In today’s digital landscape, having an updated computer is crucial for robust IT services and cybersecurity. An outdated computer not only jeopardizes your sensitive data but also undermines effective IT support. Cybercriminals actively exploit vulnerabilities in old operating systems, browsers, and applications to gain access to sensitive data. Despite this, many businesses and users—whether in Tulsa, Oklahoma or beyond—overlook critical updates, leaving their systems at risk.
At Nomerel, a leader in managed IT services and Tulsa IT support, we often hear the common question: “Is my PC outdated?” If you’re unsure, your system could be exposed to cyber attacks and performance issues. Here’s why keeping your computer up to date is essential for both personal and business cybersecurity, and how you can do it quickly and effectively.
The Security Risks of Outdated Systems
Every year, hackers discover new vulnerabilities in operating systems and software. When a security hole is found, developers release patches and updates to fix these weaknesses. However, if your computer remains outdated, these vulnerabilities remain open, giving attackers an opportunity to exploit them. This is a common concern for those asking, “how can businesses prevent cyber attacks?”
Some of the most common risks associated with outdated systems include:
Unpatched Vulnerabilities: Hackers target known security flaws in outdated operating systems and applications to gain unauthorized access to systems.
Increased Malware Risk: Ransomware, spyware, and other types of malware often exploit outdated software to infiltrate devices and networks, challenging even the best IT services.
Loss of Support: Older versions of Windows, macOS, and other software eventually stop receiving updates. Without managed IT services or regular IT support, businesses find themselves exposed to risks.
Phishing & Credential Theft: Unpatched browsers and email clients can expose users to phishing attacks, where cybercriminals steal login credentials and other sensitive data.
System Instability & Performance Issues: Older software can slow down your computer, crash frequently, or become incompatible with new applications and security protocols.
How to Ensure Your System is Secure:
If you’re wondering, “Is my PC outdated?” or questioning how your business can prevent a cyber attack, follow these steps to verify and improve your system’s security:
1. Enable Automatic Updates
The easiest way to stay secure is to allow automatic updates for your operating system, security software, and key applications. Most modern systems and IT services include this feature, ensuring you receive critical patches as soon as they are released.
2. Check for Operating System Updates
Windows: Go to Settings > Windows Update and click Check for Updates. If updates are available, install them immediately.
Mac: Open About this Mac > Software Update to check if a new macOS version is available.
3. Update Software & Web Browsers
Outdated applications and browsers pose significant risks. Check for updates in the Microsoft Store, Apple App Store, or the software’s settings menu. Ensuring that your web browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari) is updated is key to robust IT support and cybersecurity.
4. Upgrade Your Security Software
Your antivirus, firewall, and other security programs must be updated regularly to detect and defend against new threats. Cybercriminals develop new attack techniques daily, making frequent updates a necessity rather than an option—an essential aspect of managed IT services.
5.Replace Outdated Hardware
Even if your software is updated, older hardware may not support the latest security features. If your computer is slow, experiencing frequent crashes, or running an operating system that no longer receives updates (such as Windows 7 or an older MacOS), it may be time for an upgrade. Businesses in Tulsa, Oklahoma should consider this an essential step when looking for comprehensive IT support.
6. Use a Patch Management Solution
Manually updating multiple systems can be time-consuming. At Nomerel, we offer a patch management solution that automates software updates across your network, ensuring that all devices remain secure without disrupting daily operations. This is particularly useful for administrators managing multiple workstations and is a key service offered through our managed IT services.
7. Monitor Update Logs and Security Alerts
Even with automatic updates enabled, it’s crucial to monitor update logs and security alerts from software providers. Sometimes, updates fail to install properly, leaving vulnerabilities unpatched. Regularly checking system logs and subscribing to cybersecurity advisories will help you stay informed about critical updates and emerging threats.
