With two significant attacks at the hands of two separate strains of ransomware happening this year alone, we know ransomware is to be taken seriously. But, what exactly is ransomware? Is your business at risk? And, importantly, what can you do to stop this form of malware? Burning questions all, which we will now answer in our short guide to ransomware.

What Is Ransomware?

To begin with, let’s clarify the type of threat that we are dealing with. As mentioned, ransomware is a type of malware that gains access to your computer and then encrypts your files, essentially denying you access to everything you have stored on that computer. The software then gives you the chance to regain this access. In order to do this, you have to pay a certain amount of money. In the case of WannaCry and NotPetya, this amount was payable via bitcoin.

But, how does ransomware work?

In order for the malicious software to work as intended, it needs to be installed on your computer. This means it has to be downloaded by you. But, as you might imagine, you probably won’t know that you are downloading it.

Hackers disguise malware as other software or hide it in links. And, it just needs to be downloaded by one computer on the network. But, once it has been downloaded, ransomware is able to take root and begin encrypting all of the files to which it now has access.

Are You at Risk of Ransomware?

Many small businesses think they aren’t at risk of malicious attacks based on their relative anonymity. After all, what would a hacker want with a small business that has only a fraction of the budget of a larger corporation? But, the truth is that many ransomware attacks are not specifically targeted. Hackers simply put their code out and wait to see what it can do.

Sadly, small businesses often fall prey to ransomware simply because they don’t have the security budget and measures that are available to large companies. Sadly, many hackers see small businesses as stragglers from the herd; easy prey.

How to Protect Your Business from Ransomware

While small businesses are just as much at risk of ransomware, there are still many methods that they can use to defend against it. The following are a few tips for protecting your business against ransomware attacks:

1. Enlist Professional Security Services
Bringing in professional IT support is the best way to protect your company against ransomware. Not only can they create the best defences to mitigate the risk of attack in the present, but they can create a disaster recovery plan that will give your business some options in the event of a ransomware attack in the future. Moreover, security services keep abreast of current changes in the hacking environment and adjust their approach to accommodate these changes, ensuring that your business maintains its best possible defence at all times.

2. Utilise a Good Anti-Virus Package
There are a few dedicated anti-malware packages on the market today, but opting for these means that you will be ignoring other types of infections, like viruses. So, unless you’re happy to purchase dedicated protection for each type of threat, you are better off opting for all-inclusive security software. Fortunately, there is some great security software available.

Known and trusted anti-virus programs like AVG, Norton, Kaspersky, and Avast! are excellent examples, and MalwareBytes is a great dedicated product.

3. Back Up Your Files
Ransomware is not so devastating if you don’t actually lose any valuable data. And, it is possible to ensure that you maintain access to your files by backing them up and keeping them on storage devices disconnected from your network. Fortunately, as a small business, you likely don’t have as much data as large corporations so this is easier to achieve.

Two obvious options would be USB flash drives and external hard drives. The capacity on the former is expanding quite rapidly, so this might be a good option if your business doesn’t generate a large amount of data. Though expensive, Kingston offers a 2TB flash drive. But, it is possible to find much more affordable flash drive options in the range of around 64 to 128 GB. As for the latter, it is possible to find affordable external hard drives with decent storage capacities.

4. Update Regularly
WannaCry was actually developed due to a flaw in the Windows operating system. Microsoft discovered the flaw and issued a patch for it before the ransomware was even released. But, because so many Windows users don’t stay current with their updates, they were still using the vulnerable version of the operating system when WannaCry was released.

For this reason, it is vital that you keep everything up to date. If you can, turn on automatic updates for your operating system, apps, programs, and, of course, your security software.

5. Practice Caution Online
Tell all of your staff to be very careful about what they do online. For starters, ensure that all of your employees only open attachments in emails that they were expecting, and from senders who they recognise. Also, tell them not to click on every link that they receive (it is possible to preview linked URLs on desktop by hovering over them). Finally, have your employees stay away from sites that are known to offer questionable content, and not be drawn in by free content downloads.

