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Anti Spam

Stop Email Threats With Superior Anti-Spam Software. Anti-spam software is a critical priority for IT security. While spam continues to be a daily annoyance, cluttering inboxes and impacting servers, it's also the source of many of the most dangerous security threats facing your organization. From spear-phishing and ransomware email scams to CEO fraud and business email compromise, [...]

Anti Virus

Anti virus software is a program or set of programs that are designed to prevent, search for, detect, and remove software viruses, and other malicious software like worms, trojans, adware, and more from your business. Why Do I Need Anti Virus Software? These tools are critical for users to have installed and up-to-date because a [...]

Business Phone System

Business VoIP Telephony Services & Solutions Today’s business phone system go beyond call processing; they are an integral part of your business communications and collaboration strategy. The latest technologies incorporate video conferencing, online collaboration, mobility and instant messaging, creating a unified communications solution. Modern systems like voice over internet protocol (VoIP) use existing internet lines, [...]

Cloud Backup

Cloud-to-cloud backup, or C2C backup, is the practice of copying data stored on one cloud backup service, to another cloud. Third-party backup has gained popularity with businesses because it takes the management and maintenance of hardware out of the equation. Initial capital expenditures (Capex) for additional hardware are not required, and overall initial costs are lower. [...]

D.I.Y | Self Setup I.T.

D.I.YSelf Setup I.T. Sometimes you just want to do it yourself instead of bringing someone in to help. We have created a course for non-technical business owners to set up the basics for their business. {{ vc_btn: title=Access+Now&style=flat&color=primary }}Why Do I Need I.T? As a business owner, there is not enough time in the day, [...]

Dark Web Monitoring

What is the Dark Web? The dark web has many different visitors, including drug traders, computer nerds, swindlers, people who fight against censorship, and regular people who simply wish to communicate with others without the government looking over their shoulder. To understand what the dark web is exactly, we need to differentiate between a few [...]

DNS Filter

DNS Filter Protect Users and Block DNS-Based Malware Activity DNS-based malware is particularly dangerous because it is often used to steal critical company and customer data, interrupt business continuity and damage brand reputation. Hackers take advantage of the underestimation of DNS services’ key role in the cyber kill chain – 91% of malware is using [...]

Firewall

A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. You can implement a firewall in either hardware or software form, or a combination of both. Firewalls prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet (the [...]

Managed Internet Services

Business Internet NBNFibreMobile Broadband Built for BusinessesEnjoy a fast and reliable connection to the broadband network trusted by more Australian businesses. Business Internet.Connection Speeds you can Rely onIn the unlikely event of a fixed internet outage, switch over to Australia’s best mobile network.Round-the-Clock SupportInternet customers have premium 24/7 Tech Support.One Bill, One AccountEfficiently access & [...]

Managed Networking

Wifi for Business Business WiFi (Managed Networking) has evolved from a nice-to-have to a critical investment in the modern office. With staff and guests increasingly using mobile devices rather than hard-wired desktops, businesses need a fast, secure and reliable WiFi signal to optimise productivity. It's one of those elements of infrastructure you just need to [...]

Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an essential part of today’s identity and access management best practices. It’s also one of the main compliance requirements for user identity verification. MFA allows you to add one more layer of protection to critical endpoints, data, and functionality. The main function of MFA is to make sure that the person [...]

Office 365

What is Office 365? Office 365 is a cloud-based suite of apps and services centered around business productivity. It includes some apps you’re probably already familiar with like Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Depending on the plan you get, subscriptions also include apps and services like: Skype for Business SharePoint OneDrive Teams Yammer Planner […]

