by Felicien | Jul 28, 2017 | Education
The technological resources that your small business uses on a daily basis are more than just “tools” in the traditional sense. In many ways, they’re the very foundation from which your 21st-century operations are built.
IT is how you communicate with your clients, guaranteeing that you can perform the type of work that meets their needs and exceeds their expectations.
It’s how your employees communicate with one another, and come together to form something much more powerful than any one of them could have on their own.
It’s also how you address the challenges of today while getting ready for the demands of tomorrow—Carving out a competitive advantage for your business that will carry you through into the next decade and beyond.
However, none of this makes any difference if your subpar IT service company is killing your chances.
Many IT service companies get a low score from their clients. Lengthy response times, reactive approaches to technology, excessive turnover rates and high prices with poor value are all among the many factors that small businesses have just “learned to deal with.” But you shouldn’t!
Here are a number of reasons why you should replace your subpar IT service company with a competent one.
They’re Not the Only Ones Who Know Your Network.
One of the major reasons small business owners are hesitant to look for alternative IT service companies is the fear that they won’t be able to find another that knows their network like their existing provider does. Regardless of the quality of your relationship, you can’t argue that it’s taken time to build. Third-party representatives have come in and examined your system, what you need, and what you’re trying to do. It will be difficult, if not next to impossible, to start all over again. Right? Wrong.
In truth, your service provider should be documenting every aspect of your IT infrastructure in detail. Diagrams, passwords and asset documentation should all be readily available to you. All of this information can be turned over to your new provider, giving them an excellent starting place to make your IT foundation stronger than it was before.
Your IT Isn’t as Unique as You Think It Is.
We’re not saying that your business isn’t unique in the marketplace. Undoubtedly, there are things you do that nobody else can match — This is likely why you have such a strong relationship with your customers in the first place.
Luckily, this doesn’t extend to your IT infrastructure. Sure, things were built with your specific business in mind. However, a true IT expert will have seen it all before. Competent network engineers are ready for anything and everything they encounter.
The Transition Won’t Be as Tough as You’re Anticipating.
High-quality IT service providers are used to taking over for competitors who aren’t living up to their customers’ expectations. While it’s true that there is always the potential for some risk, it’s nothing that good short- and long-term planning can’t resolve. Remember that you’re bringing a new company into the fold—So leverage the power of their experience to your advantage.
The Benefits Outweigh Any Potential Disadvantages.
All of this gives way to the most important factor of all—the fact that the benefits will far, outweigh any perceived negatives you may be worried about. Sticking with your subpar service company isn’t just killing the return on investment for your IT assets, it’s literally stifling the growth of your business.
It’s making it harder, not easier, to do the essential work you’re responsible for.
It’s causing you to lose hours of productivity due to unintelligent infrastructure design and unnecessary catastrophes like server failure.
It’s causing you to play catch-up because you’re being reactive rather than proactive.
A truly great IT service company is more than just a solutions provider. They’re a partner in your business success. They’re not just proactively maintaining your IT environment, repairing small problems today before they have a chance to become bigger and more expensive ones later—They’ll act as your virtual CIO, providing you with the expert insight and advice you need to align IT with your long-term strategy.
Absolutely none of this will be possible if you stick with your subpar service company. If so, you’re hurting your chances of successful growth for your business.
Even though the decision to switch is appropriate, replacing your subpar IT service company can be stressful. Luckily, the hardworking team at {company} is ready to stand by your side every step of the way. If you’re in {city} and would like to find out more about this or other IT related topics, please don’t delay — Contact us by phone at {phone} or by sending us an email to: {email}
by Felicien | Jul 28, 2017 | Education
To say that cyberattacks are dangerous to the health and success of a small business is something of an understatement. According to one study, an incredible 60% of all small businesses close their doors within just six months of a successful cyberattack taking place.
The attack itself can cause an initial shock, but the consequences of the attack are what often cause a business to fail. Getting hit with a cyberattack often creates an environment of confusion and chaos:
What’s the extent of the damage?
What important files were stolen?
Are we in breach of any confidentiality laws, or do we have compliance issues to worry about?
