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A dependable and effective IT infrastructure is essential for success in today’s dynamic industry. From managing day-to-day operations to securing confidential information, companies rely extensively on technology solutions. However, not all organizations have the in-house resources or capabilities to effectively manage their IT needs. This is where choosing the correct IT solutions partner becomes crucial. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the primary factors to consider when choosing an IT solutions partner who ideally meets with your business goals. 

 

Understand Your Needs:

Before launching your search for an IT solutions partner, carefully review your company’s specific IT requirements. Determine the pain areas, difficulties, and goals that you wish to achieve using IT services. Whether you need help improving cybersecurity, transferring to the cloud, developing new software, or managing your network infrastructure, having a clear understanding of your demands will allow you to choose a partner with the expertise you require.

Expertise and Services:

It is critical to assess the range of services offered by possible IT solution provi

ders. Look for partners who specialize in areas that directly meet the demands of your company. A partner with an extensive skill set can provide comprehensive solutions while also adapting to your developing IT needs. Managed IT services to keep your systems running smoothly, effective cybersecurity measures to protect your data, software development to produce specific solutions, and cloud solutions to maximize scalability and accessibility are instances of these services.

Industry Experience:

Consider the experience of the IT solutions partner in your industry. An IT partner who has worked with firms comparable to yours will be more familiar with specific industry difficulties and regulatory standards. They may provide insights into best practices that align with the distinctive requirements of your industry, ensuring that the solutions provided are adapted to your industry’s specific needs.

Scalability:

Your IT requirements will shift as your company expands. It is critical to select a partner who can scale its services to match the growth of your company. Inquire about their capacity to handle rising workloads, new users, and upcoming technologies. As the company grows, a scalable IT partner will guarantee that your technological infrastructure stays flexible and solid.

Reliability and Support:

Maintenance can be financially harmful as well as destructive to your reputation. A trustworthy IT solutions provider ought to deliver proactive monitoring, fast issue resolution, and round-the-clock support. Inquire about their critical incident response times and their approach to preventing interruptions to your business. A partner who promotes quick issue resolution can assist you with ensuring ongoing business sustainability.

References and Reviews:

Obtain testimonials or case studies showcasing successful projects performed by the IT solutions partner to acquire insight into their past accomplishments. Check out internet reviews and testimonials from other businesses as well. Real-world experiences can provide beneficial information into the manner in which the partner operates, the quality of their services, and the influence they’ve had on other companies.

Communication and Collaboration:

Communication is the core of any successful partnership. Choose a partner that is not only technically competent but also communicates well. They should actively listen to your needs, explain complex technical issues in a straightforward manner, and provide regular project updates. Collaborative teamwork ensures that your IT solutions are in alignment with your company goals.

Security Measures:

Cybersecurity is a primary concern for businesses of all sizes, given the increasing incidence and complexity of cyberattacks. Inquire about the IT solutions partner’s cybersecurity plan of action. They should have strong security measures in place to protect your sensitive information and assist you in remaining fully compliant with privacy laws. A proactive method for cybersecurity can protect your company from possible risks.

Cost and Value:

While cost is an important factor, it is also important to consider the value you will attain. A low-cost solution that fails to adequately satisfy your needs may end up costing you more in the long run. Consider the ROI, long-term savings, and the capacity of technology to boost business growth and efficiency. It essential that you strike a balance between the cost of the collaboration and the value it provides for your company.

Alignment with Your Vision:

A strong connection is much more than just technical skills; it is also about united principles and visions. Look for an IT solutions provider who understands your company’s goals and values. A partner who’s truly invested in supporting you in achieving your vision is more likely to contribute to a productive and successful collaboration.

Vulnerabilities have been found in Log4J.

Internet security researchers have recently discovered a new vulnerability in an open-source program called Log4j.  Log4j is used by many software vendors, primarily in web servers and other web-enabled devices. This vulnerability is already being used by attackers, allowing them to take full control of affected machines. Log4j is an extremely popular piece of software and this vulnerability affects potentially millions of machines on the internet.

 

Network administrators should immediately identify all machines in their environment which might be vulnerable to this attack and contact the appropriate vendors to find out how to upgrade to a secure version of the software.  Likely targets include Apache web servers, firewalls and any other services which are accessible via a web browser.  If patching/upgrading is not an option, workarounds are possible to disable Log4j or protect vulnerable machines.

