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Is your business ready for a winter storm?

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With snow finally falling in many parts of the country, winter has finally made its presence known. The first snowfall of the year is truly a wonderful event, and yet it poses a serious risk to businesses. Heavy snowstorms can cause damage to a company, both to physical infrastructure and the ability to conduct business.

In fact, AccuWeather found that winter storms cost the American economy $3.7 billion in 2014 alone. This number only accounts for the physical damage to buildings, leaving out the devastating cost snowstorms can cause in terms of downtime.

“Winter storms cost the American economy $3.7 billion in 2014.”

Although that number is frighteningly high, heavy snowfall doesn’t have to completely disrupt your revenue stream. With the right tools, and the right help from an experienced disaster recovery provider like ISG Technology, any business can weather the storm.

You’ll need to prepare the office

Just because you’re not able to control the severity of a snowstorm doesn’t mean you have to be at its mercy. Like many parts of life, failing to prepare for heavy snow is preparing to fail. There really isn’t anything big you can do to get ready for one of these storms. Rather, there are a lot of little ways you can prepare your company for massive snowfall.

Ready, a public service campaign created by the American government, has a large list of ways people can prepare for heavy snow. The list is targeted mostly at the average citizen, but it works just as well for a company preparing a disaster recovery plan for the winter.

Everyone should have rock salt and sand ready in the event of icy roads. This is great advice for companies with their own parking lots, as having clients and employees getting stuck in the ice every 10 minutes simply isn’t good for business.

Pushing cars in the snow is no fun, invest in salt and sand now. Having salt and sand will help you avoid the embarrassing situation of pushing a client out of your parking lot .

On top of that, businesses should invest in shovels for days when snow falls during work hours. Note here that the word used was shovels not shovel. Nobody wants to scrape ice and snow off of pavement alone, and your employees will thank you for spending the extra money.

Get help from the experts

Although all of this is all great advice for those wishing to ready themselves for the winter, there are a whole host of other aspects to consider when making a winterized disaster recovery plan.

Do you know how long your IT systems will last without maintenance in the event of a major snowstorm? How about what to do when the snowfall gets too heavy and crashes through your facility’s roof?

These questions and many more all require a disaster recovery expert to answer them, and attempting to make a plan without experienced personnel simply isn’t feasible. Thankfully, ISG Technology is here to make the process simple, easy and affordable.

If you’d like to make sure your business is ready for winter, or any disaster that might come your way, make sure to check out ISG Technology’s disaster recovery page today.

3 reasons why your business should consider colocation

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Technology has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years. It seems like new innovations are coming out every day, each with more benefits than the last. One of these incredible jumps forward has been colocation. Basically, this is where companies bring their own servers to an outside data center and share space – or colocate – with other companies.

Colocation has revolutionized enterprise IT, as many organizations have jumped into this innovation with both feet. In fact, the market surrounding this feat of modern technology is expected to absolutely explode in the years to come. According to 451 Research, the global data center colocation market is projected to be worth around $36 billion by 2017. That’s a huge amount of money for a single service, and simply goes to show how popular this innovation has become in recent years.

So, to bring more exposure to this incredible advancement, we’d like to take some time and discuss the top three reasons why your business should consider colocation.

Colocation is an interesting innovation with many benefits. Colocation is doing a lot for enterprise IT.

1. Affordability

The first – and perhaps most important – benefit of colocation is the cost savings that it can provide to organizations. Servers are absolutely necessary for modern business operations, but their care is incredibly expensive. The electricity used to power them alone is a huge expenditure, not to mention the fact that you need to hire employees to make sure the machines are safe and well maintained.

This is probably the biggest reason why so many companies are opting to switch to colocation services for their computing needs. Although you’ll still have to provide your own servers, sharing space in a single data center means sharing electricity costs. That’s good news for the environment, and it’s also a great way to slim down that budget.

What’s more, colocation providers have highly trained staff on duty 24/7 making sure your machines are kept safe and sound. This frees up your own IT team to work on internal goals and projects, rather than simply paying them to maintain the servers. In a way, you’re paying less money to get more done.

“Average network downtime costs around $5,600 every minute.”

2. Reliability

While saving money is always a good thing, businesses need more than that. Companies need to know that their services will be provided at all times, as the loss of these capabilities can be extremely expensive.

