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MSPNetworks has been serving the Farmingdale area since 2010, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

How to Avoid Becoming the Next Data Security Cautionary Tale

Data security isn’t a matter to be taken lightly, as too many businesses have found out the hard way. Unfortunately, there are far too many simple ways to correct common security issues - enough that it’s foolish not to do so. We’ll review a few ways to fix security issues, after discussing one of, if not the, most egregious security failings in modern history.


The Equifax Problem

Sometime between May and July of 2017, the credit-reporting giant Equifax suffered a massive data breach that, as of this writing, exposed 148.1 million records containing the personally identifiable information of their customers. In other words, this breach exposed the data of almost half of the population of the United States of America.

In the aftermath of the Equifax data breach scandal, former CEO Richard Smith was cross-examined by Congress. Upon hearing Smith’s defense of “human and technology errors,” Chairman of the House energy and commerce committee Greg Walden quipped, “I don’t think that we can pass a law that fixes stupid.”

How to Fix Your Business’ Security

While Walden may be correct that stupid can’t be fixed by legislation, it may be able to be mitigated through the faithful enforcement of certain standards and practices. These standards should be enforced both on an organizational level, and on a case-by-case, personal basis.

First, let’s review what you should enforce in your organization:

  1. Compliance should be the baseline - Unfortunately, compliance with regulations often does not equal true data security. Instead of looking at compliance as being the ultimate goal for your business, consider it the first step to your business security strategy.
  2. Vulnerabilities need to be promptly remediated - It is astounding that so many exploits rely on known vulnerabilities… a full 99 percent of them.  Furthermore, other attack vectors often utilize vulnerabilities that are a half a year old at least. Patching these vulnerabilities as soon as possible will help cut down on threats to your business’ data and infrastructure. 
  3. Data security needs to be centralized, organized, and assigned - While security should be a shared responsibility throughout the company, there needs to also be someone taking lead and accepting responsibility for ensuring that data is properly distributed in a secure fashion. Part of this responsibility should be to implement access controls, ensuring that the data only can spread to whomever it needs to and no one else.

Encouraging Your Employees’ Security

Of course, your employees are largely in control of how secure your company remains. This could be a bad thing, unless they are also held to certain best practices that keep data, and the accounts that can access it, secure. There are a few basic rules you can enforce among your staff to help encourage them to act securely.

  1. Lazy credential habits - There are a variety of behaviors to adopt that can better protect the accounts and solutions that your employees have. First of all, the classic password problem: reusing the same password for every account. If one or more of your employees does this, each one is essentially creating a master key that someone could use to access everything in their life, including your data. Neglecting to set a passcode of some sort for a mobile device can cause the same issue. An effective way to remedy this kind of behavior is to utilize a password management system. That way, your employee can reduce the number of passwords they have to remember, without sacrificing security.
  2. Oversharing - While you can’t necessarily control what your employees do in their off-hours, you should reinforce how easily a cybercriminal could piece together their passwords through some examination of their social media, especially if they subscribe to the lazy credential habits we just reviewed. See if they’ll avoid sharing personal anecdotes or information without first restricting the audience that can see that particular post. At the very least, they should have their social media accounts set so that only their approved friends can see their content. Furthermore, do your best to avoid oversharing from the office. Images can easily show confidential information if you aren’t careful, by accidentally capturing an invoice or your customer relationship management solution pulled up on a screen in the picture. Review what you are about to post before taking the image and before you share it online. 
  3. Using the wrong Wi-Fi - While public Wi-Fi connections may be convenient, you should remind your employees that this convenience comes at a price: the security of public Wi-Fi is suspect at best. They should be warned against doing anything especially important over a public Wi-Fi signal, like banking or checking their email.

Data security is a critically important consideration, in part because there are so many ways that it can be undermined. We have some solutions to offer that can help keep your business secure (despite what may sometimes seem to be your employees’ best efforts). Reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001 today!

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Test Your Backup!

Your data is vital for your organization’s continuity. Your data consists of everything from your company documents, accounting records, client contact information, prospects and leads, procedures, and everything else needed for you to keep operations running smoothly. That’s why all businesses need a solid backup solution that is monitored and tested regularly.


Why Should I Test My Backup?

As with anything, your backup solution isn’t infallible. A lot can go wrong when your backup is running, for example:

  • Hardware/media failure
  • Software failure
  • Compatibility issues
  • Network connectivity issues
  • User error
  • Task scheduling issues
  • Files-in-use issues (especially for older backup solutions)

...and more!

Many backup solutions have a verification process to attempt to verify that a backup was taken properly and spit back any errors in the backup software if anything was found. Even the old, slow tape backup systems from a decade ago often had features like this. The problem is that sometimes with tape, the tape could be degraded to the point that it passes the verification test but ends up being partially or fully unreadable when it comes time to pull the data.

If you can’t tell, we don't prefer tape backup. It’s slow, arduous, and not very reliable, and the restoration process takes an incredibly long time compared to more modern methods.

Hard drive-based backup, including NAS (Network Attached Storage) and BDR (Backup and Disaster Recovery) solutions are much more reliable from a technical standpoint, but could still suffer issues if not configured properly or if they run into roadblocks like network connectivity issues.

Testing your backup could also reveal files, applications, or databases that aren’t getting backed up properly. It’s easy to configure your backup, and then install some new software later down the road and forget to make sure the data is getting backed up.

You want your data to be backed up and complete so in the event you need it, you can restore everything and be up and running quickly.

How to Test Your Backup

Essentially, you’ll want to deploy your backup in a virtual environment and run off of it. This simulates a catastrophic data loss event and lets you and your staff see if they can get by based on the data stored in the backup.

Not all backup solutions allow you to do this. Tape backups, for example, can’t be run or accessed off of the tape, so you would actually need to extract the archived data from the tape and redeploy it on a secondary or virtualized server. This could take several hours or even days to do, and by then the backup won’t be up-to-date.

