data security Archives · AE Technology Group

What is Data Poisoning, and Why Does it Matter?

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While artificial intelligence and machine learning both offer many benefits to business owners and individuals, there are always risks when adding new technology to your workplace. Although technology can help to automate your business and save you money in the long run, data poisoning is something you need to be aware of when implementing new technology. Keep reading as we discover what data poisoning is and why you need to be aware of this risk.

Data Poisoning – What Is It?

When hackers tamper with any machine learning training data, this is what we are referring to when we use the term data poisoning. It’s very similar to other issues such as malware, where someone is hoping to attack your business. The aim of data poisoning is to gain access to the machine learning database, so that incorrect and misleading information is left for the system to learn from. This results in artificial intelligence conclusions which could be detrimental to your future business operations.

You’ll find that there are two different types of data poisoning attacks. The first works to attack the availability of the data that can be read, which is a simpler process for hackers. They just aim to add as much bad data into your database as they possibly can. On the other hand, other attacks will target the works of your database, allowing the system to be manipulated. Both of these types of attacks mean even the most complex machine learning system is useless for your business.

Why Should You Be Concerned About Data Poisoning?

More and more businesses are using artificial intelligence and machine learning in their daily processes. This means that your business is left in the hands of your systems, so when the data is corrupted, there will be more issues in your workplace.

Many of these systems are still in their very early days, but as data continues to progress and they become more complex, even the smallest of changes could make your system completely useless. With the help of technology, we can work to simplify our business processes, but cybercriminals are doing all that they can to stop this technology from being beneficial to companies around the world.

Protecting Yourself From Data Poisoning

The good news is that there are ways you can protect any database from future issues. Good cybersecurity will help to protect AI and ML databases, stopping them from being corrupted. Make sure you also update your software on a regular basis and keep training your employees so that they are confident in protecting your workplace.

Our team is here to support you with your data security and ensure that you aren’t a victim of data poisoning in the future. Contact us today to discuss any concerns you have about protecting your databases or to learn how we can help you to have your most successful year yet by implementing new technology in your workplace.

Data Backup Protects Everything You’ve Built

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When you have a thorough and powerful data backup strategy in place at your business, you are protecting your operations, your employees, and your customers from an array of terrible scenarios. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t think of data loss in the terms it should be considered in, a complete travesty. Today, we thought we would briefly describe the long and short of data backup and recovery practices that can put your business in a position to secure and restore your data should it be corrupted, destroyed, or stolen.

The Role of Data Backup

The first thing you should know about a backup solution is that it has to take into account the data and systems it is backing up. If your staff is actively adding data to backed up databases, you will want to enlist the use of incremental backup solutions that can be updated as they work, rather than backing up the whole system once per day. The benefit of this is obvious. With solid data redundancy, you won’t have to worry about extremely expensive operational redundancy.

Most modern businesses have a lot of data that they should protect. To effectively do that, we recommend that businesses use the 3-2-1 rule. This states that any organization that wants to ensure data redundancy keep three separate copies of their data, with two being kept onsite for fast recovery and one being kept off site, preferably in a cloud-hosted data center. This ensures that any data is protected and ready to restore regardless of the circumstances surrounding your data loss. Your data is effectively protected against malware attacks, true disasters like fire or flood, or corruption or loss from human error, which unfortunately happens more than anyone would like. By having multiple copies of data, especially copies that are set to automatically backup incrementally, you are ensured that if you need to recover data, that you have as much of your data as possible.

How It Affects Disaster Recovery

Your disaster recovery strategy is likely more than just restoring data from backup, but make no mistake about it, it is an integral part of the process. When your business is hit with a data loss situation, the speed in which you are able to recover from that event is one of the most important metrics, as sustained downtime can hurt any business. So, with getting data restored quickly being a top priority, the 3-2-1 rule becomes important. By having a backup on hand to restore from, your recovery time will be reduced as compared to restoring from the cloud. However, if your business is dealing with a disaster scenario, and you lose the ability to restore from onsite backup, your cloud backup can be used as a server until you can get onsite hardware up and running again.

At AE Technology Group, we offer a backup and disaster recovery (BDR) service that works for any business. Not only do we adhere to the 3-2-1 rule, we have a team of trained IT technicians at the ready to help get your business’ data back, and get your operations running quickly. If you would like more information about the BDR service and how it is a complete solution for your business’ needs, contact us today at (516) 536-5006.

