accessing Secure Office Technologies https://www.mysecureoffice.com, you acknowledge and fully understand Secure Office Technologies’ Privacy Statement and freely consent to the information collection and use practices described in this Website Privacy Statement.

2. Participating Merchant Policies

Related services and offerings with links from this website, including vendor sites, have their own privacy statements that can be viewed by clicking on the corresponding links within each respective website. Online merchants and others who participate in Secure Office Technologies services are encouraged to participate in industry privacy initiatives and to take a responsible attitude towards consumer privacy. However, since we do not have direct control over the policies or practices of participating merchants and other third parties, we are not responsible for the privacy practices or contents of those sites. We recommend and encourage that you always review the privacy policies of merchants and other third parties before you provide any personal information or complete any transaction with such parties.

3. Information We Collect and How We Use It

Secure Office Technologies collects certain information from and about its users three ways: directly from our Web Server logs, the user, and with Cookies.

3a. Web Server Logs

When you visit our Website, we may track information to administer the site and analyze its usage. Examples of information we may track include:

• Your Internet protocol address
• The kind of browser or computer you use
• Number of links you click within the site
• State or country from which you accessed the site
• Date and time of your visit
• Name of your Internet service provider
• Web page you linked to our site from
• Pages you viewed on the site

3b. Use of Cookies

Secure Office Technologies may use cookies to personalize or enhance your user experience. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a Web Server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. For example, if you personalize a web page, or navigate within a site, a cookie helps the site to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. Hence, this simplifies the process of delivering relevant content and eases site navigation by providing and saving your preferences and login information as well as providing personalized functionality.

Secure Office Technologies reserves the right to share aggregated site statistics with partner companies, but does not allow other companies to place cookies on our website unless there is a temporary, overriding customer value (such as merging into Secure Office Technologies.com a site that relies on third-party cookies).

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you reject cookies by changing your browser settings then be aware that this may disable some of the functionality on our Website.

3c. Personal Information Users

Visitors to our website can register to purchase services. When you register, we will request some personal information such as name, address, email, telephone number or facsimile number, account number and other relevant information. If you are purchasing a service, we will request financial information. Any financial information we collect is used only to bill you for the services you purchased. If you purchase by credit card, this information may be forwarded to your credit card provider. For other types of registrations, we will ask for the relevant information. You may also be asked to disclose personal information to us so that we can provide assistance and information to you. For example, such data may be warranted in order to provide online technical support and troubleshooting.

We will not disclose personally identifiable information we collect from you to third parties without your permission except to the extent necessary including:

• To fulfill your service requests for services
• To protect ourselves from liability
• To respond to legal process or comply with law
• In connection with a merger, acquisition, or liquidation of the company

4. Use of Web Beacons or GIF files

Secure Office Technologies https://www.mysecureoffice.com Web pages may contain electronic images known as Web beacons – sometimes also called single-pixel gifs – that allow Secure Office Technologies to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. Secure Office Technologies may include Web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or newsletters in order to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon.

Some of these Web beacons may be placed by third party service providers to help determine the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns or email communications. These Web beacons may be used by these service providers to place a persistent cookie on your computer. This allows the service provider to recognize your computer each time you visit certain pages or emails and compile anonymous information in relation to those page views, which in turn enables us and our service providers to learn which advertisements and emails bring you to our website and how you use the site Secure Office Technologies prohibits Web beacons from being used to collect or access your personal information.

5. Accessing Web Account Information

We will provide you with the means to ensure that personally identifiable information in your web account file is correct and current. You may review this information by contacting us by sending an email to our support attendant -- support@1totaltech.com


6. Changes to this Statement

Secure Office Technologies has the discretion to occasionally update this privacy statement. When we do, we will also revise the “updated” date at the top of this Privacy page. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the service constitutes your agreement to this privacy statement and any updates.

7. Contacting Us

If you have questions regarding our Privacy Statement, its implementation, failure to adhere to this Privacy Statement and/or our general practices, please contact us support@1totaltech.com or send your comments to:

Secure Office Technologies

Attention: Privacy Statement Personal
3914 Murphy Canyon Rd, Suite A214
San Diego, CA 92123

Secure Office Technologies will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly respond and resolve any problem or question.