Fred Rappuhn, Author at NuTech Services LLC

Apr, 2021

Physical Security Tools Every Business Can Use

Many small and medium-sized businesses don’t consider making physical security investments if they already have some type of workable solution in place. The problem is that there have been a lot of innovative moves made that would make those investments strategically smart at the time. So, while a physical security upgrade may not be a priority for your business, we thought we’d go through some of the tools used, and how they have improved.

Security Systems

The company that needs more security at your place of business, you may want to consider installing a full-featured security system. Today’s systems have all types of setups that have customizable options to fit your business’ needs. Systems fitted with motion detectors, door alarms, and full-featured access control systems–and work through your business’ wireless network–can be a great way to deter would-be thieves and protect your business’ most important assets.

Security Cameras

The innovations to security camera systems have been pretty amazing recently. If your business installed its camera system over five years ago, you should really think about getting an upgrade. Today’s systems come with high definition (HD) cameras with megapixel IP lenses that capture everything that you need and won’t leave you guessing about what you’re watching on replay.

Other improvements include camera systems with wide dynamic range (WDR), digital signal processing (DSP), and noise cancelling. These features help these HD systems create cleaner images in a long list of different environments. Some systems support low-light operations for use in times when businesses are closed.

Access Control

We typically talk about access control as a type of security used to protect your business’ digital assets, but the same principle applies to your physical security. Access to certain parts of your business might not be right for all of your staff. If you have parts of your business that you want to keep secure, there are many different access control systems available.

These systems are a combination of automatic locking and authentication systems that are placed on doors. There are mechanical, digital, and biometric systems to choose from. While you may pay more for biometrics, they have been proven to secure assets from theft and keep people who aren’t authorized to be in a place, out.

Security is always going to be a critical part of your business, and NuTech Services has the certified technicians to help you secure your entire business. Give us a call today at 810.230.9455 to have a conversation about getting the security you need to secure your assets.

Apr, 2021

Tip of the Week: Stop the Spying Webcam

Have you ever been using your computer and you realize the operational indicator light next to your webcam is activated, only to realize that you never closed the video conference you were just on? Well, what would happen if you noticed it and you didn’t have that software up and running? If you are not an exhibitionist, it would likely freak you out to know that someone might be looking at you as you use your computer. Today, we will get into what to do to ensure that you aren’t being spied on through your webcam.

#1 – Update All Software

Of course, the best way to be sure that you aren’t being spied on is to update any software that has access to your webcam. You may just find out that there are some surprising pieces of software on your computer or phone that you’ve given access to your webcam. When you keep your software up to date you keep it from having vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. Keeping the OS you are using updated is the most important.

On a PC, you will want to go to your Settings app and click on Update & Security. On the next page select Windows Update and select Change active hours to tell Microsoft when is the best time to update your Windows OS.

#2 – Keep Your Firewall Updated and Running

You will want to do your best to keep entities out of your personal network just like the technicians at NuTech Services do for your business. One of the best ways is to keep an up-to-date firewall. Here’s how to turn your firewall on:

Go to your Settings app in Windows and click on Update & Security. In the left sidebar click on Firewall & network protection. Once the menu opens, toggle Windows Defender Firewall. Now your firewall is on and will help you keep threats off your network.

#3 – Make Sure Your Wi-Fi is Secure

People looking to get into your network (or spy on you through your webcam) may target your wireless router instead of your actual computer. If they get in, they can access a lot of things… including your webcam. This means you need to beef up your router security.

First, rename your wireless network. Rename it something that isn’t easily associated with you and make sure to make a strong password. We recommend a string of at least three random words with no association to one another and replace some letters with numbers and symbols, and change the case. Make it so you can remember it (because anyone that comes to your house will want access to it), but make it secure enough that it is a strong impediment to unauthorized access.

#4 – Cover Your Webcam

The most pragmatic (and admittedly simplest) way of avoiding the gaze of someone over a hacked webcam is to ensure that when it is not in use that it is covered. If your webcam is covered, any creep or hacker on the other end won’t see a thing.

Keeping your privacy in mind is always a solid practice. If you are looking for more tips and tricks on how to keep your data safe and your accounts private, return to our blog each week.

Apr, 2021

How Many Types of Cybercriminals Can You Name?

We’re all familiar with the idea that pop culture has cultivated in our minds about computer hackers, but as it happens, this impression is just one of the many shapes that the modern hacker can take. This kind of closed-off view is dangerously shortsighted, so let’s take a few moments to dig into the kinds of hackers there are, in ascending order of the threat they pose to your business.

The Heroic Ethical Hacker

It is important to acknowledge that hackers aren’t all bad—some are actually committed to using their skills to protect businesses from threats. By examining a business’ defenses from the perspective of a cybercriminal, the ethical hacker can help you identify vulnerabilities in your network infrastructure so that they can be resolved appropriately. These are the hackers that you hire for your own benefit.

The Accidental Hacker

It isn’t unheard of for someone to go poking around on a website—particularly if they stumble upon a preexisting issue on it. Unfortunately, this kind of poking can often result in them finding more than they bargained for. This kind of hacking has raised the question of whether such activity should be prosecuted if the person responsible reports what they have found back to the company.

Either way, what does it say about a business’ security if its website can be hacked accidentally? Such events need to be looked on as a warning to improve the protections you have in place.

The Pokey Curious Hacker

Just one step up from the accidental hacker, some hackers are fully aware of what they are doing and are just doing it to find out if they can. Meaning no real harm, these hackers are seeking little more than validation—or, in layman’s terms, bragging rights. Having said this, it is important to acknowledge that this variety of hackers is becoming rarer with the increased criminal accountability that such activities bring with them. Nowadays, hardware modification by means of single-board computers now occupy the time of those that would be interested in these kinds of activities.

The Scammy Networking Hacker

Adware—or a piece of software that hijacks your browser to redirect you to a website hoping to sell you something—is a real annoyance, as it wastes the user’s valuable time and energy. It also isn’t unheard of for otherwise well-known and legitimate companies to use it in their own marketing, despite the risk they run of having to pay regulatory fines due to these behaviors.

