3 Reasons Your Company Can Benefit From a Managed Help Desk

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Businesses now use more technologically advanced tools than ever before. These IT systems form the backbone of some of your company’s most mission-critical processes. However, if one of these resources should go down, or if employees aren’t sure how to use them appropriately, your organization may not be reaping as many benefits from its IT solutions as it could be.

This is where the enterprise help desk comes into play, and becomes such an important part of the company. This critical resource provides a place for employees to reach out to when problems occur, and enables the IT team to be in the know about the latest issues it needs to address.

Traditionally, the help desk was staffed by a business’s own IT employees. However, many corporations soon discovered that this was not ideal. Now, more enterprises than ever are turning to outsourced, managed help desk services, such as those offered by ISG Technology. There are a number of advantages a managed help desk can bring. Let’s take a look at how this could benefit your organization:

1) More time for your core team

With a team of experts handling help desk calls, your internal IT staff no longer has to worry about the red phone, so to speak. An outsourced service shifts the responsibility of help desk calls off your IT department’s plate, giving them more time to focus on other, mission-critical initiatives.

“An outsourced service shifts the responsibility of help desk calls off your IT department’s plate.”

There are a number of new IT trends and advancements taking place every day. If your IT team is busy answering help desk calls and chasing down solutions, they may not have the time they need to institute these innovations within your company. Without the burden of help desk calls, though, IT teams have the resources they need to investigate and educate themselves on the newest strategies, and can bring these to the attention of the executive boardroom.

2) Considerable cost savings

One thing that holds many organizations back from adopting a managed solution are perceived concerns about cost. An outsourced help desk solution, like many managed services, can actually help an organization save considerably, particularly when it comes to staffing, equipment and training expenses.

Outsourcing your helpdesk means that an expertly resourced team takes on this responsibility. In this way, your business can save time and money and need not worry about things like training, the necessary hardware and software, a space for the help desk team or hiring new staff members to support it.

“For small organizations, the manpower needed to answer phones with enough extra help to account for vacations, sick days and turnovers could even double your payroll,” market expert Business.com stated.” Add this to the space, equipment and training necessary for adequate support and help desk activity can suddenly take up a large portion of your budget.”

An affordable managed help desk, however, can help eliminate these expenses, ensuring expert support at a fraction of the cost.

A help desk service is critical to business, and is even more impactful when handled by outsourced experts. A help desk service is critical to business, and is even more impactful when handled by outsourced experts.

3) Focused user support

The priority of any help desk is to solve any and all issues that come its way. This means that providing an enjoyable experience for the caller can sometimes fall to the wayside, especially for internal staff members.

An outsourced team, on the other hand, doesn’t just offer top-notch, knowledgeable IT support – these experts are also trained in client support. This means that every request to the help desk is met with a quick and courteous response, providing the best experience possible for your employees.

To find out more about how a full-service help desk solution can benefit your company, contact the experts at ISG Technology today.

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Why you should consider a career at ISG Technology

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Finding a new job is hard, especially if you’re an experienced IT professional. You’re no longer looking for a position that will just hold you over; you want a career that you can grow into over the years. You want a company that knows what you’re worth and what you’re trying to get out of life, both personally and financially. You simply want something better.

If that sounds like you, we may have your answer. ISG Technology is always looking for skilled IT workers to join the team, and we only want the best. Our top-notch benefits and history of success have brought many of IT’s finest into our ranks, and we’re sure you’ll be impressed by what we have to offer.

We’ve stayed strong while others have stumbled

We very often hear stories in the news or rumors on the streets of managed service providers laying off employees due to business failures. While we certainly won’t admit to being perfect, we do pride ourselves on our continued success within this sector. Since 1982, ISG Technology has helped clients align technology decisions to their business goals, and we’ve been going strong ever since.

“We pride ourselves on our continued success.”

Our devotion to quality services has allowed us to grow to a dozen facilities all across the Midwest, which have created more than 175 jobs for our highly trained professionals. This massive growth in our IT infrastructure has enabled us to diversify our offerings, giving us the ability to work in IT consulting, managed services, cloud solutions, support and countless other IT business endeavors.

