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components of successful data backup and business continuity

September 13, 2023

The Lifeline of Business Operations: Data Backup and Continuity Strategies

The Lifeline of Business Operations: Data Backup and Continuity Strategies

In today’s digital age, data reigns supreme. Businesses of all sizes rely on data for day-to-day operations, decision-making, and growth. However, with great data comes great responsibility. That’s where data backup and continuity come into play. These two fundamental concepts are the bedrock of modern business operations, ensuring the resilience and survival of companies in the face of data disasters. In this article, we will define and describe data backup and continuity, explain their vital importance to businesses, and explore some of the most successful strategies to implement them.

What is Data Backup?

Data backup is the process of creating a duplicate copy of your critical data and storing it separately from the original source. This ensures that if your primary data is lost, corrupted, or compromised due to various reasons such as hardware failure, cyberattacks, or natural disasters, you can recover it from the backup. Essentially, data backup serves as a safety net for your business’s digital assets.

Understanding Data Continuity

Data continuity, on the other hand, goes beyond mere data backup. It encompasses a comprehensive strategy that ensures uninterrupted access to essential data and systems, even during disruptive events. It’s about maintaining business operations despite challenges, making it a key component of business resilience. Data continuity plans involve not only data backup but also processes, people, and technologies that keep the business running smoothly in adverse circumstances.

The Importance of Data Backup and Continuity to Businesses

Mitigating Downtime: Downtime can be a business’s worst nightmare, leading to loss of productivity and revenue. Data backup and continuity strategies minimize downtime by enabling quick data recovery and system restoration.
Data Protection: In an era of increasing cyber threats, protecting sensitive customer information and intellectual property is paramount. Data backup and continuity safeguards your data from ransomware attacks and data breaches.
Legal Compliance: Many industries have strict data retention and protection regulations. Implementing robust backup and continuity measures ensures compliance with these rules, reducing the risk of costly fines.
Customer Trust: Customers expect their data to be handled responsibly. Demonstrating a commitment to data security through backup and continuity practices can enhance your reputation and build trust.

Successful Strategies for Data Backup and Continuity

Regular Backups: Establish a routine for data backups, whether it’s daily, weekly, or in real-time, depending on your business’s needs. Automated backup solutions can streamline this process.
Offsite Storage: Store backups offsite, preferably in geographically distant locations. Cloud-based storage solutions are an excellent choice for secure and accessible data storage.
Encryption: Encrypt your backup data to protect it from unauthorized access. This is especially crucial for sensitive information.
Testing and Validation: Regularly test your backup and continuity plans to ensure they work as intended. These tests help identify and address potential issues before a disaster occurs.
Employee Training: Ensure that your employees are aware of data backup and continuity procedures and their roles in implementing them. Well-informed employees are crucial to successful recovery efforts.
Redundancy: Implement redundant systems and infrastructure to minimize single points of failure. This redundancy can be a lifesaver during critical situations.
Incident Response Plan: Develop a comprehensive incident response plan that outlines steps to be taken during data disasters. This plan should integrate with your backup and continuity strategies.

In conclusion, data backup and continuity are the twin pillars that support a business’s ability to withstand unforeseen challenges. They are not merely technical processes but essential components of a holistic business resilience strategy. By implementing the right strategies and technologies, businesses can safeguard their data, protect their reputation, and ensure their long-term success, even in the face of adversity. Don’t wait until disaster strikes; invest in data backup and continuity today to secure your business’s future.

Mark Flores

September 13, 2023

September 3, 2023

Understanding ChatGPT: Your Introductory Guide to AI Chatbots

In a world increasingly driven by technology and automation, you might have heard about AI-powered chatbots. One of the most talked-about ones is ChatGPT. But what exactly is ChatGPT, and how does it work? Let’s break it down in simple terms.

Meet ChatGPT: Your AI Chat Buddy

ChatGPT is like having a conversation with your computer or smartphone, but instead of chatting with a human, you’re chatting with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model. It’s designed to understand and generate human-like text responses, making it a powerful tool for various applications.

How ChatGPT Learns to Chat

ChatGPT learns from a vast amount of text data. Think of it as reading tons of books, articles, and websites to understand how people communicate. This training process helps it grasp grammar, context, and even some common sense. It’s like learning a new language, but for a computer.

