Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

There’s no questioning Apple’s dedication to the advancement of technology, especially over the past few decades. With the iPhone being the first of many commercially available smartphones, Apple has always been at the forefront of exciting consumer technology developments. Now, however, their most important decision yet may come in the form of a face-off with the FBI.

Upgrading to a new operating system is a challenge that many businesses face, especially in light of several prominent older systems reaching their end-of-support date in recent times. For example, Windows XP reached its end of support date just a few years ago, and this past January, Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 8. While unsupported software is certainly a problem, why does a business ultimately choose to upgrade away from their current OS?

Windows 10 offers plenty of ways you can customize how your mouse pointer looks and functions, which can make navigating your PC much easier. Here’s how to do it!

Drones are great devices for entertainment. Whether they’re flying in races or recording breathtaking videos or photos from a bird’s-eye view, drones can help you feel like you’re on top of the world. Unfortunately, just like all types of technology, drones can be abused. Violations of drone legislation have led authorities to ask a difficult question: how can you get an illegal drone out of the sky, without risking those who are passing by below?

Eventually, you’re going to have to upgrade your company’s technology. Sure, you could attempt to save money by holding out for as long as possible. In the end, this strategy may actually cost you money since you'll be stuck using outdated, inefficient equipment and software. How do you know, for sure, when it’s the ideal time to upgrade your business' technology?

Google is much more than just a collection of desktop apps, a search engine, and a web browser. Google is a large company that’s continuously innovating with new and exciting technologies. One of these is Google Wallet, which allows for sharing cash and making money transfers online. What many users of Google Wallet forget is that, just like a debit or credit card, your Google Wallet card number can be stolen and used for fraudulent activity.

Today’s various versions of ransomware are dangerous. By forcibly locking down important files on a victim’s computer, threats like CryptoLocker and CryptoWall are posing significant threats to both businesses and ordinary computer users. However, a new type of ransomware has appeared called CryptoJoker; and we assure you, there’s nothing funny at all about this one.

Every business wants to be equipped with the latest and greatest IT equipment and software. Yet, due to realities like budget shortcomings, time constraints, and the lack of knowledge about IT trends, it can be difficult for the average SMB to attain that dream technological setup on their own. However, by being smart about how you approach IT, your company can still have a network that exceeds your expectations.

Businesses that have online dealings should always be aware of how much danger their operations are in, especially with the omnipresent threat of hackers. Depending on the severity of the hacking attack, some organizations might not even know they’ve been hacked until it’s far too late. It’s critical that your business is able to identify potential threats before they’ve caused irreparable damage to your infrastructure.

In 2015, there was an incredible amount of information stolen from organizations all over the world. From healthcare companies to government institutions, nobody was safe from the endless onslaught of hacking attacks. Now, in the wake of these hackers’ destruction, it seems that most of the incidents in question exposed passwords and email address; important credentials that put many users’ security in jeopardy.

Businesses utilize a ton of data in order to keep operations running smoothly, but what happens to data that’s unused? Are they files that are potentially sensitive in nature? If your dark data isn’t being stored securely, it could be at risk of data compromisation, or worse. Therefore, it becomes critical to address your business’s dark data issue before it becomes an even bigger problem.

Sometimes you might hear a song on the radio that you want to look up later, but there’s one problem: you don’t know the song’s name or the artist. Thankfully, there are music apps for your smartphone that can identify these unknown songs.

Cyber security continues to be a major pain point for small and medium-sized businesses, even if they’re taking the fight to the latest threats with solutions like antivirus and firewalls. Significant progress has been made, yet new threats are born every day. In fact, you might be surprised to find out that a monstrous 27.3 percent of all malware in the world was created just last year. 

Technology has changed the world. It has changed individual lives, businesses, and the way people communicate with one another. The main reason for this is that technology, and the use of it, happens everywhere. In fact, the world has seen a huge spike in the addition of microprocessors to ordinary objects which allows them to communicate with the digital world. This trend is known as ubiquitous computing.

Have you ever spent time writing an email to somebody that you haven’t emailed before, hit send, and then wondered if the email address is even valid? For the active email user, this is an all-too-common scenario. How can you know for sure if an email address is valid before sinking time into writing a message?

The number of high-profile hacks that have occurred over the past several years continues to climb, and it won’t let up anytime soon. Now, another incident involving Time Warner Cable, a large ISP in the United States, shows that even large companies that deal with sensitive information aren’t invincible from data breaches.

Businesses are trying to cut costs wherever possible, but the cost of printing isn’t always the most obvious first choice. Businesses consume exorbitant amounts of paper and ink every year, and these resources cost a significant amount of money that could be better spent elsewhere. Thankfully, there are a ton of great solutions that can virtually eliminate the costs of unnecessary printing.

Have you ever been the target of an email spoofer? This can be a difficult question to answer, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Email spoofing can appear to be from legitimate sources, but the most important indicator is if the message looks like spam or fishy in general. If you ever receive a message like this, you might wonder why your spam filter didn’t catch such an obvious trap.

If you’re still using Windows 8 (instead of the much improved 8.1), we’ve got bad news for you. Microsoft has ceased offering patches and security updates for the Windows 8 operating system, which means that if you want to be using the most secure and up-to-date operating system, you should make the switch to Windows 8.1 or Windows 10.

In 2015, we saw countless hacking attacks against major corporations, from health insurance providers like Blue Cross Blue Shield and Anthem, to government offices, like the United States Office of Personnel. Due to the stigma associated with hacking, we often forget that there are a lot of hackers out there who try to use their skills for good--or, at least, less awful purposes.