Our BDR solution, however, allows us to virtualize your server and spin everything up. The process looks something like this:

  1. Temporarily disable/disconnect your server from the network, simulating a hardware failure.
  2. Spin up the backed up virtual copy of your server on the BDR.
  3. Have the BDR take over all of the roles and responsibilities of your server.
  4. Your network should be back up and running at this point, and all data should be fully accessible by your staff.

If it were a real hardware disaster, your BDR could serve as kind of a spare tire for your network, taking over for the server that had the issue. Things might be a little slower until the downed server is repaired or replaced, but at least operations can still run.

If you’ve been backing up your data (and you absolutely, definitely, positively, without-a-doubt NEED to), you should also be testing the consistency of your backup. Let’s take a look at your backup and run a test to see if everything is actually getting backed up so you aren’t surprised when you actually need it.

Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to get started.

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For the SMB Returning to Work

Many states’ stay-at-home orders that are/were designed to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus are now lapsing all over the U.S. As a result, business owners are re-opening their doors to a great deal of uncertainty. We have put together this guide to help the business owner understand that, even though you’ve finally been given the go-ahead, you have a responsibility to keep your staff and customers safe.


The COVID-19 pandemic is the first time many of us have had to deal with this level of threat, and now that businesses start to re-open in an attempt to stagnate a recessionary dive in the economy, there is a lot of ground to cover. Today, we go through the considerations you need to make, and the actions you need to take, to keep your business clear of COVID-19, and what steps to take if the virus makes its way into your business. 

Mitigation

Understand Requirements

While stay-at-home orders may be lifted, there are many other regulatory bodies and authorities that will put forth various restrictions for the sake of public health. Whether imposed by federal, state, or local governments, or tailored to a particular industry that has specific requirements for their operations, it is critical that these directives are followed to the letter.

In the current situation, this becomes especially important in terms of the standards assigned by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC). Make sure you take the time to check for additional requirements applicable to your business’ industry, in addition to what applies to all businesses.

Compliance to ADA Rules

Many workplaces may consider testing for COVID-19 before allowing access to a business’ premises by anyone, which itself will require a few decisions to be made (how these tests are administered, who administers them, and the type of test to be used) and for these results to be protected as medical information.

The Americans with Disabilities Act and other assorted state laws also outline that these tests are only permitted if there is doubt that an employee can perform their job without posing a threat to themselves or their coworkers. While this standard was deemed to have been met by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, any updates could potentially change whether or not this screening is allowed. Check with your legal counsel before proceeding with these protocols.

Office Cleanliness

From your workplace to the employees to work there, you need to do everything you can to encourage a cleaner and healthier environment. Provide a few reminders pertaining to basic hygiene practices around the workplace, and make sure that it is cleaned and disinfected properly. Keeping the HVAC systems well-maintained and the office well ventilated also helps.

Social Distancing Adoption

Of course, we can’t discuss mitigating COVID-19 without bringing up social distancing. While many businesses are notorious for their close-quarter layouts, shared resources, and even their displays of etiquette, these need to be adjusted to maintain the recommended six feet (or more) of distance between people. Stagger shifts and enable telework, put up barriers and mark off boundaries, and discourage in-person meetings.

Safety Protocols and Precautions

It will also be necessary for you to put new rules and procedures in place to better ensure that your workplace is contributing as little risk as possible for your employees. This means that you will need to assign someone the responsibility of overseeing that all workplace processes are compliant with safety regulations. You will also need to be prepared to provide as many protections as possible for your employees, handle your staff and their potential absences in accordance with the law, and (as we’ll cover below) properly deal with an employee who becomes symptomatic.

Reaction

Understanding the Threats

Opening your business up in the time of a pandemic--especially one that has killed over 80,000+ of your countrymen--is unfortunately the situation many business owners are currently dealing with. It is important, then, to understand the threat that you, your staff, and your customers are under from COVID-19. 

Dealing with Employee Concerns

The first thing you should understand is that there is going to be a wide disparity of opinion amongst your employees. You will see people who are happy to be back to work and you will see people who resent you for re-opening your business before a vaccine has been found, and every option in between. Depending on the makeup of your staff, there will likely be some heated political debates that surround these opinions. Regardless of how outspoken your employees are, you need to be the person to take the action necessary so that the more anxious members of your workforce can do their jobs effectively. 

One of the best things you can do for workers returning to work after a layoff is to be prepared. Having masks, gloves, disinfectant soap, sanitizer, will ease fears, but as was mentioned earlier, you will need to have a policy dedicated to cleaning and sanitizing every surface you can. This type of effort has shown to mitigate COVID-19 transference as many alcohol-based products kill the virus before it can be transferred. 

COVID-19 does not have a vaccine, so it’s important that testing take place. A major problem is that testing hasn’t been made available, so if you have employees who can (and have been) doing their jobs from home, you will want to keep them home. If employees cannot do their jobs from home, as is true in many manufacturing and retail establishments, it is essential that the employees you bring back all have clean bills of health. The last thing you will need is a positive COVID-19 case shuttering the doors of your business. 

Additionally, there are still options for employers if they do have staff members who have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus in some way. Many businesses have been taking their employees’ temperatures as they come in to work to ensure that they aren’t running a fever, which of course is one of the telltale symptoms of COVID-19. Employers can dictate when their staff comes back to work, but in many states, there are regulations in place to protect workers. Your decisions should be neutral and not based on age, race, pregnancy, or any other identifier. You will want to send “rehire” letters that provide wage notices and outline the onboarding process.

