IT infrastructure Management by United Africa

IT infrastructure Management by United Africa: Since 2009, Unitec has been perfecting its infrastructure management offering. Today, Unitec Centralised Services provides our clients with access to 24/7 monitoring and alerting by some of the best skilled professionals in the industry.

The team at Unitec have been extra busy the last few weeks

 We have recently witnessed drastic measures implemented by governments globally in response to the COVID-19 crisis and we are now all effectively experiencing a new normal with of lockdown measures. Working from home where possible, social distancing and good hygiene all contribute positively to containing the virus, and it is important that we all take the necessary precautions required.

The team at Unitec have been extra busy the last few weeks, ensuring all our clients are fully equipped to work remotely. Our capacity to deliver the best in class service may be tested over the coming period as we and the country deal with the effects of COVID-19.

Our objectives, however, remain the same as always and we are on hand to offer advice and provide you with the best service and workable solutions. We are uniquely positioned – with teams and locations on two continents – we will continue to offer full support desk services during these difficult times.

We are fully committed to ensuring that your business remains operational during this unprecedented period. Many businesses are currently operating from homes, and the Unitec team will continue to support you with your IT requirements during this transition.

Please bear in mind, working from home will cause unforeseen challenges as there are aspects of home networks that are outside of any scope. Some important factors to consider in a remote working environment are:

• broadband speeds – especially in rural areas
• lack of access to the internet
• failing / non corporate hardware

Another point to note is that laptop stocks are extremely depleted across the globe. If you are in urgent need of any equipment, please do not hesitate to contact your Unitec Account Manager.

We ask you all to have patience with us while we continue to deliver levels of customer care consistent with our usual operations. We welcome your feedback, questions and ideas on how we can better serve you in a remote working environment.

If you require any assistance whilst working from home, please contact us on 087 551 7689 or email servicedesk@unitecafrica.co.za

Thank you for your continued support and cooperation during this time. Stay safe and keep yourselves well.

Thanks, and stay safe!

Unitec Service Team

How are phishing attacks carried out?

 Have you heard of phishing? In this post, we’ll talk about what it is, how phishing attacks are carried out and the dangers to your business. We’ll give you some examples of phishing attacks and, most importantly, share how you can keep your business protected.

What is phishing?

Phishing is the act of fraudulently obtaining sensitive information (such as usernames, passwords or credit card information) or fraudulently instigating a financial transaction by impersonating a legitimate entity.

How are phishing attacks carried out?

While often thought about as an “online crime”, phishing attacks are carried out in a variety of ways – via emails, fake websites and even by phone call. Phishing attempts are often are very convincing and will include elements of social engineering.

What are the dangers to an organisation?

The end game for a criminal attempting a phishing scam is, of course, money. Businesses can suffer financial losses due to misdirected payments, be held to ransom when their data is encrypted, and suffer damage to their reputation due to these data breaches.

Some examples of phishing attacks.

Some phishing attaches are very easy to spot, but more and more the emails and websites used are highly sophisticated. At first glance, they can appear to be very legitimate. A few examples of where organisations have fallen victim to a successful phishing attack:

“Imagine your payables administrator has a large payment to a regular vendor coming up – the criminals would know the exact details from the email communications between the two businesses. Just before the legitimate transfer is due to be processed, the criminals get in touch, under the guise of the legitimate vendor, and request an update to the banking info. With so much valid information, they’re often not questioned.”

How can you protect your organisation from falling victim to phishing attacks?

Education is the best defence against phishing attacks. Phishing is an ongoing threat, and the risk is even larger for staff working in the financial areas of your business. We’ve compiled some useful tips and listed them below.

Watch out for generic greetings – Many phishing campaigns are carried out in bulk, meaning the cybercriminals will use greetings similar to “Dear Sir/Madam” or “Dear Customer” rather than your name. If your name isn’t listed, be immediately suspicious. However, having your name listed is not a guarantee of legitimacy.

