Why you need to track software licenses
Why you need to track software licenses

Why You Need to Track Software Licenses

Office IT, Software, ,
29
Sep 2014

Why you need to track software licenses

Can you list all of your licenses? From audits to system failures, tracking software licenses is a crucial part of keeping your business flowing smoothly.

We know how tedious this can be. Managing software is a little more complex than counting the number of physical assets, such as computer desktops and monitors.

Why would your business track software licenses?

BBC-Logo

We’ll use the BBC as a brief case study. They have over 27,000 computers on their network across the UK. As you can imagine, they’ve encountered a huge problem in the past when they needed to run an audit for all of the installed software on their endpoints. They were lost as to what was really being used on all staff computers. For example, a particular software package was purchased for 3,000 desktops; however, they eventually came to realize that only 300 were actually being used!

They found both legal and out of compliance software packages.  They eventually decided to run a weekly audit to keep all of this under control. Prior to this, both hardware and software assets were de-centrally managed by each of their own departments, with no common procedure.

Big impact for small businesses

Users can have all sorts of software installed on their computers which can vary from Microsoft Office, Windows, Quickbooks and so forth. So think about this for a moment. What if your computer crashed today or worse yet, what if an employee reports their laptop stolen or completely kaput, what do you do about it?

You will likely search your storage or server room in desperation to find your previously purchased software.  But wait, where’s the license? Nowadays, most software is available virtually over the cloud. Paper licenses and CDs have been replaced by electronic virtual software!

Cloud_Based_Software

In the event of a computer crashing, there is of course a list of other important considerations regarding why a business needs to keep track of their software licenses.

  • Productivity. If not monitored systematically, it wastes time, resources, making it unproductive for both the business and staff. For instance, staff may need to spend an additional few hours to track software manually. Even then, the tracking may not be 100% accurate!
  • Less surprises. Your business and users can keep in compliance with EULAs, helping you to avoid expired software usage, which would also be outside of software support. In addition to this, it would prevent any disruption made to business operations as they would have fully functional software packages.
  • Understanding the software usage of your company. You can be in control and manage software usage, as well as making better purchasing decisions in regards to the exact amount needed over a given period of time.
  • Meeting budgets. Continuing from the last discussion point and using the BBC example, once you understand the realistic demand for a particular software package, you can save a significant amount and reduce costs from purchasing 3 licenses as opposed to 30.
  • Free up unused licensed keys. Every business knows the daunting task of having to re-purposing equipment or taking some out of service. With this taken into account, it is also important to consider what software may be installed that could be using up licenses or may be making the license key dormant.

Solutions

One piece of software that allows you to track thousands of software licenses on your office computers is called Recover Keys.  Recover Keys allows you to find licenses to your computer Operating System, Office Products and 6500+ other pieces of software installed throughout your systems.

Recover Keys to Track Software Licenses

Aside from digging up licenses, Recover Keys has the following features:

  • Backup activation keys
  • Scan another Windows system or HDD
  • Scan remote network computers
  • Automatic updates

Onsite PC Solution offers software license tracking and management as a part of our managed service plans for your business.  For more information on tracking license and maintaining good IT policy in your office, contact your local IT professionals.

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43 Percent of Companies had a Data Breach Last Year
43 Percent of Companies had a Data Breach Last Year

Report: 43% of Companies had a Data Breach Last Year

Office IT, Security,
24
Sep 2014

43 Percent of Companies had a Data Breach Last Year

A recent report from the Ponemon Institute shows 43% of companies had a data breach in the last year. Here’s how you can harden your office security.

The report cites data breaches affecting as many as 20 million people in one incident.  Criminals can use many different avenues into a company’s systems to steal client, proprietary or private information which then gets sold on the black market.  Here are some ways to harden your office security:

Keep an Eye on your Hardware

Data breaches often occur in the form of viruses, trojans or malware being installed on office computers.  These infections give criminals full control of the computer, even if it doesn’t look like it on the surface.  One of the first signs of infections are high hardware usage:

Patches, Updates and Security

When Microsoft releases updates to fix security holes, anyone is able to look at the update and determine exactly which weakness was fixed.  This is why it’s important to keep your system and anti-virus updated and patched:

IT Policy Enforcement

The first line of defense for any office or individual is a proper IT policy.  This means putting in place rules on systems or as policy to office staff on how to manage data to prevent infections and data breaches.  Here are some best practices we recommend:

For more information on managed IT services that can provide 24/7 monitoring, maintenance and IT management to prevent data breaches in your office, contact your local IT professionals.