What all of this means for you is that we are an ever-expanding company. We’re certainly proud of what we’ve done, but we aren’t content to sit on our laurels. We want to innovate, change and grow with the times, and that means we need skilled individuals to come along for the ride.

Our employee benefits are hard to beat

We here at ISG Technology know that work-life balance plays a major role in your mental health. While we expect all of our workers to give 100 percent while they’re on the job, we also make a point of rewarding each and every one of our employees. To begin, we have an extremely generous paid-time-off program with seven paid holidays, and we fully support our staff’s right to have a day off every now and then.

We also offer maternity and paternity leave. While we’d hope that all of our employees begin to see ISG Technology as a family rather than a workplace, we know that your real family comes first and we would never want to get in the way of something as important as the addition of a new son or daughter. As a fourth-generation family-owned business, we fully understand the importance of being with your loved ones on such a joyous occasion.

Outside of personal time, ISG Technology also offers a host of monetary benefits. On top of a highly competitive salary for our positions, we also have a 401k matching program and spending accounts for many of our employees. While we do have a commitment to the financial well-being of our staff members, these benefits are also meant to improve our overall business.

Giving birth is an exciting time, and we wouldn't want you to miss it.

No person – mother or father – should have to miss out on those first days with a newborn.

A survey from Parature found that 62 percent of consumers will leave a company due to poor client service. By compensating our employees based on what they’re worth, we receive exemplary work from them. This translates to clients staying longer and referring people, which means more money to put back into the company and our staff. It’s the purest definition of a win-win.

We give you room to grow

ISG Technology has a long history of investing in team members. We know that a revolving door of employees is just bad for business, and we want to give you the tools to succeed. We have a deep commitment to continuing education and personal development within our company, and we strive to ensure our employees are as qualified as they possibly can be.

We don’t want to give you a job: We want to help you create a career. If you’re the kind of person that wants a challenging, yet rewarding position, you’re exactly what we’re looking for. Check out our Careers page to find the role that’s just right for you.





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What does health care need from communications solutions?

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Health care is an incredibly fast-paced industry. Even a few seconds’ hesitation can result in a patient’s death, so medical professionals are almost always strapped for time. Although this is simply the nature of the job, a solid way to improve efficiency is by implementing a robust communications solution.

A doctor needs a hefty amount of information to treat a patient, and other health care workers simply need to be able to talk to each other in order to complete their daily tasks. However, this sector has some very specific needs that can’t be solved by just any system.

So, what should health care administrators be looking for in a communications solution?

Security and compliance are the first concerns

“Health care is a huge target for hackers.”

Health care is a huge target for hackers, and for good reason. Those working in this industry need a lot of information about the patients they are treating, ranging from financial data to descriptions of potentially embarrassing diseases that could be used to blackmail the person.

The storing and transferring of these records through digital means has increased the attack surface, which is why lawmakers enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA is designed to protect the privacy rights of patients and ensure anyone involved in the medical process, whether they be doctors or insurance agents, take proper steps to increase security.

While keeping patient data out of the hands of hackers is a noble goal in itself, medical facilities also have a selfish reason to avoid a breach. According to a study from IBM, the average cost of a hacked medical record totaled $355. This is well above the overall average of $158, showing just how expensive a breach can be for those working in health care.

This is why it’s so important to invest in a secure and compliant communications system. Hackers know how much medical information is worth, and they’re eager to intercept messages containing this data. What’s more, overall security in health care is extremely lacking. A study from HIMSS Analytics and Symantec found that 80 percent of health care institutions put 6 percent or less of their IT budgets toward security.

While this issue needs to be addressed in its own right, allocating some of this spend toward a better communications infrastructure could be a huge step forward.

Uptime is vital

Another major aspect of health care communications that must be addressed is the importance of uptime. Medical workers need to be able to trade information on a regular basis throughout the day, and losing this ability could be incredibly dangerous.

