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Does it have to directly contribute to financial gains or employee engagement? Whether it’s financial or non-financial, an ideal business benefit should be an outcome of an action or decision that contributes to achieving business objectives. These actions involve investing in tools that could boost employee performance and productivity. And when it comes to productivity, Microsoft’s Office 365 is top of mind. This includes Teams, the suite’s messaging app. We’ve listed down the top reasons why using Teams as your official messaging app is the best tool for streamlined communication in the workplace. Share everything in a common space. Apart from its messaging features, Microsoft Teams has all the components of Office 365 integrated into one common space. This means that everyone can all review a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet at the same time, as everything in the Office Suite is brought together, and can be viewed in the Teams app. Highly Customizable Teams can be tailored to meet your unique business needs. It gives you platforms with options for extensibility and open APIs, with general availability. With added support from Microsoft, your company will be able to create and customize the applications and other services to integrate with Microsoft Teams. Scheduling Features Virtual meetings are a cost-effective and vital platform for today’s businesses. In Teams, you can view your scheduled meetings, time, agenda, and the attendees. You also have the option to do a video call, text, or go for a voice call. These features are also available in the mobile app for both Android and iOS. Organized Channels With Team’s compartmentalized channels, you can easily sort through your messages, depending on their urgency and priority level. This feature enables you to avoid getting side-tracked with random messages and spend time on the channels where you must address more urgent tasks. Improved Security Security is one of the Team’s features that sets it apart from the pack. By using any of Office 365’s platform services, you are assured to be provided with top of the line security and compliance capabilities. Teams are also a part of Microsoft’s global network of data centers that have a transparent operational model. With these advantages, Microsoft Teams has proven to be an effective collaboration and communication platform. Elevate your overall productivity by investing in Office 365 , and get long-term business benefits to achieve significant business growth.

Cybercrimes such as identity theft, fraud, and other malicious attacks abound on the world wide web. It goes without saying how essential password protection and security controls are these modern times. These cybercrimes are known to disrupt lives all because of the absence of strong security measures. But who has the time and capacity to remember all those passwords? We’re overwhelmed with passwords, and most of our online activities require them. You may be one of those who faithfully stick to good password management practices, but these can only secure us to a certain extent. The fact remains that people are still using weak and easily accessible passwords. With this, what makes strong and secure passwords? First off, make it as long and complex as you possibly can. This requires hackers more time and effort in guessing. Your password should always contain at least ten characters, must have a combination of special characters, punctuations, and in different cases. Most importantly, never use the same password for two or more accounts or devices. Hackers who break into one machine can potentially use the same password to access other machines as well. Good thing there are options available online to help us safely keep our precious passwords. One of these options is 1Password. With 1Password, you only ever need to memorize one password for managing all your online accounts. Yes, just ONE password for everything! All your other passwords and important information are protected by your Master Password, which only you know. Talk about security and convenience. With a single click, you can use 1Password as an authenticator for sites that support two-factor authentication. The coolest part of all is the next time you sign in, 1Password will fill your one-time password automatically. Start being more cautious of your passwords today and protect yourself from impending threats online. Learn more about 1Password here .

Advances in technology surface day in and day out, and these have changed how business processes transpire. Breakthroughs in IT are proven to increase productivity and collaboration among the workplace. As a business grows, so does its IT requirements, and small and mid-sized businesses opt to seek assistance from an IT managed service s provider. The same concept also applies when you’re downsizing. These service providers provide strategic IT solutions that are made to keep your operations running seamlessly. These are just some of the many reasons why outsourcing IT Managed Services should be your top option. In this post, we’ve listed the key benefits of outsourced IT Managed Services: Basically, these managed services providers should essentially be your in-house IT staff member but without the associated cost. By outsourcing IT managed services, you have access to their proficient staff who are available 24/7, for any IT problem or concerns. When it comes to office relocations, problems with technology can pop up unexpectedly. Even a tiny mistake when re-configuring systems at a new location can cause unnecessary downtime on business productivity and functionality. To ensure your information systems function well during when relocating, have an experienced IT professional oversee your technology move. With Uniserve, we can help eliminate your moving stress and make sure your IT works flawlessly in your new place. Contact us to find out how a partnership with Uniserve can help your business today.

