by Felicien | Nov 12, 2019 | Education
4 Reasons Not to Hire Printer Companies
Thinking about saving money on your IT services with a printer company? Learn about the pitfalls and dangers of relying on support from companies without expertise.
Hiring a printer company to take care of your IT services can seem like a great solution. You won’t have to consult with multiple vendors or negotiate multiple contracts. A printer company might even offer to take care of all of your IT services for less than what you’re currently spending. However, there are several reasons why you should not trust a printer company as your single vendor for all of your organization’s IT needs. Although you may pay less, that lower price comes with a higher cost – substandard service and support.
The delivery of substandard service and support from printer companies occurs due to the following:
A lack of experience
An inability to understand the true nature and components of IT services
Inadequate resources directed towards developing IT and IT services
Unstable organizations due to conflicts between printing and IT services
Insufficient Experience
By design, printer companies are specialists in troubleshooting and maintaining two items – printers and copiers. While these companies are experts at providing service on these types of devices, branching out into the world of IT services is not something these companies have done in the past. Even though the staff may have basic troubleshooting, sales, and customer service experience under their belts, they may only have limited experience with the complexities of managing networks.
Lack of Understanding
Since printer companies do not have decades of experience with IT services, there is often a skill and knowledge gap. Without an understanding of and experience with more complex computing devices, troubleshooting skills may be limited. Computing devices, servers, and network equipment are more intricate than printers or copiers. In order to configure, deploy, maintain, troubleshoot, and fix this type of equipment, advanced and interdependent knowledge is necessary. It is far easier for printer companies to overlook the source of a problem with network dependent devices and the network itself simply due to a lack of skill.
Inadequate Resources
Since these companies specialize in printers and copiers, it is more difficult to devote internal resources to IT services. This means that there may be little put into research and development, training staff on the skills they need to support IT services, and a lack of support staff designated to managing IT services for clients. In other words, printer companies tend to overpromise and underdeliver when it comes to supporting services and devices outside of printers.
Instability
When printer companies try to branch out into IT services, it can cause internal conflict. Staff that is managing printers and copiers may not be able to keep the company afloat, due to the fact that the company is not reinvesting what it should into its printer expertise. Consequently, both sides of the business begin to suffer, and animosity develops. Leaders within the company may decide to cut out IT services altogether, leaving clients without support.
by Felicien | Nov 11, 2019 | Education
Why Organizations Need to View IT as Central to Success and Profit
Think Your IT Department is Simply There to Make Repairs and Solve Minor Problems? Find Out Why It Should Be the Center of Your Organization’s Long-Term Strategy
Information technology (IT) is more than a critical function. A well-run IT department should be integrated into an organization’s overall strategy. In fact, a comprehensive IT department should be at the center of organizational strategy. Within a firm, IT can include the following:
End-user computing devices
Networks and network infrastructure
Operating systems
Software applications
Data storage
Telecommunications
Internet service
Telephone systems
Using IT As a Strategic Asset
According to leading industry experts, even when leaders are aware of what constitutes the IT department’s purview and assets, there is a tendency to overlook IT’s potential. Yet, technology assets can be leveraged to ensure the organization runs as smoothly as possible. When an IT department and its assets are finely tuned, leaders can focus on identifying opportunities and innovative technical solutions. This includes innovative technical solutions that can be either used by the organization or leveraged by it. Consequently, the IT department and its assets become more cost-effective. With the right type and degree of investment, IT can help turn a profit for the firm.
Centralizing IT
When elevating IT and its assets to the center of organizational strategy, it is crucial to think about three areas. Those areas are:
Income
Growth
Strategic planning
IT can generate income through innovative solutions, but also by streamlining internal costs. This is usually achieved through the automation of processes and by increasing the efficiency of processes. Growth goes hand in hand with innovative solutions and increasing the efficiency of internal processes. By being able to meet client needs and drive market behaviors, an organization can use IT to establish a competitive advantage. Establishing and maintaining a competitive advantage to stimulate long-term growth is an essential part of any strategic plan.
Reasons to Leverage IT
The number one reason why it is important to leverage technology-related assets is due to the industry’s pace. Changes in technological advancements and capabilities happen at lightning-fast speeds. Without proper strategic planning, analysis and leverage of internal IT capabilities, an organization can simply not expect to succeed. IT can not only be a means of survival, but a point of differentiation. Technical expertise and advantage can reduce costs, create markets, better meet client needs, and make the entire organization more efficient. Neglecting IT or viewing the department and its assets as a necessary evil can backfire as others find ways to make technology generate revenue.
by Felicien | Nov 11, 2019 | Education
November 11th is Remembrance Day…
A day where we stand united to honour those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.
And for all they’ve done, we say thank you.
Thank you to those who placed themselves in harrowing situations in the name of protecting our freedom.
However you’re planning on spending the day, remember to take a moment to think about these exceptional men and women.
by Felicien | Nov 8, 2019 | Education
Weak Points in Cybersecurity Hackers Love
Do you know where hackers are most likely to gain access to your private data? Discover the favorite entry points and was how you can stop them.