A great example of this is the ransomware attack that befell the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in California. This hospital was hit by a piece of malware that basically encrypts all the data stored on a network, which means staff members couldn’t access any patient information. After realizing the extent of the attack, hospital workers attempted to work around the issue by using fax machines and written notes, according to Digital Trends contributor Trevor Mogg.

While the hospital did end up getting its systems back online after paying a ransom to the hacker, this situation very clearly shows the fragility of a health care organization’s communications system. A single attack was able to send the facility back to the 1980s, causing an enormous headache for administrators.

Of course, hacking isn’t the only way that a communications infrastructure can go offline. Everything from lightning strikes to simple human error can easily have the same effect, and health care officials need to set up a system that can deal with these kinds of threats.

Your organization needs scalability

Stepping outside the realm of scary possibilities, medical facilities also have to plan for inevitable growth. A business is only doing well if it’s getting bigger, but this means that local systems need to increase as well.

Such an ability to grow is called scalability, and it’s incredibly important in all things IT. However, it’s perhaps most relevant in health care communications. As these organizations increase in size, they must hire new people and take on more patients than ever. When this happens, older solutions will start to show their age and won’t be able to handle the increased load. Therefore, a communications infrastructure needs a high level of scalability.

Your organization might need to scale up in the future. Is your current solution’s scalability enough?

What about continued support?

When it comes to any IT solution, administrators need two things: training and continuous support. Although modern technology is becoming much easier to work as IT literacy increases, the only way to get everything out of a system is to be taught exactly how to use it. On top of that, employees need to know that they have an experienced professional they can call if they run into any issues that they can’t solve themselves.

This is why it’s so important to work with an experienced vendor like ISG Technology. We have a history of creating communications solutions for health care organizations, and we know what this industry needs. Our security procedures will help your facility stay HIPAA compliant and your systems online. On top of that, we can help you scale your communications system to meet your specific needs, and we offer training and round-the-clock support.

Communicating is incredibly important in health care, and administrators shouldn’t wait until their current solution fails in order to find another. Contact ISG Technology today to see how we can help your employees collaborate better.

3 myths about Office 365 that just aren't true

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The rate of innovation involved with modern technology is increasing with every year. Companies are working hard to constantly give new features to their clients, a sentiment that is especially true of Microsoft’s Office 365. This cloud-based productivity platform has exploded on the enterprise IT scene and is completely changing how and where employees complete tasks.

Despite having been on the market for nearly five years now, those who haven’t had the chance to work with Office 365 yet still don’t know much about it. In fact, there is a portion of this population that have formulated myths based on unfounded rumors and hearsay. We wholeheartedly believe that Office 365 is an incredibly beneficial tool, and we would hate to see a company miss out on it due to unsubstantiated claims.

Therefore, we’ve put together a list of myths about Office 365 that just aren’t true, and what the reality behind the situation actually is.

Myth #1: It’s not secure

No matter which sector your company works in, one of your most important areas of concern has to be cybersecurity. This is because a data breach could seriously affect how clients view your organization. A study from Centrify found that two-thirds of consumers living in the U.S. will stop their business relationship with an institution following a major hacking event. Clearly, staying on top of your firm’s security is of the utmost importance.

This is especially true when you’re talking about a platform like Office 365. This service handles so many pieces of important information that it makes sense for people to be worried about it’s ability to mitigate the risks of a cyberattack. However, the idea that Office 365 is inherently less secure than other options is completely false.

This service has a good level of security. Office 365 is incredibly secure.

Microsoft has spent years refining and polishing the security features on Office 365, and it truly shows. This service has been built from the ground up with cybersecurity in mind, and businesses all over the world rely on Office 365 to keep their data safe. The company’s website even has a list of the most important features, which are:

  • Identity security: Ensuring that only the right employees have access to secure data is paramount. Therefore, Office 365 relies upon multi-factor authentication, which means you have to utilize multiple security credentials in order to log onto an account. This puts another obstacle between your company’s data and the hackers.
  • Data and app encryption: Encryption is by far the most important tool in the fight against cybercriminals. Office 365 utilizes this technology when information is moving between systems and when it’s stored on a particular device.
  • Responding to issues: Microsoft stated that Office follows the response tactics of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This includes having a dedicated security team, detecting and analyzing threats, containing incidents and spearheading an investigation after everything’s said and done.

