Cautionary Tales of Technological Slip-ups - Part Six

A warning against failing to keep multiple backups for organizations

I have witnessed on many occasions organizations that lost their data, and others that spent a long time recovering it, which affected their operations, while some lost their work entirely, gone with the wind, due to data deletion, fire, ransomware attacks, and the like. Few of them took heed and followed the necessary procedures to protect the most valuable thing they own, namely their data. It is absolutely essential to take backups of systems and their data, to set up alternative backup servers for the most important applications on an independent network dedicated to backup, to adopt the strongest protection systems, and to enable protection against ransomware and other viruses, along with an organized isolation of the server network from employees' computers, enabling all protection systems on their devices, and prohibiting the use of flash drives and removable disks without a thorough scan of their contents. Among the important measures is to maintain backup servers in a different location as well, and there is no harm in using cloud services, whether from service providers or from companies in the UAE. The topic is very lengthy, but every general manager or owner of an organization must ask their team about business continuity plans and follow up on data recovery and important auditors' reports.

A warning against failing to install systems that detect data usage activity

Some organizations are lax about installing systems that track who accessed files on the file server, monitor permissions, log who deleted what, and enable a system to recover deleted items. These systems are inexpensive and extremely important in every organization.

An encouragement to attend technical courses to develop yourself, whether you are a student, an employee, or awaiting employment

A proper foundation in the field of information technology is very important, for a tower cannot stand without foundations. Students, as well as graduates and those awaiting employment, lose important time in their professional future. Today, frankly, the supply is large, so demand becomes a matter of selection and careful choosing, and the best choice falls to the one who has gathered a harvest of foundational knowledge that enables organizations to dot the i's and cross the t's of these foundations, so that the period of acquiring practical experience is faster and performance is stronger and better, and on this no two will disagree. One of the most important points regarding courses is to steer away from courses tied to the names of devices such as Cisco and Juniper and specialized systems other than Microsoft systems, because these are among the foundations, and some specialized cloud services such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft cloud services. You can attend courses either in person or remotely via YouTube or strong sites such as Udemy and others. The most important basic training courses from the CompTIA group of courses are: the A+ course for computer hardware, Network+ for networking, Server+ for servers, Cloud+ for cloud services, and Security+ for information security. These courses must be attended in order to gain a great benefit. There are many other courses that we will talk about in later articles, God willing, but this group gives you a launchpad into the world of information systems, and most certainly whoever applies for a job holding these courses and others will have the better fortune,

and will be more worthy, God willing, and will most certainly be more proficient, productive, and accomplished.

A warning against relying on temporary streaming platforms

Some entities and individuals rely on lackluster platforms for live streaming, such as Instagram, Twitter, Zoom, and Teams, for one reason or another. If it is truly necessary, then add a stream or save the video to your own channel on YouTube, because the effort you put in on those platforms that are not specialized in videos is wasted, lost amid the folds of tweets and Instagram photos. There are platforms that stream to several sites at the same time with many capabilities and add-ons; you only have to search for them.

A warning against some shops' practices of exploiting you through your website

Some people and entities are unaware of how to obtain a domain name, which you type in the browser to reach the website, and are also unaware that this name has a control panel, a password, and an approved email, and that the owner must be the one to purchase it, keep the data with them, and renew it annually or according to the period they wish. Failure to renew means losing the website and everything in it. They should allow the shop that oversees the design to log in temporarily and do what is necessary to activate the site, then the owner must change the password, keep the domain name data with them, and ensure that their email is the primary one for recovery. If the domain owner wishes to reserve the space where they place the site, they may do so at low prices of around 100 dollars per year only. Below are some sites that provide domain name purchasing and hosting: nic.ae provides name reservation under the .ae domain, and goDaddy.com and bluehost.com and many others. It is always preferable to keep two important points in mind: the availability of high-speed SSD drives and a cPanel control panel.

A warning against creating fake accounts to spread strife and chaos

Let everyone who is tempted to create fake accounts to ignite strife, slander, insult people, and demean them know that this is only temporary, for inevitably your true identity will be exposed, and then you will have no escape from legal prosecution, for we are in a country of law that rejects stirring up strife and discord. Whoever does not take heed from others, the cybercrime law will be a match for them, so let them laugh a little and weep much.

Ahmed Al Zarooni - Al Roeya newspaper https://www.alroeya.com/article/2143976