IT is Driving Your Business, But Are You Wearing Your Seatbelt? Five Ways to Attack Vulnerabilities Head On

Cyber attacks can occur at any moment. Many businesses struggle to defend themselves against these attacks, leading to halted business production and an explosion of costs.  Whether it’s a small mistake of one of your employees, dangerous viruses, or malicious network intrusion (i.e., hacking), the impact can be considerable. Many businesses have tried to solve their IT issues internally, causing major distractions and the potential of inadequately fixing the issues.

Mobile Device Management: Vital to Securing your Data

Due to the popularity of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend and increase in remote workers, Gartner estimates that 70% of mobile professionals will conduct business on personal smart devices by 2018. While these trends offer a lot of benefits, including cost savings, they can open the door to security risks and breaches. To combat these challenges and protect mobile data, Microsoft introduced Intune, a mobile device management tool for Office 365 in late October. Here are the top 3 ways mobile device management (MDM) can benefit you:

3 Technologies That Can Give You More Data Security

Data security is a serious matter for every organization. Whether it's working with highly sensitive medical files, or just sending business emails that contain company strategies, every company has sensitive information that needs to be guarded. The good news is that despite several recent highly publicized data security breaches, your company data can be safer now than ever before thanks to a slew of technologies that do nothing but protect information. Even better, they are readily available, and require very little technical know-how to implement and use. 

2014 Resolution: Keep Your Network Security Up-to-Date

2013 brought reports of several massive security breaches including the hacking of 40 million Target customer’s credit card accounts and 2 million hijacked passwords from Gmail, Facebook and Twitter.

The Clock is Ticking; Windows XP and Office 2003

There’s no time like the present to jump on the Windows 7 or 8 bandwagon, especially after Microsoft announced that they will be discontinuing their support services for Windows XP. This comes as no surprise, considering it’s been more than ten years since the operating system came out—which is an eon in the tech world. Technology is always changing, and now it’s time to get current. Let’s not forget about Windows’ inseparable bundle, Office. Whether you use Excel at home for your finances or Outlook at the office, for most of us Office is a key part of our lives. So what’s the big fear of upgrading to Windows 7/8,  Office 2013, or Office 365?

Data Security in 2012

What does security mean for small– and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in 2012? It’s a multifaceted subject to consider, and one that we in IT management will no doubt be contending with ongoing. To look at the latest security trends in the coming year, let’s first take a step back to see where we were in order to gauge how we might better protect digital information in 2012.

Telecommuting Securely

Based on research provided by the Telework Research Network, it is estimated that 20 to 30 million people currently work from home at least one day a week. Telecommuting offers many benefits to the employer, employee and the environment.

Advancements in technology, such as remote access, mobile platforms, and virtual private network (VPN), allow employees to work from virtually anywhere. Whether a business allows employees to work remotely once-a-week or several days per week, it is essential that a business sets up a comprehensive telecommuting plan.

Tips on Being IT Secure

The computer network is probably the most important tool in any company. For that reason, the security of computers is crucial for its success. If information is stolen or lost, proprietary information about the company may be revealed. The more a business does to keep their computers secure, the safer the information will remain.

Here are 10 ways a business can best protect its computers, the data and its networks:

Data Protection Before and After a Security Breach

Two recent security breaches caused concern by millions of online consumers. Rightly, so…. Sony confirmed that personal information of its PlayStation Network (PSN) and Qriocity service customers has been compromised in a hacking attack. And Epsilon, an email marketing firm that services companies including TiVo, Best Buy and Walgreens, experienced an enormous email breach, putting customers’ email addresses in the hands of hackers.

Sony addressed its more than 70 million global PSN customers by posting an update on its blog alerting customers that credit card numbers (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained. At the posting of this blog, their network is still not completely restored.

While my blogs are traditionally focused on small and medium sized businesses, in light of these recent security breaches, I thought it would be important to provide a few tips on avoiding virus attacks, identify theft or other security breaches. Many Internet security issues are preventable and only require a few computer updates and of course, some common sense.

Protecting Your Mobile Device

There are tons of mobile devices available today offering a variety of features that allows us to stay connected and conduct our business activities while away from the office. With our smart phones or tablets, we are able to access email, create and edit documents, download files from the web, access our company VPN and be productive remotely in many other ways that were impossible a few short years ago.

With so much information on hand at all times, it is important to ask yourself how secure is the information on my smart phone? Many of you already may have settings and tools in place to ensure your information will be secure, but here are a few tips to consider implementing that may guarantee the security of your smart phone.