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Directive Blogs

Directive has been serving the Oneonta area since 1993, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

3 Downtime-Causing Issues You’ll Want to Nip in the Bud

Downtime can be lethal to businesses, not only because too much can lead to failure, but it can easily waste a lot of your team’s time as everyone shifts gears to find a solution. This is why is it best to avoid it as often as possible.

That’s why we’re discussing three of the most prevalent causes of downtime, and what you can do to prevent them.

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Did You Trade Your Data for a DVD Rental?

In June of this year, publisher Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, best known for its book series of the same name, filed for Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy and had many of its assets liquidated. One of these assets was the movie rental service Redbox and its eponymous scarlet rental kiosks, rendering the service defunct.

However, many kiosks remain standing outside businesses even now, which makes us wonder… what about all the data they collected while they were in use?

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Zero-Trust Needs to Be the Goal for Every Business’ Security

Would you feel safe staying at a hotel that, instead of unique locks, each door used the same key as all of the others? Probably not—because if someone got in, they could take whatever they wanted. That’s similar to how old-school cybersecurity worked. Once someone got into a company’s network, they could access almost everything, making it easy for hackers to steal information. But today, many businesses use a better security framework called zero-trust security. In today’s blog, we discuss what zero-trust security is and why it’s safer.

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Of Vice and Vulnerability, Episode 1: Ransomware

Let’s have a little fun today. Today’s blog post is written in the format of a daytime soap opera. Please make sure you read all of the dialogue as if being whispered by extremely attractive television stars and starlets!

Life goes on in the small town of Oak Falls, deep woods surrounding the little hamlet nestled on the coast of Cape Seguridad. Let’s follow the lives of some of the residents, their lives Of Vice… and Vulnerability.

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Is Your Smartphone Smart Enough?

For the longest time, smartphone manufacturers looked to develop devices that came with unique features in all different manners of form factors. Nowadays, however, there are very few phone manufacturers and those that are left have pretty much decided, for now, what the smartphone would look like. Even the ones that fold in half look and function pretty much the same. In this week’s blog, we will take a look at the declining innovation in the smartphone market and why it may not be a bad thing.

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Staying Productive is Crucial for Everyone

It can be difficult staying productive with all the things that happen day-in and day-out around your business. When your team is productive, it helps you stay focused and organized, and it can make a big difference in how successful you are. This week we break down just how keeping productivity levels high can make or break a business.

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The Final Guard - Software Updates

As Cybersecurity Awareness Month comes to an end, our superhero guide leaves you with one last piece of advice: update your software!

In thisMicro Training, find out why keeping your software up-to-date is an important step in securing our world.

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Your Business Isn’t Too Small to Be a Target for Hackers

"I don’t need to worry about cybersecurity… my business is too small for hackers to target."

This is one of the most dangerous misconceptions a small business can have. If you believe this, you may not fully understand how modern cyberattacks work. Let’s break down why this mindset can leave your business vulnerable.

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Subscriptions Need to Be Easy to Cancel, Per the FTC

It isn’t rare for people to subscribe to things and only stay subscribed because the cancellation process is so challenging and inconvenient. However, the Federal Trade Commission is looking to stop this, adopting a rule that eliminates the capability for businesses to put hurdles in front of cancellation processes.

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The NIST Recommends This 5-Stage Cybersecurity Framework

If there’s one thing that helps businesses establish consistent policies and strategy, it’s a good framework. You can use a framework for anything, including network security. Today, we want to walk you through the cybersecurity protection standards as they are outlined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology so you can better protect your business.

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What is Zero-Trust, and How Can My Business Achieve It?

Let me ask you something: would you trust a bank that locked its doors for the night but left all its cash in a big pile in the middle of the floor? Probably not—after all, if someone managed to get through the doors, nothing would stop them from helping themselves to the funds inside.

This is effectively how cybersecurity once worked, with the presumption that if someone had access to a network, they had permission to access any data on it. Fortunately, many businesses have made the switch to a better approach, known as zero-trust security.

