Cyber attacks are something that we must worry about. Hackers are constantly after your personal information and this can be harmful to your personal life with things like banking information, social security numbers, and passwords to accounts that have sensitive information like social media accounts, emails, among others.

These hackers can also be after information that can potentially be damaging to your business or career. If you or your business holds sensitive information regarding your clients/customers then their safety is also in your hands. If this isn’t alarming enough then here are a few statistics regarding cyber attacks in 2020: 

• About 5% of companies’ folders are properly protected
• 2019 was the worst year, ever, for security breach activity 
• Security breaches have increased by 11% since 2018 and 67% since 2014

Microsoft recently also conducted a study to analyze cyber attacks. What they found was that the attacks are getting more and more sophisticated. This means that they are harder to detect and easier to fall for. There are ways to look for phishing attacks that could be harmful to you, your clients, and network at large.

There is one sure fire way to make sure that you know who is accessing your accounts and when: Two-Factor authentication. This will allow you to give access in real time to anyone trying to log in to your accounts. Microsoft conducted another study saying that “Our data shows that enabling MFA would alone have prevented the vast majority of successful attacks,”. If two factor authentication was enabled, people would have been aware of the breach immediately. They could have even prevented it themselves.

Importance of Two-Factor Authentication

Taking these steps will ensure that your accounts are secure. Two factor authentication won’t keep hackers away forever. They will have a much more difficult time getting into your accounts and accessing your information. You will be alerted the moment someone is trying to access any of your accounts and you will be able to prevent access if it isn’t you. 

Two factor authentication is not the savior of cyber security, but it is one of the best ways to protect your accounts while allowing you to have easy access to all of your own information. 

Typically we use passwords that are easy to remember. This can be a generic word like “password”, a favorite sports team, or we use some variation of the same password for every account that we have. This can make life easy, right? It’s something you’ll never forget, don’t have to write it down, and who cares about getting into your accounts anyway?

Well, more people than you think. Cyber attacks are one of the top three risks we face every day and the chances of your information getting breached is 1 in every 4 attacks. These attacks happen at an estimated once every 39 seconds. Today, we are going to give you some tips on how to make sure you are not one of those statistics. 

Password Managers 

Using a password manager is something that can always ensure that you have a secure password. A password manager will help generate, store, and remember your passwords for you.This will assure that your accounts are extremely difficult to access if anyone but you is trying to log in. This may take some time to implement and we understand that. We recommend starting with high priority accounts like banking and professional accounts.

Password managers can cost nothing at all and for secure and trusted password managers, click here. Your devices may already come with password managers built in. For example, Apple users have access to iCloud Keychain which is a free password manager that comes preinstalled on your IOS devices. 

There are more secure password managers, but they require payment. We recommend this to those that want to enjoy some premium features (read this article for more). 

Use a Strong Master Password 

A master password is the one you will use to access your password manager. This is key to making sure your accounts are secure. One secure thing to do is use a passphrase. This is a phrase that’s easy to remember, but you abbreviate or use your own kind of “code” to memorize it. An example of this would be using the phrase “To be, or not to be, that is the question – William Shakespeare”. Instead of just using this as a password you could use “2BorN2B_tHATisThe?” (Do not use this specific one, as it is a common example). This will make your password easy to remember, but difficult to guess. 

2 Factor Authentication

This is a tool that is completely separate from your password manager. It is a great tool that will help with your account security. Two factor authentication will alert you when one of your accounts is being accessed. Once you are alerted, you will have to verify the access into the account. This can be a face identification or fingerprint on your phone or a text message with a code. Some password managers offer two factor authentication, but this can be essential to securing all of your accounts. 

All of these tips have been designed in order to help you make sure your accounts are secure and protected at all times. Use them to make sure that your information is always locked down and you are the only person that is able to access it.

When looking for network and support services there is nobody better to trust than us! We offer 3 specific services with this section of our business that make us stand out from our competition. They all have to do with time. The tech world is always changing and unexpected issues and complications arise constantly at the wrong times. These services make sure to cover all of these issues so that you can focus on what you do best while we handle your network.

