by Felicien | Aug 7, 2018 | Education
The Microsoft Cloud for Government is a comprehensive cloud platform designed expressly for U.S. Federal, State, and Local Governments to meet the U.S. Government’s thorough security and compliance regulations. Microsoft Cloud for Government meets the standards of many government agencies, including FedRAMP, HIPAA, and CJIS, to name a few. It has the flexibility to run in government, public, or private clouds with an integrated open platform. Microsoft Government Cloud was designed to meet the precise requirements of GovCloud.
What does GovCloud mean?
GovCloud denotes all the virtualization products and cloud computing solutions that are established expressly for government agencies, institutions, and organizations.
GovCloud was created to address and administer cloud solutions that meet the needs of IT as well as the operational, financial, and strategic objectives of the United States government.
What Can Microsoft Government Cloud Do for You?
Depending on the type of work you do – and who you work with – Microsoft has a wide range of cloud environments to meet your specific needs. Microsoft provides these three types of government clouds:
1. Government Community Cloud (GCC) for local, civilian, and federal government agencies.
2. GCC High for highly classified government users and those doing business with them.
3. DoD cloud for intelligence agencies.
Let’s take a closer look at Microsoft cloud services and solutions for government.
1. Microsoft Azure Government
For businesses, organizations, and agencies looking for cloud computing services, Microsoft Azure provides a directory of hundreds of different services you can use, including:
· Databases
· Full virtual machines
· File storage
· Services for mobile & web apps
· Backups
In the past, an organization would host their own infrastructure using their own hardware. If more power was needed, they would have to purchase more server hardware. They would also have to pay someone to manage the hardware and pay for the Internet link to serve its customers or users.
Microsoft Azure gives you the advantage of paying for access to a massive pool of computing resources provided by Microsoft instead of running your own hardware or paying for the use of some someone else’s data center. Azure allows you to host email servers, user directories, web servers, databases, virtual machines, file storage servers, and much more.
Microsoft Azure features smaller upfront costs. Creating your own data center can be expensive and requires hardware, software, maintenance, and skilled workers to run everything. The risk of paying too much for hardware and software, or not having enough IT resources for your business is eliminated.
2. Office 365 U.S. Government
Microsoft 365 for US Government Cloud provides a package that includes Windows 10, Office 365, and Enterprise Mobility + Security features for U.S. Government customers. This service also includes versions for SMBs, educational institutions, customer service employees, nonprofits and more.
These services are designed to meet the security and compliance requirements of the United States government. Many agencies and organizations can benefit from using Office 365 for U.S. Government including local, state, and federal governments, as well as Tribal entities. This product will also work well for the defense industry and their contractors.
3. Dynamics 365 Government
Since the U.S. government has unique and ever-evolving requirements of the public sector, Microsoft created Microsoft Dynamics 365 Government that is available to qualified government entities in the United States. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Government involves the protections provided to the government community cloud aimed at four distinct functions: Customer Service, Sales, Project Service Automation, and Field Service.
Dynamics 365 Government offers a number of excellent features to allow users to interact using Skype for Business. It integrates well with other Microsoft enterprise service offerings such as Office 365 for Government.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Government plans are available for the following types of government and private entities:
· United States federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government entities.
· Private entities using Dynamics 365 Government to provide solutions or services to a government entity.
· Private entities with customer data using Dynamics 365 Government to meet the government’s regulatory requirements.
Why Is Microsoft Government Cloud Important?
Organizations who provide services for any type of U.S. government entity, whether it be local, state or federal, need to meet the criteria of The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-145. These stringent standards have been put in place to secure both “customer data” and “customer content.”
Customer data refers to all data, including text, sound, video, or image files, that are provided by a customer through the use of the Online Service.
Customer content denotes a specific subset of customer data that has been specifically created by users, such as content stored in databases. This includes, but is not limited to a customer’s private contact information. Content is commonly considered confidential and should not be shared over the Internet without encryption.
