The Basics Of IT Support

Information Technology or IT involves everything that has something to do with computer based information technology. IT support is sometimes referred to as technical support. It is also a service offered by an IT company to businesses or individuals that need it.

Generally speaking, IT support solves specific issues a company or a person may be encountering, instead of providing any training, courses, or qualifications. However, you could study this at college in case you are really interested.

There are a lot of ways for you to find IT support and to be more specific, various kinds of support. Listed below are more information to give you a better understanding of IT support, who it is for and how to get it.

It Support: Who Is It For?

Generally, when someone purchases a laptop or a computer, a guarantee is provided which provides the individual free IT support Greenville for a specific duration. But, even when there’s no guarantee is given, there are different firms that provide personal IT support for all those who requires it for a specific fee.

Firms also require IT support to make sure that their systems will continue to work efficiently and without any glitches. Firms that depend heavily on IT tend to have a certain IT support team that work constantly, ready with backup plans just in case something wrong happens.

How To Get IT Support?

There are three types of IT support – Managed IT services, Block Hours, as well as Time and Material.

Time and material is just like what its name suggests. Clients will pay for the materials needed and prearranged date for the duration it requires the technician to deal with it. This is exactly how the majority of IT support firms operate.

Block Hours are for businesses that are willing to pay discounted fees for a number of hours, which they could utilize at their discretion, over a specific duration like for a month or year.

Managed IT services are used by companies that negotiate a price for certain requirements like round the clock IT support for their clients or perhaps a visit from an IT expert in case a problem can’t be fixed remotely.

Conclusion:

The information provided above offers you a brief look into what IT support is. With so much professional assistance on offer, you will find it easy to find an IT professional who can fix your problem. This means you will no longer be stuck, having no clue what you need to do.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. if you need the help of professionals for IT support. 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Greenville, SC 29601
(864) 326-5914
https://spartantec-greenville.business.site/

Cities Served
Greenville, Spartansburg, Mauldin, East Park, Overbrook, West Greenville, Greer

Top Security Predictions For 2020

The WatchGuard Threat Lab has provided a list of cyberattacks that will be prevalent during the year of 2020. Tips are also given to help avoid these threats. Although the threats coming at you this year won’t be any less complicated, intense, or difficult to deal with, this year will be the time of simplified security.

Ransomware Eyes The Cloud

 Ransomware is an industry that’s worth billions. Although the overall volume is down, targeted ransomware against the vertical industries is increasing. This year, targeted ransomware will try to infect file stores, virtual environments, S3 buckets, and other consolidated cloud assets.

If you have cloud security whether virtual or cloud UTM, you should use advanced malware protection to identify any evasive malware. You should also think about new security models that will let you execute security controls such as advanced malware protection. You should also harden your workload.

GDPR Will Be In The United States

General Data Protection Regulation was implemented two years ago. GDPR protects the data and privacy rights of citizens on the European Union. As of today, only a few places outside the European Union have implemented a similar law. However, the United States may finally have law that could match the one that EU has this year.

There is no security tip for this particular prediction, but that does not mean there’s nothing you can do about it. Get in touch with your local congressperson. Tell them what you think about the regulations that could help protect your privacy.

Voter Registration Systems Will Be At Risk

There will be an external threat targeting state and local voter databases during the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential elections. The goal of these threat actors is to trigger voting havoc and start voter fraud alerts at this time.

There’s also no specific tip for this particular prediction. However, there are some tips to make sure that voters are prepared in case this prediction comes true. Check the status of your voter registration before the election. You should also check for updates regarding hacking incidents about the voter registration database. Make sure that you get in touch your local state voter authority in case you are worried. Don’t forget to print the result that you’ve successfully registered as a voter and bring your ID once Election Day comes even if it is not needed.

25% Of Overall Breaches Take Place Outside The Perimeter

Working remotely can help improve productivity and lessen stress. However, it also comes with a lot of security risks. About 25% of all the network compromises as well as data breaches will have something to do with off-network assets.

Stay diligent in applying off network protection for your staff just like for perimeter protection. Any device that is brought out of the office should have a full suite of computer security services including a DNS filtering, advanced malware protection, local firewall, multifactor authentication, and more.

Cybersecurity Skills Gap Grows

This year, the cybersecurity skill gap widens by 15%. Schools and cybersecurity trade firms aren’t producing enough qualified candidates who could fill the demand for new IT personnel.

Although the required cybersecurity workforce will not appear right away, there options to help you make and manage a good cyber defence. A short term solution is to concentrate on solutions that offer layered security in a certain solution. You can also work with managed IT services provider or perhaps a managed security services provider where you could outsource your security requirements.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. if you need the help of IT professionals to strengthen your company's cybersecurity.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Greenville, SC 29601
(864) 326-5914
https://spartantec-greenville.business.site/

Cities Served
Greenville, Spartansburg, Mauldin, East Park, Overbrook, West Greenville, Greer

New Hacking Method Looks Like A Locked Computer

Scammers have breathed new life into an old scam.