Clearly, there are too many security features baked in to Office 365 for it to be considered a vulnerable platform. Working with this tool means that your data has an added level of security that will help lower the chances of a data breach.

“One of the major selling points of Office 365 is that it clears up a lot of technical issues.”

Myth #2:  It’s going to steal your job

One of the major selling points of Office 365 is that it clears up a lot of technical issues that other platforms present to company IT teams. While it is obviously a clear advantage, some workers see this as a threat to their current position. They see all the work that they put toward just keeping their current system running, and they think if they don’t have to do this maintenance then they’ll be out of a job.

While this comes from a very real place of self worth, this is once again a very false myth. Although Office 365 will streamline certain processes and eliminate the need to constantly put out fires, it won’t completely take away the need for a robust IT department. As a matter of fact, the truth is quite the opposite.

Office 365 gives you the opportunity to explore internal goals like never before. Due to the fact that you won’t have to waste time simply fixing what should already work, you can move on to opportunities to expand your current IT infrastructure. A deployment of this platform isn’t the death of the IT team; it gives your department new life.

Myth #3: Moving from a different platform is next to impossible

This is less of a specific Office 365 myth and more of a misconception for most newer technologies. Companies very often get comfortable with their current solution, and they start to imagine that making the move to another platform would just be more trouble than it’s worth. Of course, the multitude of benefits provided by Office 365 show that this just isn’t the case. Sticking with an older solution that doesn’t work properly just because you’re used to it doesn’t make any sense, and it could end up costing your company big in terms of productivity and effectiveness in dealing with client needs.

However, making the transition can lead to certain obstacles. But don’t worry, ISG Technology is here to help. Our staff members have quite a lot of experience dealing with moves to Office 365, and we can help make sure yours goes as smoothly as possible.

3 myths about Office 365 that just aren’t true

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The rate of innovation involved with modern technology is increasing with every year. Companies are working hard to constantly give new features to their clients, a sentiment that is especially true of Microsoft’s Office 365. This cloud-based productivity platform has exploded on the enterprise IT scene and is completely changing how and where employees complete tasks.

Despite having been on the market for nearly five years now, those who haven’t had the chance to work with Office 365 yet still don’t know much about it. In fact, there is a portion of this population that have formulated myths based on unfounded rumors and hearsay. We wholeheartedly believe that Office 365 is an incredibly beneficial tool, and we would hate to see a company miss out on it due to unsubstantiated claims.

Therefore, we’ve put together a list of myths about Office 365 that just aren’t true, and what the reality behind the situation actually is.

Myth #1: It’s not secure

No matter which sector your company works in, one of your most important areas of concern has to be cybersecurity. This is because a data breach could seriously affect how clients view your organization. A study from Centrify found that two-thirds of consumers living in the U.S. will stop their business relationship with an institution following a major hacking event. Clearly, staying on top of your firm’s security is of the utmost importance.

This is especially true when you’re talking about a platform like Office 365. This service handles so many pieces of important information that it makes sense for people to be worried about it’s ability to mitigate the risks of a cyberattack. However, the idea that Office 365 is inherently less secure than other options is completely false.

This service has a good level of security. Office 365 is incredibly secure.

Microsoft has spent years refining and polishing the security features on Office 365, and it truly shows. This service has been built from the ground up with cybersecurity in mind, and businesses all over the world rely on Office 365 to keep their data safe. The company’s website even has a list of the most important features, which are:

  • Identity security: Ensuring that only the right employees have access to secure data is paramount. Therefore, Office 365 relies upon multi-factor authentication, which means you have to utilize multiple security credentials in order to log onto an account. This puts another obstacle between your company’s data and the hackers.
  • Data and app encryption: Encryption is by far the most important tool in the fight against cybercriminals. Office 365 utilizes this technology when information is moving between systems and when it’s stored on a particular device.
  • Responding to issues: Microsoft stated that Office follows the response tactics of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This includes having a dedicated security team, detecting and analyzing threats, containing incidents and spearheading an investigation after everything’s said and done.