Conclusion
Microsoft Government Cloud gives organizations and government entities the security, power, and peace of mind knowing that they are meeting the strict standards required by the NIST. This, in turn, can prevent hefty fines and penalties, plus it protects consumers and others from global hacking scams.
by Felicien | Aug 7, 2018 | Education
Phishing is just one of many tools in a hacker’s repertoire and happens to be one of their most effective. Through phishing, hackers dangle their bait in front of preoccupied employees who would never dream that their PC could provide an open door for a hacker. That’s why it is so important that employees understand how phishing works, how costly it can be, and what they can do to avoid letting themselves become an unwitting accomplice to a hacker’s attack on their company.
The Nature of Phishing
Phishing involves a malicious entity that sends out emails that look like they are from reputable, well-known companies (maybe even the employee’s own employer) – but these emails are not what they seem.
Sometimes the purpose of a phishing email is to trick the recipient into revealing information such as logins, passwords, or personal information. Other times, phishing emails are used to install malware on the recipient’s computer. Once the hacker behind the phishing attack has succeeded in infiltrating the target system via login information or malware, the damage they cause quickly escalates.
Phishing Can Be Very Costly
So how expensive can phishing be? Well, consider what happened to a bank in Virginia that fell victim to two phishing attacks in just eight months. Their disaster began when an employee received and opened a phishing email which succeeded in installing malware on company computers. The malware was able to use the victim’s computer to access the STAR Network, a site used to handle debit card transactions. Through the STAR Network, the hackers behind the malware were able to steal $569,000 in that one incident alone.
But that wasn’t the end of the matter. Eight months later, even after hiring a cybersecurity forensics firm and following their advice to better secure their system, the same bank was victimized again through another phishing email. This time, the hackers again gained access to the STAR Network, but then used the bank’s Navigator system. Through those systems combined, the hackers were able to credit money to various bank accounts and then withdraw the money using hundreds of different ATMs. Losses from this incident amounted to almost $2 million.
To make matters even worse, the bank’s cyber insurance provider denied coverage and the bank is now forced to pursue a lawsuit to recover their losses.
The Very Real Dangers Of Phishing Attacks
Phishing wouldn’t be so effective if it wasn’t so easy for busy employees to fall victim to seemingly legitimate emails or innocent-looking attachments. The malware that was used to initiate the first attack on the bank discussed in this article was embedded in a Microsoft Word document. Most of us have worked with thousands of Word documents during our careers and have never been victimized by one – but it only takes one time to cost a business millions of dollars.
In this case, once that document was opened, the malware was installed and the group behind it had access to what they needed. The bank in question hired Verizon to investigate both incidents. It was finally determined that the same group of Russian hackers were likely responsible for both attacks.
Common Sense Required
Even the most powerful of cyber security systems is still susceptible to attacks that take the form of phishing or social engineering. As long as people continue to subscribe to the view that firewalls, anti-virus, and anti-malware systems provide all the protection against cyberattacks that a company needs, then successful phishing attacks will continue. Education is one of the forgotten keys to foiling phishing attacks.
Employees need to be taught how to recognize a suspicious email and be given real-world examples of how convincing phishing emails can appear. They need to be encouraged to view both emails and attachments with a critical eye. Employees must also understand that, under no circumstances, is there a legitimate reason for someone to ask for their password.
Another aspect of this type of education is making sure that people realize that the targets of phishing are not C-suite executives or IT technicians, but employees from all levels. Through a connection to the company’s network, any employee’s computer could serve as a launching pad for an industrious hacker’s plan of attack.
