Connecticut's IT Managed Services Blog

When most owners of Connecticut small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) look at their balance sheet and see assets and expenses, they usually put their IT managed services provider (MSP) in the “expense” column. That’s a mistake. If you look carefully at the value-added services and capabilities that your IT MSP provides, you’ll realize that your MSP actually is an invaluable asset that can add to the bottom line of your Connecticut SMB.

More employees than ever are working remotely, which is creating new challenges for Connecticut companies’ IT support teams. When users have to access business-critical data outside the office, it presents a different set of challenges to secure and manage corporate data. Every day, there are new internet and mobile technologies that are enabling new levels of remote office computing to increase productivity. However, if the IT support team can’t support and protect remote workers, your business can’t profit from the benefits of telecommuting.

Every Connecticut small business needs to take data security extremely seriously. You need to be on continuous watch for malware and data leaks. A data leak can be disastrous for any business, but small businesses are especially vulnerable, because they typically don’t have the hardened data security of large corporations or the resources to deal with a data breach once it occurs. Connecticut small businesses suffer double jeopardy, because, in addition to dealing with the data breach itself, Connecticut’s data breach notification law requires businesses to notify those affected and provide two years of identity theft and credit monitoring.

Not long ago the concept of viable self-driving cars seemed far-fetched, but the reality is that autonomous vehicles (AV) are here today, and likely to become commonplace within the next few years.While the technology is nearly perfected, there are still roadblocks to adoption, such as data security, which is something that should concern all Connecticut businesses.

We have been discussing various ways that Connecticut small businesses have been affected by cyberattacks, but small businesses aren’t the only victims. As recent news stories have shown, government has to be wary of hackers as well. Whether it’s the Russians trying to affect the outcome of an election or cyber crooks hunting for Social Security and employment records, government agencies also are being targeted for cyberattacks. There is no central authority for government cyber security, so each federal agency and state is responsible for protecting its own data. Some states fare better than others, and how they choose to tackle cyber security can have a big impact on small business.