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Coleman Technologies Blog

Coleman Technologies Blog

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8 Data Backup Terms You Should Know

The Types of Backup
Here are four of the most common types of backup that you can expect to see in an office environment:

  • Full backup: This type of backup makes a copy of all selected files in their entirety. Most backup solutions will have to initially go through this process, and since this is such an intensive process, it will take longer than other data backup types. If this is your preferred method of backup, it will likely have to be done after-hours, as it takes a long time and could tie up processes that are needed during the workday.
  • Differential backup: This type of backup only backs up changes made to the data. This allows for faster backups, but the process of recovery is much slower.
  • Incremental backup: This type of backup is much like a differential backup, with the main difference being that an incremental backup will always back up the data regardless of if a full backup was completed or not.
  • Mirror backup: A mirror backup makes a real-time duplicate of the source and backs it up. This creates complete redundancy, but it also comes with various issues. For example, if the material is deleted by mistake, the mirror will also be deleted. This reason alone dissuades IT technicians from using mirror backups as a viable solution for their backup needs.

Now that the types of data backup have been explained, we’ll go over some of the backup-related terms you might want to know.

  • Business continuity: A business continuity plan is designed to help your business get back in proper functioning order if you’re ever hit by an unfortunate situation. All organizations need to have a business continuity plan in place.
  • Disaster recovery: Disaster recovery is specifically there in the event your business suffers from a disaster involving data loss. This includes cyberattacks, sabotage, user error, and even weather-based disasters that destroy infrastructure.
  • Recovery Point Objective (RPO): RPO is a benchmark that represents which data will be recovered by your business if it wants to get back to normal business operations following a disaster.
  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO): RTO is a benchmark that represents the time needed for your business’ data to be restored. Minimizing this number is critical to keep downtime as low as possible.

Coleman Technologies can help your business by equipping it with a comprehensive data backup and disaster recovery system. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

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Tip of the Week: Using Templates in Evernote

What Are Templates?
Evernote’s templates are handy, pre-built structures for notes that provide users with a simpler means of organizing specific types of information. Instead of taking time struggling with your formatting each time you start a new note, you can apply one of the templates that Evernote offers on their website. Those with a subscription to Evernote Plus, Premium, or Business can even use formatting they’ve created in past notes to generate their own templates for repeated use.

Applying Templates in Evernote
Once you’ve acquired a few templates, either from the Evernote website’s collection or from a past note, applying one of your choosing is relatively simple.

  • In Evernote, start a new note.
  • In the body of the note, click Templates to view the ones you have saved.
  • From there, you can search for any templates you have, delete ones you no longer want or need, edit their names, and of course, apply them to notes.
  • If you want to edit a template, follow the same process, and once you’ve made the changes that you want, save it as a new template. Note: only those with Plus, Premium, or Business accounts are able to do this.
  • Plus, Premium, and Business users are also able to create their own templates this way.

So, what do you think? Is this a welcome change to Evernote? What other improvements would you like to see them make down the line? Let us know in the comments!

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What Do You Know About the Microchips That Power Your Technology?

Generally speaking, microchips in computers are made out of a variety of materials, but the most common is silicon. These microchips are responsible for acting as semiconductors and give your devices the ability to perform various tasks. We’ll get into the details about a couple of them here.

Memory
One of the more notable uses of microchips in devices includes temporarily storing data. These kinds of chips have a familiar name that you’ve probably heard before--Random Access Memory, or RAM. As long as the chip is receiving power, it can store data on the device. Once the device is turned off and the chips are no longer receiving power, this temporary data is wiped. Depending on what the device is used for, the computer might have many RAM chips installed on it; otherwise, the device will be slowed down considerably by resource-intensive tasks.

Microprocessors
Microprocessors have a lot to do with your device’s CPU, or central processing unit. You’ll often hear the comparison of a CPU to the brain of the human body. The CPU is responsible for processing all of the programmable commands on the device. Microprocessors generally rely on logic to function as intended. Of course, depending on the kind of device, various strength microprocessors will need to be used, as the same kind of microprocessor won’t work for every single kind of device out there.

Other Kinds of Chips
Depending on the device used, you might find various device-specific chips in use. For example, some devices that have cameras might have chips specifically designed for use with video recording or picture taking. Others that have networking abilities might have chips designed for use with those. Basically, chips are responsible for both the everyday functionality of your devices, as well as some of the specific, more advanced features that not everyone will be using.

