Sales: 678.967.3854
Support: 866.252.6363

By The DynaSis Team

In late 2013, Internet security firm Fireeye discovered that a string of sophisticated, seemingly unrelated malware attacks had all been built on a common infrastructure of malicious services and applications. After further research, Fireeye concluded that multiple criminal entities and operations were working together, pooling and sharing resources and logistics to make it easier and more efficient to develop and launch highly sophisticated but distinctly separate attacks. A few months later, security firm McAfee announced that 20 to 30 cybercrime groups—all in the former Soviet Union — had reached "nation-state level" capability.

At the time, DynaSis reported on this trend, urging business owners to increase their security efforts. Knowing that strong cyber security is beyond the technical capability of virtually all small and midsized businesses (SMBs) we recommended that SMBs work with security-focused IT consultants or IT services firms to achieve better protection.

Fast forward to 2016, and the situation has only gotten worse. In fact, the continued evolution of the Deep Web, (also called the Dark Web)—a “hidden” Internet where illegal activities flourish—is accelerating the threat.  According to an Infosec Institute report, security firm TrendMicro’s analysis of the Deep Web identified major cybercriminal ecosystems operating in Germany, Russia, Japan, China, the United States, Canada and Brazil.

News headlines about Russian and Chinese cybercrime organizations are fairly common. However, the media report less frequently about the U.S. cybercrime ecosystem, which Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer at Trend Micro, characterized as, “A gun show for everyone as long as they can participate and are willing to pay.” These cybercrime groups, Kellerman noted, “primarily cater to customers within the region…most of the offerings (stolen accounts, products and services, and fake documents) are U.S. based.”

We hope that anyone reading recognizes that the threat of becoming a victim has reached epic proportions. In fact, no prudent managed IT services or IT support provider—even those that emphasize security—guarantees to completely prevent all threats from reaching corporate systems. Rather, the focus is on monitoring, detection and swift elimination.

Here at DynaSis, we have always followed security news, and we continue to enhance our own security offerings to incorporate the most modern, successful approaches. It’s a scary world out there, and it only takes one breach to bring an organization to its knees. To learn more, we invite you to download our white paper, Cyber-Security 2016, or browse our blogs and white papers at “The Latest.”

DynaSis has been Atlanta’s premier IT support services provider for more than 23 years. As an IT company working with small to midsized businesses (10 to 150+ users), DynaSis has developed a unique 12-layer approach to network threat protection, ransomware prevention and crypto virus threat elimination. The DynaSis Business Cloud functions through a highly secure environment with full real-time data backup. Please contact us at 678.218.1769 or visit our website at www.DynaSis.com.

By the DynaSis Team

Every day, small and midsized business (SMB) owners are bombarded with seemingly conflicting messages regarding how IT solutions can help them best run their businesses. With so many options to consider regarding corporate security, productivity and cost efficiency, it is not surprising that some of them stick their heads in the sand and do nothing.

Unfortunately, with SMBs becoming favorite targets for cyber attackers, and with corporate competition increasingly fierce, that is the worst possible way to operate. Here’s one example:

A business owner has been operating with a “break-fix” mentality, which means he or she only makes technology purchases when something breaks. This is a reactive operating strategy, but many business owners take this path because they believe they cannot find the time or budget to manage their technology proactively.

This approach has always been financially inefficient and detrimental to productivity, and DynaSis has long recommended that business leaders team with a knowledgeable, trustworthy IT consulting partner, such as a managed services provider or an IT services firm, to help them create and implement a technology roadmap that includes staged upgrades and improvements.

Today, however, the break-fix approach has become more than inefficient. Outdated, network-connected equipment, such as networked printers, likely has no built-in security protections. Such machines are more likely to be operating with open Internet connections, and hackers know that. Furthermore, competitiveness in today’s market relies on providing workers with modern technology. Organizations that persist with the break-fix model invariably fall behind.

