Contact Us Today!   314.394.3001   |   info@andersontech.com

Posts

Byte-Size Tech: Recovering from a Hack Can Be Pricy

/in , , , /by

 

Libby Powers and Ben Fairbanks of Anderson Technologies dive into a recent new client’s story. This non-profit struggled to deal with a hack of their former server and needed a comprehensive IT solution in one vendor. Now, with a solid foundation, they know their data is protected.

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Welcome to another edition of Byte-Size Tech. I’m Libby Powers, and today I am joined by one of our team members, Ben Fairbanks. Say hi, Ben.

Ben Fairbanks: Hello.

Libby Powers: He is one of our system administrators here at Anderson Technologies. I really appreciate you sitting down with me today, because I was hoping to talk about a new client we recently brought on that I heard some of the team talking about. It was a not-for-profit. Is that correct?

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, that’s right. And when we first heard about them, they were calling us because they were struggling to get through the after effects of their server being hacked.

Libby Powers: Oh, the not-for-profit server was actually hacked?

Ben Fairbanks: That’s right. This client primarily relied on contractors and individual vendors do their jobs for them. It seemed that a previous IT vendor had gotten their networks onto a new server, and things seem to be working great. But that vendor failed to properly turn off or secure their old server, and that’s where the criminals got it.

Libby Powers: Oh, criminals? So we’re talking about cyber crime and organized crime.

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, all the above pretty scary stuff. But thankfully, no personal information or PI was accessed. But this client still had to deal with the red tape of reporting the issue to the authorities, digging through all their systems to review what had been accessed, and ensuring that the new server wasn’t truly untouched.

Libby Powers: Wow. So luckily they didn’t put ransomware or anything on these on the server. But the hack was still a major pain, I’m guessing, right?

Ben Fairbanks: Of course, yeah. The cost and man hours is something that no client, let alone a nonprofit with a set budget, wants to suddenly have to deal with. In the process of reaching out to their members in the cleanup, they were recommended to call us. At first they weren’t sure. They were based in Pennsylvania, and we’re in St. Louis.

Libby Powers: Yeah, I could see how that would be a little scary if you’re multiple states away and your IT vendor is a flight away. Right?

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, of course. And that’s definitely something that every organization is going to have to weigh. But a great part about doing IT is that 90 to 95% of the work can be done remotely. Once we got signed on with this client, we sent two of our expert team members down on location to get all the hardware, wires, and their network fully set up and documented. At the end of multiple days, it took about 50 hours total to get them up and going. From there, we’ve had smooth sailing just operating remotely.

Libby Powers: So it took you guys 50 hours to undo this hack?

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, totally. And that’s why I went back before, even if it’s not something that where there was ransomware, or maybe their data got lost, even when the effects of the breach aren’t catastrophic, it’s still a lot of work just to get everything back up and going. So that great ground layer is something that a lot of organizations need.

Libby Powers: You know, that’s really interesting you say this, Ben, because I think that so many small businesses and nonprofits, they don’t believe that they’re targets, and this really just proves that they’re more vulnerable, and they pay more when they have to fix it.

Ben Fairbanks: Exactly. Everyone’s a target. It’s just how well you put up your defenses really.

Libby Powers: Super interesting. How are they doing now?

Ben Fairbanks: How are they doing now? They’re doing good. We’ve had a lot of tickets with them, just tiny, small stuff that are quick fixes. I haven’t heard about any big issues that this client has been facing. But from there, it’s been smooth sailing. We haven’t seen any large malicious activity. But we have set up a much stronger ground layer for them to operate on. I think all parties involved are pretty happy with the way that they’re continuing to work.

Libby Powers: I love it when we can be Batman. Like Batman is to Gotham, we are to St. Louis, and this new client out of state.

Ben Fairbanks: When things get quiet, you just know everything is going good. That’s the thing—if no one really knows they have IT people, I’m starting to think that’s a good thing.

Libby Powers: Yes, when they don’t know you’re there. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you taking time today for this episode of Byte-Size Tech. There’s actually a blog article written about this client as well, if you want to go check out our blog. Ben, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to help me with this one.

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, of course, always good to hang out with you.

Libby Powers: Thanks Ben. Have a great day everyone. Bye!

Byte-Size Tech: What Is Co-Managed IT?

/in , , /by

 

Co-Managed IT may be a new concept for a lot of viewers, but Mark Anderson and Libby Powers of Anderson Technologies break it down. A co-managed IT solution is a partnership between your internal IT team and a managed IT services provider brought in to help handle workload, fill skill gaps, and provide access to new hardware and software. Is a co-managed IT partnership right for your business?

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody, welcome to another episode of Byte-Size Tech.

Mark Anderson: Hi, everyone.

Libby Powers: I’m joined with Mark Anderson again, one of our founding principals here at Anderson Technologies. We’re excited to talk to you about what co-managed IT is.

Mark Anderson: Absolutely.

Libby Powers: Mark, do you want to share a little bit about what co-managed IT is?

