Justin Oliver

Latest Posts from Our Blog

next-gen firewall

Why does my business need a next-gen firewall?

By Justin Oliver | March 5, 2024
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We’ve previously covered “What is a Firewall and Why do I Need One?”.  In this blog post, we will take a deeper look to see how a Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) can help protect your business. NGFW’s contain all the tried and true features of the firewalls before them but they also contain advanced functionalities.…

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What are Managed IT Services?

What are Managed IT Services?

By Justin Oliver | July 18, 2023
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What are Managed IT Services? The Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) defines managed services as “the practice of outsourcing day-to-day technology management responsibilities to a third party as a strategic method for improving operations and accelerating a return on their technology investment”, typically for a fixed price. It is the proactive monitoring of computer and…

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Data Breaches

Data Breaches – What you need to know

By Justin Oliver | January 10, 2023
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Data breaches have been the subject of many news stories lately. Large companies like Target, Home Depot and even Equifax have been hit, exposing millions of pieces of our personal information. It’s only normal to ask, “How do I protect my personal data?” Remember that most identity thieves are not targeting you in particular, they want…

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BUSINESS NEED A SERVER

When does your business need a server?

By Justin Oliver | December 28, 2022
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When does your business need a server?  It may not, at least not in the traditional sense.  In this blog post, we will first talk about on-premises servers and how servers can help you and your business.  Later in the post, we will discuss why a cloud solution is sometimes a better option. The first…

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multi-site VoIP

How can a multi-site “Voice over Internet Protocol” (VoIP) solution benefit your business?

By Justin Oliver | November 1, 2021
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Legacy public branch exchanges (PBX)s present a multitude of challenges if your business has multiple locations or remote users.  A VoIP PBX solution can address many of those challenges. Multiple public branch exchanges (PBX)s to maintain, multiple bills from different tel-co providers, multiple systems to learn and train with, and multiple administrative portals all add to…

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Protecting Data

Guide to PCI DSS – Part 3: Protecting Data

By Justin Oliver | June 21, 2021
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Welcome to SandStorm IT’s 6-part series about Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). In this series, we’ll cover what PCI DSS is and the various requirements: Part 1 – What is PCI DSS? Part 2 – Building and Maintaining a Secure Network Part 3 – Protecting Data (You are here) Part 4 –…

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Office 365 Phishing Attacks

Office 365 Phishing Attacks On the Rise

By Justin Oliver | March 2, 2021
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Recently, we have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of phishing cyber-attacks aimed at Office 365 users.  It’s so bad that almost three quarters (71.4 percent) of corporate Office 365 users have at least one compromised account each month, according to a report by Skyhigh Networks.  If you are not taking Office 365 security…

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Protecting Data

Guide to PCI DSS – Part 2: Building and Maintaining a Secure Network

By Justin Oliver | February 23, 2021
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Welcome to SandStorm IT’s 6-part series about Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). In this series, we’ll cover what PCI DSS is and the various requirements: Part 1 – What is PCI DSS? Part 2- Building and Maintaining a Secure Network (You are here) Part 3 – Protecting Data Part 4 – Further…

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Protecting Data

Guide to PCI DSS – Part 1: What is PCI DSS?

By Justin Oliver | June 1, 2020
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Welcome to SandStorm IT’s 6-part series about Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). In this series, we’ll cover what PCI DSS is and the various requirements: Part 1 – What is PCI DSS? (You are here) Part 2- Building and Maintaining a Secure Network Part 3 – Protecting Data Part 4 – Further…

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Windows Server 2008 R2 End-of-Life

Windows Server 2008 R2 End-of-Life Support is Near

By Justin Oliver | June 24, 2019
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Windows Server 2008 R2 End-of-Life Support is near. Windows Server 2008 R2 end-of-life mainstream supported ended back on January 13, 2015. However, there is a more critical date looming. On January 14, 2020, Microsoft will end all support for Windows Server 2008 R2. It seems like 2020 is a way’s off but updating an IT…

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