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When you suffer a data breach, you might wonder how you can possibly come back from such an event, especially if it leads to a network compromise. Can your business rebound effectively, and if so, what do you need to do to make sure that it doesn’t happen again? It all starts with understanding how much data you need to function, as well as how much downtime you can afford to suffer from.
We often talk about scams and cyberthreats, and lately our advice for dealing with a potential phishing threat is to simply avoid it altogether.
It doesn’t matter if your workplace is your typical office space or if it is remote. There will always be factors that can contribute to burnout. These struggles are not exclusive to the location of the office, and if left unchecked they can impact work performance, productivity, mental health, and so on. It’s important that you have coping mechanisms and strategies in place to address burnout before it becomes too severe to counter.
How much does your business rely on technology to keep your organization running forward? As business technology becomes more complex, it’s becoming increasingly popular for organizations to have their own internal IT departments to manage and maintain it. Yet, small businesses don’t often have the necessary funds for such a feat. How can your company afford quality IT service? You can start by pursuing managed IT solutions from a managed service provider.
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.
These software solutions are commonly found in industries that are subject to a lot of outside influence and fluctuating demand due to a variety of factors, such as retail. Smart scheduling gives these businesses the capability to schedule their employees more effectively, using automation to simplify the process.
When we say that some businesses are using Windows 7, what we really mean is that with a remarkable market share that still sits around 23 percent, a lot of businesses have chosen not to upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft’s latest OS. In fact, as of January, when Microsoft officially did away with support for Windows 7, nearly half (47 percent) of SMBs were still utilizing it. It’s not a good scene. Let’s take a look at why so many haven’t moved off of Windows 7.
Let’s review what true collaboration is, and how you can lead your company towards more collaborative behaviors in your day-to-day undertakings.
First, it is important that we define the difference between these two seemingly synonymous terms. While it is possible to work as a team without collaborating, collaboration requires some element of teamwork to be present.
Basically, your documentation should be a complete inventory of all the technology you have, first divided between your hardware and software solutions.
Data theft is a big deal, but there are ways that you can protect yourself and your money when utilizing this technology. Some are more involved than others, so let’s dive right in.
As you’re putting together your handbook, you need to figure out precisely what you want every member of your team to know. This will give your team the advantage of knowing what is expected of them, along with the other information that they will need to know, like:
In medieval times people predominantly worked at their place of residence. Many people of this era in Europe lived in what are known now as longhouses. They lived a subsistence life, looking after their crops and livestock. Individuals that lived in these communal buildings typically found a way to justify their inclusion by gaining a trade that would help the rest of the people out. In fact, it wasn’t until the mid-18th century where people started going outside their immediate community to go to work; and even then, the people that ran the factories lived and operated out of small buildings adjacent to the main factory.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the first time many of us have had to deal with this level of threat, and now that businesses start to re-open in an attempt to stagnate a recessionary dive in the economy, there is a lot of ground to cover. Today, we go through the considerations you need to make, and the actions you need to take, to keep your business clear of COVID-19, and what steps to take if the virus makes its way into your business.
The first thing that you need to consider is that this thing won’t last forever. Most businesses, if they had no contingencies in place, or if they were forced to close by mandate, probably have been burning through cash for the past month. Those that haven’t are fortunate. Small business owners need to stay proactive during this period, altering their company’s remote work strategies if need be, and searching for low-interest loans to get them through this difficult process. Let’s get into some of the most useful tips on how to get your business through this disaster.
BlueKeep is a malware strain that was first discovered in May 2019, and was patched in short order to prevent it from becoming another situation like EternalBlue. EternalBlue was the exploit that allowed WannaCry to have such a considerable impact, especially on healthcare providers in the UK. Despite this precedent, however, many hospitals neglected to apply the necessary patches--and that isn’t even the worst part.
The worst part is that the three systems that BlueKeep impacts (Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2) share one thing in common: they have all passed their end-of-life date, and therefore no longer receive security updates.
This makes this situation a two-fold disaster. Not only have patches been released to mitigate BlueKeep, the systems affected by BlueKeep should not be in use anyways.
