Is your managed service provider working for you and are you seeing results?

Many businesses rely on outsourcing some or all of their IT to managed service providers.

MSP security is at times found as separate and optional to businesses.

More then half of businesses see it as an essential part to their company with the ever growing ransom-ware attacks.

Ransom-ware is a huge concern with businesses small or large since the threat is attacking everyone.

Managed Service Provider

Why choose MSP?

Solid and predictable budgeting from MSPs helps with easy budget management with no surprises.

Access to a team. MSP companies are often staffed with multiple tiers of expertise.

This does allow the client to tap into resources that may not normally be available through a traditional structure.

Picking the right MSP can lead to lower costs because the MSP can charge less then the cost of just one individual.

Choosing the right MSP means, that is one less thing that an organization needs to deal with.

Really the goal of a good MSP is to let you focus on the company’s core operations.

Is Your Managed Service Provider Working For You

Ransom-ware protection is the top concern of customers both large and small.

54 percent of MSPs with enterprise customers claim this is their customers’ main concern.

In addition 49 percent of MSPs with smaller customers feel the need for security.

Now it’s not enough to simply have cyber security services in an MSPs portfolio.

Really all it takes is an incident such as Ransom-ware to infect and ruin a MSPs reputation.

MSPs face a number of challenges when it comes to investing in the expansion of their cyber security offers.

Check out this new Ransomware intercept by Sophos and is an excellent tool Sophos Ransomware Tool

Don’t wait, Act Now! Consult a Professional 

Contact IT Support 587-355-1566 for assistance.

IT Support Services and Websites Done Right!

Check us out in ‘Business in Calgary’ magazine

What happens when an email shows up in the wrong recipient and what are the dangers?

Financial emails containing sensitive information and attached files definitely shouldn’t land in the wrong inbox.

These types of mistakes are usually made by someone omitting a character, making a typo, or mixing up domain names and extensions.

Typically you get a “hey, you sent this to the wrong person”, but what if nothing happens?

You’ve now presumed that the email went to the right person and things are okay.

Well a quick search reveals that this issue comes up in the news on a larger scale with some frequency.

News reported a company sending out termination emails to 1,300 employees but was only meant for 1.

Data Breach

Reported data breaches in Canada in the first six months of the year hit 59 and that’s only the beginning.

Seeing over 1 million exposed records out of Canada can be disheartening and a time for action.

What Happens When An Email Shows Up In The Wrong Recipient

A data breach thanks to a simple typo. In theory, should be easy enough to avoid.

Taking precautions is a good step to not losing data like encryption.

Encrypt everything that’s outgoing that way even if the email does end up in the wrong hands, there’s not much the recipient can do with it.

Robust data and email policies to filter and/or block confidential information is always a good idea.

Simple step of adding an email verification step to a sign-up process would do much to reduce misdirected emails.

Check out this new Ransomware intercept by Sophos and is an excellent tool Sophos Ransomware Tool

Don’t wait, Act Now! Consult a Professional 

Contact IT Support 587-355-1566 for assistance.

IT Support Services and Websites Done Right!

Check us out in ‘Business in Calgary’ magazine

New Petya Ransomware is out and potentially worse then WannaCry Ransomware. What can you do about it?

BlackBox Connections has found out that there are new variations of the Petya Ransomware out and about.

Also another Ransomware going by the name of GoldenEye and PetrWrap is behind the massive outbreak across the globe.

What makes the new threat different is that it now includes the EternalBlue exploit as a way to propagate inside a targeted network.

The exploit attacks the Windows Server Message Block service.

Petya also attempts to spread internally by breaking admin passwords and infecting other PCs on the network.

It does so by running credential-stealing codes to break user account passwords and deploy Ransomware into your systems.

What You Have To Do

Ensure systems have the latest patches, including the one in Microsoft’s MS17-010 bulletin.

Consider blocking the Microsoft PsExec tool from running on users’ computers.

Back up regularly and keep a recent backup copy off-site because there are dozens of ways other than Ransomware you can lose data.

Avoid opening attachments in emails from recipients you don’t know and even if you work in HR . Resist the urge!

New Petya Ransomware Is Out And Potentially Worse Then WannaCry

PetyaWrap is a 3 combo hitter and patching for the WannaCry Ransomware just isn’t enough.

If the WannaCry Virus is closed PetyaWrap just tries another route and the network is at a huge disadvantage.

At the end of the day do you want to take the risk of losing your files and have to pay a Ransom for your data back?

Truth be told multiple industries have announced they have yet to see their data back after paying the Ransom.

Check out this new Ransomware intercept by Sophos and is an excellent tool Sophos Ransomware Tool

Don’t wait, Act Now! Consult a Professional 

Contact IT Support 587-355-1566 for assistance.