In other words, making smart, planned technology improvements helps organizations foster productivity, security, cost efficiency and competitiveness—not to mention employee satisfaction. The question then becomes: how does the business owner know which improvements are smart?

To help our readers, we have prepared a chart of technology Do’s and Don’ts, in terms of best practices. The list only scratches the surface, but it’s a good place to start.

Choosing the Right Technology

These are just a few of many examples where smart technology choices are beneficial to your company, its personnel and its bottom line. If your technology environment is inadequate or outdated, your employees cannot achieve their missions, and customers may perceive your physical space—and your firm—as dated. Similarly, if your approach is too lenient, you could be throwing away money, productivity and security. A knowledgeable, expert IT support company can help you evaluate your options, minimize your risk and keep your equipment operating in peak condition.

Selection of an IT outsourcing company is a very important business decision. For almost a quarter century, Atlanta’s small to mid-sized businesses have relied on DynaSis’ for managed IT services, internet security, and 24 x 7 x 365 helpdesk support. Today, with cybercrime becoming an ever-increasing threat, DynaSis has become an industry leader in network protection and ransomware prevention. Please take a tour through our website at www.DynaSis.com or speak with a technical expert at 678.218.1769.

The ROI of Outsourcing

By the DynaSis Team

If you are a small or midsized (SMB) business owner, how many times have you wondered, “Would it be less expensive to outsource a job rather than to retain staff in house?” For some functions, such as legal advice or trash collection, outsourcing is an obvious choice. For other roles, ranging from accounts receivable to marketing and beyond, the evaluation is more difficult.

A variety of “resource costing” tools, which SMB owners can use to calculate the hard costs of many functions, are available online (see one example, here). To arrive at a figure, most determine the time it takes an employee to perform relevant tasks and then multiply that number by the blended (pay plus benefits) rate for the job. Some include other factors that might be minimized or eliminated by using a professional (or an automated solution) to perform the work. These include the cost of space, supplies, and training, and even the cost of errors or other failures. Once the total cost is determined, SMB owners can compare it against the quote from a third-party provider to determine if there is any savings.

The problem with this approach is that it cannot account for benefits that are not quantifiable, nor can it project the gain or loss from things that do not happen. In our experience, nowhere are these intangibles more prevalent than with outsourced IT.

As a professional cloud and managed services provider, we sometimes hear from SMB decision makers that having in-house IT staff is less expensive than outsourcing IT services and IT support.

Invariably, the business leader is making his or her calculation based on hard costs, alone. They haven’t considered financial impacts that cannot be quantified or predicted. Consider these two examples:

With IT solutions, there are many such variables that firms should consider when determining the ROI of outsourcing. Following are just a few:

Although highly competent, in-house IT professionals can minimize some of these issues, those workers  come at a high price. Furthermore, rarely can SMBs afford to keep their IT staffs fully updated on all certifications and training. As a result, most lack the know-how to deploy the automated monitoring and maintenance solutions proven to substantially reduce downtime compared to traditional IT approaches.

For some business functions, keeping the work in-house may be the most cost-effective approach. For many others, and especially for IT, outsourcing provides strategic business advantages that are beyond the reach of SMBs with in-house staffs. Increasingly, progressive SMB owners are recognizing the value of assigning critical functions to the experts.

For small to midsized business owners and executives who are concerned about managed IT support services and network threat protection, DynaSis is one company that has been at the forefront since 1992. In this ever evolving world of cybercrime, crypto virus and network access protection have become critical to every company’s security. DynaSis also provides 24 x 7 x 365 outsourced IT services, with its own trained staff for helpdesk, real-time monitoring and the DynaSis Business Cloud, for highly secure data storage and backup. You can find out more by calling us at 678.218.1769, or checking out our website at www.DynaSis.com.

