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So far Sandra Viveiros has created 128 blog entries.

David Wood: February 7th, 1978 – April 12th, 2022

By |2022-04-12T02:00:40-04:00April 12th, 2022|About Us, Uncategorized|

Three years ago, David Wood joined our team at E-Tech and immediately made a positive impact. David was a bright, skilled, and happy person who always connected with those he worked with. Despite all the positivity, joy and laughter that David brought to life everyday with his friends, family, and at his job, unfortunately, for the past three years he had been battling cancer seemingly non-stop.

A couple months ago, David was informed that he needed to undergo a surgical procedure in order to save his life. CAR T Cell Therapy is a procedure that is approved in Canada, however none of the provincial governments cover the costs. As such, David had to raise $500,000 in order to pay for this life-saving procedure. David set up donation funds on GoFundMe, Fundly, and GiveSendGo. However, $500 000 was too much to raise in such a short time.

It pains us to say that David has passed away on the morning of April 12th, 2022. David will be greatly missed by his clients and his E-Tech Family. David will always be remembered for his sense of humor & and BIG heart. Thank-you for everything David & may you Rest in Peace…❤️🕊️

David’s Visitation will be held Thursday, April 21, 2022 @ 2 PM with service to follow.
Address: 124 King Street East Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 1B6
For more information please visit: Armstrong Funeral Home.

To support David’s family during this difficult time we share his GoFundMe. 🙏

A letter by David Wood:
david-gif

“Hello, my name is David Wood, and I have Mantle Cell Lymphoma.
I am trying to raise funds to undergo CAR T Cell Therapy.

Health Canada has approved the procedure in Canada, but none of the provincial governments cover the cost.

The funds I raise will go towards the CAR T Cell Therapy cost. Additional unused funds will be donated to Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and the Canadian Cancer Society.

Some people seem to think I’m a strong guy… But I am Broken…..
I have to watch my wife cry herself to sleep a lot lately.
I watch my wife cry while I drive her to work.
It is breaking me and making me fractured.

I try to stay positive and help my wife to cope with my medical situation. I want to protect my wife and ensure she gets everything she needs or wants in life.

Yet, hearing her words, “I don’t know what I’m going to do without you,” is killing me…I love my wife more than anything in the whole world.

So I will ask that you please take a moment and tell the people you love that you DO love them…

About me:

I work for an IT company (E-Tech) that supports several Long-Term Care Homes, Retirement Homes, and Nursing Homes across the province of Ontario. I care deeply about taking care of the staff needs for every facility. There are multiple issues every day that need to be fixed, and I want things running as smoothly as possible because they don’t need any added stress to how they are dealing with something every day; Especially with COVID-19 and the stresses involved with the Pandemic. I know most of the staff at each facility by their first name and that they appreciate the level of care that I provide to them. I am passionate about my work.”

Please check out some of the testimonials that our clients have given working with David:

“Thanks David! you’re the best and always can count on!”

– Liza Reantaso, Director of Care, Villa Colombo Vaughan

“Hi Everyone, I simply wanted to express my gratitude and appreciation. I had the opportunity to have David Wood support my IT needs. He was incredibly supportive, patient and understanding towards my IT issues. He sat on the call with me for quite a while and looked after my entire laptop to make it the most efficient. He also took the time to educate me on how to navigate through certain programs and applications. I’ve never had this kind of customer service regarding IT support – he provided me with exceptional service which I’m extremely thankful for. Thank you, David – you are a Rockstar!”

– Vince Genuardi, Marketing & Retirement Operations Support Manager, UniversalCare Canada Inc.

“E-Tech has a great Team and are always quick to respond to any needs that we may have here at Perth. They are approachable and pleasant to work with. Great job! A pleasure as always to work with you David. Have a great weekend!”

– Jennifer Cummins, Administrator, Perth Community Care Centre

“David provided a very prompt response and always continues to be a great support for our team!”

– Dustin Shulman, General Manager, St. Bernard’s Residence

“A super nice, very positive experience. Thank you, David.”

