|
|
Exchange Disaster Recovery with SANRAD V-Switch Planning Guide
Introduction
Designing a disaster recovery system requires planning and
consideration of the available options that will best fit your
company's needs, SLA and budget. This guide will help you design
an Exchange Disaster Recovery ...
How Multiple Server Hosting impacts your website's uptime
Find out how multi-server hosting and failover monitoring can ensure your web site is there when you need it to be.
This article describes the technology behind multiple server hosting and how you may utilize it to maximize...
IT In-house support: Microsoft Great Plains and CRM
Microsoft Business Solutions is promoting Microsoft Great Plains and MS CRM combination for US and International markets. Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as Client Relation Management system is very robust combination and could...
Need A Copy Of Your Tax Return Information?
Taxpayers have two easy and convenient options for getting copies of their federal tax return information — tax return transcripts and tax account transcripts — by phone or by mail.
A tax return transcript shows most line items from the tax...
The Day My Laptop was Stolen Almost Killed My Business…..
One of the worst feelings I have ever had was the day my laptop was stolen. The laptop can be replaced. However the loss of critical DATA was the biggest risk my business has ever faced.
When I recovered from the experience I asked...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
How to Prevent Computer Security Risk and How to Keep Your Small Business Safe
You know that computer security is important to your small business. But do you know exactly what you need to do today to protect your business? Do you know all of the risks to your business computer system? Do you know the steps you need to take to protect your business computer system? We hear reports of computer hackers breaking into business computer networks to attack or shut-down an Internet site, to disrupt business operations, or to gain access to confidential information. These high-tech break-ins are only part of a far broader area of security risks that your business faces today.
Some high-tech risks require high-tech responses. Others call for more common-sense measures. A well-considered, disciplined approach to computer security may be all that you need to significantly reduce the risks to your computer system.
What does computer security mean? From a business point of view, computer security simple means that your computer systems will function and your stored information on your computer system will be available to you as needed for your business.
Hardware Failure
Precautions can be taken to protect against certain risks such as: theft, breakage, power surges, voltage fluctuation, outages, and disasters including fire, flood and other unthinkable catastrophes. Maintenance agreements provide fast and reliable service in the event of equipment breakdown.
Extra equipment provides in-house backup for uninterrupted service until the repairperson arrives. Many firms buy inexpensive mail-in or carry-in maintenance and maintain extra hardware to swap in as needed. For example, they keep one backup printer for every five printers in use and one backup PC for every 20, depending, of course, on age and reliability of the hardware. Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)-equipped servers and duplicate or backup servers can add redundancy and reduce the risk of being shut down by equipment failure.
The quality of low-cost computer or server "clones" may be significantly lower than that of brand-name systems. Extremely low-cost systems often are made with whatever less costly components are available at the moment. Such components may be inherently less reliable, and the compatibility of the specific components used may not be rigorously tested.
Regular backups, with at least a weekly copy of the backed-up data kept off-site are, of course, a necessity and the most effective way to minimize data loss when inevitable hardware breakdowns occur.
Careful disaster planning is more crucial than ever to assess the risks and damage of catastrophic system failure and the implementation of appropriate disaster recovery resources. Full duplicate off-site systems including servers, data and communications links may be necessary to assure continuation of service without interruption in the event of catastrophic disaster. Such redundancy can be farmed-out to a local firm that specialist in the backup and safe storage of your critical computer system data. Generally, the expense of full-system redundancy often is unnecessary for small businesses. For you, as long as none of your stored data is lost, restoring your system functions within several hours or even several days may be tolerable.
Software Failure
Application software can malfunction for a number of reasons. Failure of an application program can occur through an accidental erasure of a component piece of the program, its location in the wrong subdirectory, or any of a number of other arcane causes. Contemporary programs arrive in multiple parts on multiple disks, CD-ROM or downloaded files that get installed in many directories and
subdirectories, as well as altering system configuration and setup files to serve the application's needs.
The loss or corruption of one small program utility may prevent the entire program application from operating properly. The change of one parameter or setting (which easily can happen inadvertently or during the installation of another piece of software) is enough to disrupt the proper functioning of an application. The best protection against application software failure is:
~ keep the original program source (disks, CD-ROMs, saved and backed-up downloaded files) secure off-site (outside of your office) ~ install software from backup copies of the originals, and use only authorized and registered copies of software applications (so that the original software application vendor is available for technical support, replacement of disks, bugs fixes, and software updates).
Network software is notoriously finicky and requires frequent attention. Someone familiar with the network software either on staff or available on short notice is essential to troubleshoot and restore the network when it crashes, slows to a crawl or just doesn't act right. In some situations, loss of access to application programs, loss of data, or loss of access to data when the network is down can be minimized by backing up or mirroring data on a local hard drive or floppy disk and by having key software such as word processing applications loaded also on local PC hard drives.
Corruption of software by viruses is another growing security risk, which is best handled by carefully designing procedures to limit unauthorized access to systems, by discouraging use of unauthorized software and by using specialized virus protection software. Some offices have systems that automatically bar any new software from being loaded even onto an individual PC on the network. Others automatically scan all new software for viruses. Anti-virus software must be updated continually to enable it to identify new viruses that are constantly being created and spread. Automatic update features are available for the major anti-virus software programs and should be implemented.
