Tag: data protection

What to Do After a Data Breach? IT Consultants in Los Angeles Can Help You!

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IT consultants Los AngelesIT consultants in Los Angeles often advise for security infrastructure which expects data breach. Cybercrime is a multi-trillion-dollar industry which expands in collateral to technological development.

Every eighteen months, technology doubles on itself. There are cybercriminal startups at home and abroad which match this breakneck tech pace and do so illegally. Businesses are juicy and necessary targets for these career criminals. One way or another, you’re going to get backhanded by a breach eventually; be it through internal or external threat.

It’s absolutely fundamental that you design a data breach response paradigm, and even run occasional dry-runs of protocols to be taken should a breach occur. Below, three basic steps to breach response will be briefly explored:

Mitigate the Breach

IT consultants in Los Angeles can help you compartmentalize, quarantine, and deflect data breaches or the siphoning away of information through spyware. Ideally, continuous monitoring and support will be applied to your tech infrastructure.

You need both measures of observation and measures of response for most effective protection. Once a breach is detected, it must be properly mitigated. You need to know what you lost, when the breach occurred, where it occurred internally, what allowed it to occur, and how to shut it off. Swift mitigation can totally deflect losses.

Investigate Its Source

Once the breach has been contained, you’ve got to figure out the how and the why; this requires investigation. Sometimes that investigation necessarily includes local law enforcement and can delay your report of the breach to the public. Sometimes reporting to the public isn’t necessary, but law enforcement interdiction is.

Different breaches for different companies have different investigatory needs. Working with MSPs helps you know what your specific needs will be, and how to anticipate the majority of situations. Hackers are creative; they’ll always find new ways to intrude, but many known avenues can be fortified against.

Prevent Future Breaches

Once you’ve stopped a breach and investigated it, you now have the tools to prevent breaches of that kind in the future. It’s essential you learn from your vulnerabilities and take the time to keep such vulnerabilities from being a target to cybercriminals in the future.

Maximum Breach Recovery

IT consultants in Los Angeles such as Advanced Networks can help you prevent future breaches, properly investigate their cause (and take necessary legal steps), and mitigate breaches when they occur. Contact us for more information on the modern cybersecurity environment and methods by which you can properly fortify your business from a breach.

IT Support in LA: Top 5 Cyber Security Threats of Cloud Technology

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The use of cloud technology has become a popular option for many businesses that use IT support in LA, and it’s critical to understand the top five cyber security threats to the cloud. Whether your company is large or small, cybercriminals will try to find any way possible to penetrate your network and steal valuable information. Partnering with an IT provider can help you avoid becoming a victim and enable your company to effectively defend against such attacks. Nevertheless, it’s essential to be aware of the five most common ways companies succumb to these attacks.

1. Data Breaches

Data breaches can become very costly and ruin your reputation in only in a matter of seconds. Fortunately, the use of an IT provider will protect your data through the latest advancements in encryption and multi-factor authentication devices for data hosted in the cloud. Instead of worrying about data breaches, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your data is protected by the latest technology.

2. Data Loss

A natural disaster or cyberattack can cause unprotected data to be lost permanently. The best way to avoid this dire scenario is by using an IT provider that performs frequent backups on your critical data. These backups are stored on an offsite cloud server that makes it easily accessible to restore lost data without suffering extended amounts of downtime.

3. Denial-of-Service Attacks

Another common attack is known as a denial-of-service attack, and they concentrate on flooding your site with fake visitors, which is designed to overload your resources. These attacks can last for days, and it’s important to discuss the various cyber security measures you can take to counteract these attacks with your IT support provider in LA. Installing a firewall and using a content delivery network can help you stay protected and avoid becoming the victim of a DoS attack.

4. Internal Threats

Disgruntled employees can permanently delete data and cause severe issues within a company. It’s important to always change passwords whenever an employee leaves the company and to monitor user activities on a company computer continuously. While the majority of employees are trustworthy, it’s still wise not to allow any employee to have full control of data within the cloud.

5. Hacked APIs

It’s best to ensure that each app that interacts with the cloud is secure, as third-party vendors typically have access to their application program interface (API). Running security checks on each of these apps will ensure everything is normal. If any unusual activity is detected, the IT provider will immediately quarantine the apps before they cause widespread damage.

The use of IT support in LA will allow you to experience the ultimate cyber security protection from a variety of threats to cloud technology. Advanced Networks is an IT provider that helps companies reach their full potential through cloud services, while also ensuring that their data remains safe and secure. If you have questions, contact us today and set up a meeting to discuss the many benefits of cloud services.

How IT Consulting Firms in Los Angeles Can Prevent Data Loss

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Data loss can be the downfall of any organization. If your business doesn’t regularly back up its data or if you don’t have a disaster recovery plan, you run the risk of seeing your company collapse. It helps to search for IT consulting firms in Los Angeles that can make sure security breaches and other disasters can’t wipe out your business.