Protect Your Small Business from Ransomware

We now live in a world where the threat of cyber-crime is both very real and highly menacing. But, it is possible to take steps toward keeping this threat at bay. Through the combined efforts of professional security services, security software, and a concerted effort to maintain safe online practices, you can greatly limit the chances of your business falling prey to ransomware.

The post Your Small Business Guide to Ransomware appeared first on IT Support New York | Manhattan.

So, whether you have specialist IT services deploying Office 365 for you soon or you already have access to this cloud service, here are some parts of Office 365 that you might find very useful:

1. Office 365 Planner
If you are at the head of a team, you can use Planner to manage your entire project from your computer. This feature offers various dashboards which graphically represent progress on various parts of the project, and this is supplemented by email notifications. Collaboration is made easy as everyone has access to the dashboard and can use it to share files, make status updates, set meeting reminders, etc. This makes the big task of overseeing a project exceptionally simple and makes each step of the process easy to follow.

2. Office 365 Groups
Office 365’s Groups feature is another one that is designed for project management. Groups incorporates Office 365 Planner, so you get all of the features described in the previous point. But, in addition, Groups allows for a shared inbox for the whole team and a communal OneDrive for Business folder.

3. Clutter
The goal of the Clutter feature is to stop workers being bogged down by low-priority emails. This feature automatically sorts your Outlook inbox by order of importance. But, don’t worry about losing the less important messages – these are moved to the ‘clutter’ folder where they can be viewed at your convenience.

4. Focused Inbox
Outlook’s Focused inbox is another way in which Microsoft offers a more dedicated email service. This feature pays attention to how you sort your inbox messages, and then directs them to different parts of your inbox as they arrive. Emails which are more relevant will go to your ‘Focused’ inbox while the rest will go to ‘Other’.

5. Reading Pane for Quick Email Replies
Yet another excellent email-related feature of Office 365 is the Reading Pane. By enabling this Outlook feature, you are able to view email messages as they come in without having to open the message itself. You can preview the incoming message and even respond to it right from the same preview window.

6. Office WebApps
Because it is cloud-based, Office 365 allows you to work from anywhere, on any computer, and you don’t have to worry about installing the software. So long as you have an internet connection and a current browser you are able to access to your account. And, if you download the apps for the Office 365 programs (Excel, Word, Outlook, etc.) then you can use those directly from your mobile device, meaning you can use Office 365 while on the go.

7. Finger Laser Pointer in PowerPoint
PowerPoint allows you to turn your mouse into a laser pointer using Presenter Mode. This has been carried through to presentations on mobile devices. But, instead of your mouse, you simply use your finger.

On its website, Microsoft support offers a very informative video on how to use laser pointers on PowerPoint presentations.

8. Offline and Online Integration
You might not always have an internet connection, but this won’t stop you from being able to work using Office 365. Changes you make to documents will be stored to OneDrive, which will then upload those changes as soon as you find a connection. Furthermore, changes made offline are updated on all versions of the document across all of your devices, so you always stay current.

9. Co-Authoring with Word
Collaborating on a single document used to be a logistical nightmare, which would often end up with various versions and uncertainty over the latest draft. But, Office 365 Word allows you to co-author documents and see changes in real time. This means that everyone stays on the current version and can keep track of who has changed what.

10. Office Lens
Did you ever wish you could scan a whiteboard after a brainstorming session? Office Lens essentially turns your smartphone into a scanner for this very purpose. All you need to do is take a photo of the whiteboard and Lens will trim, fit, and enhance the image so it looks like a scan. This works well with ordinary documents as well.

11. Skype’s In-app Use
Skype for Business allows you to have video or audio chats, send instant messages, or share screens with colleagues. But, what is so exciting about this is the fact that Skype integrates with the app you are working in, meaning that you don’t have to keep switching between the app and Skype. And, the conversation doesn’t end if you need to close the app; you can continue it on your desktop or mobile device.

12. PowerPoint’s Morph
PowerPoint lets you create animated slides without any technical know-how. With Morph, you simply create a slide, then duplicate that slide and move things to where you want them to end up. When you play the slideshow, those objects will move from their location on the first slide to their places on the second slide.

