Control Access, Based on Role Let me ask you a question: how many people outside of your accounting department need to see the business? financials? Outside of the people involved in managing payroll, who needs to see how much each of your employees are making? There is a lot of potentially sensitive information floating around your business, and without the right solutions in place to protect it, anyone in your business could potentially access it. Role-based access management solutions can do a lot to help fix this problem. These solutions simplify the process by assigning permissions to roles, rather than individuals, so all a manager needs to do to remove a user?s permissions is to remove them from a certain role. As a result, it is easier to grant and rescind permissions as necessary without worrying about missing one in the process. The Principle of Least Privilege While we?re discussing role-based access control permissions, we should touch on the concepts behind the principle of least privilege. Consider a high-ranking member of one of your departments (we?ll call it department A). It stands to reason that the manager of department A should be able to access all of department A?s resources and data. However, the manager of department A probably has no need for the resources and data that department B or C have. Likewise, the managers of B and C each have complete access to the data they utilize but should not have this access to data controlled by other departments. Access control simply creates a relatively simple system of enforcing this kind of specified access. Multifactor for Multi-Layers of Protection While, on paper, passwords should be the apex of security measures, they have proven countless times to be less than adequate for security. The reason for this is twofold: first, the technology available to crack passwords is advanced enough to do so much faster, and second, users aren?t creating them to the standard that ?the apex of security measures? should be held to. Chances are the second reason is the one that will give you more trouble. When you consider that the launch code for the entirety of the United States? nuclear arsenal was simply ?00000000? for almost two decades, how likely does it seem that one of your employees has become lax in their passwords? This is why it makes sense to protect your resources by requiring multiple factors of authentication. Typically, to log into a system and access its data, you need to provide your identity via a username, and verify that identity through an agreed-upon form of authentication – traditionally, the password. However, if that password is easily guessed or cracked, that alone isn?t technically enough to fully verify that a user is who they say they are. That?s why multifactor was developed. It takes one factor – the password – and requires another in addition to it to fully confirm an identity. Preferably, this additional factor wouldn?t be another password – it may be biometrics, or a physical security key, or a code that is generated on demand. You have a lot of power when it comes to controlling your company?s data, so you need to find a balance between access and restriction that both protects this data and allows your business to leverage it […]
1) Screen Locking with Unlocking Authentication The first step is to accept the auto-login dilemma for what it is. Even otherwise secure business apps that you may be working with have sacrificed a crucial element of security for easy accessibility: the auto-login. Auto-logins leave a device user logged in at all times, allowing anyone with physical access to the phone to also access files and features that should be secure. Even apps with timed-out logins are insecure if they also helpfully ‘remember’ passwords so that login requires only a single tap. The answer? Take timed-out authentication into your own hands by ensuring all your company-provided phones lock the users out without another round of personal authentication. The good news is that modern phones make this quick, easy, and secure with options like retinal and fingerprint scans or visual passwords like drawing a quick line-picture that only your employee knows about. 2) Anti-Malware Software Next, you’ll want to address the fact that malware is everywhere. And no matter how much you emphasize safe phone practices, someone will accidentally visit a dangerous website or download an infected file on the company phone and contract a virus. The best thing you can do is detect this as quickly as possible by installing anti-malware on the company phones by default. Ideally, the solution you find will not only detect and alert the user of the malware but will take care of the cleanup on its own. 3) Clear Rules for Employee Device Usage Speaking of safe phone practices, employee training is another method to keep the company phones secure. For anyone who receives a company phone, be very very clear about what they are and are not authorized to do with the phone. The less ‘gray area’ you leave, the less likely that more than one or two people will overstep the bounds and look at risky websites on their work phone. Everyone with a strong sense of employee responsibility will do their best to adhere to the rules, reducing the chance that malware will find a foothold in their web browsing or email answering practices. 4) Device Location Tracking Another fact to accept early is that phones get accidentally left behind, lost, and stolen all the time. Because this is a company phone that employees can choose to leave behind when they are on personal business, you are (most likely) ethically clear to install a device location tracking program onto each company phone. In most cases, you will not need this feature or have any need to access it. However, if an employee reports their phone missing or stolen, you will be able to come to the rescue by quickly locating it through the phone’s own connection to the cell network or even a nearby wifi network. 5) Remote ‘Kill Switch’ Program And in the event that one of the company phones is actually stolen, be sure to have a kill-switch program installed. This allows you to wipe all proprietary data and company apps from the phone (in fact, it will probably wipe everything). A kill switch is your best bet for ensuring that stealing the phone and somehow spoofing or getting around your authentication measures does not expose the data you’ve worked so hard to secure. Employees should be aware of both […]
This is a big part of why we call ourselves a managed service provider, actually. How We Are Able to Track So Much One of the biggest parts of managed services is our practice of monitoring our clients? IT solutions in order to catch inconsistencies and threats. In order to do so, we utilize a collection of advanced tools and specialized software that allows us to comprehensively track and analyze all of your technology. These tools and software give us a look under the hood, so to speak, allowing us to record data and create our own historical record to reference. As a result, we wind up producing a truly staggering amount of documentation on your business? technology: Each and every device you have, from your network infrastructure to every company-owned endpoint and peripheral that attaches to it. The proper configuration for each of these devices. The date that each of these devices was installed. The licenses that your business needs to maintain, and the status of the ones you have. A comprehensive history of all service that each of these devices have received. This documentation allows us to better diagnose and resolve issues with your IT – usually preemptively – resulting in fewer interruptions and issues to keep you from accomplishing what your business is supposed to be accomplishing. Interested in finding out more? This entire process usually starts with a simple network audit, just to reveal where the business currently stands. Let us perform one for you. Reach out today to schedule yours by calling us at (603) 889-0800!