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An Ongoing Legal Battle Could Determine the Future of AI Used in Art

You might remember the buzz when Josh Allen, a digital artist, won first place at the 2022 Colorado State Fair for his digital artwork called "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial." The catch? He created the image using AI. Now, he’s in a fight with the Copyright Office to prove that his work deserves copyright protection.

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Secure Our World with MFA

In today's digital world, passwords alone aren't enough to protect your accounts from cyber threats. That's why multi-factor authentication (MFA) is becoming a crucial tool in cybersecurity.

In this Micro Training, learn how implementing MFA can enhance your security and discover how cybercriminals are trying to capitalize on this growing security trend.

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Reposition the Taskbar in Windows 11

Windows 11 takes a page out of Apple’s design playbook and features a taskbar that, instead of being off to the side, is smack in the middle of the toolbar. While some may like this change, others may not.

Fortunately for these others, a simple setting change can return the taskbar to its familiar place like on older versions of Windows.

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How to Keep Your Employees from Being a Cybersecurity Problem

Cybersecurity has to be a big deal for any business that uses IT, and today, who doesn’t? When your employees don’t follow cybersecurity rules, it can put your business in danger, like getting hacked or losing money. The first step is to figure out why employees aren’t following the rules. This could happen because they don’t know the rules, haven’t been trained enough, or think the rules are too hard or take too much time. 

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Tip of the Week: 4 Windows 11 Desktop Tricks to Master Your Workstation

Windows 11 features a robust desktop environment with a lot of neat tricks and customizations to work more effectively. Controlling your Windows desktop experience can enhance productivity and streamline the way you interact with your computer. In today’s blog, we give you four tips to help you customize and manage your Windows environment more efficiently.

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Tip of the Week: Steal These Google Apps Shortcuts to Improve Productivity

Does your business use Google Workspace for its productivity solution? If so, we’ve got a tip for you—several, in fact, as we explore the various shortcuts available to expedite your productivity. Let’s take a look at some of the lesser-known shortcuts and how your business can use them to power up its efficiency.

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Cover Your Security Bases with These Four Best Practices

Over 25 percent of data breaches target small businesses, and the impact can be huge. To protect your business, you need the right technology and smart strategies. In today’s blog, we go through some key steps to help safeguard your business from digital threats.

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Improve Productivity and Empower Employees with a Help Desk

Nobody likes getting large support bills from technology companies—especially when they are unexpected. This is the case for both the business owners footing the bill and the employees who might be held responsible for racking up the bill in the first place. This puts SMBs in a bit of an impossible situation; either spend money to keep employees productive, or save money and suffer from productivity issues.

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7 Ways to Show Your Clients and Customers the Value You Offer

It shouldn’t be surprising to think that your prospects—or even businesses you already work with—aren’t going to take you at your word that you and your services are the best option for their needs… as easy as that might make things. No, the hard truth is that you need your marketing to communicate the value your business and its services offer. Let’s go over a few ways you can ensure it does.

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Tip of the Week: Overcome Large Projects with the “Just One More” Mindset

Have you ever had one of those projects where you struggle to make meaningful progress because it just feels impossible? While reflecting and thinking through how to approach a challenge is helpful, it’s not always in your best interest to slow down. Sometimes, it takes a little brute force to push through and complete an important task.

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You Aren’t Too Small to Be a Cybersecurity Target

“I don’t need to worry about cyberattacks… my business is too small to be of any interest.”

This brief rationalization is one of the most dangerous fallacies a modern business can make concerning cybersecurity, and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern cyberthreats operate. If this has been your mindset, we urge you to read on so we can help set you on a more realistic path.

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Securing Cloud Resources is More Critical than Ever

Cloud computing as a whole has been one of the most transformative technologies for businesses. With so many companies (upward of 90 percent of modern businesses) using some type of cloud computing, more companies than ever are really leaning into the technology and use it for mission critical business processes. Let’s take a look at some of the ways businesses can secure their cloud resources. 

