How to Streamline Your Network Monitoring Process

IT experts monitor your network’s legacy systems and policies. These professionals deal with its upkeep and make sure that it doesn’t cause any interruption that may affect business operations. You can keep your network healthy through different solutions that are available in the marketplace. Third party, enterprise level, open source, or freeware solutions offers insights into your system’s behaviour.

But just like any solution, the installation of a tool doesn’t guarantee that you’re using it in the best possible way. Fortunately, you can maximize the efficiency of the network monitoring solution and streamline its execution.

5 Things To Ensure Correct And Successful Implementation of Your Network Monitoring Product

1. Assess The Network Performance Levels

If you want to know how you prefer your network to operate, you should determine the network performance levels first. It’s crucial to define what you consider as normal for your network. You have to know what you believe is the infrastructure’s acceptable working condition before you implement a software that will monitor your network. This will help you determine the appropriate thresholds for your network. You can perform network tests on several components such as firewalls, routers, and switches, to name a few.

 

 

2. Conduct Network Device Discovery

You need to know what your network contains if you wish to monitor it effectively. Identify what devices you have in your network and where they’re located. You can use a software that maps your network so you can arrange the devices and create relevant connections. Network mapping is important in understanding your network’s health. It offers you a visual inventory of the devices within your infrastructure and how they’re doing.

3. Identify What Information To Monitor

The majority of network monitoring software depends on Simple Network Management Protocol or SNMP to take crucial information about a certain device. You can poll certain performance stats using an SNMP Management Information Base. By using a network monitoring software, you will be able to make custom probes that lets you boost your monitoring abilities by getting nonstandard information.

4. Allow SNMP and Flow Capture on Your Network Devices

SNMP is considered to be an effective way of getting network performance Columbia SC statistics from network devices. You have to configure the core infrastructure like firewalls, routers, and switches in order to support the SNMP. It will enable you to monitor the network effectively.

Before you configure the SNMP, check if the network monitoring product supports the different version of the protocol. Think of using the SNMPv3 to secure your network.

5. Determine Who Will Get The Alerts

After completing the four initial steps, the next thing you have to do is to set up the alerts and determine who will get the alerts in case a problem arises. You have to determine the internal altering policies by knowing who will get the notifications. Is it your network engineer, NOC, or IT admin? Then determine how the notification will be distributed. This would help you determine the next steps in possible troubleshooting process or escalation procedure according to the severity as well as service level agreements.

 

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now and let our team of IT experts help streamline your network monitoring process.

 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

SpartanTec, Inc.
Columbia, SC 29201
(803) 408-7166
http://manageditservicescolumbia.com/

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

3 Scary Tricks Hackers Pull to Weasel into Business Networks

The modern cyber threat landscape is a frightening place. What better time than Halloween to assess the threats in your environment and your ability to thwart them with the help of a reliable IT service. Modern hackers have an arsenal to trick unsuspecting individuals and computers into giving them access and information. Some schemes — like phishing — prey on people’s trust.  But an educated workforce, combined with strong security solutions, can help you stomp out these wicked plots before they take traction.

Phishing

Phishing relies on deception.  Cyber criminals don a costume of sorts — by cloaking themselves in the guise of a legitimate, trusted entity. By using elaborate emails and fake websites, they fool their unwitting victims into volunteering sensitive information — and even money. Half the battle is recognizing where these threats are coming from. Here are some types to watch for:

• Deceptive phishing involves sending a message pretending to be from a trusted source. The message often makes an urgent request for a payment or asks to verify account information.
• Spear phishing is more personalized and targets someone specific, using information gleaned from places like social media.
• Pharming involves creating a fake website, hijacking another website’s domain name, and sending unsuspecting visitors to the fraudulent site.

 

 

Whaling

Some cyber criminals aren’t content to feast on little fish, so they go after the biggest creature in the sea. With these so-called whaling scams, criminals use extensive surveillance and research to learn about company culture and use customized emails and websites to target a specific end user. One tactic is to create an email that looks like it’s coming from the CEO’s account and make a request for funds or information. Whaling scams are lucrative and widespread.  According to the FBI, between October 2013 and February 2016, there were 17,642 reported victims, which amounted to $2.3 billion in losses.

Evasive Malware

Malware is often spread through phishing emails. To survive, malware needs to avoid detection, and a new sophisticated strain does just that. It’s able to identify when it’s in a cybersecurity test environment and not look suspicious until it’s deemed safe and released into the network.

Prevention

Employees are a crucial line of defense, so set clear rules to govern online behavior.  Experts at managed IT services say that employees should:

• Be careful what they install.
• Follow good password practices.

• Watch out for suspicious links, tweets, posts and attachments.
• Backup work.
• Speak up if they see something unusual, or receive an odd request—even if it’s from someone in the C-suite.

Of course, scary cyber attacks aren’t solely linked to human error. People and technology need to work together to fight the nefarious tricksters. In addition to a diligent workforce, you need behind-the-scenes security solutions to prevent, detect and mitigate phishing and malware threats. IT services Columbia SC utilizes a security framework uses a combination of technologies such as firewalls, secure email gateways and sandbox technology to detect and block threats and respond if there’s a breach.

Get deep insight into your security posture and network activity to decrease your vulnerability to even the trickiest of modern cyber threats. Contact SpartanTec, Inc. to learn about the advantages of performing a cyber threat assessment.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

SpartanTec, Inc.
Columbia, SC 29201
(803) 408-7166
http://manageditservicescolumbia.com/

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

Wyze User Information Leaked Include Emails And Other Data

Wyze is one of the many manufacturers of consumer-grade smart devices. They recently confirmed that user data belonging to nearly two and a half million of its customers was exposed. The root cause of the exposure was traced back to an unsecured database connected for nearly a month to an Elasticsearch cluster. This was during a period of time spanning December 4th to December 26th, 2019.

The company did not discover the database on their own. Rather, they were following a tip given to them by a reporter. This was following the developments of security researchers operating out of a company called Twelve Security, who initially discovered the database.The reporter published the article he was writing after contacting the company, but apparently, not in coordination with them.

Having been alerted to the problem, the company took swift action, but in this case, perhaps it was too swift. According to Dongsheng Song, one of the co-founders of the company and its current Chief Product Officer:

"We locked down the database in question before we were able to verify it was exposed. We did this as a precaution because the published article referenced a database connected to 'Elasticsearch': a search tool that we also used on our query database."

As to impacts, it has been confirmed that the database in question contained WiFi SSIDs, customer email addresses and smart device nicknames,.It did not contain passwords or any financial information, so although it's a serious issue, it's not as bad as it could have been.

Song also noted in a blog post on the matter that "there is no evidence that API tokens for iOS and Android were exposed, but we decided to refresh them as we started our investigation as a precautionary measure."

In a nutshell, the handling of this incident was botched and uneven, but it could have been much, much worse. Wyze dodged a bullet, as did the company's customers.

SpartanTec, Inc. Columbia, SC 29201 (803) 408-7166 http://manageditservicescolumbia.com/

cities served:
Columbia, West Columbia, Cayce, St Andrews, Lexington, Oak Grove