All posts by SystemsNet Administrator

SentinelOne Security: Providing Protection Against Threats

Security, ,
IT programmer typing binary codes in his computer for security system and cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity threats are around every corner and you need more than antivirus to protect your business

Benjamin Franklin is credited with the saying, ”If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” While he probably was not referring to cybersecurity, this frame of mind can certainly be applied to this industry. Planning can certainly make the difference between having protection against malicious activity in real-time and being a victim of a career-threatening cyber attack.

Traditional anti-virus software should no longer be viewed as a comprehensive solution for small and medium-sized businesses. Malware has outgrown many traditional anti-virus programs on the market. The Dark Web and cyber criminals can create and sell attack kits that will be difficult for any traditional anti-virus program to categorize.

Today, more businesses are beginning to recognize the importance of Endpoint Detection and Response platforms. These platforms can offer a significant amount of protection against a variety of malicious activities. SentinelOne Security is one of the leading security solutions made for small and medium-sized businesses in various industries, including the following:

  • Healthcare
  • Education
  • Energy industry
  • Finance
SentinelOne Security

SentinelOne uses the Endpoint Security approach. The Endpoint Security approach focuses on discovering threats and eliminating them across any network that is connected to the client’s devices, such as the following:

  • Desktops
  • Laptops
  • Mobile phones
  • Tablets
  • Workstations

This solution provides remediation capabilities that will allow users to alleviate the impact of any type of malicious attack and ultimately restore the system. SentinelOne Endpoint Protection Platform’s solution not only combines detection, remediation, and prevention, but it also combines mitigation and forensic capabilities for your devices.

Rather than SentinelOne creating an Endpoint Detection and Response platform and leaving it as is, they went above and beyond to create full protection for added safety and security.

Combatting Malicious Activities

One of the growing concerns within small and medium-sized businesses is the presence of fileless malware. What is fileless malware? Fileless malware is a particular type of malware that makes use of legitimate programs to infect an endpoint. It can definitely be a huge challenge to detect and remove the files because there is no presence of a file.

You can no longer block particular operations. Your business or organization will need solutions that can prevent one or more attacks using exploits, kits, macro documents, etc. without causing any major disruptions to your day-to-day operations. SentinelOne has proven to be effective at stopping this particular type of malware by using ”Active Content”. Active Content offers a solution to the fileless malware problem by allocating blame to the true source of the problem.

Remediation Capabilities

As mentioned previously, one of the capabilities of the SentinelOne solution is remediation. The remediation capability will allow all users to reduce the effects of cyber attacks and restore the system quickly and efficiently. The remediation capability will do more than give users immunity from small and large threats within the business. This capability will also be able to detect and alert you of threats.

SentinelOne Security is known for its use of automation and advanced machine learning solutions. When using SentinelOne, you will not only be able to enjoy the advantages of a comprehensive and powerful solution, but you will also have the knowledge and experiences of a professional support staff.

With SentinelOne Security, your business or organization will gain an overall view of everything that is taking place across the network. Today, your small or medium-sized business can no longer sit back and wait for an attack to take place before implementing an effective solution. Any malicious attack against your network and devices can result in data loss and significant downtime if you fail to proactively protect your business.

The security dangers will vary from internal threats to external threats. For more information on how you can protect your business now and in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us today.

How a BDR (Backup Disaster Recovery) Plan Works for You

Data Backup, , ,
Cyber security and data network protection concept showing a business owner using her laptop computer for checking her business' data protection and security back-up plans.

Cyber security and network protection is critical for any business

What happens when your tech stack is put at risk? Businesses everywhere are now built on their technological assets. Servers, data, work software, and customer data are all essential before you even begin with websites, apps, and online security. This creates an incredible infrastructure of data. Data that must be protected and data that is relied on. So what do you do when something goes terribly wrong?

Many disasters can befall a company’s servers, network, or tech stack. But what do you do when data is lost or at risk? That is what a BDR plan helps you to deal with. But it can be difficult to visualize where a BDR would be useful unless you can grasp the disasters themselves. Today, we are highlighting three common disasters and how BDR can help you fully recover your business in the face of these disasters.