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Fight Back Against Downtime with Proactive Maintenance

It’s natural for businesses to rely on their tools, like IT, to achieve success, but if you don’t take care of your systems, it could lead to downtime. You can bypass many of these challenges with the right approach to technology maintenance. We want to highlight some of the proactive methods you can use to keep downtime to a minimum.

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Pig Butchering is a Serious, Growing Problem

Over the past few years, huge scamming operations have operated in Southeast Asia, and now they are spreading. These scams—known as pig butchering scams—cause serious harm, as in an estimated $75 billion worldwide in 2023.

With these sorts of operations spreading, let’s go over what pig butchering is. 

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Being a More Sustainable Business Helps More than the Environment

Being a green business is certainly not a bad thing. Not only does it help boost your company's environmental friendliness, but it can often attract customers and clients who prioritize the environment. Less mentioned, however, is how being greener can actually give your business an advantage in the right circumstances.

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Phishing Basics for Superhumans

Welcome to Cybersecurity Awareness Month! This year, learn the ways of cyber superhumans and discover how to protect your digital world from cyber threats.

In this Micro Training, we’ll focus on phishing—a deceptive tactic used by cybercriminals to steal your personal information.

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Mobility Changes the Business Game

With technology becoming more mobile, the way we interact with tech has changed considerably. Now that dial-up has evolved to broadband and cellular networks have dramatically improved, technology has allowed people to become more connected than ever. Your business can improve its communications and operations with the right mobile technology.

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Tip of the Week: Stop LinkedIn from Using Your Data to Train AI

Artificial intelligence is everywhere, and it is making data more valuable than ever. This is because AI platforms rely heavily on data to function effectively. Many platforms and services collect data from their users to fuel these algorithms. LinkedIn has recently been found to do this—by default—without properly informing its users or updating its terms of service.

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Worried Your Workplace Might Be Toxic? Here’s How to Fix It

“Toxic” is a buzzword that is often used nowadays, but when it is used to describe a business’ work environment, it needs to be treated with deadly seriousness.

If a workplace is a place people don’t like to be, many drawbacks will ultimately impact operations. Therefore, it is to your benefit to keep your business as positive a workplace as possible.

Let’s discuss how to tell if your company has a toxic workplace and, if so, how to resolve it.

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4 Stupid-Simple Ways to Be More Careful with Your Network Security

Technology is central to most businesses, which means that security is, by proxy, central to them as well. With cyberattacks on the rise, it’s more important than ever for you and your employees to be on the same page regarding cybersecurity. Today, we are looking at four ways you can ensure sound cybersecurity practices that even the most belligerent employees can follow… with the right support in place.

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If You See Someone Streaming Funeral Services, You’ve Spotted a Likely Scam

Funerals are never to be taken lightly, which makes it all the worse that there are people out there willing to use these events to scam those in grief. Recently, Facebook has seen many groups that supposedly offer links to streamed funerals in exchange for credit card data, with different events being added more recently.

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Understanding the Roles of a Router and Modem in Your Wireless Network

Both the router and modem are crucial components of any wireless network, yet many people are unsure about the distinct roles they play in a personal or organizational Internet connection. Let’s break down the function of each device and how they work together to support your network.

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Four Solid Practices to Use When Relying on Cloud-Based Software

Cloud computing has become a common tool, especially Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Hosted software provides robust options that make sense to all companies, including anytime-anywhere availability, scalability, and provider management of the underlying hardware. In today’s blog, we want to discuss a couple of tips people can use when working with cloud computing.

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Tip of the Week: Two Ways to Better Manage Files

File sharing is a big deal. When you try to send your friends a meme or share a video with them and it doesn’t send… that can be extremely frustrating. When it comes to business file sharing, miscommunication can cost quite a bit. Today, we will look at two concepts in small business file sharing and how they help a small business.