A particular problem is software that is acquired electronically, such as from the Internet, whether public domain software or unauthorized copies of programs. Seemingly minor items such as games, utilities, screen savers or macros of unknown origin and provenance may put you at serious risk of contracting a virus. Email attachments are a frequent source of infected code. You need to be attentive to suspect email sent to you. Always pay attention to what you are loading or downloading onto your computer.
Through the introduction of a computer viruses, your software programs and if not your entire computer network may be unusable by the simple installation of unauthorized software application on your computer system. Make sure your staff understands the importance of your policy of banning the installation of unauthorized software. Then periodic "sweep" your computers to insure that your staff is helping you protect your computer investment.
These simple steps may result in big dividends to the continued operation of your small business.
Copyright Steven Presar
About the Author
Steven Presar is a recognized small business technology coach, Internet publisher, author, speaker, and trainer. He provides personal, home, and computer security solutions at www.ProtectionConnect.com. He provides business software reviews at www.OnlineSoftwareGuide.com. In addition, he publishes articles for starting and running a small business at www.Agora-Business-Center.com. Be sure to sign-up for the SOHO newsletter at the site.
|
|
|
|
|
Data Recovery Software and Undelete from R-TT |
Disk management software including utilities for data recovery, drive imaging, disk wiping and access control. |
www.r-tt.com |
  |
Data Recovery | Email Data Recovery by Ontrack |
Data recovery services, data recovery software, file repair software, and diagnostic software from Ontrack. Software for email recovery, file recovery and ... |
www.ontrack.com |
  |
Data Recovery by DriveSavers | Hard Drive Data Recovery |
Worldwide data recovery service for all operating systems and storage media. Authorized by all drive manufacturers. |
www.drivesavers.com |
  |
Hard Drive Data Recovery Software Tools, Disk Recovery Utilities ... |
Offers data recovery software,data recovery services for hard drive recovery and data safety software services for your computer. Buy award winning data ... |
www.stellarinfo.com |
  |
Data Recovery by FADV – Hard Drive, RAID, Tape, Database and more ... |
Offers data recovery services for all hard drive models. RAID, MS SQL, Exchange, Tapes, Camera and USB media, CD and DVD. Service available 24/7. |
www.datarecovery.net |
  |
Data Recovery Software - File System Utilities |
Data recovery software for all Windows file systems. Recover deleted files, corrupted hard drives, and partitions. |
www.runtime.org |
  |
Professional Data Recovery Software from Bitmart. File Recovery ... |
Data Recovery Software Restorer2000. Undelete & File Recovery utility for FAT and NTFS file systems. Data Recovery from damaged disks and partitions. |
www.bitmart.net |
  |
Data Recovery Services - ActionFront - Critical Server Data Recovery |
ISO certified data recovery services with labs in Atlanta, Santa Clara, Dallas, Chicago, Toronto (also Buffalo and Tokyo Japan) |
www.actionfront.com |
  |
Hard Drive Data Recovery Software: Recover Deleted Files- Recover ... |
Data recovery software for recovering files that have been deleted or lost due to the hard drive format, virus infection, unexpected system shutdown or ... |
www.recovermyfiles.com |
  |
Data Recovery Group - Hard Drive Data Recovery Services |
Data Recovery is Our Only Business! Data Recovery Group's a complete data recovery service that specializes in recovering data from hard disk drives. |
www.datarecoverygroup.com |
  |
Data Recovery by CBL: Hard Drive Recovery Services |
Worldwide Data Recovery Services at CBL. Specializing in data recovery, hard drive recovery, hard disk drive recovery and RAID data recovery. |
www.cbltech.com |
  |
Data Recovery Software, File Repair Utilities, Hard Disk Recovery ... |
Hard drive data recovery software to perform data recovery & recover deleted files from Novell, Linux, Unix, Mac, Windows & data recovery services for hard ... |
www.nucleustechnologies.com |
  |
AT&DR: Data Recovery and Liabillity |
Associated Technologies offers complete data recovery solutions with services for any type of data storage device, including the following: hard drives, ... |
www.datarecovery.com |
  |
Ontrack UK - Data recovery services & recovery software - hard ... |
Ontrack offers data recovery services & software for: hard drive recovery, file recovery, server recovery, email recovery, tape recovery, RAID recovery. |
www.ontrack.co.uk |
  |
Beginners Guides: Hard Drive Data Recovery - PCSTATS.com |
Beginners Guides: Hard Drive Data Recovery - PCSTATS.com. |
www.pcstats.com |
  |
File Recovery and Data Recovery Software. Hard Drive recovery utility |
Data recovery software for FAT, NTFS, Ext2FS file systems. File recovery after FDISK, MBR destruction, FAT damaged, virus infection. Dynamic disk support. |
www.data-recovery-software.net |
  |
Data recovery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Data recovery is the process of salvaging data from damaged, failed, ... Although there is some confusion as to the term, data recovery can also be the ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
Active@ UNDELETE Data Recovery. Recover Deleted Files. Windows XP ... |
Active@ UNDELETE - Data Recovery Software for all Windows File Systems. Recover deleted files from lost, damaged, formatted or reformatted partitions. |
www.active-undelete.com |
  |
New Zealand Data Recovery & Computer Forensics Experts |
New Zealand data recovery specialists & computer forensics investigation experts. Recovering lost data for businesses or legal evidence is all we do. |
www.datarecovery.co.nz |
  |
Canada Data Recovery Services: Hard Disk Drive Recovery, Raid Data ... |
Provides data recovery solutions for companies experiencing data loss from failed hard drives, raid arrays, and server systems. |
www.datarecovery.ca |
  |
|