Examine the sender information – Carefully examine the sender information, particularly the email address. Sophisticated phishing attacks will make a subtle change to a legitimate email address in the hopes it won’t be noticed by the receiver. For example, it might be a little difficult to notice the discrepancy in and address like info@sa.absa.com (did you see the “sa” the first time?).

Examine links before clicking – If an email asks you to click on a link, ensure that you ensure it’s pointing exactly where you expect. Hover over the link to view the actual destination. If it’s different to the link text, don’t click. You can always access the legitimate website by typing the usual address into your browser’s address bar and going from there. If there’s any doubt – don’t click.

Be wary of urgency – It’s in the criminals’ best interest to have you act as soon as possible. Often phishing emails will try to create a sense of urgency in the hopes that the receiver will react without taking the precautions we’re mentioning here. An email from your “bank” might inform you that your accounts will be seized if you don’t log in within the hour, for example.

Pick up the phone – Have procedures in place for when certain changes are requested. The staff member processing these changes can easily verify the legitimacy of a request by simply picking up the phone for confirmation. It’s one quick, simple way you can protect your organisation from becoming a victim

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If you’d like to review any of these items, or discover other ways to protect your organisation from cyber threats, please get in touch by calling 087 551 7689 or emailing hello@unitecafrica.co.za

Unitec has a wealth of experience in facilitating businesses in the use of Microsoft Teams

Remote working has become the way many organizations can continue their business operations in the shadow of the current coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. Unitec is supporting all our clients in this transition – for some of you, this is uncharted territory. We want to reassure you that we are on hand to answer any of your questions and address any issues you may face in supporting your remote workforce – just get in touch with us.

As a Microsoft Cloud Partner, Unitec has a wealth of experience in facilitating businesses in the use of Microsoft Teams. Teams is essentially a digital workspace, allowing colleagues to collaborate and be productive, wherever they may be physically located. For those of you who may not have been leveraging the software before now, Microsoft has a great demo tutorial of the platform which was posted within this past year.

Further information from Microsoft Teams can be found here or alternatively talk to one our consultants today on  087 551 7689 or email hello@unitecafrica.co.za

Unitec Africa is your accessible expert for cyber security

 Data security and compliance are areas of great concern for all businesses but addressing these areas can lead to business owners getting bogged down. Often, they simply end up just sticking their heads in the sand. As with many things in life, this approach clearly doesn’t work, and leaves businesses vulnerable to breaches and/or potential fines. In the day and age of POPIA and GDPR around data protection, you must be compliant and protect your data, and that of your customers. It’s as simple as that.

Getting there, however, is not so simple. We get it. If your core business doesn’t revolve around things like backups and firewalls and if even the mere mention of encryption has your eyes crossing, it can be an overwhelming subject to tackle alone. Thankfully, you don’t have to.

Unitec Africa is your accessible expert for cyber security, providing innovative solutions for your business to ensure the prevention of data crises. We are experts in our field, so you can concentrate on being expert in yours. Partnering with industry-leading vendors such as Fortinet, Microsoft, Cisco, Webroot and Sophos, you can rest easy knowing that Unitec has got you covered – and covered 24/7, 365 days of the year, no less.

Each business has its own needs, and so getting to know yours is key to us presenting a tailor-made solution that will fit and even get your eyes un-crossed!

If data security and compliance have been on your mind, reach out to us today. Our experienced, friendly and certified IT experts are on hand and looking forward to helping you to get you where you need to be. Email us or call 087 551 7689 for more information

24/7 Proactive infrastructure monitoring and response

ACCESSIBLE EXPERTISE with Unitec Africa, for business continuity in a time of rushed deployment of remote IT services due to the Covid-19 pandemic. If you need accessibility, security and enablement of your businesses IT for the modern workplace that will take your business into the future – we offer productive, secure IT infrastructure over the longer term with consideration for uncertain and changing times. Equip your employees with the remote work technology they need to get the job done from anywhere, anytime.

Unitec Africa is an international trusted and professional IT services and consultancy firm with a proven international track record across many business sectors, from SMME’s to corporate, private and public clients.

