5 Quick Tips for Maintaining Your PC

Backup, Best Practices, Company Updates, Ophtek, PC Tools, Updates, , , , ,
31
Dec 2019

Like any other electrical product, PCs are prone to failure due to the number of components involved. But a well maintained PC is likely to last longer.

Your organization’s PCs are likely to be crucial for your day-to-day operations, so you need to make sure they are in good working order. After all, you wouldn’t let your car fall into a state of disrepair. You would make sure your car is regularly serviced and maintained to make sure you could continue getting from A to B. And a PC is no different. But, thankfully, you don’t need to pull on your overalls or take your PC to a garage to maintain it. You can complete regular maintenance’s quickly and easily from your office.

How to Maintain Your PC

If you want to keep your PC working to its full potential and optimize its productivity then make sure you practice the following:

  1. Declutter Your Startup: When your PC starts booting up it also starts loading all the programs which are defaulted to load at startup. However, not all of these are necessary. And the more programs that need to load then the longer the startup time. Therefore, head to Task Manager on your PC and click on the Startup tab. From here you can remove any unnecessary programs and speed up your boot time. 
  1. Install all Updates: It’s important that all recommended updates are installed immediately. These updates aren’t just related to security issues. Sometimes they are released by developers in order to fix bugs in their software and enhance the product. Ultimately, an update is one of the quickest ways to optimize your PC and ensure that it’s well protected. 
  1. Always Shutdown Correctly: The shutdown process on a PC can be a frustrating affair due to the time taken, but it’s important that you follow this procedure to the letter. It may be quicker to turn the PC off at the mains, but this approach can lead to corrupted files. Instead, make sure you save all your files and close each application down before waiting for the PC to run through the shutdown procedure. 
  1. Carry out a Registry Clean: Your PCs registry is a giant database which logs everything that happens on your PC. If you install a program or change your password then this is logged in the registry. And, over time, the amount of data stored here starts building up. This may not be too much of a problem with newer PCs, but if you’re running an older PC this can create performance issues. However, you must proceed with caution and it’s recommended that you use a highly rated registry cleaner to perform the clean to avoid issues. 
  1. Delete Unwanted Programs: It’s natural that your PC will gradually accumulate more and more installed programs over time. But not all of these programs remain relevant. And if you are running programs that are no longer relevant then they are putting an unnecessary strain on your PCs memory. So, every couple of months, make sure that you evaluate the programs installed on your PC. This will give you a clear idea of what can be uninstalled and what can remain. The result will be improved performance for those that remain.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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What Can the Cloud Do for Your Business?

Backup, Backup Strategies, Cloud, Cloud Backup, Cloud Storage, Data Backup, data recovery, Data Storage, Ophtek, , , ,
16
Jul 2019

 

Around 77% of businesses work with cloud computing in at least one respect. Clearly it’s an important tool, but what can the cloud do for your business?

Cloud computing has been steadily transforming the way we work for the last decade. And it’s crucial that your business gets on board. We live in competitive times and even the tiniest of edges can have a significant impact on performance. But what can you use the cloud for? And how can it transform your business? These are good questions and ones that you need to know the answers to.

To help you understand how you can harness the power of the cloud we’re going to demonstrate what it can do.

How Can You Use the Cloud?

Despite the complexities behind the infrastructure, cloud computing is a relatively simple concept. The cloud is a digital infrastructure which is available to multiple users over the internet. It’s your existing physical network, but transcribed into binary code. And, thanks to the possibilities of the internet, it can be connected to from anywhere in the world.

