How Are the Hackers Connecting?

One of the most common methods is accessing RDP ports and points on computers and devices that share the SMB protocols in Windows 10. The hackers are acting as brokers to help other scammers and cyber attackers alike. They aren’t just ethical hackers or cyber attackers these days – now people are giving the job a title: initial access broker. This is because they get the data and sell it to bidders on the dark web and other areas, government offices, countries, and even your competitors (yes, this happens).

RDP Endpoint Sales

RDP connections are a hacker’s dream come true when spreading computer viruses.

This is when cyber criminals succeed with brute force cyberattacks on your servers or workstations configured to use the Remote Desktop Protocol. They then sell these remote desktop connections.

Hacked Network Equipment

Believe it or not, there are more and more vulnerabilities becoming persistent with this. As major ISPs worldwide are getting slammed with lawsuits regarding the issue, it still happens. Hackers exploit vulnerabilities of your network routers and modems, or even VPNs, and get access into the network and to the central data unit.

BOTNet Sifters

The malware and ransomware botnets go through the computers they infect and encrypt all their data. This allows them to be sold to other ransomware teams.

Fortunately, there are some defenses regarding these computer viruses. Still, the biggest problem is that many of these emerging viruses have never been seen before – let alone in the volume in which they are modified these days. Here are some of the most common computer viruses cyber attackers use nowadays.

MARS Virus

The MARS ransomware computer virus digs its heels into your data and encrypts more files than you think.

The MARS virus is extremely new – only being discovered in November 2020. What’s interesting about this is that the primary attacks seem to be coming from Russia and the surrounding areas. This ransomware acts like many others, but there is no fix for it yet (many others have decryptors for files already, but not this one).

Emotet

The Emotet malware strikes when you click the “Enable Editing” button and is one of the more complex computer viruses to remove.

This is one of the most popular and largest malware botnets out there. While most of these attacks are with ransomware teams directly, this attack is a chain of other ransomware infections. The compromised system’s data is then sold.

Trickbot

Trickbot has been making a comeback during the pandemic and is one of many computer viruses reaping havoc on RDP accounts.

Trickbot is a pretty similar botnet. Like Emotet, it is malware that allows cybercrime to take place. However, this one infects the victims but gets access to Emotet-infected systems.

BazarLoader

This one’s a doozy but acts like the backdoor trojans of yesteryears. However, it linked to the original Trickbot hacking group and became a spinoff of that project. What’s the most important problem is that they install the Ryuk ransomware.

Qakbot/Qbot

QakBot/Qbot is one of the most devastating computer viruses you can get infected with.

This one goes by multiple names. Infosec has deemed this one a slower infection than older systems. At the same time, the QakBot groups end up taking their time with their infections. However, they collaborate with other botnet networks to make them even more lethal.

SDBBot

You need to audit your network immediately if you see any computer viruses.

This one’s a more recent malware infection. It’s tied to a cybercrime group that has been seen where Clop and other ransomware computer viruses were inserted.

Dridex

Dridex helps distribute computer viruses to unsuspecting individuals.

This backdoor trojan is more of a malware downloader program. It is one of the most used spam email campaigns today and distributes the ransomware called Locky. However, they are using other newer ransomware strains to hit larger companies.

So How Do I Stay Protected?

First, you need a network solution to protect your business’s data and preserve its security. Finding the right IT support team is one of the most important things you can do. Ransomware hackers aren’t just sticking to computers and emails anymore. These days, exploits in various items around your offices can quickly become a target. And if they get access to your router, you’re in for a world of hurt. The most important thing you can do is contact your team to install some very secure firewalls, then increase your device security with a high-powered sentinel to protect your computer.

Important January 2021 Update

How One Malware Chain Became the Most Costly & How to Defend Against It

Emotet is one of the most dangerous computer viruses we have seen in a long time.

We’ve mentioned it, and you’ve probably heard about it elsewhere. Still, Emotet – the super virus of 2020 – has become the most impactful and destructive threat to small and medium businesses, government organizations, and larger corporations. While it’s not a new virus, it’s more heavily modified. It is evolving beyond a banking trojan – including selling information to other cyber attackers and infecting users with ransomware. But what is it? And how could one initially just an email phishing virus become this big?