8. Backup Important Data Before Updating
While updates are essential, they can occasionally cause system conflicts or software issues. Before performing major updates, our team at Nomerel will create a backup of your critical files using cloud storage, an external hard drive, or a network-attached storage (NAS) device. This ensures that you can recover your data if an update causes unexpected problems—a best practice in IT support.
Protect Your Business with Proactive IT Support
Cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving, and outdated systems are a prime target for attacks. Keeping your computers up to date is one of the most effective ways to protect your business from data breaches, malware infections, and system failures.
At Nomerel, we provide proactive IT support and comprehensive managed IT services to help businesses in Tulsa, Oklahoma maintain secure, up-to-date systems. Whether you need assistance with updates, security monitoring, or full-scale IT services, our team ensures that your business stays ahead of cyber threats.
Don’t wait until it’s too late! Contact our expert team today to schedule a security assessment and keep your technology protected. Stay secure. Stay updated. Stay ahead.
Imagine managing a bustling healthcare clinic where patients rely on timely access to care and critical medical information. The day is running smoothly until, suddenly, a power outage disrupts access to patient records, or worse, a cyberattack compromises sensitive data, leaving both staff and patients in confusion. Operations grind to a halt, appointments are delayed, and patient care is impacted. It’s a stressful scenario, but with a well-prepared Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and our dedicated team at Nomerel by your side, your clinic can stay resilient and keep things moving, even during unexpected crises.
Unexpected chaos can strike any business at any time. One moment, you’re basking in the glory of running a successful establishment; the next, you’re thrown against a wall, staring at a crisis that could disrupt your entire business. Don’t let this be your story.
At Nomerel, we specialize in helping businesses prepare for the unexpected. In this blog, we’ll share key steps to create a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) that works for you and ensures your business stays up and running, even in the face of disaster.
Key Steps for Successful Business Continuity Planning
Here’s how you can stay resilient, no matter what challenges come your way:
1. Identify and Prioritize What’s Most Important for Your Business
Every business has vital functions that must continue, no matter the situation. The first step in building a solid BCP is identifying these business-critical resources, a process Nomerel specializes in. Once you’ve figured that out, try to understand how sudden disruptions can affect these functions.
For instance, if you run a retail store, your point-of-sale systems and inventory management would be business-critical. Any disruptions to these could result in lost sales or poor customer experience. At Nomerel, we help businesses pinpoint these key functions, so they can keep things running smoothly—even during a disruption.
2. Develop a Comprehensive Plan
It’s not enough to just know what’s important—you also need a clear, step-by-step plan to minimize downtime. Nomerel collaborates with businesses to design these detailed, actionable plans, assigning roles and responsibilities so everyone knows their part when a disruption occurs.
For example, if your primary server goes down, your IT team should be ready to switch to a backup server, while your customer service team handles client communication. Our team at Nomerel ensures plans are easy to follow, providing a fast and organized response.
3. Use the Latest Technology to Protect Your Data
One of the biggest threats to business continuity is data loss. That’s why leveraging the modern technology that Nomerel offers our clients, like cloud backups and failover systems, is crucial. These tools ensure that even if your systems go down, your data remains secure and accessible.
For instance, a law firm might use cloud storage to back up client files regularly, so even in the event of a cyberattack, the data is retrievable when needed. At Nomerel, we help businesses implement these critical technologies to ensure their operations stay secure and efficient.
4. Train Your Team and Test the Plan
Even the best continuity plan won’t work if your team isn’t ready to implement it. Regular training and testing with your staff and Nomerel’s expertise ensures that everyone knows their role and can act quickly in an emergency. Running mock scenarios also helps you spot potential weaknesses and make improvements.
For example, a healthcare provider might simulate a system outage to ensure staff know how to access patient records through backup systems. Nomerel works with businesses to create and lead training and testing,ensuring your team is prepared when it matters most.
5. Involve Key Stakeholders
Your business continuity plan should involve input from your key team members. Gathering feedback from managers, IT personnel, and other critical staff ensures that your plan is both practical and comprehensive.
