by Felicien | Aug 30, 2017 | Education
Natural Disasters Can Have Devastating Impacts on Business – How Can Local Companies Prepare and Bounce Back?
Natural disasters, like hurricanes and tornadoes, can be devastating to any business. Loss of power, damage to the office and/or network and even damaged or stolen computers are just some of the issues that business owners must consider when facing a potential natural disaster. Natural disasters come in many shapes and sizes, and with Hurricane Harvey recently taking hold of Houston, many professionals across the country are looking at their own levels of protection and preparedness, wondering what impacts they might experience should disaster strike.
{company} wants to brainstorm the best ways for professionals to prepare for disaster and protect their resources and livelihood. How should business owners prepare? What considerations should be made? What are the best options for support and consultation? In the worst-case scenario, how does a company bounce back from a disaster after it’s happened? Let’s look at some of the critical questions companies should ask themselves when preparing for and responding to a devastating natural disaster:
- Where is my business data being stored?
- Is it stored in more than one location?
- If back-ups are in place, how often have I tested backups and how do I know they will work effectively? Who monitors the backups?
- Who notifies me if there is a failure?
- If back-ups are not in place, how much does data backup cost?
- Remember to make cost considerations for downtime and data loss if disaster strikes a network with no back-ups.
- Are backup and disaster recovery services something I can handle internally or should I seek out consultation from an experienced Managed Services Provider (MSP)?
- If disaster strikes, how long can my business survive without functionality? An hour? A day? A week?
How quickly do I need to be back in action?
Make sure that you understand the difference between backup and data recovery – there is a difference. Backup is where you make copies of your data onto the cloud or external drive to be kept offsite in case of a disaster or other catastrophic event. Having the right data recovery system means you have a strategic plan in place to have your data recovered and productivity reinstated when responding to a disaster.
You don’t want recovery to go wrong or to lose the data again, so it’s often a great idea to seek consultation and support from an experienced IT service provider. IT professionals can help ensure that both backup and recovery plans are implemented seamlessly. However, no matter how much support or assistance a business seeks out, business owners still must play an active part in both preparing for and responding to disasters. At the end of the day, no one knows the layout of their company like the team that runs it. It falls on the business owner to consider the big questions like:
- Do you have secondary suppliers?
- How will vendor relationships be affected in the case of disaster?
- Are important documents secured?
- Are company lifelines protected?
- How will you contact employees when disaster strikes? Is there a disaster-response protocol in place?
- Are computers, modems, and servers turned off and as safe from harm as possible?
With so many considerations to make, business owners can often feel overwhelmed when trying to get prepared or trying to restore operations. The worst thing for professionals to do is avoid the stress altogether and put off disaster recovery planning. {company} has created a list of the TOP 3 rules business owners should follow when considering disaster response plans:
FIND A GOOD IT SERVICES COMPANY
Some small businesses think that they can save capital and take care of issues internally by hiring an in-house IT guy instead of an MSP. Depending on the scope of the business, for some, this may be a suitable option. However, for businesses unsure of where to start or looking for iron-clad reliability, connecting with an MSP is the safest bet. Even if it isn’t feasible for a company to take on fully-managed IT services, an MSP can offer strategic insights to put professionals on the right track.
In addition to their strategic experience and expertise, most MSPs can offer cloud storage to store business data as well as a comprehensive disaster recovery service should a company go down during a big storm. Beyond storage, an MSP can offer unparalleled support to help get company resources restored and running after a disaster. Lastly, for what it’s worth, an MSP can probably get productivity restored a lot faster than Bob in accounting, who has also been taking on IT issues as they arise.
SETUP A SECURE BACKUP IN THE CLOUD
Setting up secure backup solutions ensures that company data is replicated safely in an online storage location. Ideally, data should be backed-up in more than one place, like the cloud AND an off-site physical location. Regardless of where you store your data, the golden rule of backups is to never keep your data stored in the same place as the originals.
If your area is prone to hurricanes or tornadoes, then it might not be a bad idea to back up your data in the second server outside your geographic location. If original data is lost and local back-ups can’t be accessed due to storm conditions, it’s incredibly strategic to have data sitting in a safe, out-of-town, storage space where it can be retrieved without jumping over hurdles.
TEST EVERYTHING TWICE!
