(We reached into the files to bring this article written in 2016 back - please excuse the older statistics and just know that the number of attacks is increasing along with the ransom demands)
More and more businesses and organizations are getting stung by ransomware demands. Hospitals, schools, social networks…some days it seems like an epidemic that leaps around arbitrarily, and hackers are raking in millions. [Read more…]
Most businesses are aware of the need for data backup. Without it, they risk losing important files in the event of a hard drive failure or cyberattack. Yet having a backup in place isn’t enough: it’s important also to test that backup. Ensure that you are able to restore that essential data when you need it. [Read more…]
External hard drives free up storage, offer portability, and provide a lifeline in case of a computer disaster. It pays to take good care of these compact, convenient devices.
Here are some helpful strategies. [Read more…]
“That will never happen to me.” We get through our lives telling ourselves the worst won’t happen to us. It’s the same with business: “We won’t need this data backup.” Yet, whatever your industry, secure, reliable backup ensures business as usual. So, what’s the best way to backup? Here’s help. [Read more…]
We all try to have healthy habits in our lives. Whether it’s eating better, exercising more or flossing our teeth daily, we make a daily effort to improve ourselves and make our life better. If you use a computer (and I assume if you’re reading this, that you do), you should put some effort into your digital habits. They can improve your life in their own way. Read on to learn what Habits Y-Not Tech Services recommends developing. [Read more…]
A malware infection on your computer is never fun. Lost time, repair costs, data loss, and frustration can all result from a single piece of malware or a virus on your computer. Y-Not Tech Services wants to help you avoid this problem with four tips to keep malware and viruses off your system. [Read more…]
NOTE: Samsung Galaxy devices run on the Android Operating system, and so this guide will work for these devices as well.
NOTE 2: Because Android runs on literally thousands of different phones and manufacturers often ‘skin’ android to make it look different some instructions might not jive with your device. The general procedure should still be the same. Feel free to contact me if you want assistance.
“New Phone, same number. Lost my contacts, so text me your name and I’ll add you.”
“Phone just died and I lost all my Pictures! I’m so upset!”
Has this ever happened to you? It seems like I see messages like this every day on social media. If it’s happened to you, or you’re afraid it will happen to you, I’m here to help. With a series of blog posts, I will show you how to ensure you are staying synced and up to date so You don’t need to worry. Last week we looked at keeping your iPhone’s Contacts and Photo’s backed up. This week, we’ll look at doing the same on Android. Finally, next week, we’ll look at ways you can switch from iPhone to Android, or vice versa while taking your data with you. [Read more…]
My clients often tell me that their Data is the most important thing on their Computers. And I can see why it would be! With precious family photos and videos, important documents and so much more stored on our computers, a loss of data can be a disaster. This is why I talk about how important back-ups are so often on the site and to my clients. I want to focus on a service I offer that I feel gives everything needed to avert Data Disaster.
For $44/month you get Virus and Malware protection as well as an off-site back-up.
The virus protection often saves you from needing to use the back-up at all. My Virus and Malware protection has been proven to provide protection for most of the recent attacks that either hold your data for ransom or just deletes it outright. However, new methods are always being developed and some might slip through. This is where the back-up comes in. If a virus or malicious program sneaks past our protection and affect your data, our back-up will ensure that you can get back up and running as soon as possible.
For less than the cost of a coffee a day, you can have peace of mind knowing your important data is safe and secure against threats like Viruses, Malware and Ransomware.
Special Offer: Mention ‘Data Disaster’ and receive $5 off each month for the first year.
To start protecting your data today book an appointment:
PS For more special offers, tips and advice Click Here to get updates emailed to you.
Over the weekend a new RansomWare infection has spread widely. WannaCry uses a combination of malicious e-mail links and a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Windows OS to spread. It is interesting to note that the vulnerability in Windows was patched by Microsoft in March via Windows Updates. Is your system up to date? When was the last time you checked for updates?
It’s always a good idea to follow safe practices any time you are clicking on links from e-mails. Even if you know and trust the sender, they might have been infected and unaware that they are spreading viruses.
WannaCry is ransomware. It encrypts your data and only gives you access if you pay them. Reports say the cost starts at $300 and goes up to $600 before finally, they delete your data.
At this point, there is no way to decrypt the data without paying the developers of the virus.
If you aren’t infected with WannaCry make sure Windows is up to date! This stops the spread and can keep you protected. Don’t click links in e-mails without inspecting them first. The link could be hidden, meaning the text in the e-mail will say one thing, but take you somewhere else. Hover your cursor over the link for a few seconds and a tooltip should come up giving the exact link address.
