Data Backup

Your business’ data is your most valuable asset. This data offers your business essential functionality and utility that simply could not be replicated to scale if it were lost. Therefore, we always recommend that businesses prioritize their disaster recovery planning, including a robust and frequently updated data backup of their entire infrastructure.

Modern data backups are not only more accessible to businesses of every size (largely thanks to another item on this list), they are also far simpler to manage and more effective for it. We recommend that any backups you implement follow what is known as the 3-2-1 Backup Rule: at least three copies of your data should exist, in at least two locations, at least one of which being offsite and cut off from your infrastructure.

Cybersecurity

Did you know that there were over an estimated 30 billion known records breached in Q1 of this year? That’s an insanely high number, especially when Q4 of 2023 saw a tenth of that total.

A data breach isn’t something that a small or even medium-sized organization can just shrug off. First off, there’s the fact that data has presumably been stolen while it was under your care. This alone is sure to impact your business’ reputation… then there’s all the regulatory consequences you might face, the cost of identifying and resolving the vulnerability after the fact, and ensuring that no further trace of any threat exists. In short, you need to do everything you can to prevent these breaches, monitoring your infrastructure to keep watch for any indication of something going wrong.

VoIP Communications

Any business can benefit from saving some costs, and Voice over Internet Protocol telephony is a great means of doing so. Modern telephone systems can operate entirely off the Internet, adding significant utility, accessibility, and value to your business’ phone. With exception to some initial equipment investments (which are largely up to your discretion), the only real cost to VoIP is the price of your Internet service… which you’re already paying anyway.

That’s right… VoIP allows you to take advantage of a more capable phone system, offering more features and accessibility, for less money than a conventional phone line. 

SMBs should be paying attention to opportunities like this.

Cloud

Speaking of cost savings, there’s another significant expense that SMBs now have the opportunity to avoid with the help of technology: data storage.

Storage space is expensive. Not only does the server infrastructure itself cost a lot to procure, powering it isn’t exactly cheap… plus, it takes up a significant amount of space that could potentially be used in other ways that might contribute to your business’ monetization. Traditional filing cabinets are worse, as there’s a much more finite limit on the space you have to keep data, and it’s even harder to keep a backup of this kind of data.

By utilizing the shared storage space of the cloud, however, you can eliminate the need for bulky cabinets or large, expensive server infrastructure in your office… and this is just the start of what the cloud can help you accomplish. The cloud also allows you a variety of other utilities that make doing business easier and more accessible, as well.

Managed IT

Finally, small and medium-sized businesses are just as reliant on technology as the big businesses are. The only real difference is the fact that the big businesses can much more easily afford to maintain internal teams to keep all their technology functioning.

This doesn’t mean that SMBs have to go without, however. Managed IT services exist to help businesses of all sizes keep their technology working for them and their needs. Monitoring a business’ infrastructure can reveal issues that, if left unresolved, could lead to security or operational issues. Plus, a business’ team can always use a resource to turn to for support and assistance with the everyday technical issues they might experience.

As a Managed Service Provider, We Can Deliver All of the Above…and More!

Patriot Tech Services Inc. has helped many businesses around TriState fulfill their IT needs, and we’d love to help your organization as well.

Give us a call at 877-874-4629 to get started.

Today, we will explore the three most important metrics for data backup and disaster recovery: recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO), and backup success rate.

RPO (Recovery Point Objective)

No one anticipates a disaster, but if you experience one, you want to be prepared with the minimum amount of data you need to maintain operations. Simply put, you likely will not be able to keep all your data in the event of a data loss incident, so you have to prioritize the important stuff first. You’ll have to assign a value to your data to determine which types are more important, then take measures during the backup process to ensure that you’re treating it appropriately. For example, there are regulations and compliance requirements for certain types of data that must be considered. More often than not, the most important data, like customer information and financial records, will have low RPO, while less important data might have higher RPO.

RTO (Recovery Time Objective)

Establishing realistic expectations for how long it takes to get back to work after a disaster is also crucial. RTO is the acceptable level of downtime associated with recovering data and restoring business operations following a disaster. One way to gauge this is to ask yourself how long your business will take to get back to an acceptable level of operations, as well as what systems must be in place to make it happen. The important thing here is to get back to work with minimal loss and to continue functionality without running a loss. If you can do this, then a disaster won’t impact you as harshly as you might expect.

Backup Testing and Success Rate

With RPO and RTO in mind, you can create a backup system that allows you to maintain operations and minimize data loss, provided it works the way it should. You should test your backup solution to ensure that it works appropriately toward your goals. You’ll want to measure the amount of failed backups versus the amount of successful backups and keep the successes as high as possible—at least 95 percent, if not higher.

In general, it’s a good idea to regularly test your backup system to ensure that it works for when you will need it most.

Implement Data Backup and Disaster Recovery Today

If your business doesn’t have data backup and disaster recovery, you’re playing a dangerous game. You could be risking everything you have built needlessly. We recommend you work with Patriot Tech Services Inc. to identify opportunities to be proactive with your data backup. Call us today at 877-874-4629 to learn more.

What are Mercenary Attacks?

When we think of more “typical” cyberattacks, they are commonly designed to target as many people as possible, often using rudimentary attack methods to identify the easiest targets to pursue. A mercenary attack is similar to this but on a much smaller scale, with millions of dollars spent to target a relatively small target pool.

As the threat notification email informed potential targets, “This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do.”

The email also describes the kinds of things that this attack, as a mercenary spyware attack specifically, would likely do, stating, 

"If your device is compromised by a targeted mercenary spyware attack, the attacker may be able to remotely access your sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone."

What Has Apple Done to Address the Threat?

Apple has added a support page describing these attacks, and what an impacted Apple user should do if they suspect their device is infected. This includes a list of best practices that we can very much sign off on:

• “Update devices to the latest software, as that includes the latest security fixes
• Protect devices with a passcode
• Use two-factor authentication and a strong password for Apple ID [we just want to add you should do this with all accounts]
• Install apps from the App Store [all Android users should only utilize the Google Play store]
• Use strong and unique passwords online
• Don’t click on links or attachments from unknown senders”

Apple also recommended that those who had not yet been targeted, but had reason to suspect they might be, to turn on “Lockdown Mode,” which restricts the device to very limited functions to reduce the attack surface that these kinds of targeted threats would use.

Hopefully, you won't be targeted by these kinds of attacks, but we wanted to help spread the word as much as possible, and we’re not going to miss the opportunity to share some security best practices. For more security best practices and general technology assistance for your business needs, please consider the managed services that we offer here at Patriot Tech Services Inc.. Call us at 877-874-4629 to discuss your options with our team of experts.