Backup solution for small business Concerned about ransomware? concerned that you don't have sufficient back ups? you need a backup solution for your small business! Did you know that 25 percent of companies are unable to reopen after a major disaster? And in a modern hyper-connected world, a data loss qualifies a major disaster. The basic rule for business data protection is that if losing the data will interfere with doing business, back it up. Desktop software programs can be reinstalled if required, but recovering the details of transactions or business correspondence is impossible if those files are lost or damaged beyond repair. What is a Backup? In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. What is the Backup Strategy? A backup strategy, along with a disaster recovery plan, constitute the all-encompassing business continuity plan which is the blueprint for an organization to withstand a cyberattack and recover with zero-to-minimal damage to the business, reputation, and data. What is the purpose of a Backup? The purpose of the backup is to create a copy of data that can be recovered in the event of a primary data failure. Primary data failures can be the result of hardware or software failure, data corruption, or a human-caused event, such as a malicious attack (virus or malware), or accidental deletion of data. What are the 3 types of Backup? Full Backup As the name suggests, this refers to the process of copying everything that is considered important and that must not be lost. This type of backup is the first copy and generally the most reliable copy, as it can normally be made without any need for additional tools. Incremental Backup This process requires much more care to be taken over the different phases of the backup, as it involves making copies of the files by taking into account the changes made in them since the previous backup. For example, imagine you have done a full backup. Once you’ve finished, you decide that going forward you will do incremental backups, and you then create two new files. The incremental backup will detect that all the files in the full backup remain the same, and will only make backup copies of the two newly created files. As such, the incremental backup saves time and space, as there will always be fewer files to be backed up than if you were to do a full backup. We recommend that you do not try to employ this type of backup strategy using manual means. Differential backup A differential backup has the same basic structure as an incremental backup—in other words, it involves making copies only of new files or of files that underwent some kind of change. However, with this backup model, all the files created since the original full backup will always be copied again. For the same reasons as with incremental backups, we recommend that differential backups are also not carried out manually. Six ways to Backup your Data USB stick. Small, cheap and convenient, USB sticks are everywhere, and their portability means that they're easy to store safely, but also pretty easy to lose External hard drive Time Machine Network Attached Storage Cloud Storage Printing Which Backup is Best? If you're performing cloud backup, incremental backups are generally a better fit because they consume fewer resources. You might start out with a full backup in the cloud and then shift to incremental backups. Mirror backup, though, is typically more of an on-premises approach and often involves disks. How may backups should you have? The backup rule of three is a useful concept that helps with business data backup. It came to prominence as a result of photographer Peter Krogh, who used the rule to keep his photography safe. Many people consider the backup rule of three to be best practice despite its roots in photography. The concept reminds businesses how many backup files to keep and where to store them. The backup rule of three dictates that you should; Have at least three copies of your data Store the copies on at least two different media types Keep at least one of those copies offsite Three copies of data. Including your live environment, you should have at least three copies of your data in total. This means that in the event of a disaster you will always have additional versions. We’d recommend creating backup copies at least once every day. However, the more copies you can practically make, the better. Two media types. To protect against hardware failure, you should use at least two different media types. A few means of doing this include tape drives, hard drives or the cloud. It is best to ensure that you use both internal storage and a removable (or offsite) alternative. There shouldn’t be an association between the two. Therefore, should one fail, the other will be usable. One offsite copy. Keep one copy of your data offsite. Keep that copy separate from the rest of your data. This is to protect against the worst of disasters. For example, flooding may damage your entire business premises, rendering your onsite data storage inaccessible and irreparable. The backup rule of three and the cloud. The backup rule of three can be difficult to adhere to, whilst ensuring best practice. For example, removable hard drives offer an alternative media type that you can take offsite. However, it is easy to damage or lose removable hard drives. Cloud-based backup solutions can assist in these instances. These services provide a reliable, alternative media type to local storage. The cloud utilises offsite data centres, which won’t fail because of an issue within your business. This makes data centres more reliable than other methods of keeping data secure. If you want to adhere to the backup rule of three, the cloud is an effective means of doing so. How do I backup my small business data? Backup Critical Business Data There are two steps to successful data backup; Identifying the critical data that needs to be backed up Implementing backups of the data on a regular schedule What needs to be in a data backup? All of the files that you’ve created and/or modified should be regularly backed up. For many businesses, this includes everything from accounting files through to email. More and more business applications are available through the cloud. However, if you are using desktop (non-browser) applications, these can be reinstalled from media or downloaded, so don’t need to be backed up. Cloud Storage Using online