Let me tell you a sure-fire way to make sure your company’s technology fails to deliver. Don’t have a conversation with your technology provider about where you see your company in the next year, next 2 years… what your business goals are or what your plans are for growth (or scale-back). Don’t discuss business initiatives, or how you might use technology to streamline, enhance or automate those initiatives. Don’t discuss your marketing or sales strategies, don’t discuss your business workflow, don’t discuss business risks, don’t discuss business continuity strategies, and don’t discuss private data you have that could leave you open to regulatory issues if it were stolen. In other words – don’t align your technology with your business strategy. How does this lead to failure? Let me count the ways: • You won’t be taking advantage of the competitive advantage that technology can provide. The technology landscape is constantly changing. Your IT provider should be aware of these changes, and able to help you use technology to its best advantage; they should be able to think ahead and give you ideas where your technology should be able to give even more value. For instance, we had a manufacturing client that was collecting quality data post-production. As we planned some of their systems, we made sure that the data collection systems we installed could support streaming data from their production systems. This meant that when they were ready, they could take advantage of in-line quality data collection – and tie this into production systems to ensure quality problems were addressed as the product was being made. • You won’t be taking advantage of expert knowledge. If you go to the doctor, and don’t tell her that your chest hurts and you are short of breath; you can hardly complain that she should have known of your impending heart attack. If your IT provider knows that you plan to expand marketing, they can make recommendations or work with you to make sure that you have systems to help take those expensive marketing leads and turn them into hard sales. • You won’t be aware of the risks you are taking. For instance, we had one client who had no idea that the files they were receiving from a vendor had extremely sensitive healthcare information, and that this data was very poorly protected. They had inadvertently opened themselves up to massive financial and business relationship risks that they were completely unaware of. • Your plumbing will be inadequate, and more expensive. If your IT provider knows what is coming, they can help you right-size your hardware or cloud systems. They can plan for expansion, or be aware that they don’t need to worry about adding new employees for the next 10 months. That way you don’t overspend or find yourself surprised by an overly-expensive unbudgeted expansion that could have been factored into the environment. For instance, we understood from one client that they would be opening their new shared chip modeling software environment up to future clients as a service. As a result, we were able to right-size their storage ahead of time, rather than needing to add much more expensive and disruptive expansion space later. Making sure your technology and your technology company is onboard with your vision of your Company’s […]
The reasoning is simple; there are situations that, like it or not, are beyond your control. You alone can?t stop your office from being flooded by a freak rainstorm. You can?t always prevent a sudden and unexpected hardware failure from bringing down mission-critical systems. You can rebuild your office after an earthquake, but the data that?s lost from the catastrophe can?t be recovered without the help of a data backup system. Plus, user error is a leading cause of data loss, but no matter how many times you explain best practices, someone is bound to make a mistake sooner or later. So, what can you do to keep your data safe? The obvious answer is data backup and disaster recovery, but it?s not as simple as that. Some traditional backup solutions aren?t as effective as businesses would like them to be. One of the most common data backup tactics is tape backup, which stores your organization?s data on magnetic tape reels that are deployed in a time of need. While this method of data backup and disaster recovery was once the standard, it?s no longer the most efficient way of storing and recovering your critical data assets. In short, tape backup has the shortcomings of being both user-intensive and time-consuming; two ill-suited traits for a business that needs to think on its feet in the event of a disaster. Furthermore, tape backups are resource-heavy and often must be performed after-hours, and if someone forgets to set the tape, you could lose out on a whole day?s worth of data. If you want to ensure the continued survival of your data, look for the following traits in a data backup and disaster recovery solution: Frequent backups: Unlike tape backups, which are typically performed once at the end of the workday, you want a solution that lets you take backups as often as every 15 minutes. This helps to minimize the amount of data lost due to unexpected technical hiccups. Off-site backup storage: If you store your data backups in-house or on your company network, you?ll likely lose them, along with all of your other data, if an event were to cause its destruction. Therefore, you want to store your data in a secure, off-site location, and in the cloud for anywhere access. A fast recovery time: You don?t want to be waiting around while waiting for your data to be redeployed to your entire infrastructure. With BDR, you can be back in action almost instantaneously. The BDR device acts as a server while you work towards replacing it. If your business wants to fully leverage a modern data backup solution, you should invest in a Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution from White Mountain IT Services. Our solution provides you the dynamic and reliable data backup and recovery services you need in order to ensure the survival of your business?s infrastructure. Not only can you take multiple backups of your business?s data throughout the day, but you can also recover your data within a moment?s notice, all by taking advantage of the cloud. Is your business still using antiquated data backup solutions? If so, call us today at (603) 889-0800. We?d be happy to show you how much easier it can be to protect your data using a BDR solution.