With the arrival of the COVID-19 Pandemic, many organizations are facing the challenges of remote working, that they must overcome in order to seamlessly transition to the ‘new way’ of working whilst remaining relevant and profitable.

On the African continent, in the hast of setting up operations outside of the normal work environment, businesses may have overlooked critical areas of their information technologies implementation and the more importantly the security structure thereof.

Critical security related issues such as those outlined below are instrumental in setting up secure IT infrastructure in an uncontrolled environment:

• Security challenges around remote working / teleworking environments
• Security compliance and governance risks
• Proliferation of bad actors exploiting vulnerabilities of deploying remote working solutions as scale and at a rapid pace.
• Mitigation of cyber threats across all IT services employed in the remote environment (Email, Data, Voice) ensuring the organisations data integrity

Enablement / IT Op’s Related;

• Leverage Microsoft cloud technologies, access to company resources on multiple devices in real time
• Voice mobility, roaming work phone extensions, across multiple platforms (Desktop, Mobile Phone, Desktop Handset)
• Address challenges associated with providing on-demand IT support for the remote workforce
• Address challenges around managing remote workforce productivity

At Unitec Africa we offer IT infrastructure and support solutions that service any size of business.

For larger corporate clients our services are segmented (i.e.) Security, Networking, Desktop Support.

For smaller organisations we provide enterprise class solutions at a SMME price, allowing smaller organisations to compete on a level playing field, typically assuming responsibility for all aspects of IT.

SMME’s businesses that can greatly benefit from our expertise and solutions include:

• SMME’s with 50-100 employees
• Security conscious organisations who need data protection
• Businesses that need to work within smaller budgets
• Businesses no in-house IT Team
• Growing businesses that suddenly require a remote workforce

Unitec’s Impressive Product Offering Includes:

Productivity – Microsoft Cloud

• Microsoft SharePoint & One Drive
• Microsoft Teams (Teleconferencing)
• Office 365 Suite (Microsoft Exchange Email, Office Applications)
• Microsoft Azure (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)

Security – Fortinet

• Fortigate Next-Generation Firewall
• Forticlient Enterprise management server
• Forticlient VPN

Security – End Point Security

• Sophos Full Disk Encryption (Windows / MAC)
• Sophos USB Flash Drive Encryption
• Webroot End-point Protection
• Email Security

Productivity – Voice

• Mobile voice solutions, HostedPBX
• Hosted PBX Softphone solutions
• Call centre Solutions
• Call recording solutions

Managed Services

• 24/7 ITIL Accredited Service Desk
• Virtual CIO (Chief Information Officer)
• Remote / Onsite Reactive support services
• 24/7 Proactive infrastructure monitoring and response

Unitec brings years of expertise and experience to offer the African market efficient remote working technology.

Request a free consultation

Secure Remote IT Working Solutions by Unitec in South Africa

The global pandemic has for many, been the unintentional driver of digital transformation within organisations. Rapid deployment of remote workplace solutions, with a focus on speed of deployment being the priority, critical in ensuring business continuity in a chaotic environment for if not all organisations has been the order of the day. As we adapt to the new norm of distributed networks, it is only appropriate to take stock of how we balance the performance and productivity of our teams versus the security demands in maintaining the integrity of sensitive business data.

We explore some of the key security related considerations for your remote workforce as well as how you can leverage your existing infrastructure to mitigate against broadening the attack vector, that is the paths from which bad actors attempt to gain access to our organisations devices and data all the while maintaining productivity and performance  levels in order to stay competitive in your industry.

PATCH MANAGEMENT AND END POINT SECURITY

A key task of IT administrators, patch management focuses on approving and deploying system updates that address performance related issues, provide system enhancements or remedy identified security vulnerabilities that bad actors attempt to exploit in server and PC operating systems. This critical function previously managed by administrators in a controlled environment, using for example, Microsoft Windows Update Services  or (WSUS) for example, now becomes more challenging with a distributed workforce, Unitec solves this challenge through our remote monitoring and management platform which is not limited to geography and can be deployed to any device whether in the corporate environment or in the home office, bundled with comprehensive reporting which ensures all your business devices are fully patched and compliant for security peace of mind.

