Lessons From the Sony Hack

It's been hard to avoid the news about the massive hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment that shut the company down for a week in November and continues to spill corporate secrets, from embarrassing emails to confidential HR files for thousands of current and past Sony employees.  The FBI is pointing the finger at North Korea, but cybersecurity experts say it looks like an inside job.

Regardless of who started it, the powerful malware behind the breach is still out there, and it's designed not just to crack systems, but to destroy the data they contain.  The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) recommends that companies take precautionary measures that include the following:

1. Performing daily backups
2. Maintaining offsite backups of critical files
3. Tightening control over data access
4. Improving application security
5. Monitoring network activity
6. Developing a recovery plan

You may not be a major multinational corporation, but that doesn't make your data any less valuable to your daily operations.  Xantrion can help you implement any or all of the US-CERT recommendations.  Call us today to evaluate your risk and protect your business.

Use Case: Legal Firm

A growing law firm with offices in San Francisco and Washington was expanding its client base to include companies in defense and health care.  To serve these two highly regulated and security-conscious industries, the firm needed to minimize its own security risks.

Learn how the firm established security measures that addressed its most significant exposures to risk in a cost-effective way without burdening end users.

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http://www.itservices.xantrion.com/use-case-legal-firm.html

Stormageddon

Call it Stormageddon, #HellaStorm, or just a massive downpour, but whatever you call the rains that hit the Bay Area on December 11, you probably couldn't call your office.  High winds and flooding knocked out power to more than 300,000 homes and businesses across the region.  San Francisco was hardest hit, with much of the northern half of the city, including the Financial District and Embarcadero Center, shut down from about 7:20am until late in the afternoon.

For companies with on premise phones and servers that lost power, it was a lost day.  For those whose IT services are hosted at offsite data centers, even December 11 was business as usual.

If you're worried that a storm might wash away your productivity or revenues, contact Xantrion.  We can help you create a disaster preparedness plan that keeps your head above water.

Use Case: Wealth Management Firm

A wealth management firm was increasingly concerned about the risks and inconveniences of maintaining decades of confidential client financial data on site.  Although off-site backups were performed regularly, downloading data to new hardware after a disaster would be slow and risky.

Learn how the firm improved disaster preparedness and tackled other IT challenges in the process.

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http://www.itservices.xantrion.com/use-case-wealth-management-firm.html

File Sharing: Requirements, Services, and Best Practices

Despite their obvious productivity benefits, cloud-based file sharing services raise concerns about who controls the content being shared and whether it’s adequately secure for business. This paper examines these questions and explores file sharing options, cloud-based and otherwise, to help you decide what’s right for your business.

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http://www.itservices.xantrion.com/file-sharing-guide.html

Disaster Preparedness: The 7 Common Mistakes to Avoid

In a disaster that knocks out business-critical systems, the company with the best plans for recovery has the best chances of bouncing back. Our new guide discusses the most common disaster preparedness mistakes your company can make and sets out best practices for avoiding them.

DOWNLOAD GUIDE »http://www.itservices.xantrion.com/disaster-preparedness-guide.html

Fox Small Business News Reaches Out to Xantrion for Disaster Preparedness Expertise

While everyone thinks about creating a remote worker environment after a major disaster, it’s something that should be on the books and tested all the time. Fox Small Business News reached out to Xantrion for their expertise on how small businesses should prepare.  For more on preparing for a disaster click here.  For more on Xantrion click here.