ATECH MSP Blog

Looking back over the events of 2016, one thing was made very clear by cybercriminals: ransomware is a rising star in their arsenal. In order to continue to remain protected against these threats, it is critical to have a clear understanding of them.

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.

2017 has already seen its fair share of cybersecurity threats, and when paired with the events of 2016, it’s clear that implementing a business continuity plan is more important than ever. Today, we’ll discuss what businesses need to do to ] ensure their continuity based on this year’s IT trends, as well as the challenges many faces as they try to implement a strong continuity strategy.

Cloud-based productivity apps like Office 365 allow businesses unparalleled mobility and collaboration; that is, if a company’s Internet connection is up for the task. Unfortunately, too many organizations aren’t able to fully utilize their cloud solutions due to poor connectivity, bandwidth, and latency issues, according to a new report from Zscaler.

Looking for a faster way to change your fonts in Microsoft Word? In this week’s tip, we’ll show you how to quickly change the size of your fonts, as well as how to change the default font used by Microsoft Word when you create a new document so you don’t have to waste time.

On June 12th, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a warning to power grid operators and electric utilities concerning a newly surfaced malware called CrashOverride (aka Industroyer). Only, it’s not entirely new. The world has seen this before and the fallout from it is concerning.

Managing a business is difficult enough without technology issues getting in the way of operations. Therefore, when an issue does pop up in a company’s IT, it can be a very frustrating experience for everyone involved. Here are a few common issues that have been known to trip up businesses more than they should.

After the WannaCry attack, it would seem that the hacking group known as the Shadow Brokers (or TheShadowBrokers) is in possession of some extremely potent information. This makes it all the more disconcerting that the group has announced the start of their own subscription service.

As per usual in the world of websites and online services, Twitter has updated its privacy policy. However, this comes with the unfortunate side-effect of the web service providing its users’ information to advertisers. While this might sound inconvenient, we’ll walk you through some steps that you can take to enhance your privacy in lieu of this change.

What’s your strategy for talking on your cell phone in public? Do you excuse yourself to a room with fewer people? Do you try to talk as quietly as you can in order to prevent eavesdropping? Or do you blab away for all to hear? Thanks to a new product called Hushme, you’ve got another option--but be warned, it will turn some heads.

How often does your business have trouble with its phone systems? While the traditional telephone setup might still be present in most offices, there are plenty of organizations out there that have found value in another, more virtual option. Thanks to VoIP, more businesses than ever are using the Internet to take advantage of more dynamic voice features. Here are three ways that your business can take advantage of virtual telephony solutions to improve operations.

When it comes to creating spreadsheets, the go-to option for many businesses is Microsoft Excel. There are a few little-known tricks that can make creating your Excel spreadsheets even faster. For this week’s tip, we’ll go over a few.

The oldest retailer in the United States disclosed that they had malware installed in their point-of-sale systems that was stealing their customer’s data for a year. 223 Brooks Brothers locations in the United States and its territories were affected by this attack.

The small business owner has so many issues to manage that when it comes time to add employees, it can be a difficult endeavor finding the right person to fill the position. For the growing business, it’s important to find the right people for the job, but with such a shortage of trained and experienced workers on the open market, business owners need to have a strategy in place so that the onboarding process doesn’t cost their organization more than it has to. Understanding what to look for in a new hire can go a long way toward helping you make good personnel decisions, and keep the costs of training down.

We’ve all been there before: you’re walking out into the parking lot, in a hurry to get somewhere, and cannot for the life of you remember where you parked. While this used to be a time-wasting problem for many, Google has added a feature to Google Maps that allows you to avoid the desperate race against the clock to get to your vehicle in time to get to your next destination.

Remember when the biggest concern society had about car byproducts was regarding CO2 emissions? While reducing emissions from vehicles will always be a priority for the environmentally-conscious, on the horizon there looms an even bigger challenge that car manufacturers are responsible for. Namely, what’s to be done with the vast amounts of data to be generated by autonomous cars?

To give you an idea of what the near future of Big Data holds, consider that a single autonomous car can generate as much as 100 GB of data every single second, this according to Barclays analyst Brian Johnson. This could mean as much as 4TB of data generated by a single autonomous car each day. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich sees the immense challenge that this deluge of data presents to the automotive industry and says that it will require “an unprecedented level of computing, intelligence, and connectivity.”