While the real damage that adware spamming can do may seem minimal, it is also important to put the nature of these efforts into perspective. An adware spammer will use the same tactics that other serious threats—things like ransomware and the like—are often spread through. If you’re finding your workstations suddenly inundated with adware, you are likely vulnerable to a much wider variety of threats than you might first assume.

The Strength-in-Numbers Hacker

Sometimes, instead of attacking you, a hacker will use your resources to attack another business. While this isn’t an attack against you, per se, it should still be seen as a threat, as it interferes with your business’ potential for success.

The attackers that do this use the resources they take over to generate something called a botnet—a network that can then be used to the hacker’s ends. For example, one only must look at the attack on the DNS provider Dyn, where a botnet was able to take down various major websites (including Facebook and Twitter) for several hours. These botnets often make their way in through unpatched vulnerabilities and breached login credentials.

The Political Hacker

Political activists are often seen in a positive light—and rightly so—but some activists use tactics that are decidedly negative in their nature. By deploying cyberattacks to sabotage and blackmail a company that they see as doing something wrong, a hacktivist often goes about doing good in a bad way. This kind of activity can be dangerous to your operations and to the cybercriminal alike, as law enforcement won’t take the motives behind a hacker’s deeds into account.

The Cryptocurrency-Seeking Hacker

The ongoing obsession many have with cryptocurrency right now has contributed to no shortage of attacks seeking to bring the attacker responsible an unfair leg up. While the concept of borrowing resources is not a new one—The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, which is associated with NASA, once legitimately used a screen saver to borrow the CPU usage of the computers it was installed upon—cybercriminals now do a similar thing to help hash cryptocurrency for their own benefit.

With hardware costs rising and the intense utility demands that mining brings about, it is little surprise that such hackers will find a way to sidestep these demands for their own benefits.

The Gaming Hacker

While many may scoff at video games in general, it is important to keep in mind that the industry behind them is valued in the billions, with huge investments of both time and money put into the games it creates. Naturally, with such high stakes, it is only natural that some hackers set their sights upon it for their own gain. Such hackers will attack their fellow players to obtain in-game currency through theft or will even restrict their competition through denial-of-service attacks.

The Professional Hacker

A lot of gig work has been facilitated by the Internet and its capability to facilitate networking. In terms of cybercrime, this has allowed many people to act as a for-hire hacker, combining malware of their own creation with programs that they’ve found or stolen to offer their services to others. For a fee, these mercenaries will act on behalf of whomever pays, whether that’s a government seeking some separation from the deed or a business looking to sabotage their competition.

The Larcenous Hacker

Considering how much of life has been converted to digital, it should come as little surprise that crime has followed suit—after all, hacking someone is a lot less physically dangerous and potentially much more profitable than mugging them likely would be. As transactions have digitized, thefts and cons using ransomware and romance scams did as well to allow those less scrupulous to continue to profit from their actions.

The Business-Minded Hacker

Much like the professionals we discussed above, some hackers decide to turn their efforts specifically to the corporate world. By spying on documents and stealing data from one business, these hackers seek to sell this information to that business’ competitors for a healthy price. Fortunately, many businesses will report when a cybercriminal has approached them with such an offer, alerting the hacked business to the breach.

The Sovereign Hacker

At long last, we come to what many see as the biggest threat: the veritable militias composed of hackers that governments will assemble to actively interfere with and undermine the efforts put forth by other nations. These groups have been known to attack the political structure of opposing nations as well as the industries that these countries rely on, with the goal of having a leg up if hostilities were to arise between them.

The hack on Sony Pictures in retaliation for the satirical 2014 film The Interview was an example of an attack by a nation-state.

What Does This All Go to Show?

Putting it bluntly, this list should demonstrate that any individual impression of what a hacker is will not be enough to ensure that a business is prepared to deal with a cyberattack. Fortunately, NuTech Services can help. With our team of professionals following a lengthy list of best practices and policies, we can ensure that you are ready to resist a cyberattack when it comes.

To learn more about what we can do to protect your business, reach out to us at 810.230.9455.

Apr, 2021

How Big of a Threat is the Dark Web Gig Economy?

Contemporary movies are filled with high-stakes cybercrime, where a lovable criminal syndicate breaks into a company’s systems to help wreak havoc on the true villains of the film, all the while exposing the company’s dirty laundry. Naturally, this idea can be frightening for any business, whether or not they have any dirty laundry to air out—after all, nobody wants a ruined reputation—and is unfortunately less and less of a fantasy all the time.

This is directly due to the idea of a hacking gig economy, and how the Dark Web can be used to support it.

What is a Gig Economy?

Before we get too far into the weeds as we discuss the Dark Web, let’s make sure we’re on the same page in terms of the “gig economy.” The gig economy basically describes the prevalence of people working in part-time positions on a temporary basis or as independent contractors, either as a means of supplementing their existing income or as their primary source of it. This environment has been supported in its growth by the capabilities of the Internet—particularly within the younger generations in urban areas.

This new economy has proved beneficial for both the members of the workforce that are a part of it, and the businesses that enlist their services. These businesses have a much larger pool of resources to draw upon without the long-term commitment of a full-time hire, while workers can more easily supplement their increasingly flexible lifestyle with this kind of work.

Of course, a lot of drawbacks have come with this new method of work as well, but that’s something we’ll have to get into later. For now, we just need to focus on the idea that more people are seeking out work opportunities in a less traditional format (as well as businesses increasingly seeking out people to fill these temporary roles) and are using the Internet as a means of doing so.

Unfortunately, this trend also includes cybercriminals, and those businesses who want to take advantage of their illicit services. These parties accomplish this by taking their intentions to the Dark Web.

Understanding the Dark Web

Admittedly, the term “Dark Web” may not be familiar to everyone, so it may be helpful to look at how the Internet is functionally constructed. The Internet of today is made up of three distinct parts:

The Surface Web: The Surface Web is the part of the Internet that most people are familiar with and associate with the Internet in general. Composed of all websites and pages that have been indexed by a search engine (and can therefore be found through these search engines), the surface web is anything that is openly accessible via the Internet.
The Deep Web: The Deep Web includes all the pages that require a login or payment before they can be accessed, along with a user’s data on a website or platform. This data is not indexed, meaning that search engines cannot crawl or index it. This is what makes up most of the Internet today.
The Dark Web: The Dark Web is the portion of the Internet that is inaccessible to a typical browser, only available via the Tor browser. As such, activity here cannot be traced or tracked, making the experience anonymous—and therefore, ideal for cybercriminal activity (amongst many other uses, of course). Due to its anonymity, the Dark Web operates on secrecy and cryptocurrency.

