You hear the ping and see the notification ? YOUR PASSWORD WILL EXPIRE ? and that immediate feeling of dread settles in. How difficult will it be this time to set a password? Which characters can I use? How many old passwords do I have to bypass? There is a method behind the maddening nature of password resets, no matter how annoying it might end up being. According to a 2019 Google & Harris Poll, 52% of users say they reuse the same password for multiple (but not all) accounts, while 13% of users reuse the same password for all their accounts. Between January and March 2019, Microsoft?s threat research team scanned all Microsoft user accounts and found that ?44 million users were employing usernames and passwords that leaked online following security breaches at other online services.? In 2019, it was also reported that 42% of companies were breached by a bad password. A potential breach could cost you and your companies an unimaginable amount of time and money. Just how much though? We are glad you asked. In 2020, IBM and the Ponemon Institute Report that the average cost of a data breach is 3.86 million dollars. The IBM & Ponemon study goes on to state that ?nearly 40% of the average total cost of a data breach stem from lost business ? including increased customer turnover, lost revenue due to system downtime and increased cost of acquiring new business due to diminished reputation.? It can all start with a compromised password ? make sure you take that extra few minutes to come up with a new, complex password. Microsoft suggests at least 12 characters, a combination of case sensitive letters with numbers and symbols mixed in. Shy away from the repeated passwords, names of fictional characters, family, friends. Take the extra step to protect yourself and your company.
Is there such thing as a, ?Pandemic Anniversary?? If so, this month marks a year since COVID-19 was publicly reported across the U.S. and the way we worked changed forever. Hackers are on the rise and businesses are experiencing challenges, both remote or in the office, more than ever before ? and that?s where data backup comes into play. Simply put, it?s a copy of all your important information that is taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. Advances in modern technology have only added to the ways in which data loses can occur, which include hard drive failures, human error, physical disasters, physical theft, and ransomware attacks. Having a data backup system in place is proven to provide you with an immediate sense of relief. Consider these statistics as evidence of how valuable a data backup system is: Ransomware attacked a business every 14 seconds in 2020. (Cybercrime Magazine) Hackers attack every 39 seconds, or 2,244 times a day on average. (University of Maryland) A laptop is stolen every 53 seconds in the United States. (Kensington) 113 phones are lost or stolen every minute. (World Backup Day) 70 million cell phones are lost each year. (Kensington) 1 in 10 computers are infected with a virus each month. (World Backup Day) 30% of people have never backed up their devices. (World Backup Day) Data loss and downtime costs organizations $1.7 trillion annually. (Dell Technologies) At Info Advantage we pride ourselves on customizing all our backup, disaster recovery and business continuity solutions to fit your organizations needs based on your RTO (Recovery Time Objectives) and RPO (Recovery Point Objectives). These two components are the most important items for us to understand about your technologies, and business operations. We will work directly with you and your team to determine the best solutions across a variety of industry tried and true options to accomplish your objective of protecting your business. Whether your requirements are onsite, designing a secondary location or leveraging the cloud, we can help! If the statistics above weren?t enough evidence that a data backup system is a worthwhile investment for your business remind yourself of the benefit in having confidence in your safety despite the rise of malicious threats. We believe that if your company doesn?t have a data backup solution, then you need one. You deserve a smart and affordable way to protect your data; we make it simple and effective too! You can click here to learn more about our Backup and Disaster Recovery solution, or schedule a free consultation with us and we?ll give you trusted data backup advice with absolutely zero obligation.