Generating Responses

When you ask ChatGPT a question or give it a prompt, it uses its training to generate a response. It’s a bit like having a highly advanced auto-complete feature in your chat app. It predicts what comes next in the conversation based on what it has learned.

Limitations of ChatGPT

While ChatGPT is impressive, it’s not without limitations. It might sometimes produce incorrect or nonsensical answers. This happens because it doesn’t truly understand the way humans do; it just predicts what should come next based on patterns it has seen in its training data. So, it can be a little like playing a game of “telephone” with a robot.

Practical Uses in Business

ChatGPT’s versatility extends to various business applications. Here are a few examples:

Customer Support: Many businesses use ChatGPT for customer support. It can answer common questions, guide users through troubleshooting steps, and provide 24/7 assistance.
Content Generation: Content marketing is crucial for businesses. ChatGPT can help generate blog posts, product descriptions, and social media content, saving time for content creators.
Market Research: ChatGPT can analyze customer inquiries and feedback, providing valuable insights that businesses can use to refine their products or services.
Personalized Recommendations: E-commerce companies employ ChatGPT to offer personalized product recommendations based on user preferences and browsing history.
Language Translation: For businesses operating globally, ChatGPT can assist in real-time language translation, facilitating communication with international customers and partners.

Responsible Usage

It’s important to use ChatGPT responsibly. Just like any tool, it can be used for good or misused. Being aware of its limitations and verifying information it provides is crucial. Also, OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT, has implemented safety features to reduce harmful or biased responses.

The Future of ChatGPT

AI technology is continuously evolving, and ChatGPT is no exception. Researchers are working to make it smarter, more reliable, and better at understanding context. In the future, we can expect even more advanced and helpful AI chatbots.

In conclusion, ChatGPT is a fascinating example of how AI technology is making its way into our everyday lives. It’s like having a virtual conversation partner who can assist with various tasks, including a wide range of applications in the business world. Just remember to use it wisely, keeping in mind its strengths and limitations. And as technology progresses, who knows what exciting developments lie ahead for ChatGPT and AI chatbots in general!

To create your own free account and start using ChatGPT, visit OpenAI’s website.

Mark Flores

September 3, 2023

June 30, 2022

Not a “Teams” Player?

Is Outlook scheduling a Teams meeting for every new appointment in your calendar? Here’s a quick fix –

With the popularity of video conferencing during the recent quarantine and many companies now allowing some of their employees to work remotely, popular applications like Zoom, Teams and Webex are a commonly used tool. However, I recently noticed that whenever I entered a new calendar event on Outlook, say a dentist appointment or a reminder for my car’s oil change, Outlook would also create a Microsoft Teams meeting as the default location. Obviously, it would be quite a challenge for the mechanic to change my car’s oil via Teams!

However, there is a quick fix.

In Outlook, go to File > Options > Calendar and uncheck the box titled “Add online meetings to all meetings”

Now you are the master of your own meeting locations again!

Mark Flores

June 30, 2022

October 8, 2021

Cybersecurity and Ransomware – an Overview

IT professionals, like myself, live and breathe in a world of technical jargon and frequently toss out vague but dire warnings to the non-technical as if they should heed our expert advice without question. For their own good of course. But I have always believed that knowledge empowers us to make more informed decisions and it can only be of benefit when the non-technical have an understanding of these warnings. Business owners have a lot on their plates running their companies, dealing with day-to-day challenges and planning for financial success, but providing an overview of basic cybersecurity concepts and the threat of ransomware is something that all businesses should have some knowledge.

I had a client recently ask me to help them understand the basics of cybersecurity, what ransomware is and how to prevent it. There are stories almost every day about big companies, hospitals and government entities being affected by massive breaches in cybersecurity so it is no wonder that a small business owner may be asking, “Is my company’s network and data safe?” Following is a summary of these concepts and I have included some of the basic principles and explanations that hopefully may be more digestible by the non-technical minded.

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Ransomware – the most dangerous cybersecurity threat to companies today.

The bad guys are not just targeting large businesses – their software is indiscriminate and can infect even a small 1 person company.