Much Like a Worm

The super virus known as Emotet is similar to past computer viruses called worms.

Like the old viruses called “worms,” Emotet often uses phishing emails to infect other systems on a network, other people’s contacts, and much more. And just like computer viruses of the past, users don’t know that they’ve been attacked until after.

However, Emotet is not a worm, even though it acts like one. And it can be spread in similar fashions, and other attackers have been delivering it with other methods. It was initially made as banking malware but has made its way to personal and small business computers, making it one of the most widely used and dangerous computer viruses.

Trickbot is the Second Most Dangerous

Out of all the current computer viruses, the Trickbot banking trojan ranks second regarding how much damage it produces.

Also, banking trojans are constantly being manipulated, and “improved” (more like tailored to do more damage) to the point that it’s become one of the other leading ways that cyber attackers can install ransomware on individual computers. Many of these trojans are being used to take advantage of exploits in network routers, home and business network computers, and even Microsoft products. This allows users to access any educated exploit they can use against the system to damage it.

Can an Antivirus Stop the Attack?

Installing an antivirus like SentinelOne can assist in keeping computer viruses at bay.

Although it’s highly reported that most attacks can be stopped with Windows Defender and other antivirus programs, many of these trojan viruses have protection to keep the user unaware that the virus is being installed. Even many advanced firewalls are not detecting the attacks. That’s where full-service solutions like SentinelOne come into play.

SentinelOne can offer a large defense against these attacks and even prevent them. At the same time, it can also aid in recovering data that may have been breached – and many ransomware attackers know it. Numerous companies are threatened when the attacker realizes they’re ignoring their ransomware attacks. We’ve even mentioned in a previous post that some hackers are cold-calling their victims when they know that their demands are being ignored.

So How Can You Protect Yourself?

Aside from using a full-service solution, it would help if you instilled maximum security. This is sometimes hard to do when you’re busy working. Therefore, you must have IT specialists that provide multiple services to implement these different security solutions. This could include, but not be limited to:

• Local cloud backups of your company’s financial and critical data
• Increased email security
• Advanced knowledge of cybersecurity that they’ll happily share so you can teach your employees
• A defense and helpdesk solution lets you keep busy doing what’s important – running your business.
• Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems and phone services that extend outside of your office to local home offices
• Dedicated local web hosting solutions
• And much more
• Whatever you decide to do, it’s crucial that you avoid getting these “deadly for business” computer viruses, and give us a call at Infinity DataTel today!

The Pros of the Dropbox Password Manager

The Dropbox password manager has quite a few pros and benefits of interest to your business.

There are many benefits to using password managers for business applications.

1. The Dropbox password manager can protect your employees’ information.
2. It allows you to have particular concrete policies that protect your business.
3. It allows you to have the ability to set and enforce your passwords that may change regularly – but still allow employees to sign in seamlessly as if nothing has changed.
4. It can improve productivity and overall workplace efficiency.
5. They’re often more secure for your business. You’re more likely to have a cyber attacker try to phish the pertinent information from you than they are to get into your password manager.

Is Third-Party the Best Solution?

Not all password managers are created equal; some are downright awful regarding security. The Dropbox password manager is still in Beta, but it’s looking to change the game.

While you need to know that any third party may be liable for the information should you have a data breach, you want to ensure all of your company’s passwords are safe. Therefore, you must do homework before signing up for a service like the Dropbox password manager. These third-party services are always subject to attack. At any given point, they aren’t as good as dedicated services designed to provide ONLY password management to your company.

Software Solutions for Password Management

Partnering with the right MSP can be highly beneficial for password management and all facets of IT.

There are other things that you can have instilled into your business for security. These are often browser-based, but if you talk to your IT team, you may be able to have them find a quality software solution that can protect you more on the local level. These services are just as secure because you have everything stored on a local server, but you still run the risk of attacks if you don’t have one of the best cybersecurity suites to keep hackers out from the base of their attack points.