Cloud computing has been a revolution in business computing. It’s a methodology which brings a seemingly endless series of benefits to its users. And who wouldn’t want to sign up to that? But what exactly can the cloud do for you? Let’s take a look:

  • Remote Working: Physical space within organizations is a valuable commodity. However, employees take up a lot of physical space. And this can lead to a lack of space for stock and equipment. But the flexibility offered by the cloud solves this problem. As long as an employee has an internet connection they can connect to your infrastructure from wherever they way. This setup grants you the opportunity to maximize the space you have and offer more flexible working conditions to your employees. 
  • Data Storage: A lot of data is currently stored in the cloud and this amount is set to skyrocket over the next few years. It’s a modern phenomenon of data storage and one that is vastly different to past methods. Previously the norm had been to archive endless optical media and record data to huge hard drives. While this provided an immediate source of data for organizations it was all rather fiddly and bulky. Cloud computing consigns this to the past. And it does this by allowing you to store huge amounts of data in remote data centers which is instantly accessible. 
  • Shared Data: We’ve all experienced the pain of a lengthy download time. But now there’s no need to be frustrated. The cloud has seriously updated data sharing for the 21st Now you can back your data up to hard drives on the cloud and provide instant access to whoever needs it. All you need to do is send them a link and the data will be readily available. And, without having to sit through an agonizingly slow download, the recipient can become more productive. 

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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Ohio Hospital Disrupted by Ransomware Attack

Ransomware, Security, Security Threats, Training, , ,
25
Dec 2018

Hospitals deliver a crucial service where productivity is key and any downtime can be disastrous. So, what happens when they’re struck by ransomware?

Healthcare providers are no strangers to ransomware as last year’s WannaCry attack demonstrated, so it would be safe to assume that hospitals are more vigilant than ever. And they are, but human error will always remain a factor and accidents can happen. A case in point is the East Ohio Regional Hospital (EORH) and the associated Ohio Valley Medical Center (OVMC) who have both suffered ransomware disasters in recent weeks.

While your organization may not be based in the healthcare section, hackers tend not to discriminate against their victims too closely and you could easily be next. Therefore, we’re going to take a look at what happened with EORH and the lessons that can be learned.

Emergency Room Chaos

The exact details behind the EORH ransomware attack have not been revealed as of yet, but a hospital spokesman has confirmed that their first line of security was considered redundant. This could indicate unpatched software or even poor staff training as the root cause of the attack, but this is purely speculation. Thankfully, the second line of defense employed by the hospital managed to stop the attack in its tracks and no data was breached, so there was no need to pay any ransom.

However, the impact of this ransomware attack led to a massive drop in productivity for the EORH. Computer networks had to be put into an immediate state of shutdown in order to protect any vulnerable data and, in many cases, staff had to move to charting patient data on paper. With split seconds being of significant importance in healthcare, this attack represented a major bump in the road for the EORH. Neither the EORH or OVMC were able to accept ER patients from emergency responders and these patients had to be redirected to other hospitals.

Combating Ransomware

The EORH were exceptionally lucky that their data remained safe and secure following the ransomware attack, but the downtime they experienced was a major disaster. And this is why all organizations need to be vigilant against such attacks. Downtime is never an option for an organization that wants to serve its clients, so make sure you follow these best practices:

  • Complete Regular Backups – No business can claim to be 100% immune from ransomware, but all businesses can regularly backup their data. And, if data is encrypted by ransomware, you then have the option to implement this backup and restore operations.
  • Multi-layered Security is Vital – As the EORH found, multiple layers of security prevented their ransomware burrowing too deep within their network and patient data was safely protected.
  • Educate Your Staff – The importance of educating your staff on the dangers of ransomware can never be underestimated. Humans are prone to error and, as one of your first lines of defense, they need to be educated on the threats they may encounter.
  • Limit Network Privileges – A simple method for limiting the spread of ransomware throughout your network is by limiting network privileges and access purely to those who need it. With every user having deep access into your network, there’s an increased risk of one data breach infecting the entire network.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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Security Trends to Look Out For in 2019

Cyber Attack, Encryption, Hacking, Internet of things, Ransomware, Security, Security Threats, , , , , , ,
04
Dec 2018

2018 has been a year where malware, ransomware and data breaches have barely been out of the headlines, but what’s in store for cyber-security in 2019?

As long as there’s a digital landscape, hackers will continue to launch an array of attacks that take in numerous different techniques. And, most importantly, they will continue to evolve their methods to avoid detection and cause more damage to networks and the PCs on them. With this in mind, it’s perhaps the best time to take a look at the security trends which will be most important for your organizations defenses next year.

To help you get prepared for next year, we’re going take a look at some of the major security trends to look out for in 2019.