Y-Not Tech Services offers a bundle that protects your device from Ransomware and other attacks. Our Gold Protection Package offers Emisoft Anti-Malware that detects threats like this and blocks them and Windows Patching that keeps your System up to date with Security Patches that cover this and other exploits. I also recommend a comprehensive backup strategy centered around the 3-2-1 philosophy.
The internet is a wonderful place, but it is also full of people trying to take advantage of others with viruses, malware and more. Click here for my quick run down of internet safety.
Book an Appointment with Y-Not Tech Services to sign up for our protection plan or to learn more.
With so much of our important data being stored on our computers, backing them up is incredibly important. To help you audit your own back up strategy, I’ll list a few questions here I want you to answer:
Why is having a backup strategy important? We store all kinds of important stuff on our computers. We have documents for work or school. We have music and other media we have collected from digital stores like iTunes. And most importantly, we have photos. I have had a few friends lose their homes to fires. They say the whole experience is traumatizing, but the only truly lasting pain they have from it is the loss of their family photos. Nearly everything else lost in the fire can be replaced, but not the photo albums. Today, most of our photos are taken and stored digitally. If the Hard Drive in your computer fails, what will you miss most? If it does fail and you don’t have a backup you will either need to live without those files, or look into Data Recovery, which can be a very expensive endeavor depending on what it needed. Let’s avoid that altogether by building a backup strategy to fit your needs.
One copy of your Data will be on the Hard Drive inside your computer
If you do have a backup, that’s great! You’re ahead of many people out there. I have found, however, that one backup is often not enough. I’ve seen the disappointment in a client’s eyes too many times when I transfer their backup over onto their new Hard Drive after a failure and they realize that the backup was done 6 months ago and now they are missing 6 months of their digital lives. That’s a lot of family photos. People in my industry have come up with a 3-2-1 backup strategy, and I highly recommend it.
Three copies of your data. Stored on two different devices. One copy should be stored off-site. This ensures with nearly 100% certainly your data cannot be lost. Three copies is pretty self-explanatory and we’ll get to where they should be soon. Why should we store our data on two devices? If a virus or malware badly infects your computer it could damage the data on any drive attached to it. That’s why you should have the data on your internal Hard Drive (obviously, that’s what is running your computer) and another device like an External Hard Drive, a USB Flash Drive or DVDs. Finally, we get to the offsite part of our backup strategy. I have seen people attempt this a number of ways. Often they’ll make a backup and then stash it at a family members home, or at a storage facility. This method has one major flaw though. The data will quickly become out of date. With the storage device (generally a Hard Drive or Flash Drive) off-site AND inaccessible to add new data too, the backup doesn’t get updated. The plan would be to go and bring the drive onsite every week and update the backup, but those plans quickly fade because it’s just one more thing to remember. This is where a cloud backup solution comes in. Y-Not Tech Services has partnered with Datto to offer our clients a managed offsite backup solution to add to your backup strategy. We’ll get to that in more detail later. First, let’s make sure you have the local back-up covered.
Having a local back up is important and can be very convenient when something goes wrong. If your back up is up to date you can quickly restore your data and get back up and running. Ideally, your back up medium will be larger than your internal Hard Drive. This will allow your back up utility to store different versions of your files so you can go back to find old changes if you save over top and want the old copy back. Generally, either an External Hard Drive or Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive is the best choice for backup storage. Windows and Mac both have a built-in utility for backup management. If you need help getting this setup, please contact me so I can help you get it set up.
A second copy of your data could be stored an External Hard Drive like this one.
Another option for local backup is to clone your Hard Drive. This involves making a full, exact copy of your Hard Drive so that you can just swap your back up in and it will boot up just the same as your old Hard Drive. This is a more time consuming and involved way to backup, but can save a lot of time when disaster strikes your hard drive. If you need to be able to get back up and running immediately after a hard drive failure, a full clone backup may be the way to go.
What I like most about Datto is that it gives me a dashboard to see all my clients and I can see at a glance that your backup is up to date. If, for some reason, your backup isn’t up to date, I’ll be alerted and we can get together to make sure your data is safe. What is really nice about the Managed Backup Service is that any time I’m alerted to an issue with your back up, I’ll work to make sure it is resolved at no extra cost to you. It’s all part of the service. For prices and more information please see the Managed Services page.
With Managed Back Up, your data is stored safely and Securely.
In conclusion, don’t be caught without a backup. Hard Drives have many moving parts and are prone to failures. Solid State Drives can also wear out over time. I’ve seen both fail within a week of purchase at times. Yes, the warranty covers the failure and you can get a replacement from the manufacturer, but they can’t do anything about the data you had stored on the drive. If you don’t have a backup strategy in place or if you want to review your backup strategy with me, contact me to make an appointment.
Serving Lethbridge, AB, and area locally. Back Up can be set up using Remote Connection so I can help you no matter where you are. Book an appointment to discuss your options and get a backup in place.