Conclusion
Phishing attacks are a reality that must be addressed if a company wants to avoid becoming a victim. These attacks often result in very expensive losses that may not be covered by insurance. While the importance of a rigorous cyber security system is never to be overestimated, neither is the importance of employee education. Too many employees have unwittingly become accomplices in costly cyberattacks because they didn’t recognize a phishing email and never thought they could be the target of one. The first line of defense against phishing isn’t a network firewall, but a trained employee who knows how to recognize a suspicious email or a questionable attachment.
by Felicien | Aug 6, 2018 | Education
Choosing a cloud infrastructure can be complex, even for seasoned IT professionals with vast knowledge of the benefits. There are plenty of perks associated with cloud-based infrastructure, and as the popularity of these services grows, so does the need to understand the similarities and difference between two of the industry’s heaviest hitters: Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.
Both tech giants in their own right, these two cloud-based offerings are two of the most trusted in the game, but which is best for your organization will depend on several factors, which we’ll discuss below.
But First, What Is Cloud-Based Infrastructure?
Cloud infrastructure is among the basic products offered through the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model. It is intricate and carries a variety of components, including virtual servers, virtual PCs, virtual memory, virtual network switches, and virtual storage clusters.
With cloud infrastructure, users are able to create their own unique IT infrastructure, which comes with processing, storage, and networking fabric resources that are easily configured to a company’s preferences.
What Are The Benefits of Cloud-Based Infrastructure?
There are many benefits of cloud structure versus traditional physical infrastructure. For one, it does away with the frequent procurement, maintenance, and capacity planning that comes with the use of physical servers and storage. In addition to a low barrier to entry, cloud infrastructure also boasts low capital requirements and a low total cost of ownership. Typically, cloud infrastructure offers more flexibility in design with its easy set-up and ability to be replaced or deleted, and it is also highly scalable.
What Are The Primary Differences Between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure?
Amazon Web Services made its grand debut more than ten years ago, and it’s gotten progressively better since then. Operating since 2010, Microsoft Azure comes with its own long list of benefits, and while these two both share some similarities in their capabilities, there’s a world of difference between them.
AWS is known for stability, reliability, and an array of solid offerings. It groups IaaS offerings into four categories, which include:
Compute
Storage and Content Delivery
Database
Networking
With AWS, you can monitor your resource usage with innovative management tools like Amazon CloudWatch, and track API usage and user activity with AWS Cloudtrail. Other tools, like AWS Config, can be used for monitoring resource inventory and other changes.
Azure, on the other hand, is divided into categories such as Compute, Data Management, Performance, and Networking. It secures these services utilizing tools such as:
Azure Active Directory
Multi-Factor Authentication
Active Directory Federation Services
Others
Azure also boasts service and integrations to help monitor and alert businesses about their performance metrics and logs.
While cloud infrastructure can be of great benefit to a wide variety of organizations across a number of industries, it’s a solid option for government agencies as well. In fact, both Microsoft Azure and AWS have dedicated areas for Government on their clouds, which ensures that their strict needs for compliance are maintained at all times. Both services are said to be compliant with ITAR, HIPAA, DISA, FIPS, CJIS, and other organization standards.
What Is A Hybrid Cloud?
Making the transition from physical servers to the cloud can be an arduous process for businesses. There are many reasons why organizations may choose to forgo cloud infrastructure in lieu of their own data centers for some aspects of the business. With this, Microsoft has created support for unique hybrid cloud configurations.
Hybrid clouds allow businesses to run cloud applications and deploy cloud-model applications and infrastructure, all with the comfort of your own on-premises resources. This seamless transition between the two is allowing a growing number of businesses to explore the benefits of cloud infrastructure without totally abandoning what is tried and true.
Which Service Is More Affordable?
Although there are many factors that make cloud infrastructure more affordable than its predecessor, the savings aren’t always cut and dry. Many of the costs associated with cloud infrastructure are due to user behavior in addition to workloads. While trying to predict the costs can seem futile, both Azure and Amazon have cost calculators to make the process an easier one.
Will I Need Licensing For Cloud Infrastructure?