Ransomware usually infects a company through an unsuspecting email or a bad website. No antivirus or email filter is 100% effective so the last line of defense is the wariness of the end user. Security awareness training can help a company keep its employees informed and vigilant.

Prevention – All incoming email should be filtered by a good cloud-based scanning solution. Additionally, all workstations, laptops and servers should have active an antivirus application running. But do to the way these threats are triggered and spread, unfortunately many antivirus apps may not be as effective to prevent ransomware.

Detection – If an infection does occur, the first thing people will notice is that many shared files will not be able to be opened. Usually in the same folder, a file will appear that announces that the company’s files have been locked until a ransom is paid by bitcoin to a private bitcoin account (which is untraceable).

Ransomware can also infect emails and cloud-hosted files. The virus travels through network shares (drive letters) from the person’s machine to the server or cloud host and it can also access the user’s hosted emails and infect the whole company’s email database in the cloud.

Remediation – If a company falls victim to a ransomware infection, the first thing to do is either unplug the network cables from the infected machines or shut them down completely, especially the server(s). Sometimes it may be hard to tell where the infection started, so you may need to shut off all systems and bring them up one at a time to find the source.

At this point it would be a good idea to call a professional to help evaluate and take the next steps to recover from the infection. Depending on what backups are in place, the recovery can be easy, difficult or impossible. You may have heard about the impossible ones where the only seeming recourse is to pay the ransom (which should never be paid, in our opinion).

However, with good backups, especially backups with built-in ransomware detection, you can recover from a ransomware infection within hours if not minutes. Good backup solutions have algorithms that detect the traits of ransomware like mass changes to file contents or extensions or security and they shut down backup immediately so the infected files do not propagate to the cloud backups.

Here are three things you should ask yourself to get into the right mindset:

Where is your data? Server, workstations, hosted email, cloud storage, laptops, personal machines offsite?
Is this data backed up? How frequently?
Are your employees trained to avoid suspicious emails?

Infinity Networking can assist companies to take effective steps to prevent, detect and counter ransomware attacks.

For more information on these preventative measures, including a good email filtering service like Barracuda Cloud Control or Webroot Security Awareness Training, contact Infinity Networking for a FREE TRIAL of these services.

Click here for more information about Infinity Networking’s Cybersecurity solutions

Mark Flores

October 8, 2021

December 8, 2020

How to Avoid Phishing Scams

The most common way that business and personal accounts become compromised is through phishing and spear phishing attacks. These attacks are more common recently with the pandemic forcing people to work from home and often separated from their company’s established cybersecurity protocols. The majority of computers these days have some form of antivirus and firewall protection, but human nature is often the weakest link in the security wall. In this blog post, you will learn how to recognize a fake email and how to avoid becoming the victim of a phishing scam.

What is Phishing?

A phishing attack is an email sent by a bad actor that appears like a legitimate notice or request for information. Most of the time they appear as if they originate from Microsoft, Apple, a well-known bank, Paypal, Amazon, etc. The phishing email often announces a new feature or a request for the user’s information that requires the user to log into their account using their credentials. The links from these phishing emails lead to a very convincing (yet fake) website that appears legitimate. But when the user enters their information, the victim has essentially given the scammer their private credentials. There have been numerous high profile celebrities and politicians that have fallen for these scams.

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The Impulsive Clicker

Most people, especially in a business environment, gets 10’s if not 100’s of new emails each day. We have become rather proficient at sorting through the spam and keeping the important ones. However, since we are dealing with a large volume of emails at one time it is easy to just open one from a familiar source and click on the link. Especially if the email is from a popular vendor or B2B company.

Phishing attacks take advantage of our human nature to be in a hurry and not carefully read what we are opening.

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Advanced Tactics – Spear Phishing

Phishing attacks have now evolved into a more sophisticated form called ‘spear phishing’. Someone who receives an account password reset email from eBay, but who never uses eBay will know right away that the email is not legitimate. But if the scammers can get a little more information, for example the name of a co-worker at the company, they can send their phishing email that looks like it comes from someone familiar, bypassing that first line of mental defenses. The more the scammers know about a recipient; their co-workers, vendors, clients, account numbers, etc. the more convincing they can make the phishing emails appear. This is called spear phishing.