Is there such thing as a, ?Pandemic Anniversary?? If so, this month marks a year since COVID-19 was publicly reported across the U.S. and the way we worked changed forever. Hackers are on the rise and businesses are experiencing challenges, both remote or in the office, more than ever before ? and that?s where data backup comes into play. Simply put, it?s a copy of all your important information that is taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. Advances in modern technology have only added to the ways in which data loses can occur, which include hard drive failures, human error, physical disasters, physical theft, and ransomware attacks. Having a data backup system in place is proven to provide you with an immediate sense of relief. Consider these statistics as evidence of how valuable a data backup system is: Ransomware attacked a business every 14 seconds in 2020. (Cybercrime Magazine) Hackers attack every 39 seconds, or 2,244 times a day on average. (University of Maryland) A laptop is stolen every 53 seconds in the United States. (Kensington) 113 phones are lost or stolen every minute. (World Backup Day) 70 million cell phones are lost each year. (Kensington) 1 in 10 computers are infected with a virus each month. (World Backup Day) 30% of people have never backed up their devices. (World Backup Day) Data loss and downtime costs organizations $1.7 trillion annually. (Dell Technologies) At Info Advantage, our Backup and Disaster Recovery system utilizes hard drives to excessively backup your data at all times. With our system, you?ll know that your data is always safe and if something were to happen to your original data, a simple re-route would be all it takes to get your business up and running again. This allows you to minimize your downtime to minutes, as opposed to the hours it would take to restore that data using a less efficient backup solution. If the statistics above weren?t enough evidence that a data backup system is a worthwhile investment for your business remind yourself of the benefit in having confidence in your safety despite the rise of malicious threats. We believe that if your company doesn?t have a data backup solution, then you need one. You deserve a smart and affordable way to protect your data; we make it simple and effective too! You can click here to learn more about our Backup and Disaster Recovery solution, or schedule a free consultation with us and we?ll give you trusted data backup advice with absolutely zero obligation.
Microsoft recently dropped a bombshell ? four zero-day bugs were discovered in ?early? January. What does this mean for everyone else? A giant security vulnerability. According to a recent article on ZDNet, ?approximately 30,000 organizations in the United States have been attacked so far. Bloomberg estimates put this figure closer to 60,000, as of March 8. Palo Alto Networks suggests there are at least 125,000 unpatched servers worldwide.? In a nutshell, Microsoft says that ?attackers secure access to an Exchange Server either through these bugs or stolen credentials and they can then create a web shell to hijack the system and execute commands remotely.” As of March 12, Microsoft has estimated that ?at least 82,000 servers remain unpatched.” New cumulative updates are being rolled out by Microsoft, which are being created to help patch up any remaining vulnerabilities. We at Info Advantage are on top of this devastating vulnerability. Thanks to tireless work from our network engineers, we have been able to patch multiple systems for companies we support. With that being said, we want to make you aware that we are here for you! If you believe that your Microsoft Exchange server might have been compromised or is in need of patching, please do not hesitate to reach out and give us a call at 585-458-4636.
Businesses of all sizes and industries are turning to Cloud services if they haven?t already. Some of the most common solutions revolve around computing, data storage, virtual desktop infrastructure, and critical communication tools like hosted email or phone systems. But what top benefits do they all share? Efficiency & Cost Reduction: You can avoid spending large amounts of money on purchasing and maintaining equipment when you migrate to the Cloud. The average small business saves 30-50% overall by moving their applications to the Cloud when compared to traditional methods. Additional Security Layers: Having control over sensitive data is vital to any business. You never know what can happen if a document gets into the wrong hands, even if it?s just the hands of an untrained employee. Cloud enables you to have complete visibility and security over your data. Scalability: No more investing in hardware, facilities, utilities, or building out a large data center to grow your business. We understand different businesses have different IT needs. The Cloud enables you to efficiently ? and quickly ? scale your unique business model according to demand. Migration to the Cloud is on the rise every year, and it doesn?t take long to see why, especially with all of the workplace challenges caused from a global pandemic. Today?s workers just need more from their computing platforms whether they are remote or in the office. Info Advantage understands that. We prevent a lot of problems that plague organizations that heavily rely on on-premises infrastructure. You can click here to learn all about our Cloud solutions. Or perhaps you understand the need for Cloud but don?t know where to start? Schedule a free consultation with us and we?ll give trusted advice with no obligation. Leveraging the right solution saves you money and increases efficiency. We want that for you!