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With the current state of the world, many employees are being encouraged to work remotely. Working remotely allows the flexibility of location whether it is in your own home or at a local coffee shop. You can access company files, video chat with co-workers, and have the freedom to work when and where you want. On the flip side, working remotely can pose some risks to your company’s private information.

It’s important to follow this checklist when working from home to help keep your company’s important information and data safe:

I.T. Checklist

• Enable local encryption
• Make sure admin accounts are confirmed with strong passwords
• Limit external sharing of Cloud applications (OneDrive, SharePoint, etc.)
• Enable MDM for remote wipe capabilities
• Review and enable remote endpoint security tools that can be centrally reviewed and monitored (RMM, SentinelOne, NovaSOC, etc)
• Provide ability to securely exchange files and information externally and internally (i.e. OneDrive, DLP, email encryption, etc)
• Enable Multifactor Authentication for remote connectivity. Make sure authentication expires after 4-8 hours of use
• Review incident response procedure with all relevant parties

Employee Checklist

• Secure workspace
• Ability to lock laptop and any business relevant information when not in use
• Safely perform conversations without visitors eavesdropping or shoulder surfing
• Wireless Security
• Change default Wi-Fi Router passwords
• Enable WPA-2 or higher encryption; Strong WEP password
• Ensure your local router firmware is updated
• Personal Device Security
• Update IOT Device firmware (Smart Thermostats, etc).
• Ensure default passwords are changed
• Update software on all devices within your home network (Corporate laptop, IOT devices, personal laptops/tablets, etc)
• Review corporate policies and procedures

Security Awareness

• Corporate vs personal
• Do not share your corporate laptop for use with family or friends
• Limit social media use
• Don’t reveal business itineraries, corporate info, daily routines, etc.

Integrated Computer Consulting (ICC) is here to help. Please don’t hesitate to give us a call if you have any questions or need more information about safely working remotely. Contact us at 970.821.8592 or at info@iccusa.net.

Backing up your digital files is super important to keep a copy of your company’s important and private information. If suddenly your computer or network goes down and files are lost, it is key to have that information backed up in some form or another. The two main options for backup storage are off-site or on-site backups.

Offsite backups are a secondary location that houses your company’s data. The benefits of off-site storage include the ability to access the information from any location via the internet or FTP. It is a safer place to house the data in case an event occurs at your business’ location. Offsite backups can also be accessed by many other remote locations. On the other hand, the risk of offsite storage includes the servers being down for maintenance at a time when you may need to access the files. This may be unfortunate if you need immediate access to files; however, most clients are notified in advance that access may be limited so they are able to plan better.

Onsite backups are physically located at your place of business. This includes saving information to external hard drives, DVDs, and CDs. The benefits to on-site backups are that the files are readily available, it is a more cost-effective option and no internet is needed to access them. However, on-site backups could be lost if a catastrophic event were to occur such as a fire, flood, or robbery.

When choosing a backup system, it is up to you and your business if an offsite or onsite backup is the better option for you. Depending on budget or if you have remote employees, one option may make more sense for your company than the other. Either way, backing up your system is a must for any and all businesses. If you have any questions on the system that is right for you, contact Integrated Computer Consulting or ICC today! 970.821.8592

Cyber threats are becoming more prevalent in today’s internet world. According to Cybintsolutions.com, “64% of companies have experienced web-based attacks, 62% phishing & social engineering attacks, 59% malicious code and botnets and 51% denial of service attacks.” Integrated Computer Consulting (ICC) has recently had a handful of businesses that have experienced a cyber threat in one form or another.

Examples of the situations and outcomes below:

• ICC Customer: Gift card scam – Successful, $1000 payment
• ICC Customer: Domain name spoof – Averted
• ICC Customer: Extortion emails containing old passwords – Averted
• Some customers and some non-customers: Business Email Compromise – Mostly averted, one $42k payment
• Non-customer: Ransomware – Successful, $6000 payment. Another requested $12k and lost all data
• Non-customer: Banking Trojan – Successful, Emotet virus on 30+ machines
• Non-customer: Remote Desktop brute-force – Successful, attacker gained access to PC and attempted a lateral move to other machines/server

The cost to protect your personal and your businesses’ important information is minimal compared to the cost to recover from an attack. ICC recently worked with a customer in Fort Collins, dealing with an Emotet virus that could cost up to $1 million to remediate. Fortunately, ICC was able to effectively mitigate the virus for substantially less. For a cost way less than $1 million, ICC was able to save the company money and the potential risk of shutting down their company.

Cybersecurity is no joke and businesses should make sure they are protected to save themselves from the potential loss of time and money in the future. Let ICC evaluate your company’s security measures today. 970.821.8592 or info@iccusa.net.

We asked Patrick a handful of questions to learn a little bit more about him!

