Managed Services Archives - Tech Prognosis Blog

Work From Home: How To Maximize Productivity During A Pandemic

Professional working from home

As a business owner today, you are now facing unprecedented challenges to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic. You are asked to self-isolate and practice social distancing to “flatten the curve.” You are asked to allow your employees to work from home to reduce possible exposure and slow the spread of COVID-19.

These are all reasonable requests. However, as a business owner you also need to maximize productivity, bring in revenue and try to grow your business in these demanding times. How can you accomplish these goals when your office is now a ghost town and productivity has fallen off a cliff?

The answer lies in setting up your office to function remotely by allowing employees and volunteers to work from home, or remotely. If you’ve never implemented a work-from-home policy before, it may seem like a whole different world. Managing an entirely remote workforce goes far beyond giving your employees a laptop and reminding them to check in every once in a while. After all, there are many factors most business owners haven’t ever had to consider, such as: (more…)

Comments Off

March 23, 2020

Mobile Technology / Security / Tech Tips for Business Owners / Web Technology / Wireless Technology

Electronic Payments: Protecting Your Employees and Organization

Electronic Payments and Protection

Employees or small organizations are using electronic payments more than ever before. As the use of credit cards to make purchases and payments replaces the use of cash, and online merchants supplant brick-and-mortar stores, protecting electronic payments becomes more important.

Whether you are making payments for your own personal consumption or on behalf of your organization, electronic payments need to be protected.

Online sales in the United States grew to a record high of nearly 19 percent during the 2019 holiday season. At the same time, the convenience of using credit cards and other electronic payment services is compelling consumers to rapidly reduce their use of cash.

The 2019 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice report shows that cash is used about 50 percent of the time for in-person transactions under $10 (for things like lunch or coffee). For larger purchases of $25 or more, cash is used only 10 percent of the time. Cyber-criminals are taking advantage of the increase in electronic payments. (more…)

Comments Off

March 20, 2020

Cloud Computing / Email and Spam / Enterprise Computing / Ethics / Managed Services / Security / Small Business

Why Small Businesses Should Protect Employee Personal Information

Shield protecting personal information

While corporate executives have picked up practical tips on how their company can secure and protect the personal information it keeps, leaders of small businesses and organizations have to do more to protect the personal information of their employees.

But some business owners may still be wondering why data security should be at the top of their agenda. Two reasons show why your company should strive to safeguard personal information.

First, good security is just plain good business. Aware of the risk of identity theft, today’s customers are concerned about their privacy.

As any business that has experienced a breach, and the theft of personal information has learned, customers prefer companies that demonstrate a commitment to security.

For the same reasons, customers will think twice before doing business with a company that has experienced a privacy breach. Given this choice, many businesses find it more cost-effective to secure the information they have rather than try to repair the damage and rebuild consumer confidence after a data loss or breach. (more…)

Comments Off

March 7, 2020

Ethics / Gadgets / Malware / Tech Tips for Business Owners / Wireless Technology

Webcam Spying: How To Protect The Privacy of Your Employees

Various devices that can be usedfor webcam spying
Exponential advancements in technology has brought with it a dark side. Webcam spying and hacking is on the rise, and it’s our own fault.

As the workforce grows more mobile and businesses grow globally, the task of keeping your employees and organization safe from cyber threats can no longer just be to safeguard them only against external threats.

It is increasing becoming apparent that a more insidious threat, referred to as “an insider threat” is more than capable of leaving the critical data of your business vulnerable.

A good example of this is an analyses of the way employees interact with data across the organization, and how their actions can unwittingly defeat the protection of business data while exposing themselves to privacy concerns like webcam spying, especially in organizations without effective workforce and computer security monitoring programs.

Do your employees ever complain of having a funny feeling that they are being watched in the office, or in their hotel rooms when they are on the road? If so, you’re in the same boat as a lot of other Internet users.

As creepy as it sounds, webcam hacking and spying is a real danger, and peeping Toms could be watching your employees’ every move, in the privacy of their hotel rooms. (more…)

Comments Off

February 15, 2020

Data Backup / Disaster Recovery / Hardware / Tech Tips for Business Owners

How to Recover Your Lost Computer Files Easily

Technicians working on a hard drive to recover lost computer files

We maintain our computers similarly to how we maintain our own health – rarely do we take the time to learn about preventing health complications, and instead work to repair our health once we’ve become ill! Rarely do we plan on how to recover lost computer files when disaster strikes.

We take care of our computers the same way, in that we rarely think about the safety or well-being of our data until something happens that leads to data loss or corruption. And when that does happen, how do you recover your lost computer files?

Have you ever taken a moment to imagine what would happen if you lost some or all of your computer files? Whether you only use your computer for personal reasons; or for school or work, file or data loss can be devastating!

Think of all of those business images and family photographs, music files or class assignments! Think of the business report you and your team spent weeks working on. (more…)

Comments Off

January 27, 2020

Anti-Virus / Desktops / Email and Spam / Hardware / Managed Services / Operating Systems / Security / Web Technology

The Business Case for EndPoint Security in Small Organizations

According to BAE Systems, almost 50 percent of small businesses have experienced a cyber attack, and as much as 60 percent of hacked small- and medium-sized businesses go out of business after six months. By deploying endpoint security solutions, most cyber attack attempts can be prevented.

Devices and services protected by endpoint security solutions

Faced with limited IT personnel and budget, small business environment usually end up with non-standard computer configurations, inadequate or non-existent security policies, old equipment etc.

The impact of the failure of an endpoint on business processes can be a little scary sometimes. A good example is a call I got from a friend the other day. The boss’s computer had a couple of viruses and they had to disconnect the computer from the network.

Of course that meant business had to come to a halt because everything was on the boss’s computer. There were no anti-virus software on any of the workstations and of course no firewall of any kind, so it was free for all. (more…)

Comments Off

January 12, 2020