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QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise 2024 Security Improvements: Now with 256-bit encryption

Intuit’s release of QuickBooks Enterprise and other desktop editions for 2024 have a variety of new features, and among them is an improved level of security for your business data. Upgrading from 128-bit encryption, QuickBooks Desktop 2024 now has AES 256-bit encryption.

256-bit encryption is the strongest and most robust encryption standard commercially available. It’s widely used because it’s virtually impenetrable to brute-force attacks. 256-bit encryption is an encryption technique that uses a 256-bit key to encrypt and decrypt data. Plain text is converted to a cipher, and the encryption key is required to decrypt the data and return it to readable plain text.

256-bit encryption is used in most modern encryption algorithms, protocols, and technologies, including AES in wireless security, processor security, file encryption, and SSL/TLS.

According to Intuit, “You can be confident your data is protected with our enhanced security using industry-leading AES 256-bit encryption. QuickBooks safeguards your reputation by protecting critical customer and vendor data, such as business financials, banking information, and credit card details.

This means we translate your information into a code that only we can read to make sure only you and Intuit have access to your information. The type of encryption we use is called AES-256 (Advanced Encryption Standard with 256-bit keys) and it ensures the highest level of cryptographic security.”

With a series of robust security steps and a complex 256-bit decryption key, AES 256-bit standard is nearly impossible to break using brute-force methods and has been approved for the handling of confidential data by the U.S. Government.

A brute force attack is when a hacker tries different combinations until they arrive at the correct combination – the key. The larger the key size, the more difficult it becomes to break the encryption. We’re talking about 256-bit keys. There are 984,665,640,564,039,457,584,007,913,129,639,936 (that’s 78 digits) possible combinations. Even if you use Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2), which was the 4th fastest supercomputer in the world in 2022, it will take millions of years to crack 256-bit AES encryption.

In case you’re interested: The fastest supercomputer in the world, ranked in June 2023, is Frontier, an HPE Cray EX system run by the US Department of Energy, Frontier incorporates 3rd Gen AMD EPYC™ CPUs representing 8,730,112 cores that have been optimized for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI with AMD Instinct™ 250X accelerators and Slingshot-11 interconnects. Its HPL benchmark was 1.194EFLOPS (EXA – 1 quintillion – floating point operations per second). (via networkworld.com). Frontier is faster than Tianhe-2, so breaking the key could take a little less time.

Breaking encryption with no known flaws is kind of like guessing a password. If you make enough guesses, you might eventually get the password right. With strong encryption, this can take a long time. AES-256 is the most secure version of AES and is virtually unbreakable by brute force based on current computing power. It’s also considered quantum-resistant, which means that quantum computers aren’t expected to crack the cipher.

How long would it take to crack 128-bit encryption using a brute force attack? Most security professionals would answer “1 billion years”, but that’s just an estimate. A machine that can crack a DES key in a second would take about 149 trillion years to crack a 128-bit AES key. According to researchers, with the right quantum computer, AES-128 would take about 2.6110^12 years to crack, while AES-256 would take 2.2910^32 years. For reference, the universe is currently about 1.38×10^10 years old, so cracking even an AES-128 encryption with a quantum computer could take hundreds of times longer than the universe is believed to have existed.

While Intuit is improving the security of the information it stores and transmits between its systems, your company should be equally concerned with the security and protection of all your business applications and data. Using strong password policies, multi-factor authentication, and SSL for secure web app access, Noobeh’s QBonAzure services provide layers of protection on top of the $20Bn in security investments made by Microsoft.

We take data security seriously, providing solutions to address access, security, privacy and protection for business applications and data. When your QuickBooks Enterprise deployment needs a solid foundation that offers agility and performance as well as strong platform security, we have that.

Visit MendelsonConsulting.com/cloud to learn more.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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QBonAzure: QuickBooks on Microsoft Azure Delivers Great Success for Small Business


For any business, the resilience and agility of IT systems can mean the difference between performing adequately and performing with great success. When a business elects to run their QuickBooks applications and data on the Microsoft Azure cloud via QuickBooks on Azure (QBonAzure) from Noobeh, they gain numerous advantages not available with locally installed IT.

Microsoft Azure is a highly available platform, meaning that it has built-in redundancy to ensure that applications and data are always accessible, even in the event of a hardware failure. Businesses running on the platform never have to worry about whether or not their server is aging and may fail due to hardware issues.