Who needs to be notified?
What will this do to our reputation?
Was any of our intellectual property stolen in the attack?
The answers to these questions are almost uniformly bad, particularly in a situation like a ransomware attack. Thankfully, these types of situations can be avoided—provided that you’ve made regular, successful backups a priority.
What Is Ransomware?
Ransomware is a particularly nasty strain of malware that targets both individual computers and entire networks. According to a study by NBC News, ransomware was a billion-dollar enterprise in 2016.
Most of the time, ransomware attacks occur after you or one of your employees accidentally downloads and executes a rogue computer program from a source that you thought was legitimate. Maybe that email from a client wasn’t from a client at all – it just looked that way at first glance. The fact that you didn’t have time to dig deeper is what hackers are depending on.
When a ransomware virus executes, it immediately encrypts all data on the infected machine. You are then greeted with a screen outlining what has happened with a promise to return that valuable information if you pay a large sum of money. The problem is that these costs can often be quite significant and, even if you do pay, there’s no guarantee that the hackers will actually turn over the data they’ve compromised.
The end result is that everything on your system is gone in an instant. All those important projects you were working on, all of those documents that took months or years to create. You’re suddenly back at “square one.”
The Problem with Failed Backups
Backups, are the one hope you have after a ransomware attack—If you’ve been keeping up with them, that is. One of the most essential best practices for backing up documents and other mission-critical data isn’t just to make sure that it happens, but that they were successfully completed and stored in a secure, off-site location.
The problem is that far too many small-business professionals see backups as a burden, and something they really don’t have time for. If you get hit with a ransomware attack and your backups were stored on the same machine, bad news — They’re not going to help you. If you get hit with a ransomware attack and you haven’t backed up in months, bad news — You’ve just lost a huge amount of progress, and potentially ruined your reputation with clients.
Note: According to a study conducted by Storage Magazine, over 34% of companies don’t test their backups on a regular basis to make sure they actually completed successfully. Of those that do, 77% found that tape-based backups often failed to restore for a wide range of different reasons. Perhaps the most damning statistic of all is that according to Microsoft, 42% of attempted recoveries from tape-based backups in the past year have failed entirely.
The Best-Case Scenario
The key to not to just hope your backups will never fail. It’s to take realistic, effective steps to mitigate risk failed backups.
Backing your data up to a secure, off-site location is the best-case scenario in the event of a ransomware attack. For the sake of argument, let’s say that your work computer was hit with a ransomware attack. You did everything you could to prevent it, but somehow it slipped through. You were quick, but the attacker was quicker. It happens.
With quality backups on a separate machine that’s been tested and re-tested, recovery is a foregone conclusion. All you have to do is service the machine in question to totally remove the virus, which will usually involve the IT equivalent of a factory reset. Then, you can restore those quality backups onto the machine and pick up right where you left off.
You might lose an afternoon of productivity, but you’re not going to lose documents or other data that do the type of damage from which your small business might never recover.
But again, none of this is possible if you aren’t prioritizing your backups in the first place. In the vast majority of cases, your backups are your first and best line of defense against today’s cyberattacks that are getting more sophisticated all the time.
Any step that you can take to avoid becoming just another example in a long line of painful situations is a step absolutely worth taking.
Ransomware isn’t going to disappear anytime soon. If anything, it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. This is why ongoing training and education are so essential. It helps create a much stronger defense against these and other types of threats. If you’re in the {city} area and would like to find out more about this or other IT topics, please don’t delay — Contact {company} at {phone} or by sending us an email to: {email}
by Felicien | Jul 27, 2017 | Education
If you think ransomware was the most sophisticated type of cyberattack, think again. CEO fraud attacks are on the rise, and they may be one of the most lucrative forms of cyber intrusion today.
CEO fraud is the latest form of email-based cyberattacks—And has a 90% success rate.
It occurs when hackers design and send a fraudulent email, pretending to be from the CEO to a member of staff requesting a bank transfer. The transferred money ends up going into the criminal’s bank account (typically in a Chinese or Hong Kong bank.) Email is the most common method of attack, but now text messaging is also being used.