1) When You’ve Been Hacked

Hacking is the number one threat to modern business data and infrastructure. More than natural disasters, more than chance data corruption, even more than employee mistakes. Hackers are everywhere, there are more every year, and they share tactics to target modern businesses. There are many types of hack, the most notorious being the Ransomware attack. Ransomware and other malware is designed to invade a computer or a network then wreak havoc.

Once you become aware that there is a hack, it becomes necessary to root out every scrap of malicious code and program in your network.  This can be a near-impossible hunt for barbs left behind by poisonous programs – unless you have a BDR plan saved for your system.

With a complete backup and a recovery plan to implement it, you don’t have to search out every last bit of malware. You can nuke-and-pave your entire network to eliminate the malware without any loss at all. After resetting your hardware, a backup allows you to fully restore your system, your data, and even your specific installations and configurations for a fully malware-free system. This is the ultimate way thumb your nose at hackers, denying them both disruption and harvested data all at once.

2) Damaged by a Natural Disaster

Natural disasters are even less avoidable than getting hacked.  Sometimes, a large storm or event hits your region and there is very little that any local business can do to prevent the kind of damage that can happen. Basements flood. Buildings collapse. Fires can burn through server banks. Natural disasters can desolate a business’s hardware and, in turn much of their technological infrastructure. With damaged servers, data can be lost. With damaged offices, an entire network and workflow infrastructure can be taken out.

How does backup disaster recovery help you? The answer is that BDR can also be used to rebuild your business from the ground up. Replacing one computer or every physical device in an all-new office, a cloud-stored backup with a recovery plan means that you can fully restore your tech-stack on any working hardware. If your insurance covers an all-new office and devices, your BDR can then upload your entire digital infrastructure back into place.

This is the true spirit of business continuity.

3) Corrupted Software Updates and Lost Data

Finally, there is corrupted and lost data, the original reason why BDR plans were designed for modern businesses. Software can corrupt when updated – destroying the tech stack and all related data – or even just a section. This is a common enough problem that regular backups are the known solution. At the same time, common employee errors can occasionally cause massive data loss. Mis-clicks or tapping the ‘delete’ button at just the wrong time can cause seemingly irrevocable data loss and other damage. Fortunately, a good backup can restore some or all of your data so that no single temporary mistake becomes catastrophic to the company or even to the employee.

 

How does BDR help your business? Backup disaster recovery plans can save you from malware, data corruption, mistakes, and natural disasters With these heavy-hitters at the top of the list, no doubt any business can think of a dozen more smaller disasters that a good backup and a comprehensive recovery plan can do to ensure business continuity. Contact us today to consult on the best BDR plan for your company.

Improve Your Business Operations With A Managed Service Provider (MSP)

Manage Service, ,
Three IT managers work together on technical projects

Your company has enough to manage. Let a Managed Service Provider help you increase efficiency, productivity, and availability.

Technology has structurally altered the capabilities of small businesses, mid-size businesses, and large businesses. Cloud computing has allowed businesses of all sizes to gain access to technology and resources at a cost they can afford. Today, IT providers have a greater ability to provide top-notch value than other services can offer.

Whether you are an executive in the business world or you are an IT professional, using managed services can definitely make your job a little easier. When properly executed, Managed Services can be like gaining the abilities of a full IT department with the skills and experience of the best IT professionals. The combination can lead to effective and efficient operations to every user within the business.

Managed Services have been designed to handle the basic and complex operations of your applications providing the proficiency to every end-user. Managed Services can lead to members of your IT team having more time and resources to focus on more strategic IT programs. With Managed Services(MS), your team members will also be able to focus on the key components that make the business.

Signs You Need Managed Services

There are several signs that will arise that will indicate a need for Managed Services. It is important to be aware of the signs before a major decline occurs. When a decline happens within your business or organization, the decreased quality of IT services will negatively impact your business or organization.

Here are signs that can indicate a need for Managed Services:

  • There was a lack of support that resulted in your business or organization not being able to achieve a bulk of your goals
  • There was no Backup and Disaster Recovery(BDR) plan in place and data was lost during an outage
  • There was a significant number of downtime and outages that were not repaired right away
  • Changes in the business lead to poor performances

The right Managed Services(MS) can help address the above challenges and any other challenges that may arise.

What Are Your Needs?

