ATECH MSP Blog

The Google Play Store is the Android operating system’s primary source of applications and widgets and can do a lot more than many might first think. Let’s consider a few useful tools and tricks that are incorporated into the Play Store that you should keep in mind.

In the United States, the political atmosphere in 2020 was extremely testy and one element that we typically keep our eyes on is the net neutrality rules that seem to change every few years or so. Today, we thought we’d revisit the issue and tell you what to expect over the first few months of the new administration. 

2020 has been filled to the brim with adversity and just as we’ve mercifully arrived to the end, the largest and most brazen cyberespionage attack ever has been carried out. Today, we’ll tell you what we know about the attack, what problems it caused, and what we should learn from it going forward.

Some businesses will put pressure on themselves to get some of the most innovative technology tools available. On the surface, this seems like a great idea, but just because a piece of technology exists, doesn’t mean it will help your business right now. We thought it would be a good time to take a look at some strategies that will help you build the technology your business needs to see a positive return on those investments.

Since its widespread adoption, the telephone has proved to be a hugely beneficial tool for businesses of all kinds… despite the considerable costs that it can incur. Fortunately for your business’ budget, however, there is a far more cost-effective means for you to enjoy the benefits of telephony: VoIP, short for Voice over Internet Protocol. Let’s go over some of the reasons why VoIP is just a better option for any business.

Many small business owners will temper their investments into IT security because they are of the notion that because their businesses are so small, they can’t be affected by hackers. We get it: prioritizing IT security is more expensive than you like and that money can justifiably be used elsewhere for more gain. The problem is that small businesses can and do get targeted by hackers. In fact, over 25 percent of all data breaches happen to small businesses. In today’s cyberthreat climate, your business can’t rely on luck. Let’s take a look at what you can invest in to protect your network and infrastructure.

Browser extensions are nifty little programs that can be implemented into your web browser itself, adding onto its capabilities and utility… at least, that’s the concept. Unfortunately, these programs also give cybercriminals a means of secretly launching an attack. The security firm Avast recently identified 28 such third-party extensions that have been installed—according to the download numbers, at least—by about three million people on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge combined.

While some places get to take the holiday season off to some extent, other establishments are at their busiest—and as such, don’t have time for any inefficiencies. Let’s meet an employee from such an establishment, located far up north, to learn about how any workplace might benefit operationally from managed IT services.

When you think of managed services, you may not really understand just how it fits into your business. This month we wanted to demonstrate how a managed services provider can deliver a lot of value. 

For most people, the term tech support is pretty self-explanatory. The terms managed services and MSP… not so much. Let’s go over what makes managed services and what we do as a managed service provider so different from the IT support you may be used to. To start, we’ll review where the idea of an MSP came from, and end with what one like us can do for you.

One of the major shifts we’ve seen in business in 2020 is the establishment of the remote workforce. Stay-at-home orders brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary for businesses to find solutions on how to securely transfer information from what could be unprotected networks. The virtual private network is a solution to this problem. Today, we will describe what a VPN is, what its primary use is, and how secure it really is for secure file transmission. 

No doubt you’ve noticed the increased use of smartphones. No matter where you go, people are on their phones. Sometimes they are using them in places you wouldn’t even imagine. For the modern business, employee smartphone usage can be a major pain in the side. Today, we’ll go into how smartphone usage helps and hurts a business and how to go about keeping employees from being on their phones for large chunks of the workday.

When you see that we offer tech support, you almost certainly have an idea of what that means. However, upon hearing about our typical service delivery for the first time, many people are really surprised by how different our services—as a managed service provider—are. These differences are not an accident. Let’s go back in time a little while to explore how managed services came about, and what difference they could make for you.

As the most common Internet browser, Google Chrome is in a position where they always need to be coming up with new draws to maintain their hold on the market. Their latest efforts may help them to do so. Let’s take a moment and examine what Chrome is implementing, and how you can use it to your advantage.

If you are a regular visitor to our blog, you know just how important we think data backup is for any business that relies on data. If your business stores and creates data, you need to have a backup strategy in place. It’s that simple. Today, we want to discuss how to improve your data backup strategies with a BDR.

It’s no secret that 2020 has been relatively tough on all of us, down to the technology that so many use and rely on each year. Now that we’re in the home stretch towards a hopefully better 2021, let’s look back at some of the technologies that didn’t deliver as promised and some of the other issues that we saw this year—some relatively harmless, and some decidedly not.

Mobility is important to today’s workers and can be valuable to many different types of businesses; so much so that businesses demand that employees stay connected. Sometimes, especially when in public, this can become a social problem. Today, we will discuss mobile phone etiquette and five ways that you can improve yours. 

With the holidays approaching, and with the global pandemic still underway, online shopping is going to be under even more demand than usual in 2020. With all of these transactions online, it would stand to reason that people would be more keen to follow best security practices than ever before. This week, we take a look at how people are staying secure online and whether or not the need for speed outweighs their security and privacy efforts.

Being told by an IT provider how important it is for you to update your software is probably a bit like your grade school teacher telling you how important it is to do your homework: of course they’re going to say it, it’s their job to do so. However, we’re telling you what the Department of Homeland Security announced when they released a warning to update your Google Chrome web browser.

As serious as they are, cyberattacks are not always labeled with the most serious-sounding names. We are, of course, talking about phishing: the use of spoofed email addresses and fraudulent messages to get hold of data, or whatever goal the attacker has in mind. One of the silliest-sounding versions of phishing—smishing—has proven to be of particular risk.