This last point is what allows the Dark Web to give cybercriminals the utility that it does as a means of selling their services to those seeking it out. By anonymizing all browsing and even hiding payments behind the encryption of cryptocurrencies, the Dark Web gives this illicit economy the perfect environment in which to thrive.

Let’s explore how such a transaction could take shape:

Examining a Dark Web Gig

Let’s assume for a moment that you have a serious enemy, whether it’s one of your competitors, an old employee who left on bad terms, or a former client with a serious grudge. What can this enemy of yours do?

If they have the knowledge of how to do so, someone seeking to hurt your company could access the Dark Web and seek out a hacker’s services on one of the many forums that the Dark Web hosts, offering some financial payout in exchange for your website being taken down. Maybe they’d offer a thousand dollars or so, and a hacker with some time could take them up on that offer.

This isn’t a hypothetical situation—Dark Web forums have seen more than eight million users send over 80 million messages seeking out the services of a hacker, with hackers using the forums to promote their own services. Generally speaking, these posts break down as follows:

90 percent of these posts are from those seeking out hacking and cyberattack services
7 percent of these posts are from hackers seeking out jobs
2 percent of these posts are meant to encourage the sale of hacking tools
1 percent of these posts are to encourage people to network with each other

As you might imagine, the number of people actively using these platforms leads to many very specific services available.

The Value of Data on the Dark Web

Of course, we should discuss how much a cybercriminal could potentially make, if only selling data that they have stolen. After hacking a database, a hacker could potentially sell its contents for $20,000—about a rate of $50 for about 1,000 entries.

The Risk This Presents to Your Business

Small-to-medium-sized businesses are under a somewhat ambiguous level of threat from the Dark Web, specifically where data theft and distribution are concerned. To many, the Dark Web remains a sort of computer horror story.

However, as the Dark Web comes more into the public consciousness, its already-considerable risks will only grow… and again, it isn’t as though it isn’t already being used to distribute stolen data, be it sensitive information or access credentials or what have you. There’s a non-zero chance that some of your data is already put up for sale on some Dark Web site.

To minimize this risk moving forward, there are a few safeguards that you need to adopt as a standard procedure:

Security

If there’s a way that someone can use some vulnerability to access a business’ resources, whether they’re hosted online or on your network, they will. Ensuring that everything is reinforced against these threats will help to minimize the chance of their success.

Team Awareness

A big part of avoiding phishing is for your team to be able to see it coming. Training your team members to identify and properly mitigate the threats that they will face—and they will face them at some point—will be crucial to protecting your business.

Due Diligence

Finally, all the best practices that you expect your team to uphold all must remain in play, as hackers actively seek out companies with lacking security to target. Don’t give them the opportunity.

NuTech Services is here to help. Reach out to us at 810.230.9455 to learn more.

Apr, 2021

Tip of the Week: The Better Way to Take a Screenshot on Windows

For the Windows user seeking to take a screenshot, there is no lack of options. Most notably, many keyboards today offer a Print Screen key that allows the user to capture an image of their entire display. Having said this, there are better options, such as the platform’s integrated Snip & Sketch tool, with its greater functionality and greater ease of use.

How to Use Snip & Sketch

Snip & Sketch is a utility built into Windows, providing a user with four screenshot-taking options, called up by pressing Windows Key+Shift+S. These options consist of the following:

A basic box selection, allowing you to click and drag to encompass your selection
A freeform selection, allowing you to draw out your boundary
Window snip, allowing you to select an active monitor to screenshot
Fullscreen snip, taking the place of the Print Screen key, allowing you to take a picture of all your monitors simultaneously

This way, you have access to a wider range of utilities that are commonly useful, particularly in the workplace.

With any luck, this tip will help your in-office communication improve. If you’re interested in learning some more helpful IT tips, make sure you check back here often—or give our team a call at 810.230.9455.

Apr, 2021

Don’t Pull Your Hair Out Over Human Resources

Businesses go about their human resources in all different ways, but in today’s small and medium-sized business, it may not be looked on as crucially as it once was. The HR department may have a lot of responsibilities, but today there are tools that are available that can keep organizations from investing large amounts of capital into HR. Let’s take a look at the way HR is being approached today.

Recruiting

For the job seeker, the Internet has become the place to go. As a result, the recruiter has followed suit. For many years this was a major function of the HR personnel, but today, online recruitment is taking this responsibility off of their shoulders. These services can find applicants that match a business’ availability better than any manual search could.

Communication

One of HR’s core responsibilities is to coordinate internal business issues. Today, there are cutting-edge communication and collaboration tools designed to help HR teams coordinate the vast array of things they need to coordinate.

Data Security

The security of personal information has always been in the HR purview, but nowadays there are regulations in place (and more on the way) that makes protecting personal information an absolute point of emphasis for businesses. HR professionals can now use technology to control access to personal and company information, securing it and staying compliant.

Policy Creation

Policies and procedures are a big part of every business’ culture. In many cases, the way things get done defines the company. Innovative HR technology can ensure that people are up to date with their knowledge of the way administrators want a business to function. By working alongside the IT department, today’s HR department can ensure that a business’ policies and procedures are documented and complied with.

Employee Performance Reviews

HR professionals typically are asked to spearhead the employee performance reviews. In the past it had been difficult to track all the good (and potentially bad) actions of employees, but with technology that’s available to HR representatives today, they can easily make assessments about an individual’s workplace performance to help them determine the future of an employee with their company.

HR is changing and technology is filling in the gaps. Call NuTech Services today at 810.230.9455 if you would like to talk about innovating your human resources department.

Apr, 2021

Don’t Let a Malicious Application Undermine Your Mobile Security

While you’ll probably hear us recommend that you update as soon as possible at every opportunity, the source of these updates is important to consider. This is especially the case now that mobile security firm Zimperium has discovered a new mobile spyware that pretends to update your mobile device… but actually steals data and monitors the user’s search history and location.

