Professional IT Services that Andromeda Provides for Saint Charles, IL Businesses:

Managed IT Services
Saint Charles,IL

Andromeda offers a range of IT support plans—anything from month-to-month "time & materials"-based assistance to fixed IT 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 an Account 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 IT services is not the services themselves, but rather the proper migration of your existing IT 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
Saint Charles,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
Saint Charles,IL

Andromeda's team is completely staffed by local technicians near Saint Charles,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:

File sharing is an essential portion of any business. It is the way we get information from one person to another. BUT, it can also be the way hackers gain access to your sensitive information – files or, worst of all, confidential data.

If you’re using Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, or other consumer-grade file sharing  and cloud sync applications – or if you depend on file sharing of any kind to run your business (hint . . . you do)- listen up!

Here are 3 habits you should break yourself and your staff of immediately.

Top 3 File Sharing Habits to Break

1) Using Consumer Grade Solutions . . .

Consumer grade solutions are just that . . . consumer grade. You aren’t a ‘consumer’, you’re a business owner with sensitive data to protect. With more and more employees/businesses depending on BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) as well as the ability to access files any time & any place, it is important that your file sharing system is professional grade. Look for enterprise grade security options like SSL Encrypted Transfer, Firewall Protection, Password Protection and Virus Scanning.

2) Emailing Files Without Proper Encryption . . .

You may not care if a hacker gets a hold of your grocery list or photos of the family dog, but when it comes to confidential data such as financial statements, medical records or other sensitive materials, it is safe to say you cannot afford criminals sniffing through your files. For this reason, NEVER send files via email without proper encryption. Business grade email and proper practices can nip this in the butt. You’d be amazed how many files fall into the laps of cyber criminals this way though.

3) Using Flash Drives…

You spend time and hard earned resources to protect your network from outside threats . . . only to destroy everything when you innocently plug in an infected flash drive you picked up innocuously enough at a trade show. Flash drives bypass security systems you have in place and may run automatically without being checked for infection by your antivirus solution. If you must continue using flash drives . . . at a minimum update your antivirus to prohibit autorun and mandate scans to all USB-attached devices when plugged into your PCs.

The post Stop These 3 Hazardous File Sharing Habits Yesterday! appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

With the average American adult maintaining over 130 different accounts online, the risk of a data breach or data being stolen continues to grow. Between social media, financials, productivity applications, email, business applications, online shopping and countless other accounts online, your “online life” becomes more and more a part of your day to day physical life as time passes.

As more of our lives and data are shared online, criminals are focused on breaking into these databases to steal the valuable info they hold:

• Personal Info such as name, address, dates of birth, social security numbers etc.
• Financial information such as bank info, credit cards etc.
• Social Information on social media accounts

This is a real problem facing consumers globally but the impacts span beyond individual damages and stolen identities (though, those damages are bad enough).

When a criminal steals your password, or the password of a coworker, chances are – they’ve gained access to many pieces of your “online life”.

Here’s an example to illustrate how a third party data breach can lead a criminal back to your business.

Your HR manager helps book travel for employees at the business. He set up a business account at a national hotel chain to book rooms for whatever the business travel needs are. The hotel chain’s database suffers a breach and cybercriminals steal thousands of email/password combos including your HR manager’s credentials.

Your HR manager used the same password he uses for all kinds of sites online when he created the login at the hotel company site. This means that the criminals who have this breached data, now have access to your payroll software, servers and all the other things your HR manager interacts with.

The criminals either use this data themselves or take it to the Dark Web to sell for a few dollars (password/email combinations go for $3-$5 on average on the Dark Web).

Breaches like these happen daily and criminals use the information they steal to do as much damage as they can.

This creates a unique problem for business owners and managers because what can you possibly do to protect yourself from a data breach happening at a hotel chain or some other account online?

Things get even trickier when the average span of time between a data breach and disclosure to the public reaches 15 months. Meaning, criminals have a 15-month head start to get to your business and do damage before your are notified on the 5 o’clock news or your social media feed.

So, how can you defend against this kind of thing?

First, implement a password policy at your business:

1. Strong Passwords Required
2. Change Passwords Regularly (90 days minimum)
3. Dual Authentication
4. Lockout Procedures

Second, roll out a password management tool across your organization.

As mentioned earlier, the average adult in America manages over 130 accounts online. It is no wonder that we have a hard time creating strong and unique passwords for each of those accounts. It would be nearly impossible to remember all of that without writing things down – which isn’t secure.

To bridge the gap between security and memory, implement a password management tool. Look for something that is encrypted, secure and be sure to consider mobile capabilities. We recommend LastPass as a great option to start.

Third, invest in Dark Web Monitoring

Dark Web Monitoring is still a newer service offered to businesses and professionals. This is a monitoring solution designed to scrub different areas of the Dark Web (chatrooms, discussion boards etc.) for data connected to your domain.

If we apply Dark Web Monitoring to the example above with the HR Manager for instance – when the criminals stole data from the hotel chain and went to sell/share it on the Dark Web, the monitoring tool would identify your IT company to have the HR manager change passwords. That way, the criminals have useless data and you are protected well before you learn about the breach 15 months later.

The post How A Third-Party Data Breach Impacts Cybersecurity At Your Business appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

Tech companies both big and small are always looking for new ways to protect their customers from the threat of malware.While that's not something that hardware vendors are known for, Intel has leapt into the fray with a recent announcement.

Their planned "Tiger Lake" mobile processers will offer CPU-level malware protection features.

Tom Garrison is Intel's VP & General Manager of Client Security Strategy and Initiatives.

Tom had this to say about the planned features:

"Intel CET is designed to protect against the misuse of legitimate code through control-flow hijacking attacks--widely used techniques in large classes of Malware...Intel has been actively collaborating with Microsoft and other industry partners to address control-flow hijacking by using Intel's CET technology to augment previous software-only control-flow integrity solutions."

Specifically, Intel's CET provides two new capabilities to help guard against control-flow hijacking malware: Indirect Branch Tracking (IBT) and Shadow Stack (SS). Collectively, these two new tools work by defeating malware designed to use ROP (Return Oriented Programming), JOP (Jump Oriented Programming) and COP (Call Oriented Programming).

Garrison adds:

"The significance of Intel CET is that it is built into the microarchitecture and available across the family of products with that core...While Intel vPro platforms with Intel Hardware Shield already meet and exceed the security requirements for Secure-core PCs, Intel CET further extends advanced threat protection capabilities....when used properly by software, [it] is a bit step in helping prevent exploits from hijacking the control-flow transfer instructions."

As mentioned, the new capabilities will initially roll out for mobile processors, but the company has plans in the work to expand the microarchitecture into desktop and server platforms as well.

This is good news and we're excited to see the hardware's capabilities in action. Of course, it remains to be seen how effective the new protections will be, but industry experts are cautiously optimistic.

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