For example, your accounting team might have unique concerns about maintaining access to financial data during an outage. Our dedicated team at Nomerel helps businesses involve all relevant stakeholders in the planning process, so no detail is overlooked.
6. Monitor and Improve Continuously
Business continuity is an ongoing process, and your plan should evolve as your business grows or as new threats emerge. After a disruption, gather feedback collaborate with us at Nomerel to strengthen your continuity strategies.
For instance, after a network outage, you might implement additional failover systems or improve customer communication protocols. At Nomerel, we work with businesses to regularly review and update their plans, ensuring they stay ready for whatever comes next.
Continuity Planning Simple with Nomerel
We know that planning for the unexpected can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re running a small or mid-sized business. But you don’t have to do it alone.
At Nomerel, we offer expert guidance every step of the way, from identifying your critical operations to implementing advanced failover systems.
Let us help you build a business continuity plan that keeps your operations running, even when disaster strikes.
Nomerel is a Managed IT Service Provider headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nomerel specializes in delivering cost-effective and reliable technology solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. Founded in 2008, Nomerel has evolved from a break-fix company to a proactive business partner that offers IT support, cybersecurity, and vCIO services, helping businesses maintain and optimize their IT infrastructure. With a focus on agility and simplicity, Nomerel ensures businesses can stay competitive without the need for in-house IT expertise.
Back in January of 2020, we began to watch with wary interest as the news trickled out of China about their ‘local’ health incident. With the shrinking world and the expanding global economy, there were murmors around our office about what it might mean for us. Hindsight being what it is, those watercooler conversations with their hypothetical scenarios all seem pretty quaint now, as we enter into the dog days of summer with no end in sight to either the heat or the seemingly incessantly escalating predictions of doom. Like all our Oklahoma businesses, we had to grapple with the rapidly moving goal posts of public response. But, perhaps unlike many of our Oklahoma business neighbors, we were pre-positioned to thrive in the evolving American workforce. The week before Oklahoma Governor, Kevin Stitt, began rolling out lockdowns we had already initiated a full remote workforce shift. We knew that our client base of small and medium sided Oklahoma businesses would be required to shift to a remote workforce and we didn’t want to be hammered with calls and requests for remote worker setup while our team was still shuffling into position.
Some of our staff have been providing IT support for long enough to remember when remote work meant saving documents and emailing them to co-workers for review. A few of us have been providing IT support long enough to remember when mobile hotspots were still the ‘technology of the future’. But for many of our Oklahoma based IT Helpdesk Support Techs, a life without WI-FI, Highspeed connectivity and instant full-duplex communications over VOIP or live video streaming simply has never existed. The technology that we have sold and supported to Oklahoma small and medium sized businesses for so many years just meant that, with a few hours notice, our team was able to grab a few items from their offices and transition fully and seamlessly to our new ‘temporary’ work from home offices. Things moved so quickly. On Wednesday we were taking about the possibility of a remote work shift. That very next night we had a 7pm phone call with the team, went remote the next Friday and that was, let’s see…a lot of Mondays ago now.
Those first few weeks were a cacophony of urgent telephone calls for technology needs. Everything was urgent. Everything had to happen yesterday. In one sense, that’t just a normal day in Tulsa Oklahoma IT Managed Services Consulting. But, in a much more real sense, in this case it actually had to happen immediately. The urgency was real. Calls came into our Tulsa IT Helpdesk asking for:
– Expedited SSL VPN license purchase and configuration on Dell Sonicwalls
– Configuration of Sophos VPN connections
– Configuration of Remote Access on Macbooks and Macbook Pros
– Clarity on if they might still be able to run that Windows 7 laptop securely from home
– Ways to measure their workforce productivity
– In some cases, folks were literally taking their entire Levono or Dell Desktop computers home to use remotely over VPN.
– Clients got serious about IT Collaboration using tools like MS Teams or Zoom.