Businesses and organizations are under a significant amount of pressure to meet their operational and performance goals, as well as their expectations. A Managed Service Provider can provide the services your business or organization to improve your overall operations.

When you are ready to set new business-related goals or when you are ready to introduce new IT services, you may discover that speaking with a Managed Service Provider will allow you to gain a better understanding of your needs. A Managed Service Provider will help you assess your needs and determine the services you may need.

What Can An MSP Offer?

Managed Service Providers can offer a significant amount of benefits to your business or organization, including better cost control, better efficiency, better productivity, and more. There are several cost factors for a business or organization, and the average cost components of an IT department will generally be taken on by the Managed Service Provider(MSP).

A Managed Service Provider(MSP) can also lead to greater efficiency, productivity, and availability. It is important to have IT services that are readily available, and an MSP can ensure that the right resources will be in place to avoid downtime and outages. Customers and clients will experience high-quality performances with little to no downtime when there is a presence of Managed Services.

Managed Service Providers can deliver high-quality business services that will help your business or organization remain flexible, productive, and efficient. If you are looking to invest in new and improved services, we recommend taking a look at the benefits that a Managed Service Provider(MSP) can offer.

Contact SystemsNet today for more information.

Proving The Value Of IT With Monthly Management Reports

Manage Service, ,
High angle view of a businessman generating a report

Thorough monthly IT reporting can improve your IT performance in the long run.

As difficult as it may be to say, IT does not always give people a positive impression. Technology has a tremendous amount of value to a business, but some IT leaders are having a difficult time showing how valuable IT is to a business. When IT leaders are not able to adequately express the value of IT, this can create a problem that may be difficult to amend.

While some Chief Information Officers have been able to make the transition from a lower department to a higher department, many other IT leaders are having a difficult time getting everyone to understand that the role of IT is much larger than many may realize. Unfortunately, many people only view IT as a department or function within the business or organization that does not have any value to the profit.

Since IT is not always seen as a value generator, IT does not always obtain the type of reporting it deserves. Without proper IT reporting, your business or organization can fail to identify how valuable IT is.

Create an IT Strategy

There are various things CEOs, board members, and IT leaders can do to prove how valuable IT is and how valuable their positions are. Your business or organization needs to have an IT strategy in place to ensure IT will still have an impact. However, we understand that changing one’s mindset or foundation is not an easy thing to accomplish.

IT leaders will need to prove how valuable IT is to a business or organization. The IT department should no longer be viewed as a department where money sinks. The IT department should be viewed as a department that can generate a tremendous amount of revenue on a yearly basis. In order to prove how valuable IT is, one will need strong and efficient IT monthly management reports.

IT reporting will not only involve showing how valuable IT resources and departments are, but it will also involve how impactful IT is to the entire business landscape.

There are various details that will need to be included in the monthly IT reports in order to create an effective IT strategy, including the following:

Reported Outages

Downtime and outages can greatly impact your business or organization’s ability to operate. If your business cannot operate as it should, your business or organization will struggle to bring in revenue. If people cannot access your website or if your help desk is not working properly, your entire business operations will be negatively impacted.

It is the job of the IT department to solve the problems, and not be the one responsible for the problems. The number reported outages and the length of time it takes to resolve the problems should be included in the monthly reports. When you have reports that detail the reported outages, you will have a clearer understanding of what issues are common and what solutions can be used to ensure the issues do not become a trend.

Reported Resolutions

One of the goals of your monthly IT reports is to reduce the number of problems that can have an impact on the business or organization. However, we understand that the same problem can occur in different forms. The problems can also have an impact in different forms and in different manners. Regardless of the issues, the IT department will need to resolve as many problems as possible.

The issues that need to be resolved should not be settled on a temporary basis. No one wants to have a problem that will be solved only temporary. The number of resolutions that have been solved permanently should be placed in the IT reports. When the number of resolutions are listed in the IT reports, the number of future issues can be reduced because there will be a better understanding on how to resolve any similar problems that may arise in the future.

IT monthly management reports are needed to prove how important and valuable IT is to a business or organization. There are various reports that can be used to prove how important and valuable IT is. What reports and information do you think will have the greatest impact on your IT strategy?

Contact SystemsNet today for more information on IT monthly management reports.