FlexTime 

This solution is great if you need multiple devices installed, setup, updated, or worked on at one time. With FlexTime you are able to purchase blocks of time for us to perform any of these services. This service is designed for you to not just have us one time. If you purchase a block of time and you don’t use the entire amount at once, it is stored so that you can use it when emergencies arise!

Hour by Hour

This type of service is to take care of the small jobs that may need to be done on hand. We will get to you as soon as we can, and we always send the next available technician! These emergencies or small odd jobs that you may need us to do are all reasons to use this service. 

Monthly Monitoring

For all of our customers we offer a monthly low-cost monitoring package. This monitoring service can be applied to every computer in your office and there are two levels of remote monitoring that we can offer to each one of your devices. The monitoring includes nightly backups, alerts when they aren’t being backed up, and we will let you know when your hardware is being updated. 

All three of these services can offer essential help to your company that will allow it to run at an optimal level. This means that you will be doing more of what you love and what makes you great. Call us today to find out more about why you should trust us to deliver your I.T. and cybersecurity needs!

Expecting the unexpected is something that we typically don’t do in the business world. We look at current trends and expect them to continue, until they don’t, and the fastest businesses to adjust are typically the ones to succeed and make it out of an unexpected situation.

Recently we were all thrown into an unexpected situation, the coronavirus pandemic. There were very few businesses prepared to handle this situation from a financial, staff, workload, and any other relevant standpoint. Following models on current trends is a great idea. Businesses can take advantage of current trends to be more successful. If businesses start to model events that might not have been considered to be possible, they will be more prepared. This can lead to success in a difficult time, like the one we are living in now.

How to model the unexpected? 

Predictive analytics uses statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. The goal is to go beyond knowing what has happened to providing a best assessment of what will happen in the future. This is important because we can potentially map out odd situations and quickly find out ways to adjust to them.

Predictive analytics can be done by AI as well. This won’t significantly raise costs for a business and big businesses already have something built into their budget for analytics.Rearranging that budget to predict more outcomes on different events should be on their minds. All of the proof is in the pandemic and how poorly some businesses handled the pandemic. Predictive analytics would be able to help people across the world if it is used properly. 

How to work a model 

Working a model shouldn’t be difficult in today’s tech driven world. The whole idea of modeling is to provide opportunities to plan for different possible futures, such as understanding the impacts of future government intervention on supply and demand or how different scenarios might affect business operations, staffing requirements or customer concerns. That way, should one of the scenarios become reality, business leaders know in advance what they should be doing.

Businesses will be able to survive in these scenarios or even thrive. Unexpected scenarios aren’t always bad. Something could go right in the world for your business to grow exponentially in a short amount of time, and you could have missed out because you missed on a model or didn’t factor in the new trend or scenario. If this becomes a more common practice, we can live in a more secure world. Job security can increase, knowledge about what to do in unprecedented situations will be available, and businesses will be more financially secure. 

What do we need to do? 

For this to become a reality, there needs to be more funding and research done on how to put out more models in shorter amounts of time. This task falls to data scientists who develop software on modeling and predictive analytics tools. Businesses are aware of what needs to be done and the current pandemic is opening their eyes to see why. More businesses may have survived. This technology will eventually be something that all businesses are relying on in some capacity and the sooner that it is here the better off businesses will be.

For any cybersecurity and network needs, call us today!

Here at Peak I.T. we offer a full-time I.T. staff. This means that your company and network will continually be monitored for breaches. In today’s blog, we are outlining some features and services that make us stand out. 

Managed Anti-Virus: We provide a completely managed malware and anti-virus solution. We make sure all of your computers have up-to-date virus definitions and are scanning daily. You never have to worry about your computers’ security protection again. This means that you will be able to focus more on what makes your business run rather than security on your network. 

Automated Maintenance: We offer automated routine maintenance for your computers, servers, and network services. If you were to hire an IT person to do this, costs would be much higher. Cutting into your budget could prevent your company from growing. You can use the leftover money to reinvest into your own company. Allow us to be your IT “person” and your budget may not be as tight. 

