It can be frustrating to handle all your IT tasks as a small business, but when you can’t afford in-house expertise, you may feel you have no other choice.

Fortunately, there’s another solution— outsourcing your small business IT support services in Arlington VA. When your company can’t necessarily hire internal tech staff but needs IT support, outsourcing can be cost-effective and efficient.

What do you need to know when hiring IT help? Here are a few questions to ask.

How Do You Handle Tech Support Requests?

Your IT provider needs to be organized and handle tech support requests as quickly and accurately as possible. To do this, your candidate should have a process they already use.

During your meeting, have them narrate how they handle troubleshooting requests including providing over the phone, email, or in-person help. Inquire what experience they have with software to organize and track requests as well.

Can You Backup and Recover Our Data?

While many small businesses in Arlington overlook this integral component of an effective IT setup, your IT support specialist should be able to store and backup your data in a safe location.

Your potential provider should have the necessary skills to design and implement a recovery plan. Have them tell you what methods they use to recover data in the event of a disaster or network failure.

What Will You Do to Secure Our Information?

Small businesses are as vulnerable to cybersecurity threats as larger organizations, so it’s essential to secure your data. Have your candidate walk you through what precautionary measures they would take to protect your information.

Make it clear that you expect routine security audits. Your IT provider should not only know how to recognize a cyberattack, but work to prevent one and have a plan for when a specific attack has taken place.

Tell Me About a Time You Helped a Company Like Ours

Your IT candidate should demonstrate relevant experience and technical expertise. However, when considering other questions to ask, keep in mind that you need someone who can communicate effectively with your team and work well with others.

Evaluate their ability to communicate clearly in their answers by listening to the language they use—is it easy to follow their methodology, or are you already lost? If it’s the latter, this person might not be for you.

Do You Provide 24/7 Support?

You need an IT provider who supports your network outside regular office hours. Ideally, you should have a company that provides 24/7 help.

While you may not be open 24/7, customers are always online and interacting with your company. Things do go wrong, and network failures never happen at a good time. Find someone who can provide continuous support to get the most for your money!

Get the Right Support for Your Small Business

Finding small business IT support services Arlington VA doesn’t have to be difficult. By asking the right questions, you can hire the best talent for your company to not only enhance the services you provide to your customers, but improve your operations as well!

Why Outsource Your Managed Security?

Outsourcing your network security allows you to get the most innovative, up-to-the-minute managed security services at a much lower cost than hiring onsite, specialized IT staff. A qualified network security provider will always be updated with the latest security patches and technologies—leaving you to enjoy peace of mind while you manage your business.

What Do Managed Security Services Cover?

• Access Controls and Identity Management – Identity proofing, credentialing and granting access via two-factor and multi-factor authentications. We also offer a unique authentication system through Anakam TFATM that uses cell phones, pagers, and home or office phones that offers an 80% savings over hard-token key fob systems.
• Data backup – Implementing a sound backup and recovery plan is critical in order to minimize loss of user data and database corruption in the event of even the smallest disaster. Solvere One’s managed network security assessment will help you to first identify your overall needs, determine the types of backup options available, help choose which option is best for your company, and prepare plans and policies followed by execution and maintenance.
• Content Filtering – Ensures that parameters are placed on which Internet sites can be accessed and what bandwidth limitations should be set in order to avoid recreational surfing, and also ensuring adequate bandwidth for critical business needs. Content filtering helps your company save money and increase productivity.
• IM Instant Messaging Auditing and Control – Policy management and perimeter security for Instant Messaging, Skype, and other real-time web-based communications. This service also provides the capability to identify and stop spam, viruses, worms, rootkits, keyloggers, bots, and other “greynets” designed to gather and destroy sensitive data.
• Incident Response, eDiscovery, and Information Assurance – Using forensics, computer audits, insider threat and incident response, and other tools so that clients can see what is stored or occurring on any computer in their network, and if necessary, forensically preserve and/or remediate it without disruption of current operations.
• Virus and Firewall Protection and Monitoring – Making sure that your network is continually monitored and checked for suspicious content, unexpected traffic, and other anomalies that cause unwanted behaviors through intrusion prevention systems (IPS).
• Windows RMS (Rights Managed Systems) technology – Windows RMS enables organizations to “control” information. Working with the highest level of encryption, content security is addressed in storage, in transit, and as it is being used – ensuring against malicious and/or accidental misuse.
• Wireless Security – Advanced wireless intrusion prevention systems (WIPS) put in place to counteract wireless intrusion risks, allowing for the continuity of operations.

Can Managed Security Services Keep Cloud Applications Safe?

Yes. And many experts say that using an outside managed security service is typically more effective for cloud computing, since cloud security requires more advanced IT skills as well as increased bandwidth. It’s likely far more beneficial for your company to rely on an outsourced MSS than to keep an in-house IT staff up to speed while continually paying more money to get needed additional bandwidth.

