It’s Monday morning and one of your employees notifies you that they lost their laptop at a Starbucks over the weekend, apologizing profusely. Aside from the cost and inconvenience of buying a new laptop, could you be on the hook for bigger costs, and should you notify all your clients? Maybe, depending on where you live and what type of data you had stored on that laptop.

An Emerging Trend In Business Law

Since companies are storing more and more data on their employees and clients, most states are starting to aggressively enforce security breach notification laws that set out the responsibilities for businesses capturing and storing personal data. What do most states consider confidential or sensitive data? Definitely medical and financial records such as credit card numbers, credit scores and bank account numbers, but also addresses and phone numbers, social security numbers, birthdays and in some cases purchase history—information that almost every single company normally keeps on their clients.

“We Did Our Best” Is No Longer An Acceptable Answer

With millions of cyber criminals working daily to hack systems, and with employees accessing more and more confidential client data, there is no known way to absolutely, positively guarantee you won’t have a data breach. However, your efforts to put in place good, solid best practices in security will go a long way to help you avoid hefty fines. Here are some basic things to look at to avoid being labeled irresponsible and how to comply with security breach notification laws:

– Managing access. Who can access the confidential information you store in your business? Is this information easily accessible by everyone in your company? What is your policy about taking data out o

– IT security and passwords The more sensitive the data, the higher the level of security you need to keep on it. Are your passwords easy to crack? Is the data encrypted? Secured behind a strong firewall? If not, why?f the office on mobile devices?

– Training. One of the biggest causes for data breaches is the human element: employees who accidentally download viruses and malware that allow hackers easy access. Do you have a data security policy? A password policy? Do you have training to help employees understand how to use e-mail and the Internet responsibly?

– Physical security. It’s becoming more common for thieves to break into offices and steal servers, laptops and other digital devices. Additionally, paper contracts and other physical documents containing sensitive information should be locked up or scanned and encrypted.

The bottom line is this: Data security is something that EVERY business is now responsible for, and not addressing this important issue has consequences that go beyond the legal aspect; it can seriously harm your reputation with clients. So be smart about this. Talk to your attorney about your legal responsibility.

 

Cloud Phone Systems

A large amount organizations are permanently searching for ways to help their businesses become more effective. Increased performance signifies vast growth possibilities, and growth indicates the opportunity for better profitability, the intention of each and every company. One particular area that lots of companies have ignored in their aim for enhanced profit potential is their choice of phone system. After all, how could a telephone system build up profitability ? The advantages are greater than might seem initially.

VOIP/Cloud Phone System. A Quick Explanation

Voice over Internet Protocol ( VOIP ) cloud phone systems provide voice as well as other communications over the Internet, in comparison with conventional wired phone systems or traditional mobile cellular phone services that use their exclusive networks in one form or another. Because of this , VOIP/Cloud phone systems provide users the chance to handle a single integrated data network that features diverse forms of communications, instead of having different networks for various business functions.

The Double Benefits of VOIP/Cloud Phone Systems

Accurately implemented, a VOIP/Cloud phone system will help the bottom line of companies in a couple of ways, direct cost savings and improved productivity.

1 . VOIP/Cloud phone systems can help to save businesses their money directly in many different ways.

Reduced Initial Expenses: New gear necessary for a VOIP/Cloud phone system is affordable.
Maintenance Expense Reduction: The lack of complex infrastructure reduces maintenance expenses to the bone. The heavy-lifting is all completed remotely by the vendor.
Lower Telephone Monthly Bills: Based upon the package selected, considering the fact that communication is transmitted over an Internet network, a huge decrease in the month-to-month telephone bill is likely. Nearly always, no matter the duration of the call and location of the user, individual phone call fees just vanish.

2 . As amazing as the immediate cost benefits from a switch to VOIP can be, the efficiency increases may be a lot more considerable  although they’re typically a little more hard to identify. VOIP can enhance staff member productivity in the following ways:

Integration: By including all of the communication networks into just one package, staff can accomplish extra jobs in significantly less time. For example, e-mail, voicemail, faxes and text messages can each be accessed and replied to utilizing only one device and application. Customer service information can be directly found while conversing with a customer or communicating by Web chat or text, drastically saving time and errors.
Wider Accessibility: Any staff member can easily be in contact with virtually any device which has access to the Internet, which significantly benefits an increasing mobile workforce. That access isn’t restricted to direct voice communication. The capability to tie into files and data, as well as place telephone calls, e-mail and texts, is a significant aspect of the benefit of VOIP/Cloud phone systems.
Improved Flexibility: VOIP/Cloud phone systems users normally are able to make modifications to the system without needing to undergo some type of IT Computer support. The majority of providers have ways to make adjustments by a simple phone call or a Web-based user interface. Hardly ever will there be a need to wait around for some kind of broad-based infrastructure transformation to fulfill new demands.

