Software Security Solutions

Over 20 Years of Layered Computer Security
Our approach was since different tools are good for different functions, we needed to find the best of breed security solutions and put them all in one place. Add to that fact that security, in any form, is best when implemented in layers. This is as true for computer security as it is for securing a medieval castle.
Our customer demographic
Our focus is on businesses that do not have a dedicated computer security staff (even though we have taught them a thing or two over the years). These businesses are typically under 1,000 employees and their IT staff doesn’t have the time of resources to research, test, implement and manage IT services and solutions.

Historical Facts
We were part of and supported the World’s first Antispyware company called Pest Patrol starting in 2002 and through to its sale to Computer Associates 4 years later. During that period, we provided corporate pre and post sales support and technical support for the business market. We were talking with customers about the threats from RATS, Trojans, password crackers, Key Loggers adware and a fairly benign threat called Spyware. These were fully complied and functional programs, unlike viruses which were partially complied programs designed to replicate and spread quickly. Some say the term Spyware caught on because people could relate to it easier due to the James Bond factor.
It took some time for our message about more threats out there than viruses to be received, especially by IT Professionals in the computer security industry. They didn’t want to hear that there were more threats than viruses on their networks. One time we were told that we would never get an audience with their boss because it would look like the IT person was not doing their job! That was exactly why we were teaching the teachers about the new computer security threats.

Early day competition, education & training
At that time big antivirus manufacturers like Norton, McAfee etc. did not want anything to do with detecting and removing fully functional programs out of fear of being sued. There were lots of threats by companies that were producing “Badware” but our developers had proof on each program and the malicious intent they were doing. Pest Patrol was not sued once.
We had to build associations and educate about the threats from all these malicious programs. The game had changed because these programs were developed by professionally trained programmers trained in our universities. Gone forever were the days of a teenage “hacker” in their mom’s basement spewing out viruses. We even worked closely with a company called Viper out of Florida training them on how our program worked. They were one of Pest Patrol’s distributors and needed to know how the program worked, and so we spent a bunch of time educating them on how the solution worked.

Finding the best security solutions
While doing research in the early days, we discovered one of the most effective Antivirus Solutions that was called NOD32 from ESET. It was a very lightweight solution that was coded in assembly language. The developers were based in Slovakia and had to make the best program they could with limited resources. We partnered with them early in 2002 as a reseller. This is a relationship that continues to this day as the Nation’s oldest ESET partner.

While working with Pest Patrol we were testing malicious programs and working with one of the key IT guys at Colby College in Maine. He kept sending new malicious programs for us to test and more times than not ESET would block them. That impressed him so much that he went to work with the company and created their Rip & Replace program that is used to this day.

To find the best solutions we rely heavily on independent test lab tests. People believe in marketing, but we believe in results, and results need to be authenticated by independent test labs.
We continued to add solutions and services to our portfolio over the years. The main requirement is that we use what we recommend to our customers. Here is a list of the services we provide as of June of 2023:

On site and Off site Backups – (For your critical data)
Elevate Unified Business Communications – (Hosted Phone, Online Meetings, Chat, File Sharing)
Hosted Exchange Email Server – (Freedom from managing and maintaining an email server)
Email Filtering – (Another layer to help protect the most exploited medium)
Web Filtering – (Another layer to help protect the second most exploited medium)
Encrypted Email – (Protects personal information when being emailed)