13. Microsoft Delve
Delve is a feature that allows you to keep abreast of what your co-workers are busy with at any given point in time. This ensures that you’re never out of the loop on projects that concern you. Delve shows you updates on your co-workers’ progress and lets you check their profiles to see what they are, and have been, doing.

14. Use Office Apps for Ultimate Convenience
With Office 365’s apps, you can do a variety of tasks right from Outlook. For example, you can send a payment using PayPal or schedule a meeting at a local Starbucks. Download these and countless other useful apps at the Office App Store.

15. Excel’s Power Map
Excel offers numerous ways to visualize data, but, of these, Power Map is certainly one of the most exciting. You can take rows of data and represent them with 3D graphics, creating a 3D map for geographical data. And, to add to the brilliance of this feature, the data is fully interactive.

Your Office Needs Office 365

Office 365 is full of hidden gems that can seriously enhance your operations, if you know where to find them. Hopefully these features can help you bring that extra boost of efficiency to your office’s processes. And, if you are yet to make use of the powerhouse that is Office 365, be sure to contact Northern Star for expert deployment and upkeep.

The post Super Useful Office 365 Features That You May Not Know About appeared first on IT Support New York | Manhattan.

If you need to increase productivity in your workplace, Office 365 offers many solutions thanks to its numerous features. So, if you are not yet using this system, here are some factors that might just convince you that the time has come to call in some Office 365 service providers.

How to Use Office 365 to Boost Productivity in Your Workplace

1. Increase Collaboration with Groups
If all of the people involved in a given project aren’t in sync, productivity can fall by the wayside. Some aspects of the project might be duplicated while others might be completely ignored. And this is all down to group members being unsure of what everyone else is doing.

Office 365’s Groups changes all of this. Through this helpful aspect of the program, it is easy to get everyone involved on a project on the same page. By inviting colleagues working on the project to the group, you can ensure everyone has access to a shared inbox, file repository, calendar, and notebook. And, with the mobile app, it is possible to view and edit shared files remotely, ensuring a huge boost in productivity on all collaborative efforts.

2. Co-author Documents with the Cloud
Many situations in the day to day running of your office likely require multiple people to work on a document. This can get confusing enough if two employees are emailing a document back and forth. But, if you have multiple authors, there may be so many documents in circulation that nobody is sure whether they are working on the most recent copy.

However, SharePoint makes collaboration easy. Through this feature, authors can upload documents to a content hub, accessible by all authors involved in the project. This makes it possible for the entire team to make changes to the document in real time, across devices. This greatly eliminates the uncertainty that can come with co-authorship.

3. Improve Communication with Skype for Business
Communication is vital to productivity. Whether it is the project manager delegating tasks and following up on deadlines, or colleagues collaborating with each other, team members need to communicate in order to be effective. But, often an enquiry is too brief to warrant an entire phone call, or too urgent for email. In these cases, Skype’s instant messaging service is ideal.

But, Skype for Business does much more than just facilitate instant messaging. It also offers video calling (as you would expect). It allows for one on one calling as well as team sessions. And, to ensure that teams can connect even when members are not in the same room, Skype for Business works across many mobile devices.

4. Focus Information with Delve and Clutter
Major projects can easily be derailed by smaller projects if your employees aren’t properly focused. This is why it is important to create an environment that helps them keep their sights firmly on their priorities. Fortunately, Office 365 has the tools necessary for this.

The first of these tools is Delve. Delve helps solve the problem that many employees face regarding relevance of information – a problem which can burn a lot of time while they decide what information is important to their jobs, and what information is not. Delve analyses the work that your individual employees are doing, and the people with whom they are interacting, and delivers them information accordingly. Using sophisticated techniques, this feature is able to distinguish the information relevant to each team member and offer it to them in a user-friendly, card-based layout.