Mark Anderson: Sure, sure. Co-managed IT is when a firm’s internal IT staff is augmented by a team from the outside, say, a group from a managed service provider will come in and join together with your IT staff and come up with some awesome solutions for ongoing problems.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome. Can you give me a little bit of some areas where a co-managed IT could be supportive to an organization?

Mark Anderson: Absolutely. So you can think logically that if you have one or two people in your IT department, if one of them decides to move to California or go on an extended leave of absence, you’re no longer going to be able to solve problems as rapidly as you once did. And those one or two or small handful of individuals oftentimes find that just the day to day help desk functions will eat their lunch. The large ticket items—implementing brand new technology or getting more efficient in a particular area—just get sidelined and ignored, not because there’s not a desire, but just there’s not enough hours in the day. Augmenting your staff with additional help from a managed services provider that could bring some additional muscle to bear often will be really good. That’s one example.

Libby Powers: I can see how that would really be beneficial to the organization. All those nitpicky things that a help desk provides, with: ‘I can’t find a file’ or ‘My computer went down,’ ‘I can’t log into Outlook’—and instead of having your internal IT person waste their time with these nitpicky issues, a managed services provider could actually just take that over for you.

Mark Anderson: That’s exactly right. Also, in our particular company, as an example, we have approximately 250 years’ worth of experience that you could bring to bear on a particular problem, a very broad spectrum of skills that could help you solve problems. Potentially a one- or two-person shop might be limited in certain areas.

Libby Powers: What are some other areas that you think having a co-managed IT firm can help?

Mark Anderson: Any company that is a managed services provider obviously can buy their technology stack, if you will, at scale. Because you’re buying so many licenses of the different tools that you need to utilize, the price of those licenses is more reasonable than if a firm were to go out and try to buy those exact same tools. You don’t need 2000 copies of a particular piece of software; you might need 50. There’s a pricing competitiveness, that gets brought into the equation as well.

That’s one example. Another is—and we kind of touched on this—that I think often strategic IT initiatives don’t get their fair shake, if you will, in an environment that’s just trying to keep their head above water. Having a co-managed environment, where an outside party could truly sit with you and partner with you to identify what your #1, #2, #3 priorities are, and then start chipping away at them. I think that’s what we found to be very, very beneficial.

Libby Powers: That’s really a great topic, because I think when we’re talking to a lot of companies right now, one of the biggest things is budgeting for IT because it changes so rapidly. You guys having the expertise that you do have, you can actually help companies budget for years in the future on their technical IT cybersecurity needs and know that that’s going to be relevant when the time comes.

Mark Anderson: Yes, absolutely. Right, and that is an important function of handling your IT big picture thinking well is looking into the future and trying to anticipate where you might need to go as a company.

Libby Powers: So basically, Mark, what you’re saying is that this is really a solution. We work together with your current IT infrastructure, then we create this partnership where you get to grow as a company because of the partnership that has been created with having a co-managed IT.

Mark Anderson: I love that, Libby. Yes, it’s absolutely us or any MSP coming in and trying to fortify what you’re doing already, and allow your team to more rapidly move in the direction that you’re setting for your firm—without the limitations of not enough resources to get these pesky IT problems handled in a timely fashion.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk about that today. If you want more information on this topic, you can check out our blog, as well as other videos in Byte-Size Tech. Thank you for your time.

Mark Anderson: Thanks, guys. Bye!

Byte-Size Tech: Essential Tips for Safer Online Shopping

/in , , /by

 

HTTPS? SSL? Targot.com? What about those pop-up businesses that advertise on social media? Libby Powers and Marcia Spicer of Anderson Technologies break down some essential tips and potential problems to watch out for when shopping online. If you’re worried that your shopping or surfing habits have compromised your business, contact Anderson Technologies today.

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Byte-Size Tech. I want to introduce you to Marcia. Marcia is a team member that actually wears a lot of hats here at Anderson Technologies. In addition to being a member of our Archival team, she also helps build content for our website. In that role she’s done a lot of reading on cybersecurity scams, privacy, and online safety. I actually asked Marcia to come on Byte-Size Tech to talk to you about something everybody does these days: online shopping. Marcia?

Marcia Spicer: Hi, Libby. Online shopping isn’t something that we deal with on a regular basis at Anderson Technologies. That tends to fall outside of our sphere. But it is something that could affect your data privacy and could lead to a business breach. With so much of our lives shifting more and more online in the past year, that’s not likely to go away, it’s probably a good time to review a couple of tips. If you don’t do your shopping online, you might want to watch anyway, because some of these tips can apply to just about anything that you do online, so there will be a takeaway for you.

Libby Powers: Awesome. What do you have for us then? I’m excited to learn this.

Marcia Spicer: Okay, I’m sure you’ve got some tried and true shopping websites that you know, and you trust their name brands. You’ve had great experiences with them, but maybe you’re thinking about making a purchase from a new site for the first time. When you’re in that situation, it’s time to slow down. There are a couple things to look at.