Granted, autonomous cars are a novelty that few of us have encountered on the roadways, and far fewer actually own. However, this won’t be the case by 2020 when autonomous vehicles are expected to enter mass production, according to Topology. By the same year, 75 percent of the world’s cars will be connected to the Internet via embedded Wi-Fi.

While a human-controlled car that’s connected to the web is unlikely to generate quite as much data as its self-driving counterpart, these connected cars will nevertheless generate vast amounts of data in their own right--data relating to in-vehicle (such as fluid levels, speed and acceleration, GPS positioning, etc.), driver/passenger (use of infotainment systems, HVAC, seat preferences, driving styles, etc.), and environment information (such as LiDAR scanner, cameras, and sensors). All of this data presents value to groups like automakers, insurers, government agencies, marketing firms, and even makes for an improved driver experience, and therefore, must be stored and analyzed.

Contemplating just how much car-generated data this trend is on track to produce is an exercise that absolutely boggles the mind. Johnson has done the math and shared his findings with CIO:

“If extrapolated out to the entire U.S. fleet of vehicles -- 260 million in number -- autonomous cars and trucks could potentially produce about 5,800 exabytes. In other words, on a daily basis, there would be enough raw data to fill 1.4 million Amazon AWS "Snowmobile" mobile data center tractor-trailer trucks with 100 petabytes of storage each, for a convey reaching 11,000 miles long.”

Now consider that autonomous cars are just one “thing” of the Internet of Things; a trend where manufacturers are finding new ways to connect new devices to the Internet. Predictions vary widely as to just how large the Internet of Things will balloon to by 2020, being as much as 30 billion devices. In 2016 this figure stood at 6.4 billion devices (which doesn't include smartphones, tablets, and computers) and the number of new devices connecting to the Internet grows every day. The inconvenient fact remains that the sheer amount of data that will be generated over just the next few years will increase exponentially.

It’s also worth noting the glaring sense of irony to be had from generating mountains of data every single day, seen especially in the automotive industry’s push for connected cars. In that, these data centers that are constructed to house all of this information consume massive amounts of energy and leave behind no little environmental footprint. Therefore, going back to our opening example of cars historically having a CO2 emission problem, it would seem that purchasing an “environmentally-friendly” autonomous car is a misnomer, due to the simple fact that you would just be swapping out one problem for another.

What’s all of this mean for your business? At the very least, being aware of this trend means that you can better prepare your organization for the IoT revolution, already at hand. For example, if your IT infrastructure is currently at capacity, well, then your operations will experience a significant bottleneck because of it, sooner rather than later. Having accurate knowledge of this trend will also help you better plan for cloud services. By being able to gradually adopt more cloud services (especially data storage), you’ll grow your business in a way that keeps up with the deluge of data that society is guaranteed to experience in the upcoming years. This has the potential to be a make-it-or-break-it difference for your company, especially if your competitors are scrambling to keep up.

For assistance preparing your business for the upcoming data revolution, give Atech MSP a call at (888) 814-4843.

Despite the rise in digital documentation and connectivity, the ability to print hard copies of documents is still a requirement in many businesses. However, if not handled with care, printing can quickly become an expensive endeavor. This is just one of a few reasons that a single network printer is a better option for many organizations than a series of local printers.

Windows Updates are generally issued with the intention of improving your user experience, but sometimes they can cause complications. This is why most IT departments will opt out of implementing them and will instead review the issued updates before doing the work themselves. However, for the average PC user who simply wants to postpone updates from interrupting your day, read on and find out what you can do about them.

Run your Windows Updates and be very skeptical about opening unsolicited emails. Failure to do so may result in a very dangerous strain of ransomware that could infect your entire network and spread to your clients, partners, and prospects.

As a business owner, you’re constantly looking for new ways to improve customer interaction with your website, and your company in general. In the old days (the early-to-mid aughts), market research required a lot of phone calls and legwork. Today, thanks to the rapid growth of technology, numerous applications and software feature real-time analytics that can help you gather instant feedback and statistics on your clientele. Here are three technologies that can make market research a cinch.