With the right managed service provider, you can get a locally owned solution rather than trust some third-party corporation that you may even have trouble calling customer support. And they’ll be able to provide cloud backup services and password management software. What’s the downside to this? If you have all your passwords stored on a local device, you are ultimately waiving the right for another company to maintain responsibility.

How to Protect Yourself

Network security is dependent on employee education, first and foremost. But did you know that password security is just as important? The Dropbox password manager will make it easier and safer to store different passwords for every site and program you need.

First, when you sign up for a service that uses a password manager, you will have a master password in place. You may want only to give your IT support team access to this and nobody else. Otherwise, your IT team may be able to have one, and you need it to be completely secure and nearly impossible to thwart and discover. There are all kinds of hacker tools that can try to find string passwords, so you need to have a good mix of capital and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers to protect yourself.

If you forget the master password, you may have some trouble. And what’s worse? It doesn’t mean you’re safe. Suppose your attacker should find a Windows Office exploit to operate your system remotely or even install a keylogger on your system. In that case, they can end up getting that master password and gaining access to EVERYTHING that you have secured in your company. Not even The Dropbox password manager can protect against something like this.

How Can I Avoid This?

It never hurts to have your passwords stored somewhere, but you want to ensure that you have them in the safest place possible. Talk to your network or secure VoIP provider to see what you can do regarding password maintenance and see if the Dropbox password manager is right for you. While you may want to get with the times and utilize these services, sometimes it’s best to have those million post-it notes or a spreadsheet printed out in a secure place or file cabinet!

Have you ever lost your data because you accidentally deleted it from your hard drive? What if you needed to pull up an old document or a photo that you may have removed a while back?

I Thought Windows Came with a Recovery Solution

Many people fail to realize that there is a time limit to using Windows File Recovery, and they tend to find out after it’s too late, and their files are gone forever.

This puppy isn’t like your operating system repair and recovery. Instead of downloading special software, Microsoft aims to help you recover lost or deleted files. Of course, you can’t wait forever to recover your files. Otherwise, they may be gone entirely and overwritten to the block. But is this file recovery any good? Or is it better to have another file recovery tool or a professionally managed service provider do it for you? Let’s find out!

Limited Options

There are now file recovery options for everything technical and IoT, including phones, computers, camera systems, and even smart toasters.

File recovery programs are not only a dime a dozen, but so are their features. From mobile device recovery to PC or Mac recovery (even Linux has recovery apps), what you need in a file recovery system may vary, and you may not get the right one the first time. On top of that, you may have particular files that you need to recover, program files, installation files, and other pertinent data.

Microsoft’s tool recovers a lot, but it doesn’t recover everything. They’ve stuck their tool about so-so with much other mediocre software on the web – allowing you only to recover MP3s, MP4 vids, Documents (including text files, rich text files, and Office Documents), and JPEG images. If you want more recovery options, you may want to leave that to the pros or spend cash on another program.

Only for Certain Hard Drives

Depending on which hard drive you have installed may be the difference in Windows File Recovery retrieving your data or being lost forever.

Windows File Recovery can do an excellent job at retrieving the types of documents above on an NTFS file system, but it lags when extracting data from other hard drive signature types. This means that if you have a FAT32 or a ReFS file system, it may take much more time to retrieve less data than you would if you used an NTFS filesystem.

What does this mean for the average user? It means you can help recover lost files that are important to you if you accidentally wiped your hard drive or deleted something. Of course, Microsoft already put this into Windows 10 if you have File History turned on (you have to enable it manually).

Is It the Best Option for File Recovery?

Windows File recovery is probably not the best method of recovering your files, and you should look elsewhere if you can.

We’re going to answer that question with a loud and resounding no. Why do you ask? First, your limitations with Windows 10 make it even harder to recover files. There are also a bazillion other file formats than the ones that software applications create, and this file recovery tool can’t recover everything you may need. There is plenty of higher-end software, but as mentioned earlier, that may not be the best option for your business or personal needs.