Our Experience with Industries Perspective is a valuable thing, especially when you have to figure out solutions to as many problems as an MSP has to. Not only are there occasionally real-time issues to resolve, we also deal with predicted problems and challenges, working to have a fix ready for when it is needed. We?ve gathered a lot of perspective during our experiences doing so, and it has made us better at our jobs. However, perspective is only helpful if it can be applied practically – you need more than a complete view of things, you also need to know what you are looking at. The same goes for the IT support team you are relying on, too. What are your IT challenges, and how are your operations most impacted by them? The most successful support team is the team that understands how your business needs to operate and provides you with the IT services that facilitate that. Response Times From the perspective of a business owner, many of the issues that pop up in their technology do just that – they pop up. They?re sudden. Considering that, there?s little wonder that many business owners still prefer to have an employee (or a department, depending on the size of the business in question) on-hand to work on IT issues. That way, travel time isn?t a factor, and the issue can be resolved quicker, right? Well, yes and no. Part of it has to do with the remote nature of managed services, so someone on-site is going to be able to get their hands on the problematic device that much quicker, sure. However, because the MSP is using their remote access to proactively monitor your solutions, you probably aren?t even aware of the problems that the MSP is catching and resolving for you behind-the-scenes – and technically speaking, even if the problem does require an on-site visit, the MSP could be using their remote monitoring solutions to help diagnose the problem as the tech is on their way. Again, the idea is to avoid incidents that make it critical to cut down response times in the first place. Services Offered What is it, really, that you need of your IT resource? Specialized experience with niche technologies? Greater control in your hands? Less responsibility? Improved communications? Adherence to stricter compliance standards? A good managed service provider can help you with all these things, and more. Furthermore, a relationship with us gives you privileged access to the same professionals that we?ve cultivated relationships with – vendors and the like – as a pleasant addition to our team?s expertise and determination to successfully provide for your IT needs. Overall, this is truly one of the biggest, underestimated, benefits to working with a managed service provider. Cost Savings Consider the investment you would have to make to completely staff and equip an entire IT department with highly skilled professionals of the caliber and skill that we have at White Mountain IT Services. Now consider how you could better invest that money, having saved it by signing on with White Mountain IT Services as your outsourced IT provider. There really is something to this managed service arrangement. If you?re looking to get something more out of the way your business takes advantage of technology, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.
First, let?s examine some of the types of internal communications that commonly factor into a business? operations. Information sharing – There?s a lot of news that needs to make its way throughout the office. Different forms of communication can help accomplish this, helping to ensure that the message gets across, whether it?s a company-wide announcement or onboarding materials. Collaboration – Collaboration, by its nature, requires communication between any involved parties. There are a few solutions that make this more efficient and effective, not to mention simpler. Recognition and company culture – Who doesn?t like to be recognized for their accomplishments, or to participate in internal decision-making, especially when that decision-making is in regard to something related to something more fun? Collaboration solutions play a role here as well. Now, let?s consider a few solutions that can help you to accomplish this goal. Information Sharing This is perhaps the most obvious use of internal communication – making sure that all of your team is on the same page, whether as a means to promote collaborative tendencies (more on that later) or new policies, plans, or procedures are being put in place. To accommodate these needs, you should make sure that your employees have the tools that they will have to use to do so. These tools include things like: Email – While other solutions have become reasonable alternatives for email, the tried-and-true default still stands strong. As a solid solution for all-around communications, it provides you with a means of communicating with your staff in a way they are almost guaranteed to be familiar with, just make sure they aren?t checking it excessively throughout the day. Newsletters – While newsletters are often used as an external effort to remind your audience of your services, they can be just as valuable as a means of keeping your employees in the loop, especially about items that don?t often get brought up in the workplace, or questions that you don?t want to have to answer repeatedly. Using your aforementioned email solution to distribute an e-newsletter internally is a cost-effective way to do so. Video – While it may seem like overkill to put together a video to share information internally, they make sense to use in situations where you can reuse the material over and over, like when you are onboarding new employees or training them. Keep in mind, these videos should still be supplemented by other training tools, like other internal documents and resources, to use as references? plus, there?s a lot to be said for face-to-face, shadow-style training, too. However, maintaining an internal repository of reference videos provides your employees with an option to help them answer their own questions without distracting others in the office. Collaboration Collaboration is one of the biggest industry buzzwords nowadays, and for good reason. A workplace that operates collaboratively usually sees big benefits to its operations. This is particularly true if a business has more than one location to contend with, or allows its staff to work remotely. There are also solutions that can help you encourage this kind of collaboration, such as: Dedicated Applications – There are a king?s ransom of collaboration-based applications out there, designed around a variety of business needs. Sure, you have your conferencing applications, but you also have things like shared […]