Another focus-oriented feature of Office 365 is Clutter. This feature automatically sorts incoming emails by order of priority. It allows the important emails to go through to the desired inbox and then it checks the rest. If it finds emails that the recipient is likely to ignore, it places these in the ‘clutter’ folder. But, don’t worry about it sending important emails to the junk folder by mistake. This clever little feature decides which mail to prioritize based on the recipient’s past behavior, at it learns as it goes. So, over time, Clutter lets you tell it what is important and what is not.

5. Streamline Presentations with Sway
While boardroom-style presentations are still a part of modern business, they can delay productivity on account of the fact they require schedule co-ordination. And, with a busy team, it is often difficult to find a window where everyone is free. But, with Sway, it is possible to create presentations to share with team members remotely. These are fully-interactive, which means that everyone gets the full experience even if they aren’t in the same room.

6. Implement Easy Project Management with OneNote
You might see it as a basic note-taking app, but, if used correctly, OneNote can easily manage entire projects. OneNote lets you customize the general look of the app in the display settings and apply a page template so that you have everything you need at your disposal and the app looks more like a professional management app. It also gives you options to add tags to important parts of your project and link pages to other pages within your project.

Office 365’s Power Is Magnificent

By simply using the tools of Office 365 in the way that they were intended, you can greatly boost the productivity of your office. That is because one of the major benefits of online file sharing and collaboration is time-saving, and with more time, your employees can be much more productive. With Office 365, you can ensure that everyone is always connected and always collaborating, even if they aren’t in the same office.

The post Top Office 365 Tips to Increase Your Productivity appeared first on IT Support New York | Manhattan.

What Is Ransomware?

In May of 2017, the world was struck by a cyber-attack that seemed to come out of nowhere. It wasn’t a virus, so to speak, but rather a program that took control of the computers of businesses and individuals alike, encrypted their data, and demanded a payment to release that data. The malicious software was called Wana Crypt0r or WCry (soon renamed WannaCry on Twitter, due to its effects) and is the most famous form of ransomware in recent years. This is because it spread quickly and on a global scale, affecting major healthcare and industrial operations across the world.

WannaCry featured a few elements unseen before it made its appearance. But, for the most part, it operated as most ransomware does. This form of software secretly downloads itself onto your computer, after which it performs one of two tasks. Either it encrypts all of the files on the computer, in which case the computer still functions albeit with no access to certain files, or it completely locks the computer and makes the desktop inaccessible. The software then sends you a message asking for a certain payment (Bitcoin in WannaCry’s case) before it will decrypt the files.

That is generally how ransomware works, and it is effective in that many people want to pay the required amount to have their files released. But, there is no guarantee that the hackers responsible will honour the agreement and decrypt the files after payment – in fact, many have no way of verifying the payment.

So, prevention is better than cure. With this in mind, here are a few ways in which you can protect yourself from ransomware:

How to Protect Your Computer from Ransomware

1. Back Up Your Data
Essentially, if you’re not worried about your data getting lost, then there’s no reason to be tempted to pay out in a ransomware attack. And, the only way that you’re not going to be worried about data loss is by having a backup of that data. One possible solution to this problem is cloud backup and recovery, which gives you access to your data directly following any possible cyber-attack. However, with the cloud being online, it is still theoretically a target for ransomware. So, if you have the hardware to support the backing up of data offline, this is a great contingency plan. If you can find solutions that suit your budget and data size, removable hard-drives are impervious to ransomware so long as they are kept disconnected from the internet.

2. Keep Your Computer Updated
WannaCry was the result of a fault in Microsoft’s security network, yet the company had already discovered and corrected the issue when the ransomware was released. The problem was that many of the users affected had not updated their operating systems, and thus did not benefit from the remedy. So, to ensure that you have the best chance at defending against ransomware, be sure to keep your operating system up to date at all times.

3. Choose Internet Security Services
You don’t want to leave your computer’s security in the hands of your OS alone. So, at the very least, you need a good antivirus that is on top of the newest forms of ransomware being released. But, businesses stand to lose more than individuals, making internet security services a far better option for them.

Through professional services, you have access to a team of account managers who can jump on any issues the moment they arise. They are also able to set up superior firewalls and create backup plans for critical infections.