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The United Nations is Taking Steps to Manage Artificial Intelligence

One of the many tasks undertaken by the United Nations is to protect human rights around the globe while also working to create more sustainable and climate-friendly development. As such, the UN has recently taken a healthy interest in the development of artificial intelligence, hoping to develop guidelines that allow us to get the most value out of AI without creating more significant problems.

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Password Managers are an Office Worker’s Best Friend

Protecting your business’ accounts is something we will advocate for on repeat. You’ll hear us tell you about complex and unique passwords and multi-factor authentication until you’re sick of hearing it. But one tool that our clients sometimes forget is the password manager—an equally useful tool that can help your business keep passwords safe and secure.

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It Pays to Invest in Security Awareness Training… Here’s What to Include

Security awareness training is a critical process for modern businesses to undergo to have any chance of success. Unfortunately, as much as security software or policy can help, it can only do so much. You also need your team members to be on board, knowledgeable about what they need to do, and motivated to do it. 

In light of this, let’s talk about security awareness training and what it needs to involve.

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Two Common Issues that Create Inefficiency and What to Do About Them

Efficiency is extremely important for any business to maintain consistent revenue generation. Technology is a big part of that. Today, we’ll discuss two ways that technology can help build a more efficient business. 

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The Evolution of Internet Speeds Since the 1990s

We all depend on the Internet. For most of us who have been using it since the mid-90s, we’ve seen a massive change in its use. Today, silent continuous connectivity has replaced the dial-up tones of the late 90s and early 2000s. In today’s blog, we thought we’d discuss how Internet connectivity speeds have changed over the past 30 years. 

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2 Technologies That Bring Innovation to Backup and Disaster Recovery

Other than the innovative jump from tape, data backup hasn’t seen too many great leaps forward, so to speak. Sure, businesses don’t have to worry about resource-intensive manual backups anymore, but the standard approach is so rock-solid that innovation isn’t necessarily needed at this point. Today, we are exploring the backup and disaster recovery process and how modern-day solutions have made an effective tool even better.

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Keep Your Business Functional While Moving Your Office

Moving is already difficult, but when you factor in your business’ IT, it becomes twice as frustrating and time-consuming. You can make it easier by preparing for the job ahead of time. Today, we want to cover what you can do to prepare for a business IT move well ahead of the scheduled date.

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Music is Being Lost to Failing Hard Drives, Reminding Us of a Few Best Practices

Nostalgia is a powerful force. It can drive us to look to the past for things we once loved, such as the music we listened to over the years. However, what if the music you loved was lost forever?

This could be the case for many, as older hard drives that archive this music have been discovered to have failed. Let’s examine the situation to see what lessons any small-to-medium-sized business can learn.

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Do Everything You Can to Minimize Downtime

Unexpected downtime can wreak havoc on businesses large and small, which is especially bad when so many paths lead to it. Let’s explore some of downtime’s causes, and equally importantly, how it can be avoided.

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Benefits AI Brings to the Small Business

AI has become a major tool all throughout the modern economy. Businesses are using technology with built-in AI, and that’s because it improves operational efficiency. Let's take a look at some of the benefits small businesses can take advantage of with AI.

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Ghosts of Breaches Past

Your online actions leave a trace that can come back to haunt you long after you’ve forgotten about them.

In this Micro Training, learn how past breaches can resurface years later and strategies to protect your accounts from these digital phantoms.

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Why VoIP is Such a Valuable Investment

Telephone systems are a crucial part of any business. Voice over IP, or VoIP, takes telephone systems one step further by making the service more accessible, flexible, and affordable for SMBs. Today, we want to highlight some of the benefits you can expect from using a VoIP system.

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Tip of the Week: Sharing Large Files Efficiently

Collaboration is key to modern business operations, and that often involves sharing files of various sizes. Historically, sharing large files has been a challenge, but technology has made this process much easier. Here are some simple ways to share large files with your team.