backup services makes backing up your data easy - which is just one of the reasons cloud computing is ideal for small businesses. But cloud services can still be vulnerable to data loss via hacking or employee sabotage. It is not a bad idea to take occasional local backups of cloud data. Local Data Backups If you save your data locally (e.g. you are not using cloud storage) you can simplify your backups by keeping all the files that will need to be archived on a single drive on your computer. For instance, suppose you need to back up accounting files, word-processing documents, spreadsheets, photos, and email. Putting Simply Accounting, Microsoft Office (including Outlook) and Paintshop Pro all on a separate drive or under a separate folder makes it easier to archive all the files you've created or modified using those programs. All you have to do is back up the drive or folder. Once you've selected the critical data to be archived, it's a simple matter to install and use a backup software program to archive your business data on a regular schedule. Backing up your data nightly is recommended. There are many backup software programs available that allow you to set a schedule that will automatically backup your data. Backup software that also zips and encrypts files saves disk space and increases data security. Only keep your data backups on-site if they are stored in a fire-proof, indestructible safe. Investing in a tape drive or external hard drive and meticulously adhering to a regular data backup schedule won't help if all your data backup copies are in one place and that place is struck by disaster. To be truly secure your backups should be stored off-site. (Cloud backup does not totally eliminate this concern but is certainly better than many physical locations.) What should be included in a backup policy? A backup policy sets forth the importance of data and system backups, defines the ground rules for planning, executing and validating backups and includes specific activities to ensure that critical data is backed up to secure storage media located in a secure location. This ensures that information from business applications such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL, email server databases and user files is copied to disk and/or tape to ensure data recoverability in the event of accidental data deletion, corrupted information or a system disruption. The policy's default protection scheme ensures the recoverability of servers, network components and other infrastructure devices, as well as critical applications, databases and important files. For example, a default backup policy for all application data might be a nightly backup to tape from Monday through Friday. In this case, one set of tapes is kept on site to facilitate local recovery and a second, duplicated set is sent off site for storage in a secure location. Critical business data might be further protected by policies that specify more dynamic backup activities. These might specify that, in addition to nightly tape backups, point-in-time snapshots of data should be taken and replicated at frequent intervals during the business day to provide rapid, granular data and application recoverability. This is essential for disaster recovery, business continuity and information security. Backup policies should also include the recovery point objective (RPO) metric that defines how long data should be stored -- e.g., aged -- before it must be backed up again. RPO values -- usually a time frame such as seconds or minutes -- are defined by business system and data owners and might be reviewed and approved by senior management. The shorter the time backed-up data is stored before it's needed for a recovery situation, the greater the cost of backup and storage. For example, a very short RPO, such as 10 to 30 seconds, means that mission-critical data -- and computer systems, VMs and other resources -- must be frequently backed up, most often in real time. This means technologies such as data mirroring and/or replication, suitable storage resources and high-speed low-latency network resources must be used to achieve RPO goals. In general, a backup policy baseline process specifies capturing an initial full backup of data onto disk and/or tape, followed by a series of intervening incremental or differential daily backups. Regardless of which method is used, at a minimum, two backup copies should be maintained: one to enable on-site recovery and a second copy for vaulting to a secure off-site facility. That way, if the data center were destroyed by a flood, fire or some other disaster, the off-site copies become the recovery resources for returning to business as usual. Back It Up or Risk Losing It Don't run the risk of losing your business data. The best defense against such a disaster is proper data protection. By creating a backup system that includes archiving and backing up your business data regularly and properly, you'll ensure that your business will be able to weather whatever storm it faces and carry on. Remember - you can never have too many data backups! Conclusion If you have some concerns or need some assistance with your backup solution for small business, please give us a call today and we can help you from suffering a disaster at your small business.

On Premise Backup Solution

We The IT Team - On Premise Backup Solution Keeping your business data backed up is one of the most important parts of any business continuity plan. Data loss means downtime, costs recreating lost files, and for some companies, it can mean the end of their business if they don’t have a file backup as [...]

Patching & Maintenance

What is Patching in Computer Maintenance? Patching & Maintenance compromises of 2 separate parts, 1 being a Patch and the other, maintenance. of A patch is a set of changes to a computer program or its supporting data designed to update, fix, or improve it. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, with such patches usually being called bug fixes or bug fixes. Patches are often […]

SaaS Backup

What is SaaS Backup? SaaS backup software is a technology designed to store and protect data created by SaaS products. SaaS products are any software licensed out and delivered via the cloud rather than installed on-premises. SaaS backup software stores this data either elsewhere on the cloud or on-premises so that if the SaaS products [...]