Of course, it only gets worse, and paints an unfortunate portrait of medical IT. A reported 22 percent of BlueKeep-vulnerable devices are yet unpatched. Worse, 45 percent of connected medical devices remain vulnerable, making things like x-rays, anesthesia machines, and other care-driven technology a risk to use.
Lean on the IT experts at Coleman Technologies for assistance. We can help any organization ensure that their technology won’t put their operations or their patrons in harm’s way. Learn more about what we can do by calling us at (604) 513-9428.
Let’s look at how kids behave for a moment… if told to partner up, they—almost automatically—gravitate toward their friends, the people they are comfortable spending time with. Your employees will do the same, both in and out of the office.
Collaboration greatly relies on some level of trust and familiarity, which is most effectively developed outside of the professional environment. Encourage your staff to socialize outside of work hours, or even treat them on occasion, on one condition: no shop talk. While your employees may not all be fast friends afterwards, they’ll understand one another much better and be able to work more effectively.
Speaking of efficacy, make sure your team understands what you expect from them in terms of results. This goes double when collaborative work is involved. A clear understanding of a task makes it easier to determine how to accomplish it, and how their combined efforts can best serve their purpose.
If you really want your team to work collaboratively, make the first move and involve yourself in the process. “Rank” or “position” should have no bearing on how able someone is to participate in a collaborative process, and there is no telling who could be struck with inspiration. Actively seek input from your team and demonstrate how you want your employees to work together.
While there’s a time for either, there is a difference between combining your resources to accomplish a given task and having your employees collaborate. The former is great if a lot of a single task needs to be finished quickly, but if a complicated process needs to be completed, it helps more to give the task to a group of people who have different proficiencies. This way, you have a better chance of the necessary skills being present in the group.
A team that doesn’t feel appreciated is a team that won’t accomplish much. Why would they, if it doesn’t seem to matter whether they excel, or put out a thoroughly mediocre performance? This is especially the case if a single member’s performance is publicly singled out, as though they did all the work.
To encourage your team to perform well as a group, make sure that the entire group receives some recognition of their combined efforts.
Regardless of how motivated your team may be to collaborate with one another, it just isn’t going to happen if they don’t have the opportunity or means to effectively do so. While this may have been a more reasonable obstacle in the past, today’s available technology invalidates any excuse your team may have… mostly due to the Internet serving as the greatest collaborative tool the world has ever seen. The easier the collaborative process is, whether you lean on an Internet-based application or an internal resource or both to simplify things, the more likely it is for your employees to work with each other.
Coleman Technologies is ready and willing to deliver the solutions you need to promote collaboration among your staff. Give us a call at (604) 513-9428 to hear more about your options.
Before Windows 8, there was no difference whatsoever (aside from the obvious fact that Restart would start the device back up). This changed, however, with the introduction of Windows 8, and a new feature: Fast Startup.
Still present in Windows 10, Fast Startup shortens what was once a much longer start process after a user had clicked Shut Down.
While all a user’s files and programs are still shut down, the heart of the operating system is just put into standby mode. Please note that it does power down everything, unlike hibernate and standby. This makes it much easier for Windows to reactivate. However, since not all processes are completely stopped, present issues won’t be affected. Your problem will still be there the next time the workstation is turned on.
On the other hand, restarting the device actually does put a stop to all processes and resumes operations with a fresh boot on the motherboard level. This is why restarting your computer seems to take so long as compared to manually turning it off and on again.
So, the difference is really in the granularity of the shutdown process. Counterintuitively, “shutting down” a computer leaves more components active than a restart does, which is why restart is the process recommended when troubleshooting an issue.
So, while we may recommend that you “turn your computer off and on again,” or “reboot,” what we really mean is “restart your computer.”
For more assistance in dealing with pesky technology issues, lean on the managed services that Coleman Technologies provides. Learn more about what we offer by calling (604) 513-9428.
Many parents have historically used a gamification strategy to convince their young’uns to cooperate better with notoriously less-fun parts of daily life. Take clean-up time, for instance, which many parents will turn into a race between themselves and their children to see who can pick up quicker. Taking an unappealing task and adding game-like elements to motivate people to do it is the concept that forms the foundation of gamification.
