Just saw where another computer user in Greenville could have avoided a nightmare. They posted their computer was toast. Bad hard drive according to some geeky type people that looked at it. The computer is back to running, but their data is GONE.
Homeland Secure IT offers many backup solutions that can protect you from this scenario, but our favorite is Servosity Online Backup, which runs on your computer, regardless of the operating system of that computer (Server, Workstation, Notebook, etc) and quietly backs up your data to a secure server located “in the cloud”.
It is affordable, it is reliable, and the president of Servosity is an Upstate SC native. What more could you ask for?
If you would like to try this awesome online backup service, we offer a FREE trial, just call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for additional details or get setup for a trial.
Please do it before it is too late. Losing your pictures, music, documents, etc is a painful experience, and potentially devastating. The cost of recovering hard drives can be in the thousands!
Microsoft BPOS
Are you tired of dealing with POP3 or IMAP mail from your ISP? Tired of SLOW email? Do you want to share calendars between coworkers? Do you want to see the same contacts, calendar entries and emails on your phone as you do in your Outlook on your desktop and also via a web interface? Do you want your mobile workforce to have access to the same resources you do, including public / shared calendars & contacts? Want support for your Mac, Apple iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry?
Then Microsoft Exchange is the way to go, however, there are costs associated with hosting your own Exchange server that are unattractive to many smaller businesses.
Fortunately there are Hosted / In-The-Cloud alternatives, such as Microsoft’s Own BPOS, the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite which features a Hosted Exchange server, SharePoint, Office Live Meeting and Office Communications Online. Using BPOS can eliminate the need to purchase, deploy, maintain, backup and eventually upgrade a Microsoft Windows Server with Microsoft Exchange Server. The services are hosted “in the cloud”, in a data center, where all maintenance and upgrades are maintained FOR you. No need to worry with backups either.
This solution isn’t right for everybody, but it could be the answer to your problems if you have a smaller office, a large mobile workforce, a small budget or possibly no central location to place a server at. Would you like more information? Please call us at 864-990-4748 ext 201 or email info@homelandsecureit.com to arrange for a free, no obligation consultation.
Free 30 Day BPOS Trial
Optionally, you can sign up for a FREE 30 day trial of BPOS - Business Productivity Online Standard Suite - This trial includes 20 user licenses for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting, and Office Communications Online.
Homeland Secure IT offers Hosted Microsoft Online Services including the full BPOS / Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting & Office Communications Online) as well as the Business Productivity Online Deskless Worker Suite (Exchange Online & SharePoint Online), and each service individually.
If you are in the Upstate / Greenville SC area, we can assist you with configuring your Outlook to work with the Hosted Exchange Online service at your location or ours.
We also offer full remote support and phone support to clients anywhere in the United States.
Electronic Medical Records Could Pose a Threat to Your Privacy & Security
It is no surprise that Electronic Healthcare Records / Electronic Medical Records are all over the news currently. It is an issue that affects our privacy and anytime that is in question, we get people on both sides of the fence up in arms.
Built into the 2009 stimulus bill are requirements that healthcare records go digital by 2014. Yet it is not mandated exactly how that be done, nor how that is to be protected. If you Google around a little bit you will find websites and forums dedicated to this topic. Obviously more is being said about the policy itself than the mechanics of it. I won’t get into what I believe here, but I will cover some specifics about how medical facilities are handling this requirement.
Some doctors in small practices are already digital, or at least using a blend of paper records and electronic records. They may be storing them in various formats, from scanning the paper documents and storing images of them on a computer, to having full fledged professionally written and mainstream client management systems, but the majority I am aware of in family practices go for the cheapest way out in order to have their data on computers. The advantages of having digital copies are that they can back it up offsite in case of a catastrophe and, they can access it from another location besides their own office, in the event they need to do so.
Now for the downsides. These systems have the exact same vulnerabilities that your desktop PC has, because they are using nothing more than the standard desktop PC. IF they are at all concerned about HIPAA they may have some safeguards in place, but time and time again, I hear about computers with some of the following issues:
No backup system in place: Not a threat to YOUR data, but all that information could be lost.
No anti-virus, or outdated / non-functional anti-virus: Of course this is a huge issue and could pose the largest threat. Even though anti-virus, like Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security is affordable, many doctors fail to realize the importance of this, or feel that using a FREE product is fine, when in fact it is against the terms of usage for those “free” products to be used in business.
Machines not patched: Another common-place problem is for computers to go without updates from Microsoft (or even Apple if they are using Mac OS-X) which make for extremely vulnerable systems – one part-time employee gets bored and browses to the wrong site and a bad guy now has access to everything inside that doctor’s office because the OS had big gaping holes in it, or applications such as Adobe Flash were unpatched.
