I Know What Your Network Did Last Summer...

Do you know how many people on your network have bittorrent software installed? Or how many are running unlicensed software, have business critical data saved on their Dropbox, or have uninstalled their Anti-Virus because it was inconvenient?

Worst of all, do you know how many of your employees have filled up half of your expensive server storage with endless One Direction* song downloaded from iTunes?

I do.

I know, because my team and I monitor and resolve issues on 25,000 PCs and servers every day. We pick up full disks, failed backups, out of date Anti Virus, hardware errors and offline servers, before you even know there’s a problem with any of them.

We can report on installed software, whether it’s licensed or if it’s on a known ‘not business related’ list, disk usage and specification of your hardware. We have the ability, if requested, to check on internet usage and log-on/log-off times for individual users.

All in all, we know more about what’s going on in your network than you do.

That sounds a little NSA-like, but it’s not like that. We don’t go poking around to see what we can find, we simply alert on issues that we know will impact the business, and can provide detailed information on what is going on in the network if requested.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Yes Mike we know all that, we’ve been using TSG SystemCare for years, what’s your point?” Well, apart from the fact that TSG SystemCare and the teams behind it are awesome, my point is that you need to know what’s going on in your network if you want to avoid any unpleasant issues down the line.

This is something which has become increasingly important in the era of people bringing multiple devices into your organisation, and unlicensed software being so readily available on the internet. 

And the consequences of not knowing what’s happening are numerous. A person using bittorent to download films on your office line can expose you to fines, and could even lead to the possibility of having your internet connection blocked.

Unlicensed software can result in fines, or charges far higher than the original cost of the software.

Disabled AV can open you up to all sorts of nasty bugs like Cryptolocker, where all of your data could be encrypted and held to ransom.

Data stored on Dropbox (or stored on any other personal cloud storage), is out of your control. If the user leaves, they leave with your data…

Downloading One Direction and filling up a hard drive, along with the irreparable psychological damage it could do to anyone that hears it, could cause an entire server or cluster of servers to go offline.

(Please be aware that incidents including One Direction or Little Mix downloads are not repairable. The servers involved are encased in concrete and held in secure storage until a cure is found).

I tend to believe in the saying ‘Trust, But Verify’. People in the main do not set out to cause issues on the office network, but ignorance, lack of forethought, and accidents can raise as many problems as malicious intent. 

Give people guidance on what is acceptable behaviour on the office network, and trust them to follow this advice.  And by all means consider using TSG SystemCare and my awesome team to monitor the network at a high level, so you can verify that they are following the right processes.

*AD/DC or Metallica I might let you off with…:)