Professional IT Services that Andromeda Provides for Riverside, IL Businesses:

Managed IT Services
Riverside,IL

Andromeda offers a range of service plans—anything from month-to-month "time & materials"-based assistance to fixed service contracts that permit "no-brainer" conformance to an annual budget. Beyond the functions you would expect from a full-service MSP, you'll have a dedicated C‑CATs team that includes a Service Coordinator directing the same field and remote technicians day-to-day, month-to-month, and even year-to-year to manage your IT network needs.
This isn't simply a glorified Virtual CIO offering. Imagine the cost of hiring your own CIO AND tech team for this same level of customized service and knowledge of your particular (and evolving) network setup!

Cloud Services & Migrations

Typically, the biggest issue you'll face when initiating Cloud services is not the services themselves, but rather the proper migration of your existing services to the Cloud without loss of functionality, downtime, and scores of other details that could undermine the whole process. Andromeda has a long history of expertise in physical on-premises systems. Don't make the mistake of turning all your current systems over to a "Cloud expert"; we'll save you from a lot of heartache and pain with a virtually seamless Cloud migration from your current setup— whatever it is.

Data Backup & Recovery
Riverside,IL

It's a crazy world. Literally thousands of people you don't even know attempt to break or steal from systems like yours every day. Good 24/7 monitoring is a first line of defense, of course. But no matter how great and state-of-the-art your defenses are, you'll almost certainly succomb to a successful attack in time. That's why advanced data backup and data recovery need to be tools that you and your IT partner have at the ready from Day 1. Don't be tempted to "shortcut" this element of your network in the name of expediency or to save a few dollars. Ultimately, you'll lose out on both counts with that thinking. You need a complete and integrated solution that addresses every contingency as well as IT professionals who know how to make that happen.

Cyber Security

Not only do we provide multi-tier approaches to your network security, but Andromeda also provides built-for-you solutions for disaster recovery and business continuity devices. We provide, manage and monitor a variety of devices including physical hardware, Cloud-based and hybrid options. Our team actively monitors over 403 servers and 101 physical backup devices in the field. All with 100% local engineers and technicians.

Onsite/Remote Support
Riverside,IL

Andromeda's team is completely staffed by local technicians near Riverside,IL. No matter the hour, your issue is resolved quickly and professionally. In fact, 68% of incoming calls are connected to a live technician for immediate response. When a technician isn't available, our average response time is less than 30 minutes. And if that isn't impressive enough, emergency after-hours support response times average less than 10 minutes!

IT Network Management

IT networks are our bread-and-butter. We have provided these services to clients since 1994. Some have continued to rely on us for their evolving network needs since the very beginning. We stand behind our work day to day and year to year because we foster relationships with our client-partners that absolutely demand that of us. It's in our DNA and how we prefer to do business.

AndroPedia Tech Library

As part of our service, it is important to keep our client-partners well informed on IT developments, news, and best practices. Here is just a sampling of typical items from our AndroPedia^SM library archive:

The holidays are a magical time. Snow covered trees, festive lights decorating houses, time with family, parties . . . and an incredible increase in cybercrime and cyber criminals.

Didn’t see that one coming did you?

The cyber criminals think and hope so too.

While people hit the web to shop for holiday gifts, deals and plane tickets to visit loved ones, hackers are doing their best to steal your data and use it for their own purposes.

In the spirit of giving, check out these 5 quick tips to keep cyber criminals and hackers at bay during the holiday!

5 quick tips to keep cyber criminals and hackers at bay during the holiday

1. Make sure that you do your shopping at secure websites

Any time you are purchasing something online you want to make sure you are doing so from a secure website. A secure website will encrypt your information. The means that only the authorized parties (the seller) receives that information and it can’t fall into the hands of hackers or criminals.

You can tell if a website is secure by looking at the URL. If the URL begins with https:// that means it is secure. Specifically you are looking for the S after the http portion. You may also see a lock symbol. Make sure that you never enter information into a website without this. Look out for locks with warning symbols like question marks or red lines – this signals that the site is only partially encrypted and you should never trust it. Buy your stuff somewhere else.

2. Use Credit Cards instead of Debit Cards online – and probably in general where possible

There are so many different ways scammers attack your data. Think back to the big breaches of the last few years – Target, Home Depot etc. Your data can get stolen both online and at brick and mortar locations.

The most secure thing – aside from cash which obviously cannot be used for shopping online – is to shop with a credit card. Credit card companies are required to protect you from fraudulent purchases, if your account number is stolen or even if you purchase something online and it is never delivered.

The protections a consumer is guaranteed by credit cards far outweighs protections offered with debit cards and obviously, if your info is stolen, you’d much rather have that happen on a credit card than having your bank account liquidated.

3. Sign up for alerts

There are many options out there for alert programs and applications. Some let you know any time your social security number is used, some monitor your credit score and other vital information.

In regard to your credit cards and bank accounts specifically, you can have alerts sent to your email or your smartphone via text for activity. For example, you can have any purchase made on your bank card/credit card alert your phone. If that seems a bit overboard, you can set it up to alert you to purchases over a specific threshold.

Additionally, you want to make sure you are checking your bank account every day or so just to make sure nothing strange is occurring. That goes for holiday season and the rest of the year.

4. Check out third party payment systems

You’ve probably heard of PayPal but have you ever looked into why using a third party payment system like PayPal is beneficial for both the buyer and the seller?

Systems like these are middle men that help protect both sides of a transaction. The seller knows that the funds are verified but the seller also gets NO ACCESS to your account information. This is a great benefit to you. Instead of using your card and spreading your information from site to site and exposing your information to different destinations, your information is shared with one company.