Clearly, there are too many security features baked in to Office 365 for it to be considered a vulnerable platform. Working with this tool means that your data has an added level of security that will help lower the chances of a data breach.

“One of the major selling points of Office 365 is that it clears up a lot of technical issues.”

Myth #2:  It’s going to steal your job

One of the major selling points of Office 365 is that it clears up a lot of technical issues that other platforms present to company IT teams. While it is obviously a clear advantage, some workers see this as a threat to their current position. They see all the work that they put toward just keeping their current system running, and they think if they don’t have to do this maintenance then they’ll be out of a job.

While this comes from a very real place of self worth, this is once again a very false myth. Although Office 365 will streamline certain processes and eliminate the need to constantly put out fires, it won’t completely take away the need for a robust IT department. As a matter of fact, the truth is quite the opposite.

Office 365 gives you the opportunity to explore internal goals like never before. Due to the fact that you won’t have to waste time simply fixing what should already work, you can move on to opportunities to expand your current IT infrastructure. A deployment of this platform isn’t the death of the IT team; it gives your department new life.

Myth #3: Moving from a different platform is next to impossible

This is less of a specific Office 365 myth and more of a misconception for most newer technologies. Companies very often get comfortable with their current solution, and they start to imagine that making the move to another platform would just be more trouble than it’s worth. Of course, the multitude of benefits provided by Office 365 show that this just isn’t the case. Sticking with an older solution that doesn’t work properly just because you’re used to it doesn’t make any sense, and it could end up costing your company big in terms of productivity and effectiveness in dealing with client needs.

However, making the transition can lead to certain obstacles. But don’t worry, ISG Technology is here to help. Our staff members have quite a lot of experience dealing with moves to Office 365, and we can help make sure yours goes as smoothly as possible.

What can Office 365 bring to health care?

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Microsoft has constantly been at the front of enterprise IT innovation, and for good reason. The company has a large suite of services that can help companies achieve their full efficiency potential, with perhaps the most important of these being Office 365. The Office collection of productivity tools has been a mainstay in the business world for decades, and the latest iteration is no different.

That said, certain industries like health care are hesitant to make a move on newer technologies. Medical facilities often have a very specific way of doing things, and changing up the regular routine can seem to be extremely disruptive. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Office 365 has a host of benefits for those working within this sector that simply cannot be ignored.

Incredible security

“When it comes to health care IT, the most important factor to consider is security.”

Of course, when it comes to health care IT, the most important factor to consider is security. Medical records carry a host of personally identifiable information, and if that data is compromised, it could lead to stolen identities or worse. In fact, this is such a huge issue that the federal government passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

HIPAA is regulatory legislation that governs how medical facilities can handle patient information. It’s basically designed to harshly penalize any actions that could lead to a breach. What’s more, a violation doesn’t have to be malicious or negligent. HIPAA Journal reported that a hospital can violate a rule completely by accident and still be liable for payments of up to $50,000 per incident.

With so much on the line, it’s no wonder that so many health care administrators are hesitant to change their current IT routine. What’s more, this fear of change has even generated the rumor that Office 365 cannot meet the security needs of a modern medical organization. Of course, this simply isn’t true.

Office 365 actually has more stringent standards than many other tools on the market, and we firmly stand behind the statement that you couldn’t build a more secure environment. Hospitals looking to improve security measures can seriously benefit from an Office 365 deployment.

Lower upfront costs

Outside of security, many medical facilities also have to deal with the constraint of tight budgets for the IT department. Running something like a hospital is incredibly expensive. Between the salaries for highly-trained professionals and the ever-increasing reliance on costly equipment, health care institutions just don’t have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to the technology solutions they use.

This is yet another area where Office 365 can help out. This suite of tools doesn’t require any pricey upfront costs, instead relying on a reasonable monthly fee. This allows organizations to make the switch to Office 365 without having to allocate a huge amount of money toward the venture right from the start.