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Keep an Eye Out for the Hallmarks of Malware

Malware is everywhere on the Internet and you don’t want it. From spyware and adware to ransomware there is never anything good that comes from this malicious code. Today, we will outline a few ways you can tell that your computer, workstation, or mobile device has some form of malware on it.

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Sextortion Scammers are Going So Far as to Show You Your House

Sextortion scams are scary. The scammer contacts the victim, claiming to have gotten access to their computer and captured video footage of their target partaking in some private and decidedly adult activities, as well as the content that was onscreen at the time. The threat: pay up, or I send the footage to all of your contacts.

Lately, however, hackers have added another layer of “proof” to these claims, now referring to victims by name and including pictures of their homes. Let’s walk through what one of these scams looks like and what you should do if one appears in your inbox.

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What’s Going on With Telegram and the State of Encrypted Communication?

Sorry for the loaded title. There’s a lot to talk about, even for those of you who don’t use or even know what Telegram is.

We’ll try to sum this up, because we think there is a lot to say about security and the nature of technology in this, and like all things these days, there’s some odd rabble-rousing about this whole series of events. Who’s up for a wild ride?

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Do These 5 Things to Decrease Your Network Bottlenecks

A business experiencing a network bottleneck is having a bad day, especially since the ability to share data is so important to many industries today. That said, today’s resource-intensive technologies can easily eat through an organization’s bandwidth and create these kinds of network slowdowns.

Let’s talk about what can be done to reduce these bottlenecks, if not eliminate them outright.

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Online Gaming Scams

Online gaming is fun, but it’s not just about defeating virtual enemies – real-life cybercriminals could be lurking behind the screen.

In this Micro Training, learn about some cybersecurity risks of online gaming and tips for gaming safely.

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Is Your Website Compliant with Cookie Laws?

It’s easy to put your website at the farthest corner of your to-do list, but smart business owners know that doing so could put them at a disadvantage and even get them in hot water. Let’s take a quick look at one key consideration you should make to keep yourself on the up-and-up: cookies and the laws surrounding them.

DISCLAIMER: We are not lawyers, and this is not legal advice. Seek out representation if that is what you are looking for.

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Five of the Largest Data Breaches of 2024 Thus Far

Data breaches remain a constant threat, capable of causing serious disruptions for businesses and potentially creating widespread issues for customers. In today’s blog, we’ll highlight some of the largest and most impactful breaches of 2024.

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Tip of the Week: Use Google Lens for Greater Search Functionality

Google Lens lets you do some cool things with your mobile device, even if it sometimes feels a bit niche. Google Chrome also has functionality that allows you to use Google Lens to search for anything visible in the browser. For example, it can detect images and text, or still images captured from video, to return results.

Today, we want to highlight how you can use this neat functionality!

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How to Build Better File-Sharing Systems

With collaboration playing center stage for most businesses, it’s no small wonder that file sharing is such a priority for SMBs. If you want to establish solid file-sharing practices, you need the right solutions. Today, we want to explore four ways you can establish an efficient and secure file-sharing platform.

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Hard Drives Don’t Last Forever… Can You Tell If One’s Failing?

Digital storage has exploded, in no uncertain terms, over the last few decades. While hard disk drives (HDDs) were the predominant storage format for most of that time, today’s faster and hardier solid-state drives (or SSDs) are becoming more affordable and popular.

However, there are still plenty of HDDs out there, all far more prone to breaking than their more advanced counterparts. So, how can you tell when a hard drive failure is pending?

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Could Your Employees Benefit from a Compressed Workweek?

The concept of a four-day workweek has started to gain significant traction among businesses of all sizes. There's a subtle distinction between the traditional four-day workweek and the compressed workweek, however. Today, we will discuss the compressed workweek and what it means for employees.

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Collaboration, Communication, and the Tech that Fuels Both

Collaboration is at the heart of any effective business. Most organizations today are trying to make the most of their limited resources, and one of the ways to do this is with a solid collaboration strategy. Here’s how you can do the same to avoid siloing tasks and squandering your workforce’s potential.