According to Gartner, the average network downtime costs around $5,600 every minute. This makes a lot of sense, considering the importance of connectivity in the Internet age, although that amount of money being lost every minute should be extremely frightening to the average business owner.

This fear of downtime is driving a lot of company leaders into colocation services, and for good reason. Colocation service providers often also offer disaster recovery planning. This means that these companies will be much more prepared than your organization at dealing with a disastrous situation, therefore ensuring the uptime of your mission-critical services better than your company ever could on its own in its own facility.

3. Scalability

Sure, your company may only need a single server right now, but don’t you think that will change as your business grows? The whole point of the American Dream is to start small and eventually work your way up to massive success, but is your company prepared for that?

Scaling up on your own can be incredibly frustrating, as finding the space for new servers is not easy. Your company’s office probably has a finite amount of space, and while growth means more computing needs, it also means more employees. How will you find space for your servers if you have more workers than ever? Once again, this is is where colocation comes in to help save the day.

One of the best parts of colocation services is the fact that you can scale your company’s operations up or down to your heart’s content. Taken on a lot of new business and can’t handle the workload? Just rent more space. Had a bad year and don’t need as much server space? Scale down. Colocation services are almost entirely customizable, allowing your computing operations to grow or shrink with your business.

Colocation really is an incredible innovation. It allows your company to receive the server power it needs, without forcing you to buy space you don’t. If you would like to see what colocation can do for you and your business, contact ISG Technology today. Our years of experience in the field will allow you to leverage this amazing technology to benefit your company.

Hackers hit hard and fast: Is your company ready for 2016?

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As the world increasingly moves online, cybersecurity will continue to play a large role in how businesses operate. A Forbes report found that the cybersecurity market is predicted to hit $170 billion by 2020. Organizations will obviously be putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to the security of their data, but will it be enough?

Hackers are a malicious bunch, but they aren’t stupid. They are always working to take what’s rightfully yours, and they’re often successful. Less-than-perfect cybersecurity systems are no match for today’s cybercriminal, and companies that don’t take security seriously in 2016 will be paying the price.

“Around 84 % of data breaches took only minutes.”

Many companies just aren’t prepared

The problem that many organizations face is that hackers are consistently refining their techniques, working daily to stay one step ahead of standard cybersecurity protocols. These attacks have gotten so sophisticated that cybercriminals are gaining access to networks faster than ever before.

According to the Data Breach Investigation Report put out by Verizon, around 84 percent of data breaches took only minutes for hackers to gain access to private information. The speed at which these criminals can get their hands on your company’s data is scary enough, but the truly frightening part of this report has to do with how long it takes to discover this kind of intrusion.

The study found that 66 percent of these breaches weren’t discovered by the organization until months after the original intrusion. That’s a very long time to have your company’s information completely open to hackers, and would allow these cybercriminals to get away with a lot of private data.

Finding an intrusion can take a very long time. Hackers love when companies take their time discovering cyberattacks.

While the theft of sensitive information is certainly bad for business in and of itself, the thing organizations really have to worry about is their public image. Money comes and goes, but reputation is all a company really has. The Ponemon Institute found that a business’s client-facing reputation can be damaged by as much as 31 percent following a data breach.

Although it is kind of cruel to blame the victim of a cyberattack, this data makes sense from a consumer’s point of view. Purchasing products or services from a company often requires the exchange of personal information, and no one wants to do business with an organization that’s known for having been hacked.

What’s more, the Verizon report found that around 9 percent of breaches were discovered by a client rather than the company itself. Being known as the company that was hit with a cyberattack is bad, but that’s nothing compared with the reputation blowback of not even being able to discover the leak yourself.

Finding cybersecurity professionals is tough

After reading all of that, you might be thinking to yourself that it’s probably time to beef up your cybersecurity team. While that’s probably a good idea, the reality of the situation is that actually hiring these professionals is a lot easier said than done.

According to Peninsula Press’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, there are around 209,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions in America right now. Due to the high level of training these professionals have to go through in order to work in the field, cybersecurity workers are few and far between.

This will make it incredibly difficult for you to find new members for your team. The pickings are really slim at the moment, and if you’re lucky enough to find someone with this kind of training you’re going to be paying quite a lot to hire them. Low supply equals high demand, and cybersecurity professionals know exactly what their skills are worth.