CEO Fraud Attacks: What You Need to Know
Because of their success, CEO fraud attacks are becoming more frequent.
In the first quarter of 2016, an individual was attacked every 20 seconds. By the third quarter, that number had jumped to every 10 seconds.
Businesses aren’t faring much better, with attacks occurring every two minutes in quarter one of 2016, versus every 40 seconds in quarter three. All told, the number of attacks tripled year over year. This has led to the rise of what some experts are referring to as the “ransomware-as-a-service“ model of cybercrime.
CEO-targeted fraud cost businesses three times more than ransomware did over the last three years alone. Cyber criminals made a combined $5.3 billion from CEO fraud attacks over the last few years, as compared to the $1 billion from ransomware over the same time period.
Many cybercriminals have decided that now is the time to “go big.”
This points to a curious trend in terms of cybercrime, and an emphasis on the “time is money” approach. The logic is that CEO fraud attacks may be less successful in terms of sheer volume, but the payout is potentially much bigger than the average gained during a traditional ransomware attack. As the old saying goes, “go big or go home.”
These numbers also lend credibility to the theory that CEO fraud attacks are more lucrative than ransomware simply because they’re easier to execute. When a hacker develops a new strain of ransomware, they must extensively test it before it can be released. Even in the best-case scenario, a “successful” ransomware attack usually amounts to a few hundred dollars from a few hundred people.
Comparatively speaking, all that a CEO fraud attack would require is some research on a social network like LinkedIn, and a spear-phishing attack. Yes, it’s true that they’re only targeting one person as opposed to many, but the potential payout is so much larger than it’s worth the additional layer of risk in terms of time.
With all that in mind, when someone tells you that there’s a methodology that’s potentially more devastating and lucrative than ransomware, it’s time to sit up and start listening. This is the situation enterprises are facing as CEO fraud attacks increase in number.
Education Is Your Best Defense.
Even though CEO fraud attacks target a specific person, it’s still a good idea to invest in quality training and education for ALL employees because the stakes are so high. Experts agree that financial departments would benefit from additional training on these types of phishing campaigns. If a fraudulent email headed for the CEO asks for a funds transfer, the financial department can detect and potentially eliminate it before the email has a chance to reach its target.
Other Necessary Forms of Defense
As always, keeping software regularly patched and updated is also of mission-critical importance. Just a few short weeks ago, WannaCry made headlines all over the world. While focusing on new technology to stay ahead of the hackers is always a big part of remaining safe, patching, maintaining and ultimately protecting what you already have is just as essential.
And remember, while firewalls and antivirus software are important, they may not be enough to get the job done on their own. Data collection and analysis will also play a huge role in ensuring that your business doesn’t wind up a statistic in cybercrime reports next year.
Other Cybersecurity News
A new type of WhatsApp phishing attack is currently making its way across Europe. WhatsApp is a popular messaging service that offers true end-to-end encryption, resulting in business users all over the world embracing it.
Hackers are using WhatsApp advertisements containing malicious code to entice users into downloading spyware. The ad itself is for a $250 coupon and usually involves some offer for a major local retailer in exchange for taking a short survey. Once the rogue software is executed, all the contacts, banking credentials and passwords that it can find are compromised. They are then sold to the highest bidder. When you consider the sheer volume of personal information stored on a phone, this could certainly cause trouble for a victim for years to come.
Always pay careful attention to what you click on with these and other types of services. As always, a little common sense goes a long way in these types of situations.
Regardless of whether you’re talking about ransomware, CEO fraud attacks or some other type of threatening situation, one thing is clear— The key to remaining safe in the digital world is to be proactive at all times. This is why it’s so important to learn about new and existing threats. Cybersecurity is truly one of those situations where the old saying of “knowledge is power” applies.
If you’re in {city} and would like to find out more information about how to safeguard against CEO fraud attacks, ransomware or other cyber intrusions, don’t delay. Contact {company} at {phone} or by email at: {email}
by Felicien | Jul 26, 2017 | Education
For most businesses, technology is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it helps you run your business and remain competitive. On the other hand, updating hardware and software requires ongoing investments in time and money.