This third rule is perhaps the most important. The last thing a company wants to hear after a disaster is that online backups didn’t work or that your resources simply won’t rebound after a power failure. Testing the reliance of backups and executing “disaster recovery drills” is critical to ensuring a company’s data will be accessible and their recovery plan will be executed correctly. Never assume that everything is safe and functional. Test backup and disaster recovery methods frequently and any reported issues should be addressed and rectified immediately.
The cost of business interruption can be devastating if a business is unprepared. With images of Hurricane Harvey all over the news, {company} wants local businesses to know that if and when disaster strikes they are never alone. {company} has the experience, resources, and strategies available to help local business owners get prepared for impending disasters or rebound from the devastating impacts.
Don’t wait for disaster to strike. Reach out for consultation and help from {company} at {phone} to see what they can do to prepare your business for disaster or bring your business back from the brink.
by Felicien | Aug 28, 2017 | Education
Promote Collaboration.
Collaboration is and will always be one of the cornerstones of a business’ success. Despite this, many workers believe their organization doesn’t promote collaboration.
Do you?
As a small business owner, one of the most powerful tools you have is your workforce. This has less to do with individuals and more to do with how everyone comes together to form something that’s much more than any one person could be. Collaboration is the only true way to make this happen. It’s also something that’s worth your time and effort to do for a number of important reasons.
Collaboration Provides Inspiration.
In an environment where people are free to meet and communicate, you’ll have more than a range of different voices—You’ll have a situation where employees inspire one another, share better ways of doing things, offer new strategies, and so much more.
When inspired, employees are more productive, feel free to think outside the box, and push themselves and others to do better. It also provides a sharing of ideas that have the potential to save time and money.
It’s the linchpin for your ongoing success—Which is why empowering your workforce with the tools necessary to make collaboration as easy as possible is, and will always be a step worth taking.
Collaboration Fosters Networking.
To build alliances, it’s important to seek out others with common interests. This is paramount for an entrepreneur, and critical to make a business dream a reality.
While it’s true that every new person you meet might not result in a collaborative effort, you never know what the future might hold. Networking is less a sprint and more a marathon to help sustain you for the long haul.
Collaboration Encourages Education.
Anyone who says they “know it all” or “they’ve learned all they can” is sadly overlooking an opportunity for self-improvement. Every interaction that you and your employees have with those outside your business is an opportunity to broaden your horizons. Just as collaboration within your workforce is essential, so too is the willingness to consider differing opinions about “how things can be done.”
Simply put, you never know who might be able to teach you something new, or provide you with a valuable insight you wouldn’t have arrived at on your own. Even people with vastly different skillsets or perspectives are invaluable, because of the differing strengths they bring to the table.
Collaboration Is Cost Effective.
There’s a reason why businesses with two or more founders are far more likely to succeed than those that are the product of a sole proprietor—Collaboration really is that important.
Collaboration can help to save costs when starting a business. As part of a team, you can share development and marketing expenses, and rely on others to fill knowledge and experience gaps. In this way, you can approach new situations from a stronger footing.
Collaboration Enables Problem Solving.
The old saying, “two heads are better than one” is definitely relevant in the world of business, particularly when it comes to problem solving. So much of your day is spent making decisions and trying to overcome obstacles. And, it seems that no sooner are you finished solving one problem, then a new one crops up.
With the strength of numbers on your side, and a team of trusted collaborators, all of this will be much easier. At this point, it’s just common sense—If you can’t get something solved on your own, why not bring in another for some assistance.
Most of you probably do this already. If you have a situation that you just can’t get a handle, or a question that’s left you stumped, what do you do? You probably turn to a trusted friend, partner or mentor for advice. They can act as a sounding board, give you someone to talk to, and help you unlock a different part of your brain so you can tackle the problem from another angle.
When Collaborating, Step Outside Your Inner Circle.
If you’re willing to collaborate outside of your immediate circle the positive effects will be amplified. By bringing in new viewpoints and experiences, you’re likely to accomplish something even greater. The importance of this is something that can’t be overstated.
Your business may have been created in a vacuum, but it certainly can’t stay that way – at least not if you want to grow and evolve into the type of organization that you always hoped to be.
{company} can provide the IT tools you need to promote collaborative efforts in a secure fashion. If you’re in {city} and would like to learn more, don’t delay – Contact us by phone at {phone} or by sending an email to {email}.
by Felicien | Aug 28, 2017 | Education
What are Malware Variants and Why Are They So Dangerous?
Malware variants pose new threats to your data security. Find out how they work and why they’re on the rise.