The platform also allows Noobeh to easily scale each client’s system up or down as needed, without the need for additional installation work. This allows each client business to quickly respond to changes in demand and grow their operations as needed.

With Microsoft Azure, Noobeh can provide from a broad range of security features that are built-in as well as enhancing protection with advanced features and services from Azure, Microsoft 365 and more. This all goes to help protect against data breaches and unauthorized access to sensitive information.

Azure has a global footprint, with data centers in multiple regions around the world. Noobeh provides services from all US-based Microsoft Azure regions, allowing businesses to host their QuickBooks in the location closest to their users, reducing latency and improving performance.

Azure also offers a wide range of services that may be integrated with QuickBooks or other business data, such as analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. This allows businesses to gain deeper insights into their financial data and make more informed decisions.

For businesses focused on compliance, Azure meets a wide range of industry standards and regulations, such as HIPAA, SOC 2, and PCI DSS. This can help businesses meet their compliance requirements and avoid penalties.

Overall, hosting QuickBooks on the Microsoft Azure platform can provide businesses with high availability, scalability, security, global reach, integration, and compliance advantages that can help them run their operations more efficiently and effectively.

Noobeh cloud services and QuickBooks on Azure utilize only the Microsoft cloud for their client deployments so that each business client has the benefits of big enterprise technology without the big enterprise price.

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Web-based, Hosted and Cloud: The Confusing Journey to Transformation

There is no doubt that businesses of all sizes and types are moving from analog and paper-based to digital and electronic systems. Moving from postal letters to email, “PDF-ing” instead of printing, and EDI rather than manual order entry, businesses are taking on the challenges of transforming their processes one by one.

Cloud computing and virtualization have had a great impact in these areas, providing the foundations for process improvements and higher business intelligence than ever before. Increasingly, businesses are looking to “cloud” to help them do more with their businesses, and to do it better and more profitably.

In looking at cloud – applications, platforms, and services – it is important to understand that different approaches aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. Many businesses implement a combination of technologies and services, creating their own hybrid approach to doing business the way it works for them.

Web-based, Browser-based

When most small business owners think of implementing “cloud” in their operations, the things that initially come to mind are web-based/browser-based applications. Due in large part to how these products are marketed, web-based apps are among the most widely recognized “cloud” type of service.

QuickBooks Online edition is an example of web-based/browser-based application service. It was built to run in a browser, and you access it over the Internet. These types of applications are often referred to as “net native”, because the only exist as Internet-based service. Other examples are NetSuite and Intacct.

The key with these types of application services is that they aren’t just applications; they are subscription services that include the infrastructure and data storage as part of the solution. You access by going to a web URL in a browser, and login and use the system. You own nothing of the system – not the servers its running on, not the application itself, and (if you don’t pay your bill or export your information) not the data.

What makes these systems “cloud” is that they are running on servers – application servers, network server, data servers etc. – that are all meshed to work closely together. You do not have to worry about (in fact, you often won’t even know) exactly where in the world your system is located, and you have no direct contact with or interaction with the infrastructure on which your application and data are running. As far as users are concerned, their application and data exist “in the cloud” … somewhere.

Hosted applications can also be Cloud

Cloud or not cloud really doesn’t have anything to do with whether the software is browser-based versus disk-based (desktop). Cloud really refers to having a ubiquitous network of connected resources which allows for the creation of dynamic, agile, scalable infrastructure. Google Compute, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure are the 3 primary (publicly available) cloud platforms.

Online application services generally use cloud platforms and infrastructure to support their software and data, enabling the delivery of services to large numbers of users regardless of where they are located.

Desktop applications can also be run on cloud infrastructure, enabling businesses to access and use their applications and data regardless of location or device, but to retain all the functionality and capabilities of the more mature desktop solution.

For example, NOOBEH cloud services deploys managed QuickBooks and other desktop applications from the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. With Noobeh’s approach, customers can retain essential control of their infrastructure (Noobeh manages it for them, but it is the customer’s private system), allowing it to be configured to be exactly what the customer needs.

NOOBEH Azure hosting is provided as a subscription service and can be changed or adjusted at any time with just a restart of the system. This agility gives businesses what they need now, but also allows the platform to be adjusted to changing business needs. Not having to purchase or invest ahead of needing new resources, as well as reducing the system size if less is ultimately needed, are among the many benefits of using a true cloud platform. Migrating applications and data from on-premises to cloud platforms allows businesses to reduce or eliminate their reliance on locally installed servers and network systems, which is another step in transforming the business and its capabilities.

