Downtime got you down? Here are 5 steps to stay up and running!

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IT downtime in your business can be caused by so many things – hardware failure, power surges, security breaches, storms, coffee spills, just to name a few. But no one cares WHY they’re down when they count on being up and running!

So, what’s the quickest way to get your business running again? At IT Direct, we use the axiom “proper preparation prevents poor performance,” in other words, plan ahead!

Yup, not the answer you were hoping for, I’m sure, but it’s the best way to ensure that downtime doesn’t ruin your day, your week, or even, possibly, your business.  Read more

NIST 800-171 requirements – in layman’s terms

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In our last blog post, we gave an overview of NIST compliance and why it is so important. In this blog post, we provide you with a quick, very high-level breakdown of the NIST 800-171 Requirement Families.

Each family falls under one of the three main functions of cybersecurity: protect, detect, or recover.

  • Protect – Protect your systems from harm or intrusion to the highest level possible
  • Detect – Detect when a breach is in progress or has occurred, from either inside or outside your organization
  • Recover – Ensure you have the systems and procedures in place to recover from an incident as efficiently and effectively as possible, while following all legal requirements

There are 14 families of requirements in NIST 800-171. In the NIST Special Publication document, the families are presented in alphabetic order, but it may make a little more sense to divide them into their security function. So, that’s what we’ve done below: Read more

When does 2+2=5?

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When does adding two things together equal more than the sum of their parts? When you can take a few pieces of information, put it together, and come to a conclusion that saves you tons of time or resources! This is one of our very favorite things to do for our clients!

How do we do it?
Sometimes multiple helpdesk calls come in and they seem unrelated and may even be assigned to different techs to solve. They may even be quick issues, like difficulty updating a password, or a pop-up that keeps occurring from time to time for low disk space on a user’s computer. To an outside eye, these issues may seem coincidental or completely unrelated. But, our POD teams get to know our clients so well that they pick up on these seemingly unrelated events and can make changes that save everyone time and energy.

Putting it together

One client’s Read more

What manufacturers need to know about NIST compliance

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The President of IT Direct, Ari Santiago, recently gave an hour-long webinar on NIST compliance. He provided a quick, but very thorough overview of what NIST 800-171 is, why it’s important, and the 14 families of the framework.

If you’d like to listen to the entire webinar, you can find it here on YouTube.

In today’s blog post, we’re going to give an overview of that overview – a 60,000 ft view, if you will!  Read more

IoT Smart City

Internet of Things (IoT) is changing our world in some pretty cool ways

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is a general term covering a vast number and scope of devices, machines, and objects that collect and send data over a network. The number of these devices and sensors has not only grown exponentially in recent years but has increased in capability while decreasing in size. This means that sensors and devices can be placed nearly anywhere – in soil, machinery, building systems, even in and around live animals.

The results of this technology growth can be seen and felt in every industry and sector from manufacturing to farming to public safety.

Check out a few of these case studies that show the beginning of what IoT is capable of. If you think just a little outside the box, this piece of the technology revolution could add tremendous value to your business.  Read more

Cybersecurity reminder!

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Today the Connecticut Higher Education Trust College Savings Program (CHET) had a over a $1 million stolen in a security breach. You can read more about it here.

This is just the latest in a stream of cybersecurity breaches hitting the public and private sectors. Cybersecurity risks are on the rise and we all need to remain extra vigilant and careful. Pay attention to what you’re doing when you’re online, what you’re clicking in your emails, and who you are giving your information to.

Hackers are making money…so they aren’t going to stop anytime soon!

Give us a call if you want to learn more about your organization’s cybersecurity risks.
860-249-1200

Cybersecurity for compliance: Top 5 reasons you may need a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system

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A security auditor may have recommended, or even insisted (in case of compliance requirements), that you have a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system in place.

Your first question might be, “What is that?” followed closely by, “It costs how much?” followed right after that by, “That’s a lot of money. Do I really need that?” Let us try to answer these questions for you.  Read more

5 Important Employee Cybersecurity Training Tips

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Employee cybersecurity training is, beyond a doubt, one of the most important things you can do to prepare your organization for the threats that exist now and into the future.

Here are 5 cybersecurity training tips to prepare your staff so that they can keep your intellectual property, data and systems safe: Read more

Life lessons

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Life Lessons

Yesterday I went to a conference that was designed for women entrepreneurs to learn from other women entrepreneurs.  It was a terrific event, put on by the Greater Hartford SCORE organization, a volunteer-based national group in which retired executives use the knowledge and skills they gained throughout their careers to mentor small business owners on starting and developing their business.

The panel was filled with five incredible, successful women who enjoyed telling the stories of their businesses, their lives, and all the things they learned along the way. The themes that stood out are important, not only for entrepreneurs, but for all business leaders: Read more

Why Standardize your IT?

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A state of (IT) confusion

The CEO has a Dell laptop with Windows 10, the finance guy has a Lenovo desktop with Windows 8, and your office co-worker has a Macbook. Some folks use Dropbox, others use Sharepoint, and still others use Google Drive. Linda has McAfee, Jane has Norton, and Bob has ESET. Alex VPNs into the network, while Sue uses remote desktop.

Does it matter?

These scenarios are all too familiar and you may think, ‘does it matter? All those folks can work, they can all share files, have access to the network, and they all have antivirus protection’. That may be true…but what happens when you need to update, replace, find, learn how to use, or support something. That’s when you’ll be pulling out your hair!

Higher level thinking

Handling your business IT with inconsistent standards is not only costly in terms of time and money but could be potentially damaging to your data and intellectual property in the case of lax cybersecurity standards. Read more