Last week, one of Bomgar’s seasoned solutions engineers, Bryan Hood, shared tips in a Network World article around ways helps desks could be unintentionally hurting their organizations. Because they’re so focused on resolving technology issues and keeping users productive, help desks often put their company in harm’s way by using legacy tools, shared passwords and incomplete security practices.

 Here’s a summary of the tips that Bryan shared. Make sure to check these out to ensure your help desk is actually helping versus hurting you.

 

• Using outdated remote access tools - With the growing rates of employees working remotely, the help desk is becoming increasingly reliant on remote access tools to support remote systems and devices. However, many are still using legacy remote access tools such as RDP, VNC or Dameware to remotely fix devices over the Internet. According to Verizon’s 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report, “Remote access services (e.g., VNC, RDP) continue their rise in prevalence, accounting for 88% of all breaches leveraging hacking techniques—more than any other vector.”  By using these tools your help desk could be putting the company at risk for data breaches.

 

• Sharing generic passwords - To get the most out of an investment in remote access tools, the help desk will often use solutions that offer named licenses, which encourages using default login credentials (ex: Tech01, Tech02, etc.) that are shared across technicians. This eliminates the ability to monitor who is doing what within your network and increases the likelihood of a hacker figuring out the generic credentials.

 

• Focusing on the same old metrics- By focusing so much on metrics such as Average Handle Time (AHT), help desks often use tools or processes that help them meet SLAs, but aren’t best for the company as a whole or the end-user’s experience. Help desks should also be incented and empowered to focus on not only efficiency, but also quality and security.

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Valentine’s Day is a week away if you couldn’t tell by the stores filled with pink cards, teddy bears and candy hearts. While these are all good ways to show that “special someone” you’re forever theirs, Valentine’s Day is also a great time to show your coworkers how much you appreciate them.  But as much as I like getting chocolate from my colleagues, as an IT admin, there are other ways I’d prefer they show that appreciation—not just on February 14^th, but throughout the year.

Your friendly IT department does a great job of helping you with your technology issues so you can get back to work. However, sometimes we wouldn’t mind a little help ourselves. All good relationships require give and take so, with that in mind, here are five simple things that you can do to show your IT department just how much you care.
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Monday is Data Privacy Day, an annual event designed to increase awareness of data privacy, security and related concerns in the digital era. Powered by the National Cyber Security Alliance, their site has a number of great resources for helping consumers to stay safe online and protect their personal data.
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The topic of cloud computing (computing resources being delivered as a service over a network) is certainly not a new one.  You can’t open a tech publication, whether printed or online, without seeing an article featuring “The Cloud.” It’s become an integral part of our business and personal technology.  But while the benefits of cloud computing have been well touted, less attention has been paid to the associated drawbacks. 

Last week, Symantec  released the results of a survey conducted for which IT executives at 3,236 organizations were asked questions related to Avoiding the Hidden Costs of the Cloud.


Rogue clouds

The first and biggest hidden cost introduces a major threat to security and therefore monetary resources – rogue clouds. Symantec found that rogue cloud deployments (use of a cloud based service without the authorization or oversight of the company’s IT department) happen in about three-fourths of all organizations.  Really, there are probably very few of us who haven’t used an unauthorized app or online software at one time or another to make our job easier.  Unfortunately, while rogue cloud deployments may allow the individual to be more productive, they also often inadvertently put confidential information into the cloud, leading to potential liability and monetary repercussions:
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At Bomgar, we have a lot amazing customers doing really interesting things with our technology. One organization that we’re so proud to call a customer is The National September 11 Memorial & Museum.   The 9/11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993. Opening its doors in September 2011, the 9/11 Memorial’s twin reflecting pools are each nearly an acre in size and feature the largest man-made waterfalls in North America. The pools sit within the footprints of where the Twin Towers once stood, with the names of every person who died in the 2011 and 1993 attacks inscribed on bronze panels lining the edge of each pool.


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Earlier this week, eWEEK published an article noting that weak passwords are a top IT security risk for 2013 and recommending companies, “hunt down systems with default passwords.”

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If you haven't yet upgraded to the latest version of Bomgar, here's a video demonstrating the exciting new features in 12.3.  For more information and instructions on how to download the new version, check out bomgar.com/12-3. 

Loyal Bomgar Nation: ‘Tis the season, and we are happy to announce that once again it’s time for the 5 Days of Bomgar! We always look forward to our weeklong event of giving back to our awesome customers and fans. We have a whole week of contests and prizes planned just for you - our loyal Community members, Facebook fans, Google+ friends, Twitter followers and general Bomgar groupies.  You’ll have five days’ worth of chances to win great Bomgar gear for yourself, that special IT pal or favorite someone at home.  And the best news is the more you participate, the better your chances are to win a shiny, new iPad mini! 

The rules are easy.  Just look for our  Community announcement, Facebook post, Google+ status or Tweet each morning at 9:30 am EST from December 10^th through December 14^th to enter that day’s giveaway.  The tasks are simple and the prizes are many – so don’t miss out!

For every day you participate in a task on Days 1 through 5, you are entered into the grand prize iPad mini drawing on December 17^th. That means you can be entered to win up to five times! Plus, you are eligible to win prizes each of those days five days as well! That’s why we call it the 5 Days of Bomgar (or 5 Days of Really Awesome Free Stuff).   

This year we’re even giving you a head start on Day One’s task! Here you go and good luck!

Day One: Christmas Carol Lyric Challenge - Take two lines of your favorite Christmas carol, change them to be about Bomgar, post them in the Bomgar Community. We had a lot of great responses, congratulations to our random five winners:

• Andrew Dawson
• Donald Burdette
• Matthew Langley
• Tim Egan
• Rob Miller

Day Two: Bomgar Feature Frenzy: Twitter followers tweeted their favorite Bomgar feature and why with the @Bomgar handle and the #5Days hashtag yesterday. Congratulations to our four random winners!
 

• @beauboyett
• @8bitdigitaltv
• @Nvrsaydinosaur
• @Dupdeets

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At this month’s EDUCAUSE trade show, the Bomgar booth featured live lessons from our customers about how they’re using Bomgar to address their support challenges, including consolidating IT tools and processes. The following video features a presentation by Josh Jones, associate director of user support services at University of North Dakota, which highlights how the University of North Dakota implemented Bomgar to unify the campus and consolidate IT support efforts. With nine major colleges and segmented support teams, the University of North Dakota wanted to consolidate and standardize remote support. Bomgar offered a better solution than hosted solutions for the University, for a number of reasons. Watch the video below to learn how Bomgar's appliance-based solution has enabled the UND help desk to handle an increasing volume of support requests with the same amount of staff.

Apple released the iPad Mini early in November. So I thought I'd make a (what turned out to be very informal) demo of the Bomgar Representative Console on the iPad Mini. I recorded it on my iPhone, so some of it's a bit clunky, but the content is worth sharing.





Incidentally, I wrote this post from the iPad Mini, too.