These same principles apply when effectively managing remote worker anti-virus applications, your anti-virus software should be from a reputable cybersecurity firm ensuring that virus signature databases are relevant and kept up to date, that is, updated with latest identified threats. Further, security policies should also be in line with your organisations requirements and that these critical services are in fact running. This is a key challenge to overcome when managing devices outside of the corporate network. Our cloud-based end point security management platform immediately alerts us to anomalies or discrepancies and can easily be remedied through our automation platform, taking the burden out of keeping track of compliance and reporting.

EMAIL SECURITY AND MFA

With the proliferation of Microsoft cloud and Office 365 adoption (now known as Microsoft 365) many organisations leverage Microsoft Exchange Online for their email communication requirements, while there are many benefits to a cloud-based email systems, measures should still be taken to safeguard the integrity of this sensitive data. This can be achieved in two ways; firstly, multi-factor authentication is now the status quo for access to cloud resources. This is an authentication method that requires two forms of evidence that the user is in fact who they say they are, typical models use a username and password as well as an OTP or one-time pin code that is sent to the user’s device. If your cloud email does not have MFA enabled, now is the time to implement it.

Secondly, while most cloud email providers offer a baseline anti-spam, phishing and virus filtering service, many attempts from bad actors to gain access to your inbox are still successful, again a reputable spam filtering service, with superior scanning engines should be employed to protect your sensitive data. Unitec offer industry leading spam filtering services for both on premise and cloud-based email services, ensuring external emails sent to users within your organisation are first scanned and once deemed legitimate and free of any virus, malware, or phishing attempts, is only then delivered to your inbox. This level of email security is proving to be key as remote workers are outside the safety of corporate networks where perimeter security firewalls are tasked to block these types of attacks.

UTM AND SECURE VPN ACCESS

IT resources such as enterprise resource planning applications or CRM systems for the most part offer cloud-based alternatives, whether on Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services or vendor specific cloud platforms. However not all do, and many organisations still require direct access to corporate networks for on premise applications. This in itself presents a business risk due to the distributed access of remote workers. Critically all access from outside of your organisation’s networks should be led with a security by design principle.

It should be assumed that all remote devices that have access to your organisation’s networks could be compromised and the necessary measures must be in place to mitigate, detect and restrict access in any such case. For this organisations can leverage existing technologies such perimeter security firewalls that have advanced threat management capability by granting remote access to local IT resources via secure virtual private networks, ensuring data traversing the end point and your networks are encrypted and mitigates the risk of interception by bad actors.

As an example, Fortinet’s next generation Fortigate firewalls offer these advanced features without compromising on performance, leveraging unified threat management capability such as web filtering, antivirus scanning, data-leakage protection and more all delivered through their endpoint management application FortiClient ensuring data integrity is maintained irrespective of location. In essence a secure extension of your corporate network.

FULL DISK ENCRYPTION

Finally, there is unfortunately and always the physical risk of a data breach whereby lost or stolen end point devices inadvertently grant access to your organisations sensitive data. What is deemed a baseline standard for remote workers, especially in the POPIA era, your organisations remote users should have a full disk encryption solution employed. This essentially encrypts all device data, as and when it is created so any attempt to interpret this information will be impossible in the wrong hands due to theft of loss of a device. This is made possible leveraging native encryption available, on for example, Microsoft Windows devices, but without any management behind this utilising Microsoft Intune or similar, it becomes difficult for IT teams to manage and report on compliance. Unitec solve this problem by leveraging this native technology with central management and compliance reporting, taking stock of all remote device inventory and ensuring it meets the data protection and encryption requirements, providing peace of mind that any lost or stolen devices do not result in a data breach.

For information on some of the topics discussed in this article or more on remote working solutions delivered through our managed services please contact our team below for an obligation free consultation.

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