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Election Scams

Billions of people are voting in major elections this year, and cybercriminals are using advanced techniques to influence voters and steal personal information.

In this Micro Training, we share common election-related scams and ways to protect yourself.

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The Right Way to Address IT Issues

Technology allows businesses to leverage high-impact practices, but only if that technology works the way it’s supposed to. Even simple issues with network connectivity problems, outdated technology, and cybersecurity can impact operations. The key to a successful technology deployment is understanding where potential disruptions could occur and taking measures to proactively address them ahead of time.

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What are Immutable Backups, and What Makes them Useful?

We have frequently espoused the benefits of data backups, referring to how critical they are should your business experience a disaster at any scale. However, there is always the concern that your backups could also be altered negatively. This is one reason that immutable backups exist.

Let’s take a few moments to examine the concept of an immutable backup and its benefits.

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Tip of the Week: How to Properly Calculate Time in a Spreadsheet

It isn’t a secret that working with different times in a spreadsheet can be a real pain… even if you’re just trying to add them all up. Fortunately (and a little unsurprisingly), this is because these programs have a specific function to accomplish this.

Let’s review the process you should follow in your spreadsheet program, whether you use Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

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Sabotage Isn’t Just About Theft

Businesses have to deal with a lot of different types of problems, but they often don’t see many of the issues that come from within their company. Whether this comes from hackers, disgruntled customers, or unreliable vendors, every business leader constantly deals with some type of issue. Unfortunately, sometimes these problems can come from inside your company. Today, we look at two employee issues that can potentially cause major headaches for business owners.

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Leverage Gmail’s Priority Inbox to Your Advantage

If you are a Gmail user, you might have noticed the different inbox categories available. This makes it much easier to reach “inbox zero.” With the “priority inbox,” you can achieve this feat without so much as breaking a sweat—unless you count sweat from how much you’re laughing at how easy this tip is to pull off.

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Managing Health Technology Has Its Challenges

As technology continues to gain prominence in healthcare, it plays an increasingly vital role. Advancements in technology have allowed the healthcare industry to stabilize costs, improve access, and personalize care delivery—objectives that were challenging in the past. These benefits come with a potential downside: data privacy issues, which are becoming more concerning as technology advances.

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Insider Threats

Have you ever considered that the biggest threat to your cybersecurity might be sitting just a few desks away?

In this Micro Training, learn about insider threats and the dangers they pose for an organization.

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Save Time with Vendor Management

Your business works with a lot of vendors. Each of these vendors requires your time, energy, and resources. Do you have the assets to handle all of them yourself, or would it all be better spent elsewhere on more profitable tasks and projects? Today, we’ll highlight your business’ vendor management options.

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Tip of the Week: Signs that You are Probably Being Scammed

Being scammed—in either the professional or personal sense—is a scary thought. To avoid this outcome, we must be vigilant all the time now.

Of course, it also helps to know what to look for.

Let’s take a few minutes to go over a few warning signs and red flags that something is likely a scam.

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You Can Embrace Remote Operations Without Sacrificing Cybersecurity… It Just Needs to Be Done Right

Remote work has proven incredibly useful over the past few years despite many employers having various concerns about its implementation. While these concerns vary, one prevalent one is how remote operations impact cybersecurity.

If you’re utilizing remote operations to any degree and aren’t concerned about cybersecurity, you must adjust this mindset and correct your approach.

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Efficient and Secure File Sharing a Must for Today’s Businesses

Today’s business needs to be able to share files and data securely and efficiently. This process may seem straightforward, but there are a lot of options that the business owner or manager needs to understand. In today’s blog, we look at some steps that will help you create a strong and secure file-sharing system.

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Scope Creep Can Railroad Your Projects

Projects are a big part of the small business model. Whether they are projects to improve organizational efficiency or productivity or projects that are completed for customers, strong project management is extremely important. Scope creep happens when a project becomes less efficient because the demands of the project keep changing. In today’s blog, we will try to define scope creep and how to prevent it from being a problem for your business.

