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How the cloud is a solid survival tool for your business during a crisis

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How the cloud is a solid survival tool for your business during a crisis

One thing the Coronavirus pandemic taught businesses is the fact that it is important to move with the times and adopt and adapt to the latest technology. While you don’t have to be the first one in the market to invest in the newest technology, once its effectiveness and usefulness is proven, it does make sense to switch to it. Here’s how the cloud allowed businesses to overcome the challenges posed by having to suddenly switch to the remote operations model.

Challenge-1: Access to critical data and applications

This could have been easily resolved by migrating to the cloud. The cloud offers unparalleled connectivity to your data—from anywhere and at any time, with any internet-enabled device.

Challenge-2: Data safety, cybersecurity concerns

The cloud provides solutions to data safety and cybersecurity challenges as well, as data stored in the cloud is naturally much safer and difficult to break into than data stored on your employee’s home computer. The cloud offers multiple layers of security, including some from your cloud service provider.

Challenge-3: Data loss

With the cloud, businesses wouldn’t have to worry about losing data, as it wouldn’t be stored on their employee’s personal computer, but at a centralized location in the cloud.

Challenge-4: Hardware issues

The cloud rendered any hardware issues non-existent, as the employee’s personal devices were just gateways to access their work stored in the Cloud. They needed devices that met the basic specifications, and the rest of the work was happening online, without additional load on personal devices.

Challenge-5: Phones

Businesses that had adopted the VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) were able to overcome this challenge easily. VoIP allows you to communicate by sending voice as data packets using the internet. The VoIP system is primarily software-based and can be accessed from anywhere, using an application that your VoIP provider offers. (Physical instruments are optional). This meant, companies with VoIP systems could keep their office phone numbers responsive even when their staff were working from home.

While these technologies can help a great deal to maintain business continuity, you will need the assistance of a reputable MSP to deploy them and also to ensure they are functioning as they are supposed to. Plus, there are always other security concerns that crop up in a remote working environment when you can’t monitor your staff’s IT activities. Your MSP will be able to offer solutions and control mechanisms that can help put those concerns to rest.

Why does your business need cyber insurance?

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Why does your business need cyber insurance?

The WFH model makes businesses much more vulnerable and easy targets for cybercriminals. Some of the reasons include

  • A lot of people accessing their work data from home networks, which lacks high-level security
  • The inability of businesses to monitor the work-related IT activities of their staff and,
  • The use of personal devices by employees for work purposes

Businesses can overcome this challenge through a combination of tools and actions such as

  • Installing anti-malware software
  • Putting in firewalls to safeguard their work network
  • Having clear and effective IT policies in place when operations are remote
  • Providing staff with laptops or desktops to use for work purposes during the WFH phase
  • Training employees to identify cyber threats and steer clear of them
  • Educating employees on password hygiene and cybersecurity best practices

However, these measures are no guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong! When you lose data accidentally or, when your data is compromised or held ransom, your first thought would be to get access to your data and get your business back on its feet. Yes, you will want to call in for a trusted IT services provider to put your business back on track quickly. But, it is not that simple. If you don’t have a service level agreement with an IT service provider, it may be difficult to find one instantly and also, challenging to find someone who you can trust with your situation. Even if you do find someone, chances are, they will charge you exorbitant rates by the hour.

Cyber insurance typically covers direct and indirect costs arising from cybersecurity incidents. One malicious attachment could bring the whole IT infrastructure crashing down. And, if there’s a data breach where confidential information has been compromised, then you’d be looking at hefty compensation payouts. That is why you need cyber insurance. Cyber insurance is not something new, but it has never been so important as it is now.

Tech agility: A must-have for crisis survival

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Tech agility: A must-have for crisis survival

It is a known fact that survival of any species depends on its ability to adapt to change. One major change for businesses in 2020 was the need to switch to the work-from-home model to keep things running during the time of pandemic. When countries all over the world started imposing lockdown restrictions, companies had no choice but to switch to remote operations if their line of business allowed them to do so. This blog post discusses the key challenges faced by businesses that had failed to adopt the latest technology on time.

Access to critical data and applications

For businesses that didn’t store their key data and applications in the cloud, this was a huge challenge. How do you ensure each of your employees have access to all the business data, programs and apps they need to operate efficiently? Companies that had already adopted the cloud as their core data storage means they didn’t face this challenge: everything was cloud-based and accessible from anywhere, using any internet enabled device (laptops/PCs/tablets/smartphones, etc., )

Cybersecurity concerns

With employees working from home, businesses’ fears of cybersecurity incidents were increased. Cybercriminals, on the other hand, knew full well all the security lacunae that existed in a hurried remote working environment setup and exploited them to the fullest. Industry reports showed that the initial few months of the pandemic saw an increase in cybercrime and related attacks on businesses.

Data loss

For businesses that didn’t operate in the cloud, data loss was another angle to look into. How do you ensure data backup and recovery when your staff is using their personal devices for work? Also, how to ensure they are taking all the precautions necessary to keep the data they are storing on their devices, safe?