You might need some outside help

Asking for help can be hard, especially when you’re used to running an autonomous company. But considering the huge threat of a cyberattack against your company, now is no time to be proud. Hiring an outside company to help with things like malware removal and secure data management allows you to find the cybersecurity professionals you’re looking for without having to pay their massive salaries yourself.

Thankfully, ISG Technology makes acquiring these service easy and affordable. With everything from virus protection to intrusion prevention, ISG Technology can help keep your company safe as it moves into 2016.

4 aspects of disaster recovery you probably haven't considered

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Regardless of the industry your business operates in, having a disaster hit your company is always a possibility. Whether it’s a tornado, equipment failure or just human error, something bad could happen to your business at anytime. This may sound like a gloomy way to view the world, but it’s simply the reality of the situation.

That being said, there is something you can do to mitigate the risks of a catastrophic event. Having a plan in place has long been seen as the best way to maintain business continuity after a disaster. Sadly, many company leaders haven’t considered all sides of disaster recovery before making a decision on it. To that end, we’ve put together this list of four aspects to examine about disaster recovery planning.

1. Your business can easily shut down following a disaster

Although you probably don’t like to think about it, the fact of the matter is that your business is only one major disaster away from shutting down. According to statistics from the Institute for Business and Home Safety posted on the Small Business Association’s website, about 25 percent of smaller businesses don’t come back after a disastrous event.

Disaster recovery planning mitigates the risk of events like a fire. Don’t let a fire ruin your business.

Creating a successful and functioning business takes a lot of time and effort, and the prospect of losing all that hard work due to a single disaster should make you seriously consider how your company is approaching disaster recovery. If you don’t have a solid plan, or just don’t have one at all, your business could very well shut down for good due to a single tragedy.

2. Not having a plan is expensive

When taking on additional expenditures, many business leaders like to talk about how much the service is going to cost. While this is certainly a good place to start for other ventures, the expenses of creating a disaster recovery plan aren’t what you should be focused on. Rather, you should be discussing how much not having a plan is going to cost you.

This is because the absence of a procedure generally results in higher costs in the wake of a disastrous event. According to the Ponemon Institute, the cost of a data breach increases 10 to 15 percent if the organization doesn’t have a disaster recovery plan in place.

The reason for this is simple: Not having a plan typically creates confusion. Confusion in the wake of disaster often creates panic, which results in employees running around not knowing what to do or where to start. This causes more downtime, which means a higher cost to your company’s bottom line.

3. Just having a plan isn’t enough

So now that you’re fully aware of the importance of having a disaster recovery plan in place, it’s time to discuss testing this procedure. Once again, this is another area that many companies tend to take lightly at their own peril. Creating a disaster recovery plan and then never testing it is almost as bad as never having made one at all.

“Roughly 23 percent of organizations with a plan have never tested it.”

This is because it is impossible to predict what kind of challenges your organization will face during a real disaster if you never test for them beforehand. According to a survey conducted by the Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council, roughly 23 percent of organizations with a plan have never tested it. While this is a disturbing fact by itself, the truly frightening aspect of this is that 65 percent of those that did conduct a test didn’t pass their own inspection.

Basically, this means that a majority of the 23 percent that never test have a faulty plan and don’t even know about it. Having some sort of procedure in place is obviously the first step toward preparing for a disaster, but never testing this plan pretty much negates its ability to save your company’s business continuity.

4. All disaster recovery plans are not made equal

On a similar note, it’s important to understand that just because you have a plan doesn’t mean that it’s effective. This again harkens back to the importance of testing, but having a good procedure in place starts with the plan’s creation.

The Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council’s survey speaks to the importance of diligence in the creation of a plan. The study created a metric for grading the preparedness of each organization within the survey, with a grade of A  being the highest and an F being a failure to prepare. The survey found that 73 percent of respondents received a D or an F, meaning they were in no way ready for a disaster.

“Organizations need to focus on having the right plan.”

This again shows that simply having any sort of plan won’t help your company when disaster strikes. Organizations need to focus on having the right plan, and one of the best ways to do this is to get help from disaster recovery experts. There are simply too many aspects to consider when making a procedure for your staff to do it in-house, and there’s nothing worse than discovering your plan is lacking after a disaster has hit your company.