A variant is an improvement on old malware. It combines something old and something new. Variants are a growing threat to business security.
Take a successful piece of Malware like WannaCry, which shut down government agencies and organizations around the world this year. The damage was caused by an old Windows vulnerability that had previously been fixed. However, inadequate company security practices left them open to an attack.
When a piece of malware successfully targets a vulnerability, two significant things occur:
Security experts race to pinpoint what vulnerabilities are being targeted and how they can be patched.
Hackers around the world take note of the success and start investigating the malware for their own use.
Because malware code is typically available from sources like the Dark Web, hackers can tweak it the original version so it will attack different types of data, protect itself more effectively, find new openings to exploit, and more. Each version that’s created and unleashed is a “variant” of the original attack.
Malware can be “patched” the same way it’s done with other forms of software—Weaknesses are removed and old mistakes are corrected. Hackers update viruses and worms so they can overcome new security, and stay a step ahead of white-hat programmers for as long as possible.
Malware doesn’t die when security provides patches to stop it. Variants continue to live on for years into the future, and some of those variants will be even more dangerous than the original attack.
Hacker Crowdsourcing
The original creators of a malware attack release variants over time (most malware is a mishmash of techniques formed over years, so “original creator” doesn’t mean much in this context). A malicious type of crowdsourcing quickly emerges where hackers use their own approaches and knowledge to create a variant, and sell it as a new and improved version of the older malware. That’s why we see a number of variants in the months following a famous hack—Multiple hackers work to improve it and capitalize on the improvements.
Variants Help Old Malware Re-Emerge
Another problem with variants is that they can lie dormant for some time and then spring back to life. This is an unpleasant surprise for security experts. Malware that they haven’t seen in years suddenly comes back, ready to wreak havoc again. This time it’s loaded with the latest tricks and updates. These variants allow for some very old malware to pose a new threat.
An example of this is Locky, an infamous ransomware that attacked in 2016. The attack was put down, and subsequent variants didn’t do much damage. However, in August 2017 security experts noticed a sudden surge in new Locky attacks. The latest software variant was utilizing a new method of infection via clever phishing emails that encouraged the spread of Locky via a suspect download. Locky then got to work locking files and demanding a stupendous $4,000 payment for their release. It’s a good example of what a long-term headache malware can become.
There are a Lot of Variants
Variants aren’t like singular sequels – They are more like an ant queen giving birth to a new colony. Any small change is enough to create a new variant, and with hackers working around the world to enhance their attacks, the stream of variants is more or less unending.
According to AV-Test, there were 143 million new malware samples, and 12 million new variants per month (or 400,000 new variants every day!). Many of these variants are relatively harmless, however, some are much more dangerous. Security experts must find out which these are.
Variants are Increasingly Popular
The quantity of variants isn’t slowing down anytime soon. In the past few years, the number of variants has sharply risen, along with Internet access and enterprising hackers—
27% of all malware variants were created in 2015 alone, a number that’s likely to be surpassed as new data is revealed.
Around five new malware variants are discovered every second.
This isn’t a problem that’s going away anytime soon.
Variants Exploit New Vulnerabilities
The worst types of variants are those that develop new tricks to bypass the latest security measures. Remember the Locky ransomware resurgence we mentioned? It was retooled to show up as an “unknown file.” This wasn’t a problem for security filters that operated on a default-deny basis where any unrecognized file is blocked. However, many businesses didn’t have this stringent protection, so it posed a threat, even if though they were protected from the older version.
You Have to Stay on Top of This
Here’s the bottom line: Malware doesn’t die when security provides patches to stop it. Variants continue to live on for years into the future, and some of those variants will be even more dangerous than the original attack. However, there is good news. Today’s security efforts are more advanced than ever, and even small companies can receive reports about the latest attacks, with options like Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence for O365. It’s time to take use these new tools! Don’t delay.
Want to learn about the latest variants and how we can prevent them from infecting your IT? We can help. {company} provides data and security services to companies in {city}. Call us at {phone} or send us a message at {email}. We’ll get right back to you.
by Felicien | Aug 28, 2017 | Education
If you don’t use HTTPS on your website, it will now be labeled “NOT SECURE” in Chrome.
Even if you haven’t considered using HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol “Secure”) for your business website, you’ve probably seen it before. The history of this security protocol goes back many years to the beginnings of the commercialized Internet – And it’s about to get a big emphasis, thanks to upcoming changes from Google. If you haven’t thought about transitioning your website to HTTPS, now is an excellent time to start making plans. Here’s why.
