Year: 2021

The risks of a hard drive crash are similar to any other type of hardware failure. If your drive is used for storing data, it can lead to data loss. If you’re not using a quality backup and disaster recovery solution, you can bet that it’ll be difficult, if not impossible, to restore your infrastructure to its former glory. Frequent Computer Crashes If there’s anything you’ve learned from reading our newsletter, it should be that computer crashes are never a good sign of anything. Ever. The reason it crashes is because it’s incapable of locating or accessing important files that are crucial to the operation of the system, and it’s a clear sign that something is not right with your machine. Disappearing Data Another sign that your hard drive is failing is that data isn’t where it’s supposed to be. You’ll probably notice this when you try to access a mission-critical application, but the software can’t load because a file is missing or some other complication. Unless someone is behind the scenes messing with the location of data, your hard drive is probably just about done. Out-of-the-Ordinary Noises You know there’s something wrong when you hear strange grinding noises coming from your hard drive, but really, if anything at all sounds out of the ordinary, you probably have a big problem on your hands. If you start hearing noises coming from your hard drive that aren’t normal, you should shut down your PC and contact a professional for further consultation. These typically sound like a clicking noise coming from inside your PC. The last thing you want is your hard drive crashing on you while you’re in the middle of an important project. Your Computer Doesn’t Recognize the Drive If your PC doesn’t acknowledge the hard drive, it’s a clear sign that there’s something wrong. You can test whether this is an issue with the hard drive by testing it in another PC, but you should do so only if there’s a professional on-hand to guide you through the process. Painfully Slow Processing Speed If it takes your PC ages to open a basic folder or file, this means that it’s having trouble locating and accessing it. Basically, if there’s ever a problem opening files, you can assume that there’s something wrong with the hard drive. The idea behind these tips is to identify problems with your technology before they cause irreparable damage to your systems and, more importantly, your business. Unexpected problems can cause downtime, which is one expense your organization can’t afford to deal with. By taking these proactive approaches, you can make sure you spot a problem before it harms your business’s productivity. What SRS Networks offers is a more comprehensive and equally proactive solution called our remote maintenance and monitoring solution. We are able to monitor your network and detect hard drive issues before the drive actually gives you any signs. Most of the time, through special logs that we monitor, we can step in and save your data before the drive fails on you. Give us a call at (831) 758-3636 to learn more.

The problem for these businesses is that every cent they spend on managing physical technology won’t necessarily produce much of a return on their substantial investments as they need to actively maintain the technology in order for it to work properly. This has left many companies hemorrhaging money by just trying to compete. If your business is still hosting all of its own IT infrastructure, it may be time for you to consider moving your IT out of your office. While hosting your own IT has its benefits, for the small or medium-sized business it may bring more expense than it’s worth. In moving your IT infrastructure to the cloud or to a colocated data center, you may see a dramatic cost savings, or at the very least a shift in way your organization pays for its crucial IT systems. The cloud, in particular, offers many SMBs a very attractive value proposition: Receive a scalable IT infrastructure, hosted in a secure data center, with proactive maintenance, billed monthly as an operational cost. For some SMBs it may not make sense to move your entire IT infrastructure to the cloud. In fact, some organizations, just like the idea that they are in complete control of their IT, or more specifically, their data. If your organization needs to adhere to often-complicated IT regulations, or if you just want the freedom to have control over your company’s IT management, you still don’t have to host your computing infrastructure on your premises. By purchasing server space in a colocation facility, you can set up a private cloud platform that provides your business with all the benefits of cloud computing (like cost savings) without having to relinquish complete control over your crucial IT systems. The professional IT consultants at SRS Networks can assess your situation and find a solution that works for your needs. We have a complete technical understanding of cloud computing systems, and how they fit into a SMB’s IT strategy. Our technicians can also assist your company in the proliferation of new computing systems to provide your organization with powerful functions such as communications (like VoIP and email), productivity application deployment, and even cloud-based security solutions. It’s hard to ignore the benefits that moving all or some of your company’s computing infrastructure to the cloud can bring. For an organization that is looking to free up capital, or simply to increase mobility, cloud computing can be of real benefit. Call us today at (831) 758-3636 to learn more about how moving your IT out of your office can really benefit your company.