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

Despite mobility being one of the technology cornerstones for small and midsized businesses (SMBs), many organizations still are not making effective, long-term decisions for their firms. In May, we talked about the ongoing challenges of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to the workplace and the importance of having qualified IT support teams or managed IT services providers administer and manage this solution. However, numerous studies indicate that BYOD is not the only component of mobility where SMB owners and decision makers are having a hard time achieving optimal benefit.

Per data from research firm SMB Group, between 55 and 65 percent of SMB owners (depending on organizational size) agree or strongly agree that mobile solutions and services are “critical” to the business. Yet, the researchers also found that many SMB owners do not have a strategic perspective regarding mobile technologies. Following are a few examples:

From these examples (and others), it’s apparent that SMBs lag behind larger competitors in the mobile arena. The development of the “mobile workplace” was supposed to help level the playing field for smaller companies. Yet, for organizational leaders who don’t have the time, expertise or sense of direction to take advantage of mobile opportunities, the reverse could be true.

What many SMBs need most is a cohesive mobile technology strategy, which is a key, not only to effective mobile adoption but also to mobile risk management. As with so many areas of the business, company leaders are often too wrapped up with daily operational issues to make time for strategic planning.

Having the assistance of an outside resource, such as a managed services provider or IT consulting firm, is often the best way to obtain both resource and expertise for objective planning and decision making. With a strategic plan in place, business leaders can make informed, long-term decisions that support both the organization and its personnel.

DynaSis has been providing managed IT support services to Metro Atlanta’s small to midsized businesses since 1992. We provide Availability – making sure your network is up and running; Mobility – allowing your employees world-wide access to your network; and Security – as an Internet security company, we resolve “issues” before they grow into problems. If you want to learn more, please visit www.DynaSis.com, or call us at 678.218.1769.

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

In today’s IT-driven business world, networks have become the arteries that keep information pumping through a company. Yet, the technology of the networks themselves—what makes them operate most efficiently—is still a mystery to most people who use them. The good news is that there are now monitoring tools that can tunnel through networks, pinpoint their issues and often resolve them without human involvement.

Unfortunately, many companies still don’t use them. A study of 547 US and European-based network and security operations professionals found that 45 percent of IT staffs monitor network and application performance manually, instead of implementing network monitoring tools. As a result:

This isn’t surprising, because networks are incredibly complex. They are webs of network hardware—firewalls and routers, for example, connected to dozens (if not hundreds) of endpoint devices, from desktop PCs and tablets to printers.

Furthermore, network hardware has become so adept at resolving or bypassing conflicts and other glitches that a few problems might not cause an outage. The issues mount until an outage occurs, at which time IT support staff must unravel a tangled web.

Even the most dedicated IT services experts cannot manage the current generation of networks (and their systems) manually, which is why monitoring tools were developed. They are fast, efficient and inexpensive, and they work with virtually no load on the system. More important for network security, monitoring tools can pinpoint network dangers that are not technically faults, such as unauthorized devices operating on the network.

Minimizing System Slowdowns—and Outages

So, what do monitoring tools do to help with network stability? They identify and monitor all connections and their relevant information and activity. They can also automatically fix a variety of minor problems that impact network speeds—before they become major problems.

To help ensure business health, monitoring tools can identify issues that require manual intervention before they cause an outage. They provide ongoing alerts and reports that properly trained IT solutions professionals can act upon. Any number of elements can cause an outage or significant slowdown, from excessive connection attempts that might indicate malware is attempting to penetrate the corporate firewall to an improperly configured device that an employee slips onto the network. Some can be resolved automatically, but others require attention, and fast.

Of course, like any tool, monitoring tools are most helpful when they are used by a qualified professional. For this reason, business leaders often work with a managed services provider (also called a managed IT services firm)—even when they have an internal IT department—to deploy these tools and follow up on any issues they detect. Such assistance not only reduces the incidence of system downtime dramatically; it also has been proven to free business resources, fostering innovation and a greater competitive edge.