– Cheryl Stratton, Levante Living: James Street

“Exemplary service as always! Quick and professional with a personal touch. Thank you David. E-Tech support is consistently wonderful! Thank you to the entire team for taking such good care of our IT needs in a timely, efficient and professional manner.”

– Pamela Smith, Office Manager, Perth Community Care Centre

“David is a very reliable and excellent computer technician and very patient in explaining things to me. David’s service to us has always been very outstanding. Thank you.”

– Rosa Chretien, Office Manager/Environmental Serv. Manager, St. Bernard’s Residence

“Your response was very timely. David certainly knows his ‘stuff’. He was very patient with me and ensured the scanner was working to our specifications before he completed the service call. He is definitely an asset to your customer service department.”

– Elisa Tarantini, Corporate Support Consultant, UniversalCare Canada Inc.

During the pandemic, organizations were forced to rely on devices the company did not own

By |2022-03-23T07:38:38-04:00March 23rd, 2022|Hosting, iMIS, IT Support, Uncategorized|

As the pandemic advanced and many countries adopted obligatory stay-at-home orders, the rapid digital transformation caused hackers to have more opportunities to exploit companies, especially since most employees started using personal devices and networks.

There are still companies that take cybersecurity for granted and are in denial that it’s likely that an attack could happen to them. In reality, it’s only a matter of time when a cyber felon will attempt to exploit existing vulnerabilities. While such tools as password management or VPN solutions are important for enhanced security, companies should also focus on employee education, investing in such services as cybersecurity awareness training.

We invited Simmer Principio, the Cyber Security Analyst of E-Tech – a company that offers system support and information technology consulting services, to discuss cybersecurity trends, threats, and how to handle them in the most efficient way.

E-Tech has grown exponentially since its launch in 2005. What was your journey like?

I have been with E-Tech since 2019 right before the pandemic hit. I was hired as the Cyber Security Analyst for the company. Since then, I have seen a huge growth in the number of companies seeking Cyber Security Awareness Training (CSAT), Dark Web Monitoring, Vulnerability Scans, Penetration Testing, and Security Audit Services. My journey has been amazing. E-Tech has been extremely successful these past years I have been with them. We have been awarded by Acquisition International two years in a row as the Leaders in Cyber Security Awareness Training for Canada in 2020 and 2019 and we ranked #1 In Canada and #14 in the World among the World’s Most Elite 501 Managed Service Providers.

We’ve put a lot of time and effort into perfecting our CSAT program. It is a continued success and our customers appreciate being proactive to train their employees before a crisis happens. Our team of CSAT experts has grown over the past two years and this is due in large part to my persistent dedication and hard work along with the rest of the E-Tech team.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you do? What are the main challenges you help navigate?

I am the main person in charge of the Cyber Security Awareness Training, Dark Web Monitoring, Vulnerability Scans, Penetration Testing, and Security Audit services. I help our clients by educating them on the best cybersecurity practices and generating assessment reports for improvements to their organization’s overall security and resilience plan. Because of the pandemic, many companies changed their views and realized that they need Cyber Security Awareness Training due to the simple fact that there are so many malicious and phishing scams out there. And since everyone transitioned from in-office to remote work, they are even more susceptible to falling victim to these scams, causing companies major financial consequences.

Out of all your services, dark web monitoring may be lesser known by the general public. Can you tell us more about this practice?

When we talk about dark web monitoring, a lot of people still do not know what the dark web is in general. To understand what the dark web is, you need to have a basic understanding of how the Internet works. The Internet can be broken up into two parts, the surface web or open web, and the deep web. The surface web is anything on the Internet that can be accessed for free; things that can be found using a search engine. But the deep web is the part of the Internet where you typically need credentials to get to. A great example of the deep web that people use every day is their email. The dark web falls in an even deeper part of the deep web. Dark web websites are only accessible using a special browser software – the most common being the Tor browser.