If you have any questions about this vulnerability or would like assistance reviewing your network, please contact support@icsla.us for further assistance or call us at (800) 710-4010. 

When it comes to personal or business data security, you must know how to spot bogus links. Recognizing fake email links that might lead to fraudulent pages is a challenge for many people. The fact that hackers are using more advanced methods makes it worse for all of us. That is why beefing up your communication security is very important for your business data.

Indeed, hackers are using advanced methods to make the links they’re sending out will look legitimate. Unfortunately, this leaves people unsure of whether the link they’re following is legitimate or fraudulent. Luckily, there are ways to check whether a link is legitimate. That’s why, today, we’ll be looking at how you can incorporate spotting fake email links into your in-house security training.

After focusing on fake links and their dangers in our previous blogs, today’s blog will summarize everything we’ve shown you so far. By doing so, we’ll help ensure you’re getting the right approach to your communication security and keeping everyone safe!

How Communications Technology Can Threaten Your Security

Modern communications technologies put many people at risk, and as a result, it’s crucial to be aware of how these risks threaten your security. There are many ways by which communications technology is problematic, and some of the risk factors include the following:

• Text message scams which include fraudulent links
• Emails sent to your address that include fake links to sites that seem genuine
• Fraudulent links through social media and messaging apps leading to malware-infected sites

These are just a few of the most common communications technology threats. You and your staff should be aware of these possibilities when opening emails, texts, or social media communications.

Why Adding Fake Link Prevention to Staff Security Training is Crucial

If you have been considering your next staff security training, adding fake link prevention is critical. Your security training sessions give your team an ideal opportunity to learn more about the dangers posed by clicking on bogus email links. This extra step helps ensure that your team knows how to stay safe while completing their daily tasks. By doing so, you can protect your client data from the risk of security breaches while also preventing hackers from getting access to your business funds.

Moreover, giving your staff information they need helps them avoid the risks of falling prey to fake links in their personal life. This knowledge increases the chance that they will stay safe in the workplace. Fewer data breaches will lead to better overall employee morale. After all – it’s a well-known fact that happy employees are more effective and efficient workers. This efficiency is not only good for your staff but also your business.

As such, it’s pivotal for businesses to incorporate fake link prevention and protection strategies into their staff security training. This step can also protect your business data while ensuring that your customers have confidence that their data is secure. Meanwhile, it can also help boost your staff’s morale by teaching them to be safe and protected in their personal life. So, the benefits can be numerous!

Beefing Up Your Communication Security by  Staying Safe from Security Challenges

To stay safe and protected against security challenges, you should consider the following tips. These will help you avoid falling into the trap of fake email links, which could have numerous consequences for your personal and business security.

First, it’s vital to check where the link in question will take you. This step is easy to do. To start with, if the anchor text is a visible hyperlink, check that this is legitimate by looking for any signs of fraudulent links. You should also check where the hyperlink is taking you by right-clicking on the link before following it. For example, if a legitimate website ends with .com, check that this hasn’t been tampered with in the link. An obvious sign of a false link would be if the address ends with .co.uk, .xyz, .club, or other uncommon domains.

Second, check the sender’s details. You can search for email addresses and phone numbers online. If a quick search doesn’t yield much useful information, you could also directly contact the company. In this case, you should ask them whether this is their genuine contact number or address. Most companies will be more than happy to help!

Finally, make sure you have your antivirus protection in place. Antivirus is surprisingly affordable nowadays. Your local IT service provider can help you choose the antivirus software that’s best for you. If you need help in beefing up your communication security contact us now!

Opening unknown links can be a risk factor for your business and staff. As a result, more and more business owners have incorporated fake link prevention strategies into their security training. We’ve come up with a few tips to help ensure that your staff members have the critical information on how to spot fake links. This training can help prevent hackers from gaining access to your business. In cases like this, it is better to be proactive rather than reactive after a breach.

How to Spot Fake Links: Brief Staff Security Training Guidance

If you have been considering covering bogus links with your staff security training, you’ll want to consider the following how to spot fake link prevention tips. These security training tips will help to give your staff the tools they need to stay safe and protected against the dangers posed by malicious links.

Staff Security Training Tip #1: Check URLs Before Following Them

One important tip for your staff as part of their security training is to check all URLs. A URL is the web address that you follow when you click a link. A common trick used by hackers to make the URL seem authentic is to use a similar URL mimicking a legitimate website.