Hidden Dangers of File Recovery

When attempting to use Windows File recovery or any file recovery, there is always a possibility that something may go wrong, so plan accordingly and be safe.

If you’ve noticed, since Windows ME and even Windows XP existed, file recovery and any recovery can be potentially dangerous. There are millions of viruses out there, and even though your virus protection (unless it’s a beast provided by your MSP) is working full force, it may not pick up on erased or super-compacted-and-encrypted data. In other words, Windows Recovery partitions and even the infamous System Restore has and always will be necessary for essential things but dangerous because they can harbor old removed viruses.

Therefore, it’s best not to do the work yourself if you can avoid it. Get ahold of your team of IT pros and let them get cranking – you’ll always have the insurance of knowing that you won’t harm your disk drives with their help!

What Does a UPS Do?

A UPS is a power supply that features a backup battery. It allows users to continue to operate any device plugged into it for a certain amount of time. In case of a power failure, a company or person can avoid having to lose all of their precious data, or so they can have time to shut their systems down. That being said, UPS systems are often used with system servers, networked servers, and some businesses even use it on their PCs for certain positions (such as IT staff or executive computers).

A UPS keeps everything up and running for a period of time should a disaster strike.

Can a UPS Last All Day?

Lasting power is a big question that many people have, and the truth is no – they do not last for a long time. While some things may benefit from a UPS for extended periods (such as VoIP systems or devices, and even possibly routers or modems), the majority of networks and computer systems don’t have a long time to continue use.

A 1500VA UPS system like the APC UPS 1500VA Smart-UPS can last up to 3 hours for a router, switch, modem, or VoIP phone device, but it only offers about 20 minutes of computer use (assuming only one is plugged into it). While this doesn’t seem like much, it is ample time to save all data and safely shut down a system in almost all cases.

Check out this server room with multiple UPS installed to keep servers running no matter what.

Some systems, however, can offer even longer time by having multiple batteries and backup power options, but these can be extremely expensive (we’ll get into that next). The average user can still benefit from a smaller VA system because they can achieve what they need to do before losing power to their network.

What About the Price?

Price is another big question because there are many options out there. One key thing to note is that you’re going to get what you pay for most of the time. Mostly, if you find a device that claims to make large amounts of time but only costs less than a hundred dollars, you’re probably going to find that it doesn’t work as it says it does. One can expect to at least spend over a hundred bucks (and even a few hundred more for better models) for each one of these smaller systems.

When you start to look at corporate models, you can expect to pay into the thousands, and sometimes even tens of thousands of dollars on battery backup systems. The more backup power you have, the more you will expect to pay for the backup system.

Are UPS Systems Necessary?

Aside from customers, we highly recommend that you look into a cloud storage solution and a UPS system for your business. Data of all types is necessary for companies to thrive these days, and yours must be kept safe and secure. Power failures can destroy data and even computers, so they must be shut down correctly as often as possible to extend their lives.

If you can or don’t want to be safe, then, by all means, don’t invest in one. But if you want the security of knowing that your items will be safe in case of a power outage (they are known to happen), they are an essential part of a professional company network, even if it’s just a small business.

Even when the power is out, your network will be safe if you are using a UPS.

What We Think

You can’t get unlimited power by harnessing a UPS unless you opt for solar electricity for a dedicated computer backed with a generator and even a UPS power supply. Still, in some cases, yet these are known not to be enough. Natural disasters can take power out for a very long time, and when this happens, companies have to make sure their data stays safe. Therefore, we highly recommend using a high-quality system for your business, no matter how big or how small it is.

Infinity Solutions’ Data Backup Services and Disaster Recovery

Infinity Solutions works with Valley MSPs to bring them the best backup services without breaking the bank.

Infinity Solutions has the knowledge and equipment to do things right. If you look into the various services that can provide small business solutions, you can get a custom server through their VoIP and Networking services to get some of the best 256 bit AES encryption. Additional backup recovery solutions that greatly improve your ability to keep your information from being removed are also included. This off-site backup can help you get the right storage solution, and you can usually get a good price based on how much data you need to transfer and store regularly.