In a nutshell, my job entails: Helping businesses run smoothly by providing technical support
How long you’ve been with ICC: started on 7/29/2019
Hometown: Loveland, CO
In my spare time, you can find me: Mountain or road biking, hiking, camping, rock climbing, and woodworking
Pets? None currently, but I grew up with 2 springer spaniels and would like to get a dog of my own
If you looked at my desk right now, you’d find: A water bottle, a coffee mug, a Cloud9 coaster and various chargers, cables, and storage disks
Fun facts about me: I made my desk and table at home and have completed an IronMan triathlon and would like to do more
Preferred OS? Windows 10
Connect with me on: LinkedIn      https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-o-brien-b1a060161/

If you or your business are still saving documents and files just to your computer or desktop, it’s time you learn about all the benefits of “the cloud.” Cloud computing uses distributed resources like data centers and remote servers to complete a variety of tasks such as saving files, providing web page content on-demand, or performing calculations.

Server Insurance

Can you guarantee that your in-house servers will never break down unexpectedly? If they do, how fast will you be able to get the servers back up and running and recover the lost information? There is no guarantee that any saved data can be recovered if it is not saved on a cloud system. Although cloud servers are not 100% disaster-free, they can greatly minimize the negative impacts associated with server failures.

For example, many cloud hosting services have multiple locations with servers that save your information. Even if one or two of those locations shut down, there would still be other locations that are safely hosting your information. Single locations also have backup power generation to ensure they continue sending information after utilities going down. Advanced mechanisms are also designed to restart automatically, notify technicians of any repeated problems, and collect diagnostic information. The power of using cloud hosting allows for easy recovery and minimized damage from server issues.

Increased Speed

Cloud hosting provides services that can increase the speed of your website’s services. CDNs or content delivery networks, host data such as images, sound, streaming video, and other media content. Cloud-based CDNs are used for many eCommerce sites for their reviews, demonstration videos, and product photos. These cloud hosting services allow for faster data access because they can detect which server is closest to a user to provide them with the quickest services available. This also allows for minimized delays, small page loading times, and spreads out the demand for local hosts.

Information Access Anywhere

A major limit of saving information to a laptop or desktop is that data is only accessible on that specific device. Cloud hosting provides the opportunity for your saved information to be reached from any location after you log into your server. This can benefit a business who has a mobile workforce or multiple storefronts and can access their company’s data from all their locations. For a retail business with several stores, it allows their employees to submit location-specific data, performance reports, or product counts straight to their corporate headquarters.

Guaranteed Security

Although cloud hosting may sound like anyone can access your information, it is built with a foundation of strict security guidelines. Cloud hosting has security measures that meet the requirements from the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI), Defense Security Service (DSS), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). These hosting services provide privacy for health care records, secure payment processing, and personal records and files.

Switching to Cloud Hosting

Moving your system and files over to a cloud hosting server is a complex process. ICC (Integrated Computer Consulting) is a professional and responsive company that offers a full range of IT support and consultation services including cloud hosting. Learn more about our services and how they can help you take advantage of cloud computing.

Moving offices is no small task. With furniture, desks, files, and more it can be hard to stay organized and make sure everything moves to the new location smoothly. However, an important part of the move is your IT office move logistics. Phones, computers, internet access and more are all important to have up and running as soon as possible to not interfere with daily operations. That’s where ICC can help!

ICC can help make your business’ move painless and worry-free. By following these steps when switching over your IT, your business should be up and running in no time.

1. Check out your new office or work with contractors to make sure there are enough power outlets, data jacks for the I.T. Infrastructure.
2. ICC will work with your internet service provider to make sure they are aware of the timing of your move.
3. Take an inventory of your current IT equipment and assess if you will need when moving to your new office. Also, if you were considering an upgrade in IT services and equipment, now is the best time to start new.
4. Make sure to back up your files before moving offices to ensure that information does not get lost.
5. ICC can assist with packing up your workstations and unpacking to make sure the equipment gets to its new office safely and is all in one place.
6. Once on-site, ICC’s IT support team will test your phones, cables, networks, firewalls, and security to make sure everything is running safely and smoothly.

ICC offers a full range of IT support and consultation services in the northern Colorado and Wyoming area. Contact us for IT support services today at 970-821-8592.

Has your family or friends ever received a suspicious email from your email address? Have you received a questionable email from an address that looks like it’s coming from a friend? You may think you have been hacked but, in this case, someone is faking your email address. This is known as email spoofing and it is a common occurrence within email systems.

How do you know if someone is faking your address?

Many of us tend to forward emails, send photos or documents to our own personal email addresses for safekeeping later. Scammers recognize that behavior and therefore is the perfect opportunity for them to send a link or document download with a fake email, knowing you will open emails coming from your “own” email address.

There are many ways scammers can get a hold of your email address. Through social media, your contacts, and simply the various places on the internet that you submit your email address, scammers are able to find it. If you have an email address that is publicly used to send newsletters and other emails to a wide list of people, that address is more likely to be used by scammers for email spoofing.

How does email spoofing work?

All scammers need is an SMTP or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol which is an email delivery system such as Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo! mail, etc. to send a fake email. They must have login access to an email delivery system, but the display name and email address can be edited to be shown however they like. Scammers then use botnets to send out spoofing emails. Botnets are a group of computers that have been hijacked by a third party and are hard to trace. Botnets can send these emails to an entire contact list and mutual contacts. For more information on botnets and how spoofing emails are sent, check out this article from Makeuseof.com.