HTTPS: The Security Format Ahead of Its Time
The HTTPS protocol was developed in the mid-1990s thanks to efforts by companies like Netscape and Spyglass (remember them?). The problem was, at that time, the Internet wasn’t very secure, and exchanging data for commercial transactions (payment and contact info) was a risky business. As a result, organizations developed SSL (secure sockets layer) security, encryption that could be used to verify their website’s authenticity and protect consumer information.
This quickly became a go-to security measure for large online retailers, especially once Microsoft officially adopted HTTPS. Rival protocols battled for a few years, but as SSL continued to evolve, global standards took hold. By the 2000s, HTTPS had become the universal way to protect data and assure individuals that a site was secure.
A Quick History of Google and HTTPS
As the Internet grew in the 2000s, HTTPS slowly expanded beyond commercial sites into other types of websites, including news and service organizations. It moved slowly because internet security was still relatively new. HTTPS was primarily relegated to website data behind logins, or data managed by particularly large organizations.
Google was surprisingly ambivalent about HTTPS for many years. It even refused to index HTTPS pages up through 2013. It didn’t see those pages as an appreciable, easily measured part of the Internet. But this soon changed as Google realized the role it played by encouraging internet security through page rankings, and how it assigned value to online content.
Google algorithm updates focused on improving the quality and safety of the Internet. They added a new algorithm in 2014 designed to factor in secure sites of all kinds. And, for the benefit of users, they started labeling secured sites more prominently in Chrome.
This new algorithm had one primary purpose: It improved rankings for sites that invested in HTTPS security, in real time. This meant that companies could basically get a ranking boost just by switching to the HTTPS protocol. However, there were difficulties in this approach. For one thing, while Google boosted HTTPS rankings, the company (probably unintentionally) made it difficult to change over to HTTPS with Google Webmaster Tools. Plus, the SEO boost that HTTPS provided was minuscule. This led companies to ask, “Well, why bother?” As a result, Google didn’t see the intended growth of HTTPS sites.
Google’s Latest HTTPS Change.
Fast-forward to the end of 2016: Data security has become more important than ever as security threats rise at an alarming rate. Today, Google has decided to take its HTTPS encouragement up several notches with a big upcoming change:
Companies that adopt HTTPS will be designated as “SECURE” on Chrome browsers.
Companies that don’t use HTTPS will now be labeled “NOT SECURE” when users open the site in Chrome. This will apply to all websites without HTTPS, no matter what other security measures they employ.
This change will go into effect in October 2017 – a swiftly approaching deadline.
Google didn’t mention whether or not it would add more weight to HTTPS in its ranking algorithm. They’re under no obligation to tell anyone if they’re changing the algorithm, so this move could easily be followed by harsher SEO penalties for HTTP-only sites.
What Should You Do About HTTPS?
Fortunately, Google is good about giving companies advice on what to do to improve their sites. If you’re worried, the company breaks down the solution into two different steps.
First: Make sure that all forms associated with passwords and credit fields of any kind are provided via the HTTPS protocol. That means the entire page at the top-level must be HTTPS, as well as any iframe inputs. Don’t make the mistake of simply searching for, and converting all your iframes: Google specifically says this won’t work – you need to make the entire page HTTPS to avoid the “Not Secure” warning.
Second: The first step is simply a patch to treat immediate symptoms. Your long-term solution should be to convert your entire site, in all its various forms, to HTTPS. The “Not Secure” warning will still show up on other pages without HTTPS. Customers may be less likely to notice it on, say, content-only pages, but it will be there, and you need to get rid of it.
Remember, October 2017 is the cutoff date, so it’s important to make the change to HTTPS if you want to prevent the Chrome warning label from showing on your site. If your site is hosted, look at the services and packages provided by your host. Most will offer an upgrade to HTTPS that allows for a quick site conversion. Check to see if you have room in the budget for this upgrade.
{company} helps businesses in {city} with security updates and data services. Contact us at {phone} or {email} for this, or other IT issues.
by Felicien | Aug 26, 2017 | Education
Nonprofit leaders are seeing how enterprise-level tech can amplify social impact.
See how creative financing can make world-class tech affordable.
Non-profit organizations around the world often have a love-hate relationship with technology. Business leaders can see the value of enterprise-level software for effectively driving their organization forward, but tight budgets can make it exceptionally difficult to justify a large investment in technology. Whether it’s websites, social media, email, driving search results or business process optimization, there are any number of ways that not-for-profit entities can leverage technology to drive growth — which in turn results in an enhanced social impact. However, funding these technology initiatives requires some creative financial structuring.
