CCleaner Hack
Some of the more technical readers of this blog might have heard that the popular CCleaner application by Avast has had malware running within it since August. That means anyone who downloaded a version of CCleaner in August or September might want to check to see if you are vulnerable. If you are a Thrive customer we will be checking you automatically.
Do You Have DR Plan?
Disaster Recovery plans are important no matter the time of year. Depending on your business having a weekly backup offsite may be sufficient, conversely you may have a business that need the crucial data offsite every few minutes. Regardless of your situation you need to have a facility where your data can be recovered should your main office be inaccessible.
In one of the latest builds of Windows 10 (16232) Microsoft is trying to fight back against cyber-criminals with a few new features to their Windows Defender Anti-Virus. Microsoft has introduced Exploit Protection, Application Guard, and Controlled Folder Access.
Were you part of the Equifax Breach?Most likely you are part of the breach. If you were not, then I would still recommend reading this, as you are probably part of another breach.
Equifax has your Social Security Numbers, Birth date, current and past addresses, credit card numbers, and some drivers license numbers.
If this sounds bad, it really is.
What should I do?
Are you Prepared for a Disaster?
As I write this blog post a hurricane is bearing down on Florida and Texas has been flooded out by another. I wanted to write a security piece about the new Apache Struts vulnerability, but I keep getting distracted by news of gas shortages in Florida and traffic jams of people evacuating the state. And by most standards Florida has one of the best evacuation plans of any state. As I plan to review Thrive’s disaster preparedness plan, I realize no matter how well I plan something, it just won’t go smoothly when things go wrong. Though we always hope no disaster will strike, it is prudent to plan for it. So here are a few items you should be thinking about for your own business, as we hope and pray for the safety of our fellow American’s this week.
How IT Support Can Help Your Business?
With more businesses deploying different types of technology to increase productivity, it can become a monumental challenge to stay current with every new IT process that requires support. If you are struggling to keep up with the next generation IT services, the good news is that there are professional IT support services available that can help you relieve the burden of trying to stay on top of every aspect of your IT infrastructure.
Username and Passwords are No Longer Good Enough
Logging into most systems requires two things, a username, and a password. If you know that information than you most likely have what is needed to gain access. The issue with using only a username and password is that once you or someone that you do not know has knowledge of your credentials they can access the system, whatever it may be.
For many years it has been recommended that in addition to a username and password another form of authentication be used to prove that you should be allowed to gain access. This second authentication mechanism is referred to as Two-Factor Authentication (TFA). You may also hear it called Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) or a One Time Password.
Private Cloud’s New Big Player
We all know that cloud is a huge part of IT today and it is always changing. There are many options to consider such as public or private cloud? Private cloud is about to get its new biggest player. Gartner forecasts that public cloud spending will increase 18% in 2017 and odds are you know that Microsoft Azure is a big player in the public cloud. Microsoft has been making a large push to grow its hosting business with great success. A different style of public cloud is to turn to a trusted local provider that can supply the same functions but in a more customizable solution tailored to the individual customer. To this end, Microsoft recently introduced Azure Stack.
Let’s talk about monitoring, which is just ahead of patching in its ability to put someone to sleep in under 10 seconds. Both of these give you the most bang for your buck in terms of uptime and security, so you should pay attention. Don’t worry, I have kept this article mercifully short.
Thrive Ranked America’s Fastest-Growing
Inc. Magazine Unveils 36th Annual List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies—the Inc. 5000
Inc. magazine today ranked Thrive NO. 3413 on its 36th annual Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment— its independent small and midsized businesses. Companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Domino’s Pizza, Pandora, Timberland, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zillow, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees of the Inc. 5000.