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February 9, 2011

Why Teleworking is essential in bad weather

Filed under: Green Business, Prevention — Tags: , , — Administrator @ 4:42 pm

When the weather looks ominous, so does the productivity of your company.  Inclement weather causes many employees to reconsider risking a potentially hazardous commute to work.  Instead of losing productivity, why not consider having employee’s telework during sever weather?

Teleworking is a work arrangement where employees have the choice to work from home or from their office.  In harsh weather conditions teleworking is mutually beneficial to both the company and the workforce.

For an employee, being able to telework during difficult weather saves a potentially long and/or dangerous drive to work.  The less time employees have to take off from work due to weather conditions, the happier they are as they can use their time off for other reasons.  An overall boost of morale can also be had when you show your employees that you care about their safety and respect them enough that they can be trusted to work from home.

Employers benefit just as much as the employee.  Absenteeism and tardiness due to hazardous road conditions decreases and productivity increases. Businesses that offer teleworking options are more attractive to potential employees and retaining top talent.

Allowing employees to work at home during bad weather also gives your company a strong reputation of putting your clients and customers first. With teleworking on the rise, fierce competition, and technology advancements such as cloud computing, telling your clients you couldn’t reach them ‘due to the weather is just not a viable excuse anymore, especially when dealing with clients who are not in the same geographical location as your company.

To ensure teleworking success, make sure your employee’s have the proper technology, software, and high speed internet at home.  Also have policies and procedures in place to make certain expectations are being met.

When you empower employees to make a proper decision about their safety, not only does productivity boost, employee moraledoes as well.  Teleworking provides a happy balance of employee safety and company profitability. For more information about teleworking benefits and how to start a teleworking program visit teleworktoolkit.com.

November 20, 2010

Disaster Recovery – Make a Plan

Filed under: Managing Systems, Prevention, network security — Tags: , , , , — Administrator @ 11:16 pm

In case your computer ends up being victimized by Malware or any mechanical, human or natural disaster, a Disaster Recovery Plan will have you back up and running saving you valuable time and money.

What is a Disaster Recovery Plan? It is a plan that outlines the steps required to recover data in the event of a catastrophe happening to your IT infrastructure. Is a disaster plan right for your small business? Every company should have some form of disaster recovery plan in place. Anytime data is critically lost it means a loss of both time and money for your business. Your technology infrastructure holds vital information for your company pertaining to vendors, customers and employees. While you might not need an elaborate recovery plan, all companies should have some type of  plan in place.  Here are some ideas to help get you started.

Start by assessing your risks. Disasters can happen from theft, malfunctions, fire, employee neglect, weather related issues and a plethora of other reasons. View the likelihood of the threats you’ve identified and start to build a plan based off of your risks.

Make sure your plan is well documented. Outline procedures and steps to take in case of a disaster. Keep important details such as location of back up discs, numbers for your information technology vendors and important passwords in your document. Familiarize key staff and/or your outside IT service providers with this document in case you are away so the recovery process begins as soon as possible. Review your plan on a quarterly basis to keep your staff and/or IT service provider up to date on your policies and procedures.

Always have a back up! Back ups are essential for your piece of mind. The more redundancy you have in your system, the less likely you are to have failure.
Copy your data to tapes and store it at a secondary location to protect it from physical damage or loss. Just think, if a fire burned down your business not only do you lose your computer and all of its data but your back up tapes as well. How often should you back up? This depends on the information getting stored into your system. Think about its value to your company – if the information is important to your business and the cost to replace the information is high, back it up. Also check to make sure your back ups are working and have been copied properly. Regularly test your back up and replace your tapes every 6 months.

Whether it is a small interruption or something that can shut your business down for days, a Disaster Recovery Plan is essential. Make sure you assess your risks, make policies and procedures and create back up files. Don’t wait until it is too late; create a disaster recovery plan today.