First, you want to look at the website address. There are two big things to look for here. The first step is HTTPS. If you click on the address bar—it’s at the top of your web browser—you should be able to see the full address of the website that you’re on. This will either begin with an HTTP or an HTTPS. The HTTPS is what you want. This is a security standard that means that the site has SSL encryption installed.

Libby Powers: Oh, what’s SSL encryption?

Marcia Spicer: SSL encryption means that any information that you submit to the site—say, your credit card, for example, or your address, phone number—when you submit that to the website, it’s encrypted, or encoded, so that criminals that might be trying to eavesdrop on your traffic or gain access to the website, they can’t see that data and they can’t steal it.

Libby Powers: Okay, well, that’s a great tip. So look for HTTPS at the very beginning of the website, right?

Marcia Spicer: Yes.

Libby Powers: Well, what else do you have now?

Marcia Spicer: While you’re looking at your website address, you’ll want to carefully look at the whole address. You probably know what site you want to be on, and you want to make sure that that address matches that site. It can be something super close, but sometimes there is just a little bit off. Maybe you’re thinking you want to be at Target.com, and when you look at that website address, you see “Targot.com” or “Target.ra” or something that might not be the actual website. Something’s fishy.

Then there’s another type of website that’s sketch for shopping. These fun niche products pop up all the time on social media. I see them on Instagram and Facebook, I’ve got little kids, they know their audience. I saw this adorable little octopus stuffed animal, and I thought my daughter would just die. When I clicked through on the website…. Everything looked legit in the ad, but when I clicked through, I noticed that the octopus plush was the only thing they were selling. Sure, it was in different colors, but that was their only product. That’s the only thing that business did. So I had a little bit of doubt there.

Libby Powers: Hesitation?

Marcia Spicer: It’s time to look a little bit closer. As I’m kind of scrolling through the website, there’s messages popping up and throughout the website that says “Buy now! We’re almost sold out! There’s none left! We’re having a sale and you need to buy right now!” And for a lot of people, I think that would be like, “Oh yes, I’ve got to take advantage of this deal.” For me, since I’ve done so much reading, I took it as, “Hang on. They’re trying to get me to act quickly and not look closely.”

Libby Powers: To not pay attention, yeah.

Marcia Spicer: Right. If you do end up making a purchase from a shady site like this, you can risk having your data stolen. A lot of people never receive their package, or they receive something that’s a super cheap knockoff that doesn’t look anything like what they wanted to buy. They’re pop-up businesses, basically. They make their money from drop-shipping bad products from China [or] from other countries, the company can disappear overnight, you can’t make returns, you’re not going get a refund, you’re probably not going to be able to contact customer service—all around just not a great experience for you. Sometimes you can even look up the same product on a site you do trust or just a search engine, and you can find something really similar but it’s from a trusted site.

That octopus plushie? I did a quick search for it, and I found the exact same product on a site that I used before. It had a lower price, it had normal shipping rates, it wasn’t anything while that they were trying to railroad me for money, there was none of the “You’ve got to buy it right this second” messaging, so I felt a lot safer going through with that purchase.

Libby Powers: You know, something that you say is the “Buy now” messaging, and I think you’re spot on with that, because it’s psychological for people to feel like they’re missing out on something. And those ads are everywhere: They’re on Facebook, they’re on LinkedIn, they’re on every social media platform you could think of. I think of the phrase “Too good to be true.” That’s such an important thing to have in mind when we do anything online.

Marcia Spicer: Exactly. And that message is going to apply to any site that you visit. When you’re looking for that HTTPS, know that that S, that SSL encoding, is standard. Every website you visit should have that HTTPS at the beginning. And even if you think you’re where you want to be, take a moment to double check, because a lot of times those promises of things that are too good to be true are so tempting that we just got to pump the brakes just a little bit and take a moment to look at the surroundings online.

Libby Powers: I really appreciate you sharing these tips. I think you probably have more tips that you could share because online…everything is online, our entire lives are online. What we can do to protect our information is really important. We’ve got to do our due diligence.

Marcia Spicer: That’s so true. I’ve got more tips if you’ll have me back for more videos.

Libby Powers: Of course. And if you’re concerned that dodgy online shopping habits have given access to the wrong people, then give us a call. Thanks so much. Have a great day.

Marcia Spicer: Bye.

Byte-Size Tech: 3 Tips for Troubleshooting Before Calling IT

/in , , /by

 

Libby Powers and Junior Systems Administrator Ben Fairbanks, both of Anderson Technologies, chat about one of the most common issues computer users face: slow operations. Ben identifies three possible approaches to troubleshoot that can often resolve the issue without starting a ticket with your IT provider. Ben shares tips about internet speeds, connectivity, computer updates, and an old classic tip that really works!

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hey, Ben. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Byte-Size Tech. I’m really happy to have you do this video with me today.

Ben Fairbanks: No problem at all, Libby. I heard you wanted to talk about some simple troubleshooting tips that viewers can try before calling their IT partner or managed service provider. Is that right?

Libby Powers: That’s correct. For everybody in the audience, just so you know, Ben is one of our Junior System Administrators here, and “Junior” is relative because he definitely knows his stuff. So Ben, I know some so-called “simple problems” make up a lot of what our clients might encounter day-to-day. If we can save them some time or a phone call, I say let’s do it. I’d love to hear what your tips are.