Phishing in Other Ponds

Phishing attacks are now common in other communication media as well including text messages, phone calls and search engines.

Arming Yourself

How do you avoid being the victim of a spear phishing attack? There are few tactics that everyone needs to know.

1) Slow down and stop being the ‘impulsive clicker’. Look at not only the sender’s name, but also the email address. At the top of the email, you will see the name of the person and then their email address between < and >. For example John Smith <[email protected]>. If the address looks like this John Smith <[email protected]> then that should raise a big red flag!

2) If you get an email that looks like it is from a well-known organization, look for misspellings and poor grammar. Also, use your mouse to hover over any hyperlinks (do not click on them). Most of the time, fraudulent links will be obvious when you look at their address in the bar at the bottom. See example below:

This is supposedly from the “Microsoft Account Team”. Notice the inconsistent capitalizations, the incorrect usage of ‘expired’ and the email address it is sent from – doesn’t look like Microsoft.

When the mouse is hovered over the “Keep Current Password” box, this is the link that appears:

Doesn’t look like it directs to Microsoft…

3) Employing a robust enterprise-grade email filter is also a good way to avoid phishing attacks. Services like Barracuda Cloud Control have built-in mechanisms to block these types of scams.

4) One of the most effective IT security measures a company can make is to invest in regular Security Awareness Training. Almost all compliance regulations require companies to keep their employees updated and tested against the latest cyber threats on a regular basis.

For more information about what you can do to prevent a successful phishing attack, including a good email filtering service like Barracuda Cloud Control or regular Webroot Security Awareness Training, contact Infinity Networking for a FREE TRIAL of these services.

Click here for more information about Infinity Networking’s Cybersecurity solutions

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Mark Flores

December 8, 2020

October 27, 2020

Tips for Companies with Work-from-Home Employees

As the current global pandemic rolls along, most businesses are evaluating how they can continue to operate efficiently and successfully while keeping their employees safe. By now, many companies have allowed their employees to work from home, trying their best to stay in business.

Here are 6 helpful suggestions that businesses with work-from-home employees should consider:

Home Workspace

Just as a workplace provides a dedicated space for their employees; a cubicle, an office or some other area to set up a computer and spread out papers, the work-from-home employee needs a place to work as well. In the familiarity and comfort of their own homes, many employees may be working from their dining room table or the couch. Employees should be encouraged to try to set up their home workspace somewhere separated from the unavoidable sounds and distractions – preferably somewhere away from noisy televisions, family traffic and if possible, a room that has a closeable door. Of course, not everyone has this flexibility, but the more a work-at-home employee can emulate an office environment mindset, the more productive they will be.

Equipment

Few businesses have the ability to offer computers and peripherals for their employees to take home with them. Some workers have computers at home that they can use, but what if they don’t? Here are some options that employers may want to consider:

Allow the employee to take home their work machine
Purchase a refurbished workstation through a reputable vendor such as Dell for their work-at-home employees (https://www.dell.com/en-us/dfh/shop/dell-refurbished/cp/outlet)
Lease a computer for the employee while the office is off-limits
Headphones with a mic also help filter out extraneous noises

It is important that if a company wants their employees to be productive while working from home, they must ensure that they have adequate equipment to do their job.

Security

When an employee is working from home, there will be inherent security risks to mitigate. The easiest way to think about these security concerns is by using the three-fold ‘PPT’ model:

People – Who needs access to the company data, network and resources? And are those people trained to identify email phishing scams, securing their workstations with a password and not sharing their company access with other people?
Process – It may be helpful to have documented procedures for work-from-home employees; ensure they log out of their remote connections when they are not working, report any unusual emails or phone calls requesting access and have a go-to resource for any IT-related concerns or requests.
Technology – Besides a fully functioning workstation, remote workers should have a good antivirus and anti-malware solution. Do not assume that the employees’ home machines are protected or secure. If they are using their own equipment, it is especially important that the company require and possibly provide basic antivirus software for their employees. Having a trained IT professional evaluate and remediate the security of employees’ at-home workstations should be a part of any work-from-home strategy.