Anyone worried about the safety of their business needs a disaster recovery solution, and ISG Technology has the experience to create a plan that is just right for you. We’ve spent years developing procedures for all kinds of companies, and we can help you keep your business online when times get tough.

If you’d like to see what ISG Technology can do for your company, make sure to check out our page on Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity today.

BYOD in schools: Advantages and disadvantages

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As highly advanced technology becomes more affordable, people are beginning to rely more on their own devices within the workplace. Using a smartphone or personal laptop for work purposes – a movement that’s been coined bring your own device – has been catching quite a lot of traction lately within the corporate world.

However, this trend isn’t just for businesses. Many people have suggested letting students utilize their own devices within the classroom as well. While this idea certainly has some good aspects to it, it also has some downsides. Here, we’d like to take some time here to discuss both so educators can have a fuller view of what a BYOD classroom would look like.

“The world is very quickly moving to a digital space.”

Advantages

Lower initial costs for schools
This is usually the first point of interest people like to focus on when discussing BYOD. The world is very quickly becoming ever more digital; as such, organizations need specific hardware in order to connect in an efficient and effective manner. This is just as true within schools as it is in the business world, as educators must make sure the next generation is prepared for the technologically advanced society that awaits them.

Gone are the days of classes in cursive, as they have given way to typing and coding courses. As such, many schools are struggling to stay current with the technology contained within their facility. With budgets being as tight as ever in most education environments, it makes a lot of sense to just let the kids bring their own devices.

The Pew Research Center stated that 58 percent of American teens had a tablet, while 73 percent of them personally owned a smartphone. These students could very easily bring their devices into the classroom, thereby increasing the number of usable machines while still keeping budgets low.

Students get to learn with familiar tech
A huge part of the educational process is connecting new knowledge with the old. It’s why students who are just learning how to write are asked to talk about their summer vacations and what they want for their birthday. It makes the process personal, and it is yet another big advantage to BYOD in schools.

When students use their own devices in school, they skip over that awkward part of class where they have to learn how to use the tech first before actually getting to the lesson. This not only wastes time, but it causes confusion that often is disruptive to the learning process. BYOD would allow teachers more time to discuss the actual lesson plan, while also increasing the receptiveness of the students.

BYOD promotes receptiveness in students. Students can learn more if they use their own devices.

Disadvantages

Disparaging to lower-income students
While BYOD is great for schools in more affluent areas, many regions of the country simply are not ready for it. Poorer students won’t have ready access to these devices, and forcing them to buy technology they can’t afford in the first place just to participate in the classroom simply isn’t an option.

While lower-income areas absolutely need technology-based learning within the classroom, doing so with a BYOD policy won’t work. Schools that work in these kinds of regions need to be aware of the financial situation of its student body and should therefore avoid implementing BYOD.

Can students be trusted with cybersecurity?
Poverty might be one of the most obvious of detractors from a BYOD policy, but the most poignant reason this trend might not work for your school is that teens are not exactly the most reliable in terms of policing their online habits. It’s not their fault, rather some teens simply don’t know how to avoid certain scams while using the Internet.

“16 million mobile devices suffered a malware attack in 2014.”

That being said, security is something to consider when thinking about a BYOD policy for your school. Motive Security Labs discovered that around 16 million mobile devices suffered a malware attack in 2014. Hackers are working constantly to access information stored on mobile tech, and allowing your students to use these devices for classwork could open your school up to a host of cyberattacks

Basically, school administrators need to come up with a system for making sure students don’t invite cybercriminals into their network. This could be the banning of certain high-risk websites, or even only allowing devices within the school to connect to a specific number of safe sites. Either way, it would be a mistake to allow students to govern themselves within a BYOD policy.

The verdict

When it comes to BYOD in schools, it really all depends on the facility itself and the people working within it. Enacting this kind of policy in a school is a lot easier said than done. There are a lot of variables to consider, and missing one tiny detail could result in a massive cyberattack that could cause a lot of damage to your facility’s reputation. That being said, there are also a lot of benefits to letting kids use their own devices. The monetary advantages are obvious, and teens are a lot more receptive to a lesson if they’re allowed to complete it using their own tech.