4. Be Suspicious of all Websites
Many cyber-criminals use fake websites to retrieve vital information from users, so be sure that you are always on the right website. Be sure that you are going to the right URL, as fake websites will often contain only slight differences, like exampla.com instead of example.com. To ensure that you are always logging into the correct site, enter the correct URL into your browser yourself.

Here are some ways to spot fake websites.

5. Don’t Follow Strange Links
Continuing from our last point, don’t follow links to sites. This goes for sites that you intend to visit or links to sites that are sent to you via email. In the case of the former, open your browser and type in the URL yourself. In the case of the latter, verify with the link’s sender that it is trustworthy. And, if you don’t know the sender, avoid opening the link.

6. Use Windows’ Restore Points
It is possible to create restore points on Windows. These are specified points to which you can revert back should something stop functioning correctly. Many types of ransomware also encrypt these restore points, but, if you are lucky enough to encounter one that skips them, it is very helpful to have these points as a means of restoring your system and recovering your data.

7. Don’t Visit Suspect Websites
Some websites are trustworthy based on their notoriety and their function in online society. These sites are usually very careful about their own security as this impacts the security of their visitors. It is definitely advisable to only visit these types of sites and avoid any sites that you know offer illegal or immoral content, or just look and feel unprofessional. The latter are the sites that often leave the door open for ransomware downloads.

Be Prepared for Ransomware

As we mentioned, prevention is far better than cure, especially when ransomware is concerned. And, with new forms of ransomware constantly being created, companies and individual users should never let their guards down. The above tips combined with a sound form of online protection are the best ways to ensure that you don’t become an easy target for cyber-criminals.

The post A Look at Ransomware and How to Protect Yourself from It appeared first on IT Support New York | Manhattan.

In the moments following a cyber-attack, you don’t want to be trying to determine which of your company’s assets are, or were, most crucial and trying to figure out how to react to the attack. You want a solid strategy in place that will ensure that the damage is limited as much as possible. After all, each passing moment following an attack is crucial and if you don’t have a SabreVault type security system in place, having a BCP is especially important.

What Is a Business Continuity Plan?

The prevalence of hacking and cyber-threats in modern society means that you have to hope for the best but plan for the worst; like taking out insurance for your car even though you have a security alarm installed. So, in addition to bringing in the best IT security and consulting services you can find, you need a clear plan for dealing with any breaches in your business’s security.

This plan is your BCP, and it has to detail the procedures following any cyber-attack in great detail. This will allow your business to respond quickly and effectively, so as to minimize the potential damage of the attack.

It is also important to include steps for business continuity on a public front, such as disclosing the attack to the public and maintaining trust in your business.

How to Create a Business Continuity Plan

Before you get to work creating a list of procedures that should occur immediately after a security threat, it is important to take a step back and put yourself in the shoes of a hacker. This way, you’ll have a better idea of what cyber-criminals would most likely target in your business, and you will be better poised to protect those assets.

Begin by looking at your business with completely fresh eyes. Determine what you would identify as your business’s main objective if you were just discovering it. Based on this, what would you consider to be your business’s most valuable assets? And, how would you access those assets?

Asking, and honestly answering, these questions will help you formulate a profile that you can use to develop your BCP. But, don’t feel that you have to do this alone. In fact, the more insight that you can get from other members of your team, the better. Different perspectives will help you determine fresh angles from which to approach your profile and might uncover some weak points which you had not yet considered.

Once you have an idea of how your business may be targeted, you will also understand the potential impact of a cyber-attack. This is very important, as it allows you to start developing your plan.

With the impact of an attack in mind, determine the resources that you would need to recover from the attack, respond to it, and continue your business processes. With this data in hand, analyze the resources you currently have available. This might lead to a gap between your required resources and your available resources, but that’s all right; it means that you know what you now need.

The goal is, of course, to bring this gap down to zero, which will mean that you have everything that you require to start formulating a truly effective plan. But, if you simply can’t find the resources necessary to match your initial estimation, you might have to get creative.