Called “System Update,” many Android users have already fallen victim.

What “System Update” Does

The Remote Access Trojan (or RAT) that powers this spyware isn’t available through the Google Play store. This means that this message/contact/device info/browser bookmark/search history/microphone and camera access-stealing application isn’t available to most users.

However, should a user download it, the app could continuously track their location with the application kicking into effect whenever new information is sent to the device. The app then covers its tracks once your data is stolen, making it something that should not be taken lightly.

How is System Update Being Spread?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, phishing has proven to be an effective means for the System Update application to be spread. Despite repeated warnings from Google to never install applications from outside the official Google Play Store, many—especially those with aging devices—seek out new apps and options from other, far less trustworthy sources.

How to Protect Yourself

First, don’t download applications from outside of the Google Play Store. While some malicious apps have snuck past the review process to appear on its pages, this is a very rare occurrence. Question every attempt made to send you to another source of a download, erring on the side of avoidance.

NuTech Services can help your business do even more to protect your business from these kinds of threats, providing and using tools like mobile device management (MDM) and a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. Give us a call today to learn more at 810.230.9455.

Apr, 2021

Don’t Let Burnout Overcome Your Business

It can be said that most of 2020 and the first couple of months of 2021 have been difficult for most people. Not billionaires, of course, but most other people have found the past year difficult on some level. That’s why it isn’t surprising to hear people talk about workplace burnout. Today, we’ll define burnout and what is being said about it.

What Exactly is Burnout?

You probably already know or at least have seen cases of burnout. If someone starts laughing maniacally, screaming uncontrollably for no apparent reason, or crying silently while they sit at their desk, you are probably looking at a case of burnout. Burnout is the feeling of helplessness, frustration, and exhaustion you get when you have had enough.

Some cases of burnout go away quickly, while others fester and stay around for months. Burnout makes a person cynical or even apathetic and is not a good thing to have around your business. With the burden of burnout, you can unwittingly create a toxic work environment. Keeping this from happening should be a priority.

Spotting Burnout Amongst Your Team

If you want to catch burnout before it creates workplace toxicity, you will need to pay attention. The best way is to have regular conversations with your staff and honest conversations with yourself. By dedicating a few minutes to self-evaluation, you can help identify the triggers that can make all the difference between getting the burnt-out party the help they need before it can negatively affect your workplace culture.

Today, with so many people surely feeling like they are losing control over things in their lives, the risk of burnout is greater than ever and needs to be mitigated so that negativity doesn’t seep into your office and cause more problems. One way to accomplish this is to establish some consistent and predictable routines to be followed in the office, emphasizing control, and decreasing the potency of employee burnout.

Resolving Burnout

If you plan to prevent this type of thing from happening in your office, you have to respect that anyone that is feeling stressed or tired or angry could have a negative impact on your business. The human mind is complex and extraordinarily capable, but it won’t always be able to deal with everything that is thrown at it.

If you or a member of your staff is on the verge of burning out, you will want to take some time to sort through the issues that are making you feel this way. On an organizational level, incentivized collaboration and other support incorporated into the workday can help prevent burnout even further.

Have you had problems with feelings of exhaustion from just being too stressed, being stretched too thin, or having too many demands on your time? Leave your stories in the comments section below and return to our blog soon for more great content.

Apr, 2021

What Makes a Ransomware Attack So Expensive?

Ransomware is no laughing matter, especially in terms of the costs it can impose on its victims—this is, after all, what ransomware is famous for. However, some of these costs can be derived from unexpected expenses and exacerbate the already significant issues that ransomware poses. Let’s go over some of the costs that you should anticipate, should you be targeted by a successful ransomware attempt.

Cost 1: Downtime

Perhaps unsurprisingly, downtime expenses make up most of the financial toll that a business suffers when successfully targeted with ransomware. Depending on the severity of the attack, a business could easily find itself taken completely out of action for days or even weeks. A survey taken in 2020 provided an estimated downtime span of about five days for an organization to completely recover, with another estimating an average of 21 days to resume operations.

This should be of serious concern to businesses, especially with the cost of such downtime rising precipitously. Data from Datto showed that downtime resulting from a ransomware attack can cost north of $274,200 (far more than the average ransomware demand totals).

Cost 2: Reputational Damage

Few things look worse for a company than having their customers’ data locked up—and presumably stolen, as we’ll get into later—so it only makes sense that ransomware can be immensely problematic for the impacted business’ public image. Surveyed consumers from numerous countries have said that they would take their business elsewhere if their data was rendered inaccessible or service was disrupted even once—with 90 percent strongly considering a business’ trustworthiness before becoming a patron and just over half avoiding companies that had experienced a cyberattack within a year prior.

This is a serious issue… particularly with groups popping up that are now collecting and sharing the data that companies have lost in a breach as part of a purported effort to improve transparency.

This means that a company seeking to protect itself will need to approach these issues on two fronts—not only avoiding successful attacks over time, but also putting themselves in a better position to react and get a handle on any that come later. As time goes on, this will be even more important for a company to enable.

Cost 3: Upgrade Costs

While there are truly few benefits to experiencing a ransomware attack, it can at least motivate a business into making the necessary upgrades to protect themselves from that point on. However, these kinds of upgrades don’t come cheap.

After all, these upgrades should equate to far more than just a fresh coat of paint. We’re talking about something akin to a comprehensive overhaul from the bottom up just to ensure that whatever vulnerability—software or otherwise—allowed the attack access has been identified and resolved. As one might imagine, these circumstances aren’t cheap for the business, adding to the burden that a cybersecurity event imposes.

Cost 4: Layered Extortion

We aren’t going to lecture you once again by defining ransomware and all that. What we are going to do is pose a simple question:

Let’s say that you are infected, and to keep your data from being deleted, your business elects to pay up. However, what guarantee do you have that the cybercriminals will keep up their end of the bargain and release the data they have encrypted, rather than keep it or share it on the Dark Web?

Frankly, you don’t—and knowing this, many cybercriminals have begun to steal data before encrypting it, adding the idea of data exposure to their target’s list of concerns. Class-action lawsuits are a real possibility if a business’ entire client list were to have their personally identifiable and sensitive information disclosed online.

