Your employees are your greatest asset, which means that they need to be carefully managed and maintained, just like any of your other productivity-boosting assets. The difference is, your employees aren’t just another solution - they’re human beings, and as such, they aren’t tirelessly motivated. In fact, if your employees aren’t treated properly, they could… burn out.
Microsoft Windows has been a staple of modern computing, with each title in the series offering more innovative features. When it becomes time to retire one of their OSs, it can be troublesome for businesses. This coming January, two of the most utilized versions of the Windows OS--Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be losing support, effectively ending their viability. Businesses that still use these titles will have to come up with a plan about how they are going to proceed once Microsoft retires that software.
Software solutions don’t last forever. While patches and security updates can stave off the inevitable for quite some time, it’s impossible to maintain a specific solution forever. Support is eventually cut off, and businesses are left exposed if they haven’t taken the time to prepare. In the case of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2, you are running out of time.
2017 saw the rise of many great technology solutions for small business, including an explosion of popularity in business intelligence, artificial intelligence applications, and machine learning. Meanwhile, other established technologies have continued their domination of the industry. What can your organization look forward to seeing on the forefront of the small business technology race in 2018?
You don’t have time to worry about managing your email solution, but it’s still a vital aspect of your business’s operations. You never know when someone will fall for a spam message, and you certainly can’t look over the shoulders of each employee to make sure they don’t. What’s the busy business owner to do? How can you get quality email management without it eating up too much time and effort on your part?
RANSOMWARE - WannaCry
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Last Friday a new malware worm was released based on the leaked NSA exploits from earlier this year. This paired the cryptolocker variants with a way to automatically spread itself on an infected network and hold personal & business files hostage until a bounty is paid. This attack has been so damaging, that Microsoft has issued special patches for legacy operating systems including Windows XP & Server 2003. Going forward this is not guaranteed however, so please reach out to ZR Systems if you still have legacy systems running so we can work on a migration path for you. As ZR Systems Managed customers, we are pleased to let you know that we have had zero security incidences as a result of this attack. We work to protect you on multiple fronts depending on the technology you have chosen to utilize: Sonicwall Gateway Protection – Customers with active subscriptions or on ZR Systems Firewall as a Service program have been protected at the gateway since mid April. For additional information on how sonicwall identified the issue, you can checkout their blog Fortinet Gateway Protection – Customers with active Fortinet subscriptions have also been protected as of last week’s security update. Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus – Every endpoint (Servers & Workstations) managed by ZR Systems has Webroot SecureAnywhere installed which utilizes a realtime scanning engine that captures new variants in real time before they spread across your network.
Proactive System Patching – Patches are installed weekly for all systems under management, and monitored regularly by our Network Operations Center. The vulnerability used by this attack was patched by Microsoft back in March and was pushed out to all of our agents. Below is our global compliance statistics for our client base.
System Backups – The last line of defense against these types of attacks are backups. ZR Systems works with every client to make sure they have backup technologies in use to ensure we can recover files, system data, and applications. There is also a premium service available that can run your systems on premise or in the cloud in case of any issues that arise. Please be advised that even with these all in place, you and your staff are the most important line of defense in securing your business from threats like WannaCry. If you have any questions about a suspicious e-mail or website, please contact our Help Desk at (808) 369-1000. |
Additional References:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/12/nhs-hit-major-cyber-attack-hackers-demanding-ransom/
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/15/528451534/wannacry-ransomware-what-we-know-monday
It’s a well-known fact that nothing in this world lasts forever (other than Twinkies), and this pertains to your technology more than perhaps anything else. The same solutions that you’ve been working with for years will also need regular updates and improvements in order to stay relevant to your organization.
Thanks to one of Google’s researchers with the Zero Day Project, it has been discovered that LastPass has a major vulnerability as a result of a major architectural problem. This news comes on the heels of many other flaws the same researcher discovered within LastPass. However, based on what the researcher claims, these vulnerabilities were much less serious than his latest discovery.
Today’s headlines are peppered with stories of major companies and institutions falling victim to a cyberattack. As a business owner, what’s your response to these gut-wrenching stories? If you write them off as fear mongering and believe that these attacks can never happen to your SMB, well, you’re wrong. They can and it’s up to you to prevent such a disaster.
In today’s business world, having a reliable way to access your data is key to your company’s success. Everything you do depends on the data you have at your disposal--so what would you do if that data was no longer available to you?
Efficient utility software deployment has been a priority for businesses for much of the past three decades, but today’s software developers are beginning to more frequently offer their titles as a service, giving end users the ability to utilize powerful software solutions from anywhere, for what is often a reasonable monthly payment. The dissemination of useful computing resources from the cloud, whether it’s a private cloud server, or a public cloud platform through a reputable cloud provider, can be of great benefit to your business.
Can’t find your mobile device? If you’ve taken precautions and enabled solutions designed to track the whereabouts of your device, then you’ve got no reason to panic. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, so you’ll want to make sure you activate a phone-finding solution now (while you’ve got your device in your sights).
Data breaches are common problems for businesses of all shapes and sizes. In fact, they often have huge repercussions that aren’t initially seen in the heat of the moment. How can you make sure that a data breach won’t negatively impact your business, even well after you’ve fixed the initial problem?
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