Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

Everyone in a business has set responsibilities that they need to fulfill, one major one being proper security maintenance. A failure to uphold this responsibility could have serious consequences, including the very real potential of a security breach. It could be argued, in fact, that if you aren’t patching your systems, you’re inviting cybercriminals in.

A small-to-medium-sized business, by definition, isn’t going to have the same resources that are afforded to enterprise corporations, especially where its IT is concerned. However, this doesn’t mean that the SMB is stuck using sub-par solutions. Here, we’ll review a few key needs of any business, and the solutions that an SMB can access to meet them.

For decades, a common quick fix for a slow computer was to run a disk defrag on the hard drive. For most modern computers, however, this common practice can actually harm your computer. Let’s talk about why, and how you can tell.

Is your business prepared for any disasters that come its way? If you haven’t considered which threats could cause your operations the most trouble, you need to devise a strategy that takes all possibilities into account. Here, we’ll help guide you through these considerations.

If you’ve ever received an email without a subject line, chances are you’ve never felt inclined to open it as soon as possible. The email subject line is critical to capturing the user’s attention, as it helps to ensure they understand what they can expect from the email’s contents. Here are a couple of pointers on how you can create more effective email subject lines to increase the chances of them being read.

As a business owner, I’m sure you’ve reviewed your business expenses… but have you ever gone through them and wondered just what it was that you had spent your money on? It’s an understandable feeling to have. The many different IT expenses that show up on the standard invoice can add up quickly, and might inspire you to reconsider how you’re investing them… besides, how much do you really need an IT provider that you never seem to call?

When you think about your data security, what kind of solutions pop into mind? If you’re like many, you probably start thinking about passwords, firewalls, and antivirus, right? While these are all good things to have, you also have to consider the possibility that someone could break into your office and bypass all of these defenses, simply by picking up your server and walking out.

If you use a computer today, there’s a fair chance that you have a Google account. The practicality that if offers with its comprehensive service offerings simply can’t be ignored. However, it is also important that a user’s, whether they utilize it for business or personal use, security isn’t ignored either.

Mobile devices - like smartphones, tablets, and the like - are expected to be used by 2.87 billion people by 2020. That’s a lot of devices, with a good portion of them contributing to business operations. Unfortunately, that’s also a lot of potential security issues if the right preparations aren’t taken in advance.

Microsoft Excel is an extremely useful program for visually displaying data. Having said that, these spreadsheets aren’t exactly the most attention-catching things on their own. Fortunately, Excel has some options built-in that can allow you to display your figures in a more engaging, more expressive, and more meaningful way.

Considering how long we’ve had access to the basic technology, telephones (and proper telephone etiquette while using them) haven’t changed all that much on the surface. What has changed is how the technology fundamentally works, and the options that are available for businesses. Here, we’ll go over some of the options today’s businesses have.

It is no secret that kids these days have more access to technology than any generation before them. While this access can truly help to enrich their lives if leveraged properly, it can also have serious ramifications if it isn’t checked.

As a managed service provider, one of our responsibilities is to ensure that your computing infrastructure is running without issue, and also without unduly interrupting your other employees. To accomplish this, we leverage remote monitoring and management tools that provide your operations with some notable benefits.

Mistakes happen. This is part of doing business with other people, as well as relying on them to make sure tasks are accomplished in a timely manner. If you want to reduce the amount of user error that your organization suffers from, you unfortunately have to assume the worst--that any user will inevitably cause a problem if it’s not addressed properly beforehand. Thankfully, we have some measures you can consider so as not to create unnecessary issues for yourself.

We have almost made it through this year’s hurricane season, but unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that businesses will suddenly be safe again. Many businesses that are impacted by these kinds of disasters are unprepared, and so when push comes to shove, some ultimately close their doors after trying (and failing) to bounce back. We’re going to tell you how to help avoid this outcome for your business the next time there’s a disaster.

