Today is Halloween, and in honor of this holiday, I thought it only fitting to focus on the top 5 things office workers across America fear the most when it comes to all things technology and what your workforce can do to stop them.
Ghostly Bad Wi-Fi
Good Wi-Fi is the lifeblood of any organization. If the Wi-Fi is up and down, slows down during certain times or even goes completely down on a regular basis, it is time to evaluate the problem in more detail and come up with a reasonable solution.
If your Wi-Fi is spotty or slow, you may not have enough bandwidth for your users’ needs. Calling your provider is a good place to start and look for an increase in speed. If your Wi-Fi goes down on a regular basis or isn’t available all over the building, your organization needs to invest in a platform that offers live monitoring and gives insight into real-time connectivity, so you can be proactive about any issues.
Technologies Dying Off
If you keep your desktops, external hard drives and other devices until they literally bite the dust, you may be in for technology investments that were not in your budget.
Once a year, take an inventory of your hardware, operating system and software. If you have hardware that isn’t supported by the current operating system, now is the time to get rid of it because it can become a cybersecurity risk. If you don’t know what your employees need, Hartford Technology Rental can provide you with a computer rental pack that will include a variety of desktops to test out.
Zombie Rogue Employees Rising Up
Believe it or not, your biggest cybersecurity threat isn’t with Russia or Chinese hackers, it lies with your current or ex-employees messing with your system. Depending on their level of sophistication, they can do anything from destroying client records to installing malware onto your system.
Now is the time to implement a cybersecurity policy and train each employee on it. Make sure ex-employees no longer have access to your company’s system and change all passwords, including the one for your routers, immediately or just before their termination. Put in place an action plan to ensure employees only have access to the data they need from your system to prevent accidental hacks.
Witchy Ransomware
Ransomware is probably the biggest threat to companies, both large and small. This is where an unknown hacker encrypts your data and holds it hostage in exchange for a bitcoin payment. You are basically out of business until the payment is made and you have to go to the CEO for payment because it is usually a large amount.
There are some basic things you can complete in house, including always keeping your software up-to-date, make sure employees are well versed on phishing methodologies and having a current BYOD policy. However, more than these actions, you will need to allocate funding for an outside cybersecurity firm to assess your vulnerabilities and constantly monitor dark web activity and deliver alerts to you as they happen.
Mummified Budgets
If your budget is the same as it was in 2009, it is unlikely you have enough dollars allocated toward disaster recovery, cybersecurity, and end user training.
Do an analysis of companies your size and their overall budgets. Since this is usually the time when 2018 budgets are set, it is the perfect time to ask for more monies for all the items listed above.
Happy Halloween from Hartford Technology Rental
Here’s hoping your organization doesn’t experience any of these horrors today or anytime soon! We can help you with the hardware selection process to ensure your experience is anything but scary!
When you are ready to assess new technology, contact us at 888-520-5667 or complete our computer request form for guidance and assistance.