You can also store your data and have constant protection service to know that your important information and files are secure and safe at all times. A huge benefit is that by having your cloud storage service more localized, you won’t have to worry about losing data as you would with popular online services (which we’ll discuss below). You also won’t have to worry about possible data leaks that may occur when using more popular solutions like Infinity Solutions as you would with other “cloud solutions providers” in the Phoenix area.

IDrive®

IDrive offers a secure online platform to give you reliable backup services.

IDrive is one of the most popular platforms used these days when it comes to having good online solutions for your cloud storage. Some home office users like the features they have, including taking a PC Snapshot, which is like an external restore point for your entire computer.  One of the major downsides that people don’t like is that you have to pay additional fees. They have many options to save money and numerous sales that offer discounts for the first year, but their prices for each additional year are considered a little high.

They can cost thousands of dollars for business accounts, and you have to pay for a year, not per month. They’re also a little more expensive after that “first-year” than backup services like Dropbox, which many people still use because of its ease of use.

What you get are Web UI admin consoles to manage devices, which is nice for installing and syncing your mobile devices. They are reasonably priced, but they extremely lack customer support as well. You also have to manually update their IDrive program instead of having automatic installs, and there have been numerous people complaining that a lot of files aren’t backed up for a long time. It would help if you also had constant monitoring to ensure that it’s working the way you want it to.

Dropbox

Dropbox is one of the oldest and most reliable backup service providers for home users and businesses.

Dropbox backup services are another solution that many small businesses use, and while there are advantages, there are also some disadvantages. Let’s go over the bad news first to show you all of the good news! First off, Dropbox doesn’t have the security cover that you would get with other companies. Your information (not your data, just personal info and contact info) can get dispersed through third parties.

You also don’t have as much privacy, and if a government official wanted to go through your files, they could get access to do so. Another thing is that you only get 2GB if you’re signing up for the free version. They do offer competitive rates on business solutions, though. We’ll talk about that a little later.

One big thing people like about DropBox backup services is that they can catch ANYTHING copied to it, especially if you’re using the desktop application. The downside? If you reset your PC or reinstall your OS with Dropbox running in the background, then you’ll lose your data. However, they do have great features for synchronization and even having that 30-day safety net to restore deleted items.

You can also get their business advanced plans, which have flexible storage space and costs approximately $20 a month (with the Advanced plan) if you pay for the whole year upfront, or $25 if you choose monthly billing. Still a lot cheaper than IDrive for backup services.

So, What Does This Mean?

So, there you have it. If you’re in the Phoenix area, and you want some personal solutions that can get quite costly (or even some personal business solutions), then by all means, you may want to invest in a company like IDrive or Dropbox, but you’re still better off quality cloud backup services that are local instead. They don’t have as many limitations and can adjust their pricing to be more valuable in the long run. Plus, they’ll have better support than many of the online applications that people are used to.

Imaged-Based Backups

Your disaster recovery plan should include what kind of backups your company will be utilizing.

Image-based backups are a secure and reliable way to back up your data. In comparison to other approaches, it involves creating an operating system’s snapshot and all associated data. This allows you to restore your entire network in a fraction of the time it would take to recover from a legacy or tape-based backup solution.

Using this method, everything can be restored to how it was the last time the backup was run. As a result, recovery time may be much faster than with other methods, and the recovery itself may be more complete.

Cloud-Based Recovery

Cloud-based disaster recovery is an excellent solution, but is it the only way to go?

Cloud-based recovery is an aspect of image-based backup. Cloud hosting services are increasingly playing a pivotal role in traditional IT disaster recovery strategies, partly due to cost-effective cloud-based recovery. This offers long-term data backup without the costs of having an off-site recovery center, additional staff, and all the other infrastructure needed.

Cloud-based solutions are fast and efficient, while the Network World article points out that they have made disaster recovery more accessible for SMBs, providing pay-per-use models and the ability to recover data sets quickly.