A good way to do this is to ask colleagues and acquaintances in the industry for any advice. If they have gone through the stress of an attack, they may have formulated some creative defense and response strategies which could solve a lot of your problems. And, even if they don’t solve your resource issues, they might help you discover a few more areas in your business which may be targeted.

Developing Your BCP

Once you are aware of the potential impact of an attack, and the resources available to you to help promote continuity during the incident, you can start to develop the actual plan.

The goal of a business continuity plan is, as the name suggests, ensuring continuity in the face of a crisis. So, with this in mind, it is important to identify the main processes of your business that keep it on track. Once you have identified these functions, you will have a good idea of how you need to structure your plan in order to keep them as functional as possible during a security incident.

While you are doing this, it is also important to determine whether any other areas of the business affect these main functions. You don’t want a knock-on effect where one of these main functions is disabled as a result of a secondary function being attacked. So, if there are dependencies, identify them and work them into your plan.

Lastly, you need to make allowances for a break in business processes whether you’re running a consultancy, a law firm or a marketing digital marketing agency. Decide on the maximum period of downtime from which your business could recover, then build that into your plan. This will essentially be your maximum window for implementing your plan and returning operations.

Once you have decided on all of the above, you can create a play-by-play plan of strategic operations that will ensure business continuity. If you need a little help on this front, here are some free disaster recovery templates.

Put Your BCP into (Simulated) Action

Skipping the testing phase of anything is not advisable, and this is especially true of your BCP. So, before congratulating yourself on a plan well formed, run some tests to see how it fares.

This can start with a simple walk-through, asking the heads of all concerned departments to go step by step through their sections of the plan. This allows for feedback that will serve to identify any weaknesses in the plan which may not have been apparent.

Next, run the plan as a drill. This will mean creating a situation that simulates a cyber-attack and working through the plan in succession. Through this, you will see exactly how effective your plan is.

It is important that, during the testing phase, you run through as many scenarios as possible. Remember, cyber-criminals are rarely predictable and are constantly looking for new ways to gain entry to business’s systems.

Here is a simple guide to testing a business continuity plan.

Keep Your Business Continuity Plan Updated

After you run your tests, you may well end up with a list of issues which need to be addressed. This is good; it helps refine your plan. But, once those have been dealt with, it’s not a good idea to simply stick your plan in a drawer.

With cyber-criminals growing ever wilier, your plan could soon become obsolete. So, the best way to ensure that you are prepared to keep your business’s head above water in the event of a security issue is to constantly update your BCP.

This may sound like a lot of effort. But, in the unfortunate event of a hacking, you’ll be glad you took the time to do it right.

The post Why Your Business Needs a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) appeared first on IT Support New York | Manhattan.

But, the environment aside, going paperless just makes sense. From a productivity viewpoint, a single lost document could cost you half a day and put your ongoing projects under pressure. In addition, you have all of the added storage space to worry about, which is an issue that simply doesn’t exist in a paperless office.

Is It Possible to Go Truly Paperless?

The idea of a 100% paperless office is excellent, but, at this point in time, it is slightly impractical. While we might get to a completely paperless point eventually, as things stand we do need some degree of paper in the office.

Certain industries need to have physical contracts in hand, while others need hard copies of proposals and mock-ups to give to clients at meetings. Of course, there are also the employees who feel that they best develop ideas when they can jot small details down on a page in a random fashion.

While there are digital solutions for these issues, not all companies have the budget to provide these. And, even if they did, there are those team members who simply can’t get past the artificial feeling of, say, a stylus on a pad.

So, a paperless office in its strictest sense might not be the most practical option at present. But, that being said, minimizing the amount of paper in your office offers some definite benefits. So, how do you achieve this? We have a few pointers.

Easy Tips for Creating a Paperless Office

The easiest way to streamline the route to a paperless office is to put the project in the hands of an IT support company. This way, you can easily switch to file-sharing systems like cloud services (which discourage printing) and be sure that you won’t end up minimizing the productivity boost that comes with going paperless.