Dealing with Symptomatic Employees

If one of your employees starts to present symptoms, you cannot panic, but they must be separated from the other employees. You will want to send them home and direct them to speak with a doctor so they can get tested. You will then need to notify the rest of your staff that they may have been exposed. You will want to try and protect the identity of the symptomatic employee if possible, but more importantly, you will want to ensure that there is transparency if someone does end up sick. 

You must remember that many employees are entitled to leave under federal, state, and local rules put in place for all situations related to COVID-19. Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, many people who have been exposed to COVID-19 or have other responsibilities that don’t allow them to get back to work, are eligible for paid sick leave.  

Dealing with a Lack of Demand

Finally, the hardest part of returning to work after the stay-at-home orders is that a lot of people are still extremely concerned about contracting the COVID-19 virus and will shelter-in-place much longer, or even until there is a working vaccine. That could be over a year away. Business owners need to be ready for a lack of consumer demand, especially in retail situations. While there are borrowing opportunities to help many small businesses get through these extremely lean times, recession will be a big problem for small business owners.

If you haven’t already, you will want to start looking at options to reduce your business’ spending. You should likely cancel any big projects you had in the pipeline and cut costs anyway you can. It’s unfortunate, but if you want to get your business through COVID-19 and through the resulting recession, you are definitely going to be asked to make some tough decisions. 

This is where MSPNetworks can help. We can provide you with many cost-effective options that can work to maintain productivity, prioritize security, and cut costs by outsourcing parts of your business. If you would like to learn more about how we can help you see your company through this extremely tough situation, call us today at (516) 403-9001.

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Tip of the Week: Laptop Battery Best Practices

Nowadays, laptops are the weapon of choice for productivity. They function much like a desktop computer but are mobile enough to go anywhere with. Unfortunately, most laptops chew through their batteries in only a few hours of work and need to be plugged in in order to function. With so many people working from home, many people are using their laptops more like a desktop and keeping them plugged in around the clock. For this week’s tip, we’ll discuss the best practices of a laptop battery. 


Is Overcharging a Laptop Battery a Problem?

Of course, like everything there is a qualified answer to this question. The first qualification is the age of your device. It wasn’t too long ago that battery innovation in these devices was truly lacking and devices that have older batteries have a much better chance of degrading when they are overcharged. On the other hand, newer batteries made of lithium-polymer or lithium-ion don’t have this problem. Hardware improvements have also played a role in keeping batteries juiced without ruining them. 

If you have a laptop on its power source for long periods of time that the device itself starts getting warm, it may be smart to remove it from the power supply as it can damage internal components and ruin the device. The temperature you are storing the device at matters too. In fact, enough research has been performed on the subject to suggest that leaving a fully charged laptop at high heat will significantly degrade the battery compared with a laptop stored at lower temperatures, to a point. 

In total, you will want to monitor your laptop’s heat levels when keeping it plugged in, but if you store it in a cool well-ventilated area, you should be fine keeping your laptop on the charger for as long as you want. 

For more great tips and tricks about how to manage your hardware and use your technology, return to our blog each week.

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Tip of the Week: Best Practices to Protect Your Business

There are many different varieties of cybercrime that businesses need to be vigilant about. However, most of these varieties can largely be avoided through a few basic practices and behaviors. Here, we’re giving you a few tips to help you prevent attacks from successfully influencing your business, so make sure you share them with your entire team, as well.


1. Reconsider What You Click On

It’s almost automatic for many users to see a link on a website, in their email, and elsewhere. This is something that hackers are very aware of, and often use to their advantage.

Kind of like we just did there (if you clicked on that link).

See how easy it is to fool someone this way? To help avoid this being used to undermine your security, build up the habit of hovering your cursor over a link before clicking on it. This will display the actual destination of a link somewhere on your screen, which you should always check so you will know that it is legitimate. 

2. Use Access Controls

While this may be obvious, you need to make sure that someone who isn’t allowed access to your business’ files or location isn’t able to access them. This means that you need to have all the suggested data security measures and practices in place to protect against the unauthorized access of any of your files, including any hard copies. Keep your physical data locked up, and protect all data with multiple layers of authentication requirements.

3. Keep an Eye Out for Scammers

While we’ve already covered this in part with tip number one, there are other ways to catch attempted cybercrimes that are often used in conjunction with misleading links. Cybercriminals use various methods, referred to as “phishing”, to manipulate their targets into behaving the way the attacker wants. Sometimes it is by using a falsified link, sometimes through scare tactics, and often through a combination of the two. Some phishing attacks are researched extensively to be as effective as possible against a certain target, while others are broader and more generic and meant to catch as many people as possible with minimal work. Make sure your team is informed of these attacks and knows to double-check requests through a different communication method if there is any doubt at all. When in doubt? Pick up the phone and call the sender.

4. Two-Ply Protections

Make sure that you are layering your defenses against cyberthreats. Maintain an updated antivirus solution and utilize a virtual private network when accessing the Internet and activate all onboard protections that your devices offer and use all of the assorted solutions and practices that are available for you to leverage. To discourage cybercrime on a comprehensive scale, you need to take thorough actions and fill in all the small holes that could potentially exist in your security.

MSPNetworks can help with all of this, and more. For answers to any technology questions you may have, or direct assistance in implementing any of this, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

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Don’t Get Phished Out of Your Stimulus Payment

Wherever there is money, there are scammers. So it may not be a big surprise that scammers are out en masse trying to get between you and your federally mandated stimulus money.  It’s bad enough that we’ve already seen a couple of phishing scams using the COVID-19 pandemic that are designed to help hackers get into accounts they have no business in, now that these scammers know that people are getting cash, the scams are kicked up a notch.