As a business owner, the volume of information you encounter daily continues to grow. As it does, Office 365 also works behind the scenes, through its applications. If you’re just getting started with Office 365, and you’re eager to learn more about it, then this guide is for you! In a nutshell, Office 365 is a cloud-based collaboration platform from Microsoft, with Office applications and other products services that users can subscribe to, based on their needs. With this, users can access emails, contacts, calendars, and other office apps like Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote via desktop or mobile. In this post, we’ll walk you through an overview of each Office 365, app and how you can utilize it, along with some key benefits they can provide for your business. Microsoft Office Suite Microsoft Office is a suite of interconnected services, available for Microsoft Windows and Mac Operating Systems (OS). It consists of five main applications; Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. It enables users to create, edit, delete and share documents within or outside an organization. This can be installed on Mobile, Tablet, PCs, and other devices. Microsoft SharePoint Online Microsoft SharePoint Online is a cloud-based service that allows users to create, design, and manage sites, contents, and workspaces. It enables them to share their digital documents securely with team members within or outside of their organization, across Mobile, PCs, and Apple devices. SharePoint Online is available under E, P, or K family plans including Office 365 (Plan K1 & K2), Office 365 (Plan E1, E2, E3 & E4). Microsoft SharePoint Online Microsoft SharePoint Online is a cloud-based service that allows users to create, design, and manage sites, contents, and workspaces. It enables them to share their digital documents securely with team members within or outside of their organization, across Mobile, PCs, and Apple devices. SharePoint Online is available under E, P, or K family plans including Office 365 (Plan K1 & K2), Office 365 (Plan E1, E2, E3 & E4). Microsoft Teams Microsoft Teams is a digital hub for workplace collaboration that brings together people, content, conversations, and apps all in one place. It is integrated with other O365 services to utilize the power of SharePoint, Word, Excel, Delve, PowerBI, PowerApps, Flow, and many more. It’s easy to add a tab for each of these services in the user’s channel within Microsoft Teams. Also, users can add third-party services like Yammer, Facebook, GitHub, and RSS feeds. Users can also do video calling and set up meetings within teams. Microsoft Teams works across Windows, iOS, Mac, web, and Android platforms. Microsoft’s cloud-first and mobile-first vision has made Office 365 one of the best productivity platforms for the modern workplace. Uniserve can help you create an environment where your team members can utilize highly reliable platforms for exchanging ideas, having conversations, collaborating, and doing their best work. Contact us today , and let’s collaborate on helping your team learn to truly utilize and leverage the advances of Information Technology. Microsoft OneDrive and One Drive for Business OneDrive is Microsoft's online cloud storage product and is available for free to all owners of a Microsoft account. It offers users a simple way to store, sync, and share files with other people and devices online. OneDrive is the central point for hosting and sharing files online when using Microsoft's services and applications. OneDrive for Business, on the other hand, is a special OneDrive version available to users of the Office 365 Business plans and SharePoint team sites. It’s managed by the users’ organization and stores their work files for collaboration with their colleagues. Practically, it has the same features as the consumer version of OneDrive, expanded with the additional organization and administration abilities to suit business environments. Microsoft Planner Microsoft Planner is a tool that offers a simple and highly visual way to organize teamwork. It enables users to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, share files, set due dates, and get updates on progress. It can also be used to manage data for events, attaching documents with a task, track a school project, brainstorm new project ideas, or even organize a customer visit. Microsoft Planner is available for O365 users who are subscribed to any of these plans: Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E4, Office 365 Enterprise E5, Office 365 Education, Office 365 Education E3, Office 365 Education E4, Office 365 Business Essentials, and Office 365 Business Premium. Microsoft To Do Microsoft To-Do is one of the latest apps to be included in Office 365. It’s a simple to-do list that makes it easy to plan a day to day tasks. Whether it’s for work, school, or home, To-Do will help users increase their productivity, and decrease their stress levels. To-Do has a unique way to organize tasks into lists, then combining those lists into a My Day view to clear the clutter and keep users organized. To-Do syncs with the users’ phone and computer, so they can access their to-dos from anywhere in the world. Microsoft Flow Microsoft Flow allows users to create and automate workflow across multiple applications, without having to develop any custom code by developers. Microsoft Flow can be used to automate email, alert, copying files from one source to another, synchronizing files across applications, collecting data from one service, and store it into other. Microsoft Flow is also accessible on any browser or mobile device. Microsoft Forms Microsoft Forms is a new service that has been added to O365, specifically created for teachers and students. Teachers can create quizzes and questionnaires on a topic and invite students to respond. Microsoft Forms has built-in analytic features that allow users to evaluate responses, and the results can be exported to an excel file. As of now, Microsoft Forms is available only for an Office 365 education subscriber. However, this service will be rolling out for Office 365 commercial subscribers. Microsoft Office Delve Office Delve allows users to manage their Office profile and organize information in such a way that it helps them see information, based on their priority list. Office Delve is the first app that is powered by Microsoft Graph.