For years, the old 'Law Enforcement Lock' trick has been used to cheat unsuspecting victims of their hard-earned money. The new wrinkle works like this:

Scammers will redirect users using the Chrome web browser to sites that host a full-screen image of a Windows 10 desktop with a notice that appears to come from local law enforcement agencies. This pages informs the user that their computer has been locked for some unspecified illegal activity.

The groups running this sort of scam make sure to display a legitimate government URL in order to make it look more convincing. Victims of this scam are informed that they can unlock their computer again by paying the fine via credit card, right then and there.

Of course, the computer actually isn't locked at all. However, this scam has taken in a surprising percentage of users who aren't paying close attention.

A typical lock screen from the scammers will bear a message that closely follows this script:

"Your browser has been locked due to viewing and dissemination of materials forbidden by law of (country name), namely pornography with pedophilia, rape and zoophilia. In order to unlocking you should (amount and currency type) fine with Visa or MasterCard. Your browser will be unlocked automatically after the fine payment.

Attention! In case of non-payment of the fine, or your attempts to unlock the device independently, case materials will be transferred to (name of local law enforcement agency) for the institution of criminal proceedings against you due to commitment of a crime."

As you can see from the grammatical errors in the script, this is by no means an official announcement, but it looks real enough that it sends people into a panic, causing them to enter credit card information without thinking.

Naturally, this information is harvested and resold on the Dark Web, putting money in the scammers' pockets. Make sure your employees are aware of it, and stay vigilant.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. in Greenville if you want to make sure that your computers and your networks are safe from hackers and scammers. 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Greenville, SC 29601
(864) 326-5914
https://spartantec-greenville.business.site/

Cities Served
Greenville, Spartansburg, Mauldin, East Park, Overbrook, West Greenville, Greer

A Guide To Managed IT Services

In order to boost your operations while cutting back on your expenses, several organizations these days would rather outsource the daily management and implementation of their technological resources. IT can drain your time and money. As we all know, time is an extremely precious commodity especially in today’s business environment, which is extremely competitive these days. It’s not surprising for most executives who handles IT in their respective companies to look for a qualified IT services partner to deal with their IT management needs.

Whether your business needs a complete managed IT support package or only a few services, SpartanTec, Inc. offers a range of options to take IT off your hands.

Managed ITServices include:

•       24/7 remote management
•       24/7 live help desk
•       Reporting
•       Asset management
•       Incident and alert prioritization
•       Cloud services
•       Hosting services
•       Nightly notification, management, backup monitoring
•       CTO services

Most people think about offshoring whenever outsourcing is mentioned. With SpartanTec,Inc. in Greenville, you can rest easy knowing that the support you’ll get comes locally. Using our systems of prioritizations, alerts, and various help desk options, you’ll feel like your IT is being managed in-house even though it’s actually being outsourced.

Our House or Your House

We maintain, manage, and support your whole IT infrastructure, whether the equipment is within your office or hosted by SpartanTec, Inc. Our team could also provide a hybrid approach, which means a few of your servers or equipment in our data centers while managing some of the equipment in your location.

One Service For All

We know that every business is unique. It has its own set of resources and needs. Our team will help you regardless of how many IT services you require. This may include database, backup and disaster recovery, collaboration and communication, network infrastructure, servers, compliance and security, storage, and servers.

Schedule a systems assessment for free with SpartanTec, Inc. in Greenville and our team will provide you the most suitable path to take to make your IT life more dependable, simpler, and secure.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Greenville, SC 29601
(864) 326-5914
https://spartantec-greenville.business.site/

Cities Served
Greenville, Spartansburg, Mauldin, East Park, Overbrook, West Greenville, Greer

Phishing Emails Are Becoming Even Harder To Identify

According to data collected by Microsoft, phishing emails accounted for 0.62 percent of all inbox receipts in September 2019.

That's up from 0.31 percent just one year prior to that. The increase is alarming of course, but at first glance, these look like fairly harmless numbers.

Unfortunately, last year, phishing emails targeting business owners (BEC, or Business Email Compromise) cost companies around the world more than a billion dollars last year.  That fact makes the year over year increase terrifying.

The reason BEC campaigns are so successful and so expensive for businesses is that the scammers tend to impersonate CEOs and other high-ranking corporate officials.  When you get an email that by all outward appearances comes from your boss, and it's marked urgent, you tend to respond right away.  That's exactly what the scammers are counting on.

Even worse, scammers have gotten increasingly good at crafting their emails.  It has reached the point that even IT professionals have been taken in by them in some cases. They've been unable to spot the subtle differences between a scammer's email impersonating a CEO and an email from the CEO himself.  If an IT professional gets taken in, what hope is there for a busy HR employee or someone from the accounting office who doesn't face those types of threats on a daily basis?

Given the rapid increase in the number of well-crafted phishing emails, this is a serious, legitimate concern. Unfortunately, bolstered by their own success, you can bet the scammers will be even more prolific.