It seems like every week that there are reports of another massive data breach hitting the news. The number of users affected is almost unimaginable. Cybercriminals accessed 983 million records at Verifications.Io and 885 million records at First American Financial Corp., alone. Its scary stuff, but what’s even more terrifying is the majority of compromised companies never show up in the papers.
During the first half of 2019, there an average of 30 data breaches per day. So, how are hackers stealing so many records so quickly? They have their ways.
Four Places Cybercriminals Love to Steal Your Data From
1. Old Websites. The internet is a graveyard of abandoned and unprotected half-built sites which are the favorite hunting grounds for hackers who are on the lookout for easy and virtually risk-free hacking opportunities Although it is true that most of these sites contain nothing more than a few email addresses and dummy accounts, every so often, a cybercriminal can strike goldmine. On occasion, legacy and demo sites for large businesses are still connected to the company’s servers and provide a nice backdoor to confidential data.
You can protect your business by completely removing old sites from online and limiting which sites have access to your servers.
2. Free Code. Many sites offer free code snippets that you can use for free on your website. All you have to download it and you can save hours of time and thousands of dollars. Good deal, right? Well, have you ever heard the Japanese saying, “There is nothing more expensive than something free?” When it comes to the code for your website, it is a motto you should take to heart. Using someone else’s free code for your company’s website could be the most expensive mistake you ever made. While clean, secure code for free does exist online, the majority of what you will find is usually poorly written, and as solid as a sieve.
Stop hackers from using embedded backdoors in public code by not using it for mission-critical websites.
3. Unsecured Cloud Storage. Everyone is talking about the benefits of cloud computing and cloud storage, and it seems like businesses can’t wait to make the jump to working on the cloud. But before trusting your company’s confidential data to any third-party cloud storage solution, you better make sure the vendor has tight security. Many big-name companies like Facebook and Microsoft forgot to ensure their third-party vendors had the proper security, and the results were embarrassing and costly data breaches.
Carefully choose who you use for outsourcing and take an active role in protecting your data, even if it is hosted on a third-party’s server.
4. Unprotected APIs. Does your business use custom apps that utilize APIs? If the answer is yes, you may be exposing your confidential data to hackers without knowing it. While in-house app developers spend a great amount of time safeguarding your app itself, from exploits, the APIs you are using from an outside developer to power your app may be a gaping hole in your defense.
Review the end-user agreements for the APIs you use and conduct penetration tests to check for vulnerabilities.
In the end, protecting your data and the confidential information of your customers falls on your shoulders. No one can be perfect when it comes to online security, but every single business can do better.
by Felicien | Nov 6, 2019 | Education
Given how medical providers struggle with ensuring their data is safe, something had to be done to offer guidance. Read this blog about a new cybersecurity plan.
The picture archiving and communication system (PACS) is an ecosystem that stores images that are gathered from medical imaging technology. This ecosystem offers a convenient platform where medical providers can store and access these vital images. However, this ecosystem is vulnerable to cyberattacks.
In order to provide protection for this confidential data, the NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence recently released proposed guidance to assist healthcare delivery organizations with securing their picture archiving and communication systems. In addition, they also released a project aimed at providing an example solution for building stronger security controls.
The guidance material called, Securing Picture Archiving and Communication System, includes aspects that help health organizations design an approach, architecture, and security elements for the PACS ecosystem, including easy-to-follow how-to guidance.
The Evolution of Digital Capabilities
As image-making technologies have taken a gigantic leap over the last decade, now confidential data and vital imaging are uploaded in a digital format by providers across the globe. This adds a huge level of convenience and gives providers the ability to easily store and share this content. The systems that house these images and data are typically stored in image-intensive areas like the radiology department and are also uploaded to each patient’s electronic health record (EHR).
But as this process adds easier accessibility and organization in a digital format, including limiting the time to takes for doctors to make a diagnosis, the technology has also opened the door to more cyber threats. And many medical providers struggle with auditing user accounts and monitoring them properly to suspect any abnormal behavior. Medical providers also struggle with ensuring that data moves safely across the network and also with monitoring access by its users, which can lead to a drop in system performance.
Goals of the Project
With the project set forth by the NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, their goals include the following:
Identify who uses the PACS systems
Determine the process between the user and system
Perform a risk assessment
Identify appropriate mitigating security tools
Design an example solution
The ultimate goal here is to assist provider organizations with reducing the chance of a cyber breach or substantial data loss, while also minimizing any disruptions with their systems. This also puts emphasis on enabling quick access to imaging and important data without this confidential data becoming vulnerable to an attack, which also offers peace of mind for patient privacy.
Broad Capabilities Equals Broad Threat Landscape
So what makes these systems so vulnerable? This occurs from the broad capabilities of this technology. The PACS connectivity of the ecosystem works with a variety of different technologies that include medical imaging devices and other systems that help to manage and maintain archives of medical images. The role of PACS is to interact with medical imaging devices, connect with other clinical systems, and allow users from multiple locations to review images that lead to faster and higher quality patient care.
With such a broad spectrum of capabilities involved with the PACS ecosystem, the means a broad landscape for threat.