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How to check if your email account has been stolen
How to check if your email account has been stolen

Check if Your Email has Been Stolen

Office IT, Office Network, Security, , ,
22
Sep 2014

How to check if your email account has been stolen

With corporate data theft happening frequently, your email may have been stolen without you even knowing. Here’s how to check if your email has been stolen.

What Exactly is at Risk?

The simple answer is data. The power behind stealing data from a company means that your information can get into the wrong hands for malicious use. One prime example is Adobe, who had a large number of their users’ accounts exposed to the public domain. The interesting thing was that these same accounts were being targeted time and time again with the same user credentials, which puts their other accounts at risk. Other sites that have been compromised are mail.ru, Bitcoin Security Forum, Gmail dump accounts, Yahoo accounts, Sony, Tesco and many more.

Compromised information can include your email address, usernames, credit card details and password hints. People often use the same information on other websites as they would have done on their compromised email account making them, yet again, another easy target.

How to Check if You’ve Been Infiltrated

As much as we take precautions with our passwords, secret questions and the like, one needs to check periodically that their details have not already been accessed by unsolicited activity.

How to check if your email has been stolen

We suggest you check out this free public service, developed by Microsoft professional Troy Hunt, to check if your email or username has been compromised:

https://haveibeenpwned.com

If your email has been compromised, you will be advised on this site that it has been “pwned”.  Being “pwned” is slang for having your email or other personal information stolen. You can also set up notifications in the event of being “pwned” in the future.

What if I have been “pwned”?

We suggest changing your password ASAP. The best practice is to use different passwords on different accounts.  This is especially important for your primary email account, banking, shopping, and whatever else you would consider critical if someone were to steal.  If keeping track of your various passwords is a challenge, there are free and secure password managers out there to help.

You can find a good FAQ and a list of other compromised networks as well.

For more tips on securing your privacy and office network, contact your local IT professionals.

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These are the different levels of backup for your computer or server.
These are the different levels of backup for your computer or server.

Which Backup Software You Should Be Using

Office IT, Office Network, ,
17
Sep 2014

These are the different levels of backup for your computer or server.

Backups are critical for every home or office computer.  Whether you have servers, PCs or just one laptop, here’s how to pick the right backup software.

If you’ve never experienced losing a picture, document or important client file up to now, consider yourself lucky.  Data loss on computers happen for many reasons.  The hard drive or operating system could crash, the laptop or computer may be stolen or it may just be an accidental deletion or move.  The bottom line is these things are an inevitable part of technology and the better prepared you are with a backup the less down time you will experience.

Let’s review the types of backups and how you can determine which is right for your home or office IT environment.

1. Local file backups

Local backups keep everything onsite

Local backups capture only user files. Programs, software and the Operating System are not backed up.

Local file backups means copying files from your computer to either an external hard drive, or to a computer on your network.  The backups are essentially local to your office or home.

When you should use local backups

Every scenario can benefit from local file backups.  Since the backup is local and nearby, recovering files and information is quick and easy.  Setting up local backups is also very inexpensive as most software that does local backup is free.  It is recommended to have local backups when you don’t have cloud based backups. Prices range from $0 to $50.

Local backup options

2. Cloud backups

Cloud backups capture user files and store them on another company's computer over the internet

Cloud backups only backup files. Programs, software and the Operating System are not backed up.

Cloud based backups keep your data and files backed up on another company’s servers over the internet.  Most major cloud backup providers provide encryption and 2-factor authentication for added security.  With the increase in competition, prices for cloud backup have also dropped dramatically and in some cases can be free. Prices range from $4-$30/month

When you should use cloud backups

If you have a laptop and are constantly moving between different locations, a cloud based backup would be the best choice.  As long as you have an internet connection, your data is being backed up.

Cloud backup options

3. Image backups

Image based backups capture everything on the system.

