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Monthly Archives: March 2020

  HomeGreat Divide IT Consulting   : :   Reno Nevada IT Support Resources   : :   2020   : :   March
Posted on Author Admin Categories COVID Resources

3 Ways Technology Will Help Pull Us Through the COVID-19 Pandemic

Many businesses and people are struggling as the COVID-19 Pandemic. Closures of restaurants and bars, canceled events, and other restrictions force our society to practice social-distancing. In this time of need, we, as a group, are more prepared than most other industries to help our clients maintain their businesses through this crisis. As an MSP, we brand ourselves as partners to our clients, and now is the time for us to step up and help you, our partners.

These are scary times. Many businesses are closing their doors to help fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Unfortunately, businesses like restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and movie theaters cannot operate remotely because they count on patrons walking into their facilities. But certain sections of other businesses, like accounting, law, and even parts of the medical and dental fields can utilize the efforts of remote employees.

Much like the disaster recovery plans, we offer for technology, we can also help with the back-up solution of setting up people to work from home. We deal with remote employees daily, so it is something we’re used to figuring out and operating smoothly.

We also regularly use the internet to communicate with each other using platforms like GoToMeeting, Skype, and Facetime. Around this office we have daily meetings with remote employees, so we’re used to setting up access for meetings and special events.

The technology on our side allows us to maintain productivity and ensure life will continue at a somewhat normal clip. With that being said, we believe there are three key reasons why technology will pull us all through the COVID-19 Pandemic.

  1. Remote Work Capabilities: You may have never dreamed you’d be writing up your next big report with your child sitting next to you playing their online educational game, but here we are. Many employers have sent their employees to work from home in an effort to quell the spread of COVID-19. With strong remote access or VPN, work continues without a great deal of interruption.
  2. Virtual Events/Streaming: Events organizers across the country are canceling, postponing, or moving events online. Technology allows these events to continue without major hiccups. Artists taking to Facebook Live to perform, speakers moving to platforms like Zoom or YouTube, and church services across the world streaming, only reveals the tip of the iceberg when it comes to streaming technology.
  3. Communication: Video chat, online messaging, email, and phone communication will keep the world connected through this difficult time. We’ll quickly see how important it is to connect with our fellow man for work, pleasure, and sanity.

During these trying times, it is our job, as IT professionals, to help those who are in need. Whatever we can do to help our local businesses keep their heads above water will only make our community stronger. People helping people, and professionals helping businesses stay open.

It is unknown how long drastic measures stemming from COVID-19 will last, but with technology on our side, thankfully the world will continue to progress.

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Posted on Author Admin Categories COVID Resources

5 Tips for Successfully Working from Home

COVID-19 has forced event cancellations, school closures, and a consideration for remote work where possible. As more companies are sending their employees home to work, we compiled this list of tips to be successful away from the office.

1. Reliable Internet: Nothing is more frustrating than having spotty Internet, especially when you’re trying to work on a big project through a remote access connection to your work computer. Most Internet packages available today will be fine. However, you might need to curb ancillary access of the Internet, like streaming and gaming if you’re trying to do something more than upload and download documents. If your Internet seems slow, shut down and restart your router/modem. This can sometimes speed things up for a while.

2. Good Computer Hygiene: You know that “It’s time to update” pop-up that you’ve been avoiding for weeks? Take the time to update. This is most likely handled automatically by your IT team at the office, but your home system may be woefully behind, curbing your speed, as well as opening up unnecessary security holes. We recommend applying security patches as they are released to keep your computer up to date. Not sure if there are updates available? You can check your computer’s control panel for notifications. You can also try simply restarting your system. Often, the updates will kick into gear.

To maximize effectiveness, watch the number of programs you’re attempting to run and browser windows you have open at any given time. Computers are not great multi-taskers; they will regularly switch between a multitude of processes (the instructions behind your applications) to complete commands. In fact, the number of processors in your system is the maximum number of things your computer can be “working” on at once, so if you’re seeing a drop-off in performance, take a moment to close a few programs that are not actively in use.

