Get Out Of The Mailroom
Posted by Chris Engler in Spam on January 13, 2010
Email is one of the most effective ways to communicate in the business world. It’s fast, cheap, recordable, searchable, and most of all it’s easy! It’s so versatile; you can attach files, links, and videos…you name it and email can deliver it. I use email constantly throughout my day to communicate with my clients and colleagues. It’s the primary way that I correspond with the outside world.
Unfortunately, evil doers have discovered these benefits as well and are using this tool against us. Email is quickly becoming the most widely used and effective delivery method of malicious software. Any computer threat can be delivered through email. Viruses, spyware, Trojans – you name it, email can deliver it.
What can we do? First, let’s identify the real problem. It’s Spam! There are not too many things that I dislike more than spam. It is a constant ailment to countless business people. Whether you host your own email or you’ve outsourced it, spam can still affect you.
Spam has developed into a very broad term. Wikipedia.com defines it as “the abuse of electronic messaging systems…to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.” For our purposes I’ll define it as junk mail.
I’ve seen new clients with an excess of 1,000 junk emails on a daily basis. How do these people get any correspondence done? It seems like they spend half their day working in the mailroom, just sorting the good email from the spam. Not only is this waste of time, it’s also very dangerous. This is one of those situations where people spend more time trying to get there technology to work then the technology saves.
The Big Questions:
-How much time do you spend sorting email every day?
-Are you getting all that junk on your phone too?
-Are you safe from email threats?
I would make two classifications of Spam. The first would be the relatively innocent advertisement. This type of spam is sent to you with the intention that you’ll view it just like any other advertisement. These make up the overwhelming majority of all spam messages sent. It’s the reason we have to sift through tons of messages just to get to the ones that matter. The second type of spam is the malicious email. This email can carry with it any digital threat. There are far fewer of these emails, but they can really mess things up! You’ll normally find they are well disguised and can be tricky. Never verify any account information via an email or link from an email. If you have an account with a company they already have your information!
Let’s talk about how we can protect ourselves…
Filter, filter, filter… Filtering is the process of scanning your email for viruses and identifying junk so you don’t have to. These are the building blocks of any anti-spam solution. Fundamentally there are two methods used to filter your email…one for home and one for work.
The first and most basic method is desktop-based. This is great for home users. You install an anti-spam program that filters your email as you download it from the server. Many Internet security suites will come packaged with some sort of anti-spam component. Although they are mildly effective, most people find them to be adequate. I recommend Trend-Micro’s Internet Security Suite for home use. If you find that you have a more severe spam problem, I recommend getting a stand-alone anti-spam application. The best desktop anti-spam application out right now is made by Cloud Mark.
The second method of filtering spam is domain or server based. It’s a transparent and effective process. There is no software to download or install on your computer! Essentially it’s a service that filters your email before it even gets to your inbox. This form of filtering brings with it many benefits that most businesses need when it comes to effective messaging, including:
less maintenance;
more security;
easier management; and
centralized reporting.
More and more companies are developing this service and are regularly claiming 95% to 99% spam removal and 100% virus removal. …And with virtually no false-positives! (A false-positive is an email that is incorrectly classified as spam.) It almost sounds too good to be true, but I can personally attest to the effectiveness of this method. It works! And it works as well as they say it does! I had quite an extensive spam problem before I implemented this type of solution. Now when I see a new message in my inbox, I know it’s for me and it’s something I’ll want to read. It is so liberating to have control over my inbox again. Most of my clients say the same thing and so can you.
© 2010 Engler Information Technologies, Inc.
Backup or Pack up
Posted by Chris Engler in Backup on December 15, 2009
Backup is the most effective way a business can protect its data. For most businesses, the data on their computers is vital to the business process.
Data on a hard drive appears to be just a bunch of tiny magnetized areas on a round metal disk. It barely even exists. …All the more reason to replicate the information somewhere else for safe keeping.
That’s what backup is. Computers don’t differentiate between the data that is important to you and the junk that just builds up over time. There are also many ways data can become corrupt. Important data can be erased accidentally just as easily as junk can be deleted intentionally. The computer doesn’t care.
Because of its many moving parts, hard drives have one of the highest failure ratings of all computer components. That’s not good considering a hard drive is where all of your information is stored. There is a very specific way to protect against hardware failure, but I’ll save that for another time. Like me, I’m sure you know many people who have suffered through a hard drive crash. It’s not pretty. “72% of businesses that suffer major data loss disappear within 24 months”, says DataDepositBox.com. The bottom line is if you’re not backing up and staying on top of it, you’re being reckless with your data and your business.
As a business owner, here are some basic questions you should ask to get the assurances you should have when it comes to your data.
The Big Questions:
-What am I backing up?
-How often does my data get backed up?
-When was the last time my backups were verified?
-Do I have a copy of a recent backup off-site?
When I say, “your data,” I’m referring to the information contained in your computers. What that actually means to you is contingent upon what you use your computers for. Most businesses use their computers for one or more of the following things:
-Creating and Storing documents (Word and Excel),
-Bookkeeping (QuickBooks)
-Sending and Receiving Email correspondence (Outlook)
-Saving Client information
-Business Automation
If this information is suddenly lost, most companies would be devastated and could even come to a halt. How much business could you get done if you lost your data? What about all those projects you’re currently working on?
There are so many ways one could lose access to information, but I’m not going to bore you with lengthy speculations and hypothetical situations. What you really need is clean statistical information based on real word experiences. To learn more about the real threats to your data, you can visit this page from DataDepositBox, a partner of mine that provides an easy Folder-Based backup solution for very small offices and home office applications.
If you think you might like to subscribe to this service, please sign-up through the link below so I can get the credit for the referral.
Your data doesn’t have to stay lost in the event of a disaster. If you still have your hard drive your data can be recovered even if you don’t have a backup! In most data recovery scenarios, the hard drive must be sent out to a recovery lab to retrieve the information. This is a very costly process and could also be lengthy. Data recovery labs feed off of urgency and disaster, and their rates prove it. The more you want that data back and the faster you want it, the more it will cost you. In my experience, data recovery jobs average about $2,000 and take about a week. But it could cost much more depending upon the configuration of the hardware and the urgency in which you need the data. The bottom line here is: you’re out of your data for about a week and $2,000.
For those of you that do have a backup in place: When was the last time someone verified your backups? Verifying backups is just as vital as doing the backup in the first place. Many businesses will implement a backup system and expect that it performs its job from day to day, but never check to see if it’s actually working. I can’t tell you the number of businesses that thought they had a backup and ended up not having much of anything at all. That can turn a bad situation worse very quickly. Those of my clients that have decided to take advantage of my Easy Backup service know that every morning I get an email that tells me how the last night’s backup went. How nice is that?
What happens after a disaster? What’s your recovery plan? I have one for each of my clients. If you don’t have one, you need one. If the Navy didn’t have a plan for how to repair the different areas of the ship in case of disaster, what would happen to the ship? I can guarantee you it wouldn’t get back to functioning as quickly and maybe not at all. Get a plan!… I can help!
To learn more about what features a robust backup system has, check out the description of my Easy Backup service.
© 2009 Engler Information Technologies, Inc.
We just made PC care easy!
Posted by Chris Engler in Uncategorized on September 18, 2009
I am happy to announce our brand new “Total PC Care” service. Total PC Care includes everything your computer needs to be safe and run smoothly. This is a great service, and it’s only $10 a month! Total PC Care is designed for everyone from home users to businesses. It’s the easiest way to stay on top of security updates. We also get rid of all those annoying update notifications you received from various software vendors. Check out a complete list of benefits here.