Time to Switch ?

Most companies, large and small, have actually considered it smart to shift from a traditional phone system to VOIP/Cloud phone system and receive considerable concrete benefits as a result. It may be time for your company to think about a VOIP/Cloud phone system as a data network alternative.

An increasing number of businesses are allowing and even asking their staff members to bring their mobile phones or mobile computers to work. You can find clear advantages, but additionally hazards that could not be as apparent.

You might have seen an increasing number of your workers or associates taking their computing devices to work, be it their smart phone, tablet or notebook computer. Or maybe in some other businesses you might have observed, they already have allowed folks to choose which device they bring as they are accustomed to it at home. You probably will not be aware of it, however this is all an important part of a substantial tendency known as the “consumerization” of technology, in which the effect of consumer IT is being significantly experienced at work and it is being also implemented as part of an IT managed services. With the broad access to inexpensive but powerful mobile devices and internet services, an increasing number of persons are becoming exposed to the most recent technology at their home first, adopting them at a speed much faster compared to what the majority of companies can handle.

Part of a smart managed services strategy

This tendency and also the raising complexity and sophistication of young workers and their disappointment with the gear offered to them in the workplace, is forcing certain firms to embrace a “bring your own device” or BYOD strategy including it, since day one, on a managed services strategy. Based on investigations by technologies analyst organization Gartner, end users will very soon be responsible for 55 per-cent of a company IT procurement decisions, ultimately taking and using their devices on company networks. In the meantime, around one-third of today’s young employees, not only would like to work with the computer system of their preference, but additionally wishes control over the programs they normally use.

The added benefits businesses mention to implementing a BYOD managed services strategy are numerous, for example:

Reductions on capital expenditures and training fees for using company equipment: Compensating workers by means of variable work time, subsidized acquisitions, coverage  as well as other benefits.
Fewer administration headache: Effectively allowing staff to choose what to utilize, releases the organization from some overhead and administration obligation.
Enhanced staff satisfaction: By providing workers the independence to employ equipment and software they prefer.

Nevertheless, before you decide to consider allowing workers to bring their own personal devices to the workplace, keep in mind that there are down sides, and at times, real threats in doing so, including:

Non-standardization of equipment , operating systems , and programs. When your company procedures need that some devices are integrated with others, then BYOD may over time, actually raise IT administration expenses and reduce performance. Most of the time this can be controlled when paired with a managed services strategy.

Opening your network to virus or safety vulnerabilities and breaches. Every time your workers take their digital devices to work, essential management safety is reduced. Consumer gadgets usually don’t make use of similar bullet proof defense technology required by companies.

Leak of private or proprietary data. Personnel will normally do what they want with the information on their digital devices, even when it doesn’t belong to them or it’s against the organization guidelines. Employees may also lose valuable business information if they misplace their individual devices.

Reduced economies of scale in procurement. In essence, mainly because everybody is purchasing devices independently, you pass up the opportunity to consolidate acquisitions and reduce investment costs for your company.

Have you implemented a BYOD managed services strategy at work? Considering it? Concerned about this trend? If you wish to understand BYOD better in order to outline a plan for your team, contact us and discover precisely, how we are able to help.

Use secure passwords

Odds are high that you currently take big measures to make sure that your network and devices are protected from threats. But, do you use the similar measures to make certain that your mail, social networking  bank, etc. are also safe ? The weakest link of those accounts is the password, and that’s just where nearly all hackers attack. Do you use a secure password?

In order to reduce the likelihood of your password getting hacked , below are some things you should never do.

Don’t use short un-secure passwords

While short passwords are simpler to memorize, they are also recognized as less difficult and also faster to hack. The most frequent method to hack passwords is by utilizing brute force: Creating an index of each and every possible password and then attempting this list with a username.

Making use of a mid-range computer system similar to the one a lot of people have on their home and work, with a standard Internet connection, it is possible to build a listing of all of the possible passwords really quickly. For instance, it will require  13 seconds to produce a listing of all probable passwords employing 5 lowercase letters ( for instance a ,d ,h, etc . ) only. It requires around a couple of hours to create an index of all possible passwords working with only 5 of any keyboard character. As soon as a hacker possesses the listing,  they simply have to try out each possible secure password with your user name.

However, a list of eight character passwords with a minumum of one special character ( @, $, % ) as well as one capital letter, will require this computer system two centuries to create. Put simply, the longer the password, the tougher it is going to be to hack. With that being said, longer secure passwords aren’t impossible to hack, they simply take a longer time. So,  the majority of hackers will often focus on the short passwords first.