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, for sure. So, maybe your workstation is acting a little sluggish, or just not doing what you think it should. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to every problem, so do remember that your IT team is here for you. Also, if you’ve already run through these fixes, you could save some time and troubleshoot further with your technician on the ticket.

Libby Powers: What’s the first thing you recommend?

Ben Fairbanks: First thing is checking your connectivity. This means whether or not you’re connected to the internet at all, and if the connection is strong enough to support what you’re doing.

The first thing is to check your internet connection. On a Windows 10 machine, you can find this in the settings. If you click on “Network and Internet,” you should see a message that says you’re connected. If there’s an issue with the internet itself, it’ll show a red X on there, indicating that you’re not actually connected.

Letting us know that you for sure aren’t connected gives us a great place to start digging into the details and troubleshooting further. But maybe you are connected and things still seem to not work quite right.

Libby Powers: I definitely know that how that feels. Every evening when I’m at home, I’m trying to do work stuff or watch Netflix, and my kids are on their devices, it’s definitely slowing down the internet speed.

Ben Fairbanks: Definitely. I think everyone has experienced slow internet, especially since the last year with a lot of users working from home. But to help narrow down exactly what the issue is, you could visit https://www.speedtest.net/ in your browser.

If you want to check your speed a bit quicker, one thing I like to do is, if you’re using the Google search engine, you can type in speed test and search and you can run a speed test right there in the results. So, a bit quicker.

Now, if you’re getting dramatically less than what you know you’re paying for, it could be time to further investigate with your IT provider, as long as you have the information from your ISP—such as Comcast, Spectrum, any one of those companies that you purchase internet monthly from.

Libby Powers: So as far as that speed test goes, I don’t know that I would understand what that outcome would be. Can you share kind of what some of the low numbers or high numbers are?

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, of course.

For a household, I’d say the general median speeds could be 50 megabytes down speed and maybe 10 megabytes up speed, but it really relies on where you live. At least for me, I’m getting about 200 megabytes down and 10 up. That’s pretty much way more than what I need to live just for basic internet browsing, stuff like that. But there could be another side of St. Louis that you can only get 50 meg bytes per second.

If you’re working from home, you definitely want at least 50 so that you can connect to the internet, download whatever files you need to, and work collaboratively with people on cloud file-sharing platforms. So, 50 and above, 100 would be perfect for that magic number.

Now, if you’re in an office environment with a few other coworkers nearby, I would say you want anywhere from at least 100, and best-case scenario is 200 megabits per second down. The up speed becomes a bit more important in an office environment because you are transferring a lot more data into the internet and download more as well.

If you’re in a larger corporate environment? They’ve probably got huge numbers to support all of their maybe hundreds of employees, and they probably even have separate ones as well to act as failovers.

But for general populace, if you’re working from home, I would say 50 to 100 is the golden rule. If you’re in a small office environment, 100 to 200 is the magic number.

Libby Powers: That is really awesome information to share because that is not something that I think people readily understand. I don’t really understand it. I love that you shared that, Ben.

What are some other things that we can try before we give you a call?

Ben Fairbanks: Well, another thing is updates for your computer. Now if you don’t have the most up-to-date patches for your computer, it may not work properly. If you’re a client of Anderson Technologies, we have what’s called an RMM installed on your computer that will take care of these updates for you. You may just get a reminder, and then you can reboot your computer afterwards. But you may not even notice that it’s there too.

Libby Powers: So, RMM?

Ben Fairbanks: Oh yeah, sorry, an RMM stands for Remote Monitoring and Management tool. This helps managed IT services providers and IT companies get an early heads up to any problems you might be experiencing, and we can automatically take care of things like updates for you.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome. But what if the user isn’t a client of ours, and they don’t have an RMM?

Ben Fairbanks: Well, if you go back to the Windows 10 settings, but this time go to the “Update and Security” option, you can check automatically to see if updates are available for you. If so, they’ll automatically start downloading, and once it’s done, they will apply for you and they’ll ask for a reboot.

One thing to note though, once those updates are done, give your computer a little bit of time during that reboot. One thing I tell my clients is if we’re installing these updates in the morning, you can let those updates, if they’re done, stay there. Then if you go on a lunch break, maybe for an hour, you can restart your computer before you log off, because from what I’ve seen, it may take around 15 to 20 minutes for your computer to go past those updates. It’ll hang on a loading screen before you log in.

Definitely make sure that when you reboot your computer after updates, you can afford some spare time to let your computer think for a bit before logging in again.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome.

Basically, what you’re telling me is if there’s an update on my phone or an update on my computer, I should not press snooze for four weeks, five weeks, six weeks in a row because that’s probably not a good idea?

Ben Fairbanks: Exactly, yep. If you don’t have our RMM installed, I would definitely keep tabs on it about every week. Definitely check for updates as much as you can. It could be something as small as silly feature updates or small patches for Windows 10, or it could be as important as large security updates.

