| Spend More Time Growing Your Business by Letting Us Handle Your Network Needs Giga Systems is excited to introduce our new IT Management Service, designed to give your business peace of mind when it comes to managing and securing your network. In today’s fast-paced digital world, staying on top of network performance and cybersecurity can drain valuable time and resources. Which is why our IT Management Service includes access to programs designed to monitor your computer for antivirus/malware, manage important system updates, plus monitoring your computers for suspicious activity, so you can focus on what matters most: running your business. Key Benefits:
Managing IT systems on your own can be complex, time-consuming, and risky. Our service is tailored for small to mid-sized businesses looking for reliable, affordable protection and simplified network management—without the need for in-house IT staff. Let us handle the tech—so you can focus on your goals. Want to learn more or schedule a free consultation? |
It’s late in October, with less than a week until November. Where did the year go? While I try to figure that out, did you know that since 2004, the President of the United States and Congress have declared October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month? This month is dedicated to encouraging the public and private sectors to work together to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity.
What is Cybersecurity?
You’ve probably heard the term “cybersecurity,” but you might not know what it means. Cybersecurity is about protecting important information and maintaining productivity. It involves a variety of technologies and practices designed to defend against cyberattacks, which can aim to access, change, destroy, or hold sensitive information hostage while demanding ransom.
What Steps Should I Take to Secure My Data?
While cybersecurity is constantly evolving, there are some simple steps you, as the user, can take to help safeguard your data—none of which will cost you a dime. These methods include, but are not limited to:
- Using strong passwords.
- Enabling multifactor authentication (MFA/2FA) when possible.
- Using common sense:
- If a link looks suspicious in an email you’re reading, click the delete button.
- If a link on a website looks strange, click the exit button.
- Don’t engage with emails claiming you’ve won a free iPhone or that a long-lost prince needs your financial help to reclaim his title.
- If people you’ve never heard of call about your extended car warranty or claim there’s a problem with your computer, DO NOT give them any personal information.
Additionally, it’s essential to ensure your device’s software is up to date, back up all your data, and use antivirus/malware detection tools—something Giga Systems can help you with.
What Giga Systems Can Offer
Giga Systems provides a variety of services, from installing and configuring technology for office buildings to helping recover from major failures. One of our main goals is to prioritize security in everything we do while assisting our customers in creating real-world solutions for their networking, communication, and security needs.
In honor of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we want to offer our network monitoring services to everyone. Giga Systems’ monitoring services will include antivirus/malware detection, help to ensure that all your devices stay up to date with all the necessary updates plus monitoring of your computers for suspicious activity.
Prices will depend on the number of devices you have and whether you would like to add remote or on-site support (availability for on-site support will depend on your location).
Example Pricing:
- For one single computer with just monitoring, the price starts as low as $20 a month. If you add remote support, the price becomes $40 a month, and you might be able to add on-site support for $60 a month, depending on your location.
- For ten computers with a server and on-site support available, the price for the month would be $720.
If you’re interested, please contact us by emailing in**@*********ms.com or call 405-877-9090 for a custom quote.
In today’s world of Internet connections, network security involves more than just having secure passwords. See my article at https://gigasystems.com/createasecurepassword/ for help choosing a secure password.
Secure passwords are very important but they cannot protect you from every thing. A good password will not stop someone who can just bypass passwords all together. So let’s go over a few ideas to help stop the bad guys.
First and probably the easiest thing to do is keep everything up to date. Updates are written to fix known security holes and other problems. And it doesn’t matter what system you are using, Windows, Mac, Linux, or on-line programs like blogs and photo galleries. Also, let’s not forget your phone system. Even if it’s not connected to the Internet, it is accessible to the outside world through the phone lines.
Let’s start with the forgotten phone system. Modern phone systems have services that connect to the computer network and in many cases, the Internet. For these systems, there are usually updates available. It’s very important to keep up with these updates. The last thing you want is someone adding extensions to give out stolen credit card numbers or changing the password and locking you out of your own system. Older systems that do not connect to the Internet are still vulnerable. Most systems allow access to system features from any touch tone phone. Services like checking voice mail, making outbound calls, or making system changes. When I hear the prerecorded prompts, I can usually tell what brand of system it is (or I can just walk into your building and look at a phone to see what brand it is) and from there getting default passwords is pretty simple (you’ll want to make sure you change those). If I can tell what you have so can the bad guys.
On to the computers. So, you have all of your updates installed and you’re using strong passwords. You’re done right? Wrong. Most systems have a set of services installed by default. These are services that get used quite often. But if they are not used, they should be turned off. Next ,you should have a good firewall to filter who is allowed to connect to your network. That network service that didn’t get turned off could be giving out information usable to the bad guys, or provide a way into your network. Especially if it is not firewalled properly.
What about printers, routers, and other network devices? Some of these could have some big security holes that need to be addressed. If you have any concerns you should have Giga Systems come test your system to see how secure it is. These are just the basics, but doing a little due diligence now could save you from a lot of trouble down the road.