This is not the first time that the U.S. government has distributed checks to everyone, but with online banking being more prevalent now, scammers have a more complete opportunity to steal money. Let’s go through the ways you can ensure that you get your stimulus money:

  1. Avoid anything that has you sign up for stimulus money - Unless you haven’t filed a tax return in the past two years, you will not have to do much to get your stimulus money. If someone wants you to fill out a form to get your stimulus money, you are definitely being scammed.
  2. Scammers don’t just act online - Like traditional phishing, you need to be aware everywhere. Whether you get postcards in the mail with a password printed on it or you get messages over social media, you need to know that being asked to take action to gain “access” or to “verify” your payment information is almost assuredly a scam.
  3. You can’t get your money faster - Some scammers have concocted a scam that “for a small fee” they can get people their stimulus check faster. With tens of millions of people already receiving their check, it's a sign that your money is on its way if you haven’t received it already. No service can help you get your money faster. 
  4. No, you aren’t getting more - What’s better than getting $1,200 tax-free money from your government? Getting more money. Some scammers are actually sending checks for two or three times the amount of the stimulus, the scammer will then apologize for the discrepancy and ask the recipient to reimburse them. The check and their strategy are completely false and should be ignored. 
  5. IRS correspondence - It’s true that some people have had to fill out forms on the IRS website in order to get their checks sent to them or deposited in their bank accounts. Of course, scammers have set up forms that look like it. If the form you filled out isn’t on the IRS’ website, you shouldn’t fill it out.

Knowing what you are up against is the best defense against scammers. If you haven’t yet received your CARES Act stimulus money, you need to go to the official IRS website to find out why (or more likely when) you will receive your stimulus check.

What scams have you been seeing lately? Let us know in the comments section below and return to our blog for more great technology-related information.

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How to (And How Not to) Approach Remote Work

Many businesses are currently finding the best course of action for them to take right now for the good of their employees is to adopt remote work policies. However, this puts a lot of responsibility on the employees to conduct themselves appropriately and spend the time they should be working diligently.


Let’s compare two hypothetical employees throughout their day to show how your team should--and most certainly should not--go about working remotely.

Morning

Amy wakes as her alarm clock rings at the same time it would any other workday. She gets up and goes about her morning routine, which now includes a little bit longer time taking care of her dog. When the time comes to log in, she is showered and ready to start the day with a healthy breakfast energizing her.

Meanwhile, over at his apartment, Jeff hits the snooze button a few times before finally jolting up to look at the clock. Seeing that work is about to start, he shuffles into the kitchen in his pajama pants and t-shirt to pour himself a cup of coffee before settling in to work.

Start of Day

At the scheduled time, Amy’s workstation is booted up and she has successfully signed into the solutions she needs to start the workday. Seated in a small corner of her apartment that she has set aside for the purposes of remote work; she gets down to accomplishing everything on her schedule. She starts by reviewing that schedule one more time and making note of who she will be working with on her various activities throughout the day. Using the company’s messaging app, she checks in with her department to briefly go over what each of them are responsible for.

Jeff is still in his pajamas, sprawled out on his couch with his laptop. He has all his important work to do that day opened on his display, but before he does any of it, he checks his social media and gets wrapped up watching a video that someone posted on his profile. Figuring he can start work whenever and just keep going until he’s done, Jeff gets back up and heads back into the kitchen for something real to eat. Once he’s done, he starts cleaning up after himself and without realizing it, finds himself idly tidying up his whole place.

Lunchtime

As lunchtime rolls around, Amy stands up from her nook and stretches. Her few morning breaks primarily consisted of taking care of her dog’s bathroom needs, so she’s ready for a break after a morning full of accomplishment. She prepares herself a healthy lunch, entertains her fuzzy companion, and is ready to resume the day once her lunchtime is over.

Meanwhile, Jeff finally got down to business in the late morning and has done some good work in the time he’s been at his desk. Going into his fridge to find himself something to have for lunch himself, he sees the leftover takeout he had delivered the night before. He turns on a series he’s been watching as he works his way through the rest of his kung pao. When he finishes his meal, he puts his dishes in the sink and slumps back into the couch. Yawning, he opens his laptop back up while starting the next episode.

End of Day

Amy, having accomplished all she needed to, closes her laptop and steps away from her desk. Taking a few moments to go over what she got done and mentally review her performance, she calls her parents to check in on them, and gets out the hobby she’s taken up since keeping to her home: knitting (or learning how to, at least). A couple dropped stitches later, and the time comes for Amy to put down her needles, make herself dinner, and feed her dog.

Jeff continues working to the end of his day as well, accomplishing a sizable chunk of his scheduled tasks. However, since he got a late start, he finds himself working much later into the day than he would have otherwise… and, since the rest of the team has since signed off for the day, Jeff has important questions that nobody is available to answer. He finally calls it quits much later, drained.

Nighttime

When the time for bed comes, Amy puts down the book she’s been working her way through and gets herself ready to turn in. One last bathroom trip for the dog later, and she’s climbing into bed, relaxed and ready for rest. She’s careful to have gone to bed early enough to get a good night’s sleep before morning.

Late at night, Jeff pulls off his headset and turns off the latest game he’s downloaded to head to bed himself. Flopping under the covers, Jeff tosses and turns for a while, head full of the bright lights and sounds of the game, stomach still a little unsettled from the sweetness of the leftover chicken. It takes him a little while to fall asleep.

Looking back over how each of our example employees spent their day at home, it should be apparent who has a grasp over the accepted best practices of remote work. One should treat working from home just like working in the office, with the same schedule to keep and the same level of responsibility for accomplishing their given tasks on time. There are assorted behaviors that can make this a lot easier to do:

  • Keep regular bedtime hours to ensure you are well rested each day.
  • Nourish yourself with healthy meals and regular self-care.
  • Segment your life by distinguishing your workspace from your living space as much as you can.
  • Stick to your usual work hours to keep yourself on task.
  • Minimize distractions, like TV or even chores.
  • Take up a hobby to cleanly split work hours from personal time.
  • Don’t overwork yourself.
  • Stay in communication with your team.