Maybe you’ve seen some headlines in the news about some Windows exploit but, you know, a lot of people may not read those news sources. It’s always good to check on the weekly basis just to see if there’s anything new to install on your computer.

Libby Powers: That’s really good to know. Do you have any other tips for these users before they submit a ticket?

Ben Fairbanks: There is one more and it is kind of cheesy, and you’ve probably heard before, but hear me out. Almost every universal potential solution to a computer problem is turning it off and again.

At the start menu, you can select the reboot option, and you can check after it restarts to see if everything runs smoother. It can fix a surprising number of issues, so you at least want to give it a try first before considering more complex solution. A simple reboot could fix a weird problem almost immediately, and we can skip going deeper down the rabbit hole if we could.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome. You know, I always forget the power of a restart, but that’s a really great point. If my IT partner or managed services provider is going to try something anyway, I may as well sense that and knock it out before we even reach out to them. Save them a ticket and save me time, right?

Ben Fairbanks: Yeah, of course, it always helps just to run through some simple steps. Like I said: updates, computer restart, checking your internet connection and your internet speed.

When you submit a ticket to us or if you further diagnose a problem yourself, you can save yourself a bit more time when you, like I mentioned, end up falling down the rabbit hole only to find out that it could be one of these simple solutions.

Libby Powers: Ben, those are really great tips and tricks. I really appreciate you sharing that, especially the one about the internet speed and what it should be at home or at business. I think that’s really important.

So please, if you want more information, you can take a look at our blog on Anderson Technologies because we always blog about what we video about. If you have any questions, let us know.

And Mr. Ben, I hope I see you on another episode of Byte-Size Tech.

Ben Fairbanks: No problem, Libby. Have a good one. Bye.

Byte-Size Tech: Server Failure Doesn’t Mean Business Failure if You Have Backups

/in , , /by

Mark Anderson and Libby Powers discuss the importance of backups. Mark shares the story of a new client who’s server crashed on day three of our managed IT services agreement. Because Anderson Technologies had implemented backups on a Business Continuity Disaster Recovery Device, most employees at the client couldn’t even tell that the server had failed!

Related Reading

Transcript

 

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody, welcome to another episode of Byte-Size Tech. I’m here again with Mark Anderson, one of the founding principals of Anderson Technologies. Today we’re going to be talking about the importance of backups. It’s really important to have backups in place. Think of all of your employees and what they do over the course of the day, and losing all of that information just because you didn’t have a proper backup in place.

Mark Anderson: Or failure occurred, right.

Libby Powers: Yeah, we actually have a client that we work with now, it’s a law firm, and their server essentially kicked the bucket.

Mark Anderson: That’s right.

Libby Powers: So what happened to that law firm?

Mark Anderson: It was an interesting story, Libby, thank you. We had just done our IT infrastructure audit, which we do for all new potential customers, and had identified their primary server was well over five years old. We said, “This thing really needs to be addressed. Essentially, it’s on fire. It’s like a bonfire sitting over there.” And they agreed. We were within probably the third day of our new arrangement with them and, wouldn’t you know, the server failed.

Libby Powers: Oh, of course, I think that’s what karma is, or Murphy’s Law or something crazy like that.

Mark Anderson: Yes, exactly. The good news, though, was that we had the ability to fail the server over or virtualize the server on what is known as a business continuity disaster recovery device.

Libby Powers: Hold on. That’s a really big word for this.

Mark Anderson: This is the smallest model. But yes, that’s it.

Libby Powers: The law firm essentially had all of their data protected.

Mark Anderson: Right, that’s right. This thing that Libby was holding up allows us to do two things. We’re able to back up data onto itself locally, but it also then has a cloud subscription and it shunts all of the data to two separate geographically disparate data centers, one on the East Coast and then one in Utah. So that if there was an event, you know, tornado or whatever going on in one area, it wouldn’t be in the other, etc. So at any rate, we were able to use this device and fail the server over to it, which meant this took over the role that the server used to play.

Libby Powers: That’s pretty incredible, I’m not going to lie. Just thinking of all the data that’s available at a law firm, your client data. Gosh, I can’t imagine what attorneys have to deal with courts.

Mark Anderson: Me either.

Libby Powers: Over my head, once again, but it’s pretty incredible to understand that this little device here was the Hail Mary, right?

Mark Anderson: The fun thing was, after we had failed over the server and got everyone back up and running very, very quickly, we took one of the principals back to the server room. Normally when you open the door, very loud fan noise and all the rest of it, and it was almost deathly silent in there. And you could tell that they got a rather quizzical look on their face, because they knew, “Hmm, this is a little different.” I pointed out the lights on the server, which obviously were completely dark, and said…Well, let me let me back up. They felt like, “Wait a minute, what do you mean our server failed? It didn’t fail, we’re completely up.” And I said, “Come on back. Let’s go see for ourselves.” I pointed out that the server was indeed completely dark, and they were absolutely amazed and very grateful, honestly, that the investment in that technology paid off so handsomely for them, and they didn’t miss a beat.

