Shadow IT – What’s in the Dark?
Shadow IT.
Technology hiding in the shadows.
Running on your Company Computers.
Put there on purpose by employees.
Businesses face the ongoing challenge of unapproved software running on their computers. It is not uncommon for staff members and teams to make decisions to use programs and hardware that are not authorized by the IT Department or management.
We will explore different ways Shadow IT gets it into your company’s computer systems and makes contact with your data resulting in undesired consequences.
What is Shadow IT?:
The name sounds a little scary, but it’s not as frightening as the meaning. Shadow IT is software, hardware and cloud applications running inside your company that is unapproved, unknown and unchecked. This is a recipe for a cyber breach event.
How Shadow IT gets into your Company:
Like many things in life, it’s starts from within. Your employees introduce your systems to the shadows. End-users are often confronted with problems they need to solve and decide to go off on their own to find ways to mitigate technical obstacles or to leverage technology that makes their jobs easier.
Examples of Shadow IT:
Dropbox probably doesn’t elicit fearful thoughts in most people, but it is a common example of software that isn’t always authorized on company computers, but ends up on there anyway. The ease at which it can cause damage is also quite fearsome. Dropbox allows users to take files from the company and easily synchronize them to any number of personal computers and smart phones. The possibilities of what happens to the data after that are almost endless.
Employee computers and phones are another example of Shadow IT. If a staff member is using their own hardware to access company resources unchecked it can open your network up to a multitude of threats. A malware infected personal device could expose a password to a cybercriminal who then has the same access to your company data as the employee.
Cloud applications can also fall into the category of Shadow IT when they are utilized outside the radar of IT and Company Management. Something that seems as harmless as an e-mail marketing application could have wide reaching consequences. Company contact lists are uploaded into the cloud and then become vulnerable to a breach your IT staff has no control over. If a cybercriminal knows who you communicate with it makes their job easier. We will go over the power of social engineering in cybersecurity in a future blog post.
We Can Help:
JamKo IT Services provides technology solutions to meet the demands of Businesses across all industries. We can seek out Shadow IT running in your company and bring it into the light for a resolution. The way your computer systems are configured will also keep out undesired software and hardware. JamKo IT Services will take the necessary steps to secure your systems from the darkness of the unknown unknowns. Effective IT Support is our specialty.
We also offer Managed Security Solutions. Our Cybersecurity stack includes EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response to defend against malware), Patch Management, Data Backup, System Monitoring, Vulnerability Scanning, Web Security, Mobile Device Management, Email Security, Firewall Monitoring, 24x7x365 Help Desk, and more.
Contact us to get started:
Providing IT Support Across the United States:
239-249-3306 – SWFL
973-447-4277 – NE NJ
570-904-8992 – NEPA
1-888-995-2656 – NYC and Nationwide
Offices in North Jersey serving Morris County, Essex County, Sussex County. Including Parsippany, Morristown, Caldwell, Livingston, Summit, Springfield, Montclair, Bridgewater, Basking Ridge, Wayne, Plainfield, New Jersey.
Offices in Northeast Pennsylvania serving Lackawanna County, Monroe county, Wyoming County, Luzerne County, Carbon County, Pike County, Lehigh County. Including Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Clarks Summit, Dickson City, Dumore, Mt Pocono, Stroudsburg, Tannersville, Old Forge, Jim Thorpe, Allentown, Easton.
Offices in Southwest Florida serving Lee County, Collier County, Charlotte County. Including Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Bonita Springs, Estero, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda.
Offices in New York City serving Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island.
Offices in East Tennessee: Knoxville, Maryville, Karns, Rockford, Alcoa, Oak Ridge, Seymour, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Townsend, Lenor City, Kingston, Farragut, Powell, Jefferson City.
What Does your Company Get from all that “Monitoring?”
IT Monitoring, Computer Monitoring, Server Monitoring, Network Monitoring, Cloud Monitoring…
Okay Great.
But what does that mean?
Businesses are told that IT Monitoring of their computer systems is crucial, and in many cases required.
So what do you get in all that monitoring? Do you really need it? We will look at these questions and more below:
IT Service plans normally include a Monitoring “Service Stack” which is just another way of saying a set of services. Managed Service Providers offer multiple services within the monitoring plan to make up the stack.
What’s in the Stack?:
There is no rule for what must be in a monitoring plan, but generally speaking there are several core services: Event Log Monitoring, Cybersecurity Reports from EDR or Anti-Virus software, and Backup Job Monitoring.
Additional services in more comprehensive plans include: Patch Management, Network Device Monitoring, Firewall Monitoring, Wi-Fi Performance, Network and Internet Performance, Risk Intelligence, Mobile Device Monitoring, Login Audits, Cloud Environment Monitoring, and more.
How does Monitoring Help?
We rattled off some industry terms, but for most people those terms do not mean much. So let’s go over some examples of what the monitoring services mentioned above do to help your company’s IT infrastructure.