Technology is evolving rapidly. Something that’s state-of-the-art today may be woefully obsolete in a year or so. Learning how to use new tools, especially when you’re comfortable with what you’re used to, can be time-consuming and frustrating. Plus, implementing a new infrastructure can be costly and has the potential for major business interruptions.
No wonder so many business owners hold onto legacy systems far longer than they should. But keeping around outdated technology can actually increase costs and decrease productivity.
What Are Legacy Systems?
A legacy system is any piece of hardware or software that was once widely used but has long since been replaced with something newer. Age doesn’t necessarily make a solution a legacy. It could be regarded as outdated because a newer version has been released and the vendor no longer supports the system.
However, when looking to update technologies, one of the biggest concerns most business owners have is how to justify the cost. The question then is—What’s the cost of keeping outdated technology?
The Trouble with Outdated Technology
Installing a new piece of software in a business setting isn’t like installing one on your home computer. You need to move data from one platform to another, and train people to use the new solution. These are understandable concerns. However, it’s also true that the benefits of replacing outdated technology far outweigh the risks of keeping a legacy system.
The cost of maintaining legacy systems can quickly become burdensome to a small business trying to keep budgets under control. Experts agree that the ability to provide timely IT solutions to an organization that uses an older, legacy infrastructure is essentially impossible. Make no mistake – there will come a point where you’re spending more money to maintain your legacy systems than you would if you had upgraded everything when you should.
Decreased security is a huge concern when it comes to using legacy systems. Technology companies combat this problem by constantly releasing security updates for the at-risk software. However, once a legacy system is no longer supported, you won’t receive security patches from the developer. Plus, backup and disaster recovery become insurmountable challenges. You’ll never be able to properly safeguard the work you’re doing today, and you’ll always live with the worry that data loss might be just around the corner.
If your business is under stringent regulatory compliance requirements, the cost of outdated technology can have serious repercussions. Compliance standards, like HIPAA, PCI, SOX, and others, require that your technology be supported. This sets you up for fees and penalties if you experience a data breach (which are more likely due to security holes in your legacy system).
And, whether you’re talking about software or hardware, older systems have increased failure rates. This makes system downtime simply unavoidable. The consequences of downtime can be grave for small businesses and you risk losing customers forever if your services are inaccessible. Here are just some of the costs you can occur when your legacy system fails:
Expenses for IT recovery and data restoration (if even possible!)
Dissatisfied customers (who may leave for the competition)
Lost sales
Brand/loyalty damage
Lost employee productivity
Potential employee overtime costs to meet deadlines after the failure
Low employee morale and turnover due to stress
Another problem with using outdated technology is that “old” and “new” technology very rarely work together. Most legacy systems are incompatible with newer systems. It’s essential that software, no matter how old, integrates well with the tools and applications you require to efficiently run your business. And, if your legacy system prohibits you from using new, advanced capabilities, chances are your competitors are. This means you will continue to lose customers and revenue, putting your business’s existence at risk.
Mobility is impaired when using legacy systems. If your employees work in the field, such as with construction, warehouse control, oil and gas production, or logistics, their performance will be improved, and your business more efficient, if they can use mobile devices that connect to your inventory, production and other management software.
If your employees can’t access your legacy software from any mobile or computer device other than your office computers, you’ll, once again, fall behind your competition in terms of performance and revenue. Cloud-based SaaS products outperform any on-premise system.
Legacy systems inhibit business scalability and growth. Can your legacy software support increased production capacity and your company’s growth? As your business grows you’ll have changing technology needs. Your business is constantly evolving, and your software must be able to keep up. If not, you’ll be forced to adapt your business to your legacy system, and this will “stunt” your ability to grow your business. With increased scale and demand, you’ll require better throughput capacity and a completely new IT architecture to manage all your operations.
When you consider all of this, does it make sense to hang on to an outdated system just because you want to save a little money? The answer is simple — It doesn‘t.