3. Connect Securely: In order to protect your business, connect through remote access software or VPN. This will allow you to use your regular work desktop without risking business data in an open atmosphere. Consult with your IT team to review their plan for remote access as well as enterprise-grade antivirus before beginning remote work.

4. Establish a Routine: When you go into the office, you have a clear routine. You come in, grab a cup of coffee, banter with your co-workers for a few minutes, sit down at your desk, and get to business. While it may be appealing to work in your pajamas, try to maintain as much normalcy as possible. Stick with a clear starting time and work schedule. Create an office space so that you’re not just piled up on the couch. Plan to get dressed and ready for the day, just like you’re going into the office. In essence, act like it’s just another day at the office.

5. Over-communicate: You may find yourself feeling isolated pretty quickly when working from home. This is likely because you’re missing out on the short interactions and general banter with your colleagues. We highly recommend setting up a daily touch-base with your team in order to discuss priorities, work through sticking points, and to simply connect with other human beings.

Don’t be afraid to send more progress emails than normal. Utilize messaging apps liberally, and don’t underestimate the power of a video chat or meeting. If an email exchange is getting too long (more than three replies back and forth without solving the problem) pick up the phone.

Working from home can be an efficient way to keep a business running. When done right, you can be just as productive, if not more so, than at the office. Enjoy the opportunity presented by COVID-19 concerns to establish a new work normal, at least for a short period of time.

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Posted on Author Admin Categories Cyber Data

7 Necessities before Sending Your Workforce Remote

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many companies are considering work-from-home options to facilitate social-distancing and to keep their workforce healthy. However, it’s not as simple as sending your employees home, firing up personal laptops, and getting to work. Here are seven things you need to have lined up in order to successfully deploy your remote workforce.

1. Secure Remote Access: Employees should not have open access to everything on their work systems from their personal computers. This keeps company data protected. In order to be productive through this pandemic, however, employers will need to provide a secure connection utilizing VPN or remote access software. These solutions will mirror the employee’s work desktop without housing all of the data on the individual’s personal system, allowing them to seamlessly continue work.

2. File Sharing Capabilities: While people will be working in isolation, they must still be able to collaborate. File sharing/group editing software will be critical to moving forward on creative or documentation projects through real-time editing, commenting, and versioning. Software like Axcient Anchor & Microsoft Teams/Sharepoint fill this need securely. Axcient will integrate with your file server and licenses are free through June to help during this difficult period.

3. Enterprise Level Antivirus: Basic home-level antivirus is not sufficient, particularly in secured industries. Extend your enterprise-level antivirus to home systems that will have access to your network in order to create an added layer of protection. You may also consider deploying firewalls on top of individual’s home networks to create the same secure connection employees experience in your office.

4. Video Conferencing: Meetings must go on while people work remotely; however, voice-only leaves much to be desired in terms of tone and context. We highly recommend putting in place video conferencing options. You can implement something as simple as FaceTime, or something more feature intensive, like Zoom or GoToMeeting.

5. Messaging Software: You can’t just spin your chair around to talk to your co-worker when working remote, yet it’s not efficient to always pick up the phone. We recommend implementing messaging software like Microsoft Teams or Slack to open communication channels and allow employees to continue to interact quickly and accurately. Utilizing these tools, you can set up one-on-one conversations or set up channels to facilitate team communication.

6. Phone: A strong VoIP solution will allow employees to take their office phone numbers remotely on their cellphones without giving out their cellphone numbers. Office calls will transfer seamlessly to the employee’s cellphones, voice mails will be sent via email, and the employee can dial-out using a phone application to maintain office functionality.

7. Remote Access Policy: Prior to providing access to your employees, put in place a clear access policy that acknowledges that your company monitors whatever they do while connected. Employees should be encouraged to act as if they are on site even while working remotely and reminded that punishments for doing something illegal/against company policy will apply.

The COVID-19 situation is ever-changing. Schools across the nation have been closed and events have been canceled. While it may make sense to keep your employees on-site for now, we believe it’s important to have a plan should you need to close your physical offices. Getting these seven pieces of the puzzle in line will prepare you to take your workforce remote. For assistance implementing these things, contact us today.

