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Why (and How) You Should Plan for Computer Disaster

Planning, Inventories, and the Nitty-Gritty of Disaster Preparedness

How many hours -- or days -- would it take you to recover your business data, re-image your machines, and get your business running again if a flood, virus outbreak, or other disaster took your business offline?

 CMIT Solutions’ own Scott Brennan recently addressed the issue of data loss on WGN Chicago TV. Click here to get his take on protecting your computer from disaster.

 

Here are a few other tips on how to minimize the chances of a disaster doing permanent damage to your business:

  1. Take a full inventory of your data and find out age and file types. You might be shocked at how much of it is old graphics files or employees’ personal MP3 files and movies -- things that you don’t need to waste storage space on.
  2. Write down all your software product keys, license numbers, passwords, configuration notes, and encryption codes and keep them in a locked safe -- preferably both on premises and off.
  3. Write down a detailed plan for restoring data in the event of a loss -- that means figuring out the sequence in which applications, servers, and databases need to be brought back online in order for data to properly repopulate.
  4. Run backups regularly and test them regularly. This is important because certain types of backups are easily corrupted or may stop before they’re complete. Test your backups to make sure they’re actually capable of a full system restore.
  5. Find out from your backup provider how long it would take to recover in the event of a complete data loss. Some providers can take days or even weeks to ship a full set of disks; others may take less than 48 hours.

If this sounds like a lot of work -- well, it is! But putting in the time now can prevent you from some major hassles later. Or call CMIT Solutions and we can help you get started on the path to complete disaster preparedness.

 

Make Your Battery Last Longer

Pretty much everyone who owns a PC laptop has, at some point or another, found themselves with a computer that's nearly out of battery power and no electrical outlets in sight. (Usually this happens right before a road trip with three kids in the back of the car screaming for their Dora the Explorer DVD, or the moment you board a plane with six hours' worth of business presentations to review.) If you want to prevent these sorts of calamities from happening in the future, you can take a few simple steps to reduce your PC's power consumption and increase the number of hours you can get out of a fully charged battery.

 

  1. Dim your screen. One of the easiest and most effective things you can do is dim your screen. Computer screens use up a surprising amount of power when they're at maximum brightness, so keeping your screen as dim as you can tolerate will keep your battery from running out too quickly.
  2. Minimize moving parts. Whirring fans and spinning disk drives can quickly deplete your battery, so keep your computer cool and don't run DVDs or CDs.
  3. Turn off autosave. You should, of course, periodically save whatever you're working on, but autosave eats up more power than you want to use if you're running on a battery.
  4. Don't multitask. Keep the number of programs and processes you're running to a minimum. Microsoft Office programs like Word, Excel, and Outlook tend to use a lot less power than graphics- and processing-intensive programs like the Adobe suite, video games, and music.
  5. Don't use external devices. Any USB-connected device, even if it's shut off, can still drain battery power, so avoid using mice or flash drives.

 

In addition, laptops running Windows XP and Vista will have a "Power Options" setting in the control panel that lets you adjust your machine's power consumption.

 

These tips should help you get the most life you can out of a fully charged laptop battery. To keep your battery in good condition, many experts also recommend running the battery until it's nearly empty and then fully recharging.

Protect Yourself Against the Worm that has Infected Over 9 Million in Two Weeks

One of the biggest worm attacks in years has hit PCs around the world. It's called "Downadup," or "Conficker," and in the past week or so it has spread aggressively to unprotected PCs.

The worm spreads across networks, finding vulnerable computers and turning off the automatic backup service, deleting previous restore points, disabling some security services, and blocking access to security Web sites before spreading to other computers on the network.

It also spreads through USB devices such as flash drives and cameras by taking advantage of the Windows Autorun feature, which will automatically run programs installed on USB devices as soon as they're plugged in. You can try disabling Autorun to prevent infection, but at least one security expert says that Microsoft's own instructions about disabling Autorun are flawed.

If you suspect your machine is infected, please read the instructions below and don't hesitate to give us a call or contact us here for more guidance.

CMIT Solutions recommends you take the following steps to protect your own PC from Downadup or Conficker:

1. Make sure you have a good security suite installed, such as Norton Internet Security, Norton AntiVirus, Norton 360, BitDefender, or AVG. A free version of any of these products is not as thorough or comprehensive as one of the paid versions.

2. Run a full system scan and update your security definitions.

3. Keep your computer updated with any patches that Microsoft has issued recently.

If you're worried that your computer has already been infected, take the following steps:

1. Run a virus scan, which should detect the worm if it's there.

2. If you don't have antivirus software installed, try visiting a few security sites. If your access to those sites is blocked, that’s one sign of infection.

I have included detailed removal instructions by Symantec here.