At the end of the day, it all just depends on what kind of school you run. If you have the time to police online activity and have a student body with a lot of personal devices, BYOD can do quite a lot for your school. If not, this trend might not be right for you and your students. BYOD is a fantastic move in the right direction for many corporate institutions, but implementing it within the educational space is going to take some time.

If you do plan on enacting a BYOD policy, you’re going to need some help. The cybersecurity aspect of this trend especially calls for professional experience, as your school’s private data is incredibly sensitive. Thankfully, ISG Technology can help you work out the kinks of a new BYOD policy. With years of experience helping people integrate BYOD into the workplace, ISG Technology can help bring your classrooms into the 21st century.

The ins and outs of mobile tech: What does it mean for you?

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If you ask tech-industry experts what they think has been the most disruptive technology of the last couple of years, you’ll get a few different answers. Some will say cloud computing, and others will say virtual infrastructure. Quite a few, however, will simply say one word: mobile. Smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and the Internet of Things are all examples of mobile technologies that have changed the way enterprises, medium-sized companies and small outfits alike operate within the business world. Recent numbers from The Pew Research Center indicated that 68 percent of American adults own a smartphone, and that statistic is only going to increase as 2016 progresses. It seems that everything we do is now tied up in mobile or has a mobile component – including everything in the business world.

Why is mobile so important to the way we do business now? Let’s take a look at how this disruptive technology has had such an irreversible influence on how companies approach their IT infrastructure:

1. Business and consumer tools

Computing on the go has never been more important for our fast-paced society. Research is being done every day exploring the efficacy of these kinds of tools for consumers and companies alike. For instance, according to a new study from research firm Sequence, consumers are using their devices to make wish lists and spend time with family this holiday season. If given the chance, the study found, one-third of them would use the time saved by mobile shopping to stay in bed longer.

This is a fun example of how mobile tech has changed the way we look at things, but enterprises and SMBs are also benefiting more from devices like laptops and smartphones. Business can be conducted on the fly thanks to these kinds of devices – leading to an increase in productivity and improved outcomes throughout the business world. Bring-your-own-device policies are helping companies save money in overhead and operational expenses while at the same time giving employees the means to be more productive and more efficient.

Myriad kinds of mobile devices can be used to impact office productivity.Myriad kinds of mobile devices can be used to impact office productivity.

2. Security

As mobile devices have evolved to meet the growing needs of enterprises in every industry, so too has the technological landscape developed in order to accommodate their increasing use. BYOD is even one of the driving forces behind the endpoint security market, according to a recent report published by MarketsandMarkets. The endpoint security market is projected to be worth $17.4 billion by 2020, growing at a compound annual rate of 8.4 percent over the next five years.

This market is growing proportionately with the number of malware samples discovered every day by security teams around the world. Motive Security Labs found that 16 million mobile devices were targeted by malware in 2014. To negate these kinds of threats, it’s crucial for companies to make – and stick to – a BYOD security strategy.

This strengthening of the security space is a clear indication that the need to mitigate risks has been compounded by the introduction of mobile technologies into the workplace. When unknown employee devices are connected to the network, it can sometimes cause headaches for the IT department in the form of shadow IT. Networks sometimes aren’t prepared for the intrusion of different kinds of tech, which means there may be hidden vulnerabilities waiting to be exploited.

“Improvements in terms of productivity, efficiency and expense-cutting are well worth the risks.”

3. The good parts about shadow IT

However risky it may be to allow mobile tech on your network, the benefits can outweigh the disadvantages if you play your cards right. Shadow IT has gotten a bad rap (understandably) in recent years, but improvements in terms of productivity, efficiency and expense-cutting are well worth the risks. In addition, according to CMS Wire contributor Joanna Schloss, shadow IT can lead to the adoption of new technologies that work hand-in-hand with mobile tech. This in turn helps companies see better return on investment from these tools.

Navigating the ever-changing mobile tech landscape can seem daunting when you undertake this task by yourself. Partnering with a managed services provider like ISG Technology gives you access to trained professionals who know what they’re talking about when it comes to new devices and how to best use them to your advantage. We can also help you determine the best course of action in terms of increasing your security protocols and taking charge of your computing infrastructure.