IT Support Services and Websites Done Right!

Check us out in ‘Business in Calgary’ magazine

Are funds going in the right direction to secure your data? Seems like any easy enough question.

If you were to sit down with your IT Support or Manager and ask them if your security was up to pair would that be enough?

Times are tough and businesses are not investing enough time or money into protecting their data.

Therefore when asked if your company’s data is secure would you have an answer?

Would you say, “I think so”, “I’m not sure”, “My in house IT knows” and “My budget won’t allow it”

These types of answers are scary because you are leaving your company’s data in the unknown.

Research Shows

Despite the increasing number of data breaches and nearly 1.4 billion data records being lost or stolen in 2016.

59 percent of companies think their sensitive data is secure and 68 percent think a hacker could access their network.

Why leave it up to chance when you wouldn’t leave your car keys in the car just because no one has ever stolen them.

Are Funds Going In The Right Direction To Secure Your Data?

A major Canadian company was forced to pay $425,000 in Bitcoin over the weekend to restore its computer systems.

It was said, “They literally had not choice but to pay” because the backups were frozen.

Although the forensic investigation is in its early stages, the attack was very sophisticated.

By believing that their data is already secure, businesses are failing to prioritize the measures necessary to protect their data.

Businesses need to be aware that hackers are after a company’s most valuable asset, which is Data!

Check out this new Ransomware intercept by Sophos and is an excellent tool Sophos Ransomware Tool

Don’t wait, Act Now! Consult a Professional 

Contact IT Support 587-355-1566 for assistance.

IT Support Services and Websites Done Right!

Check us out in ‘Business in Calgary’ magazine

Analyze and secure your data first before moving forward or you will regret it.

Spending money on cyber security doesn’t prove an organization is getting better at it by any means.

It is painful how many people are not doing detect and respond therefore spending more money on security.

Companies put big firewalls and then they do nothing else but if no one is watching what good is it?

Cyber Security

Cyber attacks will cost businesses across the world $8 trillion in the next five years.

Just put this into prospective, India’s entire GDP crossed $8 trillion two years ago and grows everyday.

The report says that we’ll hit that threshold very soon due to higher levels of Internet connectivity.

Making it easy for Hackers to run in and run out. Heard of that one before?

The biggest problems occur when organizations try to integrate new and legacy systems.

Without having someone check their computers and pay particular attention to security on their network.

The attacks on hospital infrastructure show that inadequate cybersecurity can now cost lives and money.

Analyze And Secure Your Data First Before Moving Forward

Having some sort of IT is better then nothing but if they are not following proper procedure what are you paying for?

What you will see in a small organization is maybe they’ve invested a lot in protection.

They make a one time spend of $40,000 on a firewall and they’ve gone from a zero to a three.

Now they’re not doing any of the other stuff, which is disastrous.

It would be better to be doing all of these at a 2 than one of them at a 4.

Make sure to Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover and Backup.
Check out this new Ransomware intercept X tool by Sophos because it’s an excellent tool Sophos Ransomware Tool

Don’t wait, Act Now! Why not Ask?

Contact IT Support 587-355-1566 for assistance.

IT Support Services and Websites Done Right!

Check us out in ‘Business in Calgary’ magazine

Time to limit employee access to sensitive company data, because most of all can you trust them?

It is a dirty job but sometimes owners retire and need to lay off employees or consequently fire an employee.

What is left is important data files for anyone to grab as a result you don’t want that happening.

Data files are easily copied and pasted to a removable SD card and now it’s the hands of an employee.

Survey Says

Recent survey says 60 percent of companies don’t know who has full or most noteworthy access to company critical data.

43 percent of data breaches were the result of malicious and incompetent insiders.

Company owners first of all need to change their thinking in that, threats are not always outside the company.

Data Breaches

Breaches can be caused by many things such as unauthorized application use, unauthorized physical and logical access to sensitive data.

Misuse of corporate computers, such as unauthorized sharing of work devices can lead to disaster.

A misuse of passwords or sharing passwords lead to compromised data and back-doors.

In addition to inadequately disposed-of paperwork and lost or stolen devices is an easy way to grab information.

Time To Limit Employee Access To Sensitive Company Data

There are a number of steps and processes a company can take to help mitigate data breaches.

These include, educating staff members, encrypting sensitive data, using access control lists, and developing a clear policy.

A clear policy on how to react and respond to a data breach can be so valuable.

Most importantly knowing exactly who, what, where, and when, the data breach occurred.

Check out this new Ransomware intercept X tool by Sophos because it’s an excellent tool Sophos Ransomware Tool

Don’t wait, Act Now! Why not Ask?

Contact IT Support 587-355-1566 for assistance.

IT Support Services and Websites Done Right!

Check us out in ‘Business in Calgary’ magazine