October 21, 2010

Malware – How to prevent it

Filed under: News & Events, Prevention, network security — Tags: , , , , — Administrator @ 2:35 pm

In part 1 of the Cybersecurity Series you learned exactly what Malware is and what it can do to your technology infrastructures. In part 2, you will learn how to protect your computer and your identity from these cyber threats.

Malware is malicious software that can slow your technology down via harmful applications such as Viruses, Trojan Horses, Rootkits, Worms, Spam and other applications we had discussed in Part 1. Knowing how to protect your technology from Malware will not only save your computer, mobile device or networks, but will also safeguard your online and personal identity. Here are some tips on how to take action:

Invest in good antivirus software. This is a must, especially before you go online. Antivirus Software is a product that is used to detect and prevent malicious codes such as Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses from getting on to your system. It may also remove adware and spyware from your infrastructure. Be sure to update your antivirus software, as updates can protect you against the newly formed Malware.

Do Security Audits. Run your antivirus software often. Regularly browse through your system, looking at the contents of system directories, logs, and other files. Note file locations and file sizes. Observe the usage patterns of your machine and of your users (if you have any). To find a list of free secure sites that do check-ups click here. If you’re a small business in the Massachusetts or New Hampshire areas we offer a detailed, no obligation security audit for free – sign up here and someone will get back to you promptly.

Be careful what you download. Whether you are downloading an attachment from an email or from the Internet make sure you know it’s coming from a secured source. Use extreme caution when downloading from a site that uses file sharing. A good practice is to run a scan on the file in order to make sure it is not corrupt. Also, be leery of email links, even if sent by friends, family or colleagues. This is how most Malware gets sent through the Internet.

Protect your email account. This will ensure you’re not sending these corrupt email links as well. In order to prevent your email account(s) from getting hacked into; create a strong password by using a combination of letters (upper and lower case), numbers and symbols. If you learn your account has been compromised, the first plan of action would be to change your password and then do an antivirus check on your computer.

Make sure your firewalls are set up and functioning. A firewall is either a program or hardware that filters the amount of information coming through your personal computer or your network. The main security feature about a firewall is that it stops anyone from outside logging into your computer or network, which is necessary for businesses trying to protect company data.

Using the best practices for protecting yourself from Malware goes beyond protecting your computer or networks; it’s about protecting your business personal and private.

April 14, 2010

Disaster Recovery Plan: When disaster strikes your ready!

Filed under: Prevention — Administrator @ 12:25 pm

Winters in New England are known for being brutal, but this Spring has brought in some serious showers and flooding-whereas you might be personally prepared-is your business?

Inclement weather can cause chaos on telephones or data services and many companies only realize the importance of Recovery planning AFTER an outage or disaster has occurred. Don’t let this happen to your company-advanced planning can minimize undesired effects on your technological solutions.

What you can do:

  • Write out a plan considering the utmost disaster-this will give you coverage for the lesser disasters at the same time!
  • BACK UP! BACK UP! BACK UP! Important daily output should be documented and backed up.
  • Make sure all your licensing code and passwords are stored in a safe place that can be recovered in the event of a disaster.
  • Create a document of your plan and let your employees be aware of emergency procedures.  Make sure this document has important contacts and clearly defines the roles of your employees in case of an emergency.
  • Have a number your incoming calls can be re-routed to in case phone services are out.
  • Have redundancy hardware and make sure you have two completely different circuits with absolutely no shared facilities and being fed by different central offices.
  • Have a battery-powered AM/FM radio on hand. In the event of a communications or electrical disruption some radio stations will be operating on back-up power.
  • In the event of an electrical storm, do not use a corded telephone. Also, unplug modems, faxes, and computers from the phone line. There is a possibility of an electrical charge running through the line.
  • Review your plan often to make sure it is up to date.

Disaster planning is one of the most important IT projects a company can take on-think about it-what if your company could not use phones for the day-how about computers?  Can your company afford the aftermath of a disaster? A well thought out Disaster Recovery Plan will protect your business and prevent total loss during an emergency, whether big or small.