Mar 14, 2022 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
Even with recent news events inspiring fears of major cyber attacks, threats occur daily. And not all cyber attacks make news because they target a large company. Indeed, many small to medium-size businesses are also at risk, and need to defend themselves. Read on to learn what threats to look for, and how to protect your data, applications and people. Threats to Watch For According to a 2021 report from CompTIA, small to medium-size businesses (SMBs), are the targets of 43% of cyberattacks, yet 70% are unprepared. What can be done to change that balance? Threats range from attacks on the cloud to social engineering (such as phishing) attacks that can introduce malware, including ransomware, into a company’s system. These attacks can result in loss of money due to downtime along with fines for regulatory noncompliance; loss of data to ransomware and malware, due to theft and/or compromise; and loss of trust and reputation if clients and other parties can’t trust your business to keep their data safe. Yet what all these statistics and consequences can do is strengthen a company’s resolve to protect itself from cyberattack. Keeping Your Business Safe Many tools are available for protection from cyberattacks, and your workers are among the most important. A business still needs to maintain current anti-virus and anti-malware definitions along with the most current operating system patches to protect its network. When using the cloud, encryption of data both in-transit and at rest keeps it safe from loss or compromise. All these safeguards are essential, though they are just part of a plan. When employees are properly...
Mar 7, 2022 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
Some years ago, when Unified Communications was just beginning, companies adopting the new technology had to operate and manage infrastructure on the premises. Now, with Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), companies can access computing resources in the cloud, with its convenience and cost savings. Read on to learn more about what UCaaS can do for your company, and what to consider when looking for a cloud service provider. Benefits of UCaaS over Conventional Unified Communications Though Unified Communications has existed for at least ten years, businesses used to have to keep their data and servers on-premise, resulting in a burdensome capital expense. Some years ago, the development of cloud computing allowed companies to outsource infrastructure to a third party, converting it to a more budget-friendly operating expense. With Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), they can now scale up and down on use of computing resources in keeping with demand or new technological initiatives. Providers have furnished the infrastructure including servers and data centers; all the users need is an Internet connection. The unification of numerous communication channels including telephony and web conferencing, and applications like customer relationship management makes it easy for workers to interact with each other and serve customers efficiently–anytime and anywhere. What to Consider When Adopting UCaaS No doubt the combination of Unified Communications and cloud computing is beneficial to your company and its technology budget. Even with that bright picture, businesses may still have questions. One key question to consider is how UCaaS will align with your company goals, and what problems it will solve. What about security, including...
Feb 14, 2022 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
Cloud computing, with its many benefits and options, is here to stay. Its popularity continues to grow each year. Read on to learn how cloud offerings will benefit your company, and how to know which offerings to choose. Trends in Cloud Computing Cloud computing, and the spending on it, continues to grow. An article from CompTIA predicted that spending on Software as a Service (SaaS) will reach more than $145 billion in 2022. Interestingly, many businesses show an appetite for public cloud computing. Benefits of cloud computing in general, are the ability to access computing resources over the Internet; infrastructure management by the cloud service provider (CSP) removing the necessity for on-premise infrastructure; the ability to scale resources for varying demand; and the ability to manage costs using a subscription model. Public cloud computing offers these benefits, along with numerous data centers. If one center goes offline, another will pick up the traffic. The rise in demand for public cloud services also offers opportunities for managed service providers to transition to provide more of those services; with this opportunity for growth will come the need for retraining of staff to provide such services. Considerations in Choosing a Cloud Deployment With its benefits, deployment options, and delivery models, cloud computing requires considerations before adoption. When choosing a deployment option, consider your company’s needs before choosing. Public cloud is shared by multiple tenants, and careful attention needs to be paid to security. Since public cloud is expected to be popular, according to CompTIA, security will need to be a key consideration. Additionally, trends predict a change in...
Feb 7, 2022 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
What would your company do when faced with a disaster? For example, what would happen if a fire damaged your physical headquarters? And what if a cyberattack compromised your network with its data and applications? Even a short power outage can impact your company’s business operations. Read on to learn more about how a disaster recovery plan can help you protect your company’s technology assets and recover from a disaster. The Importance of a Disaster Recovery Plan Having a detailed disaster recovery plan (DR) for how to proceed during a disaster can make the difference in how well your company recovers, helping you avoid costly downtime and even fines for failure to comply with industry regulations. With this detailed, written plan in effect, your company can stay running, or get back to running, as soon as possible–protecting you from the loss of revenue and reputation resulting from an extended outage or data breach. Key Metrics for a Disaster Recovery Plan According to an article from CompTIA, two key metrics will help you draw up a plan to recover from a disaster, either natural or man-made. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) defines how much data or service time can be lost before consequences become unacceptable. This objective should be considered ahead of time. For example, what outage duration is acceptable before legal and financial consequences become a reality? How much data can you afford to risk losing? The RPO will determine how often you backup your data, for instance. As far as data goes, what is mission-critical and what can you back up less frequently? With...
Jan 17, 2022 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
It’s said often that the matter of experiencing a cyberattack is “when,” not “if.” How can your company begin to prepare itself for something that can adversely affect it? According to CompTIA’s article, an Incident Response Plan (IRP), can help you think ahead and have a plan in place when an incident occurs. Read on to learn more about preparing and protecting your company from current and future threats. Incident Response Plans Defined An Incident Response Plan is what it sounds like, having a plan to respond to a cyber attack incident and mitigate the damage. An effective plan is a “combination of people, process and technology that is documented, tested and trained toward in the event of a security breach.” The purpose of it is to mitigate damage (data and money loss) and restore operations. The National Institute of Standards in Technology (NIST) sets forth a few models for your plan, whether it will be handled by a central Cyber Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT), distributed among multiple response teams for locations or departments, or one in which a central body relays response plans to affected teams. While plans contain four phases, the first one of preparation can help prevent a lot of damage. Steps in the Incident Response Plan Does everyone in your company know what to do first when a cyber attack hits? Do they know whether to power off their computers, and how soon they can resume work? What will managers do? Does your marketing team know who to communicate with, and when? These are just a few of the questions...
Jan 6, 2022 | SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, SMB Technology, Technology News
It is commonly said that employees are the “weak link” in your company’s cybersecurity plan. What if this was different, and they are actually a strong defense against cyberattacks? Read on to learn how to help your workers recognize and prevent a cyberattack, and to become security advocates for your company. Training Starts but Doesn’t End at Onboarding Training is common when onboarding new employees, but it should also be consistent and frequent. Employees should know how to recognize a phishing email, a common way that malware can enter your computer network. Bad actors send emails that appear to be legitimate, in order to obtain confidential information. Keys to a phishing email are an urgent and emotional call-to-action, unknown senders, and grammar and spelling errors. Not only do your workers need to recognize suspicious activity, but how to report and even escalate the matter. Workers also need to remember best practices for password management. All cybersecurity training needs to be frequent and consistent in order to reinforce the lessons and practices learned and make them automatic. Thus your employees can become “minimal risk,” possessing a sense of safe and unsafe behaviors and knowing what to do when something happens. With employees working remote, online cybersecurity options provide an economical and efficient way to train on this topic. Many online training platforms offer phishing simulation to ensure learning objectives are achieved. Best Practices in Password Management Let’s talk about passwords. Do your employees know what makes a good password? According to Google, a strong password can help safeguard your account, personal information and content like email...
