Blue Ridge Technology

With cyber attacks on the rise, it is essential for your business to be prepared in the event of a disaster. Most businesses have offsite backups that they can use in the event of a disaster or attack, but how reliable is your backup? Have you tested it to make sure that it can restore your information in a timely manner and get you up and running again quickly? Routine and regular backup testing can alert you to possible failures so that you can take appropriate action. In order to have little to no impact on your business operations and financials, a comprehensive and quick restoration is important to making sure you are prepared in the event of a disaster. In 2017, Cockrell Hill Police Department out of Texas announced that fell victim to a ransomware attack resulting in the loss of 8 years of data. This data loss included evidence pertaining to ongoing investigations. This data was unrecoverable. Ransomware resulted in 8 years of lost data for a police department in Texas. In 2016...

You started a business in the basement of your parent's house and it has taken several years, but you have grown to the point where you open a small office and even employee 15 employees now. While the growth is great, it also comes with a lot of responsibility and pivotal decisions. If you want to continue to be successful, you have to ensure your business will continue to move in the right direction. Business owners understand the need to continuously improve their business processes to become more productive and efficient. In order to adapt to market changes and provide better service to customers, business owners need to sometimes make difficult decisions. One of these tough decisions that can impact your organization's daily workflow significantly is your business information technology management. Seemingly, this does not appear to bear much weight on your daily operations, but in fact can bear momentous consideration. The loss of a server can shut your business down fo...

Two-factor authentication (2FA), also known as two-step authentication or multi-factor authentication, is used to improve the security of your online accounts. With 2FA, users can only get into their computer applications by entering two or more pieces of information into the authentication system. This adds additional layers of security to the login process. The most common way to confirm two factors when logging onto an account is to enter a password and then authenticate through a secondary verification process or application. There are three types of two-factor authentication or verification you may be familiar with: What you chose: a password, a PIN code, a postal code or a response request (your mother’s maiden name, your pet’s name, favorite childhood friend’s name, etc.) What you have: a phone, a credit card or a chain. What you get: biometric features such as fingerprints, retina, appearance or sound. Why is Two-Factor Authentication So Important? Ransomware can shut your en...

The Importance of Updating your Website Content The first impression is usually the most influential. In today’s business, the most influential tool is your website! It's usually the first place your customers visit to learn about your business and the services you offer. In this case, it's important to keep the website content up-to-date and focus on the messaging. Creating your website is often not enough to get your customers involved. Your website will commonly be a resource to your clients and should be updated and changed to increase your chances of advancing in search engine results. Updating your website content is vital to businesses today. Visitors use this information on a regular basis to find you and see what services you offer. Reasons for Updating Your Website Content: Provides Frequent Indexing As more and more sites, articles, blogs and downloads are used to update your site, search engines will frequently visit your website. Search engines use web crawlers,...

What is a Firewall? A network firewall is typically a hardware appliance that provides network security by filtering inbound and outbound data and internet traffic according to user-defined guidelines. Generally speaking, the firewall’s job is to decrease or remove any malicious communications or data while allowing legitimate communications to the network to flow easily. In most infrastructures, the firewall is the first layer of security in place that can prevent an attack. In this blog, we will be starting with an explanation of traffic through Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets and then we will move into the various issues related to security. Network Security TCP Network Packets We are going to take a look at the appearance of network traffic but first we will explain the protocols of the network traffic. TCP is the standard that defines the establishing of a network “handshake” or how applications and programs interchange data. UDP is an...

Backing up your data can save you a lot of work and stress. The Importance of a Reliable Backup It may come as a surprise to you that although a lot of us know that we need consistent backups, the truth is that many of us, if not most of us, don't have them. Having a reliable backup can save you a lot of headache and stress. Here are some of the most common reasons why it is so important to perform these backups consistently: Malware or Ransomware: R ansomware is a malicious software from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid to restore the data. Typically if the ransom in not paid within a certain timeframe, the victim is at risk of losing the data forever. Of course, there is also no guarantee that the data will be restored by the cybercriminal. Check out Philip Betbeze's article about a hospital that was attacked with ransomware. Human Error: Human error is one of the top reasons that re...

While most e-mail platforms offer scanning and filtering, this is often not enough security to protect yourself from spammers and hackers.. Basic e-mail filtering isn't sufficient to provide adequate spam detection, and they often allow phishing, and potential threats through to the network. Online security specialists generally believe that the number of email and phishing attacks are on the rise. Companies can improve their security awareness and decrease the risk of email threats by applying dedicated anti-spam filtering services. E-Mail Filtering: Preventing Spam What Anti-Spam E-mail Filters Actually Do E-mail filters use various security mechanisms to detect spam and dangerous e-mails. This includes blacklists of senders and websites included in spam. These mechanisms are updated in real-time to protect against newly created attacks. A powerful anti-virus engine also looks for links to malware and sites that hide the real identity of the proxy server. In order to allow the sy...