Backups will continue to be Crucial

With ransomware still remaining a prevalent and major threat to secure and essential data, backing up your data regularly and rigorously will be a vital task for all organizations. Backups may seem a costly affair in terms of budget and time, but it only takes one employee to fall victim to a ransomware scam for your entire network’s data to be compromised. And with new ransomware scams such as Zenis deleting backups, it’s essential that offsite and non-network backups are also held.

Coinminer Malware Remains a Threat

Cryptocurrency is still a lucrative business and mining for cryptocurrency continues to generate large amounts of cash. However, whilst this is perfectly legal and above board, the use of coinminer malware is far from legal or ethical. Due to the amount of processing power involved in mining for cryptocurrency, hackers are using malware to enslave PCs remotely and using their processor power to mine for cryptocurrencies. This form of malware has become harder to detect and more sophisticated throughout 2018, so expect it to evolve further in 2019.

The Hacking of IoT Devices will Increase

Close to 27 billion IoT devices will be connected in 2019 – an increase of nearly 3 billion compared to 2018 – so you can bet your bottom dollar that the number of attacks in this arena will increase accordingly. Unfortunately, many owners of IoT devices are still neglecting to change the default password to access these devices and this is giving hackers free rein to take control of them. Not only does the default password debacle remain an issue, but hackers are now designing malware to take advantage of vulnerabilities in IoT devices.

Security Training

Due to the threats already presented, security training will become paramount in 2019. As hackers evolve their methods of attack at a rapid pace, keeping your organization’s staff aware of these threats is one of the best forms of defense you can employ. Awareness training hammers home the basics of good security practices and you’ll find that these can also be used to combat the new threats which will no doubt go head to head with your security defenses.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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How to Plan for Better Disaster Recovery in IT

Backup and Recovery, Best Practices, Cloud Backup, Disaster Recovery, IT Best Practices, , ,
28
Aug 2018

Due to our reliance on data technology, good disaster recovery processes have never been more vital. However, how do you plan for better disaster recovery?

It may be a challenge, but you don’t need to feel apprehensive when trying to tackle this complex problem. And when it comes to disaster recovery, planning is the most important factor. If your IT systems fail then you need to start your recovery process as soon as possible and ensure it’s as effective as it can be. The sooner you can restore normal operations, the less your productivity is affected.

So, if you want to make sure your disaster recovery procedures are finely tuned, make sure you incorporate the following tips. They could be the difference between no IT infrastructure and one that can keep your organization functioning.

Have a Plan

The first step towards having a better disaster recovery plan is to have a plan. Unfortunately, many organizations find themselves too busy to worry about potential disasters and, instead, concentrate purely on the present. While this may help you with your immediate business objectives, it’s not going to help you in the case of an emergency. Therefore, starting work on a disaster recovery plan needs to be sooner rather than later.

Cost isn’t Everything

It’s understandable that budgets are essential when it comes to good business, but disaster recovery plans for IT infrastructure are a little different. Without a fully functioning IT service, it’s unlikely your organization is going to be able to trade at its full potential, if at all. And this is why you need to be careful when looking at the technology and services required for your data recovery. Naturally, you shouldn’t spend an exorbitant amount of money that could cripple your margins, but you also need a data recovery plan which can recover your IT infrastructure quickly and effectively.

Understand Your Recovery Objectives

Key to a good recovery process is understanding what data is crucial and how soon it’s required in the case of a data outage/loss. Objectives, of course, need to be achievable, so don’t burden yourself with unattainable goals such as ‘every worker to have access to emails within 10 minutes of a data disaster’. The best way to test your objectives and measure how attainable they are is through regular testing. This should prepare you for any future scenarios and guarantee that you know how to manage their impact.

Update Your Recovery Plan

If you’re lucky, your organization will manage to operate for a long time without experiencing any data disasters. However, this can lead to a dangerous sense of inertia creeping into your recovery processes. And, as we all know, technology moves at a rapid pace. Software and hardware can be replaced on a yearly basis and these new developments may not chime harmoniously with your existing recovery plan. Accordingly, your disaster recovery plan needs to be regularly reviewed to ensure that it’s current and matches your existing IT landscape.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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