Unlike the past decade when IT services were ancillary functions in an enterprise, IT services today are mission-critical contributors to your core operations. Thanks to the Information Age and 4th Industrial Revolution, predictive analytics and data-driven decision-making have taken over from rear-view reporting, and IT services are central to both of these functions.
(more…)Blog
-
Voice Phone Systems
Recently guest host Scott Curtis sat down with IT VOICE CEO, WIll Slappey, to discuss all the ways the business phone system has changed over the years. Will began his career at IT Voice at the age of five, sweeping warehouse floors and refilling the coke machine out back. Since then, he’s held just about every position in the company. This allowed him to learn the full nature of the business, from sales to accounting to operations. He officially became the CEO in 2019, where he started a new growth campaign that has taken the company to 8 times the size it was when he started. Will loves working with clients directly to help them leverage technology to grow their business. For this reason, we were so excited to get his insightful take on how phones have changed and some best practices for picking out a new system. He’s in a unique position since he is a phone expert and the key decision maker in our company when it comes to adopting new technologies. He’s all about providing the best customer service experience and peace of mind for our customers.
(more…) -
Tech Tune Up for Your Business
Every now and then it is good to take a look under the hood, so to speak, of your business. At the start of the new year is the perfect to make sure you have the appropriate network security measures in place and seek out new software that might add a productivity boost to your processes. Take a listen to our podcast or read below for some helpful tips and suggestions to get your business fit for 2023!
(more…) -
A Rebranded Office 365 (With More Features)
Microsoft has made some substantial changes recently to its most well-known product stack-Office 365. Sometimes change is a good thing! In this post we will explore some of the improvements and how they can improve your business collaboration, communication and so much more.
(more…) -
How Backup and Disaster Recovery Protects Your Business
Many SMBs operate with a sense of unrealistic optimism when it comes to data loss and disaster recovery. However, the reality can be quite different and can negatively affect your business if you’re not vigilant. As the rate of digitalization increases, so does the risk of data loss. Can your business afford a data-loss incident?
(more…) -
A Beginners Guide to Cloud Computing
Cloud services have really evolved in the last 5 to 10 years. Cloud services are flexible, scalable, and secure. You have the advantage of choosing the services you need, exactly when you need them. A predictable cost structure helps with no surprises planning. Cloud computing gives you the ability to hand off the parts of your organization related to IT infrastructure, and let pros deal with that while you concentrate on your business. In this post we explore Cloud services, and why businesses are choosing to make the move to the Cloud.
(more…) -
Cybersecurity Leadership: The Role of a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer
In today’s increasingly digital world, cybersecurity has become a top priority for organizations of all sizes. However, many organizations struggle to develop and implement a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy that protects their information assets from potential cyber threats. This is where a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) can help.
(more…) -
Making the Switch: Bringing Your Voice & Network Management Together
Enterprises today must entrust their operations to many vendors to run daily functions, from phone support and technical infrastructure to support functions like finance, human resource management and marketing.
(more…) -
DOES THE CLOUD EVER GO DOWN?
Despite the fact that cloud phones are relatively common today, it has taken several years for companies to establish trust in a system that they couldn’t actually see or touch. Many companies want a hard guarantee that the cloud will never go down and that their phones will never be cut off due to a system failure. Obviously, this is a difficult promise to make, even for the most successful cloud service providers.
Does the Cloud Go Down?
We can’t avoid the hard truth that sometimes the cloud does indeed go down. A number of major cloud players, including Amazon, have landed in hot water recently for their outages, which took down a variety of big name sites. However, most cloud outages are short-lived and quickly resolved. They have teams of dedicated engineers working around the clock to ensure continuity of service and to fend off any disruptions. In addition, most cloud companies also have plenty of redundancy in their system so that traffic can be shifted to other servers in the event of an isolated outage.
Service Guarantees
When you look at cloud providers, many companies will provide you with their uptime statistics. The best of the lot offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This acknowledges that the cloud could go down, but their track record so far has shown that their system is highly reliable. Depending on your particular contract agreement, some cloud providers offer a discount on your monthly fee if your service is disrupted for any amount of time.
What Really Matters
For the most part, you can rest assured that the cloud service provider you choose has done its homework. They have built in fail safes and redundancy features to handle temporary outages and unexpected technical issues. Instead, the one thing you need to pay attention to is your Internet provider’s uptime. Some businesses are shocked to discover that their phones are out, not because the cloud let them down, but because their local Internet got disconnected. If it is your Internet connection that goes down, rather than the cloud itself, you will need to address the problem with your internet service provider directly. Your cloud phones may require an upgraded broadband connection to stay online and ensure call quality.
As you shop for cloud phones for your business, take a look at both the advertised uptime statistics as well as the safety features included in the system. You will be surprised to find that many cloud phone services have developed great tools for dealing with downtime and ensuring that you get the service you deserve at all times.
-
DNS Cache poisoning: What every SMB must know
DNS Cache poisoning: What every SMB must know
In one of the most common poisoning attacks, the attacker poisons the DNS Cache with the aim of leading visitors to a fake website. In a DNS cache poisoning case, the attacker gains control of the DNS server and then manipulates cache data such that anyone typing the URL of the actual website is redirected to the fake one. This could be a phishing site where the attacker would have carefully laid out a trap to capture the unsuspecting victim’s personal data or secure information. For example, the visitor thinks they are logging into their bank’s website online, but are actually on the attacker’s phishing site, where they enter the login credentials.
Protecting yourself against DNS poison attacks
Here are some ways to protect yourself and your customers from becoming victims of DNS poison attacks.- As discussed before, one of the most common poisoning attacks is the DNS attacks. Cybercriminals try to corrupt your DNS server using theirs. You can prevent this by bringing a trained professional onboard for your DNS server set-up. An expert will know to set up your DNS server such that it has a minimum relationship with other, external DNS servers, thus limiting your attacker’s ability to corrupt your DNS server using theirs.
- As a best practice, ensure that your DNS servers only store data related to your domain and not any other information. It is harder to corrupt the system when it focuses on a single element.
- Another best practice is to ensure that you are up-to-date on all DNS security mechanisms and are using the most recent version of the DNS.
- Ensure your site has, in layman terms, an SSL certificate and make sure it is HTTPS. Using encryption, a site with HTTPS protocol allows for a more secure connection between its server and the internet and is better at keeping cybercriminals out. Having an SSL certificate also ensures your site’s name shows up alongside the URL in the address bar. This is an easy way for visitors to identify if they are on a genuine site or not, thus helping them steer clear of phishing attacks and clone sites.
Data poisoning is one of the lesser-known and hence less talked about forms of cybercrime. But, it can inflict great damage–perhaps even more damage than the other obvious threats such as viruses and ransomware, because, unlike a Denial of Service (DoS) attack or a Ransomware attack where you know the moment the malware has hit your system, in a data poisoning attack, the malware is incorrect data that slithers into your system quietly like a snake and changes its overall functioning before delivering the big blow.