Do It Yourself IT? Here's Some Tips.
I got the chance to sit around a table last week with some new business owners, which is always really exciting to see. They were at the stage of their business where they were having to do their own IT, and I totally get it. When I started my business, there were a lot of professionals whose help I could have used, but the budget was tight, so I made do with what I could patch together from free resources.
If that sounds like you, and you are doing your own IT support, then it’s important to be sure you have a plan that covers the same important aspects we focus on to keep our customers safe and secure.
Here are a few essential IT tips for you to consider:
Cybersecurity Protection
Keeping your systems safe from hackers involves layers of protection. As your business grows, you will want to think about increasingly more sophisticated methods for keeping your operations productive and your data safe, but for most small businesses using Windows there are a few basics everyone should have in place:
- Windows Automatic Updates: We’ve seen people turn these updates off because they can happen at inopportune times, but this decision can leave their computer and business vulnerable to attack. A better choice is to schedule these updates for a time when you are not normally working, which minimizes the inconvenience.
- Firewalls: The Microsoft operating system has a built-in Firewall that works well with Windows as a layer of defense against the hackers. As important as that is, adding an extra layer of protection with a quality, business-class firewall can be crucial if you keep sensitive information on your machines.
- Antivirus: Microsoft bundles an antivirus tool with Windows called Defender, and this is an area where we believe it’s important to add another layer of protection. Defender has continued to improve over the years, but we still believe that the solutions from companies like Trend Micro are worth the investment. They are effective and budget-friendly, do a better job of catching and eliminating viruses before they get a chance to cause damage, and are easier to administrate as your business grows.
- Data Backup: Pretty much everybody is using some sort of cloud service to sync their data these days, which is good to have but not enough to keep you out of trouble if you get hacked. A lot of viruses have the ability to wipe your cloud data before they lock you out of your PC, leaving you in real trouble. We prefer a solution like the one offered by iDrive because it works in a way that will not only keep your data safe if you do get hacked but also make the recovery effort significantly easier.
Cyberattack Prevention
Let’s be clear. For now, there is no such thing as perfect protection from hackers. Regardless of how good your protection is, hackers can and do find ways to get in, and there are several ways that they can circumvent your protective systems if you do not also have the right preventive practices in place. Here are a few of the most important ones:
- Encryption: Encrypting all of your internet traffic is a good way to minimize the risk of hackers intercepting it. Make sure that your web browsers, email tools, and Wi-Fi connections are all using their built-in encryption capabilities. This is an easy and effective way to minimize the ability of hackers to use these systems to gain access to your computer. You also want to be sure that you use a VPN connection to access the office when working from home.
- Use A Password Manager: Are you still keeping all of your passwords in a spreadsheet? I’ll confess that it took me a while to break this habit, but it’s an important habit to break because spreadsheets are an easy target for the bad guys. If you are starting out, you can probably upgrade to one of the built-in, free password manager tools that most web browsers offer, but as soon as you start needing to hand out important passwords to other team members, a professional-grade password manager like the one from Keeper is a must-have so that you can remove that access privelidge quickly an easily when you have to.
- 2-Factor Authentication: A lot of people get annoyed when they have to use a 2-factor authentication tool, but 2-factor authentication is one of the most powerful cyber attack prevention tools available. They essentially lock access to your data down to only the devices that you personally use, and have been shown to prevent hackers from accessing countless databases over the last few years.
- Security Culture: Being mindful of the ways that hackers operate can go a long way towards preventing an attack. Take the time to learn how to spot suspicious attachments and links in emails and on websites. It’s also a good idea to make sure everyone is careful not to bring in USB drives or other media from outside the office.
Once you have cybersecurity protection and cyber attack prevention in place, you will want to make sure you have a written plan in place that lays out how you will recover from a successful cyber-attack or (more likely) a hardware failure. One or the other is inevitable, and knowing what needs to be done and who will do it is much easier to think about ahead of time than it is when your operations are at a halt. Create a plan and run practice drills from time to time.
Is It Really Okay To DIY My IT?
It all comes down to the cost-benefit analysis that we all have to do as business leaders. First, how well do you really know the ins and outs of cybersecurity protection, cyberattack prevention, hardware reliability, and all the other factors that make an office IT environment safe and reliable? Second, even if you can do it, is it really the best use of your time to do so? Experts in any area (IT, HR, Accounting, etc) can usually do a better job than a DIY effort, and quite often end up saving you time and money if you can afford the investment.
If you ever want to talk about offloading your IT duties to us, feel free to schedule a free consultation with me, and I’ll be happy to help you decide if, when, and how to get IT off your plate.