Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

There comes a time when every good piece of technology needs to be replaced, whether it’s due to hardware failure or it’s simply obsolete. When this happens, it is critical that you take measures to safeguard data located on your old devices by properly deleting it. But before we get into that, let’s discuss some of the steps you want to take prior to deleting your data, as well as what the process entails.

At this stage, you don’t need us to tell you that ransomware is bad. This threat has gone from being an emerging problem to one that is now sensationalized and commonplace in headlines and news stories around the world. According to a recent study, even organizations that do pay the ransom when they get infected by this threat are playing with fire.

The cloud has proven to be a valuable asset for businesses of all kinds, and more organizations are buying into it as a solution to some of the most notable problems in the professional environment. Transitioning to cloud computing comes with its own fair share of challenges, however. Here are some of the most common challenges that organizations migrating to the cloud face.

Any organization that holds medical records or other healthcare-related sensitive data needs to consider legislation and organizations that govern the privacy of those records. In this case, we are referring to HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and HITRUST, the Health Information Trust Alliance. These two acronyms are incredibly important for healthcare providers in the United States to understand.

No matter how new a device is, the unfortunate truth is that it will not last forever. Eventually, you will need to replace your device; the question then becomes what you do with your old technology. While you could just throw it in the trash, this is not only wasteful but also a security risk. In order to protect both your personal data and the environment, you must go through the proper channels to make sure that e-waste gets properly disposed of.

Business technology can be a complicated topic, and with it appearing in more and more aspects of daily operations, it is important for organizations of all sizes to be sure that they have a complete understanding and awareness of how they put their IT to use. These considerations make it imperative that certain best practices are made part of your standard operating procedures… and for this to be accomplished, company leadership will need to lead by example.

Remote work is a lot harder than it sounds, which took many workers by surprise when lockdowns suddenly made working from home the safest way for many companies to operate. As weeks and months have passed, there has been a growing tendency for these newly-remote workers to (putting it mildly) explore their other employment options… something that doesn’t bode well for your operations.

One of the most terrifying situations your business can encounter is when it’s clear that you’ve been hacked. It can cause extreme anxiety regardless of what size of a business you run. The most important thing is to know how to react to mitigate the damage to your business’ network and reputation. Let’s go through a few steps you need to take if you’ve been hacked.

Workplace burnout has been discussed quite a bit in the last year—which in and of itself seems funny, considering how relatively little time many people spent in the workplace this past year or so. However, just because the conventional workplace was altered doesn’t mean that the potential to experience burnout has been at all.

If there is one kind of online scam that people need to be more cognizant about, it would be phishing—where a scammer tries to hack the user instead of the computer, tricking them into sharing sensitive information. Phishing can come in enough forms that it has splintered into a few different varieties to watch out for. Let’s go over what a basic phishing attack looks like, some of the different types you may encounter, and how to deal with such an attack appropriately.

We’re not telling you anything you don’t know when we say that productivity is important for every business. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, there was widespread fear that productivity would drop to levels that would ruin the economy. Today, we’ll talk about the change in strategy that kept that from happening, by looking at the past year’s numbers. 

Technology is a staple for business improvements, which is why it is always important to keep a few basics in mind as you go through your operations. Let’s go through a few key strategies, just to really drive their importance home.

Passwords are a crucial element of your online security in terms of keeping threats from being able to access your accounts and resources. Unfortunately, for fear of accidentally locking themselves out of their accounts, many users have gotten into the unfortunate habit of taking shortcuts when it comes to their use of passwords. Let’s try to fix this by going over a few ways to design a password that is both memorable and sufficiently secure.

Preserving cybersecurity requires the person responsible for doing so to consider every component and connection associated with their technology, down to the smallest minutiae. Let’s consider a sizable example that comes from a narrowly avoided disaster in the Democratic Republic of Congo, that could have potentially left millions of Internet users exposed to serious threats.

Technology has helped countless businesses, big and small, approach their operational challenges and overcome them. As an example, let’s look to what global toy producer The Lego Group did to resolve some of the technical hurdles they were encountering with improved IT solutions, before we consider how your business could do the same to scale.

With 2020 in the rear-view mirror, there are many opportunities for your business to embrace technology in 2021 to your benefit. Let’s go over a few ways that you should make use of your IT moving forward.

Torpor. Lassitude. Languor. Somnolence. Burnout. Whichever term you use to describe it, the occasional lack of motivation is a big problem for many workplaces. However, if you find yourself feeling its effects, there are some ways that you can prevent these phases from impacting your professional and personal life. Let’s go over a few ways that you might be able to maintain your productivity despite any feelings of burnout.

From individuals all the way up to companies and governments, ransomware has been causing no small amount of stress for some years now. Let’s take a few moments to discuss this threat, what you can do about it, and how seriously the government is taking ransomware.

Nintendo has announced to owners of their Switch consoles that, if their devices aren’t charged up at least every six months, battery life could be impacted. Now, bear with us: while we realize that this may not seem to be all that pertinent to businesses, it brings up an important practice for businesses to follow: regularly charging even the devices that are used less often.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know how much risk your business was under, in terms of vulnerabilities and potential exploits? Believe it or not, this is entirely possible, through a process known as penetration testing. Commonly referred to as “pen testing,” this simple measure can provide a business with some very valuable insight into their security preparations.