How can you prevent being a victim of email spoofing?

It all comes back to the basics. Don’t click anything in an email that looks as if it was sent by you, but you do not remember sending it. Check your sent email to verify. Trust your gut. If an email looks suspicious coming from a contact of yours, do not download any files or click on links in the email. You can hover over the link to see if it is a trusted URL. It is always good to change and strengthen your password or add multi-factor authentication.

For more information on email spoofing and ways to prevent it, contact Integrated Computer Consulting (ICC) in Fort Collins, Colorado today! 970.821.8592.

Security updates will end soon for both SQL Server and Windows Server 2008. SQL Server support will end on July 9, 2019 with Windows Server 2008 support ending on January 14, 2020. Thousands of business applications run on these servers and those versions that are not upgraded are vulnerable to cyber attacks. To limit the risk of an attack and data breach, it is recommended that you move your server to the cloud-based Microsoft Azure or upgrade your server to a current version of SQL or Windows.

What are the Next Steps?

There are two options for upgrading your server. You can migrate to Azure and receive three years of security updates for free. The other option is to upgrade to the current SQL or Windows Server versions.

What is Microsoft Azure?

Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service with solutions including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). These services can be used for analytics, storage, network, virtual computing, and can replace your on-premise server.

What does Microsoft Azure Do?

Microsoft Azure is a flexible platform that allows you to use as much or as little resources as you need, and you only pay for what you use.  Microsoft Azure can back up your data at any time, from any location, and in any language. It also stores three backup copies in various locations in the data center and then three other copies in a remote Azure data center. Losing your data should never be a worry. In addition, Microsoft Azure can host and develop web and mobile apps, utilize multi-factor authentication for security, monitor and manage all your devices to collect data, and a whole lot more.

For more information on how to upgrade your server or to learn more about Azure, contact Integrated Computer Consulting (ICC) in Fort Collins, CO today at 970.821.8592. We can help!

What to Know About Upgrading Your System Before January 14, 2020.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 is officially 10 years old at the end of 2019 with their release date of October 22, 2009. Microsoft has planned to no longer provide support after January 2020 so they can turn their focus and resources to newer technology and user experiences. After this date, software updates and technical assistance will no longer be available to protect consumers’ PCs.

What do I do next?

It is strongly suggested that you move to Windows 10 operating system before January 2020 to help keep your data safer and to keep your system’s security updated.

It is highly recommended that Windows 7 users move to a new device equipped with Windows 10. Newer PC’s are more powerful, secure, faster, and weigh less than older versions. Some workstations may be upgradeable but there are several technical factors that will determine if this makes sense.

What happens if I continue to use Windows 7?

If you continue to use Windows 7, Windows will still start and run but you will no longer receive security patches or software updates. This may cause your device to become more vulnerable to viruses and security risks.

Internet Explorer is an integral part of Windows 7 and will no longer receive support after January 14, 2020. For more information, visit Lifecycle FAQ- Internet Explorer

When should I upgrade to Windows 10?

The sooner the better! There are many companies that have scheduled upgrades and as the year progresses it gets less likely and more costly to get your upgrades addressed. Upgrading now will give you enough time to back up personal information and get everything moved over to Windows 10 to ensure it is working properly. If you need extra reminders to upgrade your Windows 7 to Windows 10, Microsoft will be alerting users with pop-ups about the Windows 7 end of support deadline, starting in April 2019.

If you are looking for information to upgrade your system or want to learn more about the Windows 7 End of Support, give Integrated Computer Consulting (ICC) in Fort Collins, CO a call today! 970.821.8592

High-profile security breaches are on the rise and company information is being compromised. “Billions of people were affected by data breaches and cyber attacks in 2018 – 765 million in the months of April, May, and June alone – with losses surpassing tens of millions of dollars.” (Positive technologies) Most of these breaches occur when login credentials of users are stolen and then used to gain access into a company’s network. Once hackers have access into the network, they can leverage their access to attain further information and/or perform employee impersonation putting the entire company network at risk.

There are a variety of ways that your password can be obtained without your knowledge. A phishing email can lead you to enter your password into a fake site, a hacker can guess simple passwords, or your password could be stolen from another network that has been compromised. How do you protect yourself, you ask? Multi-factor authentication or MFA can help prevent these cybercriminals from gaining access.

MFA is a two-step authentication process that can help secure your identity. It requires every user to provide more than a password to gain access to sensitive IT information. There are several types of authentication methods currently available. These methods include a hardware or software “token,” text message, phone call, security questions, or biometrics. Therefore, when you try to login to your network, a one-time passcode is sent via one of the methods for you to enter and securely gain access. MFA can seem daunting to set up at first, but once it is in place it is a small inconvenience for added security.

ICC highly recommends configuring MFA for all users that have access to public facing servers such as Exchange Outlook Web Access or Remote Desktop Services.  MFA has been a tested, reliable, and secure method for several clients returning a high success rate with limited inconvenience. If you have more questions about MFA or are looking to have it set up for your business, contact ICC at 970.821.8592, chat us at iccusa.net or email us at info@iccusa.net.