It’s little things like, what do you do if your hard drive decides to break? Things like this should be discussed in your disaster recovery plan.

Remote Data Backups

Remote data backups only require file by file/email backups of your data. The backup is located at a remote location. This is an added safety measure.

Businesses today always want and need access to their computer systems and data, and any interruption can be catastrophic. Not only do companies have to worry about Cyberattacks and site failures, but they also need to be prepared for natural disasters and other threats as well. For this purpose, a disaster recovery plan (DRP) is essential. In terms of IT disaster recovery, managed service providers prefer to offer a range of different options. Let’s take a closer look at the different disaster recovery plan (DRP) options available to you and explain the factors to be considered when deciding between them.

Things like how often or the time of day your server backs up your data should be discussed in your disaster recovery plan.

Things to Consider

When choosing between different options, your recovery time objective (RTO) is a crucial factor to consider.  Your RTO is the length of time for which your business can accept being offline. The RTO is a goal, and the method(s) you have selected will give you the best chance to meet or reach it.

The RPO and RTO need to be discussed when building your company’s disaster recovery plan.

Implications of downtime on companies may vary substantially. They may include data loss, inability to access critical software, interaction interruption, and lost revenue.

Image-based backups and recovery are quicker and more thorough than non-image-based approaches. Within minutes a full recovery is possible. Non-image-based backups are also reliable, but recovery is less complete and more expensive. They also usually result in more extended downtime, meaning that you fail to meet your recovery time target.

Remember, when developing a disaster recovery plan, you need to understand the level of support offered. Working with a managed service provider (MSP) that can provide any additional services you need, such as equipment leasing or proactive monitoring, is essential and can eliminate problems before they arise.

Common Excuses and Solutions

Excuses will do nothing but weigh you down and hold you back. It’s time to grab the bull by the horns and develop a disaster recovery plan that fits your business’ needs.

We’ve heard it all from it’s not convenient, it’s too expensive, and everything in between. But wouldn’t lose all your data and having to close your business be less convenient? Your data is priceless. It may very well be the most crucial part of your business. So, why would you not have your business’s data backed up off-site?

If your data is adequately backed up, then you have nothing to worry about. However, if you are backing up your data monthly, weekly, or even daily, depending on your business, it might be time to switch before it’s too late. It would help if you were backing up your data weekly at the minimum. At the same time, most businesses prefer to run a daily backup after business hours. Therefore your machines will be running at tip-top speed during the day, and then at night, they’ll be safe.

What costs are associated with downtime?

 

Every minute of downtime causes businesses to lose sales and lost revenue. 1000’s companies are forced to shut their doors every year because they did not have a disaster recovery plan in place. That’s how important a disaster recovery plan is to your business.

 

A few areas your business may incur costs if disaster strikes:

 

• Finding the cause of the outage will take time, costing you money.
• It would be best if you kept the outage contained. Costs are incurred to prevent interruption from spreading, worsening, or causing more significant disruption.
• Recovery costs incurred for bringing your organization’s networks and core systems back up and back to a state of readiness.
• All after-the-fact incidental costs associated with business disruption and recovery will add up quickly.
• The cost of new equipment purchases and repairs.
• The lost time and related expenses associated with IT personnel downtime.
• The lost time and related expenses associated with end-user downtime

 

The Ultimate Effect of IT Downtime

Downtime is not something that you ever want if you own a business. That’s why ironing out a robust disaster recovery plan is essential.

 

The real cost is the toll downtime takes on employee productivity. The total revenue loss from employees’ inability to be online during the outage period is just the start of a negative domino effect that will cause business disruption and mounting costs.

Ultimately, the path you choose for your company’s disaster recovery plan is up to you. If you take a proactive approach, you’ll be rewarded. If you take a reactive approach, you’ll most likely spend more money and have less to show for it.

 

A proactive strategy is essential, and an understanding of the effects of downtime on your business continuity. It’s essential to view your IT assets and resources as strategic. Outsourcing your IT is one way to implement a strategic/proactive plan to prevent and minimize downtime. Your business will be more prepared by reducing network outages instead of operating within a reactive break/fix response. Having the right disaster recovery plan in place can be the difference in costing thousands to closing up shop.