DynaSis has been Atlanta’s premier IT support services provider for more than 23 years. As an IT company working with small to midsized businesses (10 to 150+ users), DynaSis has developed a unique 12-layer approach to network threat protection, ransomware prevention and crypto virus threat elimination. The DynaSis Business Cloud functions through a highly secure environment with full real-time data backup. Please contact us at 678.218.1769 or visit our website at www.DynaSis.com.

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

Several recent reports have highlighted the growing importance for small and midsized businesses (SMBs) of outsourcing their IT functions. There is also new evidence that SMB owners are actively embracing the use of managed services.

Per a 2015 report from the MSPAlliance, an international association of cloud computing and managed services providers (MSPs), North American firms spend approximately $154 billion annually for managed services. The MSPAlliance also reports that SMBs are at the top of the list, in terms of adoption. Benefits cited by the SMBs contracting for managed IT services include increased operational performance, decreased operational risk, reduced IT costs and accelerated innovation.

The IT solutions offered as managed services range from computing, storage and networking resources to mobility strategy and management, expert, 24/7 support for users, and even telephony services. Some IT support companies offer ongoing monitoring, management and maintenance of the underlying infrastructure (with service guarantees).

The most engaged MSPs also offer IT consulting and strategic planning services to help organizations create roadmaps of upgrades and improvements, maximizing budget while minimizing downtime. With all of these options potentially—but not necessarily—available, SMB decision makers considering managed services must both identify their own priorities and vet their candidates carefully. Following are a few issues to consider.

In the long run, many organizations find that contracting with an MSP for all IT services is the most cost-effective solution. This is especially true when the provider offers proactive monitoring and problem resolution, which is proven to reduce outages significantly. With virtually all SMB staff requiring computing resources, IT outages quickly become costly based on wasted staff resource alone. When the cost of lost sales and goodwill are factored in, the price tag is even higher. For even the smallest providers, the new reality is that uptime is no longer optional.

Selection of an IT outsourcing company is a very important business decision. For almost a quarter century, Atlanta’s small to mid-sized businesses have relied on DynaSis’ for managed IT services, internet security, and 24 x 7 x 365 helpdesk support. Today, with cybercrime becoming an ever-increasing threat, DynaSis has become an industry leader in network protection and ransomware prevention. Please take a tour through our website at www.DynaSis.com or speak with a technical expert at 678.218.1769.

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

Almost as long as there have been heroes and villains, there have been stories about “super powers”—superhuman or supernatural abilities possessed by normal humans. So prevalent are these “powers” in history and fiction that Wikipedia lists more than 250 of them.

Organizations can have (or appear to have) super powers, too. While they may not be paranormal or supernatural, the most successful businesses all have attributes that make their customers and competitors say, “How do they do that so well?” “It doesn’t seem possible!”

Here’s an example. Some businesses not only anticipate when customers need to reorder products; they also project what other products and services the firms will want or need, next. They know exactly when to approach their customers, as if they were reading the decision makers’ minds.

In reality, these companies and their sales people are likely harnessing and analyzing available data to discern patterns and then making educated assumptions. Ten years ago, this wasn’t possible, but a new crop of business intelligence tools is revolutionizing the information and insight available to proactive firms.

Technology Has Super Powers, Too

Super powers can appear in any area of the business. Since DynaSis is an information technology (IT) and managed IT services firm, our President, David (Dave) Moorman, focused on technology when he began exploring super powers. At first glance, one might assume that technology super powers are all related to operation, such as the ability to keep systems and networks functional 99.999% of the time.

Although availability (along with mobility and security) is a cornerstone of business success, it’s not, by itself, a super power. Dave determined that the greatest technology super power is something most organizational leaders don’t consider. He calls it “technology capability,” which he defines as “an organization’s ability to create business value through its IT assets and competency.”

IT hardware and software can support business functions, but by themselves they don’t propel a company’s success. Similarly, having workers that can use technology at a basic level may get tasks done, but it won’t take a business to the top. Rather, companies that develop true IT capability are those that have adopted the most appropriate technologies and are using them in the most effective ways—and whose employees are working with them in a collaborative, connected fashion.