If there's a silver lining here it is this:  Microsoft reports that taking the simple step of enabling two-factor authentication across the board is an effective countermeasure.  Phishing attacks tend to be automated, and 2FA blocks 99.9 percent of automated attacks. If you're not currently using it everywhere, you're putting yourself at unnecessary risk.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. in Greenville for expert assistance in making sure that your network is protected against phishing emails. 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Greenville, SC 29601
(864) 326-5914
https://spartantec-greenville.business.site/

Cities Served
Greenville, Spartansburg, Mauldin, East Park, Overbrook, West Greenville, Greer

Benefits Of Outsourcing Cybersecurity

Among the most important services that firms benefit from is the protection as well as the monitoring of servers and networks by cybersecurity firms. If a company chooses to outsource any work, they will have the chance to get the best work quality from other industry professionals. If it comes to outsourcing cybersecurity, there must be no hesitation.

Reasons To Outsource Cybersecurity

Cost Efficiency

You may believe that outsourcing work would cost you more than looking for a way to doing it in house, when it involves protecting crucial information within your network of devices, the way to go is to outsource it to a cybersecurity firm. In case you are thinking of building your very own SOC in house, you must know that it could be very costly. Rather than hiring a team of security analysts, training them, having to go through the turnover, and even with the installation of different security solutions, you could turn to a dependable cybersecurity company for a few thousand dollars every month.

The Work Of Professionals

Not only is depending on the service of a cybersecurity firm cost efficient it is also much more effective once it comes to reading as well as creating IT security solutions. A few companies depend on software to safeguard their information, however, that is not enough because you should have a group of human analysists who work alongside the software. Cyberthreats are always evolving and security analysts are equipped with deep knowledge to fight off such attacks. .They are always reading complex reports, looking for problems and finding the right solutions. In case that doesn’t sound all that difficult, just consider the fact that individuals can now earn their college degrees in cybersecurity.

Instant Analysis and Real Time Monitoring

With the work of real security analysts and top rated software that you receive from a cybersecurity company, you will have the chance to detect possible network breaches as soon as they take place rather than days, weeks, or even months later on.

Advanced Monitoring

You also have to know what the different software can do of you and your company when managed correctly. There are software that let you customize your security defence to search for specific threats that are very common in the line of work that you are in. With regular updates in the services, devices, computers, as well as other electronics, you could have a team of professionals manage your SOC and prepare you network for newer threats. They will also be able to determine possible issues and threats once they become dangerous.

Time Efficiency

Just like with other service that you outsource, if you get rid of one task or line of work, you just free up time so you can be able to focus on more crucial matters. The company that you work with is most probably not a cybersecurity company and most likely have other things the need to worry about.

Outsourcing your cybersecurity will make sure that you adhere to the compliance guidelines and receive the protection you require. These five benefits will make a huge difference for your company.

In case you are looking for a dependable cybersecurity company, look to us at SpartanTec, Inc. in Greenville. We can offer you all the benefits that are listed on this post.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Greenville, SC 29601
(864) 326-5914
https://spartantec-greenville.business.site/

Cities Served
Greenville, Spartansburg, Mauldin, East Park, Overbrook, West Greenville, Greer

New T-Mobile Data Breach Compromised Customer Info

Recently the US branch of the global telecom company T-Mobile disclosed a security breach that impacted a small percentage of its customer base.

Specifically, the security breach revealed certain information belonging to a small number of the company's prepaid cellphone users.

The exposed data included customer names, billing addresses, account numbers, rate plans, plan features and user phone numbers. The company stressed that no payment card information or passwords were compromised.

T-Mobile has contacted and has begun working with law enforcement agencies to further investigate the matter. If you were among the impacted users, you should have already received an SMS today from the company.  If you haven't received a notification and you're concerned that you may have been impacted, you can get a definitive answer from T-Mobile by contacting them at privacy@t-mobile.com.

This has been a fairly good year for Telecoms in general.  Other than Sprint's data breach earlier in the year, this is only the second data breach in 2019 involving a major Telecom company.

As breaches go, this one is quite minor, and odds are quite small that you have been impacted by it.  Again though, if it's something you're worried about, the company has made it easy to get peace of mind.  Overall, T-Mobile's handling of the incident has been better than average. In the weeks ahead as the investigation draws to a close, if there are new details to be learned, the company will no doubt disclose them when and as they are able.

With 2019 rapidly drawing to a close, it seems unlikely that we'll see a spate of Telecomm data breaches. 2019 is likely to be remembered as a year where the Telecomm companies dodged a bullet. Overall, the total number of data breaches continues to surge higher, a trend which is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Protect your company from data breaches by setting up safety and protective measures with the help of professional IT experts. Call SpartanTec, Inc. in Greenville now. 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Greenville, SC 29601
(864) 326-5914
https://spartantec-greenville.business.site/

Cities Served
Greenville, Spartansburg, Mauldin, East Park, Overbrook, West Greenville, Greer