When a business elects to migrate from desktop to web-based applications for only some functions, the result is often that other applications and data remain active on the local systems. This forces the business to retain their expensive computers, networks and local IT management services and reduces much of the value of a cloud transformation.

On the other hand, if the business elects to migrate to cloud infrastructure it allows them to migrate all their applications, data, and processes immediately, delivering immediate business benefit and providing the right platform for further improvement.
For most small and growing businesses, it is the elimination of concerns about hardware failures, not having to purchase ahead for possible future needs, and having up-to-date secure and compliant systems that deliver the full value and capability of the cloud.

Business transformation starts with the foundation, and a strong information technology platform becomes the base upon which smarter and more efficient processes are built. Whether your company is just beginning its transformation journey or is well on the way, cloud applications and platforms are integral to helping your business keep moving forward.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Is Your Business IT Ready for Industry 4.0?

Over the past several hundred years there have been trends which revolutionized industry and manufacturing around the world… steps taken in an industrial revolution which advanced the evolution of civilization and life as we know it. The first revolutionary phase was combining mechanization with steam and waterpower, and the second was the combination of mass production with electricity. The third was the rise of electronics, IT systems and automation. We are now at the start of the fourth phase of industrial revolution.

PwC’s Insights suggests that Industry 4.0 “refers to the fourth industrial revolution, which connections machines, people and physical assets into an integrated digital ecosystem that seamlessly generates, analyzes and communicates data, and sometimes takes action on that data without the need for human intervention.”

This next phase advances on concepts introduced through digitization and connected frameworks, tying in the industrial IoT (Internet of Things) and smart manufacturing. This meshed model relies on interconnectivity of systems, lots of automation at high levels, machine learning and AI… all collecting and generating data in real-time.

Where physical operations and production join with smart digital technologies, big data, and machine learning, businesses can forge systems which focus directly on manufacturing and supply chain management, gaining new insights and getting actionable data at all levels.

Virtualizing physical resources and digitization of analog data is now coupled with improved access to and management of the platforms. Rather than building out on-prem physical servers and systems, businesses are finding that the agility, scalability, and fault-tolerance of the cloud is necessary when designing an operation that connects, communicates and collects data, performs intelligent analyses, and potentially acts without people getting directly involved.

Every company is different, but all face a common challenge — the need for connection and access to real-time insights across processes, products, and people.

The consulting team at Mendelson Consulting and our NOOBEH cloud services group know how to get businesses in the best position to implement the tools and services that will propel the operation forward. From the most popular and powerful small business financial software to cloud platforms which enable connectivity in applications and workflows, we understand what it takes to help small businesses transform.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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Considering Deploying Microsoft365 for Your Entire Organization? Success is in the details.

Technology is ever advancing, and even the smallest of businesses must keep in step to remain competitive. Efficiency is the key to modern, effective operations, yet keeping teams aligned and working towards the common goal can be tougher than ever when members are remote working. Microsoft solutions can help the business increase productivity and modernize their operations, and at the same time provide stronger security and enhanced protection.

For just about every business, it makes sense to consider using Microsoft 365 services. But there are a lot to choose from, and not all services work as you might expect, so here is a little information that might help with making service selection a little easier.

Does it make sense to implement Microsoft Teams for intra-company calls, meetings, and collaboration?

Teams is great for calling your co-workers, sharing screens, presenting content, and collaborating in workgroups or with the whole company. But be warned that Teams meetings don’t work for everyone, particularly those outside your organization or for users that don’t have useful Internet connectivity.

  • To use Teams with people outside the company, or even for users that don’t have Internet connectivity, you’ll need to also have a calling plan for each user.
  • A calling plan allows Teams to connect a phone number to the Teams meeting, creating a means for non-Teams users and those without internet to connect to the meeting audio.

Should you migrate employee email inboxes to MS365 (Outlook Desktop and/or Outlook Online)?

Using Microsoft for email services make a ton of sense, especially with the advanced phishing and threat protection that comes standard with the service. It is pretty much foolproof for most businesses and is a great value. If your business is migrating to Microsoft from a legacy email platform or from a different mail provider, there are a few things to consider.

