MSPNetworks Blog

Encryption is a powerful weapon against hackers that can prevent them from stealing your data and leveraging it against you. Encryption, in its most basic textbook definition, converts your readable data into an indecipherable jumble that can only be reassembled through the use of an encryption key. Small businesses absolutely must utilize encryption to protect customer information, financial records, and other important or sensitive business data. This ensures that it is as protected as possible against those that might do you harm.

Most organizations are trying to figure out how to secure their IT against the constant flood of threats out there. Unfortunately, the biggest threat out there isn’t something that you can actively protect against. Can you guess what it is?

Unfortunately, it’s your employees, and their potentially lax password practices—and while you can’t really protect yourself against insecure passwords, you can minimize the likelihood that they’ll be used.

A Password Manager is a Great Security Asset

A password manager is a great little program, as it allows you to store all of the credentials that you would otherwise be tasked with remembering.

But wait, I can hear you saying, aren’t you not supposed to write down your passwords?

Usually, yes! However, reputable password management solutions give you a place to store these passwords that’s heavily fortified through encryption. That’s the key difference between the password manager and a little notebook that you keep around.to scribble credentials in…only one of these options features the security that encryption provides (and it isn’t the little notebook).

Considering that the average user needs to remember dozens of passwords, having a safe place to store them is a huge benefit.

This is just the start of the benefits that a password manager provides. In addition to the secure convenience, a quality password manager will allow you to generate more secure passwords to use…all accessible to you behind a single master password.

With all of the credentials you may need easily accessible, either through a browser plugin or dedicated desktop/mobile applications, you can rest easy knowing that you and your team members won’t be locked out of a necessary solution at an inopportune moment.

Speaking of your team, a password manager makes it far easier for them to share the credentials that they’ll need to use amongst one another. You can share access to them as needed, making it easier to endorse productivity.

So, to sum up, a password manager:

• Helps you to use sufficiently secure passwords
• Assists you in creating passwords that are more secure
• Enables your entire organization to access shared resources easily

We Can Get Your Business Set Up With a Password Manager

Turn to us to ensure you select a reputable and reliable password management solution, and any other tools or resources your business would utilize. Give us a call at (516) 403-9001 to start a conversation about it.

Data security always needs to be considered as one of your most important business priorities. After all, the ramifications of data loss are wide-reaching and severe. To help you ensure that your data security is at the level it needs to be, we’ve put together five questions you need to answer regarding your business’ security preparedness.

“Are my processes based in security?”

Or, in other words: is your work environment designed in such a way that the most secure option is the default? End-to-end security is one thing, incorporating it into a proactive process is quite another. A foundation based upon secure functionality will help lead to better outcomes. Are your users trained to exclusively follow the most secure processes?

If not, this is where you need to start. A company culture steeped in security awareness is one of the best ways to protect your data, simply because it will help to minimize any improvisation that your employees would otherwise attempt. Educate your users properly, and they will turn into one of your biggest security assets.

“How regulated is access to different files?”

On the topic of your employees, how much data is accessible by any given person? There is no reason that one of your salespeople should have access to payroll information, just as your fulfillment division shouldn’t know any payment information beyond whether a bill was paid or not. Securing your data and only enabling access through role-based permissions with private usernames and multiple authentication measures will help shore up your risks. Remember, these permissions and access controls should be audited regularly to ensure that the data they protect remains on a need-to-know basis.

“Is my data encrypted?”

Or, as this question reads after being encrypted on a random website:

“?b64b0EbdbZMVy0aghJaLO+x2ic7F02JurazKFq4r6dv0y7RpMWaNL00qDWW1nQ39vgmELHKNtUl42u0iIhoc4AM1w==?64b”

Of course, without the decryption key, you can only assume that I’m being honest, which is kind of the point. Making sure that your data is encrypted can protect its contents should it be stolen. This means that you will want to be sure that the answer to this question is…

“?b64LQwXhsseeRhWY0MptIJLxsV4NyLYoBpSAzcypRZMD7BEQmmnDgbB4I6ks8ujGmza?64b”

…or, decrypted: “It sure is!”

