Small businesses are a big market for cyber attacks.

Hackers have realized that smaller businesses are easier targets for cyber attacks. According to the Verizon 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), 61% of cyber attack victims are business with less than 1,000 employees.

So why are small business the target for these invasions? The answer is simple. Small businesses generally have weaker security. What weaknesses does your business have? Here are five of the most common:

1. Phishing still works. This year’s DBIR found that about 1 in 14 users were tricked into following a link or opening an attachment.
2. Weak passwords. Maybe it’s the amount of passwords we all have to remember or lack of creativty. Whatever it is, people are still failing to set strong enough passwords. Stats show 80% of hacking-related breaches leveraged either stolen passwords and/or weak or guessable passwords.
3. Old defenses aren’t working against new threats. Many companies are relaying on outdated cyber security defenses. You need a cyber security plan that keeps pace wit the ever-envolving hacker techniques.
4. Employees. Unfortunaly, many breaches are a result of employees or former employees who have access toinformation and use it to their benefit, which can often harm your business.
5. Physical theft. Whether deliberate or accidental, cyber security threats can start with hard copies or sensitive information landing in the wrong hands.

Though these statistics may be alarming, there are affordable solutions to insuring your business doesn’t become a victim to cyber attacks. DataVizion is now offering a new managed security service solution, VizionCare Secure. Our solution provides advanced threat intelligence and the same level of security as the largest companies in the world, all at a low monthly cost. 

To show businesses just how valuable it is, we offer a free 30-Day Security Health Assessment for your business. During that time, we will assess your security posture, risk profile and identify potential gaps.

You may think your small business is immune to a cyber attack, but in reality small businesses are becoming larger targets. Contact us today for more information or to enroll in the free assessment (402) 327-1880.

Our team at DataVizion would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who attended our Second Annual Charity Golf Tournament Aug. 31, 2017.

Together, with our partners and customers, we were able to raise $6,500 for Child Saving Institute. That’s $1,000 more than last year! The donation helps this nonprofit provides services including counseling, therapy, education and support for children and families in the community.

A special thanks to Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, who sponsored the event, and and to all of our generous hole sponsors who helped make this event possible.

“We had such a great time with all our partners and clients coming together for a great cause,” Kelly Schrad, DataVizion President and CEO, said. “We appreciate everyone’s generosity and hope to see you all again next year.”

For more information about Child Saving Institute or to learn about volunteer opportunities, visit http://www.childsaving.org.

Click here to view photos of the event.

Cyber criminals are increasingly targeting private companies in hopes of easy access. Even basic oversights, such as leaving a laptop unattended or opening a spam email, could lead to a cyber attack and ultimately cause a financial loss for your company.

Having the right technology in place to prevent such attacks is a must. However, you should also provide basic training to employees, as they are a critical line of defense against cyber attacks. Here are five topics to cover.

1. Phishing and Spam

Hackers are coming up with increasingly clever scams using fake emails to try and gain access to your company’s network or employee information. Train your employees to spot these phishing attempts and to alert IT to any suspicious emails. You can even purchase phishing simulator training tools to test your employees’ awareness. The results will show what additional training and education may be needed.

2. Strong Passwords

Between work and personal use, it seems like we all have a million passwords to remember. To combat this, employees may be tempted to create an easy password used for multiple purposes. Train employees on the importance of using strong passwords and ways to secure where they store that information.

3. Reporting Problems

Employees may be hesitant to notify IT if they accidently clicked on something they shouldn't have. Or, they may not realize the risks involved with losing a flash drive with sensitive information. Take the time to educate employees and make sure they are comfortable reporting any, and all, security threats.

4. Public Wi-Fi

With the increase in workplace mobility comes an increase in usage of public Wi-Fi. While convenient, Wi-Fi in coffee shops, airports, hotels and elsewhere may not be secure. Educate employees on how to identify secure website and how to connect through a virtual private network (VPN).

5. Social Media

For starters, if you don’t have a social media policy in place, it’s time to implement one. Social media is ripe with hackers looking to elicit information from individuals. Just one click on a post that appears harmless could inadvertently spread malware. Educate employees on acceptable use of social media and have monitoring practices in place to minimize the risks.

It’s a good idea to continue to provide employees with ongoing training and information updates to keep IT security top of mind.

Do you have questions about your IT security? Give us a call to see how we can help.

Aruba ClearPass Helps You Embrace BYOD

Regardless if you run a bank, hospital or retail organization, one thing’s for certain: your employees and customers have come to expect Wi-Fi access. But if the thought of letting anyone and everyone onto your network scares you, you’re not alone.

With the Aruba ClearPass Access Management System you can embrace the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture allowing guest and employee-owned devices like smart phones, tablets and laptops onto your network without losing control and visibility.

Here’s five other key benefits ClearPass offers:

1. Customized Guest Access Portal

Use your company logo and branding or create unique data-entry fields that users have to fill out to log on. You can even post customized advertisements and offers or other targeted content to create a unique user experience.