Accountability

Working from home is not like working in an office. There will inevitably be many interruptions, distractions and diversions that the employee will face on a daily basis. Realistically, it is very difficult to keep employees on task all day while they are not supervised, but accountability can be quantified if planned well. A manager or supervisor should evaluate the level of autonomy that they expect from their employees and work together to establish a reasonable set of goals per day, week or other timeframe. If the employee is meeting these predefined goals to the manager’s satisfaction, then accountability is easier to maintain.

There are a number of technology solutions to assist with accountability goals. Having a system to track daily and weekly tasks will not only keep the employee on target but will also allow the supervisor to review their progress throughout the timeframe. Here are some excellent tools to assist with task management:

1) Trello – a Kanban-style planning board which is effective in its simplicity and ease of use – and it’s free.
2) Google Workspace – good tool if your team uses Google’s online tools
3) Microsoft Teams – using the calendar and communication tools built into Teams will keep employers and employees on task throughout the day
4) Asana – project management for small teams with a free plan available

Video and Phone Tools

By now, most businesses have discovered that there are many options for video and phone conferencing. The most popular choices include Zoom, Teams and WebEx. If your company uses a conferencing tool such as these, here are a few helpful suggestions:

Companies should be ready to assist their employees with the installation and use of video conferencing applications. This is new territory to many users and people may not have the technical ability to set these up on their own or know how to use them.
Establish some basic ‘etiquette rules’ while using video conferencing. Most video conferencing applications monitor the microphones during a call and give preference to the ‘loudest’ voice. So remind users to take turns, be patient and only speak when they have something relevant to insert into the conversation.
Encourage video conference users to be mindful of their surroundings. The camera picks up anything in its field of vision and the microphone amplifies sounds from the remote users’ environment. Users are better served by setting up their meetings in a room where the door can be closed and pets and children can be kept away.

Back to work plan, need office?

As companies are gearing up for an eventual return to the office, some may be considering whether they need to spend so much on office space if they can have capable remote users. Although the option is not ideal for all companies, there may be some advantage to have certain employees work from home either part-time or permanently. If a company is considering this arrangement, partnering with an experienced IT support company who has experience designing and implementing a remote workforce solution is highly recommended.

Infinity Networking can assist your company in creating an effective and secure work-from-home plan. Please Contact us today for more information.

Mark Flores

October 27, 2020

August 14, 2020

Quick Fix to Speed Up Windows 10

You probably don’t know that your Windows 10 operating system boots up each time with a number of unneeded applications configured to run in the background all the time. More likely than not, you either don’t use them or even know that they were automatically installed with Windows 10. These extra start-up programs can contribute to a loss of available system memory and other resources, which in turn slows down your machine’s performance. Here’s how to check which programs are starting in the background, how you can disable them yourself and speed up Windows 10.

Open Settings (Start > Gear Icon) and then go to the Privacy section.

Scroll down the left side and find Background apps

Scroll through the Background apps and toggle off any applications that you are not using regularly.

When you are done, simply close the window and enjoy all the extra resources you have just freed up!

Mark Flores

August 14, 2020

April 25, 2020

5 Tools for Working from Home

5 Tools for Working from Home

During the current stay-at-home restrictions, the success of a business is relying more on the ability to provide employees with a means of working remotely. Here are five tools that can be utilized by companies to keep their employees productive and useful.

Remote Workstation Applications

One of the most popular solutions for remote workers is the use of a Remote Workstation Application such as Connectwise Control, LogMeIn, Teamviewer or RemotePC. These applications allow a remote employee to use a web browser to remotely control their workstation at the office and work on their own familiar machine. Remote file copying and printing are convenient features that many of these applications provide. Pricing varies by product so be sure to research their respective per-user costs and capabilities.

Security Concerns: Commercial (paid) remote workstation applications all provide secure, encrypted connections between the remote user and the office workstation. However, any time a connection is allowed to be made from a remote location through the company firewall, there are risks to allowing unauthorized access to a company’s internal network resources to anyone who has credentials to the remote access application. It is highly recommended that all employees using remote access applications use some form of multi-factor authentication (one time session code sent via email or text or smartphone app).

Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services)

Before the popularity of remote workstation applications, many companies leveraged Remote Desktop Services (formerly called Terminal Services). A dedicated server on a corporate network hosts multiple remote users at the same time and provides a virtual workstation for them to access network resources. Although the remote desktop is not a physical workstation, the remote desktop services allows each user to customize their own desktop experience and run most of their network applications in their remote sessions. Remote Desktop Services are still utilized by many companies but due to the necessity of expensive hardware and network resources, this option is not as viable to many small businesses.

Security Concerns: Unless remote desktop services are used over a VPN (see below), this solution is usually visible from the internet (public-facing) side of a company firewall and therefore a common target for exploitation or hacking. Remote desktop services do not provide any security or encryption so it is imperative to utilize a VPN when using this solution to avoid offering easy access to a company’s private network.

File Sync and Share (FSS)

Other popular applications that remote workers can use are File Sync and Share (FSS) services such as Datto Workplace, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive or iCloud. These services offer a hybrid combination of storage in the cloud while also creating a copy on the user’s machines and keeping the documents in all locations in sync. A remote worker could have access to documents on their business workstation, home computer, laptop or even their smartphone or tablet. Some of these services were designed for non-commercial use so companies who want to utilize FSS should be sure that the provider offers proper security and safeguards.

Security Concerns: Most FSS services encrypt communication and file transfers to and from the cloud to the local workstations. However, most of these solutions are configured to establish the link once, save the credentials and then there is no further prompt for a login. So the primary security of FSS relies on the endpoint workstations using screen lock timeouts and password protected logins which are the most important considerations for securely protecting data.

FTP Service

Another older service that many companies used was FTP (file transfer protocol). Before the advent of the cloud, companies would dedicate local storage on their own network servers and allow access to the storage using a service called FTP. But since alternative storage solutions such as FSS and cloud services are becoming more cost-effective, many companies are moving away from FTP for allowing remote access to company files.

Security Concerns: FTP uses common and well-known network ports that must be opened on a company firewall so they are the constant target of exploitation and hacking. Since the files that an FTP service provides access to are located on a company’s private network, it is imperative that all security measures are taken to reduce outside threats. In most cases, FTPs should be avoided due to these security vulnerabilities.

VPN (Virtual Private Networking)

Still widely used by businesses of all sizes, a VPN relies on a client application on a remote machine to make a secure, encrypted connection directly with the internal network of a company. This allows a remote user’s workstation or laptop to be connected to their company’s internal network from the outside (e.g. at home or a hotel). It is a more complex procedure to set up a VPN connection and proper security measures must be followed since the connection bypassed a company’s firewalls and allows direct access to the network. The main drawbacks of a VPN are the setup and hardware costs as well as the reduced speed of the encrypted connection. A VPN is still a viable option for companies who have the resources to employ the technology.

Security Concerns: A VPN is a highly secured application as long as the remote user does not allow unauthorized access their offsite machine.

Infinity Networking is now offering extended trials of Connectwise Control for remote workstation access as well as extended trials of Datto Workplace, an enterprise-grade File Sync and Share solution that provides a more robust file sharing service than its commercial-grade competitors. For more information or to enable a trial of these products, please read further or sign up HERE.

Mark Flores

April 25, 2020

January 23, 2020

Top Technology Concerns for 2020

The top technology concerns for 2020 will likely be important for both businesses and consumers alike. These include Cybersecurity, Privacy and more refined, targeted Ransomware. Although future articles will go into more detail about each of them, here are the basics and why you should be paying attention.

Cybersecurity

This term has been tossed around for so many years, most people cannot clearly define it but it is a commonly used catchphrase. Its origins evolved from society’s use of the prefix ‘cyber’, which in Greek has do to with steering or governance and was first popularized by a mathematician in the 1940’s with the term cybernetics. But over the years, attaching cyber- to a word makes it seem futuristic. So instead of computer security, or network security, people started using the catchy term ‘cybersecurity’. It is used to describe many aspects of computer or network security, but for more current application, it can be best described as an awareness of how we secure our use of technology to only allow access to our data to those entities whom we have granted access. In this definition, cybersecurity would encompass concepts such as password management, encryption, firewalls, network perimeter security, antivirus/anti-malware, authentication methods, etc.

Cybersecurity is not just for businesses. Computer data, both corporate and personal can be valuable to others, especially those who would exploit it. Therefore, we must be diligent in protecting our personal data as well as keeping our business data secure.