If you’ve taken proper precautions to ensure your former employees can’t sabotage your network and steal your data, you’re golden. However, this simply isn’t the case with a lot of companies, mainly because they don’t count on their former coworkers backstabbing them. This isn’t the entire issue at hand. Even if a former employee doesn’t intentionally take data from your business upon resignation, they could get hacked in the future, leaving sensitive data exposed. The best way to avoid employees walking off with corporate data is to take proper precautions, starting before they walk out your door. Perform an Exit Interview Besides getting the opportunity to discuss why they’re leaving the company, conducting an exit interview is a good time to iron out details that shouldn’t be left unchecked. This is a good time to talk about what accounts the exiting employee has access to, what devices they’ve borrowed from the company, important documents they might possess, and how to get in touch with them after they leave. Take Back Any Company-Provided Devices Once you’ve identified that your employee is indeed leaving the organization, you need to collect the devices they’ve borrowed from the company, like laptops, mobile devices, and storage devices like USBs or hard drives. This helps to ensure that you don’t let corporate data slip through the cracks. Collecting these devices ensures that you’re the one in control of your data, which mitigates the chance of the data being compromised, both voluntarily and involuntarily. Promptly Change Email Passwords and Remote Access Accounts For obvious reasons, you need to revoke access to their email accounts. This helps to prevent them from accessing information that they shouldn’t have access to following their departure from your company. Change All Relevant Passwords You never know just how many passwords an employee might walk out of your company with, especially if they’re saved in their personal mobile device’s browser cache or they use a password manager. This is why it’s important to make sure that all passwords are changed. If an employee were to get hacked, or decide that they don’t agree with their dismissal from your organization, it could put your data at risk of being compromised. Wipe Mobile Devices If your network can dish out security policies to mobile devices that gain access to company email, you will want to make sure you remotely wipe your accounts. This is something you would have needed to set up prior, but it prevents the user from walking away with their email in their pocket. Even if your former employee isn’t a threat, if the device is lost or stolen it could come back to bite you. Warn Your IT As always, you need to keep IT in the loop so they can keep an eye out for any suspicious activity concerning the former employee. In fact, your IT team should be entirely involved in the exit process to ensure that no stones are left unturned. Overall, most of these steps are fairly obvious, but some businesses fail to follow through with them for a number of reasons. Some don’t have the resources, while others might simply forget one or two key steps when letting an employee go. Whatever your reason, SRS Networks can assist your team by providing the handiwork necessary to […]

According to Processor magazine, a solid 30 percent of all powered-on servers aren’t working to their maximum potential. In fact, support servers average only about a 12 to 18 percent utilization rate. This means that there are a ton of servers out there that are costing businesses money on unnecessary expenses. It’s basically like wasted money, especially when you consider that many businesses use several dedicated servers for email, file hosting, and more. The reasoning behind this is that the servers can function independently from one-another, but the reality of the situation is that servers use a ton of energy; energy that’s wasted if not taken advantage of properly. The Benefits There are many benefits to consolidating your server infrastructure. Performing a close analysis of your organization’s server infrastructure is imperative to cutting unnecessary costs and optimizing your bottom line. Here are some of the great ways your company can benefit from elimination of underutilized or unused servers. Dramatic decrease in energy costs. With less machines online at all times, you can save money on operational costs, maintenance, and energy. Servers eat up a ton of electricity, so it’s natural that you do whatever you can to limit how much you use. Furthermore, maintenance is significantly less expensive if you only have one machine that needs updating, rather than four. Simplified computing infrastructure. Instead of having all of your technology spread across multiple pieces of hardware, you only need a minimal number of machines operating at all times. This makes it much easier to maintain and manage all of your mission-critical technology from one central location. More physical space for activities and other technology. Regardless of how many servers you’re able to eliminate, you’ll be saving valuable space that can be used for other, more productive things. For instance, you can use the freed space for storage. You’ll finally be able to get rid of that fax machine that’s been collecting dust on your desk. If you’re unsure how many of your servers are underutilized, or if you need help identifying where you can shave off some IT costs, SRS Networks can perform an obligation-free IT network assessment, where we take into account all aspects of your infrastructure; servers included. Furthermore, we can help your organization cut down on costs by taking advantage of virtual servers. When you virtualize a server, you’re eliminating the costs of running an additional physical machine, allowing one piece of hardware to perform the tasks of many. This lets you reap the benefits of multiple servers while only worrying about handling one of them. For more information on how we can help your organization transcend the limitations of hardware and optimize operations, give us a call at (831) 758-3636.