Most small to medium-sized businesses continue to benefit from cloud services primarily to lower IT costs. The cloud’s unique ability to foster an agile and collaborative work environment sets it apart from traditional data storage systems. As more businesses transition to the cloud, it’s imperative to address the risks of cloud environments, particularly the potential loss of SaaS business-critical data. And with the significant adoption of SaaS apps like Office 365 among businesses, a full understanding of cloud data protection couldn’t be more vital. In this blog, we have outlined the top five reasons why businesses should make Office 365 protection and backup a top priority: These are just some of the many important reasons why backing up your Office 365 is vital to your business. Contact us today, and discover how we can help you find a backup solution that offers you both complete access and control of your Office 365 data, to avoid the unnecessary risks of data loss.

At some point, we’re pretty sure you’ve heard of ransomware in the office, read it in the news, or maybe you’ve seen a pop-up in your browser. Ever wondered what the fuss is about? If you’re curious about this form of a cyber attack, read on and we’ll tell you more about it. First off, what exactly is ransomware? Basically, ransomware is a form of malware that locks the user out of their files or their device, then demands an anonymous online payment to restore access. Ransomware can be traced back to 1989 when the “AIDS virus” was used to extort funds from recipients of the ransomware. Payments for that attack were made by mail to Panama, at which point a decryption key was also mailed back to the user. This type of malware has attacked organizations in nearly every industry over time and caused terrible business losses. Now that you know something about ransomware and its roots, how do you prevent and detect it? We’ve listed some useful tips on how you could spare your business from this malicious cyber attack. 1. Proactively monitor your server, network, and back up key systems. Installing monitoring tools can detect unusual file access activities, viruses , network command, and control traffic and CPU loads within your network. Safekeeping a copy of crucial systems can reduce the risk of a crashed or encrypted machine that can cause crucial operational mishaps. 2. Keep your operating system patched and up to date. If the software across your network is up to date, then exploit-based ransomware attacks can’t penetrate through it. If your business runs on outdated or obsolete software, then you could be at risk for ransomware. This is because the software your using isn’t getting the necessary security updates anymore. 3. Educate your end-users about malicious spam and creating strong passwords. Ransomware also relies on spam to infect an end-user, and potentially access your network. Once on your network, this malware can spread from system to system, using a list of common passwords. By learning how to spot spam initially, and implementing multi-factor authentication, your business can stay one step ahead of these cybercriminals . 4. Invest on dependable cybersecurity technology. By doing so, threats can be found faster, saving you IT time and money through reliable automated incident response. Sophos , for example, ensures your endpoint protection and firewall are talking to each other. It’s a simple yet effective idea that means you get better protection against advanced threats and spend less time responding to incidents.  Ransomware criminals make a living by preying on the ignorant. With new ransomware types surfacing frequently, as a business owner, you want to minimize your exposure to these threats, by all means possible. By following these useful tips, you can help protect your personal and business data from ransomware attacks.