Remember, the same temptations can influence everyone, so make sure to practice what you preach as you share these strategies with your team.

For assistance in facilitating the technical side of remote work, reach out to MSPNetworks today at (516) 403-9001.

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Tip of the Week: Pandemic Problems

Now months into the COVID-19 pandemic, stay-at-home orders are still in place causing most financial analysts to suggest that the economies we depend on might not look the same when business returns. Let’s outline a couple of tips that will help get your business through this terrible situation.


It may be a busted time for your business, but you need to realize that this won’t last forever. Even if yours was one of the unfortunate ones that had to pause its business; or, if you had a plan for how you would maintain your business without its traditional revenue streams, the next few months will probably be difficult for you. Let’s take a look at a few things business owners should think about while things are slow; so their business can hit the ground running when the economy reopens. 

#1: Know Your Facts

This is not a time for conjecture. Not for workers, not for their employers. The first tip we suggest is to know the facts that you need to know in order to keep you in business. Take a look at your budget and make adjustments as necessary. Do you have any resource-intensive vanity projects? Are there entitlement programs you simply can’t fund? If you don’t know, find out. It will be imperative that you do your best to only make decisions when you are confident that they will end up helping your business.

Chances are that you probably didn’t have “worldwide pandemic” as a high probability of the things that would hurt your business. Honestly, who can blame you? That said, worldwide pandemic happened and those businesses that had a dedicated plan to change the way their business functions have had a much easier time overcoming the limitations this situation has presented. 

#2: Maintain Your Relationships

If you are like many business owners you have taken years to develop the relationships that drive your business. It is extremely important to maintain those relationships even if situations arise that will strain them. Your relationships with your financial partners and institutions, your vendors, and your customers rely on honest discourse. Some companies won’t be there when this situation resolves itself, and it’s important that if you want your business to avoid that fate that maintaining solid relationships will go a long way toward that goal.

#3: Think Proactively

Cost-cutting will be the motif for most businesses in the days ahead. Unless one of your business partners makes toilet paper, they are probably hurting to balance their budget too. You will need to understand that many agreements will need to be altered in the coming days. To keep this from causing problems for your business, you will want to proactively budget for these rising costs. You can expect higher interest rates, less available capital, and shorter repayment terms on the money you are able to borrow. 

You also need to be diligent about acquiring capital. By taking proactive financial steps to get you through this period, your business will be in a much better position financially when things begin to open up a little more.

Making sacrifices is always hard, especially if your business was in good standing as the pandemic hit.  By taking the time to make conservative operational and financial decisions now, you will be able to pull the right levers to get your business through whatever comes next.

For help with your post-pandemic technology needs give MSPNetworks a call at (516) 403-9001 today.

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Why We’re Just Waiting for Break/Fix IT Services to Go Away

As much as we hate to admit it, the first thing that many people still think of when they hear the term “tech support” is the experience that comes with an antiquated approach to technology services: the break/fix method. Fortunately for us, we are seeing many businesses make the better decision, and turn to the clearly superior option, managed IT.


Therefore, as a managed service provider, we know that all we have to do is wait.

The Inherent Issues with Break/Fix Services

When business computing really took off in the 1970s, break/fix IT made sense. Businesses were able to deploy standalone microcomputers or distributed mid-range server systems that operated through remote terminals. Then, in the ‘80s, the personal computer combined the benefits of the two, and really highlighted the benefits that computers could offer a business. When Windows 3.1 was introduced to business users in the 1990s, the computer’s place in business was cemented in forever.

For all this time, computers would have their issues… but it just didn’t make sense to call in for repairs or put an internal IT team on it. If it could still operate somewhat, that was good enough. Should the computer break down completely, IT was brought in to fix it.

So, Were Break-Fix Services Once Okay?

Yes and no. Of course, this situation has always presented all the issues that have led many businesses away from the break/fix strategy today. For instance:

  • IT costs could quickly stack up (and up, and up, and up) for a few reasons.
    • Recurring issues mean return visits, which mean additional costs.
    • Recurring issues can occasionally motivate insufficient repairs, to ensure repeat business.
    • Longer visits mean more billable time, and more money spent by companies.
  • Final IT costs are only clear on the final invoice, preventing accurate IT budgeting.
  • It discourages providers from upgrading technology or considering future needs. 

So, break-fix services were unpredictably expensive, and generally prevented any innovation or future planning for the client’s benefit, so issues had the tendency to repeatedly return. However, it wasn’t as though there was another option to compare it to at the time, either.

That option came around in the mid ‘90s, when the amount of technology in the office and its overall complexity increased greatly, with the introduction of fax machines, printers, and other hardware. Computers took much longer to repair when broken. The Internet exploded in popularity, adding an additional element of complexity.

A New Paradigm Emerges: Managed IT

This all meant that break/fix services soon became too inefficient to support businesses properly. Computers were no longer a convenience, but a legitimate necessity in the office, not to mention the other tools and devices that became key components to their processes. Downtime had evolved into something potentially devastating for operations, and expenses ran rampant.

As the new millennium came along, the modern managed service model was brought to the fore. This was thanks to an assortment of developments in information technology, including improved Internet, cloud technology, and automation. Using these tools, some IT providers saw a new opportunity and shifted how their services were delivered.

Gone were the days of waiting for operations to be in jeopardy before doing something about it. 

Now, IT providers have the capability to remotely access and monitor a client’s network from afar, allowing them to more efficiently identify potential issues and mitigate them at effectively all hours—often, before a client ever encounters an issue. The biggest change, however, was how this approach was able to impact the way that managed service providers were able to charge for their services.

Rather than charging at an hourly rate, the nature of the service allowed it to be billed at a very inclusive monthly rate. This simplified matters for the client, as a set-rate service is far easier to budget for. As an added benefit, this also motivated those providers who made the switch from the flawed break/fix approach to deliver a better service to those who signed on to their services.