Some clients who had antiquated phone systems that had been ‘working’ with judicious application of duct tape and patience were finding themselves unable to scale their resources and have them work remotely. This meant several on the fly emergency phone system migrations. We found ourselves porting phone numbers, rolling out out Cloud Based VOIP Telephone solutions, shipping VOIP headsets around the country and configuring VOIP PBX routing from the business phone systems to apps installed on personal cell phones, whereby employess could use their personal or company owned cell phones but have the Office Phone system features including extension routing, call recording and cell phone number obscurity all in place.
Yes, that’s just a normal month in the Oklahoma IT Managed Service Provider industry. The difference was that this was all happening at once, across most of our outsourced IT client base. And as word got out, as it often does, that we were getting stuff done that the other folks couldn’t, the calls just kept coming. There were a few weeks where we just stopped looking at performance metrics. Everyone just kept their head down, kept swinging, kept pushing and kept providing the IT Support our clients needed. When the calls began to normalize, we found ourselves looking at a new IT landscape. Clients were beginning to see the power and the leverage that these remote workforce tools presented them with. The game is changing. The tools are more powerful than ever. Nomerel answered the call when COVID came calling, like, actually answered the phones and returned the emails. We got it done then and we are getting it done still. Give us a call and let us show you how we can help you leverage the tools out there to maximize your return and productivity.
Tell me if this sounds familiar. It’s Monday morning. Payroll is due this afternoon. Your field workers are still having that nagging email issue. There is noting ‘quick’ about your Quickbooks. You have no idea what PC Load Letter means, other than your office printer hasn’t delivered in 3 days. The shop has scanners that won’t scan. The warehouse can’t see the ‘shared’ drive and you are almost certain that you smell smoke coming from the server room.
That can mean either another costly repair or, perhaps, that productivity and morale have slid so low that Bob from your current IT operation is smoking on the job again.
When you started this business, things were not going to be like this. You didn’t need computers, servers, smart phones and wireless printers. It was just you, your handful of team members and your dreams. But today’s market place is all connected. You’ve got more email addresses now that you ever dreamed of. How can you make sure Tina in accounting sees the invoices but also not spam her with all the sales junk? You’ve heard something about a distribution group, but hearing about it and knowing how to set them up are two very different things.
Another beep from the closet.
Another nasty email from your supplier saying something about a whitelist. What is a whitelist again?
It’s not even 915 in the morning and already you can feel the ‘to-do’ list left over from last week rising like a tsunami to utterly bury you…again. You swore it wouldn’t be like this, just like you did the month before. There has go to be a better way. That’s where Nomerel comes in.
Nomerel offers Tulsa, Oklahoma based IT consulting. We install, service and support desktops, laptops, servers, email, printers and phone systems. We offer end to end IT service from live answering your IT helpdesk phone calls to comprehensive security audits and compliance. You don’t need to wrestle your email server, we can get you migrated to Microsoft Office 365. We can make your computers talk (nicely) to each other which has been known to allow your team mates to do the same. It doesn’t have to be this hard. As a matter of fact, you are really just a phone call away from being able to pass the baton to the IT professionals so you can focus on running your business. You remember. That dream you were chasing before a thousand IT issues tried to pull you under for good.
Our team of dedicated professionals are standing by to make your IT resources work for you, not the other way around.
Live answered, knowledgeable humans on the phone
24/7/365 system monitoring and alerts
Industry leading, best practice application of security, updates and patching
Machine Learning / AI protection for email, firewalls, networks, laptops, desktops and servers
Full Feature Telephone Options including cell phone integration, full time recording, voice to text transcription and all the other bells and whistles
Office 365 Migration and Support
Network Troubleshooting
Computer Repair and support
World Peace…or at least a secure platform to write about it and wish…
Before you spend another week chasing your tail or whacking moles, give us a call. Let us hear what you’ve got going on and see if we can put out the fires and get you back to doing what you do best.
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