Reasons for Data Loss

A cyber attack is one of the most damaging events a company can face in the digital world, but there are other ways that data can be lost or destroyed. One of the most common ways that data is unintentionally altered, lost, or deleted is through employee error. When a worker is in a hurry, they may inadvertently delete, overwrite, modify, or misplace a file due to lack of focus. These mistakes often happen in virtualization and cloud computing environments.

Software failures can cause file corruption during various stages of data processing. This leads to being denied access to the file. Errors in the code may result in such software failure. When a virus or malware enters your system, all kinds of chaos may occur. How does this happen? Once again, it goes back to human error when a worker clicks an email attachment sent by a hacker, posing as a familiar entity.

Hardware failures can also cause data loss due to an aging system. Hackers have the capability to damage hardware as well as software. They can shut down a hard drive through the combination of open ports and malicious code. If malicious software is allowed to infect your network, it can destroy all your data. Other reasons for data loss are natural disasters, such as fires or flooding. These can knock your system offline by causing physical damage to your equipment.

Keys To Data Protection

There really is no excuse for a company to put itself at risk of data loss these days. While it may be impossible to stop a cyber attack or a hurricane, it’s fairly simple to preserve your data by making multiple copies. Ideally, at least one of these backups should be done offsite, such as at a third-party data center. Daily backups will ensure that even your most current data can be restored.

Another strategy that IT consulting firms in Los Angeles use to protect data is a disaster recovery plan. This concept maps out procedures to follow when a catastrophe of any kind occurs that threatens your business continuity. You will need to decide what type of media to use for storage.

Some companies still back up data on tape, which is affordable but inconvenient. Tape requires rewinding and fast forwarding to locate data. Furthermore, stretched tape will degrade data. That’s why more modern companies use the cloud or virtualization which allow data to be restored quickly. Another strategy is to educate employees about cybercrime and set policies that limit access to certain websites and applications.

Conclusion

Data loss can be prevented by taking proactive measures. Preparing for disaster is the best way to prevent it. To learn more,contact us at Advanced Networks. We are one of the experienced IT consulting firms in Los Angeles that can make your network more secure.

IT Support in LA: Tips to Safeguard Your Data

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One of the most common things IT support providers in LA do is help clients preserve digital assets in terms of information. Backup and data recovery (BDR) is an important feature here. It is getting to the point where not having such protection is actually a legal liability and you can be fined for it; that is the case with HIPAA, anyway.

Now, HIPAA specifically pertains to the healthcare industry. You may be in a business with no such government organization scrutinizing operations. But then again, that is more of an outlying reality than something generally defining most network-intensive operational situations.

Following are several tips to help you ensure disaster recovery solutions are comprehensive and will work how you need them:

  • Ensure that regular backups happen
  • Test backup systems comprehensively and regularly
  • Ensure backup copies are maintained outside primary facilities
  • Virus protection solutions must be contemporary and active
  • Make sure cutting-edge firewalls circumference your business

Ensure Regular Backups

IT support providers in LA can back up systems instantaneously through the cloud. Whenever new data is entered into a system, it is automatically backed up. However, this may be more expensive for some agencies, and additionally, such disaster recovery solutions can bog down the system. This is certainly intolerable for businesses that must use every ounce of technological assistance in daily activities. If you cannot use the cloud option, you want to have backups at least at weekly intervals; daily is better.

Test Backup Systems

You need to do full backups, which incorporate an entire data “restore.” This should be done at least once a month, if not once a week. Technology has a frailty that does not escape entropy. Components could easily break-down in a test backup server without you knowing it the day before a crash occurs. Again, it is generally more comprehensive and cost-effective to work with an outsourced IT solution. However, that may not be your prerogative. If you do keep backup solutions on-site, just be sure you test them.

Offsite Data Copies

You want to have a backup solution beyond your primary facility. Outsourced cloud computing can be this offsite backup. Additionally, you can keep hard drives in safe storage, or you can have an entirely separate remote backup server. Whatever option works best for you will be more than adequate. Keep in mind you can save more via the cloud.

Virus Protection Solutions

You need to have antivirus or anti-malware software available and operational. This should be the latest antiviral software, and it is not any good to you if it is not activated. So, ensure it is both new and activated— update (and patch) regularly; MSPs can help you manage.

Firewall

You need the latest in firewall protections surrounding your business. Technology transitions, no “static” firewall option will do; hackers always find a way around. Ensure you always have the latest firewall.

Disaster Recovery Solutions

IT support in LA through Advanced Networks can help you institute firewalls and virus protection of the latest kind, offsite data protection, assist clients in the test-backup process, and provide continuous backup via cloud computing innovations. Contact us for the latest in network protection helping safeguard an environment with expanding cybercriminal activity.