Don’t Trust Luck to Keep Your Computers Safe

This St. Patrick’s Day, while you’re busy celebrating "the luck of the Irish", remember – luck is a beautiful thing, but it’s no substitute for common sense and precaution when it comes to your computers.

In the world of IT, luck is not a strategy! And yet, how many of us still don’t listen to advice like this:

1. Don’t use obvious or easy-to-crack passwords.

2. Use a different password for every site or application that requires one, and change your passwords often.

3. Back up, back up, back up. Back up to at least two different media or locations, with at least one of them off site. And if you can’t remember to run a backup, sign up for a service that will run them automatically. Make sure you know how long it would take for your backup provider to restore all your data if your office was completely wiped out. Some backup services can take days or even weeks to ship a full set of disks; others may take less than 48 hours.

4. Update your antivirus software often and run a full system scan. Again, if you can’t remember to do it yourself, sign up for a service that will do it for you.

5. Write down all your software product keys, license numbers, passwords, configuration notes, and encryption codes and keep them in a locked safe -- preferably both on premises and off.

6. Write down a detailed plan for restoring data in the event of a loss -- that means figuring out the sequence in which applications, servers, and databases need to be brought back online in order for data to properly repopulate.

If this sounds like a lot of work -- well, it is! But putting in the time now can prevent you from some major hassles later. Or call CMIT Solutions, and we can help you get started on the path to complete disaster preparedness. We often recommend taking a serious look at CMIT Guardian, a backup and disaster recovery solution specifically tailored to the needs of small business. It’s affordable, reliable, and stores all your valuable business data securely on and off-site.

Don’t Forget! On Thursday, March 25 at noon Central Daylight Time, CMIT Solutions is hosting a free informational Webinar on Google Tools. Learn about the ways you can harness the power of Google to promote your small business – without spending a dime. Click here to register.