Category Archives: Disaster Recovery

avast! Business Protection

  By MBramblett | February 6, 2012 - 11:13 am | Avast, Disaster Recovery, Security
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AVAST Software has launched avast! Business Protection, its comprehensive IT security software for small and medium-sized businesses. avast! Business Protection uses the award-winning 6.0 antivirus engine and includes a new browser-based central management console, giving IT administrators and service providers the ability to remotely manage protected desktops and servers in their network via the internet.

From start to finish, installing avast! Business Protection takes less than half of the clicks demanded by other major competitors. Well-designed default settings and the ability to inherit configurations from the previous system combine to make installation easy. Once fully installed, avast! Business Protection still takes a quarter less computing resources than most of the competition.

“AVAST is about freedom,” said Vince Steckler, CEO of AVAST Software. “With avast! Business Protection, we are providing the comprehensive network and endpoint security that businesses need in a package that is simple enough for people who are not IT experts to freely operate.“

avast! Business Protection highlights:

  • Light and compact – avast! Business Protection takes 0.75GB of computer space for full installation. That is less than a third of the space required by Symantec Protection Suite, Small Business Edition and still a quarter less space than similar products from AVG, ESET, and Kaspersky.
  • Fully mobile administration – The unique avast! Administration Console enables remote access via any computer browser, freeing system administrators from their dependency on a fixed location or a specific machine as they have with AVG or Symantec.
  • Install and forget – avast! Business Protection automatically detects new computers as they attach to the company network, alerting system administrators to unknown “rogue” machines and enabling them to decide how new devices should be administered within the secure network.
  • Proven protection – avast! Business Protection builds on the tested antivirus engine in avast! 6.0 which has won industry recognition from organizations such as VirusBulletin and AV Comparatives for its detection abilities, fast scanning speed, and light footprint. avast! Business Protection includes on-access rootkit detection and enables boot-time scans to find and remove malware hidden within the OS.
  • Keeps data private – The new SafeZone™ feature enables safer banking and transfer of sensitive information with a virtualized desktop guarding against data-stealing malware such as keyloggers. System administrators decide who can use this function.

“Business users get avast!’s proven detection ability together with the look and feel of our consumer AV products,“ said Mr. Steckler. “Organizations are spending too much time and too many resources to keep their antivirus protection functioning. They should be able to focus on their core activities and not have to micromanage their antivirus application.”

avast! Business Protection comes in two variants. avast! Business Protection includes all of the previously mentioned console and security features. avast! Business Protection Plus has the additional features of the Silent Firewall and Antispam filter to defend against intrusions and keep fraudulent emails out of employee mailboxes

Avast Small Business Console Screen Shot

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.