The topic of encryption is far too complex to go into here in any detail. If you’d like to learn more about encryption and how it can help protect your business’ sensitive data, call us and ask one of our technicians to explain it to you (or to help you implement it)!

“Have I tested my security measures?”

Once your security measures are implemented, your job is far from done. To ensure that they remain effective, they must be stress-tested and evaluated under controlled conditions. What assets are the most important to protect, and what threats are they most in danger of succumbing to? How likely are these threats to come into play, and how are you vulnerable to them?

Establishing these benchmarks will give you greater insights into the weaknesses inherent in your processes and how they can be remedied.

MSPNetworks can help you find these insights and put the best solutions in place in response. To learn more about this process, reach out to our professionals at (516) 403-9001.

A virtual private network (also known as a VPN) is something that more and more businesses are using, especially now while most of the workforce is now working from home. As a means of encrypting data while it is in transit, the use of a VPN enables you to transmit assorted types of data more safely. Of course, not all VPNs are the same, and so you need to be careful to select the right solution for your needs.

Let’s go over a few considerations you should keep in mind.

Why Do I Need a VPN?

Look at it this way: in a normal situation, how often do you find yourself accessing the Internet as you’re out and about--more specifically, checking on business matters and sending and receiving business data? Any time you do so (or otherwise access the Internet) your data is susceptible to being spied on and/or intercepted on its way to its destination. 

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic currently in place, we’re far from a normal situation. Now it is more important than ever to give your workforce a secure way to access company data.

This should make the importance of a VPN to businesses of all sizes only too apparent.

What to Look for in a Business VPN

There are fundamental differences between a VPN designed for consumer use and one designated for a business. A personal-use VPN allows your selection process to be boiled down into what is pretty much a simple value-based decision: which option gives me the protection and speed for the best price? Personal VPNs tend to protect home users from being tracked online. It’s yet another layer of protection, but they aren’t really designed for business.

However, a business has different needs than an individual user, the primary one being the fact that the end-user isn’t necessarily the one who should be controlling the VPN’s use.

To address this exact issue, business VPNs are designed to allow for centralized management, something that consumer-focused VPNs do not. With a business VPN, you have the power to make sure each user is protected by the VPN in a simple way.

Additionally, different types of VPNs exist to fulfill different needs. There are remote access VPNs, which are the better-known variety that preserves privacy and protects data while it’s in transit. There are also site-to-site VPNs, which allow users working on different networks to access resources from the others’. This is particularly handy in large businesses with multiple locations, as they allow data to be shared between locations conveniently and without any risk to security.

This has just been a brief introduction to the VPN-selection process. If you’re serious about putting one into place, or even if you just want to learn more about them, reach out to MSPNetworks. Our team can help evaluate your situation and recommend the best course of action for you, as well as help you fulfill your business’ IT needs. Call us at (516) 403-9001 today.

Businesses have a lot of data to protect and it’s not so simple as implementing a catch-all solution that can keep your data secure. In fact, it takes several solutions working in tandem to maximize data security. We recommend a combination of a unified threat management tool, a Bring Your Own Device policy, and a virtual private network solution. Let’s take a longer look at them:

Unified Threat Management

A unified threat management tool consists of several security solutions wrapped into one. They include the following:

• Firewall: A firewall looks at the data flowing in and out of a network to keep any threats from passing.
• Antivirus: If a threat manages to sneak past the firewall, an antivirus solution can identify and eliminate it.
• Spam blocker: Email is one of the more susceptible business solutions to attack, but a spam blocker can keep these messages from being threats and wastes of time by keeping them out of the inbox in the first place.
• Content filter: Content filters keep employees from accessing dangerous or time-wasting websites throughout the workday.

All of this combines to form a comprehensive security tool that can significantly decrease the odds of being infiltrated by the myriad of threats out there.