Libby Powers: So one more quick question. How often should you be doing a backup?

Mark Anderson: That’s a great question, Libby. I hate saying that it depends, but depending on your particular business, the frequency of backup could vary. We would recommend for most normal businesses, doing an hourly backup is the recommended frequency because it allows you to roll back to just one hour before and get everything back. You know, nightly is kind of almost too long these days. Sometimes years and years ago, it was even less frequent than that.

Libby Powers: I can’t imagine losing even what I do, which isn’t that important compared to that.

Mark Anderson: That’s not true.

Libby Powers: Well, Mark, I really appreciate you joining me today and giving us a little bit of information regarding backups. If you have any questions, please reach out to a managed IT firm to learn more, or you can reach out to us. We’re always happy to help. Thanks.

Mark Anderson: Thanks, guys. Bye.

Contact Us

Byte-Size Tech: Working from Home with a VPN?

/in , , /by

 

… What Could Go Wrong?

Mark Anderson and Libby Powers of Anderson Technologies take a moment to explain how a popular work-from-home set-up might not be providing the security you want. If you’re re-evaluating your remote work set-up, or considering a hybrid work (part time at home) model, it is important to dig into the security you’re really getting – not just the security you thought you had.

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody, thank you for joining us on another episode of Byte-Size Tech.

Mark Anderson: Hi, everyone.

Libby Powers: Mark Anderson, one of the principal founders of Anderson Technologies. Today we’re going to be discussing working from home and having a hybrid approach using a VPN, right? Can you tell us a little about what a VPN is?

Mark Anderson: Sure, a virtual private network is the equivalent of stringing an orange extension cord from the corporate office to your home office and having that dedicated connection between the two.

Libby Powers: Got it. When all these companies were forced into this work-from-home situation last year, many companies were advised that the VPN was all they needed, whether it be a work computer or a personal computer, right?

Mark Anderson: Yes, exactly.

Libby Powers: Okay. We actually were talking to a company a couple weeks ago, and they were advised by another IT firm that the VPN was the only precaution they needed to take for working from home, whether on a company or personal computer. I’m pretty sure they were pretty upset to learn that that’s not it.

Mark Anderson: Well, VPNs are wonderful. We strongly recommend their use when you have data at the company that you need to have access to. But what you can’t forget is that it’s really important the level of security that is installed on the home office computer, whether it’s a laptop, or a normal workstation.

In this particular case, the individuals were using all home computers that had not been audited by the company’s IT department to determine whether they had the latest operating system updates, whether they had an enterprise-grade antivirus/anti-malware program installed. It was kind of a hot mess back at the home office that was then being exposed to the company and company data via all these VPN connections from everyone that was working from home. It was not good.

Libby Powers: So basically, what we’re saying is that—and I was very surprised to learn this is, as I have kids, obviously many of us have kids— everything that the kids do on their devices, whether it’s even on the device you’re working on, your personal computer, maybe they have an iPad or a laptop or something for whatever they’re doing, it’s affecting the network, right?

Mark Anderson: Well, it can be, right? Because the issue is that if someone [or their] child has a computer, and they click on something they shouldn’t, and something is installed then on that that particular computer, anything that is attached to the network could be at risk. So any other computer— namely, the one that the individual is using to connect to the corporate office—that one could be infected by something that had gone on with your kids’ computers, so you just have to be very aware of that.

Libby Powers: Then what are some of the additional protocols?

Mark Anderson: Sure. If the company cannot afford to send dedicated laptops home with every employee, then you need to get into, “All right, well, what devices do I have attaching to my network, and what kind of software is installed on those devices?” Each one of them truly needs to be audited, and then we would highly recommend that those free antivirus programs get deleted, and more enterprise grade ones get installed.

Libby Powers: So you’re saying that the free antivirus that comes with my computer when I buy it is not enough?

Mark Anderson: It’s usually not adequate. That’s correct. Well, that’s probably a subject for a whole other video because there’s a lot of detail which goes into that as well.

Libby Powers: That’s good to know. Well, I think the key takeaway here is that so many of us were forced into doing a work-from-home or a hybrid, and many companies were advised that the VPN was kind of a silver bullet, and we know that it’s not. Just make sure you’re working with an IT company, and that they really understand the need and necessity for possibly having other softwares in place to protect your company data even further.

Mark Anderson: Sure, that’s right.

Libby Powers: Awesome. Well, you can read more about this on our blog, and I look forward to having another conversation with you regarding the actual software that you get for free and all that entails. Thanks, everybody!

Mark Anderson: Thanks for listening. See you next time, bye-bye.

Byte-Size Tech: Make Big Changes with IT In Mind

/in , , /by

 

Amy Anderson and Libby Powers of Anderson Technologies take a managed IT services provider approach to big changes. In light of the tumultuous last year, many businesses are facing an office move, remote work, or rightsizing operations. If you are too, be sure to plan with your IT needs in mind. The best way to do this is in partnership with your IT provider, because a DIY approach may end up causing more problems than it solves.

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody! Welcome to another episode of Byte-Size Tech. I am joined today with Amy Anderson, Principal of Anderson Technologies.