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Make a Complex Password with This Catchy Trick

You should always use strong passwords for each and every account. Cybercriminals don’t need to put much effort into cracking a password these days—it only takes a little software and standard computer hardware to crack millions of passwords in just a second or two.

The more complex and random a password is, the more secure it is.

But coming up with (and memorizing) complex passwords is really difficult. This trick should make it a whole lot easier.

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Evil Twin Scams

Do you feel confident in your ability to spot a fake Wi-Fi network?

If not, this Micro Training video on evil twin attacks is a must watch!

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Today’s Technology Can Help You Become a Winner

The tech we have at our fingertips has the potential to dramatically enhance our productivity, support a great deal of creativity, and improve a person’s overall quality of life. What happens when you don't use this technology to its full potential? The answer is simple: you lose out. Let’s take a look at some of the negative effects of not using tech to its fullest.

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Are You Doing Enough to Prevent Risk? (Probably Not)

There are plenty of risks that today’s businesses regularly deal with, particularly in terms of cybersecurity. This year, a panel of experts shared some human risk management insights at the Cybsafe Impact 2024 USA conference. Let’s review some of the topics they touched on.

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You Should Know the Difference Between COPE and BYOD

With mobile devices being such a big part of doing business, It’s crucial that your business has a plan to manage them. Many times this comes with a lot of hand-wringing. One of the biggest issues is whether or not the business invests in their employee mobility or if they simply demand that they gain use of employee-owned devices. In today’s blog we’ll go through the mobile management strategies of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled (COPE).

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Strategic Restructuring Can Improve Your IT Infrastructure

While your business might last into the near future, your IT is more challenging to upkeep and preserve over time. You’ll have to consider reworking and restructuring your infrastructure to ensure that it stands the test of time. Let’s review some warning signs that it might be time to do just that.

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Neglecting this Patch Could Allow a Computer to Explode

Your computer has a brain, of sorts, in its CPU… a tiny square that literally enables everything the device does, as it processes billions of instructions at a time. Of course, to support this on such a relatively tiny piece of hardware, most CPUs are packed with microscopic transistors—these transistors being small enough to fit hundreds on a single blood cell.

As you might imagine, this means things can go wrong pretty easily… and gone wrong, things have. Many newer computers are suffering from a bug that could cause permanent damage to the CPU… and if you don’t take steps fast, it could be too late.

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You Want IT and Security Partnering Up… Here’s How to Make It Happen

It should come as no surprise that nowadays, a business’ information technology and security precautions are frequently tied closely together—and wisely so. Not only can today’s technology greatly augment the security a business can defend itself with, but advanced security is needed to protect the critical IT that modern businesses rely on to function.

This makes it critical that these two aspects of your business work together, so let’s go over some ways to ensure they can do so optimally.

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ALERT: Every Social Security Number Stolen by Hackers

We’re still getting more information on this, but at the time of writing this, every American can assume that their social security number has been stolen. Let’s share what we know so far.

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Ransomware

The threat of ransomware has not diminished over the years. In fact, additional extortion techniques are making these attacks even more dangerous.

In this Micro Training, learn about what ransomware is, how damaging it can be, and the best practices for protecting your devices.

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Make 2024 the Year You Spend Less on Printing

If your business is looking to cut costs, one area to focus on is printing. While paper documents have traditionally played a significant role in business operations, they can consume a lot of office space and are challenging to manage efficiently. Let’s explore how you can reduce your printing expenses and streamline your document management processes.

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Tip of the Week: How to Send Large Files with Google Drive

Google Workspace is an effective business platform for your productivity suite, but Google Drive on its own has some merit as a cloud storage and file-sharing platform. Today, we want to discuss how to use Google Drive to share large files.

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How Many Marketing Emails Are Too Many?

Email is a hugely effective tool that you can use to boost your business’ marketing efforts, provided you use them correctly. If misused, however, email marketing can be less beneficial (or worse, actively harmful) to your business’ self-promotion.