Service Options Today

With managed services having been around and innovated upon for about two decades, there are even more opportunities for businesses to improve their processes and achieve greater goals. Break/fix is still around, too, but more and more businesses are seeing the comparative benefits of the managed service model and making the decision to switch. Managed services are a source of confidence. You no longer need to be concerned that your technology will bring issues into your business, because someone is there to take care of it for you.

Every so often, a new method is introduced that changes a foundational paradigm. Despite the relatively short time frame that business IT has been around for, managed services did just that… and therefore, break/fix services will eventually be—for all intents and purposes—phased out.

If you want to keep up with all the methods that will improve your business’ operations, reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001 today!

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Coronavirus: A Threat to Your Staff, Cyberthreat to Your Operations

COVID-19, or coronavirus, has been a major global health concern over the past couple of months. At this point, it is clear that this disease could have serious impacts on the workplace. We wanted to provide a brief rundown of good workplace and network health practices, as well as a few pointers on how you can handle health-based employee absences.


How to Minimize General Exposure in the Office

Based on what is currently known about the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have some recommendations as to how to keep the potential impact of coronavirus to a minimum:

  • Encourage employees who are ill to stay home. This will help to minimize the spread of infection within your business. Make sure that your employees are aware of this policy by reiterating it verbally, and by posting notices around the office encouraging them to stay home if under the weather.

    Emphasize hygiene and etiquette. Properly stifling coughs and sneezes and keeping hands clean are surprisingly effective ways to keep your workplace healthier. Rather than using their hands to catch a cough or sneeze, your employees should use a tissue or--if unable to do so--use the upper part of their sleeve.

    The CDC recommends that tissues and alcohol-based hand sanitizer should be made readily available. Make sure your employees are washing their hands with soap and water for the recommended 20 seconds.

  • Engage in keeping the workplace clean. There is a chance that coronavirus (and other illnesses) could be spread via infected surfaces. Make sure that all surfaces that are touched frequently, like desks, workstations, and doorknobs, are kept sanitized. Provide your employees with disposable wipes so they can proactively disinfect these surfaces before use.

If you find that one of your employees is confirmed to have been infected with coronavirus, make sure that you inform their coworkers of their possible exposure while still maintaining the confidentiality that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires. These employees and those who are living with a sick family member should assess their risk of exposure using the CDC’s guidelines.

Coronavirus as a Cyberthreat

Unfortunately, coronavirus will also require you to also keep an eye on your network security, particularly if you operate within the healthcare industry. Hackers and cybercriminals have taken advantage of the widespread concern that the disease has caused. For example:

  • Scammers have phished healthcare providers with updates that appear to have come from the World Health Organization or hospitals local to their area, but actually introduce keyloggers into their systems.
  • Those involved in the medical supply chain have been targeted with emails referencing the coronavirus that install malware to steal information.
  • Ransomware has been introduced into consumer systems by promising recipients of an email information about COVID-19’s spread.

While the current climate may not make it easy, these emails and other threat vectors can be overcome through the same best practices that foil other cyberthreats. In addition to comprehensive digital protections, training your employees to spot these threats will be crucial.

Of course, you should also maintain a comprehensive backup in case you need to recover from a successful attack.

How to Maintain Productivity with Your Team at Home

With today’s technology, sending an employee home sick doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be sacrificing that employee’s productivity. We now have many ways that your team can work effectively from home, still contributing to your organizational agenda without exposing their coworkers to their illness.

Equipping Your Employees

Remote access solutions, paired with virtual private networking technology, can allow your employees to securely continue their work from home, safely accessing the applications and data their tasks require through an encrypted connection. As collaboration will certainly be necessary, you will want to be sure that your employees are also equipped with the communication tools that facilitate this collaboration as well.

Network Protections

You will also want to thoroughly secure your network infrastructure to help prevent threats like phishing attacks and other methods from being successful… as well as preparing for a potential breach or emergency with data backups and disaster recovery policies and procedures (including contact information for your employees) to help mitigate a worst-case scenario.

Employee Awareness

Finally, make sure your employees are on the lookout for any suspicious activity that could be a cybercriminal’s attempt at using the coronavirus as a means to an end. Not only should your employees know how to spot these attempts; they should also know the proper procedures for reporting and handling them.

Is the coronavirus scary? At this point, it is safe to say that it is, but does it have to interrupt your business operations entirely? Not if you are properly prepared.

For more assistance in preparing your business for any kind of disaster, reach out to the professionals at MSPNetworks by calling (516) 403-9001.

 

What is COVID-19?

COVID-19, better known as coronavirus, is a respiratory illness that first appeared in Wuhan, China, and was reported in the United States on January 21st, 2020.

As of March 3rd, 12 states have reported 60 total cases of coronavirus and six confirmed deaths, with no vaccines or specific antiviral treatments for the illness. Symptoms of the virus include fever, shortness of breath, and a cough, while those with complications from the virus can experience pneumonia in both lungs, failure of multiple organs, and death. 

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With Phishing Attacks Beating 2FA, You Need to Be Able to Spot Them

Unfortunately, one of the most effective defenses against phishing attacks has suddenly become a lot less dependable. This means that you and your users must be ready to catch these attempts instead. Here, we’ll review a few new attacks that can be included in a phishing attempt, and how you and your users can better identify them for yourselves.


How Has Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Been Defeated?

There are a few different methods that have been leveraged to bypass the security benefits that 2FA is supposed to provide.

On a very basic level, some phishing attacks have been successful in convincing the user to hand over their credentials and the 2FA code that is generated when a login attempt is made. According to Amnesty International, one group of hackers has been sending out phishing emails that link the recipient to a convincing, yet fake, page to reset their Google password. In some cases, fake emails like this can look very convincing, which makes this scheme that much more effective.