 

Here are a few benefits to outsourcing your IT to decrease your risks of network downtime:

The benefits of having a well-thought-out and executable disaster recovery plan are immeasurable and necessary for your business’s success.

• Proactive preventative plan in place for your business continuity
• Network and server support from knowledgeable IT engineers
• IT Security services monitoring your network and server 24/7/365
• Data Protection
• Hosted email
• Fixed budget for IT managed services.
• Disaster Recovery Plan

 

Every business must have a strong IT disaster recovery plan. Especially as cybersecurity threats increase and organizations collect more data. However, it is crucial to explore all the options available and select the right ones to create the right disaster recovery plan.

We suggest using a combination of virtualization of resources and regular backups of data. Image-based backups have faster recovery times, and when things go wrong, you’ll also want on-site and off-site assistance. For SMBs in Phoenix, Infinity DataTel provides a wide range of IT disaster recovery services you can trust. For more information or to schedule a disaster recovery plan strategy session, please call 480-493-5999 or send us a message.

Backup Strategies You Can Count On

Creating and sticking to a backup strategy can save your business if and when things go awry.

First, let’s discuss your backup strategy. We will jump into this topic because you can’t have a crash plan without a proper backup strategy. Creating a backup scheme is fundamental to recovering from any significant incident. Your business could be hit by ransomware or an act of God like a hurricane. Either way, with a bit of preparation and testing, these things become less threatening.

There’s a tried and true rule for creating backups. That is called the 3-2-1 rule. It’s simple. Make three backups of everything. Two of those backups need to be on different media, like a tape backup and a cloud backup. One of those backups needs to be kept off-site, preferably in a different city or region.

Following this rule used to be a lot more complicated. With the availability of cloud services today, there is no reason not to follow this rule. Even better, all your backups can be completely automated and still follow this rule.

What Software Should We Use?

Office 365 and Google’s G Suite are both viable options when it comes to backups.

Let’s start with user PCs. These are the computers that each business assigns to employees to get work done. Today, most companies subscribe to Office 365 or Google’s G Suite. Both subscriptions include a cloud syncing service with an important feature.

Office 365 has a syncing feature called OneDrive. G Suite has its Backup and Sync service, also called Drive. Both applications will sync data stored within a designated folder on a user’s PC to the cloud. Once in the cloud, employees can access their data on the go. They can also easily send and share files stored in the cloud with customers and co-workers.

Syncing Data

Syncing your data daily or even weekly will keep your files and backups updated if an emergency occurs.

Both cloud syncing services offer two powerful features. First, if a user’s PC needs to be re-imaged or replaced, restoring those synced files is easy. The applications must be configured and given a little time to restore these files.

It’s important to note that both services will only sync data stored in those configured folders for each app. Make sure that employees are saving their data to these folders. It might be wise to set this specific sync folder as the standard Documents library in Windows. That way, files are saved to this location automatically.

The second important feature that both apps have is a file versioning feature. This is especially important for ransomware. If files are encrypted and synced, or if a user accidentally saves a file after making an unwanted change, data can be rolled back from the cloud to previous working versions.

Server Talk

Some businesses choose to back up their files on a dedicated server. Others like to use both local storage and cloud services.

Now, let us discuss servers. Servers can take a bit more work to back up, but they are not challenging. Applications like Veam can make images of current servers and backup specific folders. These features can also be used for essential computers that employees regularly use.

You will want to spend a little time deciding which computers and servers need to be backed up, and you need to determine how regularly they need to be backed up. There are many strategies to discover the answers to these questions, but the easiest way to decide is to figure out how much data you could lose before your business is impacted. Is it one day, three days, or a week?

After backups are made, they need to be stored somewhere. Thankfully, data storage has become very cheap today. There are various solutions, whether you are a small, medium, or large business. For small businesses, a simple NAS might work best. They can be purchased or built for about the price of a laptop. They can also hold a lot of data!