Hot Tech for Nonprofits
Creating the nonprofit of the future involves strengthening internal management capabilities, with the majority of nonprofits finding success when they’re able to get outside their walls and effectively engage the public with their mission. Not-for-profit organizations define success differently; instead of sales growth, the metric to shoot for could be the number of individuals or families supported or gallons of fresh water provided to a specific locale. High-impact nonprofits have learned that smart technology is critical to their success, and are becoming creative at determining how best to approach these in-depth projects.
From inspiring evangelists by creating a high-performance social media network to organizing thousands of conversations with networking software, nonprofits are finding ways to leverage technology to create community and grow from a grassroots level. Sometimes this technology is very cost-effective, but customized computing requirements often mean that not-for-profits have all the challenges and complexities of an enterprise-sized organization with only a small fraction of the budget.
Levels of Complexity
Today’s technology integrations require a high level of complexity and personalization, and managers in the nonprofit sector may struggle to balance support of an aging infrastructure with pushing the envelope towards the most impactful technology options available in the marketplace. Many technology leaders have found that by outsourcing ongoing, low-level technology tasks their teams are able to focus more of their energy on solving business challenges creatively and in a way that will help the organization to continue to grow their impact on the world.
As nonprofits scale up their digital operations, it’s likely that services that have been managed internally — such as website hosting, Exchange servers or email hosting and server upgrades — may be falling by the wayside and causing operational challenges that reduce overall organizational efficiency. When this happens, the impact may be much greater on a lean-running not-for-profit than in a corporation, where there’s likely more redundancy.
Financial Challenges
While many nonprofits start with a shoestring budget, technology needs and budgets grow as the organization scales. However, technology investments can often be a difficult sale — especially when an organization is actively looking for ways to grow services to the community. Nonprofit technology leaders need to be able to make the pitch that the tech investment will support and further the overall mission of the organization. One of the best ways to do this is by quantifying the opportunity cost of not making the technology investment: fewer potential donors reached, reduced organizational effectiveness, or operational inefficiencies that can be resolved through smart tech investments.
Budgeting within the nonprofit sector can be quite challenging, too. Once the decision has been made to go in a specific direction, then the dance for funding begins. Is there a small budget surplus that allows for a one-time purchase, or is the operational budget strong enough to support ongoing services and maintenance fees? When IT leaders work closely with vendor partners to define which investments provide the greatest ongoing value to the organization, it’s often possible to avoid nasty financial surprises. It’s critical to the success of nonprofits to form long-term partnerships in the technology sector with organizations that can provide best-practices and be a true partner in the drive to take advantage of the latest tech advances.
Role of Managed Services
While working with a managed service provider is not a new concept, nonprofits have not historically moved in this direction. However, as long-term budgets tighten and leaders clamor for new tools to drive social change, managed service providers are becoming even more attractive to not-for-profit organizations. The rapid pace of technology change can stretch even the most well-staffed organization, and nonprofits have a long history of under-investing in infrastructure costs. Having a collaboration partner allows nonprofit managers the ability to essentially rent technology, providing for quicker upgrades and the ability to be more nimble in their business moves.
Managed service providers are able to quickly scale to meet business demands, with real-time monitoring and security that can provide immediate alerts and a higher level of cybersecurity support. As businesses shift towards the flexibility of allowing employees to BYOD, it is even more important that end-to-end security solutions are available. Finally, the fixed price for technology management allows nonprofits to budget more effectively on an ongoing basis while still having the benefit of regularly-scheduled upgrades for security and functionality that are critical to their success. Quick access to a team of professionals in the event of a physical or cyber emergency, as well as the easy availability of backups, means nonprofits are able to focus on their core competencies instead of on day-to-day technical operations.
Advances in technology offer nonprofits the ability to further their mission; while the managed services sector provides an implementation and ongoing maintenance model that truly works with their flow of business. From cybersecurity to data storage and hosting, finding the ideal mix of services allows your not-for-profit technology leadership to focus on future advances instead of dealing with daily infrastructure challenges that take time and focus away from your core business needs. Contact {company} today at {phone} or via email to {email}. Our {city} professionals will work with you to define the ideal balance that will provide your organization with the technology you need to be successful while creating a budget that will work for business leaders.