Patch Management: This service means that all of your software will be continuously updated. This will fix small glitches in applications, run software more smoothly, and ensure that you don’t have to deal with headaches in the office or wherever your work space may be.

These advanced features that come with our IT services are something that are valuable and will help your company run more smoothly on a daily basis. With Peak I.T., you won’t have to worry about security breaches threatening your company.

All of our other services are tailored to fit your business and provide exactly what you need in order to function properly. We not only want you to function properly, but we want it it thrive in all aspects. Our work is supposed to take your business to the next level because you won’t have to worry about what we do. You will only have to worry about what you do best!

There is more data being collected and the amount of IoT devices in the world today. There is a need for software to be able to handle all of the information coming in. Typically IT operations have been centralized into a cloud based service where data was analyzed, interpreted, and interacted with. There are many IoT devices interacting with each other all at once. There needs to be a better way of taking everything and understanding what is coming in. Edge computing may be here to save the day with this. It provides 4 pillars that will have major benefits with all of the data being collected and interpreted: security, speed, cost, and scalability. 

Security

With so many more devices being added at a rapid pace (including non user IoT devices) cyber attacks are also increasing at a rapid pace. While centralized cloud computing is prone to cyber attacks, edge computing distributes processes and applications across different devices. This makes it much more difficult for attackers to infiltrate your network. With edge computing data that needs to be better protected can be separated from the main data flow. After this, it is transferred through more secure connections, making the the information more secure.

Speed

When data is collected it is only relevant for a very short period of time because our world is changing constantly. This means that when data is coming in it needs to be put to use as soon as possible. It needs to be collected at a high volume, interpreted, and either put to use or it needs to interact in some way that is beneficial to your business. With edge computing more data is being collected. More relevant information is being given to the data center where it will be useful. Anything unnecessary will be filtered out at the edge.

Cost

With edge computing data is filtered through the point of origin for the data and doesn’t need to be filtered at a data centre. This way you have the choice for your business for a blend of edge computing and centered cloud based services. Without the choice, your business would have to invest into an all-in one location. This allows you to play the field and see what options are best for your business. Without exploring your business would have to use just one service provider for its IoT and cloud service needs. Edge computing also puts less stress on your bandwidth because only relevant information is being filtered into your data centre which will support lower bandwidth costs. 

Scalability 

Scalability allows you to choose how broad of a bandwidth your business needs. This allows for lower costs and it is always easy to add more IoT devices if they are needed. With less stress on your bandwidth each added device takes up a significantly less amount of bandwidth space.

It is clear that edge computing can help any company sort relevant data better and come to conclusions that will help your business. Information is coming into the world at a rapid pace and is widely available so figuring out what your business needs the most is crucial to its success and edge computing is an efficient way to get your business there.

For any help with I.T. services, click here.

Collecting data and learning more about what your company is involved in, and how inside or outside factors can impact your business can be very beneficial. Knowledge is power, and the more you know the better off you will be. So, why wouldn’t your company be using some sort of data analytics? The investment will pay off and the benefits of data analytics will help improve your business.

Data collection is wasted if your company is just using it as record keeping. The information that your company is collecting, can possibly be its most valuable asset. If it goes unused, you could be missing out on huge gains, no matter what industry you’re in. So don’t miss out! Here are some steps to integrate data analytics into your company.

Know your collection 

No matter what your business does, it is collecting some sort of data that you can use to your advantage. You can be a manufacturer and collect orders and analyze these to come to a conclusion that will benefit you. You may be a public school board and can analyze student records to improve the way students are taught, leading to higher test scores. The best part about data analytics, is that it can be used for anything. Data analytics is a universal tool that companies across any industry are already using to improve themselves, so don’t fall behind and start planning today. 

Aim for something

Collecting data is great, but you have to know what you want to get out of it in order for that collection to be useful. Setting an attainable goal, like wanting to improve your students’ test scores, allows you to have something to aim for. You can target data specifically towards that school’s curriculum to see where students need to improve and what specific changes are needed. Once you have your goals set, it is time to get your team ready to start achieving them.