For more information about technology or devices, stay subscribed to our blog.

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How to Get the Best Wireless Connections in Your Office

What Do You Expect from Your Wi-Fi?
Many businesses have a tendency to either deal with their Wi-Fi as-is or will haphazardly add new networking components to their infrastructure as needed. Neither of these approaches is ideal, especially in light of the fact that you’ll need your Internet connections to be reliable as you grow your network.

A much better alternative is to design your Wi-Fi network keeping a few additional factors in mind, including your office’s particular setup and any future growth plans you may have. This way, you will not only create a network that works for your current needs but is also flexible enough to shift and adapt as your business does. Whether you’re first designing your office’s floor plan or taking another look at its setup, the key is to go about it from a strategy-first perspective.

The Process
Your first order of business is to determine where the demand for a signal will be the greatest. After all, if you have a group of employees reliant on their wireless connectivity huddled together in one area of the office, you aren’t going to want to place your equipment in a way that creates a dead zone there. This will help you to identify obstacles and inform you of where you may want to consider placing additional routers to make up for their effects.

Once your Wi-Fi has been set up and your employees are settled, you should still be collecting performance data and listening to the input that employees have about their connections. Remember, wireless is still an evolving technology, so as it develops it is likely that you will need to adjust your strategy to accommodate it.

Long story short, you’ll probably need to make this an ongoing process to ensure that your Internet is as usable as possible for everyone in the office.

The professionals at Coleman Technologies are also here to assist you with any of your technology needs. If you need help with your business’ IT solutions, give us a call at (604) 513-9428.

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The Fundamental IT Defense Plan

 

A Brief History in IT Security (And Why it Matters to SMBs)

Over the past two decades, IT technology has altered the business topography making it easier to produce, collect, and collaborate on data. However, the use of modern-day, internet-connected equipment for any purpose opens your business up to threats. Whether you simply use email for business correspondence, or your point-of-sales solution integrates with your website’s ecommerce system, protecting your data and infrastructure from online threats isn’t something you want to skip.

Without going too deep into the nerdy details of cybersecurity, let’s take a brief look at where the world is at so far:

  • In 1988, computer scientist and entrepreneur Robert Tappan Morris developed the first computer worm that self-replicated across the Internet. This worm single-handedly caused an Internet blackout.
  • In the 1990s, computer viruses were quickly becoming widespread and were getting a lot of media coverage. You might remember the ILOVEYOU and Melissa viruses that infected tens of millions of PCs. None of these viruses really had any clear objective other than causing disruption.
  • These viruses led to the development of Internet security companies and antivirus solutions. It also started to build awareness for online security threats, which only led to trickier types of malware and threats.
  • Email was (and still is) one of the prominent ways viruses were spread, so businesses that relied on email were just as susceptible to online threats, however businesses started to have more at stake. If emails were compromised, the integrity of the business, or at the very least, the level of security of the business, would be questioned by clients and prospects.
  • During the 2000s, internet threats started to become more organized and strategic. No longer were viruses just an annoying nuisance that spread haphazardly. Instead, many major threats were identified that had serious financial objectives.
  • Starting in 2005, Criminal organizations were targeting retail outlets, syphoning credit card information. One of the first and largest was when 45.77 million credit cards were stolen from TJ Maxx, costing the company $256 million to repair damages.
  • Finally, businesses were starting to take cybersecurity more seriously, because there were clear and heavy consequences for falling victim to an attack.
  • Today, it hasn’t gotten any better. Over the past few years, huge brands like Sony, Target, Apple, Premera Blue Cross, Anthem, Chick-fil-A, Kmart, Dairy Queen, and even the US Postal Service have been targets of very successful, very aggressive, and very expensive hacks.
  • With the massive popularity of mobile devices, smartphones and tablets are now being targeted more than ever. It’s estimated that 11% of all smartphone users get hacked each year, and that number is expected to rise.
  • Don’t forget data theft. Laptops, tablets, and smartphones are extremely susceptible to this. Beyond the physical device being stolen, hackers can easily intercept data being sent from a mobile device over insecure Wi-Fi hotspots like those found in coffee shops, trade shows, and hotels.

