My Fellow Business Owners and Managers,

In the wake of the recent severe weather storm, if you are like most people we began thinking about what we could have done differently to prevent and minimize damages. In this short article I will like to share with you one of the most significant preventive measure you could have done if not already done to prevent your business critical infrastructure (computers, servers, network switches, phone systems, backup devices) from and hard crash, disaster and loss of data.

Although, there are other measures but the one I would focus on here is simple and easy to implement and that is installing an UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) device systems. UPS is a simple device you may have seen one before. It’s a device that plugs into the power outlet to help regulate and maintain clean sufficient power for a short period of time to valuable sensitive electronic systems.

When used on servers, network switches and computers, it prevents flickering, fluctuations of the power supply disruptions during a severe weather storm like the one we just had and could save thousands of dollars in computer repair cost, data recovery and lost time from downtime. When properly implemented, the UPS system will shut off computer; servers and network devices gracefully preventing damage that could happen from improper shutdown of these technology investments.

Here are few of my recommendations:

APC website http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=13

Tripe-Lite website http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/ups-battery-backup-systems.cfm

Best practices recommend that you support your critical systems with a UPS system that is able to hold your requirements for about 15 to 20 min for a complete shutdown of the systems being protected.

If you are not sure about how to go about this, I will be happy to help you with a free Network or Power supply and assessment. I can be reach at 301-576-1122 ext. 101

Smarthost Design Technologies is a technology services provider that focuses on the unique needs of small businesses in the Maryland, Washington DC and Virginia Metro area with over 7 years of industry expertise working with businesses with less than 50 employees. Read about more tips and techniques from my blog http://smarthostdesign.com/blog

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Hello everyone, it’s been a great summer holidays and the schools are back open. I am sure some of you find that welcoming. You may have received several emails form me about some of the changes that we are making to make our services offered to small businesses more suitable to help Small businesses grow and use technology well. Some of those changes are:

• Mandatory monthly site visit
• Weekly Tuesday (Video) Tips for Small mid-size businesses
• Monthly Tech (E-mail) Tip Post on the blog

As we begin production of this engaging effort, we welcome your feedback and I will make adjustment to make sure it really helps your business operations.

With security breach prevalent in today’s business environment, it’s essential for small-mid size (SMB) business to know how to go about ensuring the necessary security procedure and policy to protect business information and most importantly to keep their customers information secure.

As a member of Computer Technology Industrial Association (CompTIA), I came across this paper written by Dancho Danchev of windowsecurity.com and after reading it I think it will make a good place for SMB to start in putting together an information security policy to implement company wide security policy.

And you may be asking why another document, why can’t I just tell my employee that the policy is XYZ? Well and sorry you can’t because research show that most people are unaware of the threats that exist with the use of technology and telling them also does not help. What helps is a document that illustrate the what, why, where, when and how each employee can work together to prevent and secure company, business and clients data. Here is the link to the document. Please download and start securing your business  and private information today.

If however you need help with putting this policy together, you can contact us at 301-576-1122 or your IT services provider for help.

Happy networking

Femi Dada
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=3435122

Hello fellow business Owners and Managers,

Let’s face it, dose your business have a reliable business continuity plan? Let me put it in a lay man’s term. Does your business have a backup plan that you can recover to while your office, server, computer is not working or operational. I am not trying to exaggerate the criticality of these issues, too often as I meet small business owners and managers and leaders, most of them does not have a reliable backup solution. Most are still stuck with local/ on premises tape and disk backup solution that is a recipe for disaster. Please see these pictures http://www.wusa9.com/news/article/147116/77/Georgetown-Waterfront-Floods-Why-Werent-Flood-Walls-Up on (WUSA) new reports.

Now let me tell you. I call the one of restaurants there where I worked during my earlier days in Georgetown DC and could not get through because the power were out and for good reason the power were shut off. But I was perplexed to find out that all those restaurants are shutdown. I mean I can’t even make a reservation if I wanted to. It’s Good Friday and Sunday is Easter Sunday, what about the Easter celebration and mother’s day coming soon. This is the beginning of the busiest season of the year, what is going on? I guess the management company fail to pull up the levees.