When it comes to cloud-based infrastructure, many users are drawn to the simplicity of licensing. With the cloud, users are automatically charged for licenses based on usage. If you happen to work for a big company, chances are you already own a number of expensive licenses. Luckily, not all hope is lost. Moving to the cloud won’t result in wasted investments, as Windows offers license mobility for application servers that qualify.
Cloud infrastructure is saving many businesses time, trouble, and money. If you think your organization is ready to make the transition to the cloud, you’d do well to do your research to determine which of these two possess the tools you need to make the most of a new and improved infrastructure.
by Felicien | Aug 6, 2018 | Education
Google Speed Update Is Now Out.
What Does This Mean for You?
On July 9th, Google began rolling out the Google Speed Update that they first announced in January 2018. So why is Google’s new speed update important for you if you have a business website?
Bounce Rates Affect Search Rankings
According to Google data, a 3-second load time increases the bounce rate by 32%. Bounce rate is an Internet marketing term used to evaluate web traffic. It represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave (“bounce”) instead of remaining to view other pages on the same site. What’s more startling is that if your site takes 5 seconds to load, it can increase your bounce rates by 90%, according to Google. To put it in laymen’s terms, every bounce could mean a prospective customer lost.
Since 2010, Google has determined that site speed is a direct ranking factor. Google sees a bounce as a strike against the site in their rankings. At the time, in 2010, this was a desktop-only search update, but the new update includes mobile sites as well.
Google now suggests that website creators embrace a mobile first attitude to accommodate a large number of people now using mobile devices to browse the web. This means that pages should load in less than a second, as slow sites will pay the price in terms of lower search rankings.
While this new update only affects a small percentage of queries and has no precise sign of percentages, according to Google, it’s still important to investigate how Google’s speed update affects you.
What Pages Will Google Speed Update Affect?
The speed update will only affect the slowest pages; the ones that Google states, “deliver the slowest experience to users”. If you already have a site with pages well optimized for speed, this update is not exact enough for you to troubleshoot ways to lower your load time by milliseconds.
However, if you do have pages with poor load times, the update should cause you to sit up and take notice. Many companies depend on consistent organic traffic to push their business, so poor load times should be a big concern.
How Can You Determine Your Page Speed?
It’s important to determine how fast your site loads and where the holdups are. There are several tools you can use to do this. Here are some helpful tips you can use to measure and troubleshoot website speed and page load times.
Google Page Speed Insights
A good place to start for measuring website load times is Google Page Speed Insights. On this site, type and enter the URL of the page you want to check. You will get a report evaluating page speed and user experience, as well as tips on ways to make your website faster.
Pingdom
Pingdom has a website speed test tool similar way to Google Page Speed Insights, but it gives you a report divided into several sections. These include page analysis, a performance grade and a waterfall analysis, helping you identify the most vital causes of website slowdown and how to fix them. It also does a great job of explaining its analytics and testing using a color-coded system.
GTMetrix
GTMetrix combines information from other online page speed tools. After you enter your URL into the on-screen box, it generates a report highlighting tons of different aspects of website load times, and it grades each one from A to F. This grading system lets you take a peek at the areas of your site that worked well and the ones that need your help. Also, GTMetrix ranks the serious issues first, in order of importance, so you know what needs the most attention.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics shows you which pages are underperforming and gives tips on how to identify significant trends as to whether things are getting better or worse. It does this by including site speed in its reports, which can be found in the Behavior section. The Page Speed Suggestions link shows how individual pages could be improved, allowing you to focus on the most important pages first.
How Do You Fix Website Page Speed Issues?
Once you have identified the holdups on your site, the next move is to fix them. All of the tools listed above make suggestions.
Here is a list of the most common recommendations you find on these tests:
Reduce the size of your images
Refine your hosting
Optimize your code
Use a content delivery network
Compress your site
Use caching
Optimize scripts
Reduce the number of external services you use
After you make the recommended fixes, it’s a good idea to test your site to establish a benchmark and re-test at regular intervals.
Any Other Suggestions?