Cost 5: Price of the Ransom

Finally, we come to the cost of the ransom itself. While one might expect just biting the bullet and paying for the return of a business’ data would be a less costly option than it would to completely restore a business’ infrastructure from scratch, this isn’t the reality.

Who said the cybercriminal had to return it in its original condition, after all?

Taking this factor into consideration (as well as the costs that come with recovering and restoring this data after the fact), it actually turns out that paying the ransom is far less cost-effective than just restoring data from a backup.

Protecting Your Business Against Ransomware in the First Place is the More Cost-Efficient Option

So, it is safe to conclude that the only reliable means of protecting your business and its data against ransomware’s ill effects is to proactively prepare for its eventuality. NuTech Services is here to help see you through it with our comprehensive data backup and continuity services, as well as the security we can assist you in implementing. Find out more by reaching out at 810.230.9455.

Apr, 2021

Taking a Close-Up Look at the 3-2-1 Backup Rule

Data, at least nowadays, effectively makes the world go ‘round. Data is responsible for powering the operations that a business needs to undergo if it is to survive. This—as you may imagine—makes data incredibly important for businesses of all sizes to protect.

There’s a good chance that you’ve heard of a concept known as the 3-2-1 Rule of data backup. Let’s go over what this means in some more direct detail—and why this strategy is the one we recommend.

Why is a Good Backup Essential?

In a word: survival.

My apologies for sounding so distinctly melodramatic there, but it’s really true: today’s businesses rely on the data they collect, produce, and store in order to remain in operation. Losing this data would spell catastrophe for any organization.

Therefore, the smart business tactic to follow is to ensure that your data remains safe by backing it up—and more than just that, backing it up properly. We frequently recommend that businesses follow the 3-2-1 Rule when it comes to their data backup preparations.

Breaking Down the 3-2-1 Backup Rule

The 3-2-1 Rule boils down to this: your backup should consist of at least three versions of your data, in two different mediums, with at least one copy stored offsite.

Why three versions? Simple—so that you can be sure that, if something is accidentally included with one of your backups that shouldn’t be, you are more likely to have also retained an untouched copy to go back to. (We also recommend that you retain as many as possible, just three a bare minimum, by the way.)

Why two different mediums? Equally simple—the whole idea of a backup is to have another copy of your data to fall back on if it is ever needed. However, keeping all of your backed-up data on the same device as your original copy means that the backup will almost certainly be impacted byl whatever happens to your prime copy.

Why one offsite? For just as simple a reason as the other two tenets: increased redundancy. Let’s say that the worst possible scenario happens, and your business’ location is wiped off the map by some disaster. An off-site backup copy of your data is less likely to be influenced by this event, better ensuring you retain your access to your data.

Understanding the Concept of an “Air Gap”

Let’s discuss another important idea in terms of your data’s safety: air gapping.

An air gap is a basic security measure that helps to protect data from various threats, simply because there is no persistent connection between different points on your network. This kind of broken connection effectively eliminates the risk of many threats short of a physical attack.

Air gapping at least one of your data backups helps to ensure that whatever disaster may befall your local data storage will not also influence the copy you have stored there—although this approach can create other challenges.

NuTech Services is here to help you address these challenges, as we will face any of the obstacles your business and its technology encounters on your behalf. Find out more about what we can do by calling 810.230.9455 today.

Apr, 2021

The SMB’s Checklist for Necessary IT Services

Managed IT services have grown from a niche offering to a well-known concept in recent years, with many businesses already relying on outsourced IT services to some degree. In many ways, this only makes sense, as it allows businesses to enjoy access to services that would otherwise cost too much for them to independently adopt and support.

Of course, your choice of managed service provider will make a difference. Here, we’ve compiled a few key variables to keep in mind as you select a managed service provider.

Speed and Efficiency

Let’s face facts: enlisting an external provider is only going to do your business so much good if that provider can’t provide their services more expeditiously than an internal IT pro could. That’s why we’re very proud of the proactive nature that our services possess. Rather than waiting for our clients to report to us with a problem to be solved, our advanced monitoring and management software enables us to keep your network and essential hardware running effectively, proactively identifying and patching roadblocks as they are identified—not after they’ve already created delays.

With the importance that a business’ IT solutions have to its productivity, an IT service provider has a critical role to fill as they work to keep everything operational as consistently as possible. Don’t settle for a provider who promises anything less than that.

Disaster Recovery

With the prevalence of potential disasters looming, the capability to weather them is an incredibly crucial consideration for any business to take on. With the IT services provided by NuTech Services, this prospect becomes much simpler to handle through the implementation of a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery system. Not only will your data be protected, but you will also have access to the professional experience of our technicians, prepared to help get your business back on its feet after being struck by some misfortune at any scale.

Readily Available Support

When it comes to your business’ technology, Murphy’s Law is very much a factor—what can go wrong, likely will. Passwords will likely be forgotten, computers will have issues, and software will crash. Working with NuTech Services gives you access to a comprehensive help desk that your staff can access for assistance with such matters. A direct line to our certified team will give your employees the lifeline they’ll need should (and when) something goes wrong.

Smart and Realistic IT Budgeting

Finally, it is important to mention that we understand that your business most likely doesn’t have a bottomless budget for its IT, making it especially important to plan to get the most value out of the investments you can make. Between supporting your team members, maintaining the technology that your processes are based on, and dealing with your assorted vendors and service providers, a controlled and comprehensive strategy becomes a crucial facet to see to. This is another task that our team is well-suited for, working with you to maximize the return you see for your investments without necessarily maximizing these investments themselves.

Enjoy the Peace of Mind that Managed IT Can Bring

Whether you already have a managed service agreement and are looking for a more providing provider, or you’re still managing your modern technology through antiquated methods, we encourage you to reach out to learn more about our services. We’re committed to improving your business’ operations by helping to care for the technology that enables them.

Learn more about what we offer by calling us at 810.230.9455 today.

Apr, 2021

Frustrated by Your Android Device Lately? A Bad Update Might be Why

With a global market share of 71.9 percent, the Android operating system that Google provides is well and away the most utilized there is today. Despite the fact that different phone manufacturers will fiddle with the OS to fit into the devices they create, Android tends to be pretty stable—which is part of the reason why many users were surprised around March 22nd, 2021. This is when these users discovered that their applications were crashing incessantly.