Better yet, it’s super easy to setup multi-factor authentication of your Office 365 account, and all accounts associated with your company. Follow these steps and you’ll be done before you know it. First, you’ll want to log into the Office 365 Portal with your administrator credentials. Then, click on the users and groups tab. From here, go to the Setup link, located to the right of Set Multi-factor authentication requirements. This will show a display featuring all of the usernames associated with your Office 365 account. Select the box to the left of the user that you’ll be applying multi-factor authentication to. Then, go to the information box to the right of the user and select Enable, located under quick steps. A box should open called About enabling multi-factor auth. Make sure you check out these links if you need more information concerning multi-factor authentication. When you’re ready to proceed, all you have to do is click enable multi-factor auth. Office 365 will inform you that your settings have been applied. You can click close to end the process. Now that you’ve finished the setup process for multi-factor authentication in the administrator settings, users will be asked to make certain changes to their accounts the next time they log in. After the initial login process, a user will need to verify their identity and set up multi-factor authentication on the user-end. The user will be required to select which MFA method they prefer, like their mobile phone number, so they can receive a call or SMS messages from Microsoft. After entering the preferred phone number, click verify. Next, Microsoft will contact your phone with a unique code that you will enter in order to verify the number. Depending on if you’re using a browser-based MFA setup, you may be asked to change your password too (it’s a best practice to regularly adopt new passwords). After creating and implementing a new password, multi-factor authentication will be set up for all the Office 365 accounts that you desire to have an extra layer of protection for. For more information about multi-factor authentication, and how you can take advantage of similar services for all of your online accounts, give SRS Networks a call at (831) 758-3636.

The Next Generation of Wireless Communications When we say 4G, we’re talking about the fourth generation of wireless technology solutions. Thus, the first generation of wireless technologies, 1G, would be the primitive cell phones from the 1980s, and each generation sees an increase in the power and mobility of wireless devices. 2G was a step up from 1G, making all transmissions digital rather than through analog, 3G was a further improvement to the wireless transfer of data, and 4G is the current technology. We’ll give you three guesses as to what comes next. You’ll be happy to hear that 5G will probably be the next step in enhancing wireless communications. However, it’s not necessarily “here” yet; in fact, it’s likely 5G won’t arrive for at least five years from now. The reasoning is that it’s not entirely clear at the moment how this type of wireless technology can be effectively delivered to the mobile device users of the world. Processor magazine says that researchers are looking into “what technical advances can achieve goals like minimum 100Mbps data rates, 45 b/s/Hz [bits per second per Hertz] spectral efficiency, 100Tbps per square kilometer density.” In other words, when we do actually get 5G, we can expect it to be pretty fast. The Next Generation of WiFi With so many new devices connecting to the Internet, it’s natural that networks grow more powerful to accommodate the increase in traffic. One standard that will see some improvement is the Wave 2 802.11ac, which is designed to handle multiple devices at the same time. It’s thought that this will become the most accessible type of connection available in the near future. In the next two years or so, we should expect to see improvements in the way wireless networks deliver quality service to users. As reported by Processor: Peter Crocker, founder and principal analyst at Smith’s Point Analytics, says “the reality is that Wi-Fi will be part of 5G, and it’s going to bring together a bunch of different transport technologies from Bluetooth to Wi-Fi to LTE and 3G, making all these things work together.” Regardless of how and why wireless technology is created, there’s no doubt that it’s shaping the way that the modern business functions. If you’re ready to take advantage of the numerous benefits that mobile technology can provide for your business, contact SRS Networks. We’ll assess your current wireless networks and identify points where you can improve its functionality. Give us a call at (831) 758-3636 to learn more.

David Gewirtz of ZDNet performed what he calls a “thought experiment” to determine what would happen if a cyber war were to knock the United States back to the proverbial “Stone Age,” a term he uses to describe the era of computing that directly precedes the Information Age: when computing wasn’t commonplace or central to our everyday lives. One scenario Gewirtz explores is the possibility of the Stuxnet virus (an extremely complex virus that targets nuclear reactors) being exploited against the United States, alongside several other digital attacks that are designed to weaken the infrastructure. Since some systems rely on older technology, flaws in security can be found and exploited relatively easy if they’re being looked for. Furthermore, the United States’ reliance on electronic payments means that an attack on financial systems could potentially leave it in disarray. However, most scenarios that were considered came to the conclusion that within a few days, normal life would once again commence; primarily because of the assumption that society would “regroup, rebuild, and recover.” Then, Gewirtz takes a darker approach by assuming that the prior statement simply doesn’t happen. These scenarios rely on the assumption that the government’s carefully laid out plans also fall through, and are compromised by hackers. While these might be some dramatic events, Gewirtz urges the reader to “remember that this is a thought experiment, and that clever enemies are capable of playing a long game.” For instance, what would happen if hackers used the files stolen from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which was breached recently, to infiltrate the government, implant threat actors, and fake information within the system to suit their needs? With personal information, including fingerprint records, at their disposal, hackers would have everything they need to take down systems that everyday society requires to function; all from the inside. With so many vital points hit at once, it’s safe to say that the financial systems and communications infrastructure would be among the first to go down. Without electronic transactions, businesses wouldn’t be able to run. This would be exacerbated by a lack of communications. Since most people don’t use landlines, and instead are opting for mobile phones or simple Internet communications, it’d be difficult for anyone to contact one another without waiting several days for messages. In Gewirtz’s own words: Without financial support and communications, our supply chains would be toast. Goods and services would no longer move across the country. There would be mobs storming supermarkets, hardware stores, and gun shops. Gasoline for vehicles would run out in a matter of days. National government would cease to function. Instead, the primary governance touch points would be some responsible local law enforcement officers. More likely, we would see feudal governance take hold, where those with the most firepower, survival resources, and physical strength would take power. The end result would probably be what would be akin to a technology age of around World War II, though for several reasons, Gewirtz states that society would regress further than that. His reasoning is that society is more structured around technology than it was in the past. Even amidst war, nations were able to communicate with each other because of this sound structure. Would today’s society be able to hold up to these standards? Probably not, simply […]