When it comes to computers, they talk a lot, a whole lot. Much of what a computer says is stored in the Event Logs. We monitor those logs looking for a computer crying out for help, or sounding an alarm. Things such as low storage space, failing hard drives, unexpected system freezes can all be found with event log monitoring.
It’s important to know when a computer is infected with malware or viruses (for obvious reasons). Cybersecurity protection software should report its findings back to the Managed IT Service Provider (MSP). The damage caused by malicious software can be mitigated faster if the systems are monitored.
We Can Help:
JamKo IT Services provides Monitoring Solutions to meet the demands of Businesses across all industries. We also offer Managed Security Solutions. Our Cybersecurity stack includes EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response to defend against malware), Patch Management, Data Backup, System Monitoring, Vulnerability Scanning, Web Security, Mobile Device Management, Email Security, Firewall Monitoring, and more.
Providing IT Support Across the United States:
239-249-3306 – SWFL
973-447-4277 – NE NJ
570-904-8992 – NEPA
1-888-995-2656 – NYC and Nationwide
Offices in North Jersey serving Morris County, Essex County, Sussex County. Including Parsippany, Morristown, Caldwell, Livingston, Summit, Springfield, Montclair, Bridgewater, Basking Ridge, Wayne, Plainfield, New Jersey.
Offices in Northeast Pennsylvania serving Lackawanna County, Monroe county, Wyoming County, Luzerne County, Carbon County, Pike County, Lehigh County. Including Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Clarks Summit, Dickson City, Dumore, Mt Pocono, Stroudsburg, Tannersville, Old Forge, Jim Thorpe, Allentown, Easton.
Offices in Southwest Florida serving Lee County, Collier County, Charlotte County. Including Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Bonita Springs, Estero, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda.
Offices in New York City serving Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island.
Offices in East Tennessee: Knoxville, Maryville, Karns, Rockford, Alcoa, Oak Ridge, Seymour, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Townsend, Lenor City, Kingston, Farragut, Powell, Jefferson City.
Help Desk. Problems Solved
Outsourced IT Help Desk.
Business Computer Problems, Solved.
What exactly does an Information Technology Help Desk do?
What are the traits of a comprehensive and effective help desk?
How does a business benefit from outsourcing their help desk?
We will take a look at these questions and more below:
Technical Support Help Desks work around the clock 24x7x365 helping Businesses succeed. Well, maybe not all, but those that do we consider to be Quality Desks.
How a Help Desk helps:
When staff members have computer system problems, concerns, or a general technical question, they contact the IT help desk either by email, phone, and sometimes by chat programs. Tech support is just a click or call away.
The Quality Desk:
Quality help desks possess traits which make their technical support processes stand out from the rest.
Response and resolution times are critical. Our team at JamKo IT Services maintains a response and resolution time to most tickets at under 1 hour. The industry standard is much longer, but we do not settle for average and neither should you.
Issue tracking is also very important. When your staff members open a technical support ticket with the help desk, the responding agent should know the history employees have with the computer systems. The agent working on their case should know what the last support agent did with them previously, especially if it’s an ongoing issue.
Help Desk Advantage:
Businesses gain extensive Managed IT Support advantages through outsourcing the help desk. The costs of an internal IT Team which includes a help desk are high compared to outsourcing the roles. Small to Medium Businesses are able to leverage the power of a full IT team at a lower cost through outsourcing CIO Services. This allows SMBs to compete with their larger competitors on a more even playing field. An external Managed IT Services Team is typically better at maintaining technical documentation. An internal IT person could exit their role without leaving documented technical information and face little to no recourse.
We Can Help:
JamKo IT Services provides Help Desk Solutions to meet the demands of Businesses across all industries. We also offer Managed Security Solutions in addition to technical support. Our Cybersecurity stack includes EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response to defend against malware), Patch Management, Data Backup, System Monitoring, Vulnerability Scanning, Web Security, Mobile Device Management, Email Security, Firewall Monitoring, and more.
Providing IT Support Across the United States:
239-249-3306 – SWFL
973-447-4277 – NE NJ
570-904-8992 – NEPA
1-888-995-2656 – NYC and Nationwide
Offices in North Jersey serving Morris County, Essex County, Sussex County. Including Parsippany, Morristown, Caldwell, Livingston, Summit, Springfield, Montclair, Bridgewater, Basking Ridge, Wayne, Plainfield, New Jersey.
Offices in Northeast Pennsylvania serving Lackawanna County, Monroe county, Wyoming County, Luzerne County, Carbon County, Pike County, Lehigh County. Including Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Clarks Summit, Dickson City, Dumore, Mt Pocono, Stroudsburg, Tannersville, Old Forge, Jim Thorpe, Allentown, Easton.
Offices in Southwest Florida serving Lee County, Collier County, Charlotte County. Including Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Bonita Springs, Estero, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda.
Offices in New York City serving Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island.
Offices in East Tennessee: Knoxville, Maryville, Karns, Rockford, Alcoa, Oak Ridge, Seymour, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Townsend, Lenor City, Kingston, Farragut, Powell, Jefferson City.