Hardware firewall not in use or outdated: Many people believe the firewall on their PC (either built-in one or one provided by an anti-virus solution) is adequate and all they have in place is a Linksys, D-Link or other router. Firewalls keep bad guys from getting in, or at least slow them down. Quality devices from Cisco, WatchGuard, SonicWALL, Zyxel are affordable these days, however many opt to leave them out of the mix. A common excuse I hear is that the ISP provides their firewall, in the form of an Adtran or even a Cisco router, but nobody is aware of whether it has the latest software loaded on it. Any firewall in place is better than none, but one that is not up to date is vulnerable to someone who really wants in.
These are just a few of the more common issues that can make Electronic Medical Records vulnerable to disclosure. The list is a long one, and it is best to enlist the assistance of a computer service provider to evaluate your network. In fact, it would be a good idea to have more than one network support specialist look over your network if you are in the medical field. If you are in the Greenville or Upstate SC area, please call upon us at 864-990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com if you would like more information. We are authorized dealers for Cisco, Trend Micro, SonicWall, Zyxel, WatchGuard, Servosity Online Backup and more.
If you worry about the security of your medical records, ask your healthcare provider to provide you with information that shows what they are doing to protect your privacy.
iPhone Switchvox app lets you take your office phone with you!
How many times have you left your office while waiting for an important call to come in? What did you do? Set a special voice mail greeting? Forward all calls to your cell phone?
That’s what most people have done, until now. If you are lucky enough to have a VoIP phone system such as a Digium Switchvox solution and an iPhone or Blackberry, you can literally take your office phone with you now.
Your VoIP system is configured to allow mobile API, the firewall is configured to allow the proper ports through to your VoIP system and your phone gets the app loaded and configured. That’s it, you now have full access to your phone system. You can make and receive calls on your phone either from the cellular provider phone line, or via your VoIP system at your office.
You can call extensions, change your voice mail greetings, and any other function that you could from your desk phone. You would never miss an incoming call, and possibly more important to some, calls made from your cell phone while in the field, via the VoIP system, would never reveal your private cell phone number.
Another added benefit is that using the VoIP system will let you use your phone calling plan from your office, and bypass the phone plan on your cell phone entirely. This could save you hundreds per year!
Official apps are available for the iPhone and Blackberry, and some unofficial apps are available for Android phones.
If you would like more information about or would like to purchase a VoIP phone system, we are partners with Digium, Cisco and work with all Asterisk based systems in the Greenville & Upstate area. Please call us at 864.990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com with questions!
Servosity - Now with continuous data protection goodness!
I’ve heard every excuse in the book for not backing up data. Too much trouble, too expensive, too time consuming, slows the computer down while the backup is running, etc. Until today.
I actually had a discussion in which the individual told me that backups were useless because they were not real-time, and that using a backup program like Symantec’s Backup Exec or even an online backup solution like Servosity was a scheduled backup and data had potential to be lost between the time you saved it, and the time it was backed up to the media or remote server.
Then, I dropped the bombshell… There is such a thing as “Continuous Backup Protection”. Symantec offers it of course, but this person was totally against a hardware solution that was on premise, so I told him about Servosity’s offering. Where you can have a regular backup taking place after hours, but for critical data, you could have that backup immediately when you save it! And, if you wanted, you could set it up to backup the entire system in near real-time! Kind of a mirror of your data, on a remote, secure server where each file that is saved or modified is synced with the remote system.
This is where cloud computing, or Software as a Service (SaaS) really shines! If you backup instantly, to a remote location, and a horrific incident occurs, say a tornado, fire, flood, or even theft of your equipment, you have access to it over the internet! A perfect solution for business continuity plans.
Servosity can protect a single workstation or a thousand, a fleet of mobile computers, your Mac OS X, Windows Servers, Exchange, SQL, Linux, and so much more!
If you would like more information about Servosity or other Continuous Backup solutions, please call us at 864-990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com
Apple iPad being used more and more for business
My initial reaction to the iPad was that it was cute little toy, but then immediately after its release it became apparent that people wanted to use them for business as well as pleasure. First was the use of Remote Desktop (Terminal Services), which I wrote about and has been finding extreme popularity, then of course was Microsoft Exchange integration to get corporate mail and with that came ways to get connectivity without buying the 3G version of the iPad, using a MiFi from Verizon, and ultimately, hacking the iPad itself and putting a MiFi inside the iPad.
Now that some time has passed since the release of the iPad, we see that many companies and even government organizations have adopted them for real business use. Case in point, the Ontario, CA City Council has begun using the tablet computers and that alone shows how a new technology is changing the way we do business.
I’m seeing more and more interest in these highly portable devices from business users and as more manufacturers develop and release their products, we may see a tablet computing revolution, where the day planners, notebooks, notepads, and even post-it notes go in the trash in favor of this digital ink. And the SaaS (Software as a Service) model will make a lot of providers wealthy.
Businesses who want to get in on this phenomenon should talk to their IT provider to see how easily this technology can be integrated into their networks. Your computer service provider can help you get your pad /tablet computer linked to your corporate Microsoft Exchange mail, setup clients that allow you to remote to your Microsoft Server and much more!