Less maintenance work for IT departments

Another problem most health care organizations have to deal with is an overworked staff. Just about every department in a hospital is overrun with important tasks, but IT is very often one of the most strained departments in any medical facility. In fact, the 2014 HIMSS Workforce Survey found that 84 percent of these institutions had hired an IT worker in the past year, showing that there is an almost constant demand for experienced technology professionals.

Those in IT are often stressed. IT workers are very often overworked.

Clearly, hospital IT departments have a very full schedule, and performing general maintenance on productivity tools is just another fire to put out. This is where working with an outside partner to develop an Office 365 solution comes into play. ISG Technology professionals can manage these issues for your organization, freeing up employees to work on internal projects.

However, it’s important to note here that such a deployment isn’t a threat to anybody’s job. ISG Technology doesn’t want to downsize your IT department, we want to help it crawl out from under the mountain of maintenance problems they have to deal with. Our IT experts are trained to make your life easier, so contact us today and find out what an Office 365 solution from ISG Technology can do for your business.

3-2-1 Backup Rules Best Practices

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Companies that backup to tape as their offsite backup often aren’t aware of what recovering from tape looks like until they unfortunately have to live through it. Depending on the nature of the failure and the extent of the data involved, that type of recovery can take days to restore “business as usual” functionality.

Image result for 3-2-1 backup rule

What Backup Is… and What It Isn’t

Data backups are critical for data protection and recovery, but they should not be a substitute for other important parts of your IT strategy:
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  • Backup is for data protection and targeted item recovery:
    It is not for archive. Archives ideally will be indexed for search, have a managed retention policy, and will be stored on less expensive storage mediums.
  • It is not for disaster recovery. It is nearly impossible to test a full environment recovery scenario when relying on this method. It will often require 100% more equipment overhead to have the empty equipment in standby, equipment not providing any usefulness or return on investment
  • It is not a failover solution. Recovery times with this method should be measured in weeks, not hours.

Snapshots are not backup:

  • Snapshots can be used as one part of a backup strategy, but provide no protection on their own in scenarios where the storage devices have failed or are no longer available
  • Snapshots are usually not very granular and are commonly the recovery method of last resort
  • Snapshots are not disaster recovery on their own, only a part of a comprehensive plan

The untested data recovery plan is both useless and a waste of time to create:

  • Make time for testing, it will always be worth it.
  • Do not let the single point of failure be a human, involve many members of the team in the process so that when the time comes to execute your plan it does not have to wait for the only one who knows how.



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Shadow IT: What it is and how to mitigate it

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Technology has advanced at an incredibly fast rate in the past few years. Innovations such as the computer that were once thought too expensive for personal use are in a vast majority of American homes, and the emergence of the smartphone has increased the internet’s reach even further.

It would seem that every day some new device or piece of software is making life easier for people, and while this may be good for the consumer, it poses a major risk for IT administrators. The in-office use of these kinds of technology is called shadow IT, and it’s causing some big problems for organizations all over the globe.

How is shadow IT formed?

“The issue at hand here has to do with an employee’s personal convenience.”

The issue at hand here has to do with an employee’s personal convenience. As a rule, shadow IT very often forms when a worker decides to go outside of the company-supported suite of software and hardware in order to use something he or she is more familiar with.

A good example of this would be an employee that gets fed up with a certain file storage/exchange system. They don’t know how to work this platform, so they decide to use a free service that they’ve relied on before.

While this may solve a convenience issue, this employee is now moving company information around utilizing a platform that isn’t supported by the internal IT team. This creates a gaping security vulnerability that a hacker could work to exploit.

BYOD can help foster it

An aspect that a lot of administrators don’t consider is that shadow IT doesn’t just pertain to software or digital platforms. As TechTarget contributor Margaret Rouse points out, hardware is also part of the equation.

Your employees have all kinds of personal devices that they use at home, and they bought them for good reasons. They have experience with this tech, and this can very easily translate to an increase in productivity.

In fact, the bring-your-own-device trend hinges on this exact principle. BYOD allows organizations to sidestep paying for new equipment by simply allowing workers to bring in their own gadgets. On top of that, staff members get the unique ability to complete daily responsibilities with the tech they know and love.

