Get the best from your IT investments and protect your business

• Have a disaster recovery plan
• Have an IT solution that is tailored to the needs of your organization
• View IT investments as operating costs
• What you don't know can hurt you - Know your network
• If you outsource your IT services, make sure you know who the employees are
• Have a domain? Know the registration details.
  

Plan for the best, prepare for the worst:

No one wants a disaster to occur, but the reality is that they happen.
That’s why now is the time to ask some hard questions

• How well are you protecting your data and systems?
• Are you automating backup and recovery both for your PCs and servers?
• How secure are the important data residing on your systems?
• Are your employees following best practices?

Antivirus Is Not Enough:

Many businesses operate under the assumption that installing antivirus software is enough to protect their information.
To be truly protected against today's increasingly complex and organized cyber attacks you need:

• Multiple layers of protection.
• Constant monitoring of your network traffic
• The ability to stop attacks before they happen
  

Signs of a computer attack:

• You experience a general slowdown in the performance of your computer.
• Your computer stops responding to your keystrokes and commands temporarily.
• The activity of your hard drive suddenly increases, even though you are not working on anything.
  
• New user accounts have been added to your computer, but you don't know anything about them.

Clone Alert:

Digital copiers and other printing/scanning devices built since 2002 routinely contain a hard drive, similar to the one on your desktop or laptop PC, that stores an image of every document that you scan or copy. Yet, 60% of Americans are not aware that digital copiers, scanners and fax machines store data.
Protect yourself:

• Remove these hard drives and have them properly cleansed before selling the copiers or otherwise disposing of them

Security Awareness in your IT environment:

• Install and run desktop firewall software.
• Install and run virus protection software, and keep it current.
• Configure the operating system and applications on your computer to install security patches and upgrades.
• Use a screen saver for your computer and enable the screen saver password.

For Email & Web Security:

• Configure your email program to edit and display your messages as plain text.
• When you receive email messages that contain file attachments, save the attachments and use an anti-virus software to scan them.
• Be wary of image files because one way that computer viruses or Trojan horses are distributed is through image files.
  
• Turn on the pop-up blocker feature of your Web browser

What's your backup strategy?

• Use a Backup Plan that includes secure off-site storage.
• Centralize and organize all of the vital software for the organization in a secure off-site location.
  Make sure to include any upgrade packages that you may have installed.
• Document all of the important passwords for the organization. These may include some of the following: ISP, network, voicemail, domain name and hosting, email, database, and other web passwords.
• Document the network structure
  

Latest, dangerous forms of malware and intrusion:

Crimeware -- Malware programs and online schemes intended to extort your money or property.

Drive-by Downloads -- While surfing the web, it is now possible to download malicious software programs without even realizing it!

More latest, dangerous forms of malware and intrusion:

Keyloggers -- Malware that captures what you type into your keyboard, (i.e. credit card numbers, PIN, passwords, etc).

Rootkits -- Secret software programs designed to allow intruders to secure and maintain access to your computer.
Have you read about these latest forms of online threat? Have you fallen victim to any of them? Would you know if you had?