Contact the experts at ISG Technology today for more information!

How to deal with IT infrastructure challenges: App development

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As companies grow and mature, their IT infrastructure needs to evolve with them. This includes capabilities surrounding mobile app development and operations workflows. More enterprise technology begins to revolve around mobile devices, and making sure your company is on top of the game and surmounting the challenges of mobile app development is going to be hugely important.

Demand for mobile apps is increasing at an astonishing rate. According to IT research firm Gartner, there will be 2.1 billion mobile phones sold by 2019. As a result, by the end of 2017, this demand will be growing at least five times faster than IT can deliver.

Here are a few tips on how to deal with app development challenges within your organization:

1. Establish goals before beginning

Any development project should have concrete goals. The first step in any successful initiative is to ensure that there is a particular end in mind before you get started. It could help to ask certain kinds of questions:

  • Where does mobile fit into the IT strategy of this organization?
  • How do we prioritize mobile projects?
  • What kind of security do we need for these development projects?

By first establishing end goals of the app development aspect of your organization’s IT infrastructure, it greatly increases the chance for success.

It's important to first develop goals as far as your mobile IT strategy.It’s important to first develop goals as far as your mobile IT strategy.

2. Invest in the cloud

Mobile Enterprise contributor Sravish Sridhar noted in March 2015 that 63 percent of enterprise CIOs are going to consider deploying mobile projects in the cloud. With the inherent cost savings, scalability and flexibility that cloud environments offer, deploying and developing applications in the cloud can take a lot of headache away from IT endeavors.

“Leveraging the cloud during app development can be beneficial during prototyping or parallel branch development,” Sridhar noted

“Demand for mobile app development is increasing at an astonishing rate.”

3. Take advantage of continuous integration and delivery

One of the basic tenets of agile app development and DevOps methodologies is the idea of continuous integration and delivery. According to IBM, the pressure on development teams to push apps to market as quickly as possible has generated a need for agile development methods that integrate the steps of planning, development, testing and delivery into one continuous process – instead of conducting each step linearly. You should utilize these techniques to make it easier to create and deploy applications.

Contact the managed services experts at ISG Technology for more information about how we can help you with your app development operations – whether that means pairing you with the right cloud deployment or helping you consolidate your infrastructure. Our application support teams are here to assist you in any way they can.

Is your health care facility's data safe?

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When people go to the hospital for help, they’re already in a vulnerable position. They’ve become the victim of circumstance, and all they want is to get better. Sadly, there are malicious individuals out there who want to exploit these people by accessing their private health care information and using it for personal gain.

A new study conducted by IDC, which was reported on by the International Business Times, found that patient information is nowhere near safe from hackers. The report stated that one-third of all heath care client in the U.S. will have their records breached in 2016. Despite the horrific nature of stealing from someone with a serious medical condition, it seems like the hacking of health care records is on the rise.

Health care data storage at risk

Medical records are extremely valuable on the black market, and for good reason. These documents generally have a lot of private data that could be worth a lot to the wrong people. Health care documents generally have banking information on them, and sensitive medical conditions could very easily be used by a hacker to blackmail the patient.

“A single medical record is worth around $363.”

This is why it isn’t really surprising that the Ponemon Institute found that health care records cost the industry more than twice the average for all other sectors. A single medical record is worth around $363 per document, with the average of all industries being $154. The health care field simply has a lot of valuable personal information hidden within their data storage systems, and yet they may be woefully unprepared for a data breach event.

Medical field isn’t ready for hackers

Although those working within medicine are extremely knowledgeable about the human body, they aren’t IT experts. This isn’t their fault really, as knowing how to perform surgery is more important to their job than knowing how to construct a secure data management system. That being said, this lack of knowledge about IT is costing the medical profession a lot in terms of data breaches.

A separate study conducted by the Ponemon Institute found that the health care industry simply cannot handle the sophistication of modern cyberattacks. The report discovered that 78 percent of medical institutions had experienced a malware attack. While that number should be high enough on it’s own to scare health care professionals, the study really drove this point home by finding that only 40 percent of medical organizations feel cyberattacks are something to be worried about.

The fact that less than a majority of health care institutions think hacking attempts are worrisome shows how uninformed many in the medical industry are in terms of cybersecurity. While these professionals obviously need to focus on the physical health of their patients, the health care sector needs to start focusing on the cyber health of these people as well.