  • Many companies use their desktop Outlook email folders as a sort of file cabinet, storing and categorizing emails for future use. In older MS Exchange environments, Public Folders were also used, enabling company-wide access to certain email folders and the file attachments within.
  • MS365/Office365 email services don’t support public folders, and every email box comes with a storage quota. If the business is used to saving lots of emails, then it might create difficulties with mailbox management.
  • Outlook Desktop still has limitations on the file size it can reasonably handle. This means that Outlook, when connected to hosted Exchange mail (Microsoft365), should run in cached mode, keeping only recent data in the Outlook file on the computer and leaving the rest of the mail on the server. Mail on the server is still available for search by Outlook; the program will simply search in the local data file first.

Can you, or should you, migrate your company’s files to the Microsoft cloud?

Keeping your files on the “cloud” is a concept that sounds convenient, but it isn’t quite as straightforward as it sounds. In this case, the idea is to migrate files from PCs and servers to Microsoft OneDrive or SharePoint, where the files can be available to all users regardless of where the user is working from.

  • Putting a big hard drive on your PC or server can be relatively inexpensive. “Storage is cheap” we hear quite often. Yet all storage facilities are not alike. It might be a cheap option to add a big hard drive or USB drive to your local system but paying for storage space on the web becomes a different deal. You may find that safe, protected storage for your files is not quite as inexpensive as you thought, especially over time. When you must pay every month for the storage you use, you rapidly realize why file housekeeping is essential.
  • File and folder permissions do not translate from your Windows file system to a SharePoint or OneDrive. You must create your own groups and set file and folder permissions as you want them AFTER the data is uploaded to the cloud platform.
  • Once the files are in the cloud platform, each user must determine what and how the files will sync with their local computers. There may be an option to “sync on demand” (depends on device platform) that can allow users to selectively sync files to/from their computers, but the fact remains that the data is being downloaded to the local computer so that it can be worked on. This still means that the local computer must have the necessary software installed, and the PC should be protected with backup, anti-virus and anti-malware and MFA.
  • Database files cannot work in a web file location. This means that programs that have associated database/data files must still have their files located on a network server for users to access them. QuickBooks, tax software, trial balance software, workpapers and fixed assets, inventory management or manufacturing, and more may require the server to serve the application and/or data to the users. This means that servers and networks and the need to manage the network and the individual computers remains in full.
  • If all other data is stored on the cloud platform, then you now have data and resources to manage both places.

What does the new Microsoft365 Cloud PC mean for small businesses?

  • The new Cloud PC from Microsoft365 can solve a tremendous problem for the very small business in that it can become the IT infrastructure and it is fully cloud platform.
  • Cloud PC is meant to replace your local PC as your operating environment. Rather than installing software and storing data on your local device, the idea is that your software gets installed on your Cloud PC and your data is stored, ideally, in your OneDrive, or maybe on the drive of your Cloud PC.
  • This makes the Cloud PC a perfect solution for that single user that needs to run their QuickBooks or other applications from anywhere.
  • The thing with the small business Cloud PC is that it cannot be networked. It may be able to “see” and work with your local device hard drive or even mapped drives that your local device is connected to, but it isn’t able to work with a network server or share like a local PC would.
  • This means that you may be able to store and retrieve files from servers or other drives on your local PC or network, but you won’t be able to access databases or other server or network-based applications that need the network to function.
  • This also means that you can’t share data on one cloud PC to another cloud PC… they aren’t networked together.

Why NOOBEH’s Cloud Service model is better

There’s a reason why businesses adopt NOOBEH QuickBooks on Azure services, and the benefits are as great as ever. Businesses work with NOOBEH and our QuickBooks on Azure services because we have the flexibility to do what the business needs, and to offer a comprehensive approach that doesn’t leave applications, services and data hanging around on local networks or unprotected computers.

Where the Microsoft365 Cloud PC is a great answer for the single-user, NOOBEH’s cloud servers are designed for multiple users needing access to common applications and/or data. Multi-user QuickBooks desktop applications, Sage or AccountEdge, MISys Manufacturing or Acctivate Inventory, ShipGear or Starship, Fedex or UPS and much more… we host the applications that businesses use every day.