If you‘re in {city} and you‘d like to find out if your technology needs updating, or if you have any questions about this article, please contact {company} today by phone at {phone} or by sending an email to {email}. We’re here to help you stay competitive with peak-performing technology.
by Felicien | Jul 26, 2017 | Education
As smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices become a more essential part of our lives with each passing day, the same must become true in terms of mobile security. Viruses don’t just affect desktop and laptop computers – with millions upon millions of iPhone and Android devices in the wild, it makes sense that eventually the attention of hackers would turn towards people on-the-go to do the most damage.
According to one study, there were 1,023,108,267 records stolen from mobile devices in particular during 2014. Not all of this has to do with smartphones that are lost or stolen – another study estimates that an incredible 25% of all mobile devices encounter a security threat each month.
So when a company as big as Apple issues an urgent security update and urges iPhone and iPad owners to download and install it right away, to say that you should listen is something of an understatement. Apple’s recent iOS and MacOS update, released in July of 2017, targets a particularly dangerous vulnerability in the hardware of those devices that you need to be aware of moving forward.
The Story with Broadpwn
Earlier in 2017, security researchers discovered a vulnerability in certain models of Wi-Fi chips that have the potential to bring a device to its knees before a user even realizes that something is wrong in the first place. The exploit is known as Broadpwn and it allows a hacker to execute a malicious piece of code remotely, taking total control of your device through the Wi-Fi chip.
Once Broadpwn has been utilized, a hacker has total control of everything – from the operating system to the central processing unit and everything in between.
What makes Broadpwn particularly nasty (and terrifying) is that all a hacker has to do is get within the range of your device – they don’t actually need physical access to run their code. This means that they could be sitting near you in an airport terminal or could be at the table next to you in a public coffee shop and do just as much damage as they would if they had stolen your device from your pocket if you weren’t looking.
The flaw is estimated to affect millions of Apple and Android devices currently being used by people all over the world. To Apple competitor Google’s credit, they already released a patch for the Android operating system earlier in July. Apple took a bit of additional time because it had to work on unique fixes for both the iOS mobile operating system and the macOS desktop platform.
Thankfully, all Apple software updates are incredibly easy to install. Once your device is connected to a Wi-Fi network (which is recommended in the case of an iPhone in particular because the file itself is quite large), all you have to do is complete the following steps:
Open the “Settings” app on your device.
Navigate to the option labeled “General.”
Tap once on the button labeled “Software Update.”
Wait a few seconds for your device to recognize the newly available update. Tap the button labeled “Download and Install.”
Leave your device connected to a charging cable and wall outlet during this time, as it may take awhile to update.
Once the update has completed, navigate back to the “Settings” app and tap “About.” Confirm that your device is running the iOS 10.3.3 operating system.
If your Apple device is a computer like an iMac or MacBook Pro, the steps to update are even easier. All you need to do is open the “App Store” app and click on the tab labeled “Updates.” Once your computer serves you the update, click “Download and Install.” Your computer will reboot a few times during this process and at the end, you will be free from the danger of Broadpwn.
Apple and Security: What You Need to Know
Apple has always had a reputation for offering very secure devices in both the mobile and desktop worlds. While this is true, the idea that Apple devices “don’t ever” get viruses is something of a myth. This used to be true, but we’re talking about ten or more years ago. Hackers rarely targeted Apple’s desktop operating system, simply because it wasn’t efficient to do so. Not only was Windows a naturally less secure operating system that what Apple was running, but there were also exponentially more Windows computers in use worldwide. It didn’t make sense to spend time writing a piece of code that targeted an Apple device if the chances of success were low in the first place.
However, thanks to both the explosion in popularity of the iPhone and the fact that more people are buying Apple computers, things have changed. Apple devices are still targeted by specific viruses much less than their Windows counterparts, but those numbers are always on the rise. One study estimates that in 2015, there were five times as many instances of Apple-specific malware on desktop and laptop computers than there was in the five previous years combined. Likewise, the iOS operating system saw a 262% increase in vulnerabilities compared to just a few years earlier in 2011.
All of this is to say that you should not assume that your device is protected just because it has the Apple logo on it. Cybersecurity is a pressing concern for everyone who uses the Internet in any way, regardless of who made your computer or smartphone or what company you’ve chosen to do business with in the past. To assume otherwise is a legitimate recipe for disaster.