Of course, these are all the big names we’ve heard in the media. Smaller companies don’t get the same publicity (thank goodness), but smaller companies are actually at a higher risk because they tend to have little to no defense. While a criminal organization might like to steal the data of 56 million customers from Home Depot, several hundred records from a small business can be done in a fraction of the time.

The points to take away from this are that cybercriminals are becoming smarter and more organized, and that it doesn’t matter how big or small your business is.

Protecting Your Business

To protect your business today, it takes several different approaches. There’s no single answer or software to purchase that will protect you from each type of risk. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that throwing money and solutions is going to protect your assets.

Beyond the security measures in place, a sense of awareness needs to come into play. You and your staff need to keep security top-of-mind, and rely on an IT security consultant when questions arise.

Let’s start with the basics - the solutions on your network that should handle the heavy-lifting of your IT defense plan.

Backup and Business Continuity Planning

While data backup isn’t really a preventative security measure, it is a major player when it comes to your security plan, as well as a fundamental piece of your business continuity plan. A managed, properly monitored backup solution is basically the last line of defense. If all else fails, at least you can restore your data. It should be hoped that you never need to come down to this, because if you are compromised, much of the damage is already done, but if you are compromised and your data is gone, there’s little chance of survival.

Your backup solution should store data securely offsite, and backups should be ran regularly, several times per day. Other features to look for in a good backup solution would be fast restore times (image-based backups instead of file backups), versioning, and virtualization capabilities.

Managed Antivirus

A staple of traditional IT security, having antivirus properly installed and managed across your entire network will prevent the millions of different viruses and basic threats that cause computer downtime and other issues. Antivirus isn’t going to prevent more targeted attacks, but all businesses should have it in place.

Although there are plenty of great free antivirus solutions for home users, your business will want a solution that is centrally deployed and managed to ensure virus definitions and other updates are always in place, and that scans are ran regularly.

Firewall

Equipping a centrally controlled firewall will block incoming attacks. Not to be confused with the software-based firewalls that piggy-back on many antivirus suites, a business-class firewall typically sits on your network between your other devices and the wild Internet.

Spam Protection

As mentioned before, email is one of the main ways threats get into your business. Although most email clients have decent spam filtering, junk email is still getting into your organization. Utilizing a separate spam filter solution blocks these threats from getting delivered.

Secure WPA2 Wi-Fi

Unsecure Wi-Fi can give a user full access to your network and your data. Although this only opens you up to localized threats (the user has to be within range of your company Wi-Fi), ensuring that your routers are locked down and secure is a best practice. Many modern routers have this functionality built-in, it just needs to be properly configured.

Secure VPN Access

Data theft is a huge problem when traveling. Wireless hotspots, like those found at airports, coffee shops, and hotels can be very insecure. Hackers can easily intercept your data without your knowledge. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) solution lets you access your company files and applications securely without transmitting sensitive data. This also means that sensitive data doesn’t need to be stored on the device.

Mobile Device/BYOD Policies

With the widespread usage of devices like smartphones and tablets, employees are becoming much more likely to use these devices for work. This can improve communication, collaboration, and productivity, however there are downsides certain precautions aren’t put into play. Your organization needs to develop a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy with specific rules corresponding to the storage and transferring of company data on personal mobile devices. These policies need to be read and understood by all employees, and enforced by the organization.

While you don’t want to be so strict that you prevent engaged users from utilizing their own smartphones or tablets for work, you need to enforce the protection of your data (and your clients’ data). Setting up the ability to remotely wipe a lost or stolen device, or revoke the access to company email if the employee quits is a good start, while establishing document management solutions like cloud hosting or a VPN provides even more incentive to follow best practices.

Industry-specific Compliances

Depending on your business, there may be other regulations and compliances that you need to meet. It’s best to cover these on a case-by-case basis, as each regulation will have very specific requirements. We highly recommend you reach out to the IT security experts at Coleman Technologies for an evaluation.

Ongoing Management, Updates, and Testing

What good is a smoke detector if the batteries are dead? The same goes for IT security that isn’t properly managed, kept updated, and regularly tested.

Don’t wait for a security breach or data loss to start thinking about IT security. To get started, and to find out what it would take to establish the solutions found in our fundamental IT defense plan, give us a call at (604) 513-9428.

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About Coleman Technologies

Coleman Technologies has been serving the British Columbia area since 1999, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses. Our experience has allowed us to build and develop the infrastructure needed to keep our prices affordable and our clients up and running.

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