Is commuting to work or driving to a client an essential part of your success in business?

Is counting on a functional computer or network of computers an essential part of your success in business?

If there was no seatbelt law, would you be driving without using one every day? Maybe just most of the time?

If not, then why would most small businesses either have no reliable backups, or at best, occasional backups?

We have had first hand experience with a client who skipped backups more often than not. Our client decided to forgo our recommendations on IT backup best practices and opted for a backup protocol that entailed daily swapouts of 2 external backup drives--one for the other. Unfortunately, our client did not follow their own protocol diligently and as a result, the backup was not swapped for 6 months. In addition to forgoing our backup recommendation and mishandling their own backup protocol, they also decided against dividing up access rights to different groups and limiting the read/write rights of the individuals, despite our recommendations that they should not allow everyone accessing all data files.

Around 2 P.M. on a Friday afternoon the irreversible Ransom Virus was launched by a user downloading a picture (so she thought), only to install a malicious program, which accessed all their data files (.doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf, etc.), encrypted them, and asked for a payment of $300 to some foreign entity before they could provide a key to decrypt the files. To add insult to injury, the scale of the damage was not verified until the following Monday. In the meantime, the malicious software had enough time to render all 3TB of company files unusable. Furthermore, that very night, the good copy of the files on the backup drive was overwritten by the encrypted version. Ouch!

The total amount of damages ran into $1000's and 6 months worth of data lost.

Avoid catastrophes like these in the future by investing in a thorough backup solution. ITSSI can help your company to avoid such catastrphic events by setting up the following precautionary measures:

- A solid multi-unit automated backup processes, including off-site storage.
- AntiVirus and AntiPhishing measures, both at the perimeter and on desktop level.
- Limiting access rights based on group participation.

An Introduction to Blockchain

You’ve heard of A.I., right? Well even though it’s got all the limelight at the moment, as far as current transactional systems go, blockchain (you may have heard of it) may have greater impact than A.I (and it's out there right now). The following describes blockchain, how it's being used, and why it's being embraced by some and forced on others.

What a Blockchain is:

1. It’s a single electronic ledger (public or open-source) which is tightly synchronized between multiple servers, each of which must simultaneously agree to any addition or change (aka "blocks") to that ledger. Note, blockchains don't have to just track financial transactions. For example, a global-plutonium-usage blockchain is a perfectly legitimate use.

2. Every entry going into the ledger must be signed by an encryption algorithm. For a new entry, blockchain mashes together all the crypto-signatures that have gone before it, resulting in the next signature. This is a required part of each entry and the key to understanding blockchain. You see, this essential action verifies the integrity of the whole “chain” (all entries). And this is done by all the servers on each and every transaction.

Blockchain claims to:

1. Improve security:

a. It's a lot harder to hack data when it's not only encrypted but you have to fake-out 200 (or 2,000) servers around the globe while uniquely altering each and every entry that's ever been entered on the chain of each of those servers (and do it all at the same time). Even if this is pulled off, a simple backup can expose the corruption because many of the signatures won’t match.

2. Improve trust:

b. The whole point of blockchain is that data-integrity is baked into the technology. The result is that imperfect institutions don’t have to be relied upon to police themselves and others (wherever “cooking the books” is a worry).

3. Offer transparency:

a. This isn't a must, but is built into the pure blockchain model.

4. Reduce middlemen and middle-processes (along with overhead and fees).

a. Currency can be "bankless" because of the reasons stated above.

b. Registering your car without a DMV.

c. Buying stocks without a broker.

Who is using blockchain today?:

To name just a few:

1. Estonia runs elections, tax collection, the recording of parcels, and real-estate purchases through blockchains today.

2. Delaware - They are moving all corporate registration to blockchain (they started the process in 2016).

3. The Ukraine does government auctions using blockchain (the citizens were none too pleased with how government assets were showing up in the hands of their politicians' friends). The Minister of Finance has since said he wants all state transactions to be done on a blockchain.

4. A company in London ensures ethically-gotten diamonds are distinguishable from "blood diamonds" by inscribing them with a blockchain ID.

Conclusion:

Like it or not, wherever we find corrupt governments, shady "charities," or lack of adherence to transactional rules, stakeholders and communities will increasingly demand blockchain solutions.