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Spring cleaning for your networks

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Spring cleaning is often associated with cleaning out the sand, salt and other built-up winter soot. However, spring cleaning shouldn’t just be for your home. Most people spend 40 hours a week at work, and even the less physical aspects of an office could use some tender loving care. Consider cleaning up your networks. It’s essential to keeping them secure and running smoothly.

Your networks are the basis on which your business runs. If they aren’t secured, you can lose valuable data to cybercriminals. Our managed IT staff can help you through this process and monitor your security in the future.

Here are a few tips to get started.

Encrypt and secure your wireless network

If you set up your Wi-Fi network years ago, you may be using easily hackable, outdated encryption. The current standard for Wi-Fi protection is Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 — or WPA2. Second, make sure your wireless network has as random of a name as possible, avoiding dictionary words. Seasoned hackers have a list of the top 1000 most common network names with a list of passwords that could likely crack your wireless network. A unique name makes that network more difficult to find. Lastly, create a lengthy password with a mix of letters, symbols and numbers. You’ve likely already been warned about passwords time and again — to much frustration. There’s a reason for that. Get creative and create a password of more than 16 characters for the most protection. Remember, most Wi-Fi devices will store this password, so the aggravation of entering a long, complicated password should be minimized.

File away your old data

Don’t let clutter clog your network and slow it down. File away anything on your network you haven’t touched in the last few months. This is also a great time to organize files into one spot and back them up on a data recovery service. Emails should also be deleted or properly archived. Few things are more overwhelming than a cluttered inbox. While deleting unnecessary correspondence, organize other emails into labeled folders.

Determine space in your bandwidth

As you clean out your network, monitor the space in your bandwidth, which is the amount of data that can be transferred from one point to the next during a given time. As a business grows, it’s possible that its bandwidth may need to as well.

Talk with employees

No matter how secure your network and password are, daily use can still compromise it to cybercriminals. Teach employees about best practices with password creation and teach them how to recognize spam emails and hyperlinks. Additionally, limit access to your company’s critical data to as few people as possible.

Filter network traffic

Give your employees a leg up by filtering the traffic that enters your network. Use pop-up blockers and email filtering services to monitor any suspicious content that could be coming into your network.

Get rid of old devices

Old, unused devices can not only slow down your network, but they can also be a vulnerable access point for cyberthreats. Unplug and properly store or dispose of those unused fax machines, printers, copiers, computers and phones.

Archiving Solutions for Optimal Protection

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If your organization has large volumes of data—and let’s face it, most businesses do—you’re probably in need of digital archiving solutions. Digital Archiving provides a secure method for storing and accessing your electronic content, so you can easily find what you need, saving you time and resources.

Digital archiving provides the ultimate in asset preservation, so you never have to worry about your files disappearing or being unavailable in the event of a crash. Here are some of the ways digital archiving protects your data.

Be prepared for an audit. Audits are an unfortunate reality in today’s business world. By implementing digital archiving solutions, you can ensure that you have everything you need in the event of an audit. Although audits are never enjoyable, being prepared for them makes all the difference. Digital archiving means your data is retrievable in an instant, should your business find itself under the microscope.

Reduce server crashes. Data left uncontrolled can flood your networks and cause huge headaches. Those years-old files are not helping anyone. In fact, obsolete files can clog your servers and cause crashes. By removing these files across your servers and archiving them instead, you can save around 60-70% of your server space.

Reduce your backup window. No one likes to watch a pot of water boil. Similarly, waiting around for your data to be backed up can feel like a lifetime. Instead, bundle your data and don’t backup duplicate files, so your backups take less time.

Get compliant. The devil is in the details, and your business must remain compliant. Everyone wants to think their data is compliant, but without proper storage and security measures, many businesses simply drop the ball. But many industry and governmental policies dictate just how long documents should be saved. Digital archiving will help ensure your documents are securely stored for the right amount of time, so you can avoid financial or legal penalties.

To learn more about digital archiving and how it can free up space and resources, contact Infomax today.