NOOBEH keeps the applications and data securely running on private Microsoft Azure cloud servers. Centralized, server-based management of applications and data means that software does not have to be installed and maintained on individual computers, so the need for local PC backups and anti-virus and malware protection is also minimized. All users work on the same version of the same software, and everyone accesses the same data in real time. Version control issues and sync problems are entirely avoided when everyone is working in the live system with live data, and Microsoft’s Azure platform ensures that issues due to transient hardware failures are a thing of the past.

When the company has workers that must operate from their local computers, NOOBEH can enable a solution to keep SharePoint in sync with the cloud server, ensuring that workers on and off the server are able to reach the most current version of the files. Users working in QuickBooks can interact directly with SharePoint files and folders by using the native Windows File Explorer where users operating on their local PCs access SharePoint via OneDrive or via the web. This approach delivers the best of both worlds to businesses who need more flexible modes of operating.

Contact us today to find out more about how we can help your business do more in less time, improve efficiency and work more effectively with a system that works where and when you need it.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?

J

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The Question You Never Want to Have to Ask

Why MFA Shouldn’t Be Optional

“Do you offer any help for decrypting files due to ransomware?”

This is a question we are asked with more frequency than ever before. And, sadly, it is often followed up with the information that their files were on “an internal server that was missed in the backup protocol by IT”.

Email phishing and brute force attacks are the most common methods cyber criminals use to get into your business network where they can set up to initiate ransomware attacks. The ransomware (malware) encrypts your data, which becomes unrecoverable without the decryption key. Usually, the only way to recover from a malware/ransomware attack is to rebuild systems and restore data from backups. If you have backups.

A “brute force” attack is typically used to get personal information such as passwords or passphrases, usernames, and Personal Identification Numbers (PINS). Scripts or specialized apps are used to carry out a string of continuous attempts to get the information desired. Cybersecurity researchers at Coveware analyzed ransomware attacks during the second quarter of 2021 and found that phishing and brute force attacks on unsecured desktops (remote and local) are among the most popular entry points for starting ransomware attacks. This is at least partly because it is relatively cheap and can be highly effective.

Phishing attacks are when cyber criminals send emails containing a malicious file attachment or hyperlink directing to a compromised website that delivers ransomware. Attacks against desktop logins include methods where cyber criminals use brute force to leverage weak or default usernames and passwords – or even get access because they got legitimate login credentials via a phishing email.

Software vulnerabilities and web-based application services are also among the popular vectors for delivering ransomware or exposing corporate networks to cyber criminals. While this type of attack is somewhat less frequent than the others, they are often leveraged by some of the most sophisticated and disruptive ransomware groups and nation/state bad actors.

  • Sodinokibi – also known as REvil – is responsible for some of the most high-profile ransomware attacks this year, including the massive ransomware attack on customers of Kaseya.
  • Contij – one of the most high-profile attacks by the group was the attack against the Irish healthcare system. Healthcare services across Ireland remained disrupted for months.
  • Avaddon – ransomware distributed via phishing emails.
  • Mespinoza and Hello Kitty are new forms of ransomware recently identified.

All of these have a common purpose in that they take advantage of weaknesses in security and exploit phishing tactics to lay the foundation for an attack on your network and possibly others.

Keeping systems updated, applying security patches and application software updates is an important aspect to keeping things secure. Known vulnerabilities can be exploited to gain access to the network, so keeping up with updates as the vendor supplies them has become more important than ever.

To help protect networks from being compromised, businesses should also apply multi-factor authentication (MFA) to desktop and applications.

MFA is an important tool to help stop intruders from breaching accounts and gaining access to the corporate network, and it can be the difference between keeping your data safe and working or discovering your files are digitally encrypted and completely unusable. Data encryption changes the data into code, and only the decryption key can read the code and return the data to a useable form. If you don’t have the key, the data typically cannot be decrypted.

Cyberattacks continue to evolve in their sophistication and frequency, and consequences of such attacks are growing. Private companies and public agencies alike must adapt their security techniques and embrace new security technologies while providing more end-user education and training.

Mendelson Consulting and NOOBEH Cloud Services take security very seriously and we have the experience and expertise to assist businesses with transforming their operations to be more efficient and effective. Our cloud team works exclusively with private tenant accounts on Microsoft Azure, and offers MFA security and other solutions to protect local and remote resources, helping keep your valuable information safe and available when you need it.

“How can we get started?” is the question you should be asking.

jm bunny feetMake Sense?
J