In this digital age, IT services have been integrated with most businesses, and have turned a lot of possibilities into reality. With relevant IT breakthroughs, remote communication using Voice over IP (VoIP) or web calls became a prevalent part of business processes. VoIP phone services, especially those delivered via the cloud, have become the standard these days, especially for small to mid-sized businesses. As a business, you want to be able to serve customers from anywhere in the world, and the cost of international calls is expensive for both you and your clients. This is where VoIP comes handy. With VoIP, you can basically have a phone system that makes your customer service more efficient and allows your employees to work remotely and conveniently. What makes this system even better is it doesn’t require you to build or upgrade existing infrastructure. Read along as we list down the advantages of integrating cloud-based VoIP to your business: Considering a move to a VoIP phone system can be challenging, with all the services and features that are available. It’s always best to have a knowledgeable and professional IT Managed Services provider to assist you with major business decisions like this. As one of 3CX ’s partners, Uniserve can help you in integrating a reliable phone system that best suits your business’ specific needs, and assist you with achieving that seamless transition. Contact u s today, and let’s create the game plan for your business get ahead with IT.

Digital breakthroughs such as mobile and cloud are paving the way to a world of new opportunities for businesses. These technologies are helping companies save on operational costs, and cultivate efficiencies. Best of all, these new technologies are designed to be easy to use and integrate into your business processes. To stay competitive, as a small business owner, you need to adapt and incorporate newer and more advanced IT into your everyday business operations. Almost every industry has been experiencing rapid and sometimes overwhelming change over the last couple of years. As a business, how do you thrive in this fast-changing environment? Read along as we share some useful pointers to help you and your business adapt to technological advances as you bring new life to old technology. 1. Cultivate a culture of learning and growth. Businesses should constantly encourage employees to find a level of trust in the unexpected, and embrace change as part of the routine. Make sure your team is on board with every digital solution you adopt may it be an innovation in IT or a significant change in business processes brought up by adopting new technology . 2. Invest in resources that sustain change. Before adopting new technology, conduct an analysis of the diversity of resources needed for a positive outcome. Be highly mindful when forming a team that administers the transition. Form a team with a strong passion for change, a high tolerance for complex and uncertain situations, and a solid track record for collaboration and teamwork. 3. Prioritize flexibility and speed. As part of modernizing your IT , your systems must have the flexibility to keep up. Modular systems available today rapidly cater to a range of possibilities for connection and configuration. Go for modular platforms that can accommodate a wide range of plug-and-play functions for your business. 4. Think ahead. Devise an engaging and intuitive plan for adapting to the latest technology. Your systems modernization can help you set a direction based on customer value and employee engagement. While planning, your IT modernization should not be stiff. Set it up as a self-correcting journey with learning curves in between. In each step, you learn from previous changes and discuss what could be done better next time. 5. Measure, recalibrate, and optimize. Continue tracking your success even after you achieve a seemingly smooth transition. Your vendors, IT department, and marketing team should all constantly work together to make the adaptation better for the business. Always ensure there’s always room for innovation and technological growth. In revolutionizing your company’s technology, your goal should be an effective and sustainable platform for strategic success. The critical issues, as with any structural IT effort, are not purely technical. They involve learning how to create systems more effectively, engage individuals, and cater to your business’ specific needs. Contact us today and discover how we can assist you in creating a modern, improved, and updated IT system for your business.

New technologies have brought modern server options to businesses, promoting productivity and greater service. In the modern world of Enterprise IT, selecting the right business server could be a great ordeal – is it better to go for cloud-based or an on-premise server? When it comes to IT infrastructure , “one size fits all” doesn’t apply. IT priorities depend entirely on what's important to your business. As you set up your IT infrastructure, you will be faced with overwhelming decisions that will set the foundation for your company’s IT infrastructure. Our goal here is to ensure that you make the best choice for your business. Before we head over to deliberating the best server type for your business, let’s first define what a server is. Basically, a server is a type of computer or device that allows the transformation of data. It delivers the information that your computer requests. Now that we’ve defined what a server is, let’s proceed to determine which one is the best for your business. An on-premise server is a traditional way that people have purchased and used software . You need to pay the total cost up-front, receive a licensed product, to be installed by your IT Managed Services Provider, and run on your own server. With on-premise infrastructure, you need to own and manage your physical computer server, or servers, internally and complete all the back-ups and upgrades to the software. There are also costs to house the server – air conditioning, electricity, warranties, etc. An on-premise server is also available for users to access it online and remotely. A cloud-based server, on the other hand, is a more modern and increasingly popular approach where a business pays a subscription to use the software, made available to them online via a server that is owned and managed by a cloud services provider. Cloud computing means the server infrastructure, security, data integrity, backups, and updates are all managed by the cloud provider. Whether you go for cloud or on-premise, you can get the best of both worlds when you have a stable and dependable IT infrastructure from a trusted IT Managed Services provider . Now that you know the servers’ key differences and benefits, it’s high time to decide which one best fits your business’ needs. Ultimately, your decision should be based on what will work best for your business, considering your budget, internal resources, and future growth plans. Drop us a line today, and let’s create the best fitting and sustainable IT infrastructure for your business.

