Tag: security

  • Risks with Implementing New Technology in Your Business

    Risks with Implementing New Technology in Your Business

    If you own or operate a business chances are, you’re constantly looking for new ways to improve your processes or become more optimized and efficient. If you run a restaurant this may mean reducing your menu, if you’re manufacturing company owner you may always be on the lookout for new or better hardware.

    What about your technology? Let’s face it, every sector of business these days liberally uses technology both in and out of the sales process. Computers that power your workforce, printers that help you invoice clients, your own laptop that may help you brainstorm new business ideas at 3 A.M.

    Technology is interwoven into our success, but what are the risks associated with implementing a new technology? Either one that’s just new to you or new as a whole. Here’s our list:

    • Integration Issues: New technology always has a learning curve, and you may not find out until you’ve already deployed it that it’s not a good fit for your business.It’s important to research a new technology thoroughly before jumping in feet first.
    • Customer Support Issues: You’re probably aware of how to contact support with any current software or hardware products you have, you also know how quickly they’ll respond to your issue from past experience.With new technology you’ll have to figure out the best way to reach their customer support and over time, learn how responsive they are to you.
    • Deficient Products: Every new technology involves a trial period where you’re figuring out if it’s a good fit, and that includes learning whether it’s a good product in general.In every business there will be periods of buyers remorse with a product that just wasn’t a good fit in the end.
    • Training: Training your employees to use the new technology shouldn’t be a deterrent for making necessary upgrades, but it is something to keep in mind especially if you know your business is going to be really busy.Try to schedule upgrades during slower periods to accommodate a necessary learning period.
    • Scalability: Finally, the technology you’re after may be a good fit in every other way but will it scale to your businesses needs? Are there any limitations on number of users or concurrent sessions for an example often seen in software.It’s imperative that you find these things out before deploying anything new.

    As with most things, if you’re a business owner your IT team should be able to answer all these questions and more for you when they’re implementing something new. If they’re not, maybe it’s time for a new IT team?

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

    Looking for IT Support in Fresno, Modesto, Stockton, Ceres, Atwater, Merced, Visalia or Lodi? We cover all these areas and more!

  • Is Your Internet Provider Keeping You Safe?

    Is Your Internet Provider Keeping You Safe?

    In terms of internet security, we often think of what we as individuals can do, like good password security or not opening email attachments. Or what companies who hold our data can do, like notifying us of a breach or having their own measures in place to avoid one in the first place. When it comes to our internet providers, we often think about the internet speeds they provide us and having consistent uptime.

    What about security though? What measures are in places (or not) to keep us safe while using the very thing that connects us all together?

    At the beginning of April, sites like Facebook and Google came to a grinding halt for hours. It wasn’t a hack or a bug, it was a problem with the internet data routing standard known as Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP.

    BGP disruptions usually happen by accident, but they can also be caused by large-scale spying or data interception. Denial of service attacks can be another culprit.

    BGP is like the map the internet uses to connect everything. All our traffic is routed through gateways to various hubs around the world. Or it should be that straightforward. In reality, every ISP provider can decide which routes to take, and not all of them are good.

    Cloudflare, who specializes in Internet Security among other things, has launched the website ISBGPSafeYet. Using this website will test your ISP by offering a legitimate route and an invalid route to load two pages.

    If it catches the invalid route and only loads the page offered by the legitimate route, then your ISP has BGP protections in place. If it loads both they fail.

    While we can’t change the problems with BGP overnight, public awareness is always a good thing. If your ISP fails the test, reach out to them and give them your opinion! Together we can make the internet a safer place for us all to use.

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

  • Tips for Using Zoom Safely

    Tips for Using Zoom Safely

    Dogs on ZoomMost of us are finding ourselves working from home either altogether or at least part of the time, and with that change also comes conducting work meetings from home. While we all probably had at least an awareness of video client tools such as Microsoft Teams and Skype, a new contender came through and became the working from home meeting tool du jour – I’m talking of course about Zoom.

    Zoom has added 2.22 million users so far in 2020 (the previous year they gained 1.99 million for the entire year). Unfortunately, with such unprecedent growth also comes growing pains in the form of unauthorized users jumping onto calls and even cyber security issues. So how can you use Zoom safely, and what led to it becoming such a popular option in the first place?

    Unlike many of its competitors Zoom allows you to see multiple participants at once, rather than one at a time while they’re talking. It also has the unique functionality of allowing users to join from a browser which lets participants avoid downloading the client if they don’t wish to or are unable to.

    You can also host an unlimited number of meetings with up to 100 participants with only the free client (up to 500 participants and concurrent meetings being paid features). Screensharing is also possible and a nice feature.

    With that said there have been some draw backs, call quality may be somewhat unpredictable compared to more seasoned products in this arena (although I think it would suffice to say they’ve all had some troubles in these heretofore unheard-of times). Users have also reported issues with scheduling and adding meetings to their calendars. The biggest issues though, have been in the avenue of security.

    Starting with so called “Zoom Bombers” – which have been one of the most publicized issues – it is described as having uninvited users join your private video call and start spamming unsavory materials either in the chat or via voice and/or video.

    Many of these intruders gained access via businesses posting the video chat link to their public social media accounts. The best method of protection against this by far is adding a password to your Zoom chats and not posting them publicly.

    It’s also come to light that there are some critical cyber security issues with Zoom, especially regarding user data.  500,000 Zoom user accounts and passwords were recently found for sale on the dark web due to a data breach by a cyber security firm.