Skills 

If you plan on doing your analytics in house, your team may need some briefing on data analytics. Collecting data and having a plan is half of the battle. Your company has to know what to do with the data once it’s collected, so that you can reach your goals to improve. 

Your company can choose to outsource this and interpret the data once it is analyzed. Your team can interpret the data and decide what you will need to do to achieve your goals. 

No matter what route you choose, a data driven world is here to stay. Integrating data analytics is something that will benefit your company, and starting now can put you ahead of the competition.

The coronavirus pandemic has opened our eyes to a lot of things. With so many people working from home, I.T. services were put to the test. Many people realized their skills needed tweaking to deal with issues brought up due to people working from home. Today, we will discuss how to improve simple I.T. skills to make you better at what you do. 

Learn 

As an I.T. professional, you may come in contact with new problems you don’t know how to deal with. One way to learn a little more about unique issues and dealing with them is video conferencing through SKILup. They hold video conferences to help with I.T. skills. The SKILup conferences are adjusting to skills that may be needed during the pandemic. You will be prepared when you run into something unique to problems relating to COVID-19.

Coding is Key 

Coding is something people are learning about whether they are in school for I.T. or not. So if you are in I.T., make sure to know coding to ensure you aren’t less qualified than other candidates. This is an ever-growing field that’s always changing, and you need to be up on new resources and advancements. Once you learn coding, the job is not done. You must continue to improve your skills in order to be an asset to all companies in the job market. 

Be Prepared 

With people returning to new norms once the pandemic is over, you’ll have to be ready to adjust quickly to a new norm. This could mean working from home regularly and being efficient when doing so. New training on how to deal with situations related to remote working, communicating with coworkers and clients efficiently, and not losing value in that communication are very important. 

The world is changing every day and now, more than ever, due to the pandemic. We need to be prepared to adjust to new norms and quickly adapt to anything that may change the way we do something. If this time has taught us anything, it’s that we need to be ready to adjust to anything at all times.

Our country is planning to partially reopen soon, and while this is exciting, there is still work to be done. Testing still needs to be perfected, a vaccine is still in the works, and our economy has an extreme amount of recovering to do. Economists are not worried about how the economy will bounce back because we are not in a Great Depression scenario.

They are predicting, as of now, that once people get back to work our economy should return to normal. This is fantastic news, but work has to be done for the economy to go back to its high levels. Information technology can play a huge part in making this happen. 

What happened to the economy?

For the immediate effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy, economists are not very optimistic. This has to do with the attitude of employers, employees, and customers alike. Until there is a cure, everyone will be more cautious about how they operate in their daily lives. This included businesses that are reopening.

Employers may not bring everyone back, employees may not be willing to come back to work, and customers will be cautious about what they purchase and from where. Many small businesses will not recover from this or will see lasting wounds that will take much longer to heal. With all of this happening, the economy could take years to recover. A cure or working treatment can change the attitude. This can lead to a quicker turnaround for the United States economy can potentially happen much faster. Until all of this happens and our country tries to reopen, what can information technology do to help? 

How IT plays a part

Information technology can play a huge part in helping businesses open up successfully which will in turn help the economy in a huge way. Employees will slowly be integrated back into normal life at work. IT can make a huge impact on making this transition much safer.

Certain companies are already using and developing software to track who interacts with whom inside and outside of the company. This is an easy way to integrate contact tracing. If someone is to come into contact with the virus an alert can be sent out. From then, the potentially infected person can be isolated from the rest of the company. From this data, companies will also be able to identify who should be isolated immediately and who should not. This will maximize safety within the company and help to stop the spread of infection. 

Another simple IT tool helping companies get back on track and contributing to the GDP of the US economy is a scheduling management system. These systems will easily help managers track what people are in the same areas and at what time. The scheduling tool and the interaction tracking software will make sure employers know exactly who is where and when. So, if a case of coronavirus happens within the company, immediate action can be taken to stop the spread.

With more and more companies using this data, the more we can learn about the virus. Data is still being collected at a rapid pace every day, and the more information we have, the safer people will be. Contributing to the knowledge about the virus as well as keeping track of who has come into contact with whom, can help save lives.

