All businesses need to have network support in order to be able to fully function on a daily basis. Why are network support services important for a business.
Communication plays a critical role in every business. Clients and consumers are using the internet every day to purchase products and services. When employees need to work outside the office, they will still need to communicate with those who are still in the office. The internet and your business’s network system allows everyone to communicate effectively.
In the days we are living in, the businesses of today will not be able to function the way it needs to. If your business does not have reliable computers or a reliable network, you will not have productive and efficient daily operations. If your computers break down or if your networks fail, your business’s operations will be put on pause for the day.
If your business eventually wants to improve its performance now or anytime in the future, you have to make sure you have the proper computer services and the proper network support. It will not matter what the size of your business is, you are going to need computer services.
If you have appropriate network support services, you will not have to call different computer technicians and wait for someone to arrive at your business. When you have an IT service provider you can actually rely on, you will always have an effective solution to any network and computer problems you may have.
For any additional information on network support, contact us today.
Essential Network Security Support: The TCP/IP protocol stack includes Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) designed as a troubleshooting tool that can provide feedback to network devices either for status information or when problems such as network routing failures occur. ICMP has also been used as a cyber-attack reconnaissance tool facilitating mapping of target networks, Denial of Service attacks, and covert channels for remote unauthorized network access. Unfortunately, blocking all ICMP packets on a network is not recommended because certain network functionality cannot operate properly without ICMP. However, proper ICMP filtering can ensure both security and functionality.
Essential Network Security Support
ICMP type 8 Echo and Echo Reply is probably the most commonly used and familiar type of ICMP. Type 8 ICMP packets provide network feedback to determine whether or not hosts are active on a network. However, Type 8 ICMP can also be used to map a network and determine which hosts are available for attack. In addition, Type 8 ICMP Denial of Service attacks (DoS) are possible by flooding a network with ICMP echo requests until the target servers and/or network connections fail. For this reason block all incoming ICMP requests to private networks, while allowing outbound initiated requests (for troubleshooting) and ICMP echo requests within the private network.
Routers send ICMP Type 5 Redirect messages when other routers on the same network have a better network path for packets received. However, ICMP Redirect messages are also leveraged by cyber criminals to maliciously subvert routing tables and enable IP address spoofing issues. Since networks require ICMP Redirect messages, for increased security configure all networks to send ICMP Redirect messages and deny receipt of these messages from unknown networks.
ICMP Type 9 Router Advertisement packets enable hosts on the local network to only find routers on the local network. Since these packets could be used for a DoS attack by flooding the network, block all inbound and outbound ICMP Type 9 messages.
ICMP Type 13 Timestamp Request messages determine the local time on a host or remote network. Unfortunately, ICMP Type 13 packets can also be used as an alternative to Type 8 packets as a hacker reconnaissance and mapping tool. Since ICMP Type 13 messages provide only non-essential informational services, block this type of ICMP message on both egress and ingress points to private networks.
ICMP Type 17 Address Mask Request and Reply messages enable network hosts to find the network mask of another host or interface. However, these messages are not necessary for network functionality and attackers use them to map network. Since ICMP Type 17 messages are informational and not necessary, block them at both egress and ingress points on private networks.
Contact us to assess your organization’s security posture, learn more about essential network security support and secure your network from ICMP vulnerabilities.
When is the best time to fix a problem? Before it’s a problem! That’s where proactive support comes in.
Once an IT problem becomes obvious, it’s a serious annoyance. It can mean downtime, calling people in during off hours, and lost productivity and revenue. It’s better to prevent trouble from happening in the first place. That’s what proactive IT support is all about.
Proactive Support Is Good For Business
Your network can go a long time with security weaknesses before someone stumbles on them and takes advantage. Sooner or later, though, someone will. If your support team finds the weakness first, then they can fix it before anyone can exploit it.
Other situations are less dramatic but likewise provide opportunities to prevent trouble. If a server is filling up rapidly, it might be headed for a situation where it won’t have enough capacity. It may be necessary to get more disk storage, or perhaps all that’s needed is to find out what’s wasting space and clean it up. Finding out before the disk is full is better.
Regular software updates are part of proactive service. Outdated software is more likely to have bugs and security risks, and new applications might not work with an old operating system. Proactive service keeps all system software up to date.