This issue wasn’t constrained to a given application, either—numerous, otherwise unrelated applications began to persistently crash whenever the user attempted to start them up.

Gmail reportedly created issues amongst users, while others found themselves unable to do a Google search through their browser. Lastpass also became notorious for crashing during this time. Other applications remained unscathed with no apparent rhyme or reason. It wasn’t as though Google’s applications were specifically creating issues—applications of all kinds were crashing, and giving users no small amount of stress as a result.

The Cause of These Android App Crashes

The underlying cause of these issues was soon identified, and the news quickly spread on Twitter: a system application known as Android WebView had received a buggy update.

Powered by the Chrome browser, WebView is meant to give other applications the capability to reference web-related content. For a short time, the only recourse against these application crashes was to uninstall the updated version—but Google soon released a new update fixing the bug. In fact, some users missed the issue entirely, based simply on the timing of their device’s update checks.

This proves an important point, regardless: while updates are important and should always be seriously considered, they aren’t always perfect and can present some unforeseen flaws. This is something that should always be kept in mind when installing an update on either a work device or a personal device.

This is precisely why we follow a policy to always evaluate updates in a controlled environment—particularly when they pertain to mission critical apps. While it only took Google 12 hours or so to identify and mitigate the issue, it needs to be remembered that it was a particularly pressing one. There is no guarantee that all update-borne issues will be resolved so quickly, especially if one doesn’t affect as many people. The time you have to wait could extend from hours to full days, weeks, or even months.

Hence, why we always recommend that you test updates and patches before applying them to your business’ devices… just to be safe.

Don’t get us wrong: keeping your IT up-to-date is important. However, it is also important that you are still able to use it afterwards. NuTech Services is here to help businesses like yours with their critical IT management and maintenance. Reach out to us at 810.230.9455 to find out more about how we can help.

Apr, 2021

Should IT’s Role Be Expanding in Your Business?

Every business’ goal is to turn enough of a profit, and some businesses are better at it than others. One way that modern businesses can improve their revenue generation is by utilizing technology to cut down on inefficiencies and fuel productivity through collaboration. Today, we’ll take a look at some of the ways that businesses can expand their business through technology.

Communications

Finding the right tools to help you expand your business’ technology profile is important. We’re pretty confident that any business can utilize new communications technologies and it would improve their overall technology profile. Today’s tools include cloud-hosted solutions like a Voice over Internet Protocol telephone system, email, video conferencing, and cutting-edge collaboration apps that integrate all of the above into one productivity-fueling solution.

Some communications platforms are unified, which means that they all work together to give your business the reliable and dynamic communications tools to ensure that the investment is providing fast and strong returns rather than just costing your business money without any boost to efficiency or productivity.

Automation

When looking to expand the role IT plays in your business, the first place you should look is how you can use it to automate some of the more problematic parts of your business. When we say problematic, we mean the parts of your business that don’t necessarily produce any revenue, but need to be completed regardless. Automation lets business owners accomplish more by allowing them to utilize IT to complete tasks that are repetitive, while also gathering data. Some systems will gather data for analysis later, but other solutions that utilize artificial intelligence will merge the benefits by gathering data and using it to streamline the processes that have been scheduled for automation.

Some of the parts of your business that can be improved by utilizing automation include:

Inventory
Security
Supply chain management
Sales and marketing
Customer relationships

…And more.

The use of automation can streamline processes, help create procedures, and help build your business by allowing your people to work in your business instead of on your business.

Security

If there is one part of your business that should be expanding it is its cybersecurity. Not for nothing, but all it takes is one major data issue to completely destroy your customers’ confidence in your business. Not to mention the corruption of your IT if malware or other issues get onto your network. Since nearly half of all cyberattacks are carried out against SMBs, and nearly two-thirds of all SMBs have experienced some type of cyberattack in the past 12 months, it stands to reason that making additional investments in your business’ ability to stave off hackers (and other cretins who are trying to steal your data and infiltrate your network), is a good idea. Some of the best ways to make a coordinated investment in cybersecurity include:

Regular risk assessments
Comprehensive staff training
Penetration testing
Network, server, and website audits
Additional software investments

These actions can help you avoid the following costs:

Theft (money, service, data)
System corruption
Regulatory and compliance fines
Legal fees
Loss of customer confidence
Loss of intellectual property
Damage to reputation

Security has to be a priority for every business. If you are considering expanding your cybersecurity program, procuring the tools you need to automate some of your business’ most repetitive tasks, or gain some of today’s most helpful collaborative tools, contact the IT professionals at NuTech Services today at 810.230.9455.

Mar, 2021

Tip of the Week: Rearranging Your Gmail Messages

Email remains a popular tool in the business setting because of its undeniable usefulness in the office—but having said that, it can have its negative impacts on your productivity simply due to how much it can take to manage it appropriately. With so many messages that are crucial for you to keep track of coming through email, let’s go over a fancy trick to help you manage your messages in Gmail.

How Gmail Can Be Hacked to Control Your Message Order

Granted, there are a lot of tools and features that Gmail offers that are intended to help you manage just this. Just consider the filters and labels that can help your sort and contextualize the messages that come in.

While these are undoubtedly useful tools, they don’t always prevent messages from slipping through and being missed. However, with a simple “hack” of sorts, you can effectively reorder your messages so that your most urgent communications can be moved to the top and highlighted for added prominence.

Postponing Messages

Let’s say that you open your inbox to discover an important message that you don’t want to lose track of, but it’s also buried amongst other messages that aren’t nearly as pressing in the moment. Gmail offers a literal Snooze button that allows you to simplify this.

Don’t get too excited—this snooze button won’t let you catch a few extra winks at your desk. Instead, pressing that button allows you to resend yourself an email at a time you dictate so that it reappears at the top of your inbox. Here’s how to use it:

(On a desktop/laptop) selecting the box next to an email and clicking the clock-shaped icon at the top of the window.
(In the mobile app) tapping on the icon at its left, accessing the three-dot menu, and selecting Snooze.

You will then be prompted to set a time for the message to come back, in the form of the Pick date & time option. Once you’ve sent the message away, it will return at the time you’ve dictated and sit conveniently at the top of your inbox.