Once that data is saved somewhere locally, you need to think about getting it off-site. Your IT staff can help you decide on the best solution for that. There are a lot of useful applications that will save backups to online storage facilities. With services like AWS S3, Azure, and Wasabi, plenty of reasonable solutions would work for your business.

Have You Prepared for a Crash?

Restoring your information from your backup only works if you know how to do it and have a plan ahead of time.

Now, let’s talk about your crash plan. Backing up data doesn’t mean much unless you know how to restore it. So, it would help if you created a plan to restore your data.

Unfortunately, giving everyone a concrete recovery plan is beyond the scope of this article. Creating a crash plan depends on the methods you use to back up your data. Create a program built around how you would retrieve that data from wherever you are storing it. Keep in mind that you may also need to get your off-site copies.

After you have made that plan, break things down. It’s not suggested to break computers that are in active operation, so use a spare computer. Better yet, try your crash plan on different hardware as well. Let’s say a server has a hardware problem and goes down. That hardware can no longer be replaced, and you are forced to buy new computers. Can you restore your data and configure that new machine?

This is the point of testing your crash plan. Make sure it works. Chances are, your crash plan will never work on the first attempt. You need to find the holes in that plan and fill them. If you are having difficulty and can’t find the holes to fix, you can contact us, and we’ll find them for you.

Whenever you decide to add something new to your information technology arsenal, you accept some level of risk. For your business to succeed, you first must understand what the chances are and then manage them. These two steps are vital to your business’s success. Let’s take a closer look at how you can manage your IT risks and what your options are.

Understanding IT Risks

To manage IT risk properly, you must first learn how to understand it.

The delicate dance, known as risk management, can be extremely rewarding when executed properly. Not only can it enable you to be prepared for potential issues, but you can also go a different route if the risks that lie ahead are more than you are comfortable with. After all, it can hardly be considered a solution if adopting a resolution ultimately hurts your productivity or overall success.

This is precisely why risk management is an essential process for any business that wants to be successful.

How Can You Successfully Manage Your IT Risks? Like many business processes, risk management has five steps to follow to achieve a positive outcome:

Predicting IT Risks

It would be best if you saw it coming to prepare for risks properly by committing some time to consider which chances are most likely and when they might occur.

Evaluating Risks

You’ll want to estimate the consequences and likelihood of each risk. Are they potentially catastrophic or minor nuisances?

Arranging Risks

There is a strategy for managing your IT risk that you can find below.

Keeping the impacts of each risk in mind, we now must put them in order by severity. We’ll need to put them in order so that we can address the most critical risks first. We can arrange a strategy to approach them at this point, which we will examine later in more depth.

Reacting

If you’ve made it this far, you are ready to take on any hypothetical risks. If you stick to the plan, you should be fine. There are a few different ways you can approach this:

Avoidance– You can take the necessary steps to avoid the risk, with little consideration of the costs. While applying safeguards is often an effective way to prevent a particular risk, relying on it as your only risk management method is usually resource-intensive.

Reduction – Like the avoidance method above, this method requires using your resources to mitigate risk. However, instead of just eliminating all the risks, this approach makes risks more manageable and less impactful.

Transference – You may have the ability to shift the risk to a different area that can handle it better or finds it less risky. This might be another department in-house, or an MSP, like Infinity DataTel, that is more experienced in handling such matters.

Acceptance – This strategy relies on your foresight to accept that risks are can happen. You don’t want to be caught by surprise when a threat materializes. By following the strategy you’ve mapped out, you’ll be able to handle risks whenever they are presented.

Scrutinize

After you’ve squashed the risk in its tracks, you should do an evaluation. How well you prepared to reduce any impacts? Were your mitigations effective? How can you improve them for next time?

Infinity DataTel Can Help with Your IT Risks

As a managed service provider, we have decades of experience with IT risks and mitigating them. We can help you identify your risks and determine the best ways to address them. Combining the methods described above with our expertise, we’ll find the solution that suits your business’s needs.

Give us a call at 480.493.5999 or send us a message for more information.