This isn’t a new idea, either. Mark Twain knew what he was talking about when he wrote about Tom Sawyer tricking his friends into white-washing a fence for him. By making the activity seem elite and enjoyable, he hoaxed and hoodwinked his friends into completing his chore for him while they all enjoyed proving themselves capable. As was written at the end of that particular chapter:
“If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do ... There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign.”
If the psychology behind this sounds silly to you, consider the concept of “employee of the month.”
Human psychology is a big part of why gamification has been shown to be so impactful in motivating employees. As a species, human beings tend to be strongly motivated by certain desires, namely:
While many tasks originally lack the potential for most, if not all, of these desires to be filled, gamification can inject this capability by fulfilling all three of these desires. If an employee were to have the satisfaction of knowing that they performed most admirably, gaining some perks and being looked upon with favor from the higher-ups, it only makes sense that they would continue to strive to that position from that point on. Furthermore, it also helps to motivate your other employees to strive harder, so they may have a chance of receiving the same benefits as well.
Don’t believe me? Just look at Google, where gamification has helped chop down travel expenses by allowing the person with the most budget left over after a business trip to keep the difference.
If you’re now considering a more gamified approach to business-as-usual, you have a great variety of options available to you. Different use cases and different industry types each have their own options to do so, all with the potential to be a great investment.
You can also elect how much you want to put into gamification. Sure, there are solutions out there specifically to gamify common business processes, but you could also come up with your own homespun methods. Maybe an employee who visibly went above and beyond one day would receive an entry into an end-of-year drawing for a desirable prize. You really are only limited by your creativity - or how long you’re willing to spend searching online for ideas.
Just as though you’re the parent trying to convince your employees to pick up their playthings, the key to effective gamification is to turn a rote task into an engaging activity.
Have you ever tried out any gamification methods in your office? Which ones did you find most effective? Share what you did in the comments!
Here, we’ll go over a few topics that your BYOD rules need to address.
It’s hardly a secret that some people utilize lax passwords - especially on their personal devices, where there isn’t an IT department establishing policies to help ensure password strength. According to Pew Research Center, 28 percent of smartphone owners don’t use a screen lock. Obviously, this isn’t something that can be allowed in the business setting.
So, if your employees are going to use their personal devices to access business resources, you need to have a policy that their devices are set to lock after a certain period of inactivity, and require some form of authentication to unlock. Furthermore, the device should further lock down if an incorrect authentication code is input so many times.
Your policy should also include any required security solutions you plan to utilize as part of your mobile monitoring and management toolset. All devices should have antivirus installed, along with mobile device management and unified endpoint management solutions.
Provisioning a personal device that is going to be used for company work helps to ensure a few things. Not only does it help to make sure that productivity applications are configured properly, it also helps to boost your security. Furthermore, your network needs to allow your employees’ devices to access the business network - not just a guest network you have set up. Of course, there should be procedures and safeguards in place to ensure that this is done securely.
Accidents happen, and devices can be lost - and sometimes, stolen. Furthermore, any device that is attached to a company network and has accessed illegal content could possibly leave the company liable - especially if this content was accessed via the company network. Your IT team should have the capability to monitor what websites and content each device included in a BYOD strategy has accessed, as well as to remotely access these devices to help ensure their security should they wind up missing. It also helps if they can implement updates to work solutions and security measures.
If worse comes to worse, it is beneficial to be able to delete all of a device’s data remotely - that way, even if it is stolen, your data won’t be at risk for as long. This also comes in handy if an employee is ever to leave your employ and you want to make sure they no longer have your data (or access to it).
BYOD can offer significant benefits to any organization. To learn more about putting a policy in place at your business, give Coleman Technologies a call at (604) 513-9428.
Coleman Technologies has been serving the British Columbia area since 1999, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses. Our experience has allowed us to build and develop the infrastructure needed to keep our prices affordable and our clients up and running.
If you didn’t know Windows can save a list of the text and images you copy, I feel for you—you’ve missed out on a simple trick that could’ve saved you a lot of time. But don’t worry, it’s easy to set up, and I’ll show you how.
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