Naimesh helps us with all of our IT. I mean all of our IT. He not only sets up and cares for our computers and our tenants computers, he also helped us become our own phone company and coordinate an on and off-site back-up system. I asked him how he felt about the current status of most small business when it came to protecting their data and their systems and I was a little taken back by his comments. I’m glad he’s on our side! Here is what he had to say.
By 2020 the US will be hit with an earthquake of a cyber-attack that will cripple banks, stock exchanges, power plants and communications, an executive from Hewlett-Packard predicted. Companies are nowhere near prepared for it. Neither are the Feds. And yet, instead of mobilizing a national defense, we want a toaster that communicates with the washing machine over the internet.
So what are the solutions?
Start simple, first, change your passwords and get a password protection account. There are several available, personally I like PassPack.com. This will stop a lot of the less sophisticated hackers. The PassPack account helps you keep it simple. You remember one simple password for your PassPack account and it helps you keep track of all of your other passwords.
Next protect your data. First set up a quality off-site, cloud based backup immediately. Next, invest in an internal file back-up system separate from your individual computers. It doesn’t have to cost much, I use a great vendor out of Arizona that takes an off the shelf business computer and then beefs it up a little to my specs for my client.
Now with your data secure, think about the daily monitoring of your individual computers. When is the next hard drive going to crash, why is a system running slower, when is it time to upgrade? There are several off-site monitoring services I like. They watch every computer every day and send me a report. Its simple and affordable and saves lots of time and expense.
Next look at your communications system. I got fed up with the big phone companies a long time ago. The big companies just don’t have the flexibility and customer support. The larger VOIP phone companies are now falling into the same patterns. So, I decided to create my own. I put together a cloud based VOIP system with an on-site back-up. I can manage it for my customers or they can take over the full operation themselves. Cost are typically 25% to 50% less than they are currently paying to telecommunications.
With these in place you’re just about bullet proof. Sure, if someone really wants to cause a problem they can probably create a short term inconvenience, but it’s much easier to recover and there are lots of firewalls in place to cut them off at the pass.
For more information about Naimesh and his company Jemnet, follow the link or call him at 619 758-4200.
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