But, to help you make the transition even smoother, here are some tips for going paperless:

1. Make Printing Inconvenient
The move to a completely paperless office is not going to happen overnight, and you might find that the habit of printing various documents out might be difficult to break in some of your employees. So, to help ingrain the concept of a paperless office, you can make the physical act of printing more difficult.

One way to do this is to limit the amount of printers available around the office. If your employees have printers on their desks, remove them. This will mean that your staff members will have to get up to retrieve printed documents, causing them to think harder before they hit the print button. And, to add effort to the process, you could move the printers away from the central points of your offices, making them even harder to access.

2. Let Your Vendors, Clients, and Service Providers Know of Your Switch
If you still have vendors who send you physical invoices, tell them that your office is going paperless and request that they send electronic invoices in the future. Similarly, inform your clients that you will begin sending through your invoices in electronic form only.

Also, ask your service providers and your bank to issue their bills and statements in electronic form going forward.

3. Scan Your Documents and Contracts
If you have a store room full of old contracts and documents, you need to digitalize those hard copies. If you have a decent scanner, this won’t be difficult. It might require a concerted effort and some time set aside, but it is necessary to make the move to a paperless office.

If you don’t have a scanner, don’t worry, you can still accomplish this task without one. There are numerous apps that essentially turn a smartphone into a scanner. These mobile scanning apps, for example, all have the functionality necessary for your general scanning needs.

4. Use Digital Signatures
You might think that the need to print and sign documents makes it impossible to lessen the amount of paper in your office, but this is a misconception. In fact, according to the E-Sign Act brought about in 2000, there is no need to physically sign documents.

So, instead of printing out pages in order to sign them, use electronic signatures. Here are some of the best e-sign programs on the market today.

5. Move to Digital Fax
Faxing saw its heyday long, long ago. But, still, there are those companies who use this form of communication in their day to day operations. If you are dealing with companies that still require documents to be faxed through, or still send you faxed communication, you might consider switching to digital fax.

Through this technique, fax communications are converted to email. This means that inbound faxes come directly to your inbox, and you can send faxes directly from your computer or mobile device as well.

You can compare some of the best online fax services here. Of course, if you want to take this all the way, you can even remove the need for physical phone handsets by using VOIP.

6. Increase Digital Work-Surfaces
The exchange of documents aside, your office might be printing a lot as a result of your employees needing reference material. If anything needs to be cross-referenced, it is easier to print out the reference instead of constantly switching between open tabs and windows.

A good way to get around this is to provide your employees with multiple displays. If an employee is able to pull up reference material on a second screen, it cancels out the need to print it out.

Going Fully Paperless Is a Moving, Yet Achievable Target

Making the move to a paperless office is not going to happen overnight. As with so many things in life, and in business, reaching your target will take a series of small steps. And, you might have to add different approaches as your business processes naturally evolve over time. But, by incorporating the above tips into your plan, you’re likely to get there quicker.

The post Simple Tips for a Paperless Office appeared first on IT Support New York | Manhattan.

Your company’s network contains a great deal of important data, the loss of which might cripple your company for good. So, if you aren’t confident that you are doing everything you can to prevent malicious attacks, here are a few tips for strengthening your firewall.

Tips for a Stronger Firewall

In Part 1 we looked at 5 tips for setting up a firewall. Now we will look at another 5 for maintaining it:

1. Support Your Firewall with an Anti-Virus

The main purpose of firewalls is to block any malicious software that tries to pass through them into the internal networks which they are designed to protect. This is certainly important for defensive purposes, but you don’t want a firewall to be your only line of defense. This is because firewalls aren’t equipped to seek out and destroy any viruses that might infiltrate a system.

For this reason it is highly advisable to install a capable anti-virus program to supplement your firewall. This way, if malware does make it through your firewall, your anti-virus can eliminate it.

2. Consider Egress Filtering

You would usually use a firewall to protect you from unwanted inbound traffic which may contain malicious software. But, it is equally important to monitor your outbound traffic, which we call egress filtering. This is important because outbound traffic can be used to send sensitive data to hackers.

