2009-04-09
Do You Know What Your Employees Are Doing Online?
Do You Know What Your Employees Are Doing Online?
If You Don’t, You’re At Risk!
The Internet and e-mail have become indispensible tools for business, but many companies are finding employees are using these tools as much or more for personal activities than job-related tasks. In fact, many business owners have recognized that unrestricted use of the Internet by employees has the potential to drain, rather than enhance productivity and, at worst, can even have dire legal consequences.
To reduce the risk and minimize non-productive activities, business owners are utilizing a two pronged approach: (1) Implementing an Internet Acceptable Use Policy (IAUP) and (2) installing a monitoring system to restrict and police employees’ online activities.
An AUP is nothing more than a written agreement that sets out the permissible workplace uses of the Internet and e-mail. In addition to describing permissible uses, an AUP should specifically set out prohibited uses, rules of online behavior, and access privileges with penalties for violations of the policy spelled out, including security violations and vandalism of the system.
Some common rules that should be included with most AUPs are:
· All sensitive or confidential data must be encrypted before sending across the web. For example, many doctors’ offices use instant messaging (IM) to communicate from the front desk to the back office. However, many don’t realize that this is a violation of HIPAA because IM is not a secure way to transmit information about a patient or their health conditions.
· A restriction on sharing confidential information about the company, its clients or the people working there. With social media as popular as it is, you don’t want an employee writing all about the latest company scandal on their MySpace page; it’s just not good for business!
· Prohibition against visiting web sites that contain pornography, racism, sexism, gambling, or e-mail with any such content sent from your business. Remember, even “innocent” jokes with racist content can leave a huge black mark on your company’s reputation.
· Absolutely no downloading of music files or other programs that are not approved by management. “Innocent” screen saver programs and jokes often contain nasty viruses that could bring down your entire system or invite a hacker into your network.
Not only does an IAUP reduce wasted hours on the net, it can reduce bandwidth and equipment needs, as well as shield you, the business owner, from possible sexual harassment and other lawsuits arising from your employee’s inappropriate use of the web.
An AUP Is A Good First Step,
But It’s Only Half The Battle Won
Unfortunately, not everyone follows policies, and some accidentally will violate your AUP. To ensure company policies are being followed, businesses are choosing to monitor all Internet activity initiated by their employees using a web content filtering software.
Tools available today, like Cymphonics and Surf Control, make monitoring of employee Internet usage simple and easy. Most companies choose to regularly monitor summary level activity like hours connected to the web, number of sites visited, and illegal or banned sites visited by the company while leaving detailed transaction reviews as necessary on a case-by-case basis.
And if someone complains that this is a violation of their privacy, rest assured that nothing could be further from the truth. It’s not only legal but good business. After all, they are using your company assets and if employees are focused on productive work and minimize personal use of the Internet, you’re likely to never need to address their Internet usage. Just be sure to include a clause about Internet monitoring in your AUP and have your employees sign the agreement.
If you’d like a FREE comprehensive Internet Acceptable Use Policy template or would like to discuss the simple options available to monitor your employee’s Internet usage, contact me today via phone at 209-477-4390 or via email at sales@ez-netsys.net. Don’t wait until it’s too late to put the tools in place.
2009-01-14
10 Early Warning Signs Of Impending Computer Disasters
10 Early Warning Signs Of Impending Computer Disasters
Computers rarely stop working overnight. In most cases, there are early warning signs that problems are brewing. Below are 10 surefire signs that you need to get a professional to investigate your network ASAP:
1. Your workstation or server starts running very slowly, freezes up, or crashes.
2. Your web browser has been changed to another strange browser you’ve never seen before.
3. You are getting an unusual amount of pop-up windows, even when you aren’t surfing the web.
4. You don’t know if every computer on your network has the most current virus definitions.
5. You don’t know if you have a firewall in place or the last time it was updated.
6. You haven’t attempted to restore your data from a backup tape or other storage device in awhile, and you aren’t checking your backup log for errors.
7. You receive e-mails accusing you of sending spam, and/or you find e-mail messages in your “outbox” or “sent” folder that you didn’t send.
8. Your computer starts making a grinding, clicking, or loud whirring sound.
9. The fan is constantly running.
10. You are getting a growing number of error messages, and you are forced to create work-arounds to complete certain work tasks.
If any of these signs are present, you should contact a pro immediately to investigate further!
The old saying of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is especially true in the world of computers and all things digital; and if you are like most businesses, your computer network is critical to the operation of your business so make sure you don’t procrastinate if any of these signs are present.
Ideally, you should perform regular health checks and maintenance on your network to make sure problems don’t crop up. Here’s why:
Critical security updates need to be applied at least once a month to protect you from a constant flow of new hacker attacks.
Firewall, virus and spyware protection need to be monitored and updated on a daily basis because new attacks are released daily.
Your data backup system needs to be monitored and tested frequently to ensure easy data recovery in the event of loss. The rate of tape drive failure is 100%; that’s why you need to frequently monitor your backups.
Servers and workstations need regular tune-ups to keep them running fast and error free.