2. Seamless Integration

ClearPass is available as both a hardware-based or virtual appliance and can be deployed with any existing network infrastructure from any major vendor, which means you don’t have to replace existing infrastructure.

3. Real-time Analytics

With ClearPass, you have the ability to see which devices have connected to your network in real-time, which can be helpful when it comes to reporting, planning, auditing and compliance.

4. Comprehensive Security

ClearPass has an abundance of security procedures in place to protect your network. You can ensure devices are compliant with your policies before they connect, set a policy according to device type, block applications that don’t meet company policy, provide different service levels based on the user and more.

5. Easy Troubleshooting

ClearPass provides advanced troubleshooting and the forensics needed to easily pinpoint the root cause of a user’s network access or authentication issue. Your IT department will thank you.

So whether you have 10 users or 10,000 on your network, ClearPass will help create a better user experience while keeping your network secure. Curious if ClearPass would work for your business? Contact your account manager today.

Southwest Airlines was one of the latest companies to fall victim to what’s been referred to as a “computer glitch” resulting in hundreds of flight cancellations, delays, lots of unhappy customers and a negative impact to the company’s bottom line.

A router breakdown that led to a series of failures in critical technology systems has been blamed. The backup systems in place also failed to work as expected.

Even if you aren’t operating one of the nation’s largest airline carriers, if your company relies on technology (which, let’s face it, is most) a disaster recovery plan is a critical business need. Here are three reasons why:

1. Machines and Hardware Fail

Even the best hardware is not completely immune to failing. That’s where Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) comes in. In the event of a failure, your physical or virtual servers should be backed up by a third party so you can quickly and cost-effectively recover your data with as little down time as possible. In addition, you should be conducting regular network assessments and testing to avoid unreliable redundancy.

2. Human Error is Common

Ever had your computer crash or lost an important document? It happens to everyone. Having a disaster recovery plan in place can ensure you have online data backups that allow you to easily restore your data. In addition, having redundant firewalls, anti-virus, and anti-spyware software can help prevent security breaches that are often the result of human error.

3. Customers Have Little Patience

With the Internet, and especially social media, customers are quicker than ever to voice their frustrations and concerns to anyone and everyone. Those affected by the recent Southwest Airlines flight interruptions are a prime example. It’s not easy to earn a customers’ trust, and any downtime or inconvenience they experience, even if due to an IT disaster is a quick way to send your customers to your competition.

At any time, something unwelcomed can happen and affect your organization's overall IT infrastructure and your company’s bottom line. Call us to learn more about how VizionVault, our disaster recovery service, can help you prepare for the unexpected.

Here are 6 statistics you need to know.

Flexibility, scalability, mobility – the benefits of moving to a cloud-first network go on and on. If you’ve even been considering a cloud-first strategy, you’re probably already aware of at least some of these advantages. But these six key findings revealed in the RightScale 2016 State of the Cloud Report* may surprise you.

1. Security concerns are decreasing.

In past RightScale reports, security has always been the top concern among respondents. However, from 2014 to 2016, security concerns for Enterprise central IT teams, who typically have the most responsibility for security, declined from 47 percent to 37 percent. Is seems as cloud providers and best practices mature, security concerns will continue to decline.

2. Top cloud challenge cited is lack of resources/expertise.

Nearly 32 percent of respondents indicated lack of resources/expertise as their No. 1 cloud challenge, an increase from 27 percent last year. As companies continue to place higher demand on the cloud, the need for technical expertise has grown.

3. Cloud cost management is a significant challenge.

Cloud cost management as a challenge has steadily increased each year from 18 percent in 2013 to 26 percent in 2016. From reducing or eliminating data centers to utilizing flexible capacity, companies have significant opportunities for savings if they know what actions to take.

4. Cloud adoption is on the rise.

This year’s survey findings revealed that private cloud adoption increased from 63 percent to 77 percent, and hybrid cloud adoption increased from 58 percent to 71 percent since 2015. More enterprise workloads are also moving to the cloud – mainly the private cloud – from 22 percent to 31 percent since last year. Overall, 95 percent of respondents are using cloud, up from 93 percent last year.

5. Cloud users see increase in speed.

The survey findings show the two benefits that had the largest increase were faster access to infrastructure, which grew from 57 to 62 percent, and faster time-to market, which grew from 48 to 52 percent. 

6. Cloud initiatives differ based on company size.

The study showed that 2016 cloud priorities differed among Enterprises and SMBs. Enterprises, who generally have a larger number of applications, are more focused on moving more of those workloads to the cloud (57 percent). Small and Medium-sized Business (SMBs) indicated optimizing existing cloud use to achieve cost savings (43 percent) as their No.1 initiative.

Whether you’ve just starting to think about moving some applications to the cloud, have a robust cloud-first strategy in place, or you’re somewhere in-between – we can help. From cost savings to workplace efficiency, our experienced team of technical engineers will help you fully take advantage of all the benefits a cloud-first network can offer. 

* Source: RightScale 2016 State of the Cloud Report reveals results from a survey of 1,060 technical professionals across a broad cross-section of organizations about their adoption of cloud computing.