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When it comes to IT services, knowledge is power. The single most valuable thing we can pass along to our clients is our expertise.
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Insider 94 Navigator 2023
Resources & Advisors for Buying & Selling a Business
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Case Study – Healthcare – Skyway Behavioral Health
Start Up Requiring Robust Infrastructure – From Planning to Implementation
The 7 Irresistible Qualities of Cloud ERP
Learn why ERP tools are an critical component for many businesses.
Why a Business Continuity Plan is Essential
Learn why your company needs a business continuity plan.
Ransomware 101
If you’re looking for ways to stop ransomware dead in its tracks, the experts at CCS Technology are here to help.
How managed services make the difference
Learn more about the benefits of partnering with a managed services provider.
Cloud Services and the SMB Revolution
Learn more about how Cloud Services from CCS make your life easier.
Office 365 Migration Made Easy
Migrating over to Office 365 has never been easier with CCS Technology.
The Advantages of Working with I.T. Pros
Learn how working with a seasoned technology pro makes your work easier.
Closing Common Cybersecurity Holes
Learn several critical cybersecurity tips and tricks any SMB can use.
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CCS Technologies company brochure
Learn more about the benefits of partnering with a managed services provider.
- Learn more about the benefits of partnering with a manged services provider.
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7 Necessities Before Sending Your Workforce Remote
/in Blog, Work From Home /by Chris HigginsDue to the COVID-19 outbreak, many companies are considering work from home options to facilitate social-distancing and keep their workforce healthy. However, it’s not as simple as sending your employees home, firing up personal laptops and getting back to work. Here are seven things you need to have lined up in order to successfully deploy your remote workforce.
The COVID-19 situation is ever-changing. Schools across the nation have been closed and events have been cancelled. While it may make sense to keep your employees on-site for now, we believe it’s important to have a plan should you need to close your physical offices. Getting these seven pieces of the puzzle in line will prepare you to take your workforce remote. Get a head start with the Microsoft Teams Quick Start Program from CCS Technology.
Additional Collaboration Resources
5 Benefits of Better Collaboration for Businesses
Improving Collaboration with Microsoft Teams
3 Ways Technology Will Help Pull Us Through the COVID-19 Pandemic
Solve Shadow IT Problems with Managed Services
/in Blog, Managed Services /by Chris Higgins“Shadow IT” is both a management and security problem. Leveraging managed services offers a potential solution to bringing it under control.
Shadow IT Problems
Shadow IT is any IT service that is accessed without the oversight of company information technology teams. It can be in the form of spending approved by business departments or it can be accessed by individual employees without the knowledge of their supervisors.
While the motivations behind this unapproved IT usage are generally good—employees or departments are trying to access the best technology to help them get their jobs done—it presents several risks from an IT management perspective.
First are the management risks. By definition there’s a lack of visibility into shadow IT. You don’t know what technology you’re using, you don’t understand your dependence on it, and you are vulnerable to outages if the service becomes unavailable. You don’t know the demand these shadow services place on your networks and other resources. In addition, you can’t manage licenses and usage properly, potentially leading to audits and penalties.
Second are the security risks. You don’t know if the technologies being used comply with the regulations relevant to your business. Because the technologies haven’t gone through any official approval process, you don’t know where their vulnerabilities are. Access isn’t being controlled properly. You can’t monitor for breaches because you don’t know where to look.
To resolve the challenges of shadow IT, you need to identify where it’s being used and then understand why employees are going around the official IT procurement processes.
Limit Shadow IT Usage
Network monitoring can help identify new hardware devices and new software services being accessed, as can employee surveys (that don’t impose penalties for admitting to such use).
Then you can take steps to block unapproved technology. Both policies and firewalls can help limit access to unapproved cloud services to prevent shadow usage. Data loss prevention tools and cloud access security brokers can limit the unauthorized movement of data to cloud services.
Eliminate the Need for Shadow IT Through Managed Services
Surveys can identify the reasons employees use unapproved services, but may not be necessary. The big reason for shadow IT is that conventional IT teams are a roadblock, offering limited choices of technology and slow approval and implementation processes. Other common reasons employees opt for shadow IT include frequent outages and poor problem support from the internal IT team.
That’s why managed services offer a solution to the shadow IT problem. With a dedicated team of expert IT personnel dedicated to proactive systems maintenance and support, the routine IT problems that frustrate employees are reduced. Managed services can also speed up procurement and deployment, allowing you to deliver better technology to your employees faster. In addition, managed services free up your own IT team to focus on business-specific IT solutions rather than routine maintenance, allowing them to provide forward-looking technology.
Contact CCS Technology Group to learn more about how managed services can help you solve your shadow IT problem.
Additional Managed Services Resources
The Metrics That Mean You Need Managed Services
5 Reasons Managed Services Are Good For Your Business
6 Big Benefits from Using Managed Services
The High Cost of Falling for Phishing
/in Blog, Security /by Chris HigginsAny employee can fall for a phishing scam. When the employee who falls for the scam is authorized to access and transfer large sums of money, an honest mistake can have significant costs.
$400,000 Sent to a Phisher
That’s what happened to Barbara Corcoran, of “Shark Tank” fame. A phisher changed one character in an email address and reached out to Corcoran’s bookkeeper. The email requested nearly $400,000 to be sent to a German company.
Of course, the bookkeeper didn’t just hand over the money. She replied back to who she thought was Corcoran’s executive assistant, and there was a legitimate-sounding reason for sending money to what appeared to be a legitimate business. The money got sent out, and it was only a later email to the executive assistant—not sent by hitting “reply” to the phishing message—that discovered the scam.
Business Email Compromise
The FBI calls these targeted phishing schemes business email compromise (BEC), and they’re a major risk to businesses. Once the money is wired, it is extremely difficult to get it back.
The scam Corcoran’s assistant fell for required some knowledge of how her business operated, in order to have a reasonable response when the bookkeeper questioned the request for the funds, but hackers don’t need to be sophisticated to implement the scam. Criminals can simply purchase templates that allow them to send these messages or break into an email account using passwords stolen in an earlier breach; if they’re not sure what they need to do, they can buy a phishing tutorial to learn. The overall costs of BEC in 2019 were close to 1.8 billion dollars, according to the FBI.
Defending the Business Against BEC
There are multiple types of phishing attacks, so there are multiple defenses needed, too.
Not all the attacks are as targeted as the one that hit Corcoran. Some attacks send generic messages to thousands of targets. Email filters can help block the messages from reaching employees, and training can help employees learn to report them rather than responding to them.
The more targeted attacks need to be handled through business procedures as well as technological fixes. When there are unexpected requests for large sums of money, businesses can require confirmation through a phone call in addition to an email paper trail.
Learn more about protecting your business against phishing emails.
To make sure you have effective phishing protections in place, contact CCS Technology Group. Our IT security services include employee training as well as the latest in technology to keep your business secure from phishing and other IT security threats.