Patient document security is extremely important. Keeping your patients’ information safe is just as important as improving their health.

Proper data management and cybersecurity is a must

Those working within the medical field need to start putting an emphasis on cybersecurity within the workplace. Ignoring the problem, or simply staying uninformed about it, is the surest way to leave patient information open to attack. Of course, this doesn’t mean doctors need to drop the medical textbooks in favor of cybersecurity manuals. Rather, those within health care need to look outward for experts who can help them get a tighter hold on the private information of their patients.

Anyone within the health care industry worried about patient data should absolutely contact an ISG Technology security professional today. With services ranging from malware removal to intrusion detection and prevention services, ISG Technology can help your organization stay safe.

When it comes to cybersecurity, are you an ostrich, a doomsday prepper or a Navy SEAL?

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Making sure sensitive data stays private is a constant battle against the ever-increasing threat of cybercriminals. Cybersecurity is a must in modern society, and yet many company executives simply do not know how to approach it. A lot of these people don’t know enough about cybersecurity to put an emphasis on it, while others remain willfully ignorant about the threat hackers present to their companies.

In our many years dealing with cybersecurity through network security assessments, we’ve run into three kinds of executives present in the boardroom in terms of the security of their company’s data: ostriches, doomsday preppers and Navy SEALs. As such, we’d like to take some time to discuss what each of these personality types mean, and what you can do to avoid the bad ones.

Ostriches

Even outside of cybersecurity, everyone knows at least one person who fits this personality description. Ostriches are the people who absolutely refuse to face problems head on, instead opting to stick their heads in the sand in hopes that the conflict will resolve itself.

“Hackers are working tirelessly to steal your company’s information.”

As anyone who has provided malware removal for an ostrich will tell you, this is by far the worst way to deal with the threat of a data breach. There are very few problems that actually go away by ignoring them, and cybercriminals certainly aren’t on that list. In fact, a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that 79 percent of respondents had run into a security breach in the last year. Hackers are working tirelessly to steal your company’s information, and simply ignoring the problem isn’t going to make it disappear.

Doomsday preppers

Doomsday prepper executives are the ones in the boardroom constantly terrified of a cyberattack. They spend every waking hour worrying about cybercriminals, but they don’t have a strategic plan to protect company, resulting in over/under investing in solutions that don’t fit their need.

Although these executives are certainly right to be concerned – IBM found that the average consolidated cost of a breach of company data being $3.8 million – they take this fear entirely too far or not far enough. These people throw money away on state-of-the-art cybersecurity systems developed for military applications, when all their companies really need is a solid firewall and periodic malware removal managed services. Doomsday preppers may fare better in the market than ostriches do, but they tend to max out budgets or leave systems over exposed.

Doomsday preppers throw away your company's budget. Doomsday preppers waste too much money on security systems they don’t need.

Navy SEALs

The Navy SEAL is the pinnacle of tactical precision. This soldier is world-renowned for his constant preparedness, and yet he’s never over-encumbered. A SEAL only carries what he needs into battle, and nothing he wears or owns is superfluous in any way. He is effective, efficient and always gets the job done.

This is the kind of executive you want to be when it comes to cybersecurity. The Navy SEAL in the boardroom knows about the constant threat of cyberattacks, and yet he does not over-prepare. He is aware of the threat and is possibly scared of a breach of his company’s data, and yet he does not allow his fear to paralyze him. He makes decisive, cost-effective moves that put his company in the best defensive position possible against hackers.

Of course, the executive Navy SEAL doesn’t develop overnight. Knowing which systems are necessary and which aren’t takes a lot of cybersecurity experience, something very few boardroom members have. The executives of a company already have a lot on their plate, and learning all of the intricacies of a proper security system simply isn’t an effective use of their time. They need outside help from experts in the field to guide them.

Thankfully, ISG Technology is here to help you on your journey toward Navy SEAL preparedness. Our years of experience within the cybersecurity field have given us the knowledge necessary to know what your company needs, and our trained technicians can help you understand what you should know about your security system. With managed services ranging from malware removal to firewall protection, ISG Technology can help secure your company’s data.