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Take Charge of Security With Two-Factor Authentication

As attacks by hackers become all too common, it is increasingly important to ensure that accounts and passwords are protected. Two-factor authentication (2FA) provides an extra level of protection to accounts and is an important security option that all companies should consider. If you have questions or would like to learn more, AE Technology Group would be happy to help.

What is Two-Factor Authentication?

Two-factor authentication provides a method for ensuring that accounts are safe, even if a password is hacked or stolen. In addition to use of a password, 2FA requires that the account holder provide an additional piece of data or information to confirm the account. While there are many options for the second authentication factor, three common choices are:

A piece of information unique to the user, such as a password or PIN;
A physical object owned by the user, such as a smartphone or token; or
A biometric indicator, most commonly fingerprints verified by a fingerprint reader.

When an account needs to be verified, the system will first require that the user enter their password and then request their second form of authentication. For example, after a password is entered, the system may generate a phone call to the user’s smartphone.

What Are the Benefits of 2FA?

The most obvious benefit to 2FA is security. In the password/smartphone example used above, a hacker would only gain access to the account if they knew the account password and had access to the associated smartphone. 2FA also allows for increased flexibility for workers. Without having to worry about the safety of their devices, they can work remotely and in more locations – allowing them to maximize their time and productivity.

How Do I Implement 2FA?

AE Technology Group is perfectly poised to help your business implement 2FA.

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5 Reasons Your Organization Needs a Data Replication Solution

In the past, companies had only data backups to rely upon in the case of a natural disaster, a data breach, or a system failure. Whether they wanted to or not, they had no other choice but to wait hours — days in some cases, for their system to be up and running again. They likely lost at least some of the data entered in after their last full backup, with no other choice but to manually re-enter the data back into their system.

Today, even smaller companies have another option available to them — a data replication solution, which is turning out to be a game changer for many businesses after a data loss. In this article, we will outline 5 reasons why a business should carefully consider whether a data replication solution is right for them.

1. Downtime – A Thing of the Past

If your organization would become seriously crippled by a downtime period of several days, or perhaps even just one day, taking advantage of a data replication solution may be the right thing for your organization. If having your system available is absolutely necessary to your bottom line, then you simply cannot afford even short periods of downtime.

2. Recover Almost Instantaneously

With a data replication solution, a real-time image of current (and past) data can be recovered almost instantaneously. When configured correctly, data replication can occur within seconds, with hardly any noticeable downtime for users.

3. Streamlined Backups

A data replication solution means an instant backup is continually performed, and available at a moment’s notice. In the event of a disaster, knowing you have a readily available, complete backup without all the restoration hassles typically associated with more traditional backups, is very reassuring.

4. Reduce Costs

Consider the costs incurred if your business goes down for a few days, or in some cases, even one day or a few hours. With data replication solutions becoming very affordable for even small businesses, it is becoming more and more cost effective for companies to incorporate data replication into their IT plan.

5. Greater Accuracy

Anyone who has ever had to reconstruct and re-enter data after a system failure is likely to tell you that the process is painstaking, time-consuming, and difficult. With a replication solution, there is no data to reconstruct or re-enter. A complete and accurate data set is ready for immediate access.

If you would like to know more about what data replication can do for your organization, please contact us.

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Disaster Recovery: Most Common Causes of Data Loss

An important aspect of disaster recovery planning is understanding what causes data loss. At this point, most business owners understand the risks and costs of data loss. On the other hand, not everyone is so sure as to what causes it in the first place.

We understand this and included a section in our backup solutions PDF that covers data loss causes. Here’s what we wrote:

The most common causes of data loss are due to:

Viruses
Software failures
File corruption
Hard drive crashes
Laptop loss / theft
Natural disasters
Power outages
User errors

If you’re going to plan for disaster recovery and what happens when you lose data, you also have to know why instances of data loss occur. Knowing what causes data loss will help you prevent it from ever happening. And while restoring data is good, preventing data loss is even better.

Consider what your business does daily to prevent the causes listed above. For example, write down exactly what your business does to prevent viruses. Do you have a firewall? Do you block certain websites that are susceptible to viruses? Have you educated employees about the risk of viruses?

This will give you insight as to how protected your data really is. If you find that there are many holes in your data protection plan, don’t worry. There are a few things you can do to protect your data immediately.

The best thing that we can recommend is to speak with a managed IT service provider. We can audit your data security and let you know if you need more protection. The worst case scenario is that you need to add extra security, and we can help with our flexible services. At the same time, you’re not locked into any deal or contact. There’s no pressure and you can choose what you think is right for your business.

To talk more about this or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.

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