Category Archives: Blog

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Blog 4 – WHAT SMBs need to understand about cybersecurity

Why Managed Service may be the way to go for your data security

Since effective cybersecurity should be a proactive effort, not reactive, this means that SMBs tend to overlook the entire issue as something that can be pushed forward into the future.

One way to get around this challenge is to have a service level agreement with an MSP. An SLA with a managed service provider offers multiple benefits such as

  1. The obvious one is, you get the benefit of their expertise. An MSP’s core job is managing IT infrastructure, so when you bring an MSP onboard to manage your IT infrastructure, you get access to their unparalleled knowledge and expertise, which your internal IT team (even if you have one) may be lacking.

  2. Having an SLA ensures that the MSP prioritizes you over other customers and situations, meaning they are there when you need them.

  3. Your IT infrastructure is consistently monitored and maintained. Depending on the inclusions in your plan, outsourcing your IT to a managed service provider usually takes care of all the mundane, but essential elements of cybersecurity including backups, data recovery, security patches, system upgrades, etc.

  4. Overall, it can help you bring down your IT costs as your payroll expenses in terms of IT can be trimmed or eliminated in some cases.

  5. Having a managed service provider helps you scale, as they can manage the sudden spike and slumps in your IT infrastructure requirements that may be fuelled by various factors such as the holiday season, staff going on vacation, tax seasons, etc.,

  6. A managed service provider can help you draft the right cybersecurity plan for your business and also help you implement it effectively. Further, they can help manage the plan in the long run, ensuring that all the necessary elements are in place and functioning as they are supposed to.

Cybersecurity shouldn’t be an afterthought. It is one of the fundamentals of your business structure and should be a part of your core business process. Consult a managed service provider today to learn more about what you can do to keep your business safe and secure from cyber-attacks.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Microsoft Believes AI Can Help Prevent Ransomware In The Future

Recently, Microsoft published a fascinating blog post. In the blog post, they said they were experimenting with “novel approaches” when it comes to harnessing the power of AI to spot threats on the threat landscape before they become a problem.

In particular, the company is focused on stopping ransomware attacks while they’re still in their earliest stages.

To get even more fine-grained than that, they are specifically targeting human-operated ransomware campaigns. They note that there are certain indicators in common where human-operated ransomware campaigns are concerned, and these commonalities can be used to stop future attacks.

The example that Microsoft gives in their blog post is that of a hacker who has stolen the network credentials of a company.  They will first log in to test those credentials, and once inside, will almost certainly move about inside the network in ways that the proper owner of those credentials would not.

This creates specific data points that the AI can be on the alert for.

Broadly speaking, these fall into three categories:  Time based, Graph based, and device-based.

An example of a time-based data point would be if the hacker logged in to test the credentials at 3:00 in the morning and the owner of those credentials historically logs in at 8am.

Graph-based patterns are the graphical representation of physical moves across a network space, plotted against expected moves.

And device-based data points are exactly what they sound like.  The AI would expect that the owner of the stolen credentials would log in from his or her workstation and not a laptop hidden behind layers of proxies, which is suspicious in and of itself.

It’s a great idea, though Microsoft is quick to point out that it is still very much in its infancy.  Even so, it’s easy to see how this could become an indispensable tool.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

You May Need To Replace Old Cisco VPN Routers

Do you own one or more of the following products made by Cisco?

  • The RV110W Wireless-N VPN Firewall
  • The RV130 VPN Router
  • The RV130W Wireless-N Multifunction VPN Router
  • The RV215W Wireless-N VPN Router

If so, be advised that a new and critical security vulnerability has been found that impacts your equipment.  It is being tracked as CVE-2022-20825.  With a severity rating of 9.8 out of a possible 10, it’s about as serious an issue as it’s possible to have.

What is worse is that because the equipment referenced above is older and at the end of its service life, Cisco announced that there will be no patches to address this recently discovered security vulnerability.

Per a recent Cisco security advisory, the flaw exists because of insufficient user input validation of incoming HTTP packets on impacted devices.

It should be noted that this flaw only impacts devices that have their web-based remote management interface enabled on WAN connections.  If you’re not doing that, then even if you have an older piece of Cisco equipment, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

If you’re not sure whether remote management is enabled or not, just use the following steps. Log into the web management interface and make your way to “Basic Settings” and then “Remote Management.”  From there, just verify whether the box is checked or not and you’re all set.

In cases like these, we do wish companies were willing to be a bit more flexible. However, on the other hand, it’s easy to see how an offer of more time would be abused. So while we feel your pain if you own one of the impacted devices and we also understand why Cisco is taking a hard line and not granting any wiggle room.

All that to say, if you’re still using one of the devices referenced above, upgrade to a newer piece of equipment as soon as possible.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Some Requested Features May Be Coming To Microsoft Teams

Do you use Microsoft Teams?  If so, you’ll be thrilled to know that the Redmond Giant is continuing to pour resources into improving the software with a specific focus on audio and video quality.

Recently, the company announced a plan to add echo cancellation, which is a feature that legions of Teams users have been clamoring for.

When the company made the announcement, they also revealed that they’re using machine learning algorithms to “teach” Teams to learn the difference between the speaker’s voice and a background sound. The goal is that echo cancellation will never mute (or even partially mute) a human speaking, even in instances where several people are speaking at once.

The machine learning algorithm is being “trained” using a model that contains more than 30,000 hours of speech. To head off questions on the topic, Microsoft stressed that no customer data was collected for the data set used to train the new models under development.

Per Microsoft:

“Instead, we either used publicly available data or crowdsourcing to collect specific scenarios. We also ensured that we had a balance of female and male speech, as well as 74 different languages.”

Since the Pandemic, Teams has grown to be one of the most widely used virtual meeting platforms and we are thrilled to see Microsoft directing so many resources to making it better, both in terms of basic functionality and overall user experience.  The planned inclusion of Echo Cancellation is proof positive that the company listens and responds to customer requests.

Kudos to Microsoft for a great job in recent months, both here and on the Windows 11 development front.  While it’s true that the company has made more than its share of missteps over the years, their recent track record has been exemplary.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

It May Be Time To Update Your Business Logo

Corporate branding can be worth its weight in gold and certain images are absolutely iconic.  The Golden Arches, the Nike “swoosh,” and Apple’s Apple all come to mind.

Logo images give companies the means of offering a consistent brand image over time, and that  can be a very good thing.

Over time, tastes and styles change.  If your company presents itself as being on the bleeding edge of the technological curve, then your logo should almost certainly change with the times.  If you go back and look at Apple’s logo over the years, you’ll see that while it’s fundamentally the same, the company has made a few subtle modifications and adjustments over the years.

Changing your brand’s logo can be an expensive proposition so it’s not something you want to do at the drop of a hat. However, if you feel that it’s beginning to look a bit stale or dated, then there can be some real and tangible advantages to giving it an update. That is especially if you time the update with the release of a new product that offers tangible proof that your firm is headed off in some new and exciting direction.

The best brands tell a story and engage their customers.  Pictures are worth a thousand words, so branding images are  a big part of telling your brand’s story.  Ultimately then, the decision of if or whether to update your logo comes down to the following.

What kind of story do you want to tell your customers?  Do you want to offer them a tale of stability and rock-steady performance?  If so, then you’ll probably only want to update your logo rarely.  On the other hand, if you want to tell a story of momentum and velocity, the updating your logo more often would be a worthwhile endeavor.

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