ATECH MSP Blog

Certain technologies out there make you ask questions. For example, have you ever wondered why you need to restart your computer other than “because IT says to?” What about that task manager? What’s that for, anyway? We’re here to help you answer some questions about your business technology and why it’s important to keep them in mind during the workday.

Passwords have always been important to businesses, but they are priorities for organizations in certain industries. Government-based organizations in particular need to be concerned about using secure passwords. Of course, not all businesses are government-based, but there’s a thing or two your own can learn about some of their password practices.

The modern office can be a pretty monotonous place. When people do similar tasks over and over again, their attention to detail can wane. That may be a problem for your operational efficiency, but depending on what the expectations are, it likely won’t end your company. Ransomware, on the other hand, can be a major problem for any organization it affects. Today, we will share with you how to get your staff to care about the looming threats that target businesses from over the Internet.

We’ve always been a proponent of preparing for the worst and hoping for the best where a business’ solutions are concerned. That’s why we were happy to receive an email from our friends at the North Pole telling us about a situation they ran into just a few days ago...

There is no denying that a Google account is a very valuable thing to have today, and if valuable doesn’t seem like the right word to use, let’s say practical. Business and casual users alike use the wide variety of services for many purposes - but are they doing so safely?

While some things may last forever (or at least seem to), your business’ technology certainly isn’t one of them. Moreover, when your solutions do reach their end-of-life (EOL), it is crucial that they are upgraded and/or replaced so that you can avoid negative consequences for your business.

As technology advances and improves at an exponential rate, it is little wonder that today’s youth are growing up with a closer relationship to technology than any other generation before them. While this has opened up many beneficial opportunities for them, it can also be the source of many serious issues without the proper supervision.

A backup is a critical consideration for any business, in more ways than one. We have a tendency to immediately jump to “business-ending disaster” whenever we mention a backup. However, we’ve realized that this may have the unfortunate side effect of lulling you into a false sense of complacency - after all, what are the chances of being struck by a “business-ending disaster?”

Computers are important for just about everything nowadays, but they can be difficult to deal with when they start to act up. If hardware doesn’t connect to a network, or if you have software that fails to respond when you click on it, you’ll likely need assistance to figure out what the cause is. On occasion, however, the issue might be something that a simple troubleshooting procedure can help you resolve. We’ll help you determine whether or not a situation is dire enough to involve professionals, as well as when it’s tame enough that you can resolve it on your own.

Let’s say that you don’t want someone else accessing the Control Panel on your Windows desktop or laptop. That’s perfectly reasonable, but you might not know how you can prevent them from doing so. Thankfully, Windows is flexible enough to allow this function, and with a little know-how, you can implement it without a hitch.

We often think of technology as something that is meant to help us, all without doing anything for it in return. The problem with this mindset is that you need to take care of your technology if you want it to keep your business ahead of the game. We’ll go over some technology maintenance tips to ensure that you know how to take care of your business technology--primarily your office workstations.

2017 was chock-full of security threats, attacks, and breaches. Therefore, 2017 was also chock-full of lessons to be learned regarding business cybersecurity. For this week’s tip, we’ll review a few lessons that hopefully weren’t missed.

It’s no secret that a business relies on its data. Therefore, it only becomes more important that this data is protected, especially in light of the predictions that have been made for the rest of the year concerning ransomware. Read on for a closer examination of these predictions, and suggested actions that you can take to protect your business and its data.

Email is a solution that needs to be protected, lest you expose important information to any onlookers while messages are in transit. Encryption is one of the key ways you can make sure that your messages are safe, but email hasn’t always used this method to secure messages. In fact, it wasn’t until relatively recently that encryption became a staple of the major email providers.

Does your skin crawl with the thought of what would happen if you lose track of your smartphone? These days, a lot of users keep a plethora of personal information on their mobile devices, which makes a loss all the more dangerous for them. How can you make sure that your mobile device doesn’t accidentally become a treasure trove of information for any hackers or thieves who might try to steal it?

The Internet is gaining quite the reputation as a dangerous place. It hosts countless threats, many of which hide behind links that shield their intentions. Considering how much is on the line for your business, you need to make sure that you know which links are safe to click on, and which ones are best left ignored.

The applications on a mobile device allow us to use that device in a number of ways, from productivity, to entertainment, to networking. However, despite the efforts of Google to keep out the riff raff, the Google Play Store has plenty of malware available to download in the guise of a desired app. Today, we’ll review a few tricks to help you spot them before pressing ‘Install.’

It’s the end of the day, and you’re faced with a dilemma - shut down your workstation, or simply put it to sleep for the night? This is a topic that is debated quite often. We’ll compare the positive and negative aspects of both approaches to identify which is the better option.

Anyone that has lost their smartphone knows it is a rather traumatic experience. Not only is your entire life on the phone, likely so is your work. With smartphones becoming a major part of doing business, and their use for business purposes, a lost device can cause major headaches. Today, we will go over some strategies you can implement to mitigate the damage if/when you or one of your employees loses a device with sensitive company information on it.

Data security isn’t a matter to be taken lightly, as too many businesses have found out the hard way. Unfortunately, there are far too many simple ways to correct common security issues - enough that it’s foolish not to do so. We’ll review a few ways to fix security issues, after discussing one of, if not the, most egregious security failings in modern history.