Though it’s true that Apple adds a lot of excellent new features to devices like the iPhone and iPad, they’re also designed for something much more important – keeping your device, your data and ultimately yourself safe from harm. If you’re in {city} and would like to find out more information about this or any other pressing IT-related topic, please don’t hesitate to contact {company} today at {phone} or by sending us an email to {email}.
by Felicien | Jul 26, 2017 | Education
You spend a lot of time commuting—Don’t let this time go to waste! Skype and BMW want to help you be more productive while driving.
How much time do you spend behind the wheel each year? If you’re like the average American, you drive an incredible 290 hours annually! This is almost seven, 40-hour work weeks!
And, it’s only getting worse. According to Newsweek, drivers in the U.S. spend over 40 hours per year STUCK in rush-hour traffic! Plus, this number is expected to rise as the economy grows.
What a waste!
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
As you probably know by now, my favorite business management solution is Microsoft Office 365 Business Suite. That’s why I was so excited to hear that Microsoft and BMW are teaming up to turn drive-time into productive-time. They’re doing this by bringing Skype for Business to the popular BMW Series 5.
Today, drivers of vehicles equipped with BMW Connected Drive (which already offers one of the widest ranges of digital services available through a driver-accessible touch screen) can now add the power of Skype for Business to their “road-warrior arsenal.”
Drivers of the BMW 5 Series can attend meetings, or chat with colleagues no matter where they are, and without taking their eyes off the road! To prevent accidents, the BMW Connected Drive version of Skype for Business allows you to keep your hands on the wheel while joining or ending a meeting.
With more than 100 million worldwide subscribers to Office 365 Business, the collaboration between Microsoft and BMW makes a lot of sense. Besides Skype for Business, BMW Connected Drive also allows you to access calendars, to-do lists, and contacts using Microsoft’s Exchange.
Is Skype for Business Really Worth It?
I bet a few of you are thinking: “This is fantastic! I can now use Skype for Business in the car. But, I wonder if I can use other versions of Skype, as well?”
My clients often ask me if it’s worth paying a little extra each month to use Skype for Business, or if they can “get by” with the free version of Skype. What I tell them is that they can get by with a free version if their business isn’t that important to them!
Seriously, Skype for Business starts at just $2 per month, per user— Just two dollars! A better way for your business to communicate is surely worth more to you than a cup of coffee, right? But when you subscribe to any Office 365 Business Plan, you also get Skype for Business. In this sense, Skype for Business IS FREE!
Maybe you still don’t want to subscribe to an Office 365 Business Plan, and aren’t sure if Skype for Business is a small-business essential. This brief rundown of the differences between the Skype versions may change your mind.
Skype (free) is a standalone text, voice, and video-chatting program. Although Skype advertises it as being “great for smaller businesses of up to 20 employees, it really isn’t. In reality, this version is only good for one-to-one casual conversations. Learn more about the free version of Skype.
Skype for Business ($2 a month per user) is available as a standalone application, or as part of any Office 365 Business Plan. Skype for Business integrates completely with Office 365 applications so you can incorporate calendars, data storage, PowerPoint presentations and other solutions, seamlessly. When it comes to meetings, Skype for Business is “King.” Skype makes it easy, whether you’re presenting or attending. Learn more about Skype for Business.
Here are 3 Things You Can Do Today to Increase Productivity During Your Commute.
Maybe you don’t drive a BMW with BMW Connected Drive to work each day. But that doesn’t mean you have to waste your time. Here are three ways to benefit from your commute time.
Create a to-do list. Use your commute to organize your tasks and set goals for the day. Use a voice recorder if you’re driving, or an app on your smartphone if you’re a passenger.
Listen to something to make you a better person. Catch up on your favorite podcast, learn a new language, or take an audio course.
Prepare for that big presentation. When you drive to work, why not use the alone- time to rehearse for that big presentation coming up?
BMW, Skype and Microsoft continue to look for ways to increase our productivity. I’m always happy to hear when companies collaborate to make our work lives easier—Especially for the busy small-business owner.
