Hi this is Chip Shepard with Shepard Technologies,
Below I would like to discuss a few key factors in protecting your business.
There are several things that you need to do to protect yourself and your computer system. First and foremost, backing up your computer systems are key to surviving any sort of disaster. It’s important to have a solid backup solution and to be able to monitor your backup and test the restore of your computer systems backup. There are quite a few programs out there that are inexpensive to include free ones. However, sometimes you get what you pay for. Out-of-the-box windows 10 does not include a backup software unless you have the pro version. Windows servers do have their own backup but if you don’t set it up properly you may risk losing data. One of the things that I highly suggest with backups is making sure that you have an on-site and offsite backup in the event of a building disaster. The most inexpensive way to do this is to purchase three or more external hard drive’s that you rotate on a regular basis. The reason why I recommended three is because at any given time you may have two of those on site as you are swapping them out. Whatever backup system you use needs to be able to make a local backup copy and you will plug one drive in and backup for that day and you will take one drive offsite when you leave and you will have to bring that drive back the next day to swap out again. This is why you need at least three drives so that at least one of those drives is offsite. You can also use third-party software that automatically backs up to the cloud and it works great, but you also have to consider your bandwidth on your Internet speeds as well as your download and upload speeds. In the event of a disaster and having to recover every single bit of data it may take some time. This is where your hard drive comes in handy so that if you have to restore everything, you can bring it back on site to restore it quicker then you could download it from the Internet. Some third-party software’s will create a local backup copy as well as an offsite copy which is ideal because you don’t have to manage several different software packages. Keep in mind most third parties will have a personal backup and a business backup. The business backup will provide better service and quality of backup then the personal backup. Two third-party products that work well are iDrive and Carbonite. If you do require encrypted backups you will want the business solution. Additionally, you can use a combination of some sort of cloud storage such as Microsoft one drive, Apple’s iCloud, dropbox, just to name a few. But again, in order to maintain several levels of backup you will want to make sure that you get the right product for your need. If you do use a service such as dropbox you will still want to back that information up to a hard drive for additional recovery options. I also highly recommend that you verify that the backup is successful and a test restoring a section of the data to ensure that it is working properly for you.
We are here to help you with your backup needs and offer a solution that fits you for an affordable rate.
There is always a debate on whether you should have Anti-Virus software, Anti-Malware, Anti-Ransomware or a combination of all. This is all very dependent on how important the data you store is to you or your organization. Similar to the backup discussion, how much are you able to risk and continue to operate your business. What level of recovery will get you back in operation at minimal loss? Viruses, malware, and ransomware can have pretty high payloads and not only infect one system, but if you are on a network and share information across multiple devices every computer that shares information is at risk. I would like to also point out “Free” is not a good solution to keep your information protected. Most free versions are limited in features and may not protect you in the most secure way. Most paid Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware products will have some level of Anti-Ransomware now. Your best and safest defense against ransomware is a good backup that is not directly attached to the PC you are backing up. This would be your offsite/offline copy of your backup. I also recommend you consider a combination of products that protect against both virus and Malwarebytes. It is important to read the reviews on various products and make an informed decision. The best most common names out there are not always the best for your system performance. I find that all too often anti-virus software will slow your machine down and cause a loss of productivity. My personal recommendations for system performance and providing the proper protection are Webroot Anti-virus, Malwarebytes, and Bitdefender Anti-Virus. These seem to be less intrusive while providing maximum protection.
Keep us in mind for your security needs. We can also provide Firewall support, Intrusion Prevention, Compliance Risk Assessment utilities, Web content filtering, spam filtering, and many other solutions.
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