Amy Anderson: Hi, everyone! Good to be here.

Libby Powers: Today we’re going to discuss something that nobody really thinks about. Over this past year, there’s been a lot of movement—whether your employees are moving from office to home, or home back to office in a hybrid model, or your company’s downsizing, upsizing, just all this movement. One of those big things that nobody ever thinks about is how they’re going to move their IT.

Amy Anderson: Yeah, it’s true. We moved into this office about a year ago, and I can relate. It’s a big project, you’re trying to run a business, and it’s almost like you have two jobs trying to figure out how to lighten that load on the IT. I have a few thoughts about that today.

Number one is planning. Start early. Don’t forget about IT. I know we’re all excited about where everyone’s going to sit in the new offices and the tables and chairs, but think and plan ahead of time with the IT. Make sure that either you or your IT provider are looking, coordinating with your ISP—your internet service provider, if it’s Charter or AT&T— because sometimes there’s a lot of complicated things they need to do and you need to coordinate early.

What else were we thinking about?

Libby Powers: You had mentioned something to me that you need special plug-ins?

Amy Anderson: Oh, yeah, you just need to pay attention to those little details. In our server room, we have an APC battery, and it has one of those big round fat plugs.

Libby Powers: Kind of like a dryer?

Amy Anderson: Yeah, like a dryer. I can’t remember, it’s called a NEMA plug, actually. So you need to make sure the electrician’s been there, that you have everything you need, look at your low voltage wiring.

We really recommend that every employee has a hardwire to their computer, not Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is good to have as well, but not as your primary. Hardwire is a lot more reliable, and you don’t want to have to be calling your IT support desk as often.

Libby Powers: Many years ago I was working for a company that moved from one location to a completely new location. Then within that location, while the office space was being built out, we were in this like little cubby hole, like ten of us in this crazy small room. We were tasked with moving all of our IT. Basically, I had to move two screens, my computer, all of the equipment, and I was tasked with setting it all back up. Well, for a non-tech person, I had to ask six other people where to plug things into. Now I know now, luckily.

Amy Anderson: What we found over the years that sometimes people try and do that thinking it’s going to be less expensive, but it ends up being a spaghetti mess and it takes more time for IT people and more money for them to come in and get it all organized.

I really recommend, don’t have a traditional mover or your employees move your IT. Have an IT team that’s knowledgeable about it do it for you, they’ll hand do it, and sometimes when it’s really complicated, they’ll take pictures ahead of time, maybe in the server room, to make sure that everything gets put back exactly right, which saves you money because if it’s not done right they don’t have to spend hours figuring it out.

Libby Powers: That’s awesome. So one of the big takeaways is plan, plan, plan. And don’t rent a U-Haul.

Amy Anderson: Exactly. And you’ll have a really smooth move. You’ll move all your workstations, get those set up, and then the last thing, if you have a server, would be to move your server, and everything will be peachy and you’ll be happy! You can get back to business.

Libby Powers: We really appreciate that, Amy. Our key takeaway here is just that you want the most productive team during this move, so the less downtime is going to be important. Make sure you’re working with a company that can do that for you.

Amy Anderson: Thanks for joining us today.

Libby Powers: Thank you all. Have a great day.

Byte-Size Tech: Insure Against Tech Disaster

/in , /by

 

Anderson Technologies’ Junior Systems Administrator Quentin Topping sits down with Libby Powers to talk about the little things a managed IT services provider does every day to protect from big disasters. Sometimes, things like insurance and maintenance can seem useless, but insuring your business against potential disaster is something you’ll wish you’d done before the worst happens.

 

Related Reading

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody! Welcome to another edition of Byte-Size Tech. I am joined with Quentin today. He’s one of our Junior System Admins. Quentin, you want to introduce yourself?

Quentin Topping: As Libby said, I’m Quentin Topping. I am a Junior Systems Administrator here at Anderson Technologies. I deal with all our on-the-ground computer work.

Libby Powers: He’s very much in the trenches every day with making sure that our clients are receiving the best level of support possible. And honestly, kind of what you do is to make sure that they’re not calling in to us because we’re proactively figuring out what’s going on with them and, if there’s an issue, just taking care of it.

Quentin Topping: Exactly, I would much rather keep you from having an issue at all then have to try and fix something.

Libby Powers: Awesome! So something that Quentin and I were discussing is insurance. We have insurance for many things: we have insurance on our house, we have insurance on our car, some of us may have insurance on our pets, so there’s some truth for many reasons. And why we use that insurance, or why we pay for that insurance, is because we want to make sure that in the case of something happening, we’re going to be covered. Correct?

Quentin Topping: Exactly.

Libby Powers: Okay. Something I was telling Quentin is several years ago, I had a house fire, and it was a total loss. And four days before the house fire, I was able to sign homeowner’s insurance, which took care of a lot, not the memories but those things that we lost, like clothes and stuff like that. We equate that with what we do. We are your insurance for anything: data loss, ransomware… Can you talk a little bit about that?