We’re not here to chastise Ashley Madison users, we’re sure their spouses are already doing a fine enough job of that. Instead, we want to explain that every Internet user needs to hold themselves accountable for their online actions, like web browsing. If you’re not taking careful steps to keep your identity anonymous while online, you could face serious consequences. For starters, you should never assume that any one site is invulnerable to hacking attacks. Just last June, even the United States federal government was hacked and the confidential records of 4 million employees were compromised. No single site is capable of warding off all attackers, especially sites which exhibit a high profile. Essentially, if a skilled hacker wants to find out what you’ve been doing on the Internet, they’ll probably be able to do so. Although, if you take measures to prevent hackers from tracking your online endeavors, you can minimize the chances that they’ll uncover dirt on you. Granted, you may not have anything to hide, but it’s still important that you keep as much sensitive information hidden as possible. You never know who might be watching. Here are five ways you can minimize how much of your sensitive information can be found online: Clear Your Browsing History Clearing your browsing history is often perceived as a sign of sketchy browsing activity, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Did you know that deleting your browser’s history is one way to keep hackers from finding your frequently-visited online accounts if your PC were ever to be hacked? Bonus Tip: Many web browsers allow you to have private browsing sessions that don’t store your history locally, like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Edge. Just keep in mind that your history can still be seen by your Internet Service Provider. Don’t Use Your Real Name Easily one of the best ways to keep your online activity from biting back is by not using your real name. This is easier said than done. Although, many websites like Facebook require real names in order to keep people accountable for what they post. Whenever you can conceal your real name, be sure to do so. Don’t Use Personal Photos For much the same reason why you don’t want to use your real name, you should avoid using personal photos. This is especially true if you don’t want an account to be traced back to you. Be sure to post a generic image of interest, rather than your kids, house, car, or other personal photos. Protect Your Credit Card Information If a hacker is able to capture your credit card information, they may also be able to access to your purchase history. This can be problematic if you’ve purchased something that’s better kept to yourself. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are an anonymous way to shop online, but not all online accounts will accept them. Therefore, using prepaid credit cards that can’t be traced back to you is always a secure online shopping strategy. Don’t Use Your Personal Email Account Finally, using your personal email to sign up for accounts online can not only be risky, but it can also be annoying when you have an inbox full of spam. Prevent this by creating a “burner” email account from a free online […]

One of the best ways your business can approach mobile devices is by consulting SRS Networks’s technology experts. We can work with you to build the ideal Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) solution, designed to protect your business and approach mobile devices in an organized, secure way. In fact, with the cloud increasing access to data and mission-critical applications, it’s no wonder that businesses are skeptical of this yet-emerging technology, despite the incredible advantages it brings to the table. The largest reason that businesses invest in a cloud IT solution is to make their company’s resources more accessible for their entire organization, from approved devices that adhere to a BYOD policy. This means that your end-users can access documents and files from any of their mobile devices, including laptops, smartphones, tablets, and more. With all of these devices capable of accessing information both in and out of the workplace, it’s reasonable to treat the BYOD trend with a level of skepticism. Take, for example, the average virus infection. An employee visits a site on their smartphone, which infects their device with a virus or some sort of spyware. If this device connects to your network, this infection can become much more widespread. This kind of risk to your network’s integrity is a worst-case scenario, but is completely avoidable under the right circumstances. The best way to protect your network and its cloud infrastructure is to make security a priority for your BYOD policy. A good mobile device management solution should be capable of limiting certain applications’ access to confidential information. It helps if you’re able to blacklist certain apps from accessing your data, and whitelist approved apps that can do so without risking the integrity of your network. This should be done, especially if you’re the one providing your team with mobile devices. The basics will be better than nothing, but to truly optimize your network’s security from the BYOD menace, you need to integrate a much more comprehensive security solution. By limiting access to data based on user permissions, you’ll be more likely to minimize data leakage and keep your network relatively free of potential threats. Give SRS Networks a call at (831) 758-3636 to learn more about how you can protect your network.