Privacy

On almost a weekly basis we hear about a new data breach at a large company that has compromised the private information of everyday people. As a society, we can only trust that when we provide personal data such as name, address, date of birth, social security numbers or credit card information, this information is kept safe from the bad guys who would use it against us. But just as diligently as we strive to protect our personal data, others are constantly working to uncover it. Although we have very little control over our data once it is in someone else’s possession, we must still be diligent about whom we give our personal information. New laws in California and the European Union now give the public certain rights to review and remove personal information that we have provided. Common sense is the best defense when protecting your personal information.

Only give your information for legitimate reasons to verified requests.
Only give the information that is necessary and nothing extra.
Be cautious and feel free to question anyone requesting your personal information.

Ransomware

In 2019, ransomware cost business more than $8 billion, with an average ransomware attack cost of $133,000. One of the most widely used methods that hackers are still using to extort money from companies and individuals is with the use of targeted ransomware. By gaining access to a computer or network, usually by an email attack or an exploited network vulnerability, the files and folders of a network are locked by encryption so the users can no longer access them. Conveniently, when someone tries to open an encrypted file, a notification will appear with instructions for how to pay the hacker to decrypt and unlock their network files. The ransom payments are requested by using untraceable bitcoin transactions and in most cases, the encrypted files are unlocked successfully. If the hackers did not follow through on their promise to unlock the files, no one would pay the ransom.

As a business or individual, if this should happen to your data, your options are limited. If you are diligent with your backups, you can simply restore your data from an unencrypted date before the hackers gained access. Or, you can lose your data permanently. Or you can pay the ransom. For some companies, it is easier and more cost effective to pay the ransom and many have done just that. Of course, this does nothing to combat this illegal activity and may even be encouraging its success.

Our advice regarding Ransomware is:

Be diligent with your email – know how to identify a phishing attack
Employ reliable and frequent backups
Never enter your credentials from an email request unless you are the one initiating it (password reset, e.g.)
Keep your computer security patches up to date

If you are a victim of Ransomware:

Disconnect the network/computer from the internet
Stop any backups that are running (you will be backing up the infected files)
Restore your files from backup if possible
Try to find the point of entry for the hackers (suspicious email, open remote access) and only reconnect to the internet once the method of access has been determined or you may end up back I the same place all over again.
Contact an IT professional for expert advice

The Infinity Networking Technology Advice Blog will be providing useful information about these topics and more through the coming year. Please sign up for notification when a new blog article is published. And if you are worried about the data you give us – here is our privacy policy.

Mark Flores

January 23, 2020

March 4, 2019

Change Your Default Passwords

One of the most commonly overlooked security vulnerabilities on a corporate network can also be easily exploited – the Default Password. With so much emphasis about our own personal passwords; the need to frequently change them and to keep them complex and and unguessable, companies often forget that many computers, servers and network devices come pre-configured with default passwords. For example, if you order a Netgear router for your internet and WiFi connections, the device has a default username/password to configure the device of admin/password. Routers, switches and sometimes even operating systems often come with a simple login which can be easily Googled or perhaps have no password at all! A few years ago, some enterprising bad operators were using telephones to access the neglected configuration credentials of onsite phone systems.

What you can/should do:

1) If you use a in-house phone system (Panasonic, Avaya, Nortel, ShoreTel, etc.) contact your phone provider right now and ask if they have changed the default password for your system. Some of our clients discovered that their phone systems had been hacked and were making hundreds of toll calls overseas after hours on their dime!

2) If you do not know the login and password for your internet router or WiFi access point (not your WiFi password, but rather the credentials used to configure the device), find out from the person managing it if they have changed the default password.

3) Do the same with your Camera and Security systems or any other devices that can be accessed from the internet.

4) Audit your workstations and servers to make sure that the Administrator and Guest accounts are either disabled or that strong passwords have been assigned to them.

Infinity Networking can run a complimentary Network Security Scan to help you identify potential security holes in you company’s network. Contact us for you free assessment today.

Mark Flores

March 4, 2019

Category: Tech Tips

The Lifeline of Business Operations: Data Backup and Continuity Strategies

Understanding ChatGPT: Your Introductory Guide to AI Chatbots