5 Quick New Year’s Tech Resolutions You Can Keep!

1. Maintenance Plan: Implement a maintenance plan for your computers to ensure they are updated regularly and receive security patches
2. Backup/Disaster Recovery: Make sure you have a good backup system in place that makes sense for your business.  Whatever solution you choose should create off site backups as well as imaged based backups to provide you with faster restore times.
3. Hardware Upgrade Plan: Create an upgrade plan for your older machines.  It’s much better to replace technology on your terms rather than when a disaster strikes due to hardware failure.  Planning your technology upgrades not only helps you reduce downtime and lost productivity, but you can also stagger the upgrades which makes it easier to budget.
4. Antivirus Software: Get a good antivirus program and install it on all of the computers and servers on your network.  Protecting your client and corporate data is not something that you should skimp on.
5. Enterprise Firewall:  Don’t have a good firewall? Get one.  Have an old firewall? Replace it. Just bought a firewall last year, make sure you have purchased any advanced security licenses for the firewall to ensure you are the best protection it can provide. 

Another Opportunity to Strengthen Your Defenses – Cyber Security Awareness Month

October has become National Cyber Security Awareness month and while you should be constantly thinking about your network and system security, the reality is we get busy with other things and tend to push security to the back burner.  

You need to take a proactive approach with your security otherwise you will be vulnerable to attacks…there is no way to just set it and forget it.  Install an enterprise grade antivirus and anti-malware software and monitor it at least weekly to ensure it’s working properly and receiving virus definition updates.  Check your computer weekly for any software updates and security patches that are available. Even if you set your computer to automatically update there is no guarantee it will happen.  If one update has a problem while installing, it could stop any future updates leaving your system vulnerable. 

Here are some tips from the Department of Homeland Security that will help protect your business from the cyber threats we are facing today:

1. Make sure all of your organization’s computers are equipped with antivirus software and antispyware. This software should be updated regularly.
2. Secure your Internet connection by using a firewall, encrypt information, and hide your Wi- Fi network.
3. Establish security practices and policies to protect sensitive information.
4. Educate employees about cyber threats and how to protect your organization’s data. Hold employees accountable to the Internet security policies and procedures.
5. Require employees to use strong passwords and to change them often.
6. Invest in data loss protection software, use encryption technologies to protect data in transit, and use two-factor authentication where possible.
7. Protect all pages on your public-facing websites, not just the checkout and sign-up pages.

Developing and implementing a good security plan for your business is critical to the protection of your systems and data.  Contact us today and we’ll help you develop a security plan that works for your business, is simple to understand and implement, and is cost effective.

Show Some Love This February

February is here, which means Valentine's Day is coming up.  While you are thinking about things to do for the person you love make sure you are thinking about loving your computers and network too.  Your computers and network need love all year long to make sure they are running properly and are protected from viruses and security threats.

Here are some things you can do to show the love:

• Check for any Windows security patches and critical updates that need to be installed
• Check for any third party software updates that need to be installed such as java & adobe
• Check your network devices for firmware updates 
• Check your antivirus software for program updates and to make sure virus definitions are updated regularly

These checks will help make sure you are not leaving any open doors that hackers can use to gain access to your systems and data.

It's important to have a system maintenance plan in place to ensure these updates are applied on a regular basis. It can be very time consuming just maintaining your systems, however, we have a service that can take that burden off your plate.  Our Core Security service provides you with antivirus and patch management protection for all of your workstations and servers.  We take care of monitoring and updating your systems to ensure the latest antivirus definitions have been applied, Windows updates and patches are installed, and third party software is updated so your systems are secured.

Make sure you take some time this month to put a plan in place for keeping your systems updated or reach out to us so you can take of our Core Security Services and we'll take care of your systems for you.  Showing your computers and networks the the love they deserve means your systems will keep you happy by running smoothly and protecting your corporate data.