Another benefit is that these third party payment options are readily available at most stores online and even at brick and mortar locations these days.

Some popular options are PayPal as mentioned, Apple Pay, Amazon Payments, Venmo, Samsung Pay and more.

5. Check Reviews and beware of the “Too Good To Be True”

It is the season for deals without a doubt. But be smart when you see an offer for something that is well below the market value.

That new iPhone isn’t going to retail for $200 no matter how great a deal they are giving you. Hate to say it but there is no free lunch and one of the best ways for criminals to get you on their sites is by advertising an incredible price for a product.

Even Amazon isn’t immune to this. Bogus retailers will advertise products that are never delivered or that have no resemblance to the pictures online. Pretty sure we have all fallen victim to that, holiday season or not.

But this time of year, make sure you read reviews. Do your research and take all the steps available to you to ensure you are protected.

We hope you have a great end of year and that you start 2018 without any personal stories about how cybercrime impacted your holidays.

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach our team and shop safe!

The post 5 Ways To Keep Cyber Criminals At Bay This Holiday appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

Technology has changed our world forever. What’s the first thing you do before you get out of bed in the morning? Chances are it has something to do with your smartphone. These items open up worlds of possibilities but they can also bring issues and privacy conflicts with them. For this month’s IT article we bring you an article from our President and CEO Jeff Borello on the intersection of instant access (google) and user privacy (location sharing) – focusing on something called: Google Location History. Without further ado . . .

Holy Big Brother

Have you ever heard of Google Location History?

Yeah, me neither.

Let me start by saying I am not a guy that cares about intrusions on my privacy.  I don’t care if the government is listening to my phone calls or reading my Emails.  I figure I am not doing anything wrong – so if they are interested in my boring life – so be it.  Especially if it helps them catch some bad guys.

Now, with that said, even I was a little freaked out when I discovered how much Google and my Google App know about my daily movements.

These days, almost everyone has a Google login and is quite often signed into their account – especially from a mobile device.

So, let’s play a little game.  Where were you on January 17^th at 4pm?  You probably don’t remember, but if you have location services enabled on your device . . . Google does.

Google Location History is a comprehensive (and by that I mean every detail imaginable) history of places you have visited as tracked and logged by your smartphone’s GPS function.  Besides being comprehensive, it also has a very long memory – like years.

Give this a try to see if Google Location History is enabled on your phone.

• From a desktop browser, go to Maps.google.com (from your phone you need to open the Google Maps App)
• Sign in to your Google account (if you aren’t already).  Top right-hand corner will either show a Letter (first letter of your login) or a Sign In button.
• Click the 3-bar menu in the top left corner and select “Your Timeline”
• If you see some bar graph data there, click the bar for a given day shown from the last month.
  • How long did it take you to get to work that day?
  • Where did you have lunch?
  • Did you walk anywhere during the day?
  • Did you take any pictures?  (Yes, those might be logged in there as well)

See a screenshot below of my recent trip to Nashville.  Yep, lunch at Monell’s (great place BTW) from 12:25 to 2:06 and dinner at 9:14 at the Peg Leg Porker BBQ

Walking, driving, flying.  It knows and records those differently.

So, the obvious question is why on earth would you want something this invasive turned on?  The answer is convenience.  As often is the case, to gain some convenience you need to give up some privacy.

It is this information that Google uses to help you throughout your day.  It will inform you of traffic issues based on your travel habits and places you may visit often.  The more information the system has on you, the more helpful an AI-powered app (Google Assistant) can be.

Okay, I have Google Location History turned on. Now what?

The good news is you do have control over this.  If you aren’t comfortable being tracked, you can turn this feature off.  From the Timeline there is an option to Pause that feature, which in effect disables it until you turn it back on.  You can also delete your entire location history as well, or just delete individual entries if you wish.

Of course, as long as the GPS is enabled on your phone, there are still plenty of apps out there that could be tracking you.  Only truly private solution is to disable the GPS completely (which probably causes you more issues than you think) or just leave your phone at home (yeah, right).

Is Google Location History too much an invasion on your privacy?  That is for you to decide but at least now you’re aware you are under the microscope.

Happy travelling.

The post Holy Big Brother! Google Location History: An All Knowing Function You Probably Didn’t Know You’ve Enabled appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

Researchers have discovered a security flaw in MS Office 2016 and older versions that leave the door open to hackers who can take advantage of it to run malicious code on a target computer.

This latest hack exploits a flaw in the software's online video option, which allows users to embed a YouTube video via link inside the document.� The problem is that when the link is pasted into a Word document, the software automatically generates an HTML embed script which is executed when the thumbnail image of the video is clicked on inside the document.

Word contains a file called "document.xml" which is a default file used by the program to generate the code to embed the video.� It's a trivial matter to edit this file, only requiring removing the originally inserted URL and replacing it with a malicious one that would get executed by the IE Download Manager.

Alternately, a hacker could simply create a legitimate-looking Word document, insert a poisoned link into it, then send it to a target.� If the target clicked the link, whatever malicious code the hacker has staged at the other end would run.

The researchers reported the bug to Microsoft, but the company made no response and refused to acknowledge it as a security vulnerability.� After 90 days, the team made their findings public in hopes of spurring the company into action.

This did prompt a response from the company, but their response was simply that they had no intention of addressing the issue as the software is properly interpreting HTML as designed.

That's apparently the company's final word on the matter, so if your business is in the habit of using word documents with embedded videos for any purpose, be mindful of this exploit.� It could easily be used against you.

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