Data Net Blog

Is your business prepared to handle the many challenges that come from remote work, chief among them security? If you aren’t, then the transition to remote or hybrid operations is going to be a rough one, to say the least. Let’s discuss how you can implement secure remote or hybrid work policies that are sure to protect your business now and in the future.

Phishing is a pressing issue for everyone, not just businesses. The main problem is that the phishing messages keep getting more and more sophisticated and keep coming and coming until, eventually, something negative happens. For this week’s tip, we wanted to discuss the different types of phishing you can encounter. 

Today’s businesses need a data backup, and just copying over data to another place every so often isn’t enough. Modern businesses need a comprehensive data recovery strategy in place to protect themselves from potential data loss in the event of a disaster. Let’s go through why it is critical to formulate one early on, and how to balance its maintenance with everything else your business demands.

The average IT infrastructure is made up of dozens of technology solutions that all work in tandem to ensure your business’ success… at least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. Oftentimes, you’ll need to contact your technology vendors to either procure new solutions or get your existing ones to work with theirs. How do vendor relations figure into your company’s prolonged success?

Since it was—somewhat by necessity—implemented by many businesses a few years ago, many of these same businesses have been quick to abandon remote and hybrid approaches to work. If you are considering this return, we implore you to reconsider—in fact, we’d urge you to lean into further expanding the capabilities of remote and hybrid workers.

Last week, we went through why training is such a crucial part of your business’ cybersecurity process. This week we will turn our attention to some of the tools and other strategies that your organization should be using to mitigate security threats. 

Nowadays, technology and business are intimately interconnected, the success of your operations and processes largely informed by the tools you have in place. Let’s go over three ways you can help boost your potential success even further by implementing the right methods.

Smart devices are all the rage in today’s consumer-based market. People love to get their hands on devices that can help them better track and manage their lives. There are two factors that play into how these devices can be brought into a professional work environment, though, and they are security and reliability.

We’ve been talking about social media as a good way to market if you're a small business. Facebook , in particular, can be useful not just as a marketing tool, but as a platform that can serve as your website. If you don’t have a website, Facebook offers a way to have a “faux” website. It can provide basic information about your goods and services, and it can be easily updated. Unlike a website, it takes no web skills to change the content of your Facebook page. So at the very least, this is a pretty safe way to get into the shallower waters of social media. It is important to remember to update your Facebook page. Leaving it to get stale doesn't send a good message. If you don’t care enough to keep it up to date what does that say about how you run the rest of your business?

Admit it, you don’t know all that much about cybersecurity. In this blog, we spend a lot of time discussing security issues. After all, today there are more threats than ever and many different types of problems that IT administrators, business decision-makers, and even individual employees have to deal with. Over the next two weeks, we have decided to discuss the reality of cybersecurity and what you need to know to get out in front of it. 

Pay any attention to social media? Think it's just a pastime to use up your monthly data allotment? Well, it can be just that. But it can also be a good marketing tool, especially for a small business that has a limited budget for marketing. For many very small operations, sometimes even building a website is a step too far. Many small businesses, especially individual sole proprietorships, may not have their own website. Social media platforms can become your de facto website, and make a pretty good stand-in for a small website. This can be especially true if your website is only informational. (you aren't actually using a website to sell products) Also for the provider of services, say legal, writing, etc, social media platforms may be just enough for you.

We make a consistent point to urge our readers to take their organizational cybersecurity seriously. This is because there are threats out there that are targeting your business, no matter how small it is. This week, we take a break from the itemized list of security tips to present 2022’s most devastating cyberattacks to give you an idea what hackers today can do.

Have you ever thought about password protecting a zipped folder so that only authorized individuals and users can access it? While Windows might not have built-in functionality for this type of protection, a free app called 7-Zip gives you the power to do so. Let’s go over how you can use 7-Zip to password protect a ZIP file on your Windows PC.

“Nice guys finish last.” It’s not a new idea—in fact, it’s paraphrased from a quote teasing the 1946 New York Giants for their last-place finish in their league. In business, it’s become a cliche all its own…but does the cliche actually have anything supporting it?

As it turns out, it doesn’t.

You will agree that having passwords to access your IT devices, networks and data is the first step to securing your business data. However, having passwords is not enough. The passwords have to be strong and difficult to detect or hack into. A lot of ‘smart’ devices today such as phones, tablets, and laptops come with facial recognition and fingerprint sensors that can be used in lieu of passwords. But what happens when you don’t have biometric security measures? You need to ensure that your passwords are strong and also maintain good password hygiene.

The modern company has either completely digitized their business or has at least thought about it. This complete sea change has created a lot of beneficial situations for these organizations, but one element that often gets overlooked is the process of document digitization. In today’s blog we thought we’d go through the document digitization process and why it is so potentially beneficial for businesses. 

The COVID pandemic forced businesses all over the world to adopt remote work practices, whether they were ready for them or not, and it wound up establishing full-fledged remote and hybrid positions which may never have existed otherwise. However, with these new developments come new threats, and you need to be ready to handle them as they crop up.

If the lock to your home’s main door breaks, do you fix it or just let it be? My guess is, you would get a locksmith to fix it for you at the earliest. And, what do you do if you lose the key? Use the spare key, if you have one, to get into your home, right? The situation is kind of similar when it comes to security patches and updates for your software programs. Credible software manufacturers make sure the software programs they develop offer an acceptable level of data security. However, no software is perfect, and knowing this well, cybercriminals constantly work to find vulnerabilities in popular software programs that they can exploit to gain access to your data. Security patches and software updates work to prevent this by fixing or patching the vulnerabilities.

Last week, we wrote about how patience plays a big role in people’s ability to be productive and efficient. This week we want to explore a few ways to help the people in your organization to become more patient. We all know people in our lives that seem like they could definitely take a chill pill. If that is you, using these four suggestions can help you be more patient in situations that demand it. 

We all know that basic hygiene is a must to lead a healthy life. Did you know that the same rule applies to IT as well? There’s something known as cyber hygiene that plays a key role in keeping your business healthy from the IT perspective. So, how do you ensure your business doesn’t fail when it comes to cyber hygiene? Here are a few tips.