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The Best Website Platform for 2024

Managing a website is a lot easier than it used to be. Over a decade ago, you used to need to use complex software to connect to and edit the HTML files of your website. Today, modern websites utilize Content Management Systems (CMS). There are plenty of platforms out there, but the two most popular are Joomla and WordPress. We’re going to compare the differences to help you make the right choice for your next website.

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Network Security Made Simple in 3 Easy Ways

Network security is hard. That’s why so many businesses struggle to implement the solutions they so desperately need to stay safe and relevant. Today, we want to demystify some of these components and lay out in clear terms what your highest priorities should be for your business’ network security.

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Phishing: What It Is, and How to Avoid It

Potential data breaches are increasingly problematic for organizations, and the most common way that data is stolen is through phishing attacks. Phishing attacks are currently one of the most pervasive threats on the Internet, and you need to understand them to thwart their effectiveness against your users. Let’s explore what exactly a phishing attack consists of and some best practices you can use to defend your network against them.

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Three Benefits of Software Management Tools

Software fuels most businesses nowadays, even the small shops down the street. Depending on the size and scope of the business, however, managing software can be complex and downright unfun. Today, we want to highlight a type of tool that your business can find great value in: a software management solution.

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Six Types of Management Software You Need to Know About

Effective management is crucial for success. One way to achieve this is by using management software. With so many options available, how do you choose the right one? Today’s article explores the different types of management software to help you make an informed decision.

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Dictionary Attacks

If your passwords are easy for you to remember, they may also be easy for a cybercriminal to guess using a dictionary attack.

In this Micro Training, learn about how dangerous dictionary attacks can be and how to protect your accounts.

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Cybersecurity Isn’t a Product, It’s a Strategy

Modern businesses—just like yours—cannot and should not operate without robust cybersecurity protections. This is a point we will emphasize at every opportunity. Let’s explore why security is so crucial and what steps you need to take to safeguard your business.

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Please, Please, PLEASE Don’t Include Sensitive Info in Your Emails

Email is a great communication tool. However, certain things are just unsafe to communicate via email.

Let’s go through a list of such things. Better safe than sorry, after all.

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What Makes Outsourced Managed IT Services So Different?

Every business relies on technology for at least part of its operations. This means that every business—particularly those with operations that make IT an essential part of the process—will need access to some form of IT support.

For most small and medium-sized businesses today, managed IT is the best option. Let’s discuss a few reasons why this is.

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Technology Can Bring a Lot of Optimism

Staying optimistic can be challenging, not just in business but in life. Here’s a few ways to give your business a little more confidence in your ability to support your business.

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How to Hire the Ideal IT Consultant for Your Business

Your business needs IT expertise, regardless of how much it is integrated into your operations. You need someone on staff who not only understands your technology, but someone who can help you make the most of it to get the leg up on competition. Today, we want to explore how you can hire the right IT professionals for your organization’s specific needs, including both hard and soft skills.

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It’s Important to Know When to Cut Your Business’ Losses

“Quit.” The q-word is (at least, in the business setting) one of the worst four-letter words someone can use… usually. In the context you probably first thought of, yes, but there are plenty of times that quitting can directly benefit your operations.

For instance, let’s say you have a project that is eating all of your resources, with no real returns in sight. What do you do then?

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Text-Based CEO Fraud

Cybercriminals are exploiting text messages in sophisticated CEO fraud schemes, tricking employees into revealing sensitive information or sending money under the guise of urgent requests from top executives.

In this Micro Training, learn the essential strategies to protect yourself and your organization from these increasingly common and deceptive scams.

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VoIP Inherently Brings a Lot of Advantages

Communication is a big part of business. It builds the collaborative space needed to efficiently get work done and provides the platform in which to handle any and all customer concerns. In today’s blog we are going to go through all the things that makes Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) one of the most valuable pieces of technology any organization can implement.

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