As Amnesty International investigated these attacks, they discovered that the attacks were also leveraging automation to automatically launch Chrome and submit whatever the user entered on their end. This means that the 30-second time limit on 2FA credentials was of no concern.

In November 2018, an application on a third-party app store disguised as an Android battery utility tool was discovered to actually be a means of stealing funds from a user’s PayPal account. To do so, this application would alter the device’s Accessibility settings to enable the accessibility overlay feature. Once this was in place, the user’s clicks could be mimicked, allowing an attacker to send funds to their own PayPal account.

Another means of attack was actually shared publicly by Piotr Duszyński, a Polish security researcher. His method, named Modlishka, creates a reverse proxy that intercepts and records credentials as the user attempts to input them into the impersonated website. Modlishka then sends the credentials to the real website, concealing its theft of the user’s credentials. Worse, if the person leveraging Modlishka is present, they can steal 2FA credentials and quickly leverage them for themselves.

How to Protect Yourself Against 2FA Phishing

First and foremost, while it isn’t an impenetrable method, you don’t want to pass up on 2FA completely, although some methods of 2FA are becoming much more preferable than others. At the moment, the safest form of 2FA is to utilize hardware tokens with U2F protocol.

Even more importantly, you need your entire team to be able to identify the signs of a phishing attempt. While attacks like these can make it more challenging, a little bit of diligence can assist greatly in preventing them.

When all is said and done, 2FA fishing is just like regular phishing… there’s just the extra step of replicating the need for a second authentication factor. Therefore, a few general best practices for avoiding any misleading and malicious website should do.

First of  all, you need to double-check and make sure you’re actually on the website you wanted to visit. For instance, if you’re trying to access your Google account, the login url won’t be www - logintogoogle - dot com. Website spoofing is a very real way that (as evidenced above) attackers will try to fool users into handing over credentials.

There are many other signs that a website, or an email, may be an attempt to phish you. Google has actually put together a very educational online activity on one of the many websites owned by Alphabet, Inc. Put your phishing identification skills to the test by visiting https://phishingquiz.withgoogle.com/, and encourage the rest of your staff to do the same!

For more best practices, security alerts, and tips, make sure you subscribe to our blog, and if you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to our team by calling (516) 403-9001.

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How to Leverage Parallelism to Up Your Productivity

As unfortunate as it is to hear, science has pretty definitely kyboshed the notion that multitasking works. However, while multitasking may not actually have any true benefits to productivity, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any ways to accomplish more in less time. Today, we’ll give you a better option than multitasking, a process known as parallelism.

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Tip of the Week: Android Pie Tips and Tricks

There are over two billion active devices currently using Android. Most of them that have been purchased in the past year or so have come with, or have been subsequently updated to, Android 9.0 Pie. With the introduction of their newest mobile OS, Google has ensured that their software powers more mobile phones than any other software in the world. Today, we’ll take a look at some handy tips you can use to get the most out of your Android Pie experience.


New Gestures
In the newest Android OS, Google has built a new gesture navigation system. It may not be automatically turned on. To turn it on, go to Settings > System > Gestures. Then tap on Swipe on Home Button and press the on-screen toggle switch. You will see an immediate change from the three-icon setup of previous builds to a singular pill-shaped icon.

Navigation isn’t much different than for previous builds. Tap the pill icon to return to the homescreen and long press it to bring up Google Assistant. You can now swipe up twice or long-swipe from the home icon to access your app drawer.

Another change was needed since Android 9.0 Pie removes the dedicated button for recent apps. Now users only need a singular short swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open a new carousel gallery that shows all recently-opened apps. To navigate you can swipe between apps, or use the home icon to swipe fast left and right to move through apps more quickly. If you want to clear the apps, simply swipe up on a specific app window; and, if you want to clear all of your apps, scroll all the way to the left and tap the Clear All button to exit all running apps on the device.

In Android 9.0 Pie, the software tries to predict what you’re likely to need next, and offer up actions. If you find it useful you can drag these suggestions, found at the top of your app drawer onto the screen. Lastly, you can find the shortcuts offered by each app by long-pressing on a specific app icon. This includes opening an app in split-screen mode, a major improvement from Android 8.0 Oreo.

Device Notes
One extremely useful feature for heavy smartphone users is one where if you touch your fingerprint scanner (on devices that don’t feature an in-display fingerprint reader), it will keep the screen from going dark.

Most people today use their phones as an alarm clock. Even if you don’t, there are definitely times when using the alarm feature is necessary. In Android 9.0 Pie, when your notification panel is open (swipe down from top) you only need to tap on the clock in the system tray to open your Clock app and manage your alarms.

Do you have an Android phone with 9.0 Pie on it? What new features are your favorites? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

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Tip of the Week: Creating Process Documentation

Businesses are driven by processes. More often than not, these processes are fairly definitive - do this, then do that, then do the other thing - and require a set order of operations. There also happen to be a lot of these processes, which makes it important that they are well-documented so you and your employees can refer to this documentation later. Here, we’ll offer a few tips on how to best document a task.

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Tip of the Week: PowerPoint as a Multi-Purpose Tool

Microsoft PowerPoint is a well-known solution - well-known enough that the product has become synonymous with the task, regardless of what program one happens to use. Of course, this doesn’t mean that one necessarily must use it to create a presentation to go with a sales pitch. For this week’s tip, we’ll suggest a few other tasks you could complete with the help of a PowerPoint presentation.


Infographics
One of the nicest parts of Microsoft Powerpoint is how it can almost serve as a very rudimentary vector graphic design software, especially if you’re just trying to add some visual context to a concept - like, for example, in an infographic. Using a single .pptx file, you could create all the infographics your company needs, printing them out or saving them as PDFs as the occasion demands.

