Business Blog

Make Your Home a Haven for Online Safety

9/27/2018

Cyber Safety Starts at Home!

With everyone in the family using the internet to engage in social media, adjust the home thermostat or shop for the latest connected toy, it is vital to make certain that the entire household — including children and older adults — learn to use the internet safely and responsibility.

Help make your home a safe digital haven by protecting networks, devices and online lives with these tips:

KEEP A CLEAN MACHINE

Having the latest security software, web browser and operating system is the best defense against viruses, malware and other online threats. Remember, mobile phones and tablets need updating too!

LOCK DOWN YOUR LOGIN

Usernames and passwords are not enough to protect key accounts like email, bank and social media. Improve account security by enabling strong authentication tools such as biometrics or unique one-time codes.

SHARE WITH CARE

Think before posting about yourself and others online. Consider what a post reveals, who might see it and how it could be perceived now and in the future.

BACK IT UP

Protect your valuable work, music, photos and other digital information by making an electronic copy and storing it safely.

PERSONAL INFORMATION IS LIKE MONEY. VALUE IT. PROTECT IT.

Information about you, such as your purchase history or location, has value – just like money. Be thoughtful about who gets that information and how it’s collected through apps and websites.

SECURE YOUR ROUTER

Set a strong passphrase (at least 12 characters long) for your Wi-Fi network. Focus on positive sentences or phrases that you like to think about and are easy to remember (for example, “I love country music.”). Name your network in a way that doesn’t let people know it’s your house.

LEARN MORE ABOUT NCSAM AND STAYING SAFE ONLINE AT STAYSAFEONLINE.ORG/NCSAM

**This blog information was brought to you by The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) in honor of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM).

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How To Own Your Online Presence In 4 Simple Steps

1/17/2018

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As part of our #PrivacyAware series we want to talk about the well-being of your online presence and how it affects your privacy. The things you do online make an impact offline. Create a strong and positive reputation for yourself by following these simple steps:

Share With Care - Think before posting about yourself and others online. Consider what a post reveals, who might see it and how it could be perceived now and in the future. This becomes especially important when it comes to your business's online reputation.
Be Aware of What's Being Shared - Set the privacy and security settings on web services and devices to your comfort level for information sharing. It's OK to limit how and with who you share information.
Apply The Golden Rule Online - Post only about others as you have them post about you.
Personal info is like money. Value it. Protect it. - Information about you, such as your purchase history or location, has value--just like money. Be thoughtful about who gets that information and how it's collected through apps and websites.

We love hearing from our readers and followers, join us online as we will be continuing the conversation on privacy and information security in honor of Data Privacy Day on January 28.

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5 Ways to Help Employees be #PrivacyAware

1/3/2018

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We're #PrivacyAware - are you?

Here are 5 ways you can teach your employees to be #PrivacyAware:

Challenge your employees to think critically about privacy, and make it a fun competition: Ask each employee or department to take the Data Privacy Day theme, “respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust,” and articulate how the theme applies to the work they do on a daily basis, regardless of their department. Brainstorm ideas for operationalizing the Data Privacy Day principles.
Foster ongoing learning and engagement: Help employees stay up to date on safe privacy practices at home too by encouraging them to sign up for the National Cyber Security Alliance’s (NCSA’s) monthly family newsletter, #CyberAware. NCSA does not share our contact lists (period). http://dprivacyd.info/dpdnews
Create a #PrivacyAware culture: Post messages about privacy around the office or on internal message boards or use other available communication platforms now through Jan. 28. To get started, take a look at these posts and memes: dprivacyd.info/1cEPcj7
Energize privacy awareness with young people: Teaching about privacy increases one’s own privacy awareness. Organize a company-wide volunteer day with local schools to teach students about privacy and online safety. You can use these free teaching materials and lesson plans from C-SAVE: http://dprivacyd.info/teachpriv
Talk to employees frequently about what privacy means to your organization and the role they have in making sure privacy is achieved and maintained. Organize a “lunch & learn” – possibly with outside speakers in January – to educate employees about the value and impact of protecting customer and colleague information and their role in keeping it safe. Videos and other resources to help you start the conversation can be found here: dprivacyd.info/privlibrary

Download a copy of 5 Ways to Help Employees be #PrivacyAware Tip Sheet!