Nobody wants their data, passwords, and accounts compromised, that is why data classification is highly critical to prevent the risk of cyber threats. Having an adept knowledge of information management helps you to strengthen security and deter ransomware attacks . Whether the data comes from a network, cloud application, or hard drives, access and visibility should be protected through data classification solutions. What is Data Classification? This is a standard step for companies that control a vast amount of sensitive data. Aside from reliable protection and strategy against a security breach, data classification is an effective approach in managing and identifying certain types of data. The ability to organize sensitive and valuable information can improve the company’s security strategy. The procedure also helps eliminate unnecessary information assets while re-organizing data into distinct categories. It also helps the organization in determining who has access to certain data and how long it should be preserved. Four classifications of data: Public – All information that is accessible in the public domain can be used, reused, and redistributed by anyone. Examples of public data are first and last names, press releases, or job descriptions. Confidential – Considered as private and identifiable data , the government and local state usually regulate this and categorize them into employee information, management information, and business information. Data under this category are social security numbers and other documents protected by laws. Sensitive – Regarded as ethical or legal data, it requires top security to avoid unauthorized disclosure. It includes trade secrets, customer information, and other critical information within the business. Personal – Any information used to identify an individual such as phone number, home address, appearance, and account data. Ways to Classify Data There are different ways to classify data, however, it depends on the industry to which you belong. When classifying data there are a few things you should consider which includes the following: Identify what kind of data you need to collect from customers and traders. Determine the data your organization needs to create. Assess the data sensitivity levels – high, medium, or low. High levels have a detrimental impact on the company when used maliciously. Restrict the data access to admin and specific employees only. There are two primary methods to obtain data classification: Treat all data as restricted and add rules within your system that could help track and handle information accordingly using a certain application. Train your staff to have a better comprehension of a data sensitivity level and familiarize themselves with proper labeling and usage of these documents. It entails patience and perseverance to accomplish but proven effective because humans can identify data easier in various contexts. Purpose of Classifying Information To fully understand your stored data and its location, here are the main purpose and importance of data classification: Risk Management and Regulatory Compliance processes Executing an effective operational strategy regularly especially when searching and tracing data, organizations can control and eliminate any kinds of business risk. Privacy Now that you were able to manage risks, it’s time to determine the sensitivity and privacy of each asset through procedures in handling confidential information. Since there is no one-size-fits-all data protection strategy, technical controls and proper education are the best practices for privacy. Security Measures This is the main purpose of classifying data. When you are fully aware of data confidentiality, it will be much easier to know exactly how to secure your devices and networks. To avoid further outside threats, organizations may run the strongest firewall and follow the standard data protection. Monitoring for insider threats should also be done regularly. Insider threat cases often involve data theft or data breaches due to employee negligence that’s why having trained individuals in your workforce can improve and mitigate such cases. Best Practices for Data Classification Here are the best practices that every organization should follow to manage data classification effectively: 1. Leverage technology to assess the most valuable data using labeling automation tools that require authentication from users before they could access confidential information and internal networks. You can also deploy different tools essential for data management like Data Loss Prevention (DLP) , Software as a Service (SaaS), and AI-driven security tools. 2. Understand the penalties and follow the policies of your local, state, and government for regulatory compliance. Have a regular assessment of your organization’s regulated data, update your technology, and adhere to the changes and modifications based on federal laws. Organizations must imply strict policies because ignorance of the law is not an exception for non-compliance. 3. Businesses should modify and build their reliable data classification strategy that encourages users to be more active and responsible in managing and protecting and managing critical data. Need assistance in handling data properly? We are glad to help you assess risks and establish a data classification strategy for your company. Contact us today !