MSS Outsourcing in DC, Maryland, and Virginia

Learn more about the benefits of outsourcing your managed security services to Solvere One by calling us today at (202) 905-2722. Or contact us online for more information.

Cryptolocker is just as creepy as its name sounds. This phishing scam encrypts data from your system and holds it ransom until you transfer money to the criminals behind it. And even when people do pay, they often don’t get their files back.

An earlier version of Cryptolocker was demolished in 2014 but a new version has recently emerged.

How can you protect your company’s network from Cryptolocker? Establish protocols, update your security system, and make sure you have a strong backup system in place.

First, let’s take a look at how Cryptolocker gets inside your network.

How Does Cryptolocker Work?

The Cryptolocker malware is quick, streamlined, and nefarious.

• The criminals behind Cryptolocker will use recognizable corporate names like Amazon and send phony delivery slips and invoices via email. Opening an attachment from these emails allows the malware to infiltrate local hard drives and mapped network drives.
• The malware then contacts a server run by its senders. The systems exchange information and the encryption begins. Cryptolocker can encrypt every file it finds.
• To inform the user of the virus, the malware presents a screen that tells you how much money it wants (usually anywhere from $300 to $500, accepted in bitcoin or another untraceable currency) to decrypt your files by a specific deadline.

Some companies and individuals that have chosen to pay the ransom never got their decrypted files. The best protection from Cryptolocker is prevention.

How to Protect Your Network from Cryptolocker

Having a solid security system in place is critical. Having staff protocols in place is priceless.

Behind the scenes:

• Make sure your antivirus software is updated. Although some experts say that antivirus is no match for Cryptolocker
• Update your security system on time
• Install intrusion prevention systems
• Implement the 3, 2, 1 backup rule – Keep three copies of every important file: one original, one stored on another type of media and one stored offsite
• Consider blocking attachments

In the office:

• Insist on safe computing practices – make security a priority and get buy-in from your team
• Make sure employees know to never click a link or open an attachment from an unfamiliar or suspicious source—and to notify IT immediately if they encounter anything questionable
• Encourage employees to increase their web browser security settings

Get MSS Support in DC, Maryland, and Virginia

If you are looking for network security solutions custom-designed for your business, contact Solvere One today!

Two is one and one is none. The saying is normally something you’d hear from a law enforcement firearms instructor, but it’s also quite applicable for a much more mundane item: computer files. No one likes thinking about backing up files. In the computer world it’s usually an afterthought rather than a primary concern. At least, it’s never a primary concern until the project you’ve been working on for days, your saved emails for the past few years, and the photos of your children disappear forever. Some things are replaceable, albeit with a lot of work and stress; others, like the photos, are not.

Don’t risk losing photos, documents, and other files that are vital to your business. Contact Solvere One today to learn about our data backup services.

Why Have A Computer Backup System?

Why deal with all of the potential stress and loss when a very slight amount of work now can prevent it all? With a little bit of planning, you can even make the data backup process automatic, which really means that it will be done on a regular basis without ongoing work.

So where to start? The first place to start is to see if there’s already a system in place for you. There are several ways to backup your data, including:

Network Server Backup

In many large work environments, you’re provided with and likely expected to use server space for your work related files. Such systems are generally backed up daily meaning that you have a potential for one day of lost work versus all of the work saved on your computer. You should, however, check with your systems administrator to see what files you can or cannot save on the server, whether and how often the files are backed up, and who to contact should you ever need a file restored from the backup.

External Data Backup

What if you don’t have a company server that can be used as a data backup system or if you have files that can’t be saved on it? After checking to be sure that you’re within policies and security guidelines if it’s for a work computer, get an external USB hard drive. Many USB hard drives are designed with file backups in mind and allow for automated and scheduled backups. If you don’t have an external hard drive designed to automatically back up your computer, try the free “EaseUS Todo Backup” program which automates backups with any external hard drive.

Cloud Backup Services

There are a couple of warnings that should be considered when considering cloud backup services. First, while online cloud services are extremely useful and these services will work as a computer backup service for files that are also stored locally on your computer, they should not be trusted for both primary storage and a backup solution. It is true that these services are backed up; however, the backup solutions are biased toward cost savings and efficiency, not customer data integrity. Even Amazon permanently lost some customer data when their cloud service crashed in 2011. You’ll also be depending on the company’s customer service to recover your files in a timely fashion.

The second warning is, if at all possible and in line with work security policies, keep your backup in a separate location. While most loss of data will be caused by hardware failure or other normal corruption, fires and other disasters happen as well. By keeping them separate, you reduce the likelihood of such disasters affecting both copies.

By backing up your important documents and files, you’ll save yourself a lot of heartache in the future. Data corruption and loss is not a matter of if, it is simply a matter of when.

If you would like to learn more about computer backup services in the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia areas, contact the IT professionals at Solvere One today!