Image based backups capture files, data as well as programs, software and the Operating System.

Image based backup programs take a snapshot of your entire computer.  The main benefit is if you have catastrophic data loss like theft or a fire in the building, the backup image can be loaded on to another computer and you can continue working without having to wait for a new computer with all of your programs.  Prices range from $250-$4000.

When you should use image backups

It’s best to use image based backups on mission critical computers such as a server that holds all of your client data, or a laptop that has very important files on it.  Image based backup software tends to be more expensive, however the price is worth the avoided business downtime.

Image backup options

So which is the right choice?

At a minimum every individual or business should be running a local or cloud based backup.  The low cost and portability of cloud based backups makes it the obvious choice at a minimum.  However if you have a server in your home or office, it’s important to consider image based backups as a safety net against business downtime.

For more backup solutions or advice on how to protect your business, contact your local IT professionals.

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How to Check Your Hard Drive Usage

hardware, Security, Software, , ,
15
Sep 2014

Check_Hard_Drive_Usage_Onsite_PC_Solution

Has your computer been sluggish lately? Your hard drive usage could be too high and on its way to a crash.  Here’s how to check if it’s working too hard.

Your hard drive is the main storage of your computer.  It holds your pictures, videos, office or business software among everything else running on your PC.  If you’ve already scanned for malware, removed unnecessary programs and toolbars, checked your CPU and your memory then it may be time to check your hard drive.  Programs malfunctioning in the background can read and write unnecessarily from your hard causing your computer to slow down.

hard_disk_full

To find out if your hard drive is overwhelmed, first click the Start button and choose Computer. windows7-my-computer-location

In Windows 8, hold down the windows-symbol key and press the F key. Click Apps > PC. For more on how to make Windows 8 look and behave like Windows 7, please consult the following IT article.

space

Clicking on your hard drive will show the free space available. Even if you have plenty of space available, your hard drive could be reading and writing too much.

To find out if that is the case, first open the task manager by right clicking the bar at the bottom of the screen.

start-task-manager-12hxo3m

Select Start Task Manager.

resource-monitor

Under the Performance tab, select Resource Monitor. resource-monitor1

Under Processes with Disk Activity, you can view which processes are accessing the hard drive for reading and writing. Any process that looks unfamiliar should be googled. Many sites will help you discriminate between legitimate and suspicious processes.

Under Disk Activity, you can view the exact bytes per second each process is using for reading and writing. If any process is using an inordinate amount reading and writing capacity, several possibilities exist.

One possibility is the software governing the wayward process could be malfunctioning. To find out if this is the case, close and re -open the program. If you cannot close the program normally, go back to the Task Manager. end-process

Under the Processes tab, highlight the process in question and click End Process.

Check the Resource Monitor again to see if the process is still reading and writing with the same bytes per second. If it is, you might want to uninstall and re- install the program. Go to the Start menu and select Control Panel. Win7_Start_Menu_Control_Panel

From the Control Panel, select either Programs and Features or Uninstall a Program (this will depend on the type of menu you have).

uninstall-a-program

Highlight the targeted program and click uninstall. uninstall

Install the program again and see if the reading and writing speeds are different.

If the high reading and writing speeds persist, the computer could be infected with malware. For more on how to detect and remove malware, please consult the following IT article.

If malware is not the culprit for the aberrant reading and writing, your hard disk could have errors. Once again, go to Start > Computer. Right click your hard drive and select Properties.

hard-drive-properties

Click the Tools tab. Under Error checking, click Check now.

check-now

Provide authentication if you are requested for it.  If the scan detects problems, select both Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

automatically-detect

Click Start. You will be prompted to reschedule a disk check the next time you restart your computer. Allow the disk check to proceed upon restart.

If this doesn’t manage to sort out the reading and writing problems, you could have a defective hard disk. Temporarily installing another hard disk on your PC with the same software should give you a reference on whether the abnormal reading and writing stems from physical problems with the hard drive. Note if the reading and writing speeds for the same processes are dramatically different for the different hard drives. If they are, going with a new hard drive might be the best bet.

For more information about hard drive errors and other problems affecting your SOHO or office PCs, consult your local IT professional.

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