Another aspect of proactive support is listening to the users. If they say that they’re having intermittent problems, or that the network is slower than it used to be, there might be a problem which isn’t yet obvious. An investigation might turn up a problem and fix it before it becomes serious.
Purely reactive IT support fixes problems only after they’ve become obvious. They’re harder to fix that way, and they may have already done serious damage. A smoothly running IT operation requires proactive support, fixing issues before they get in the way.
We provide managed IT services and proactive support so that your business can stay productive without interruptions. Please contact us to find out what we can offer you.
If you’re like most companies today, there comes a time when the devices, desktops and laptops you’re using just don’t offer what the new models can.
It becomes important to upgrade so that your staff has access to all the resources and software they need to do their jobs, and so that your company can grow. However, getting rid of old equipment and devices is not something that any manager or business owner should take lightly.
A typical Google search for device cleaning, data wiping and hard drive erasure software programs will yield a plethora of consumer results. However, though many of these product manufacturers talk tough in their online marketing campaigns, their products often don’t do what they claim they do.
As a business owner, you must completely purge any device you are thinking of giving away.
Maybe you’re planning to donate used desktops to the local high school or church. Maybe you’re going to give some used laptops to staff family members. However, you must prepare for the rogue element in any equation.
There might be a 17-year-old high school student that runs with a rough crime-happy crowd of 18 to 30-year-olds that would love to have access to your company’s data. Did you know that many young people have computer skills that rival even the most skilled hackers? In fact, many hackers start hacking well before their 18th birthdays.
Your secretary’s sister in college might be dating the wrong guy, or might allow her roommates to have regular access to the used laptop your company donated to her. Any of these people might be able to quickly gain access to the data still on the laptop, and use it for criminal ends.
The good news is, when people actually use classified information to carry out crimes, they will eventually go to jail. Internet activity like this is easily traceable. However, when you run a business, there is more to consider. You’re risking
Bad press,
Accusations of improper data handling,
Customer lawsuits, and
The loss of company resources while the problem gets resolved
There’s no need to deal with headaches like these.
Most business owners and managers would be shocked to learn digital forensic experts and garden variety hackers alike routinely recover tons of PII, (personally identifiable information) such as:
Financial records,
Resumes,
Medical insurance information,
Customer data,
CRM records,
Social security numbers,
Company emails,
Spreadsheets, and
Much more
… from resold or gifted HDDs and SDDs, (hard disk drives and solid state drives).
When you delete a file and it goes to the recycling bin, it’s still on your computer somewhere. In addition, many encryption products offered on the general consumer market still don’t offer enough security, since your average criminal is now learning more about how to reverse, decode and piece back together data after encryption.
The only way to truly make sure your company data is completely gone before you resell or gift your used devices is to work with a network support specialist that offers secure data erasure.
No consumer product on the market to date can offer this level of protection. This type of data removal sanitizes all necessary IT assets including desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, virtual drives, extra SSDs and HDDs and even your server. Contact us today to learn more.
A recent article from Alphr makes interesting predictions about the future of computer security. As people come to rely on a wider variety of Internet-enabled devices – not just their laptops or phones, but objects like thermostats, cameras, and sensors – traditional antivirus programs will likely become less important than programs designed to protect routers and entire networks of devices. This shift in focus aims to keep hackers from seizing control of any one device and then hopping over to any or all other devices on your network – including your computer.
You should still keeping using a high-quality antivirus program as an extra layer of protection for your computers. What the article remind us of is the importance of paying attention to vulnerabilities in other parts of your network. Beyond protecting specific computing devices, you need to keep in mind the overall picture of network security and strengthen various components of your network, such as your router.
What are some of the things you can do, starting today, to improve your router’s security?
If your router came with default admin passwords, make sure you aren’t using them. Choose a long, complex password.
Use powerful encryption. There are different encryption standards and protocols available. Select the ones that meet the highest, most recent standards. For example, a WPA2 encryption standard and AES encryption protocol make for a solidly secure choice.
Set up a guest network, so that visiting clients and business partners don’t tap into your primary network with their devices.
Check if the firmware for your router is up-to-date.
These are just some of the basic steps for strengthening router security. Part of our network support services involves configuring your router in the most secure way possible and monitoring your network to reduce the chances of outages and cyber attacks.
Don’t hesitate to contact us for further assistance.