Bring Your Own Device

Businesses need to be wary of mobile devices in the workplace, as they can become a bridge between online threats and your organization’s network if left unprotected. This is why we recommend that all businesses implement a BYOD policy that employees must adhere to in order to use their personal devices for work purposes. A proper BYOD policy should prioritize security through a mobile device management system that whitelists and blacklists applications, as well as provides the option to remotely wipe the devices should the need arise.

Virtual Private Networks

Virtual private networks, also known as VPNs, are particularly helpful for businesses that have devices out of the office that still need access to important data. A VPN acts as an encrypted tunnel, connecting your employees to important data in a secure environment. This keeps onlookers from stealing any data while it’s moving about, and it’s invaluable for organizations with many moving parts.

MSPNetworks can help your business get its security options in gear. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

When encryption is discussed, one of its high points that business professionals try to hammer home is that it’s more secure. But what does encryption really mean for businesses? Does it adequately protect data and devices? We’ll walk you through a brief rundown of how encryption works and the role it plays in keeping your business secure.

What is Encryption?
Encryption is a security measure that’s designed to help you keep your data safe on the off-chance that it’s ever stolen by hackers. If a hacker has access to the file, then they can use any of the data they can access, which could be a lot if you’re unlucky. Encryption removes this factor by scrambling the data in a way that renders it unreadable to anyone who doesn’t have the decryption key. This effectively makes the data useless, as high-quality encryption can take insane amounts of time and processing power to crack.

One technology solution that uses encryption particularly well is a virtual private network, or VPN. A VPN can be used by your employees to securely access your network across an Internet connection, no matter their location. It’s like a bridge between the employee’s device and your data. Imagine that there is a clear tube connecting your infrastructure to the employee device; any onlooker will be able to see the contents. Encryption makes it so that it’s more opaque, or less clear, making it more difficult for hackers to steal your data while it’s in transit.

Why is it Important?
Considering how important security is in today’s data-driven environment, you need to take any and all precautions possible to ensure your organization isn’t at risk. Encryption in particular is important because it’s a fail-safe that protects your data should a hacker somehow acquire it. With this in mind, you need to take preventative measures now while you still can. Remember, as long as your data can be stolen in a readable state, hackers will seek it out, so take matters into your own hands now to prevent a catastrophe in the future.

MSPNetworks can help your organization secure its data with encryption. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

The cloud is such an important part of today’s business environment that most organizations use it to some extent, even if it’s just for basic storage needs. However, the cloud needs to be properly maintained, starting with the way you secure your cloud services. Take a moment to ask yourself if your cloud--whether it’s hosted on-site or by a provider--is safe and secure.

Here is a list of four major issues that many organizations have regarding their cloud security.

End-to-End Encryption
To protect data on your network, the most effective method is to encrypt it. Encryption jumbles the data, making it difficult for hackers and other malicious entities to read the data unless they have also stolen an encryption key to decrypt the files. Encryption is there to put the user’s mind at ease, as it provides the knowledge that even in a worst-case scenario, your data is safe.

Physical Security Measures
If you don’t host your data on-site, you need to make sure that the data center you use is protected against not just digital intruders, but invaders who would use physical access to infiltrate the systems. You should have some combination of armed security patrols, biometric authentication procedures, and monitoring to keep intruders out. If you host in-house, you need to consider many of these same solutions. You should always have your servers being monitored, while being stored in the most secure locations possible.

Compliance Regulations
Various industries are subject to specific compliance laws that need to be adhered to, lest they face fines that could cripple even the soundest budget. For example, any business that uses health records to any extent is subject to HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This means that they must take specific measures to protect any of this information or face steep fines.

Standard (Scalable) Security Measures
The same security measures you want to use in-house should also be protecting your cloud-based infrastructure. These measures include antivirus, firewalls, a spam blocker, and content filter. All of these measures are implemented to keep your cloud solution as safe as can be from any threats bold enough to attack, whether they are internal or external. An enterprise-level Unified Threat Management solution is critical to the success of this endeavor, and it’s the best way to make sure your business’ assets remain secured.

MSPNetworks can help your business keep its cloud resources secure. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.