As Dave noted in his article, Technology Capability: Your Business “Super Power,” which you can download here, “IT assets alone do not equal capability. How a company makes use of those assets, and how well it integrates them—both with one another and across the enterprise—is what drives organizational prosperity, competitiveness, agility and innovation.”

Such an approach promotes outcomes where the total accomplishment is greater than the sum of its parts. In doing so, organizations can take a significant step towards becoming a business “super power,” themselves. In the article referenced above, Dave digs into the specifics of how organizational leaders can begin this journey by developing IT capability for their own firms. We hope you will enjoy reading it.

For small to midsized business owners and executives who are concerned about managed IT support services and network threat protection, DynaSis is one company that has been at the forefront since 1992. In this ever evolving world of cybercrime, crypto virus and network access protection have become critical to every company’s security. DynaSis also provides 24 x 7 x 365 outsourced managed IT services, with its own trained staff for helpdesk, real-time monitoring and the DynaSis Business Cloud, for highly secure data storage and backup. You can find out more by calling us at 678.218.1769, or checking out our website at www.DynaSis.com.

By the DynaSis Team

When we speak with companies for the first time, one activity we always suggest is an IT Assessment. Unless a firm has recently had an assessment—or is so well organized and disciplined that it’s systems and network are always up to date and running at peak condition—an IT Assessment can be an instrumental planning tool.

Yet, some business leaders don’t understand the value of an IT Assessment, or they are worried it will be too disruptive to their business. Others are concerned that the true purpose of the assessment is to sell them expensive upgrades they cannot afford.

If you have refused an offer of an IT Assessment for these or other reasons, and you have never experienced the benefits of an IT assessment, we hope you will read this article. In the rapidly evolving world of technology, firms simply cannot decide where they want to go, and then plan to go there in a cost-effective, practical fashion, until they have had an IT Assessment.

Many companies work with technology every day without any idea of the condition of their IT networks and whether their systems are functioning at an optimal, or even an acceptable level. Most do not fully know what IT assets (hardware and software) are in use. Without this information, a business decision maker cannot possibly prioritize and manage the technology initiatives that minimize downtime, security holes and other operating problems. An IT Assessment provides exactly the insight and visibility that organizations need to gain this knowledge and prepare for a brighter technology future.

As was pointed out in a recent article on IT complexity and reliability (an interesting, if fairly high-level read): “Since it is impossible to avoid failures in IT systems, modern IT operations strive to minimize the impact of failure by increasing the responsiveness of systems (i.e. automatic failover) and people (i.e. incident response) when problems arise.”

There is no better way to start the process of increasing system responsiveness, and to gain beneficial insight into the problems that affect people (and are caused by them), than with an IT Assessment. Best of all, the most proficient Managed IT Service providers can conduct an IT assessment with minimal disruption to the workforce or corporate operations. Much of the information gathering can be handled by running an assessment tool that only collects system and inventory information and does not collect any company data, causing little to no system impact.

DynaSis recently released a white paper entitled “The Value of an IT Assessment.” It offers more information on how organizations benefit from IT Assessments and details what they should expect when they engage in them. We invite you to read it at your convenience.

DynaSis has been providing managed IT support services to Metro Atlanta’s small to midsized businesses since 1992. We provide Availability—making sure your network is up and running; Mobility— allowing your employees world-wide access to your network; and Security—as an Internet security company, we resolve “issues” before they grow into problems. If you want to learn more, please visit www.DynaSis.com, or call us at 678.218.1769.

[featured_image]

By the DynaSis Team

Of the many sources of organizational risk that business leaders envision, printers likely aren’t one of them. Admittedly, one could run out of paper or toner/ink right before printing a major presentation for a customer. But other than that, how much risk can a printer pose? In today’s connected environment, the answer is “a lot.”