    This serves as a good reminder to keep your passwords varied, change them periodically and use a password manager. You can check the whimsically named site https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to see if you’ve been a victim to this breach or any others.

    Suffice to say despite its faults Zoom is probably here to stay for the foreseeable future, especially as the country’s workforce continues to work from home. Taking some necessary steps will keep your work meetings intruder free and safe.

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on X at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

  • 10 Tips for Staying Safe Online When Working from Home

    Woman working at desk

    In light of the ongoing health crisis many of us are placed in the unusual position of working from home. While you may have concerns about keeping up your usual level of productivity and being able to communicate effectively with your coworkers while working in separate places there may be one issue flying under the radar, how do you stay safe online while working from home?

    It’s unfortunately not a given, in many work places you have an IT team that maintains (or should!) a high level of security for your office computers and network. These same measures are not in place on your home network or on your home computer.

    With so many of us working from home hackers may be seeing this as an opportunity to access your company’s private data via unsecured personal computers and home networks. These 10 tips will prevent this from happening.

    1. Don’t reuse passwords. If you’re able to choose your own work passwords it’s important they’re varied, if hackers get access to one of your accounts and you use the same password for everything then they have access to all of them.
    2. Practice good password safety. It’s imperative that passwords for your work accounts follow good password safety practices. Hackers may be able to use your work accounts to access the rest of your company’s data. If you set your own password make sure it follows the rules of 16 characters in length, mixing characters and avoiding dictionary words if possible.
      Also destroy any written copies of your password, real life phishing exists! Use a password manager like LastPass instead.
    3. Secure your home network. It’s shocking how many home networks don’t have a password at all, or if they do it’s a single word with no mixed characters or even your router’s default password.
      This is not a good idea! Hackers can use your network to access your home machine, and from there it may be game over. Like the tip above practice good password safety when it comes to your router’s password.
    4. Enable 2-factor authentication if it’s available to you. Many laptops these days feature security measures such as facial recognition or fingerprint readers that will help keep your device safe. Don’t forget to enable the same feature on your phone!
    5. Speaking of 2-factor authentication. You may find that your workplace uses 2-factor authentication to secure the applications you use on a daily basis to do your job, if they don’t bring it up! This will further prevent people from accessing your company data.
    6. Install updates. At work your IT team is probably installing updates for you, on your home device you’re responsible for doing so. In general, you shouldn’t be ignoring updates but while accessing your company accounts it’s even more important.
    7. Practice good online safety. The security measures enabled on your company network may prevent a total takeover in the case of someone accidentally downloading malware, this is not so at home.
      Don’t open attachments from senders you don’t know. Be careful which websites you visit, and always have your firewall enabled!
    8. Be careful with public networks. During this time, it might be tempting to get out and at least work outside at a café or somewhere with public Wi-Fi. However, this public Wi-Fi may leave your machine vulnerable, especially if you’re not practicing some of the safety measures above.
    9. Make sure your work is backed up. You’ll probably need some help from your IT team for this one but ensure the work you’re doing is backed up to your office servers or saved in some way. Recovering lost data from your home machine alone may be more difficult.
    10. Last but not least, use an anti-virus software. Find out which anti-virus software your company IT team recommends, or if you need a recommendation reach out to us. It’s extremely important for staying safe online.

    We hope these tips help. For those not working remotely or for tips on staying safe while in public right now, we recommend referring to the CDC Website for the most up to date information: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/valleytechlogic.

  • 2020 is Here – Here’s your Technology and Cybersecurity Forecast

    2020 is Here – Here’s your Technology and Cybersecurity Forecast

    It’s 2020 and the start of a new decade. Technology has changed a lot since the beginning of the last decade. Inexpensive computer options like Raspberry Pi and Chromebook became available, the first iPad was released.

    Computing also got a lot faster, the first 8 core processors were released, solid state drives became a lot more widespread, and graphic cards reached new heights for computer gamers shattering the previously achievable FPS (frames per second) and ushering in a new era of high-end gaming.

    The previous decade also brought new records on cybersecurity issues but unfortunately not in a positive light. Malware became more sophisticated and harder to track, ransomware became widespread (it’s estimated it cost the US $7.5 billion in 2019). So, what’s on the horizon for 2020 and beyond in the realms of technology and cybersecurity?

    As wearable technology advances increase, we will see even more of it aimed at integrating tech with the world around us. Augmented reality devices will probably become more accessible and affordable. Sensor technology will continue to increase which will have a positive effect on healthcare and our ability to detect health scares before they advance to something serious (see watches now aimed at keeping track of our blood pressure and heart rate).

    Needless to say it will be something to look out for as our society becomes more dependent on the IoT (Internet of Things), for good and for bad.

    What about the field of cybersecurity? While it’s probably true hackers won’t stop trying to gain access to our private information – especially as it pertains to our financials – even the most layman user of technology is becoming keen to protecting their privacy.

    Consumers will demand corporations be made accountable for leaks of private data and businesses not wanting to shoulder the financial burden of an attack (or the bad press) will utilize the tools available to thwart would be bad actors in their tracks.

    On that front we can help. At Valley Techlogic we are on a mission to have the most comprehensive and effective cybersecurity tools available to protect our clients. We also offer 24/7 help desk so no matter when you have a problem, we’re on it.

    If you’re in the Central Valley or surrounding area reach out today for a free security audit and begin this new decade tackling your business’s technology needs.

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/valleytechlogic.