Dark web websites are very safe for criminals because the fundamental aspect of them is the anonymity of the users. The dark web is a huge marketplace for illegal activity, including stolen credentials from major data breaches. This is where dark web monitoring comes in. There are multi-millions of stolen credentials being sold at any given time on the dark web. It is critical to know if and when your credentials have been bought and sold so you and your company can take proper precautions towards cyber theft. Dark web monitoring is a crucial aspect of cybersecurity, and it often gets overlooked. You can have the most secure systems, but all it would take is having the administrator’s credentials stolen, and all the safety precautions you took would come crumbling down.

What was it like providing IT services during the pandemic? Were there any new challenges you had to adapt to?

Not only did Covid-19 force organizations to accelerate their digital transformations, it also caused worker transformation. Most organizations had to urgently implement work-from-home business solutions and a large majority of organizations were forced to rely on devices the company did not own and could not manage or trust. This, of course, provided a lot of urgent work for our team. Not only did we have to change our policies in which we transitioned to a remote working team, but we were also asked to implement the change for a multitude of clients transitioning as well. The increased workload led us to expanding our team. Our talented managed IT support team continues to grow in size as well as skill.

What security risks do new business owners often fail to take into account when launching their website?

Some important things to remember when launching a website are:

  1. To constantly run updates on your website or else it could get easily infected with threats like SQL injections or viruses.
  2. Lack of security products, such as a firewall or SSL certificate. If your website is secure, it should start with ‘HTTPS’ before the website link so a secure connection can be established.
  3. Improper server setup/configuration. Security misconfiguration gives hackers access to private data or features and can result in a complete system compromise.

It is important to keep everything in your website, from the theme to the plugins to the SSL certificates, updated – it must all be current to the technologies of today.

What cybersecurity threats do you think can become a prominent problem in the near future?

Ransomware continues to be the number one threat to businesses of all sizes and industries. Damages from ransomware are expected to be more than $20 billion US by the end of 2021, according to Acronis Cyberthreats Report 2022. Phishing also continues to be a major threat vector along with malicious emails still being at an all-time high. Cyberattacks are currently on the rise in the World due to the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine that started on February 24, 2022. To counter Russian abilities, Ukraine has called on global hacktivists and cyber experts to join its international “IT army” to help defend the Cyber front. Due to this people should be more vigilant and remember to:

  1. Think before you click and don’t believe everything you see online
  2. Use strong and unique passwords
  3. Use a VPN on the public internet
  4. Update everything – including software
  5. Turn on multi-factor authentication
Additionally, what are the best cybersecurity tools do you think everyone should have in place to combat these threats?

Use a multi-layer approach to protect your organization’s data and information. Install security software on your business computers and devices to prevent infection, including:

  1. Malware solutions to weed out malicious emails coming through
  2. Endpoint protection to protect devices against known infections
  3. Firewall to protect networks against unauthorized access

Keep systems updated, ensuring operating systems and security software are kept up to date automatically (or manually, if necessary). Enroll your organization in Cyber Security Awareness Training and phishing simulations to test and train good security habits. Also, make sure you have contingencies in place, including data protection and disaster recovery plans, in the event of a disaster. And very important – use a password manager application to help create, manage, and protect your credentials.

And finally, what’s next for E-Tech?

The luxury of working in the IT industry is that even amidst natural disasters, like Covid-19, there is always work as well as the opportunity for growth. Since 2005, our primary sector of focus has been the not-for-profit sector and small business, but we are starting to see heavy increases in other industries as well. Over the past couple of years, we have begun taking our first steps in the entertainment industry with website designs for award-winning director and actor Karena Evans, and world-renowned choreographer and creative director Tanisha Scott. Also in the past few years, we have seen a huge increase in the health services industries, where we now supply managed IT support for over 20+ long-term care homes. We believe this is also just in the beginning stages of potential revenue. As industries continue to become more technically advanced, businesses like ours will always have opportunities to explore in terms of cybersecurity services and managed IT services.

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