When done properly, this is a perfect example of a win-win scenario. However, a BYOD deployment must be implemented properly. The IT team needs to handle this transition to ensure that the devices in question are properly secured against hackers. Without some kind of security procedure on the books, companies could be looking at a data breach.

The problem is that employees very often don’t know about the risks involved here. Again, without any sort of maliciousness, they’re simply thinking of their own convenience and choose to bring in their own gadgets without clearing it with company officials. In fact, a survey from Gartner found that more than one-third of respondents were currently completing work-related tasks on personal devices without telling anyone about it.

This is huge because the average person simply does not take the time to properly secure their gadgets on their own, especially considering the high standards of data security many industries need.

A consumer affairs survey found that only 8 percent of average smartphone owners had software that would allow them to delete the information contained on their phone should it be stolen. While most people would worry about the photos and other irreplaceable memories in the event of a theft, a stolen smartphone can easily turn into a major data breach should the wrong person get their hands on the gadget.

Smartphones used for work must be secure. Smartphone security is incredibly important in a BYOD plan.

Companies must take action

Clearly, shadow IT is no laughing matter, and organizations must take decisive action in order to mitigate the risks of a data breach. So, what would this look like?

First and foremost, set up a meeting with employees to explain the consequences of their actions. As stated, it’s not that these workers are actively trying to sabotage the company. Rather, they simply don’t understand that using a personal device or outside software could cause serious harm. These people simply need to be educated about what can happen when they step outside the approved systems.

Second, to attack unlicensed BYOD directly, administrators must come up with a plan. This could include banning these gadgets outright, but doing so is nearly impossible to enforce, and completely misses all of the advantages BYOD has to offer when done correctly. A better option may be to simply work with a vendor that knows how to implement a secure system to regulate these devices.

Finally, it might be important to figure out why employees were using outside tech to begin with. Are current solutions not doing what they’re supposed to? Do you need to implement training sessions? Would it be best to simply move on to a different platform? Answer these questions and you can work to find the root of the problem.

The presidential debate and the future of American cybersecurity

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Cybersecurity is becoming less of an individual problem and more of an issue that entire states need to deal with. Due to the importance of this issue, both presidential candidates were asked in the recent debate to discuss the current state of cybersecurity within the U.S. as well as what they plan to do when they get into the Oval Office. Their responses – as well as their previous actions – could very well foretell the future of America’s cybersecurity efforts.

Both candidates need to study up

During the debate, moderator Lester Holt asked the candidates about their opinions concerning the current state of U.S. cybersecurity. Hillary Clinton was quick to jump on Russia as a major antagonist. In fact, she went so far as to blame Putin himself for the hack levied against the Democratic National Convention. She also took a very hard line against anyone considering a cyberattack against America, saying that the U.S. would not “sit idly by” and allow foreign entities to breach private American data.

That said, Clinton has certainly had trouble with cybersecurity in the past. She set up her own private email server against State Department regulations, which was eventually compromised by a hacker.

Clinton has been hacked before. A hacker was able to gain access to Clinton’s private email server.

Donald Trump was also adamant that America needs to improve its defenses, although his response was slightly different. As Government Technology’s Eyragon Eidam pointed out, Trump brought up the uncertainty of cyberattacks like the one that befell the DNC. When discussing this attack, the candidate said it could have been anyone from Russia to Iran or even “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”

While it’s certainly true that America’s enemies are no longer visible on a map, broadly painting hackers as obese people downplays the importance of this issue.

New federal CISO’s job hangs in the balance

Although both of the candidates will continue to duke it out, the current president has decided to take action. President Obama has created the position of federal chief information security officer, and he’s appointed retired Brigadier General Gregory J. Touhill to the post. Touhill has more than 30 years of experience in the U.S. military, much of which was spent within IT. He’s also been awarded the Bronze Star Medal, according to his biography on the Air Force’s website. This position is meant to come up with a uniform cybersecurity plan for federal government organizations.

“The federal CISO is an appointed position.”