What other handy Gmail tricks do you know? Share them in the comments!

Mar, 2021

Going Over the Basics of Collaboration Solutions

With businesses depending on technology more now than ever, it stands to reason that the collaboration solutions that are available would improve as demand increases. Today’s business needs a collaboration solution that allows them to communicate, manage tasks, and be a reliable solution for teams separated by more than just a wall. Let’s take a look at the modern collaboration tool and how they provide powerful benefits for the modern business.

What Are Collaboration Solutions?

There used to be the phone, then there was email, then instant messaging; the modern business landscape has been formed from the invention and innovation of tools that allow people to communicate through technology. With many business leaders searching for working solutions for their company’s inefficiencies, developers have created a set of new tools that work to integrate communication with productivity in new ways.

New collaboration solutions don’t just combine tools, they create complete environments where people can work together to complete a common goal from about anywhere. These new tools are a benefit to any organization whether your workers work side-by-side in an office or if they are separated by hundreds or thousands of miles. This is because solid collaboration tools can help your team build solid practices and relationships. This results in better outcomes.

The Collaboration App

Technically, there are only three types of collaboration software. They are:

Communication – VoIP, email, instant messaging keep people in contact and are relatively easy to use and cost efficient.
Conferencing – Video and audio conferencing takes the standard communication and makes it work for larger groups of people.
Coordination – In order to successfully collaborate with others, everyone needs access to the resources to complete the task/job/project. Having the ability to schedule people, send, receive, and store files, and control access to resources are extremely useful variables when working in a collaborative setting.

Today, there are apps that provide teams (and whole companies) the means to manage their work, communicate in multiple ways, and even integrate useful tools that will make work move that much faster. These collaboration tools are typically set up like a customizable forum, but each new forum feed has the ability to be a central hub to any particular project. Additionally, by allowing for all types of third-party application integrations, these apps build a completely customizable solution that can allow people to communicate through several different means, have the resources they need on hand, and provide the tools needed to build a culture that revolves around efficient teamwork.

If you would like to talk to one of our certified IT technicians about collaboration software that can change the way your business functions and gives you the tools your business requires to get where it wants to go, give NuTech Services a call today at 810.230.9455.

Mar, 2021

Why a Document Management System Can Be Advantageous

“Paperwork” has long been associated closely with life in the office, but like so many other “classic” workplace elements, it has been replaced by more modern means. In this case, a Document Management System (or DMS) offers a small-to-medium-sized business far more utility than its predecessor, the filing cabinet.

Understanding a Document Management System

Picture, if you will, a magical filing cabinet, imbued with the ability to…

Independently organize the files it contains
Work with your other business solutions to put these files to their proper use
Communicate with a variety of devices
Simplify collaboration between you and your coworkers and collaborators
Assist you in preparing your business continuity measures
Search through your existing files by means of a simple interface
Ensure that you remain compliant to industry-based regulations
Keep the many files stored in it safe from unauthorized viewers
Enable secure access for your remote workers

All this, without being too difficult for the average office worker to use.

What we have described is effectively the Document Management System in a nutshell. More than the average cloud storage solution, the DMS is meant to integrate with your other digital tools to provide more utility than it otherwise would. Cloud-hosted DMS tools also provide you with the means to work on the go while also allowing you to automate the other functions your business requires.

These Features are More Essential Than Ever Before

Now that remote work is more popular than ever and data security is rising in importance each day as a result—not to mention how critical it is that your team can continue collaborating—the precise functions that a DMS supports are more essential than ever.

NuTech Services can help you even further by evaluating your current use of technology and helping you to improve it. To learn more, reach out to us at 810.230.9455 today.

Mar, 2021

Tip of the Week: Politely Protect Your Data with Android Guest Mode

For many people, their mobile device contains a mixture of sensitive information and personal details. In some cases, some of the data isn’t even theirs—instead, it belongs to their workplace. Naturally, this makes many people less inclined to share the use of their device, but most people also want to avoid being rude.

For precisely these circumstances, Android’s Guest Mode feature allows you to be courteous without potentially undermining the security of your device or, more accurately, the data stored on it.

What is Android Guest Mode?

First appearing in 2014 as a part of Android 5.0 Lollipop, Android Guest Mode is a way that your team can more easily fight against a scammer. Unfortunately, firewalls and antivirus aren’t exactly capable of protecting a phone if the user hands it over to someone with malicious intent—something that could easily happen if the scammer sold their story well enough.

Should this play out, the phone immediately becomes a direct threat to your data.

Guest Mode offers you a safe alternative to handing a phone filled with sensitive data over to a potential hacker by allowing you to effectively wipe your device before you share it. If the device’s manufacturer supports the Android feature, you can hide away all your settings, applications, accounts, and other data. Activating Guest Mode allows you to still share the use of your device without sharing access to the data that the borrower has no reason to see.

Unfortunately for Samsung users, the phone manufacturer has removed this feature from their version of Android. Otherwise, an Android user should find the task of enabling and disabling this feature easy to accomplish.

Turning Guest Mode On and Off

Enabling Guest Mode is very simple:

Access your device’s Settings.
From there, access Advanced and Multiple users. If your manufacturer has changed their menu order, search for “Guest Mode.”
Switch the toggle to “On” to enable Guest Mode.

After doing this, the Quick Settings panel and profile it shows can be accessed to Add guest. Reverting to your own settings is as simple as returning to Quick Settings and the user profile. Selecting the option Remove guest and providing verification will restore your device.

Security always needs to remain top of mind, so keep coming back to our blog for regular reminders to help keep your business protected. We can help, too, with our managed services, so give us a call at 810.230.9455 to learn more.

Mar, 2021

Automation Can Bring a Your Business Serious Value

Today’s business is always searching for a leg up, and this often means doing what it can to improve their operational efficiency. Companies can approach this in several ways. They can try to cut out redundancies, they can invest in training, or for many businesses, it means leveraging innovative new technological tools that are designed specifically for this purpose.

Let’s Define Automation

Automation is the process of utilizing technology to take the repetitive and often mundane tasks off of your workers’ plates. This frees them up to focus on revenue-generating activities. Since technology is getting more sophisticated, it can now do more, thereby making your business more efficient. Businesses that successfully automate certain tasks will often see boosts in productivity as their workers are more engaged as they can do what you’ve hired them for in the first place.