Monitoring of disk space is important to avoid data loss, crashes, and storage problems.
Server event logs need to be monitored for early alerts to network issues.
One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is taking a reactive approach to network support and maintenance rather than a proactive one.
In other words, they wait until something stops working and THEN they call in the professionals to fix it. This approach not only costs more in the long run, but it also leaves you vulnerable to more devastating crashes such as data corruption and loss, virus attacks, and extended downtime. Even NEW computers and equipment need regular maintenance because new threats are constantly evolving.
2009-01-11
Backing Up Your Data?
If Disaster Strikes, How Fast Could Your Company Be
Back Up And Running?
You hear it all the time from us-back up your data, keep your virus protection current, and install and maintain a firewall to protect yourself from hackers and other online threats.
However, while these precautions will certainly help you avoid problems, they CAN’T do anything if you don’t have a good backup and disaster recovery plan in place.
Are You A Sitting Duck?
We all know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; yet, disaster recovery planning often takes a distant second to the daily deadlines and pressures of running a business.
That means that most businesses, including your own, may end up offline and without your data after a simple lightening storm.
Don’t think that could ever happen to you? Consider this: “data-erasing disasters” can also take the form of office fires and broken water pipes, not just earthquakes, floods and tornadoes. If a fire started in your building, the parts that weren’t burned beyond recovery would probably be destroyed by the firemen’s efforts. But even more common is software corruption, hardware failures and human error!
Disaster Recovery Questions You Need To Answer
A disaster recovery plan doesn’t have to be complicated, time-consuming or expensive. Start by asking yourself the following questions…
1.) Do you back up your company’s data daily to both an onsite and offsite location?
2.) Are you absolutely certain that your backup copy is valid, complete and not corrupt? How do you know for sure?
3.) If disaster strikes, HOW would you get your data back, and how long would it take? In many cases it takes days and often weeks; what would you do during that period of time?
4.) Do you have copies of all the software licenses and discs in a safe location that could be accessed in the event of having to rebuild your server?
5.) Would you and your employees have a way to access your network remotely if you couldn’t get to the office?
6.) Do you store important passwords in a secure place that company officers can access if you are unavailable?
7.) Do you have a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) device in place to keep your network and other critical data operations running during a power outage?
This is NOT a complete list, but it is a good start to get you thinking in the right direction.
Our FREE Disaster Recovery Plan Helps You Prepare
Since it’s the New Year, we’ve decided to help our clients get their “IT house” in order by giving away a FREE Backup and Disaster Recovery Audit. At no charge or obligation, we’ll come to your office, review your current plan (or lack of one!) and provide a simple action plan on what you need to do to make sure your business can always be up and running.
But take note! We can only make this available to our clients and friends during the month of January; after that, the fee for this consultation will be $395. For more information, please contact our office at 209-477-4390 and ask for Raymond Smith, or e-mail us at raysmith@ez-netsys.net.
2007-09-30
Why is it that I update this blog from SMB Nation
Why is it that I can find time to not only make a blog post but to update the bloggin software itselft from SMB Nation’s conference in Redmond, WA?
I didn’t even manage to post an entry last year, but I am this year and hopefully I can start posting on a more regular basis.
So where am I at and what am I doing?
I am at the Annual SMB Nation conference in Redmond, WA @ Microsoft’s Corporate Headquarters. I am learning about all kinds of interesting technologies and processes to serve our customer better.
It’s been an interesting few weeks in EZNetSys land, first of a all another local consultant that we had worked with in the past Dave Kent of MicroHelp! computer passed away. So we have been busy helping his customer out. Then there was the ConnectWise Summit in Tampa, FL where I went to lean how to operate the business more efficently. Now I am in Washington State, all I really want right now is to get back to the office.
Well I am going out now to a meeting, will most more soon.
2007-04-04
Scammers Suck!
One of my clents got an invocie today from: corporateinfosystem.com for access to their web site that the clients says they never ordered? Upon calling this company they said that the invoice is for services? What services you may ask, we did and they kept haning up on us.
We suspect that corporateinfosystem.com is a fraud and if you recieve an invoice from them you should not pay it, we suggest you write "We did not order this cancel" and mail it back.
Raymond
8/18/08 Updated Whois info as previous registar requested to be removed from record.
More info for search / google:
Registrant:
Corporate Info System
40 East Chicago
Chicago, Illinois 60611
United States
Domain Name: CORPORATEINFOSYSTEM.COM
Created on: 05-May-06
Expires on: 05-May-09
Last Updated on: 02-May-08
Administrative Contact:
Robins, Steven
Corporate Info System
40 East Chicago
Chicago, Illinois 60611
United States
88867229009 Fax -- 8887221660
Technical Contact:
Robins, Steven
Corporate Info System
40 East Chicago
Chicago, Illinois 60611
United States
88867229009 Fax -- 8887221660
Domain servers in listed order:
NS2.BROADCASTDNS.COM
NS1.BROADCASTDNS.COM
Copy of BBB report removed per request from MidCal BBB (209) 948-4880.
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