Blogs

CJIS Solutions’ Disaster Recovery and Agency Continuity

A frequent attendee of the Central Square Technologies annual convention, Michael Coppola is the founder and president of CJIS Solutions in Little Falls, New Jersey. Michael Coppola has managed the overall activities of the company, ensuring efficient data backup and cloud hosting services to law enforcement agencies.

With the ongoing advancement in technological trends and increase in complexity of the internet networking and virtual environments, it has become necessary for the law enforcement organizations to secure the smooth transfer of existing data to new technological platforms, while protecting data and staying up to date with changes in security policy. A backup of important data is required to guarantee protection and access to these data in cases of unexpected disasters or server failure. CJIS Solutions has solved this area of concern by providing on-premise backup appliance and off-site hardware devices to protect data and ensure their clients can retrieve protected data when they need it.

The CJIS Solutions on-site data recovery hardware is durable and rack-mountable. In addition, the hardware is designed to automatically pull data from the client’s server and devices during the backup process. Also, the appliance does not require initial backup processing from the client’s device resources, thus relieving workload from their operating machines.

Aside from on-site backup of data, CJIS has also enabled off-site replication of the client data, so that the backed up data is also kept in their environment. This is to ensure data are still protected in cases of damage in the client’s working environment. The replicated data can also be retrieved remotely by the client anytime they need it.

The Impact of Ransomware on Law Enforcement Agencies

Providing cloud solutions tailored to law enforcement requirements, Michael Coppola heads New Jersey-based CJIS Solutions. A focus is on responsive hosting and data management services that maintain compliance with Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) mandates. Michael Coppola has extensive experience mitigating the risks associated with malicious malware such as ransomware, which hijacks an operating system and places organizational data at risk.

Beyond the issue of no longer having access to information needed in critical real world situations until the ransom is paid, ransomware impacts law enforcement agencies in many ways. These span CJIS Security Policy violations, internal affairs, media exposure, and potential criminal and civil culpability.

Another major issue is continuity of evidence, with ransomware compromising the evidentiary value of all files that have been encrypted. Doubt arises within a legal setting whether the digital file custodian can, under oath, affirm that encrypted files have not been replaced, altered, or disseminated. This in turn can jeopardize the use of the data for evidence in courts of law.

What to Look for in a Law Enforcement Cloud Provider

Based in New Jersey and with an extensive leadership background in law enforcement, Michael Coppola manages CJIS Solutions and provides cloud hosting and data management services. In an officer.com article, Michael Coppola described the importance of police departments carefully vetting their cloud provider.

The “first and foremost” consideration, for security and liability reasons, is whether the provider is Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) compliant. The firm should also maintain a demonstrated track record of adhering to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Guiding Principles on Cloud Computing.

Because law enforcement is not in the hardware or IT business, the provider should know law enforcement from top to bottom. In serving the public interest at a foundational level, law enforcement is unlike any other industry and requires many special operational considerations.

Another aspect of the equation is that providers offer around-the-clock responsiveness to ensure that assistance will be available when it is needed most. The provider should also know its client’s technology and have the ability to work with CAD/RMS companies and other third party vendors in ensuring a seamless transition to the cloud.

Understanding Advanced Authentication Pathways for User Access

As CJIS Solutions president, former New Jersey police officer Michael Coppola provides Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) compliant “cop simple” cloud computer services that meet the needs of police and sheriff’s departments. Writing in officer.com, Michael Coppola addressed the topic of Advanced Authentication (AA) and the ability to access Criminal Justice Information from a portable device or desktop computer.

The days in which password and username, or Something You Know, were sufficient to securely authenticate a user are in the past. This not only has to do with human fallibility, but unsecured website connections and viruses that enable hackers to record keystrokes and capture what is typed. Another threat is software that generates thousands of password combinations each second, until the right one is secured.

AA adds the element “Something You Have” as a requirement for user access and typically involves a 2 Factor Authentication process. The method involves initially logging into a system using username, PIN number, or password. This is followed by a one-time-use only passcode that is delivered via a secondary method, such as a USB device or smartphone.

Another AA route is through risk-based authentication, which brings together multiple factors as part of a collective calculation that decides a user’s access pass/fail rating. For example, the factors may be username and password, as well as five challenge questions and computer forensic information such as the geographical location of the device.

The Use of Toughbooks among Law Enforcement Marine Units

New Jersey entrepreneur Michael Coppola is the founder of CJIS Solutions, through which he developed the first ever hosting service that is Criminal Justice Information Services compliant and able to meet law enforcement needs. In a video featured on officer.com, Michael Coppola evaluated the Panasonic Toughbook and its benefits in various situations while chief of police with the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Department.

A semi-rugged 2-in-1 laptop and tablet, the 14-inch Toughbook combines an innovative modular design with battery life extending to 40 hours. As Mr. Coppola described it, the Toughbook made a significant difference in a number of settings, including outside the patrol car. As a highway agency, “being out in the elements” is a major part of the job, and the rugged devices also proved themselves in use while on vessels with marine policing units.

Regardless of whether the Toughbook was “bounced around,” dropped, or got wet, it never stopped functioning. Vessel checks, vessel stops, and critical infrastructure checks could all be completed without issue. Tablet mode was particularly useful, as the data could be entered on the device while on a moving boat.

The next generation hybrid Toughbook 20 and 33 models were particularly valued, as they could seamlessly transition from laptop mode in the vessel cabin to tablet mode when responding to an incident outside on the boat.

CJIS Solutions Ensures Security Policy Compliant Data Destruction

Michael Coppola presently resides in Totowa, New Jersey, and is the founder and president of CJIS Solutions. As president of the organization, Michael Coppola oversees the company’s operations, growth strategies, and sales of critical technology and data management options, including data protection and destruction services.

CJIS Solutions provides a data destruction service that is fully compliant with the CJIS Security Policy, which states that law enforcement agencies are required to destroy specific forms of media. Previously, agencies had to either hire outside vendors to destroy their data or find a way to address the issue of data destruction themselves. CJIS Solutions ensures your organization remains CJIS-compliant throughout the data destruction process, and will retrieve your agency’s drives to have them destroyed by CJIS’s vetted personnel.

Offering a reliable and trackable data destruction process, CJIS solutions documents the receipt of your items until they are physically destroyed, and can also provide a video copy that documents the destruction of the files. Data destruction services are available for laptops, personal computers, servers, cell phones, tablets, and any other data-containing device.

CJIS Compliant Cloud Hosting for Police Departments to Save Money

The founder and president of CJIS Solutions in New Jersey, Michael Coppola draws on an extensive background in law enforcement with a forward-focused consulting firm. In an article published on officer.com, Michael Coppola posed the question “Do you think like a police (or sheriff’s) department…or like a successful business?”

With many law enforcement administrators facing a “do more with less” mandate today, cutting waste is a budgeting imperative. Technology outlays are one of the areas in which significant cost savings can be achieved without sacrificing capacities.

For many police departments, in-house IT capacities span multiple and often redundant switches, firewalls, internet connections, and storage. Placing this data in a hosted environment is complex and disorganized, with troubleshooting inefficiencies a continuous cash drain.

One major area of potential savings is to be found in implementing cloud based solutions that are Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) compliant and scalable from the get-go. The benefits of such cloud providers include doing away with the necessity of maintaining expensive hardware that needs to be upgraded and replaced every few years. More than that, hosted solutions boost efficiency and provide staff members access to data resources from anywhere, regardless of physical location. This is important both because of the geographically diffuse nature of law enforcement work and the assurance that data is backed up and in order in case of emergencies such as natural disaster or evacuation.

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