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The Hilltop Blog

InSight Managed Services Plans (MSP)

Jim Turner - Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Hilltop InSight Managed Services Plans are the consistent and affordible way to manage your network and user support needs.  Our MSP clients have one fixed rate all you can eat plan that covers all of their user support needs from 7AM until 7PM.  Our MSP clients receive 24/7 monitoring of their servers and critical systems.  MSP clients don't pay anything extra for disaster recovery.  We can offer this because our MSP clients generally don't have disasters.  They don't have disaster because our 24/7 monitoring alerts or Network Operations Center about potential issues before they become disasters.  Contact our Service Dispatcher to setup a phone call or free onsite assessment to see if Hilltop InSight Managed Services are right for your business.

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Keep your digital tax documents secure

Tom Wanat - Monday, February 08, 2010

Tip: Don't save your tax return on your computer hard drive. LifeLock, an ID theft protection company, warns that if you do, and you have a program installed that downloads music, such as Napster or LimeWire, ID thieves might be able to access your tax return and other personal data. Easy, safe alternatives include saving print outs, or saving your files to an external hard drive or USB "thumb" drive.

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Hilltop adds InSight Endpoint Security to managed services offering

Tom Wanat - Thursday, November 05, 2009
Hilltop has added full-featured anti-virus and spyware detection to our managed-services suite.

Now we can centrally protect and manage all aspects of our clients' computer network. These security tools are integrated into our InSight proactive monitoring and remote-repair software to provide a simple, streamlined, and low-cost solution.

In other words, we believe this anti-virus software rivals anything already in use on your network yet this ties directly into our centrally-monitored helpdesk system for less money than what you're paying today. 

Hilltop's InSight Endpoint Security is backed by the award winning AVG technology. AVG possess a strong and respected technology background. With over 40 million users, AVG has worldwide recognition in the Anti-Virus market and plays an active role in the security software industry. In 2005 AVG was accepted to the Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC), an organization of software companies, academics and consumer groups working together to combat spyware and other malware threats.

Contact us today for more information.
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OpenDNS enterprise and deluxe editions

Tom Wanat - Friday, October 16, 2009
We're written before about OpenDNS -- an easy way to improve Web surfing and block objectionable content while reducing phishing threats -- and OpenDNS recently introduced two new offerings that make their service better suited to business.

OpenDNS Deluxe, priced at about $10/year, gives more control over which sites are blocked or whitelisted. It also pleasantly removes advertising from OpenDNS pages.

OpenDNS Enterprise goes further by introducing malware protection and support for multiple administrators on top of more customization and reporting options. Pricing was not yet published for for the OpenDNS Enterprise service, but we expect it will be based on the total number of people with the organization.

Hilltop has deployed OpenDNS at a number of clients in the last year and recommend it as a good solution for content filtering. The OpenDNS Deluxe service looks ideal for our clients, with Enterprise being a useful option for any organization that wants to easily cover multiple sites.

Contact us today if you'd like to schedule installation for your network.
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Security precautions for small business online banking

Tom Wanat - Wednesday, October 14, 2009
A recent article in The Washington Post got a lot of attention when the author, who has been studying a crime wave specifically targeted at small businesses doing online banking, concluded the only way to be safe is not to use Windows.

The article, "Avoid Windows Malware: Bank on a Live CD" goes on to say, "The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don't use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online."

"I do not offer this recommendation lightly (and at the end of this column you'll find a link to another column wherein I explain an easy-to-use alternative). But I have interviewed dozens of victim companies that lost anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000 dollars because of a single malware infection. I have heard stories worthy of a screenplay about the myriad ways cyber crooks are evading nearly every security obstacle the banks put in their way."

Hilltop believes the overall concerns mentioned and patterns analyzed are worth knowing by anyone doing online banking as the risks are real. But we also believe in a more holistic approach to securing an office network that includes proper firewall configuration, patch management, and malware scanning. A compromised PC will do harm beyond any impact to online banking -- although we also recognize money talks loudest.

Our bottom line is that Web-based encryption and secure logins alone are not enough to ensure security. Hilltop works with our clients to ensure securing every machine on every network. 
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Protect yourself with better passwords

Tom Wanat - Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Are your passwords strong enough?

Most people are still using easy to guess passwords such as names, birthdays, and other common words. Worse, most people use the same password over and over at all the Web sites and computers they use. Attacks are proliferating against weak passwords, both against Web sites like Gmail, but also against individual workstations. Just one easily guessed password -- for example, to a Gmail account -- can lead to a cascade of problems at online shopping sites, online banking sites, and more.

An in depth article at Windows Secrets features great tips, such as:

  • How to make tough passwords you can remember. Such as, take an easy to remember phrase and use the second letter of each word. "All good things come to those who wait" becomes "lohoohha," etc.
  • How to test passwords to see if they are strong enough to avoid being guessed. For instance, this password checker from Microsoft.
  • A comprehensive list of dos and don'ts list for keeping passwords safe, including, "DON'T enter passwords on a computer you don't control".
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Hacked Web Sites Infecting Computers

Tom Wanat - Friday, June 05, 2009
An increasingly common entryway for viruses into Windows XP computers has been via a visit to an infected Web site. Recently some big name Web sites have been compromised, including Variety and Coldwell Banker. A Google security blog recently said it was tracking more than 4,000 Web sites that were distributing malware.

If you are still running Windows XP (Vista and Mac OS X Leopard are safe from this type of threat) the single best thing you can do is to stop using Internet Explorer 6. IE7 offers only a little more protection, so the best advice is to surf using Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, or IE8. The newest of these browsers check sites against a Google-maintained registry of infected sites before loading pages to help keep you safe. Additionally, a hardware firewall and up-to-date internet security software are important ways to keep your system trouble free.

Worried about your system? Give it a scan with free software like the Shavlik Patch Google Gadget, or contact us to schedule a checkup.

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