Training Quizzes
A big problem with a lot of the training that an employee needs to undergo as a part of their employment is that it can be fairly dull, much of it comprised of note after note cycled past them on a screen. That’s hardly an effective way to go about building a habit. However, with a properly prepared PowerPoint, you can turn your training lecture into an interactive question and answer quiz, with engaging visuals to help hold your staff’s attention.

Onboarding Process
Speaking of your staff, I’m sure we can all remember our first few days on our respective jobs, and the onboarding process that we had to undergo. Chances are, it wasn’t all too dissimilar to the training quizzes we just discussed. Like these trainings, PowerPoint can be used to give these onboarding seminars a little more pizazz, and chances are, this will only help to make these seminars more engaging and impactful.

Company News
This is an easy cheat that you see high schools use all the time for their daily announcements: you can use PowerPoint to create a news banner that scrolls repeatedly throughout the day. Whether you want to make sure everyone remembers the meeting on Tuesday, or you have clients who should know about your upcoming promotion, it is simple to set up your announcement reel and just have them playing on a monitor throughout the day. Think of it as a budget-friendly form of digital signage.

Simple Flyer Creator
Need a quick deliverable? Just like you could a quick infographic, you can whip up a quick flyer on PowerPoint and print them up, ready to go. While it isn’t ideal, it’s an easy way to get the job done.

Whether Microsoft PowerPoint is your go-to solution for these needs, or you prefer to use more “official” solutions, MSPNetworks can help you get your hands on the software tools to get the job done. Reach out to us at (516) 403-9001 to learn more.

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Prioritize the Protection of Your Google Account

Chances are you have a Google account, whether it’s for business or personal use. It’s more accessible today than ever before and provides a solid way to gain access to several important features and accounts. Considering how much can be done with a Google account, users forget that they can put their security and personal data at risk. Here are some ways that your Google account is at risk, as well as what you can do to fix it.


Why Is Your Google Account so Valuable?
The Internet has always been a tool to keep those who use it connected, and data stored on it shared and accessible. However, like any tool that evolves and changes over time, its purposes and uses change with it. The idea for what would become the Internet came from J.C.R. Licklider of MIT in 1962, who intended it to be a system of interconnected computers used to share information and programs across the entire world. This idea would become the World Wide Web with the help of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who had this to say:

“Had the technology been proprietary, and in my total control, it would probably not have taken off. You can’t propose that something be a universal space and at the same time keep control of it.”

These ideals are still retained by today’s Internet; if anything, you might say it’s reached its peak. Social media use and network collaboration is at an all-time high, generally free of control by any central entity. These ideals have led to a demand for the preservation of net neutrality and open-access information, and while these are largely upheld, there are always exceptions to the rule.

While the Internet grew in capability, it also grew in utility. These utilities depend on security and privacy. Since so many people began to use the Internet to deal with confidential information, this increased the importance of security from both the perspective of an everyday user and a business. One of the companies that has helped shape this perspective is Google, a company that offers a plethora of services on both a user level and a business level.

You can’t discredit the importance of Google services for business, such as its G Suite applications and Gmail. Even on a general consumer level, many users find Google services helpful and important to their daily routine, to say the least. With Google security so important, take a moment to ask yourself how many online accounts have access to your Google account. What are you risking if your Google password is stolen by hackers looking to make a quick buck?

What You Risk
You can use your Google account to create other accounts, either by using your associated Gmail address or linking it directly, but what does that mean for security standards? It’s important to remember that this convenience comes at a price; linking an account to your Google account inevitably ties that account’s security to your Google account. This means that if your Google account is compromised, any accounts associated with it could also be at risk.

How Devastating Can It Be?
If you’re reading this on your desktop, you can click here to access your Google account. Under the Security section, you can review all devices that your Google account has been active on, as well as all third-party applications that access your account. You can even see all the websites that are using Google Smart Lock. Take a moment to review this list. Does it contain anything particularly sensitive? How about your bank account? If this is the case, it’s easy for anyone who has access to your Google account to access any accounts associated with your Google account from the simple virtue of being able to recover passwords and usernames for the account.

A Solution
This creates a conflict between two of any technology user’s priorities: convenience and security. Some might even be willing to sacrifice security if it means a little convenience (think using the same password for multiple accounts), but in the professional world, this can be dangerous if mishandled. There isn’t a magical button that will make your Google account secure, so you’ll have to use a collection of best practices and preventative measures to make sure your credentials are properly secured. Be sure to keep an eye out for data breaches and change passwords accordingly, as well as taking into account the following practices:

Passwords and Account Security
The Google account is basically a container of credentials for any account connected to it. This means that you need a strong password or passphrase to protect it. Make sure that your password is long, complex, and doesn’t include any identifiable words that might give it away to someone just guessing at it. Also, be sure to only access your Google account on personal devices rather than public ones, as you could be putting your account at risk this way. Public Wi-Fi is in a similar risk category; only access your account through a private or secured connection.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
One of the better ways you can keep your Google account secure is by making it more difficult to access. A secondary code sent to your mobile device in the form of a text message, generated via Google Authenticator, or a call made to your mobile device, make it so that anyone with your password needs to work a little harder to access your account. Enabling this kind of 2FA decreases the chances that you’ll have problems with a cybercriminal taking over your account, since it’s highly unlikely that they will also have access to your mobile device, too. Google Authenticator is by far the most secure of the options presented for 2FA for your Google account.

Your Google account can be used to access one-time authentication codes that can be printed out and kept on your person, giving you immediate access to your account on the off-chance you don’t have your phone on you at that moment. If you run out of codes or lose the list, you can generate new ones easily enough.

To set up these features, log in to your Google account.

Overall, Google offers great ways to keep your account secure, as long as you take advantage of them. To learn more about how you can keep your accounts secure, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

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