Cybercrime has been a hot topic in the news recently with ransomware attacks such as WannaCry and Petya. It is important to protect ourselves from these types of threats by educating employees to recognize the differences between phishing attacks and legitimate email. This isn’t always easy.

The move toward telecommuting and satellite office spaces, combined with advances in mobile technology, are placing additional strain on the IT capabilities of small to mid-sized businesses.

As a technology partner, we focus a whole lot on disaster recovery and business continuity.Andromeda helps our clients combat data breaches and other mishaps with smart security prevention but every business remains vulnerable to human error and other unexpected incidents. The only way to truly protect yourself from disaster — natural and man-made — is a professional disaster recovery and business continuity plan. When building your plan, we believe three components are absolute must haves. Your plan must consider recovery point and time objectivesDisasters occur in many shapes and sizes: server crashes, deleted files, fires, floods and of course cybercrime. You must ask yourself two important questions in regards to business continuity: 1. How much data can you afford to lose? The industry term for this is Recovery Point Objective (RPO)2. How much time can you afford to lose; this is commonly known in Business Continuity as Recovery Time Objective (RTO)Your IT partner’s ultimate goal is to provide you optimal RPO and RTO while keeping your solution cost effective. Your plan must have multiple storage locations (preferably off-site and on-site)Backups come in different forms. Whether your backup is a physical backup (kept on-site or off-site), cloud based or some hybrid, it’s important that there are multiple storage locations. We strongly recommend a solution with the ability to backup both on-site and to the cloud. Not only that, but it is imperative that your cloud backups are geographically disperse. This strategy allows you peace of mind, added protection and added security. If you put all of your data in one location, you run the risk of failure or corruption. For example, if you are backing up your data regularly to an off-site drive or storage device, what happens if that device gets damaged, lost or stolen? Your plan must provide a way to access and use your data after incident Many business owners believe that having a copy of their data backed up is enough. While the data is important, having a way to access and make use of said data is the big difference between a simple backup plan and business continuity/disaster recovery. Imagine your server crashes ... do you have a way to make use of your backups? Can you run your organization from the cloud? Do you have a device on site that can run a virtual server? Without a device on site or a cloud backup, you will most likely not be able to make use of your data. I don’t have to remind you — Time Is Money. It can take days and in some cases even weeks to recover from hardware failure, cybercrime or other incident. Without multiple restore options that make your data usable, your backups won’t get you by. In summary: disaster happens. Whether it is the latest ransomware attack, an unfortunate leak in your office, human error or natural disaster, having a professional disaster recovery plan is key. After 23 years, we’ve seen it all. Our mission is to help customers like you prevent incident, prepare for the unthinkable and overcome the unexpected.Give us a call and let’s get to work. Or visit www.WeNetwork.com/Offer for more info. • Jeff Borello is president and CEO of Andromeda Technology Solutions in Lockport.

There’s a strong perception that a small business is just too small for hackers to bother with – that is absolutely not true. So is this threat real, or are we just exaggerating and creating fear?

More and more products are shipping with sensors and network connectivity to capitalize on the currency of data. Data interconnectivity between these devices creates new opportunities to identify and support insights about how use of these products impacts your company.

Cyber Security has been a hot topic for several years now. It seems like you can’t turn on the news without seeing a report of some new Ransomware creating havoc for businesses around the globe.

The proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) creates unprecedented new uses for internet-enabled devices and heightens the demand for high-speed connectivity among residential and commercial users. One example of such uses is telemedicine and the associated applications to monitor patients, personnel, and medical devices, all of which are expanding the health care sector at an accelerated pace.

Have you thought about how much money you need to retire? Or if there is anything more you and your family business can do to save taxes throughout your lifetime? These are just a few questions you can answer by doing a comprehensive financial plan.

Step outside the box at your next fundraiser with a GSH Casino Party. Transform your venue into a hip gathering with a Vegas vibe offering plenty of ways for your organization to meet its fundraising goals.

Farm & Fleet, which is family-owned and not franchised, harkens back to the general-store days that flourished across the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries in small towns and remote places where a single shop was sufficient to service an entire community.