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Are Your Passwords on the Naughty List?

  By admin | January 4, 2012 - 11:49 am | Disaster Recovery, Security
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If you thought that cybercrimes weren’t a worldwide problem, we have some numbers that may quickly help you to change your mind.

Worldwide, Norton estimates that cybercrime costs the global economy $338 billion a year; ZDNet says that’s more lucrative than the underground drugs market.And when you consider that more than two-thirds of us, according to Norton, are victims of some sort of cybercrime, it should make you want to do more than just sit up and take notice.

There’s a continual cat-and-mouse game being played out every day, with criminals trying to find ways to access networks and the information on them.  IT administrators are waging the battle to stop the hackers from penetrating the networks.  In many cases, they succeed; you don’t see the news stories about attacks that have been prevented.

You can help protect you business with hardened firewalls, and intrusion detection devices. Windstream, for instance, offers managed network security, like managed firewalls, and managed intrusion detection and prevention from their secure Network Operations Center, staffed around the clock by certified expert security professionals.

Of course, even the best security infrastructure won’t prevent breaches if your users aren’t doing their part.  It all starts with solid passwords; Time magazine recently ran a list of what it called “the most awesomely bad” passwords of all time.  Number one on the list:  “password.”  “123456” was number two followed by “12345678.”  If your password is on the list, change it.  Now.  Because we may not know what it is, but trust us…there’s a bad guy who does, and who’s out there just waiting to hack into your account and your network.  That’s not just us saying this: researchers at Georgia Tech recently reported, “Human error, lack of user education and weak passwords are still major vulnerabilities.”

We continuously work with our clients to help improve their Internet security and lessen the chances that they’ll be the victims of cybercrimes. We do our part, and know that our customers are doing theirs.  It’s that kind of constant, cooperative effort that serves, perhaps, as the best mouse repellent out there.

Emergency Business Plan

  By admin | August 25, 2011 - 4:55 pm | Disaster Recovery
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Comic - Our disaster recover plan goes something like this... Help! Help!Are your IT needs taken into consideration for your businesses disaster plans?

Your disaster plan ensures that you resume normal operations as soon as possible by listing contingencies for any catastrophic event, not only natural disasters, but theft and equipment failure as well.

Washington Monument Closed Indefinitely from VA Earthquake

A good disaster plan that takes into account a businesses IT needs includes backup plans for Server Outages, Internet Outages, Phone Service Outages, IT Equipment Failure, Theft, and many many more scenario’s.

Four good questions to ask yourself to check your readiness should be:

  • What will happen to clients trying to reach my business during an outage?
  • Are the files pertinent to my company’s day-to-day operations safely backed up to a secure location/device?
  • Will my company be able to function without one or more of my IT connections to the external world (internet service outage, etc.)?
  • How does my plan prepare my company to resolve and adapt to any of these problems when they arise?

Talk to your IT consultant to help plan for these, and help implement contingencies should they arise. Some issues have simple resolutions such as during a phone outage some providers can forward your phone calls to another number on a separate phone service. Other issues are not so simple.

In case of emergency, employees can call for help on a red phone

VoIP Systems "Red Phone"

Keep in mind during your planing process that some IT complications can cause crucial connections to fail. For instance, issues with a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone solutions can cause external phone calls to fail, including those dialed to 911. A good plan accounts for this and offers a solution in the event of a system failure, such as the installation of a “Red Phone“, or a phone that is directly connected to an activated phone line only in-place for the purpose of dialing 911 (they are called a red phone because usually are red to make them easy to spot in an emergency).

Hurricane Irene Could Cause “100 Year Flooding Event”

All in all, IT has become so integrated into our lives at work and home, should a disaster strike, not including it in your emergency plans could potential be a costly mistake.