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How To Build In Advanced Data Protection At Every Level Of Your IT

9/20/2017

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Welcome to Day 1 of our Safeguarding Your Business Series. This series will cover four areas: data protection, data backup, restoring operations, and reducing risk. Today's topic will be addressing data backup. Let's get started.

Did you know that 58% of small businesses say customers' trust in their organization would suffer substantial damage if there was a security breach?

One major concern for a lot of businesses we talk to today is data protection, especially with constantly evolving security threats, like cyber-attacks and high profile data theft. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

What would you say is the biggest IT security concern in your organization?
How do you protect sensitive data on employee' mobile devices?
Do you use any cloud services for email or other applications?
How does your business protect against covert security breaches?

With several areas to consider, it can be overwhelming on how to address them all. Let's define your path to success and show you how.

Get advanced data protection built-in at every level of your IT.

We provide solutions that offer enterprise-grade protection built-in across all your technology, so it’s affordable and you don’t have to think about it. Across applications, mobile devices, and cloud services, advanced security is just there.

Easier security for PCs & devices

You can help protect data on your Windows 10 devices with built-in Bitlocker encryption and Windows Hello facial and fingerprint recognition and Two-factor Authentication for added protection.

Automatic threat protection, PC to cloud

With cloud services like Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure you’re getting up-to-date anti-malware protection and 24x7 incident response. Get built-in threat protection on PCs and devices with Windows Defender. You can detect and alert security breaches early using behavioral analysis using Advanced Threat Analytics Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS)

Built-in mobile data protection

Take your Windows mobile device to and from work and know sensitive data is protected with built-in encryption capabilities like Enterprise Data Protection and BitLocker.

Protection that follows your data

Track sensitive data you send in email and selectively prevent actions like editing, copying, or printing with Azure Rights Management in EMS.

One of the quickest and easiest ways to start protecting your data is with Office 365. Claim your 30 day trial by contacting us today! Call us at 719-433-7722 or send an email to Microsoft@technowledge.com.

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3 Steps To Easily & Affordably Backup Your Data

9/20/2017

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Welcome to Day 2 of our Safeguarding Your Business Series. Today will be discussing how to easily and affordably backup your data.

How long would it take to get your business back online after a fire, flood, or break-in?

Do you ever wonder how to make sure everything is backed up without spending a fortune. Well you came to the right place. Let us show you how.

We offer cloud-based solutions that make it easy to have confidence everything is backed up, from employees’ files to business applications. Leveraging the cloud means it’s easy to scale and you don’t have to invest in backup servers and media.

Always have access to your latest files - You can get scalable, cost-effective backup in the cloud, with the ability to restore quickly, and up to 99 years of data retention for legal compliance with Azure Backup.

Easily back up business applications - When you use OneDrive for Business in Office 365, it’s easy to keep your files synchronized across your devices and access them anywhere, anytime, both online and offline.

Protect your database - For your database, you can get automated SQL Server backups to Azure, with the ability to encrypt backup files. And you can restore your database to the cloud if needed.”

Do you currently backup on-premises? It’s important to consider the safety of your backup drives and where they are stored. If an unexpected event, like fire or break-in occurs on-premises, your backups could be at risk. Another great benefit is cost-savings. Cloud back-up provides a cost-effective option because you don’t have to buy server hardware or storage media. It scales as need and you pay for what you use. If you’re using a cloud backup solution, consider that Microsoft Azure Backup includes a free, built-in backup agent, up to 99 years of data retention, and point-in-time restore with up to 366 restore points, encryption where the key sits with you on-premises, geo-replication as well as replication across three separate clusters in the single data center. On top of that, with Azure Backup you don’t pay for bandwidth.

Schedule your consultation today to discuss strategies for your data backup plan.

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