Implementing Automation

When looking to utilize automated tools to cut down on human responsibilities, a business has a lot of places to choose from, but typically it is used as a support structure to improve the efficiency of all those little tasks that up until recently humans were responsible for. This has led many people to claim that automation is the main reason people are being cut out of the workplace. Studies show that there is some truth to this theory, but when applying automation to just handle the tasks that no employee wants to do, it benefits both the company and the workforce.

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of employing automation in your business:

Improved Customer Support

One of the most important aspects of your business is how you interact with your customers. Unfortunately, it can be expensive. Using automation to cut down the cost of support is a great plan. Using AI-fueled chatbots for online support and automated menus for your phone support can provide a lot of value, while also providing the support and transparency your customers demand.

Ensured Compliance

You can always depend on your staff to find better ways to do things. They don’t want to waste their time making tasks harder than they need to be. Unfortunately, as they try to be the most productive and efficient, it can cause problems with any compliance regulations that your business operates under. By deploying automated solutions you can ensure that your operations meet compliance standards every single time. This allows your staff to focus on their job and reduces the chances that they may get creative and hurt your business’ chances of meeting compliance standards.

Enhanced Business Communications

Much of business is a dance. There are so many parts of it moving at once that all it takes is somebody to miss a step for the whole thing to go horribly wrong. Automating scheduled communications can have a lot of benefits. Not only will it keep people that work in your business on point, it can provide customers a sense of value. This can also help prospects get the information they desire while also working for your sales and marketing teams to be able to schedule appointments without conflicts or follow up after a sale or inquiry.

Automation will be a big part of business going forward, and the experts at NuTech Services can help you leverage the tools that fit your business. Give us a call at 810.230.9455 today to learn more about how automation can benefit your business.

Mar, 2021

Building a Reliable Remote Workforce with Managed IT Services

Remote work has been a popular topic for a few years, but over the past year, with so many people forced into working from home, a lot has been written about it. Today, we wanted to briefly talk about some of the technology that is suggested for the remote business, and what we can do to help you support remote workers.

What Tools Do You Need for Remote Work?

If your business is going to effectively (and securely) support remote workers, your IT infrastructure needs to include:

Secure, encrypted access to your office network (via a VPN, or Virtual Private Network).
Communication tools, such as Voice over IP, video conferencing, and instant messaging.
Employees need devices at home that can reliably perform the tasks required of them.
Security awareness is still a critical piece, even when working remotely.

What About IT Support?

Heading into last March the prevailing sentiment around the business world was that businesses were better off operating from a brick and mortar location than having a truly remote workforce. The loss of productivity was the major consideration, but there were (and are) questions about how to support a remote workforce; especially one that is effectively BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).

Once the pandemic hit, many businesses, afraid as the realities of the time started to kick in, jumped into the remote workforce pool with both feet. Many of these businesses were not prepared to do so. While it is true that a remote workforce demands that a business leans on the IT, many businesses simply weren’t set up for this eventuality and it hindered their ability to do business.

At NuTech Services, our professional technicians were ready to help businesses transition from on-site to remote and we’ll be here to help transition back when our clients decide it’s time. We prioritize flexible and scalable solutions that promote productivity, operational efficiency, and most of all, security. Without a plan to promote those three ideals, you just have pieces of technology that are constantly in jeopardy of corruption, failure, and misuse.

Our comprehensive support strategy is deployed in three ways. They are:

We Get You the Tools – Not only do we use cutting-edge tools to monitor your existing hardware and remote connections, we also can procure the necessary tools that your business would need to get the most out of its human resources.
We Thoroughly Monitor and Manage – Using those cutting-edge tools, we are able to completely monitor and manage your business’ network and infrastructure, ensuring that if something were to gain access to your network, that it is removed before it becomes an operational problem for your business.
We Follow Through – In our business, we realize there is absolutely no room for error. Our team, that is made up of technicians and business consultants, can help put you in the position to actually fit your IT management and support, to your business’ current needs; and, while keeping an eye on the future IT needs of your business.

Sure, our main purpose is to keep your IT working as intended and eliminate downtime, but we can also provide you with powerful consulting tools, best-in-area technology procurement, and professional installation of IT tools that can absolutely transform your business. If you would like to talk to one of our consultants about getting the IT and the IT support your business needs right now, give us a call today at 810.230.9455.

Mar, 2021

How VoIP Can Help the Business that Adopts It

For all the communication services and tools available to businesses nowadays, the telephone remains a staple in everyday processes—despite it often being difficult to manage and expensive to maintain. This is largely because today’s technology enables businesses to use a telephone system that exceeds the capabilities once provided by telephony, for a far more manageable investment.

Let’s take a few moments to explore how Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony is so useful to businesses.

A Quick Overview of VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol is a means of delivering a telephone system via the Internet, rather than investing in an additional, dedicated phone service. Available in different tiers, VoIP has proven reliable and responsive to change. This can largely be attributed to the use of cloud-based solutions to support these networks.

By using VoIP, a business can see quite a few perks come its way:

Simple management – With the option to host VoIP in-house or in a dedicated cloud server, it becomes much easier to make painless changes to the configuration of your solution.
Mobility – As VoIP uses the Internet as its data connection, it doesn’t need to be constrained to a stationary physical infrastructure. While a desktop phone can be made compatible with VoIP, a dedicated application on a mobile device can also be used.
Cost efficiency – By its very nature, VoIP enables a business to consolidate its operational expenses where communications are concerned. Rather than dedicating valuable dollars to yet another service, VoIP only requires an Internet connection to operate while offering many features you’d have to pay extra to a phone company for.
Business integrations – Many lines of business and office management applications have the capability to cooperate with VoIP services, helping to streamline daily processes.
Comprehensive features – As alluded to above, VoIP comes standard with many advanced call features and options for a business to take advantage of, like call waiting, call forwarding, conferencing capabilities, and instant messages.

NuTech Services is here to help you manage your business’ IT so that it can better fulfill your needs. Learn how we can help you take advantage of VoIP and other services by calling 810.230.9455 today.