Microsoft was founded in 1975. That means well nearly 45 years and dozens of products, all leading to a mass confusion of what Microsoft has to offer your business and which products are actually useful in your workflows.
Microsoft actually offers a full breadth of business applications that many people are either under-utilizing or not even using. There are so many different products your head might spin if we were to list every single one out.
As one of the major business tech companies out there, Microsoft has tried to answer a majority of your business needs, many of which seem to overlap. In an effort to consolidate offerings and to move business applications into the cloud, Microsoft created Office 365 products to address growing demands within the modern business.
continue reading
Security researchers recently discovered a major security vulnerability in a tool that comes pre-loaded on many PCs. This specific tool, PC-Doctor Toolbox (also rebranded for other third-party manufacturers) has been identified with a flaw that would allow an attack to gain access to administrator privileges on the computer.
In Dell’s response to the vulnerability—yes, Support Assist or PC Doctor are typically loaded onto all business-grade Dell machines—they noted that a patch addressing this vulnerability had been released to customers on May 28th, 2019. The company believes that most computers have already received the updates. Prior to the update, millions of business computers were vulnerable to an attack that could compromise your entire network (from one PC!).
continue reading
There is one outstanding issue that deserves special attention: the recovery of information technology (IT) following a disaster. This chapter aims to demonstrate how you can succeed in this area by developing a robust Disaster Recovery Plan.
What Is A Disaster Recovery Plan?
A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) outlines how your organization aims to bounce back from a major disruption like a cyberattack. Disaster recovery is closely connected to continuity and data backup. While Business Continuity Plans take into account all business assets and deal with the resumption of core operational functionality after a disaster, a DRP focuses exclusively on recovery of IT assets, such as computer systems, data, and IT infrastructure. A DRP is broader than a backup strategy, since it deals with recovery of all of your IT assets, not simply the data.
continue reading
You’ve probably heard about cyber insurance by this point. It’s been around for several years now. Yes, it’s useful to minimize your risks—especially as cybercrime has lately grown into a multi-billion dollar business.
Businesses and organizations large and small are beginning to realize that cybersecurity is a necessary evil—it’s an evil in the sense that there is no guarantee your data or client personally identifiable information (we call this PII) will always remain secure.
Besides losing valuable or sensitive data, there’s a bigger chance now than ever before that a cybersecurity event could hurt your company, its reputation, inhibit your business growth and (worst of all) decimate your financial reserves to the point of closure (over a quarter of businesses that suffer a major cyberattack close within a year!).
As a part of your cybersecurity and disaster recovery strategy, you probably are thinking about investing in cyber insurance to minimize your business liabilities.
continue reading
When it comes to security, what are your biggest problems?
Today’s climate unfortunately has not gotten much better when it comes to cyberattacks and data breaches. Regardless of your industry—healthcare, financial, service, or manufacturing—your network is vulnerable to attacks that nation states (or even 12 year old kids!) may be implementing off of our shores and out of our nation’s jurisdiction.
Given the sheer number of criminals drawn to penetrating vulnerabilities in networks, cybersecurity has not gotten easier in 2019 (and many experts believe this insecurity may continue to manifest in our organizations for years to come).
continue reading
Apparently, there is at least one piece looking to fetch more than a million dollars.
The subject? A computer infected with six strains of high-profile malware. Think WannaCry and BlackEnergy here for examples. And this art—a laptop sitting on a table gap-locked from the rest of the internet (a techy way of saying the computer is in a vacuum to prevent the ransomware from escaping).
In a project called “Persistence of Chaos”, artist Guo O. Dong, with some cybersecurity consultants, created a Samsung Blue Netbook from 2008, running Windows XP Service Pack 3. It features six of the most prolific malware to date. These malware have been responsible for over 95 BILLION dollars in financial damage to businesses and organizations worldwide.
continue reading