While it’s certainly good to see the White House attempting to tackle the widespread security problems present across the government, the federal CISO is an appointed position. This means the current president is allowed to choose who can fulfill the role, which puts Touhill in a tenuous position. The next president will enter office on January 20, 2017, which means Touhill has around four months to implement some changes.

Whether the next president keeps Touhill will depend entirely on who wins. If Trump is voted into office, he’ll most likely want a fresh slate and appoint his own CISO. There’s a good chance that Clinton will do the same – however, she’s probably Touhill’s only hope at job security. He’ll have to make some huge leaps in the next few months if he hopes to impress.

Could a network assessment have saved Southwest from major downtime?

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Southwest Airlines has been having a pretty turbulent few weeks. First, starting on July 20, the organization had one of the largest IT outages ever to affect a major airline. Now, two unions associated with the company are demanding that CEO Gary Kelly step down or be fired, according to David Koenig of The Tribune of San Luis Obispo.

Although it was originally estimated that the downtime cost as little as $5 million, one Southwest representative stated that it’s most likely going to be “into the tens of millions.” With so much money being lost to a technical failure, the question remains: How did this happen, and was it preventable?

One router started all the trouble

Koenig reported that all of these IT issues stemmed from a single router. Basically, this piece of equipment failed in an unpredictable way, which eventually led to other systems being knocked offline. Southwest is keeping specific details about this undisclosed, but the scale of this particular outage suggests that the network associated with this router was not properly set up.

“Companies need multiple points of failure to accommodate for a singular outage.”

As their name implies, these devices route information to their intended destinations. Data generally is bounced between multiple locations before arriving where it’s being sent. Generally, this means you have multiple points of failure to accommodate for a singular outage. If it’s true that one router’s downing caused this event, then Southwest most likely had a poorly engineered network. FlightStats stated that around 8,000 flights were affected in this incident, and a single router simply should not have the ability to affect that many planes.

The conclusion to be made here is that Southwest should have tested its network more rigorously. Network assessments are incredibly important in order to determine weak points within a particular IT system, such as how one router could be made accountable for thousands of flights. Simple tests such as these could have easily uncovered this point of failure, allowing Southwest to take actions to mitigate the risks of such a catastrophic outage.

Network assessments can prevent more than downtime

Although downtime is certainly something businesses should work to avoid, it isn’t the only problem that network assessments can unveil. These tests also help companies determine their preparedness in terms of cybersecurity. Perhaps the best recent example of this is the massive heist levied against Bangladesh Bank.

At its most basic, hackers gained access to a global banking system and basically tricked financial institutions into sending money to fraudulent accounts. When all was said and done, the criminals involved in this got away with $81 million, according to Serajul Quadir of Reuters. After some investigation, it was discovered that the bank was relying on $10 network switches for the banking system. On top of that, Bangladesh Bank had no firewall protecting private financial data.

This is one of the biggest heists in history. Hackers got away with millions from Bangladesh Bank.

IT companies are generally surprised to hear when small businesses don’t have firewalls, so the thought of a multi-billion dollar corporation lacking these most basic of cybersecurity tools is simply mind-boggling. To top this off, the heist could have been so much worse. The criminals were originally trying to get closer to $1 billion dollars, but their plans were foiled when they accidentally misspelled the name of a financial institution.

Simple mistakes such as those made by Bangladesh Bank are exactly what network assessments are designed to catch. IT employees at these organizations often need to focus on keeping systems running, and cybersecurity can sometimes take a backseat. As this incident shows, this can often have disastrous results, and companies need to be aware of the consequences of letting something like this go under the radar.

Let ISG Technology help preserve your company’s image

Clearly, missing even the smallest detail in your network’s setup could seriously affect both your company’s finances and its client-facing image. No one wants to put their money in a bank that can’t keep it safe, and consumers certainly don’t want to spend money on an airline that has a history of leaving passengers stranded. As such, it might be time to have your company’s IT infrastructure checked out by an experienced professional.

ISG Technology’s experts have spent years investigating and solving some of the most complex network problems out there, and we can help make sure your company’s name isn’t dragged through the mud. If you’d like to find out how you can benefit from a free consultation, contact one of our representatives today.

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