For example, one switch would be disguising bogus links by changing the website name from ‘example-site.com’ to example_site.com.’ This tiny change often goes unnoticed but could lead to your staff getting caught by a fake link.

Here are more examples:

If you regularly deal with Amazon, you’ll notice that their URLs look like these:

orders@amazon.com, service@amazon.com, or membership@amazon.com

But bogus URLs will look like these:

hurry@amazon-$75.com, buddy79@my_amazon.com, or service@amazon-helpmenow.com

Often, the URL won’t contain the name of the sender at all. You may see URLs like these:

clickhere@davisneedsshoes.org, holographic_iris@$9di4!wow.net

Question any link that seems out of place. If your staff doesn’t check these carefully, it can be easy to fall into a trap.

As part of this staff security tip, make sure they’re aware to check both the name of the link and check where the hyperlink goes. Hackers can easily disguise malicious links as legitimate links by using a website name as the anchor text. But, instead of taking you to the legitimate website, the link redirects you to a fake site. Luckily, checking the destination of a hyperlink is easy, especially on computers; simply right click and you’ll get an option to see or edit the hyperlink.

Staff Security Training Tip #2: Don’t Open Unknown Emails

A second crucial tip is to ensure that your staff does not open unknown emails. For many people, this is not easy to do. After all, how can you tell whether a sender is legitimate or not? It’s easy to understand why this is so difficult. Some people struggle to decide whether the contact details for a firm are legitimate addresses or not. Luckily, we have a few tips for this.

Firstly, for text messages and telephone contacts, look up the telephone number from the source. A quick search will often give you the information you need to know. Most companies will have these numbers listed on their website’s contact details. Alternatively, if the phone number is not legitimate, many sites now exist to display shady phone numbers; as such, searching the phone number alone may be enough information to help you decide if the text was legitimate.

As part of checking a sender’s identity, you can also search for a specific email address to see if any information comes up. Most companies will have their contact email addresses displayed on their website. Check If the email address in question is on the website so you can confirm that the links are legitimate. If the exact email address does not appear on the website, you should question its authenticity.

If you struggle to find the correct information directly from a search, don’t be afraid to contact the company in question. Most companies are more than happy to help if it means preventing a scam from occurring in their name.

Checking the legitimacy of the phone number or email address is one of the best ways to check whether a link is legitimate or fake. Ensure that your staff knows to do this for any communication containing a link.

Staff Security Training Tip #3: Get the Best IT Support and Antivirus Software

As a third and final tip for your security training, we cannot stress the importance of good anti-malware and antivirus solutions highly enough. Having these in place and installed on all of your devices can provide a good security backup. This practice is vital in case someone accidentally follows an illegitimate link that tries to download harmful software.

Antivirus software is highly affordable nowadays and doesn’t take long to set up in your office. If you have any questions about this, contact us today. We will help you find the best antivirus software for your needs, as well as offer training to your staff.

In our latest series of blogs, we’ve talked about how the Covid-19 pandemic provided us with an ideal opportunity for shifting the workforce. Let’s take a look at what we’ve learned!

Back to work supplies

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we run our businesses. There have been some advances that perhaps wouldn’t have happened for decades without it, if at all. IT equipment and software is the first thing that springs to mind when we think of advancements in the workspace. Thanks to the need for remote working, we’ve now got a whole host of collaborative conference room technology to help us in this new working world. Conference room webcams, interactive whiteboards, and noise-canceling headsets are all things that have developed in the last year or so. For businesses returning to the office or a hybrid working scenario, these items are now necessities. It’s not just technology that employers are considering. Many employees have relished the chance to work from home in comfort, so many employers are now attempting to mimic the home environment with soft furnishings, plants, and refreshments. Also, relaxing the dress codes is a great way to shift the workforce back to the office. After all, it’s likely that employees have been just as productive in their sweats and t-shirts.

Overcoming workplace distractions

Our second blog in the series focused on avoiding distractions in the workplace. Whether an employee works remotely, in the office, or a mixture of the two, they will likely experience many distractions. There are ways employers can prevent workplace distractions, and it’s a great idea to look at working environments. Are they clutter-free, organized, and quiet? If not, employers have lots of ways they can make them so. Providing employees with noise-canceling headsets is a good idea for both the office worker and the remote worker. Distractions online can also be a problem. There are many programs now that block these popular sites during working hours. However, one vital step is to ensure that there is mutual trust and respect with colleagues. Never underestimate the power of a strong working relationship.