Innovation has always been a major part of building better solutions, but some of the most recent trends have been in regard to enhancing security. Adapting to the threat environment is one of the most important parts of running a business, so innovation has been geared toward giving users and organizations alike the security they need. That being said, a lot can change in a short period of time. Let’s take a look at some predictions for how security will change in the near future.

While it may not be fun to consider the worst-case scenario, it is important that you have a plan to ensure that your business will be able to survive when the chips are down. This plan to ensure that your business will continue is called (appropriately enough) a business continuity plan, and needs to address a few things that we will go over here.

The one truth about technology is that it will always break--usually at the most inopportune time. When it does finally kick the bucket, how are you getting rid of it? It’s not as though you can just toss an old server or printer in the bin. Recycling your technology is the most responsible thing to do, but you have to be cognizant of the company you are trusting to dispose of your Compaq Presario from 1997, because they may not be doing what they are claiming to do; or worse yet, they may be trying to syphon data off your old hardware.

Email is a modern classic as far as business solutions are concerned, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an office that didn’t use it in some capacity or another. However, because email is so popular, it has become a favorite attack vector of malicious users. Fortunately, there are some basic practices that will help keep your email account secure and your communications private.

Follow Password Guidelines
As you might imagine, one of the most important, basic ways that you can lock down your email account is to ensure that your password is sufficiently strong. Too often, breach statistics (and similar data sets) reveal that passwords are still overwhelmingly insecure. Pet names, birthdays and anniversaries, and favorite sports teams are used as passwords far more than they should be, as are common keyboard patterns, like qwerty, asdf, and the like. Some minimal social engineering could very easily provide someone with access to an email account they have no business being in.

To counter this, avoid the temptation to resort to formulaic, easy-to-guess password systems - like, for instance, smushing your alma mater’s mascot together with the number of your childhood home. Again, these password conventions are the first things that a cybercriminal will try if they want to get into your email account. Instead, do your best to rely on an as-random-as-possible string of numbers and letters - creating a different one for each of your accounts. This will ensure that your passwords are as strong as possible with the added benefit of protecting the rest of your accounts if one of your passwords is discovered.

Of course, for the sake of pragmatism, is it totally realistic to remember a completely random string of alphanumeric characters for everything that requires a password? For many, it isn’t. That’s why many resort to using, rather than a password, a passphrase. A passphrase takes a sentence memorable to the individual and turns it into a mnemonic device. So, a fan of films by Rob Reiner could take a line from one of his works and create a password from it, like “uRdBS” or “HFSTC” from The Princess Bride, or “UCHTT” from A Few Good Men.

Avoid the Unknown
Once you’ve accessed your email, there are a few ways that you can avoid putting yourself at risk. One very important way is to avoid the links in email unless you have verified that they do, in fact, go to (and come from) where they appear to.

First, where will the included link direct you? Links can be tricky things, which makes them a favorite of cybercriminals to use in emails. If the link is attached to text, you should hover over it and peek at the status bar that pops up before clicking on it. While the text might say that it brings you to the sender’s official webpage, the link could very well actually direct you to a domain that uploads a virus into your system. If the status bar says that you will be directed to someplace that doesn’t look quite right, skip the link.

You also shouldn’t blindly open an email that hasn’t come from a known or verified source, and even that can now be dangerous. There is a tactic that can be used to great effect as a way to snare even the most cybersecurity-mindful targets called email spoofing. As its name suggests, email spoofing is the act of forging an email’s header so that it appears to have come from someone else, likely someone trusted enough that the email will be opened, read, and interacted with.

As a result, it is best to verify the email with the cited sender whenever possible, through a different means of communication. Whether that means a quick phone call or instant message before you open the email, it is better to be safe than it is to be sorry.

What are some other ways that you keep your email from becoming a security risk? Share them in the comments, and make sure you take a moment and subscribe to this blog!

Physical data backup can be a key part of data backup and disaster recovery. Even if you utilize the cloud for your business continuity solution, there can be no discrediting the importance of having physical data backup. A simple physical data backup can be effective under the right circumstances.