If we can be of any assistance in the Greenville / Upstate area, please call us at 864-990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com
Today, at “High Noon” in Falls Park, a group of people, made up of men & women of all ages and from all walks of life, and even children, met up at the first “Flash Mob” that I am aware of in Greenville… To shoot each other with water guns! To the casual observer, immediately before noon, there was very little sign of anything significant taking place, just a group of people, who happened to be wearing Google’s colors of Red, Blue (The best one of course), Yellow and Green, to represent the color they liked best, or maybe the color of the letter they were in during the #GoogleOnMain event….
At “high noon”, cooler lids opened, and a fountain of Mentos activated Coke sprayed high into the air… Suddenly, the group pulled out (water) guns and began firing on each other! Some people had modest little water guns, others had fully automatic hydration systems shooting 25+ft. Then the bombing began! Water ballons were launched and many participants were instantly drenched with the barrage of ballons, again in the colors of Google’s famous logo.
Until the video is released, I can’t say for sure who won, but I have a feeling the Blue beat out of the rest =) (They may feel otherwise, but that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it)
The brainchild of Susan Sebotnick / @BitTyrant and Aaron Von Frank / @AaronVonFrank – they thought it up on Friday, made it happen today by using social media to alert a couple thousand people… Due to the holiday, many were out of town though. Still, the turnout was terrific for Noon on a Monday!!!!
Some photos from James Akers Jr. / @JamesAkersJr are available here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187731&id=507966821#!/photo.php?pid=4889169&id=507966821
Come join the #googleonmain #luckygvl people in beautiful downtown #greenville SC at Falls Park, where the original Google On Main even took place!
Bring water guns, wear T-Shirts in the color of Google’s logo…
RSVP here: FACEBOOK EVENT
Please read the instructions on that site….
One lightning strike can ruin your whole day...
If you live here in the Upstate of South Carolina, you probably enjoyed nature’s light show last night, but you might not have enjoyed it if your computer, server, network components or other sensitive electronics fell victim to one of the many strikes that occurred.
While it is very difficult to protect yourself from a direct lightning strike, a modest investment can prevent the most common threats from destroying your equipment. Power events such as blackouts, where power is totally lost, or brownouts where the voltage drops to less than 120 volts AC, and the worst culprits of power surges and power spikes, which occur along with the blackouts, brownouts and nearby lightning strikes can usually be stopped before they cause damage.
The cheapest form of insurance is a surge protector, but we suggest you go one step further, and use an UPS, which is an Un-interruptable Power Supply. This type of device goes in-line between your power outlet, and your computer, and can protect the computer, printer, monitor and other devices that are plugged into it.
BONUS: If there is a power event that causes a brownout or blackout condition, an UPS will continue to power your computer until it can be shutdown safely, after saving your documents! With a cheap surge protector, the computer would go down immediately and everything you were working on could be lost.
There is an UPS for every application. UPS large enough to power your servers, network equipment and VoIP or analog/digital phone system are available, and small enough to protect a surveillance camera system and keep it online. Most feature the ability to protect a network too, so you can stop a surge from coming in on a DSL line and possibly save that expensive Cisco router or firewall!
Homeland Secure IT offers a full line of outstanding power protection products from surge protection, full-house surge protection, to UPS and power isolators. We are partners with two of the biggest manufacturers of these products, APC by Schneider Electric and EATON. Whether you need protection for just one computer, or an entire data center, please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864-990-4748 and select option 1 to speak with me and arrange for a free consultation for Greenville and Upstate SC businesses and individuals.
Computer network security and support is about more than a quick fix or repair on your PC, it is about preventing devastating damage through planning…
The FCC wants you to signup to shape the future of broadband in America
The FCC is looking for about 10,000 good men and women to help test their broadband connections in certain markets and from certain providers by installing a piece of equipment to meter the throughput at their home.
If you are interested in participating, you can go to https://www.testmyisp.com/ and fill out the application. You must meet certain requirements, such as having a high speed / broadband connection like cable or DSL from prividers such as Charter, AT&T, Cable One, Cablevision, CenturyLink, Cincinnati Bell, Clearwire, Comcast, Cox, Fairpoint, Frontier, Hughes, Insight, Mediacom, Qwest, RCN, Time Warner Cable (Roadrunner), Verizon, WildBlue/ViaSat, Windstream, or “other”, which will allow you to write in your broadband provider.
Apparently, they will place a simple device onto your LAN, and you must agree to the terms of usage, such as leaving it on 24/7, not trying to reverse engineer the device, etc.
Conspiracy theories are already out there that this device will be doing more than watching your throughput, such as watching your browsing habits. Possible, but unlikely. The company that has partnered with the FCC would probably not want to get that kind of bad press if this were found to be true.
I signed up our home and will let you know if we are selected…