Don’t choose the same password

The way nearly all hackers work is by assuming people will use identical passwords for various accounts. Once they can get one password, it’s as easy as going through that account’s details for any associated accounts and attempting the initial password with different accounts. When one of them is your mail, in which you hold financial institution data, you might  discover your account cleared.

For this reason is crucial that you use a distinct secure password for each on-line account. The trick here is utilize a secure password that is as unique as possible. Don’t simply include a number or symbol at the end. In case you have problem remembering all of the passwords, use a secure password manager.

Don’t employ phrases from the dictionary or all numbers

This informative article, emphasizes the twenty five most common un secure passwords. Observe that well over 12 consist of words from the dictionary and also nearly all of the rest are series of regular numbers. To have a secure password, most of the security specialists recognize that you should not make use of terms from the dictionary or number patterns that are beside one another ( 10111213 ).

Don’t employ regular number substitutions

Many people use un-secure passwords in which they swap letters with a number that appears identical, for example: paZZw8rD ( password ). Nearly all new password hacking methods have patterns like this integrated, which will try out a standard word and then switching letters with similar numbers. Don’t do it.

Backup Strategy – Small business owners trying to save some time and money, shouldn’t be doing this 5 mistakes at the cost of their data protection. Research from the University of Texas showed forty-two percent (42%) of businesses affected by disastrous information loss close their doors and never reopen, and more than half cease to operate within couple of years.

Backup solutions provider Datto warns small business owners about the most frequent data maintenance mistakes that may place their company’s computer data in danger.

Overlooking Hardware Components Malfunction and a Reliable Backup Strategy

Equipment failures are the major factor for data damage. Even though the majority of business owners don’t entirely ignore hardware that is failing to backup business data, many do frequently dismiss the fact that some backup strategy platforms have substantial malfunction rates, such as tape, which is used as both the origin and target of a back-up. To decrease the chance of device malfunctions, relocate computer data from the primary storage devices to an independent, secondary storage device. Disk to disk back-up is the most effective method, since it’s more reliable compared to tape but still assures a physically different secondary storage space that will survive equipment and system malfunctions.

Hoping That Users Comply with Policies

The simple truth is that staff members aren’t usually fantastic at following business policies, and when they do, errors still occur. The ideal defenses against human mistakes are automation and retention. Automation allows automated execution and rigid enforcement of developed policies and processes, and retention helps data restoration, whether or not the information failure is discovered immediately or days later.

Cyber Criminals Do Exists

These day, a lot of companies own at least basic safety methods as a backup strategy, for example firewalls and anti-virus applications set up to protect against malware, but cyber criminals have become extremely proficient messing the probability at breaching via standard cyber defenses. Business owners must assess their infrastructure and hardware, recognize weak points and put into practice modern security methods to defeat them. These types of techniques consist of: web monitoring for risk free Internet navigation, end-point protection for BYOD (Bring your Own Device) management and a Managed IT Services Backup Strategy Plan to combat attacks. From a back up point of view, the perfect strategy is always to use backup and disaster recovery alternatives.

Do Not Play Dice With Your Most Valuable Asset

Regardless of data loss real terror reports, a lot of companies still don’t have a disaster recovery method available to safeguard data from natural and man-made catastrophes. On the other hand, many of the businesses which do have set a backup strategy include only one basic group of rules that apply to all emergency scenarios. A solid program concentrates on qualified personnel, infrastructure and procedures and obviously, shapes exactly how each one is impacted in various emergency situations. When the business owner is not proficient enough or doesn’t have time to set this procedures, an external IT provider should be called to help.

Failure to Check Disaster Recovery Strategies

Failing to check disaster recovery and the backup strategy, or to test these on an irregular schedule, will dramatically increase the chance of data damage in case of a problem. Because IT system evolves every day, thorough examination needs to be completed on a constant agenda that enables it to be implemented as yet one more regular business practice.

If you think having a reliable backup strategy is vital for your organization please get in touch with us today.

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Areas covered

We provide a wide range of complete computer IT support, Email spam filter, network services, backup strategy plans and IT consulting to businesses throughout San Antonio, Schertz, Seguin, Boerne, Canyon Lake, Stone Oak, Universal City, Pleasanton, Castle Hills, Leon Valley, Converse, Shavano Park, Cibolo, Olmos Park, Live Oak, Timberwood Park, New Braunfels and throughout Southern Texas.

Local experts who can help and visit your business on-site: IT Support San Antonio, Stone Oak IT Consulting, Leon
Valley Network Services, San Antonio Backup and Disaster Recovery, Stone Oak Information Technology Consulting and San Antonio Anti-Virus and Security.