Data can even be analyzed to see if there is a pattern for what type of contact and how long people are in contact to see what action is the safest or most likely to result in contracting the virus. With IT playing a big role now, it will be used forever in helping with medical issues such as the pandemic we are living in now.

Contact us today to see how we can help your business!

Data analytics is becoming a more integral part of the business world in all aspects. From a financial side, analytics can tell a business how they are doing compared to their competition through accessible data. It can also predict financial situations based on a vast number of scenarios laid out for the software to analyze. From a marketing perspective, analytics allow advertisers to see what tactics and strategies are performing well with certain demos, audiences, etc. 

But what can data analytics do in an information technology setting? It can help IT companies understand trends involving operations and make decisions to make their services optimal to all of their clients. Until recently, analytics were being used after the fact. The software would come to conclusions about the future based on historical data. Now the computing power exists for real-time analytics to better understand what is going on and how to better serve each and every one of us. 

How is Data being used?

Data is constantly being collected and analyzed through systems and finding hidden patterns, correlations and other insights to make your business better. With the use of Big Data, companies are learning every day how to improve. They can cut costs, make better, faster decisions, and develop new products and services that their businesses are equipped for. This can lead to a better world where goods and services are cheaper and businesses are running at an optimal pace. Here are the ways data analytics is helping the information technology industry to perform at its best. 

Applications

Analytics can give IT companies insights on how to provide efficient, trouble-free services and operations to assist businesses. One big innovation from this is the cloud service industry. Having multiple people working together on the same app or even the same project from different locations at the same time is a direct result of using analytics to improve the IT industry.

Another way analytics can help business applications is through website traffic. This can predict when too much traffic will be brought to a website, maybe for a special limited edition release of a new product or during the holiday season when people are constantly online shopping. Knowing when these high traffic times will occur can give companies a head start on preparing for it and the analytical tools can even give suggestions on how to help prevent crashing or a severe slow down on a website. 

Security

Cyber security is something information technology companies are constantly working on. Providing a secure network is one of the cornerstones of good IT service and analytics can help with this. Based on historical data, the software can differentiate unusual behavior from normal behavior. When unusual behavior occurs, the software can send an alert to administrators, managers, and business owners so they can act fast to solve the problem if there is a security breach. 

Real-time analytics can also help with cybersecurity. If the software is constantly tracking what is happening, real-time alerts can be sent to whomever needs to be notified. Real-time analytics and historical data can both be stored and analyzed in the same place which allows for a smarter security detection and prevention system for your network. This industry is constantly evolving because cyber hackers are always finding new ways to try to breach your information. With a constantly improving security system, your business will get better cyber security as well. 

Load Management

One concern businesses have with any form of data analytics is how much can the software actually handle? And this is a valid concern. The software will constantly be taking in new information and coming to conclusions based off of the collected data. This is a lot to process, not only in our minds, but for the software itself. Modern analytical tools have this covered.

They can serve thousands of analytical problems per second, making them an optimal solution to all analytical needs. Today, businesses should not have to worry about load management in an analytical sense because the computing power is there. The software is constantly evolving, updating, and becoming better for your business. Data analytics is not something of the future. Businesses are getting ahead of their competitors by using these tools now, so take advantage of the tools at your disposal. Using analytics with IT solutions will make your business smarter and better.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is technology that allows people to configure computer software to emulate and integrate the actions of a human interacting within digital systems to execute a business process. RPA can collect, interpret and make conclusions about data without human assistance if the programming is set up correctly. They can also carry out operations such as banking and financial services, healthcare, and insurance, just to name a few. RPA can also operate more efficiently than humans. It never stops working, and it only functions according to how it’s programmed, so it doesn’t make mistakes.

How can it help?

The technology field is always changing, and robotic processes are here to stay. Integrating processes like these into your business will happen sooner or later, so it might be something to consider doing. One big way RPA can help your business is with improved accuracy. All RPA are programmed to do one thing: follow rules. You only have to give it the command once, and it will never stop working. They are consistent with their work and make zero mistakes according to what you tell them to do. So if an RPA is correctly set-up from the start, you will have an error free way of getting work done at all times. 