One last tip that Google gives about the speed update is, “The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.”
Although speed is important, it should not take precedence over the strength of your site’s content. Bad content that loads fast will not rank well. Good content is always going to make your site stronger.
However, if you have great content that is performing well, but your site speed is slow, you might as well take the steps to improve your speed to ensure the best rankings.
by Felicien | Aug 3, 2018 | Education
10 Effective Ways To Communicate In The Workplace
Communication is a very important aspect of any organization because it forms the basis of any work environment. Whether we’re talking about vertical communications between senior and junior employees or horizontal communication between team players, communicating effectively fosters good relations at the workplace. On the other hand, when there is a lack of good communication, there is often a high turnover of employees. You might also see poor work delivery and generally unsatisfactory results.
Here are a few tips to foster effective communication in the workplace.
Establish An Open Door Policy
This is a situation where team leaders make themselves available for consultations, discussions, inputs, contributions, clarifications, and even suggestions. When employees feel that they are always welcome to share what is on their minds, it helps to clear tension. Tension at the workplace leads to poor work delivery.
Conduct Open Meetings
This is a one-on-one kind of meeting unlike when meetings are held at online platforms or communication is done through email. This way, one is able to use other tools of communication such as gestures, facial expressions, tonal variation, and body language to put emphasis on important issues of discussion.
Use Simple Words
Choosing the right words to express a certain point is also important because the meaning could be lost in between. Some words when used in a certain context can easily come across as being offensive. Words used in communication must be simple and easy to understand. If you use hard and complex language you might need to explain yourself and in the process loose meaning during communication.
Listen
Listening is also a very important aspect when communicating. This is because communication is a two-way street. Encourage the team players to open up and air out their concerns. Ask questions. Ask for clarification if necessary. This way, everyone can offer some guidance and also feedback about whether you are making your point or not.
Use Visual Aids
The human mind is more visual and so things seen are more easily remembered than things said. That’s one reason why PowerPoint presentations are so effective. Add tables, images, charts, and graphs. This way your presentation is not boring and it is broken down into small portions for easy understanding.
Be Articulate
This a very important tool used by speakers. If you are not articulate, you end up losing your audience’s concentration and thus you fail to communicate effectively. Articulate simply means audibility, a good mastery of the language, and even a good understanding of the topic of discussion.
Encourage Modern Forms Of Communication
Depending on the information being presented, modern forms of communications such as the use of the intranet, social media platforms, and video conferencing may prove to be more effective than simple open meetings. Some employees would prefer discussions about certain issues to take place on social media platforms. This is also a way of encouraging interaction between employees, which is very important.
Organize And Participate In Social Events
Celebrate important occasions in the organization once in a while by sponsoring employee retreats, end-year parties, team building, and even employee promotions. This could be a good way to reward all employees across the board and also motivate individual employees to work harder in their stations. It offers a good change of pace and provides valuable time to rest and rejuvenate so as to improve productivity.
Orient New Employees
In order to ensure that new employees fit in properly, it is very important to take them through the basic structures of your organization. Introduce them to the other employees and also ensure that they are aware of the communication channels in place. The first day of work can be hectic for anyone. With effective communication, use of friendly gestures, and hospitality, the employer can make a new employee have an easy time settling into their new position. It’s not possible to take new employees through all there is to know about your organization. Be sure to make all your internal training documents available so they can read through these in their spare time. This will make it easier for them to adopt the organization’s culture and within no time they will become effective team players.
Assess Your Internal Communication Strategy
This can be achieved by seeking feedback from the employees. Ask them to forward their suggestions on how to improve the communication strategies in place. Employees know what’s going on at the grassroots level. They may be able to share a fresh point of view.
Conclusion
It is not possible to achieve 100% efficiency when it comes to communication in the workplace. This is simply because of various barriers such as cultural differences, languages, socio-economic differences, and many other obstacles. However, there are some important ways we can all improve the way we communicate with others.