Now, as you know I don’t own a restaurant in the harbor, but it happen that one of my client’s parent company is located there. Sorry I can’t name the restaurants. And to make things worst my company is not the one managing their IT Systems (computer systems) which leaves me wondering if they have the necessary backup and disaster recovery solution to help recover their clients and customer information, data, and vital company information located on those computers and server systems.

So, let me ask you once again if you own or manage a company or business. IS YOUR NETWORK, COMPUTER, SERVERS and VITAL COMPANY DATA SECURE FROM DISASTER?

If you can’t say YES without second thoughts I advise you to contact any computer consulting company in your area and ask them about business continuity and disaster recovery solution.

I have been working with businesses for about 6 years now delivering solution that helps mitigate such disaster from remote online secure backup, to remote worker implementation and I would be happy to offer you a no obligation assessment (get to know us offer) so that I can assess your company disaster preparedness plan. If you would like to take me up on this offer use our request form here and I myself or one of our engineers will get to you soon and schedule an appointment with you.

Read more about what you can do to get your business ready in my previous blog post.

–Femi Dada
CVIO

Smarthost Design Technologies LLC

Watch out for phishing emails

There has been an email data breach at one the industry’s leading marketing services firm named Epsilon. Epsilon provides email marketing services for majority of the name brands you have come to know; from Best Buy to banks such as Citi Group and others. It was stated that email addresses were compromised and the effect have already stated.

How does it affect you? Just today I have received several emails from phony companies trying to get information from me. One of them claimed that I have been approved as a partner and asked me to login into my partner account. If you received such emails, please do not try to login into the redirected site. If you do you will be giving your login and password information away to the bad guys and gals.

What can you do to protect yourself? Careful, careful and be vigilant. When you received email from people you don’t know, be careful to make sure that it is a legitimate email. Secure your companies email systems by using a smarthost, or email proxy system that scans and filter your company emails before it reaches your company servers. Compare the URL in the email to the redirected site URL.

You can read more on this email breach at http://www.scmagazineus.com/epsilon-aftermath-reaches-canada/article/200078/

To learn how you can secure your business email systems and protect your customers data from reaching the wrong hands call us or contact us today.

Have a nice day and safe surfing.

Femi Dada

Smarthost Design Technologies LLC

Incidents of fake security software fooling users into spending money on malware are on the rise. Security firm McAfee has published a report early in the year showing that up to a million people worldwide fall victim to so-called “scareware” each year. Scareware, or rogueware, is software that poses as legitimate security software but in reality are dupes to steal credit card information from users, or even worse are Trojan Horses to spread malware. Read more

This year one of our goal is to double revenue by increase our client customer referral so, I need your help and I have come up with a plan to reward you also for your great referrals efforts. Here is how it works.

1. Tell your friends, client, vendor, or customer about us.
2. Use our website form to send us referral information
3. For every qualified referral that ends up being a client, I will send you a $100.00 American Express gift check or 10% discount off any future project you have in your pipeline. Read more for details.

Government contractor implement SonicWall security devices and harvest Remote VPN, worker Benefits.

Smarthost Design Technologies LLC is happy to report an outstanding value added to our client business success by implementation SonicWall TZ 100W into Think Tank, Inc. corporate network; enabling company and employees with Remote worker solution. Working remotely has been a long dream of employees at Think Tank, Inc. but figuring out the security of the solution and the right appliance/devices has been the issue delaying the company. Read more about this solution

Lanham, MD – 01/11/2010 – In an ever-difficult economy for small to mid-sized businesses, one Columbia web merchant – Pen Boutique, LTD – captures the essence and benefits of VoIP communication to become more productive while saving on communication costs. More..

It seems that even the most innocuous machines in the workplace can serve as a security threat to companies. According to this report from CBS News, many office copiers save the images they copy on a dedicated hard disk installed inside them. This means that everything from mundane memos to your most sensitive information such as financial statements and contracts are stored – and could potentially extracted.

So the next time you dispose of a copy machine, if you’re not sure what’s stored on it and how to get it off – give us a call to help out.

To see the news report, watch this video.