Workplace culture reboot

The post-Covid-19 return to the office provides the ideal opportunity for employers to shift their workforce towards a culture reboot. It’s a great time to introduce new concepts and practices and engrain them into the day-to-day life of the business. Our third blog post in the series looked at what employers might consider about their company culture and the importance of creating a positive workspace. Some ideas included having a healthy snack bar, incorporating daily team huddles, investing in team building, and empowering the staff.

Final thoughts

While there have been so many negatives over the past months, having something positive to focus on, like shifting your workforce culture, can do wonders for your business and employees alike. We hope you try to make things more positive for everyone. We hope these tips are helping you run your office more efficiently. And, as always, if there is ever anything you need help with, contact us, and let’s discuss some solutions. We’re here to help.

With the many changes that have occurred since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent crisis, employers are facing crucial decisions on how to shift their workforce into a new workplace culture reboot. This is the ideal time for looking at what we’ve learned over the past year. It’s an opportunity to focus on inclusion and diversity, and to create a positive workspace.

Creating a positive workspace with a cultural reboot

When talking about an organization, we often think of the company ‘culture’ as the ways in which things are done. The culture embodies the company’s values, vision, habits and norms that drive workers’ behaviour during their daily tasks. Lots of work habits have shifted since the first quarter of 2020. Some companies have now made a great workplace culture reboot. As we all move towards a new definition of what constitutes a workplace – office and home – it’s the perfect opportunity to look at what employees need to get their jobs done.

Workplace culture reboot element considerations

When you make the decision to reset your company culture, there are many things you can consider:

Organizational purpose and strategy – re-confirm your company’s vision and mission post-Covid-19. Is there anything that needs to change? Do the behaviours and values pre-pandemic still serve their purpose or do they need adjusting?

Behaviours and values – what do you want your working environment to look like? How will you measure and define it? Is there anything that needs to be changed in this new environment and time?

Core systems and processes – with remote working, how have your processes and operations changed? Are there any systems or structures that can be improved to help embrace the differences between employees? How could your financial, operational and HR procedures be adjusted to meet your employees’ needs better? Is there a need for greater flexibility in working hours or places?

Recognition and motivation – Have you learned anything about the motivation and needs of your employees since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic? How can employees’ needs be dealt with by managers and supervisors to open a relationship built on trust?

Employee input and engagement – how can your employees provide input into your company operations? Are there adequate ways they can give feedback? Recently, The Grossman Group ran a survey that found almost half of people who are working from home want to continue doing so after the pandemic. Not all people enjoy remote working, though, and many seek a flexible working arrangement. Being flexible can help employees be more engaged and committed in their work.

Cultural resilience – when deciding on a reboot, think about how much resilience you can build into the team. A more resilient team will be able to adapt easily whenever changes arise. According to a report by Gallup, to be resilient when the going gets tough, businesses need to make sure their employees have everything they need to work as best they can. It’s also vital to show them how their work is part of the bigger picture.

Simple ways of creating a positive workplace

As well as looking at the wider organizational structures and processes, there are some really simple ways of creating a positive workplace for a cultural reboot. Here are some ideas:

Have a healthy snack bar – Many people have suffered from their eating habits during the Covid-19 pandemic and are keen to get back on track. Having a healthy snack bar will not only be appreciated by colleagues but will mean they are ready to tackle their work with adequate nutrition behind them.

Team huddles – having a short morning meeting that is no longer than 15 minutes is a great way of starting the day. It’s simple and repetitive and gets people motivated and on task ready to start their day.

Team building – when your teams have a great relationship, everything else will fall into place. Consider investing in team-building sessions to ensure there are positive working relationships with team members of all levels. When you get on with people and respect them, you’re more likely to work harder!

Staff empowerment – employees will work better with less micromanagement. Hand tasks and responsibilities over and see how they turn out! Another way to empower staff is to give them the opportunity to contribute. Creating an open forum for suggestions is a great way of ensuring employees feel heard.

Use lunch & learns – these are perfect opportunities for voluntary, informal conversations and learning opportunities amongst employees. They bring people together in a casual, low-stakes way.

Company-wide games – don’t forget to have fun! Create a positive workplace by having regularly scheduled company-wide games or quizzes.

Whatever the reasons behind your cultural reboot, the post-Covid-19 pandemic return to work is the ideal opportunity to embrace new practices. If you have any questions about getting a workplace culture reboot, contact us today. We are here to help.