Hardware issues

Some businesses provided their employees with work devices at home. For example, employees in some companies were allowed to take their office computers home for work use. But, that still didn’t solve the backup and recovery or cybersecurity challenges entirely, because the management still lacked ways to maintain control over the devices.

Phones

With employees working from home, it was a challenge for many businesses to manage their phone numbers–especially for client facing employees. Businesses with VoIP phone systems could make this transition easily, whereas those still relying on the traditional phone setup had to resort to cell phones and couldn’t use their business numbers for a while.

Key lesson: Move with the times, adopt new technologies, adapt to newer ways of working

WFH means more vulnerability to cybercrime

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WFH means more vulnerability to cybercrime. Here are some methods to stay safe

WFH opens up whole new horizons in terms of flexibility, productivity, and cost savings. But, it also opens your business up a little more to cybercriminals, as you can’t have a hands-on approach to cybersecurity, especially if your employees are using their own devices for work. This blog discusses some mechanisms that you can use to mitigate the risks of becoming a victim of cybercrime in the WFH setup.

Multi-factor authentication

Instead of using a single password for data access, multi-factor authentication adds more layers to security. If WFH has your employees accessing their work computers remotely, then you simply cannot skip multifactor authentication. Multi-factor authentication works by confirming the identity of the user across 3 areas

  1. What they know: Examples include asking for User IDs, passwords, answers to ‘secret questions’, verification of their date of birth, etc.
  2. What they have: This includes physical tokens, access cards, OTPs sent via text or email, etc.
  3. Who they are: This authentication mechanism includes biometric authentication such as retina scan, fingerprint, or voice recognition.

While the 3rd kind of authentication (who they are) may not be easy to implement in a WFH scenario, you can still use multi-factor authentication to include the first 2 options.

The Cloud

Using the Cloud to store your files presents a lot of advantages in the WFH environment. It certainly saves time and effort as files don’t have to be mailed back and forth, eliminates version control challenges, and ensures timely access to data. But, did you know that you can also leverage the Cloud to thwart security threats presented by the WFH scenario? The Cloud lets your employees work safely from anywhere and offers more safety than local data storage mechanisms. Any data in the Cloud is encrypted, which means it is not that easy to access confidential information as it would be when someone hacks a PC. Plus, the chances of data loss are almost zero. Unlike your employees storing work files on their computer, which can be lost or misused if their device malfunctions or is stolen or hacked into, any data put on the Cloud stays there.

Employee Training

Did you know that lack of knowledge is one of the major reasons behind companies and individuals becoming victims of cybercrime? All it takes is one wrong click to open the floodgates, and the only way to stop that from happening is to train your employees on cybersecurity best practices. Training will not only provide them with a clear set of do’s and don’ts but also help them identify situations where they may be a possible target. Training on cybersecurity best practices can cover a wide range of topics, but here are a few that should not be missedPassword hygiene

    • What does a good password look like?
    • Why is password sharing an absolute no-no?
  • How to identify phishing attempts?
  • Why is it important to install software updates and patches on a timely basis
  • Data storage best practices
  • The risks associated with public WiFi such as those at malls, coffee shops, or airports

You can also conduct mock drills and check who grasped these concepts right and who needs further training.

An experienced MSP can help you overcome the cybersecurity challenges propelled by the WFH scenario. They can put your mind at ease by taking care of everything–from anti-malware solutions to employee training, and beyond.

Is it time to upgrade to Windows 11?

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Is it time to upgrade to Windows 11?

You’ve probably noticed that Microsoft has released their Windows 11 operating system and have been encouraging people to upgrade. Core IT recommends that you avoid upgrading to Windows 11 at this time and continue using Windows 10.

There are a few key reasons why we are making this recommendation:

  • Some key features that users depend on are missing or haven’t been full integrated into the new operating system
  • Some applications you depend on may behave unexpectedly if they haven’t yet been updated to work with Windows 11
  • Issues exist with some Microsoft applications, breaking some common functionality
  • Windows 11 isn’t stable it’s current form; users report bugs, stuttering, and lag in some areas and menus
  • Settings for default applications are not always retained (web browser, email viewer, pdf viewer, etc.) and may revert to the default applications set by Windows

To help prevent our Managed Services customers from accidentally updating we have put measures in place to stop the update from appearing on managed computers.

Once Windows 11 has become a well-tested, stable operating system, we will begin moving away from Windows 10. Microsoft will continue to fully support Windows 10 through fall of 2025.

For now, if you are being prompted by your computer to update to Windows 11, please disregard and remain on Windows 10. If you’re keen to try out the new operating system, please reach out to us prior to upgrading so we can assess the situation and anticipate any issues you may face.

We will keep you updated on any changes with our recommendations regarding Windows 11. If you have any questions about upgrading your operating system, please reach out to us at support@coreit.ca or (604) 632-4110.