This might be completely unintentional on the part of your employees, and could be the result of a malicious program having made it onto your network. But, regardless of the cause, monitoring your outbound traffic can help you stop a data breach before it happens.

3. Set Up an IDS

You want your firewall to protect you from intrusions, but it doesn’t help much for it to do this in secret. The best way to set up a great defensive system is to become aware of the areas of your network that are being targeted. For this you need an IDS, or Intrusion Detection System.

An IDS alerts you as to any malicious login attempts, policy violations, and the like. This way you can better equip your network protection to defend against threats.

4. Test, Test, and Retest

You don’t want to discover that your firewall is insecure by having your system infiltrated by hackers – that is a very costly lesson. Instead, it is advisable to run tests on your firewall to check it for vulnerabilities.

Start by checking for leaks in order to better understand your firewall’s filtering system. Next, check your system’s ports, which are the areas of your network which hackers would use to gain entrance.

5. Power Down at the End of the Day

This may be a simple method, but it is effective. Essentially, hackers can’t access a system if it is not switched on. So, by either powering down completely or using the sleep function, you disconnect from the open internet and out of the reach of hackers.

The downside of this is the fact that you can’t use the nights to run updates for your firewall, but there will always be a trade-off between ultimate protection and ultimate system performance.

The Best Protection Comes from Professional Security Services

These tips will help strengthen your company’s firewall, but they can’t ensure that it is absolutely impenetrable. So, if it’s unrivalled protection that you want for your company’s sensitive data, we suggest calling in internet security services.

Professional security services use their up-to-the-minute knowledge of rising trends in hacking and malware to tailor firewall protection for the current era. And, when it comes to the protection of your company and its data, why would you want anything less?

The post Simple Tips to Secure Your Corporate Firewall – Part 2 appeared first on IT Support New York | Manhattan.

In Part 1 of this look at small business servers, we discussed 3 fundamental questions that you should ask yourself before choosing a server for your small business. Now let us take a look at a few more which will help you decide on the right server for your business’s needs.

More Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Small Business Server

1. Will I back up my server regularly?

Backing up your data is certainly beneficial. This way, unexpected accidents can’t prove irrevocable for your business. However, since backing up servers is a relatively technical process, you might want to choose a server that is managed by a professional IT team. Which brings us to…

2. Will I need an in-house IT department?

Sometimes having an in-house IT team is just too expensive for small businesses to manage. If this is the case for you, choosing a server vendor that offers maintenance and support is absolutely your best bet.

Electing a server vendor that offers outsourced IT support is a truly great idea. This way you won’t incur the cost of having to maintain your own IT department. And, should you need the security of IT staff to tend to your server at your premise, the best IT services offer on-site support.

By outsourcing your IT services to your vendor supplier, you end up with a skilled IT team offering 24/7 wrap around – and you can be assured that your support is tailored to the type of server you chose to install.

3. What sort of operating system will my server require?

The type of operating system that you need for your server really depends on your needs. Depending on the amount of data requests, you might need a very capable OS. It is recommended to opt for a robust operating system in order to ensure the stability of applications and accommodate future growth.

4. Do I need multiple servers?

As a small business you might want multiple servers but not have the resources or space allowances for them. If this is the case, you can implement virtualization to create multiple servers. Using software referred to as a hypervisor, you can create multiple virtual servers out of your single physical server, which is a very popular option in the current era.

One main benefit of a hypervisor is isolation, which protects the other servers should one virtual server crash. While this route has multiple other advantages, it does require an operating system that is able to handle the burden of supporting virtual servers.

Outsourcing IT Is the Best Solution for Small Business Servers

As a small business, you want to keep things as simple and inexpensive as you possibly can. For this reason, choosing IT services to supply and manage your server makes the most sense.

Not only do you get IT services that know the finer details of the server and its maintenance, but you don’t incur the cost of having to keep an in-house IT department. With the same service for a fraction of the price, and a reliable server fulfilling all of your business’s needs, outsourcing your IT and letting your new service provider handle your server is a truly brilliant business decision.

The post Tips on Choosing the Best Small Business Server – Part 2 appeared first on IT Support New York | Manhattan.