Many small and medium-sized companies have limited resources and awareness to understand the importance of having an effective and well-designed IT security policy. A security policy will help you identify the rules and processes a person should follow when using the organization’s assets and resources. The goal of these policies is to monitor, identify, and address security threats and execute strategies to mitigate risk. These policies should also serve as a guideline for employees on what to do and what not to do and define who has access to particular assets and the penalties for not following the regulations. Keep in mind the three core objectives of an IT Security Policy: Confidentiality Integrity Availability Regardless of your company’s size, IT security policies should be documented for the protection of your data and other critical resources. What Security Policies should your Business have? Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) This policy specifies the practices an employee must do when accessing organizational IT assets such as computer equipment. But it doesn’t only apply to hardware, this policy also indicates proper use of data, internet, email, etc., as well as proper and unacceptable behaviors when handling critical information. The AUP specifies the risks one may cause if the information system is used inappropriately and other consequences, legal or otherwise, that can occur when the network is compromised due to improper behavior. An example of inappropriate use is accessing data for reasons that are not included in an employee’s job. This is important especially when onboarding new hires. Security Awareness and Training Policy A well-trained and knowledgeable staff is one of the key factors for the successful implementation of your IT security strategy . Security awareness training should be conducted to all your employees for them to properly execute their tasks and safeguard the company information at the same time. The purpose of this policy is to constantly inform all users regarding the impacts their actions will have on security and privacy. In this policy, you should include a list on how to maintain workstations, employee’s responsibility on computer security, email, and internet access policy, and should also highlight personnel responsible for maintaining and developing the training. Incident Response Policy The incident response policy differs from the Disaster Recovery Plan as it covers processes following a security incident and should be documented separately. The goal of this policy is to explain the process of handling an incident, specific to reducing the damage to business operations, customers and minimizing the recovery time and cost. This policy outlines the company’s response to an information security event. It also includes information about the incident response team, persons in charge of testing the policy, their roles, and resources that will be used to identify and retrieve compromised data. Another vital aspect of this policy is educating the team on who to report to in case of an incident, such as a data breach. As leaders, you should always assess and monitor your team’s performance ensuring that everyone is cooperating and regularly test and update the incident response plan. Network Security Policy This policy ensures that the information systems within the organization have suitable hardware, software, and auditing mechanisms. A network security policy guarantees the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data by following a certain procedure when conducting a review of your system’s activity on a regular basis. Events such as failed login attempts and the use of privileged accounts should be properly documented as well as any anomalies that may occur. This also includes firewalls, devices added or removed within the network, and activities around routers and switches. Change Management Policy This policy refers to the process of making changes to the organization’s IT and security operations. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that the changes are all managed, tracked, and approved. Systems and software are constantly being updated or replaced due to a number of reasons. Without a change management policy, unexpected things could happen when an update or change happens. The goal of this policy is to minimize the likelihood of outages and maintain compliance with specific regulations. All changes to IT must follow a structured procedure to guarantee correct planning and execution. This policy is important to increase awareness and knowledge of proposed changes across the organization and reduce the negative impact on services and customers. Password Creation and Management Policy The purpose of this policy is to educate employees on the importance of strong, original passwords, how to create and how often should they change it. This policy provides a guideline on developing and implementing the process for proper creation and securing of passwords for verifying user identity and for access to company systems and information. This policy will also indicate rules for changing temporary passwords and risks of reusing old ones. This policy will also include rules specific to password complexity and length, including guidance on the risk of using easy words and including personal information within the password. Access Control Policy Access control is the process of ensuring that users have authorized access to company data. A superior access control policy can be adapted easily to respond to advancing factors enabling companies to minimize any damage. Other things that can be included within this policy are the specifications for user access, network access, and other system controls. Depending on the organization’s compliance requirements and the security level of IT, usage of access control models may differ. Remote Access Policy Working from home is now being incorporated into the system that’s why remote data security is a concern for most business owners. Remote access involves the connection of any host to the company’s network. This policy is designed to reduce the possibility of exposure from any damages that are caused by the unauthorized use of assets. This policy will be directed to all employees and should include stipulations for sending or receiving email and intranet resources. It will also include requirements regarding the use of VPN and disk encryption. One example that you can include in this policy is for users not to engage in any illegal activity with their remote access and should not allow unauthorized persons to access their work devices. Need help in developing a policy for your company? Experts at Uniserve IT Solutions can help. Contact us today and will help you manage and update any existing security policies you have or help you build a new one.