Quentin Topping: Yeah, absolutely. Preventative maintenance is as much of what we do as active repair and active maintenance. When you call in about your Outlook working or your programs not working, our goal is to also try and prevent those issues from ever arising. IT management is about prevention, recovery, and active maintenance.

Libby Powers: What are some of the things that you do on an ongoing basis that would be this preventative maintenance, kind of like changing the smoke detector in your house?

Quentin Topping: We like to check your system to make sure it’s up to date, we like to make sure all of your programs are up to date, we actively monitor ongoing security threats that are known throughout the country, and we actively take the steps to make sure your system is not rolling the ball to those common threats.

Libby Powers: Something that Quentin said to me which I really liked was we are kind of your fire department that would you would call and say “I have an issue.” But instead of the entire fire department coming, they would just be able to put out the fire from wherever they were. Now we know that’s not going to happen with an actual fire, but if you’re having a meltdown in your business, just think of being able to call somebody who could fix that in a moment’s notice. Right?

Quentin Topping: Exactly, that’s the joy of the computer world we live in. We can, with a press of a button, turn everything back to the way it was. Recovery is just as much a part of prevention as actively monitoring threats. We—a lot of places—will provide the ability to recover your data. So if your system goes down, you lose access to your email, we can recover that to the last state we had it in. An analogy I told you before is like if the fire department had a copy of your house saved at the fire station they could provide to you after it burned down.

Libby Powers: Oh gosh, wouldn’t that be handy? Who knows, with 3D printing these days, who knows what’s going to come about. Anyway, we hope you understand why having a managed IT company work with you and proactively monitoring your IT infrastructure and security is really important, not only for your business, but for all of your data. I appreciate you joining me today, Quentin. Hopefully we can do this again. Reach out to us at any time. Thanks so much. Have a great day. Bye.

Contact Us

Byte-Size Tech: Don’t Get Zoom-Bombed!

/in , , , /by

 

Mark Anderson and Libby Powers chat about Zoom best practices and share the story of a client who recently got Zoom-bombed after posting the details of their call publicly. Zoom has some security features baked in, but be sure to toggle them and use the tips Mark and Libby share to ensure you have the best Zoom experience! And if you’d like to read more about these tips, check out our blog on the subject!

 

Related Reading

Contact Us

 

Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody. Thank you for joining another edition of Byte-Size Tech. I’m here with Mark Anderson of Anderson Technologies.

Mark Anderson: Hi.

Libby Powers: Everybody was forced into video conferencing in 2020. And there’s a lot of funny stories that actually came out of that, but there’s also some pretty serious things that that arose. One of the big things is “Zoom bombing,” and it actually happened to one of our clients in a significant way. So we want to tell you kind of what happened with them, and what you can do to protect yourself.

Mark Anderson: Great. Thanks, Libby. Yeah, one of our nonprofit clients on the East Coast was hosting monthly meetings, and in order to reach the most people, they decided that they would put the invite for the Zoom meeting up on their public facing website, including the ID and password. I love the ability to reach a lot of people on the web, but you’ve got to be so cautious about the information that you share. So, instead of that, it would have been lovely to have a registration page or something along those lines.

Libby Powers: And during that meeting, something significant happened, right?

Mark Anderson: Yeah, unfortunately, right when they were getting into an inspirational portion of the meeting, pornography showed up on the screen. Obviously, this is not what anyone wants to see or have happened to their rather serious meeting, so they shut the meeting down immediately.

Libby Powers: With the help of you guys, right?

Mark Anderson: Yes, yes, right, and then help them to send out new invites so the meeting was held on the day. But we needed to have a discussion about some very simple things that we all can do to make our meetings more secure.

Libby Powers: You know, those things are going to be on any video conferencing software, right? So whether or not you’re using Zoom or Teams or Citrix or anything like that.

Mark Anderson: So just from a very high level, guys, what you want to do is always have a unique meeting ID even though, in many of these services, you’re when you sign up for them (granted, a personal one) have a unique ID. Be sure to set a password, obviously, that you don’t share in a public way. If possible, you can also go in and alter the settings for the meeting to either establish a meeting room, have people come in on mute, or with their video turned off, or potentially turned on. In Zoom’s particular case, if you require everyone that’s coming to the meeting to have a Zoom ID, if anything were to go on that would be deemed negative, that activity is tied to an ID to allow you to take a little bit more specific action about it.

Libby Powers: We actually have an article on our blog written about this, as well as some really great tips and tricks for you to secure yourself. There’s a link at the end of this video for that blog. I urge you to go check it out. Thanks so much. Thanks, Mark.

Mark Anderson: Stay warm, everyone. It’s 12 degrees outside right now. That’s our lovely digital window. Okay, bye.

Byte-Size Tech: Employee Training Can Make Or Break Your Cybersecurity

/in , /by

Mark Anderson and Libby Powers chat about the importance of employee training when it comes to your business’s cybersecurity. Even the most protected network is vulnerable when bad actors are unwittingly given access. Libby shares a personal story of getting phished, and the consequences of a single click.

 

Related Reading

Contact Us