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Posted on Author Admin Categories IT Security

5 Reasons Hackers Steal Your Data

As professionals in the IT business, we all have firsthand knowledge that the web can be a dangerous place for anyone, especially if you run a business. The more we analyze security breaches, the more we ask the most crucial question: why? Why do people go through all that trouble to make life more difficult and dangerous for the rest of us?

Well, you can imagine that it differs from hacker to hacker. Just a  few common factors likely end up being the reasons why they do what they do and why they started in the first place. In today’s blog, we’ll take a deep-dive into the villains of our story, and explore some reasons why they do what they do.

1.) Identity Theft

Though you may not realize it, you are more important than you think—well, more valuable, anyway. You might think of you or your company’s value in terms of what is in your bank account, or the assets you may hold. However, you probably carry more potential value that you don’t tap into, such as not opening additional accounts and not maxing out your credit cards.

Consumer Affairs estimates that the average loss for an individual involved in credit card fraud last year was about $2000. That number might seem a bit low to some, but remember that most people only have a few thousand dollars maximum available on their credit card at any given time. Imagine if your company’s credit card was compromised. How much could you be on the line for? Or what if someone opened accounts or took out loans using your stamp of approval? For many of us, the losses could be staggering.

2.) Ransomware

The last few years have taught all of us to fear that word. From small to large businesses, from individuals to local and national governments, no one is safe from these threats. As far as a reason for this type of attack, the answer is simple: hackers identify and attack victims that can give them a good return on their time invested.

When hackers hold an organization for ransom, the victim often ends up paying because they can’t afford to operate too long without productivity. While some sources report that overall ransomware attacks are down, lately, they have become more sophisticated and demand more money to release the “hostage” data or systems.

3.) Mooching Off Your Equipment

Hackers generally have less money and fewer resources than the people they steal from. Sometimes the reason for the attack isn’t just for cash, but rather for access to available operating systems. This type of hacker is looking to take advantage of large servers with massive computing power for activities such as mining Bitcoin. Sadly, they probably don’t plan on giving you a cut. They’ll use your processing power late in the night and stick you with the extra electrical charges. Another reason why you should always check your bills!

4.) Because They Can

You could consider this to be the scariest category of a hacker since there’s nothing that can be done to stop them. They can best be summed up in a quote from Alfred in The Dark Knight when he said; “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical like money… some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Since a person like this doesn’t have anything other than personal accomplishments as a goal, they can be harder to catch and harder to convince to change their dastardly ways. For example, in one month in 2000, a young man by the name of Michael Calce (who used the handle “Mafiaboy”) took down the systems of CNN, Yahoo, Dell, and Amazon. All are substantial companies with state-of-the-art security systems. What was his grand reason for doing this? To prove that he could. While this is not the most common category of the hacking community, they can still be some of the most difficult hoodlums to deal with.

5.) To Sell Your Information

This is one of the more significant issues today. We live in an era where the greatest currency is information. Once hackers get their hands on information such as credit card numbers, passwords or even patient records, selling personal data on the Dark Web is very straightforward. To make it lucrative, they need to deal in volume. According to some reports, credit card numbers typically sell for around $10 a piece. For the same amount of time and energy it would take to steal your private information, they can accumulate hundreds or thousands of pieces of information by accessing your customers’ records.

The scary part is, once your stolen data is out there for the highest bidder to snatch up, you can be on the hook for damages. Currently, there are dozens of high-profile lawsuits in progress for businesses whose systems were hacked and now private and sensitive data from their clients are exposed for all the world to see… for the right price.

Regardless of the reason hackers do their dirty work, it’s up to us to protect the data we have access to. We just need to update our security systems and stay one step ahead of the criminals. If you don’t feel that your current security measures are up to snuff, give us a call today! We’d be more than happy to assess your current set-up, and show you how you can implement a plan to make sure you won’t be defenseless against those unsavory characters on the web.

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