Your entire team should be well-educated on the best practices of cybersecurity , even for small businesses. When we think about insider threats, our mind typically goes to disgruntled employees that have certain intentions to perform a malicious act. What we don’t consider are the employees posing a threat due to lack of knowledge and negligence. An insider threat is a security risk that originates from inside the organization. These threats could be the current or former employees, business associates, or contractors who have access to critical and sensitive information within the organization’s network, and computer systems. What are the Types of Insider Threats? Understanding the types of insider threats will help you better protect your data from the risks associated with it. There are multiple types of insider threats that are categorized depending on the intent of the person involved. 1. Negligent These insiders or pawns do not have the intention to put the organization at risk, but by behaving in insecure ways, they may do so non-maliciously. For example, leaving devices unattended or falling victim to a scam. Employees who don’t have proper knowledge and awareness may accidentally click on an insecure link that can infect the office system with malware. 2. Maliciou Also referred to as “turncloaks”. An insider who has every intention to steal malicious data for financial or personal gains. In most cases, it is an employee or contractor who has legitimate credentials but is abusing their access for profit. For example, it can be a disgruntled employee whose goal is to sabotage the company by stealing and selling intellectual property. 3. Third-Party These insiders can be contractors or vendors that an organization has given some kind of access to its network. These insiders compromise an organization’s security through misuse or malicious use of business assets. Signs of an Insider Threat There are a few indicators that would suggest an insider threat, it can be at a network level or an employee’s change in behavior. Here are a few signs of insider threat: Efforts to sidestep security Being in the office during after work hours Displaying disgruntled behavior toward colleagues Violation of corporate policies Downloading significant amounts of data Accessing sensitive data that are not associated with their job Use of unauthorized storage devices Data hoarding and duplicating files from sensitive folders Tips & Best Practices to Prevent Insider Threats a. Monitor User Behavior and Manage Accounts Monitoring user behavior in real-time to predict abnormal user behavior related to potential data theft, potential sabotage, or misuse. Another way to minimize the risk of insider threats is to closely monitor and manage your employee accounts. It helps restrict the amount of data available to employees who has the intention to carry out a malicious attack against the business. This also means that attackers or cybercriminals who have gained access to an employee’s account will have limited permission to access all corners of the company’s network. b. Enforce Security Policies Your organization should also enforce a security policy that will safeguard your business against insider threats. The security policy will include procedures and processes that will prevent and identify any malicious activities. The policy should also include details about limiting access to personal data about employees and specify who can access what data, under what circumstances, and who can they share the information with. Besides, employees are now bringing their own devices and can access the company network through their devices. Unsecured devices can leave your business data and assets exposed. Ensuring you have endpoint security installed can mitigate the risks. c. Provide Security Awareness Training No matter what type of security solutions your organization invests in, you can’t easily predict a human error and minimize risk. Users are still considered as a vulnerable link to cybersecurity thus the importance of training and proper guidance. Get employees to properly understand the difference between strong and weak passwords , get them to learn and be aware of scams, phishing emails, and the use of personal devices within the office. Everyone in the organization should be familiar with your security policies and procedures and document them to prevent insider threats. d. Conduct Proactive Network Monitoring Each area, department, and corner of your business should be monitored including the on-premises, and cloud environment. 24/7 monitoring will allow you to quickly identify events that will require an immediate response. Also, it will increase awareness of your employee’s actions such as attempts to access files outside of working hours or downloading an unnecessary application. Insider threats are harder to identify compared to external threats, they come undetected by firewalls and intrusion detection systems. Malicious insiders, specifically, who are familiar with your organization’s security measures can easily avoid detection. Any business, large or small can suffer an attack from an insider threat. As an IT service provider, we are committed to securing your data and protecting your business from any kind of cybersecurity risk. Want to learn more about our services? Contact us today !