3 things the boardroom needs to know about disaster recovery

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Keeping a business running takes a lot of hard work and effort from the boardroom. A modern company of any size has quite a lot going on, and executives are constantly busy with tasks that keep the money flowing. This generally means delegating work that isn’t of an immediate concern to other departments. A lot of the time, creating and developing a disaster recovery plan falls into the category of work that gets pushed to the IT department.

While your IT employees certainly know more than the boardroom about the operations of your technological equipment and data systems, that doesn’t mean you should avoid taking an active role in disaster recovery. A solid plan in the event of a catastrophe is vital to any company’s continued success, and as such there are a few things every executive needs to know about disaster recovery.

“Disaster is coming to your business.”

1. Data loss and downtime are an eventuality

When discussing disaster recovery in the boardroom, it’s important to realize that it isn’t a conversation about if you’ll need a plan, but when you’ll need to implement one. Talking about an event that disrupts your company’s ability to conduct business is uncomfortable to say the least, but pushing this discussion to the side as a mere possibility is unproductive and seriously dangerous. Whether you want to think about it or not, disaster is coming to your business. The question is whether or not you’re ready for it.

The 2014 EMC Global Data Protection Index supports the eventuality of downtime in the modern workplace. This survey of 3,300 IT decision-makers, which was conducted for EMC by Vanson Bourne, found that 64 percent of respondents had encountered a data loss event in the previous year. This alarmingly high number simply goes to show how important a serious discussion is about creating a disaster recovery solution. Bad things can happen anywhere at any time to anyone, and acting like you’re above these kinds of events will only make your company fall harder.

2. Outside forces are the least of your worries

When you think about the word “disaster,” what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Maybe it’s a tornado ripping through your company’s headquarters, or maybe it’s more subtle like flood waters seeping into your basement and destroying your electrical equipment. Well, when it comes to disasters that result in data loss, these events can’t hold a candle to what your employees can do.

Tornados aren't the only disaster you have to worry about. The worst disasters are a lot more discreet than a tornado.

According to the 2015 Data Health Check study conducted by Databarracks, the leading cause of data loss is human error. The report found that 24 percent of all data loss events studied had roots in people making some kind of mistake. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should stop trusting your staff. Your employees are the backbone of your business, working day in and day out to make the company successful.

That being said, no one’s perfect. People make mistakes, and sometimes these missteps end up costing the company big time. Your employees are in constant contact with company data, which means they are the biggest risk factor when it comes to data loss. This is why it’s absolutely vital for the boardroom to take an active role in disaster recovery implementation. While each worker is a vital cog in the machine in your company, they’re also a liability, and this risk needs to be mitigated with a solid disaster recovery solution.

“Your staff simply doesn’t know enough about disaster recovery.”

3. It’s cheaper to outsource

With the number of resources offered by the Internet, a lot of people are opting to work on something themselves rather than hire someone to do it. While this is fine when it comes to a new porch or changing your oil, developing a disaster recovery plan in-house simply isn’t a good idea. To begin, your staff simply doesn’t know enough about disaster recovery to implement an effective plan. Your IT employees obviously know more about your data systems than anyone else, but creating a plan that mitigates risk in the event of a data loss event may not be in their wheelhouse.

While this should be enough to convince you to outsource a disaster recovery solution, recent data from Computer Economics has found that doing so is actually cheaper than creating a plan in-house. The IT Outsourcing Statistics 2015/2016 found that 92 percent of IT organizations surveyed found that they spent the same amount of money or less outsourcing their disaster recovery plan than when they created one on-site.

This means that by creating a disaster recovery plan with your own employees, not only are you getting a less effective solution, but you’re also paying as much or more than if you’d gone to a disaster recovery expert. Obviously, your IT department is going to play a vital role in the creation of a plan in the event of a disaster. However, your company would be better served if these employees spent their time working on internal IT goals rather than developing the plan all by themselves.

Executives have a lot on their plates when it comes to keeping a company operational. That being said, the boardroom needs to take a more active role in promoting a solid disaster recovery plan for their business. Companies without a solid plan are a ticking time bomb, and if your enterprise doesn’t have a disaster recovery solution, now is the time to act. Thankfully, ISG Technology is here to help. Take a look at our Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity page and see why ISG Technology is a leader in disaster recovery solution development.