Sami Laiho, a software and network security expert, and reputed ?Microsoft MVP?, discovered that by keying in Shift + F10 during a ?Feature Update? (previously known as ?Upgrade), a user could access a Command Prompt window with total control over the machine. Making matters worse, current Microsoft updates disable BitLocker while in progress, giving that user complete access to all connected hard disks. We don?t have to tell you that if that person had nefarious intentions, they would absolutely be able to manipulate the machine through the command-line interface. While this process would have to be completed quickly if a user was to take advantage of this vulnerability, it?s a vulnerability all the same and should be taken into consideration by your organization?s network security support when updating or patching Windows 10. Lailo has been in contact with Microsoft, which is developing a resolution. Until then, stay vigilant in the management of what users have access to a workstation anytime that ?Feature update? is running. When Microsoft finishes their patch for this vulnerability, you will want to immediately want to apply it. For more information about critical vulnerabilities, patch management, and overall workstation maintenance, call (603) 889-0800 and talk with the IT experts at White Mountain IT Services.
As a note of the results of their research into implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) the researchers described the potential dangers of ICD technology. Pacemakers feature the capability to communicate with external technologies after being activated by a special magnetized device. This capability is generally of benefit to the patient, as their device can be read without an invasive procedure. However, if the patient is out of the doctor?s office within two hours, their pacemaker is still able to receive signals and instructions from any device. This puts the patient themselves at risk of a specialized cyber attack. This risk can then be exacerbated by the attacker. By sending a signal to the pacemaker device, the device can be kept from returning to ?sleep? mode, leaving it vulnerable to more attacks. During their studies, the researchers discovered how wide of a range these attacks could fall under. Simply by analyzing the signals that the tested devices communicated with their equipment, the team was able to devise a variety of ill-meaning uses for a criminal to take advantage of. Capable of draining the device?s battery or reading the personally identifiable information stored upon it in the patient?s onboard medical records, a cyber criminal could easily make their target?s life miserable. Scarier still, the right message sent to the pacemaker could even turn it off, or activate its heart-shocking features unnecessarily. The team confirmed that at least 10 varieties of the lifesaving device were vulnerable to the relatively very simple form of attack, without requiring any knowledge of the device itself. Scarier still, they were able to determine why the pacemakers were so vulnerable in the first place. Putting it very simply, the manufacturers of the devices had relied on the lifesaving pacemakers just not being an obvious target for cyber criminals, and had therefore been satisfied without building a lot of IT security into them. It was this mentality of ?nobody will consider this a target? that led to pacemakers becoming a target.Now, as scary as this story is, this was fortunately conducted by researchers, and not dangerous criminals. Regardless, it?s still pretty unnerving. So now every business owner should ask: Have I considered that my business might be a target? Many SMBs hold the same mistaken impression as the pacemaker manufacturers do: there are bigger, more valuable, more obvious targets than my business, so I don?t need to worry about security so much. Unfortunately for these businesses, they are proven wrong so many times. If you?re unsure of your level of IT security preparedness, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800. We can help you keep your IT optimally secure, and securely optimized.