Going along with RPA rules allows you to have full control over what it is doing. It will always comply and never stray from what you tell it to do. You can monitor what it is doing 100% of the time. This is great because it allows for growth. There may be times where your business outgrows the RPA programming. You can simply re-program it or give new commands. It won’t miss a beat.

Businesses are always looking to save money. RPA does this as well. Most of the businesses that integrate RPA into their systems see a positive return on their investment within the first year. This investment will continue to save money over time as well, and businesses can potentially save as much as 20% with what RPA is replacing. 

RPA is adaptable to what your business is doing. The systems serve you. With this being said, RPA works great with physical and cloud systems. If your business is thinking about changing to a cloud system, as well as integrating RPA, it is possible to do both. It is also fairly easy because RPA follows the commands you give it. This also makes it a much easier decision when something is changing within your business based on what it needs from RPA. If you don’t need as much, give it the command. If you need a lot more from it, the cost is low, and it is easy to integrate if an RPA system is already in place. 

When people hear about RPA their first concern is “This is going to take my job.” In reality, RPA can make your job easier! RPA systems across the world are making work easier and less stressful for people in all facets of business. It removes activities that don’t add value to your company, and, depending on what field you’re in, it can constantly collect, interpret, and give feedback on data. This can give you or your employees so much more time to do valuable work and improve your company. 

RPA is a part of the changing technology field. The question is not if your company should integrate this technology into your company but a question of when. RPA is something that can help your business grow and improve. Look into how RPA can help your business today.

Call us today for any I.T. assistance.

The cloud is becoming an increasingly important part of not just our businesses but our lives. It’s being used more and more to a business’ advantage. Important data, files, and documents are stored in cloud services at an exponential rate. Cloud Computing is another area of cloud services that can benefit a business. It’s easy to lose track of what a cloud service can do for your company other than store data, so we’ll help you figure it all out as well as develop the proper plan when selecting a cloud service provider. 

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing may be able to help your small business. It interacts with information stored in your cloud service and transforms that into usable information for everyone to see. An example is a software service, like SaaS, where you input your data or information into the software and that data is transformed remotely through a software interface without your computer being involved. The main difference between a cloud storage system and a cloud computing system is that a cloud storage system is just storage. Cloud computing gives the ability to remotely work on and transform data through coding an application as well as other things. 

How Can Cloud Computing Help Your Business?

Cloud computing has made the business world much more simple, even for small businesses. It offers flexibility, productivity, cost effectiveness, and protection. And cloud computing is green. The flexibility allows you to work anywhere at any time. If data is already stored in a cloud, you can give access to employees and clients at any time. Increased productivity happens when time is saved, communication is not an issue, and information use is monitored.

Communication is transparent when all transformations to your data are seen in live time. Collaboration is easier, and, if you need to see who is doing what and where, that information is also available. You will have full control over your information which is not very common these days. 

Cloud computing is cost efficient, and cloud storage is cheap compared to alternatives. With cloud computing, data can be transformed, viewed, and shared from many locations. Information is always secure in the cloud computing system because nobody can access the information unless you give them your permission. Going green is also a benefit of cloud computing. Physical computing systems typically generate harmful by-products, but cloud computing doesn’t have a physical form, so it has no chance to emit harmful toxins into the environment. 

The Correct Cloud Strategy

When your company decides to move to a cloud service strategy, you need to consider how the cloud can best serve you. In other words, ask yourself, “What do I need from this?” You have to remember the services you need could be unique and the world can change drastically overnight. Take these things into consideration when building your cloud strategy so that you make the right choice. Don’t make this decision on your own either. Take into account the needs and concerns from your IT department all the way to general workers and salespeople. This decision will affect everyone at your business. 

The last thing you need to do before selecting your cloud service company is to take your time. Developing a strategy and taking everything into account won’t be something that happens overnight. Weigh your options carefully so that you get it right on the first try and your data is stored, shared, and transformed in the optimal cloud that makes all of this easiest for your company.

Contact us today for any of your managed network services. We can assist with cloud technology!