If your printers are networked, which means employees can send jobs to them from their desks or devices, then your printer is tied in with your network, and anyone who can access your printer can access your network. If you are thinking, “but my printer isn’t connected to the Internet, so how could someone gain access?” think again.

If your personnel connect to the Internet, and they connect to your printers, then the two are tied together. Furthermore, some printers automatically send and receive information, such as driver updates, across the Internet without anyone’s knowledge. That creates an additional layer of vulnerability.

Another way your printer can expose you to risk is through storage. Do your printers have the ability to store jobs for later printing? If so, they can (and likely do) retain information after the fact. Most printers have a “cache” for storing information, if not a designated hard drive, and unless someone clears it, the information is there for the taking.

Even assuming no one steals data from the printer while it is at your office, what happens when you sell or trade the printer? Even if the drives and caches are wiped, in some cases it is possible to lift data images off drums and other printer components.

Protecting your printing transmissions and data is beyond the scope of this article, but we can refer you to a few good tips. Rather, our objective here is bigger. Your office printer is a concern, but it is just one example of how “risks” are all around business owners today, often in the most unexpected places. Savvy cybercriminals know this, and they are learning how to penetrate companies in odd ways, such as through a printer-driver update link that may not be detected by the “average” firewall.

We are not suggesting that business owners be cognizant of all these risks, themselves. We’re not even suggesting that they should take action to avoid all of them. Rather, business owners must be keenly aware that business risks can be anywhere and everywhere, and they must take prudent, considered action as risk relates to technology. That means:

To do anything less is to admit defeat. In that case, we recommend the business owner start planning an exit strategy, because that’s what he or she will need, next.

DynaSis has been Atlanta’s premier IT support services provider for more than 23 years. As an IT company working with small to midsized businesses (10 to 150+ users), DynaSis has developed a unique 12-layer approach to network threat protection, ransomware prevention and crypto virus threat elimination. The DynaSis Business Cloud functions through a highly secure environment with full real-time data backup. Please contact us at 678.218.1769 or visit our website at www.DynaSis.com.

By the DynaSis Team

[featured_image]

Cybersecurity, already a hot topic in the news, has moved to an even brighter spotlight now that the presidential candidates are discussing it. The merits of their positions are not for us to debate here. However, their actions underscore the idea that cybersecurity is an issue of concern to the citizens who might vote for them.

Statistics support this viewpoint, especially among the small and midsized business (SMB) community. In May, 2015, Endurance International Group (EIG) released the results of a survey that indicated 81 percent of SMB owners have cybersecurity concerns. Even more (94 percent) “often think” about online security. This is good news, given that SMBs are prime targets. A Verizon study found that organizations with 11-100 employees are 15 times more likely to have their security defenses breached than organizations with more than 100 employees.

Unfortunately, the EIG survey also contained some deeply worrisome statistics. Researchers discovered that 94 percent of SMB owners don’t have cybersecurity insurance. Eighty-three percent handle cybersecurity themselves, often because they don’t think they can afford to employ IT support staff or contract for managed IT services.

In reality, the risk of being breached has become so great that no business can afford not to engage professional help. Attack vectors are evolving so rapidly that it is impossible to avoid them completely. Multi-national, billion-dollar corporations work to manage risk with layers of protection that close security holes, remove or clean infections, detect and stop malicious activities, and provide other lines of defense for corporate systems.

As we head into 2016, we hope all SMB owners will embrace this approach and take action to fortify their companies’ defenses. There simply is no “silver bullet” for security. No single solution will protect a firm. Companies must use a multi-layered approach in order to mitigate threats. Beginning with our first January article, we will be covering various aspects of cybersecurity to help educate our readers regarding this daunting but critical task.

Cybersecurity is complex, and it deserves everyone’s full attention. To ignore it is to accept the consequences of a breach. For an SMB, such an event is almost always financially crippling. In 60% of cases, it will destroy the business within six months.

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram