Email Scams - A Word of Warning
Apparently, I want to buy cars in England, I want to sign up for anything that moves, and I want to have meetings with lots of people, or are these email scams?
I’ve noticed recently that there’s a significant increase in companies that are claiming that I’ve signed up for their services, even if it’s a 30 day demo or the like, and if I just click here I’ll finish setting up my demo. Problem is I haven’t heard of any of these guys.
Sun Tzu & Cyber Security
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of 100 battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer defeat. And if you know neither the enemy or yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
The reason I’m bringing it up is you’re the leader of an organization and you need to know what the bad guys are trying to do.
Can Psychology Be Automated?
Computers are becoming more and more interactive every day, from video games giving you an ego boost by telling you, “You’re the hero of Gandor”, to your smart devices cheering you up when you’re feeling down. “Hey phone, make me feel better.” Haha, time well spent, thank you phone. But could the future of psychology be actually artificial?
Types of Co-Managed IT
So you’re the CEO of an organization, small, medium business and you’ve got internal IT people and they’re ok but they need some help. Co-Managed IT Services may be the right fit. Or maybe not?
What I want to talk about here is really the 3 types of Co-Managed IT services. And by that I mean things that are going to help or assist an organization that still wants to hold on to their internal IT people.
Ransomware as a Service
So, it’s your responsibility to continually improve your value proposition to your clients. Whether it be improvements to your product, service, delivery, or experience. Guess what? So do the bad guys.
And they’re taking a page out of our book.
The CIA Triad (Not that CIA)
No, these are not people trying to put chips into your bloodstream! (Gurh!)
The CIA Triad is actually a model that we use to communicate effectively, core bottom line cyber security concepts to people who aren’t cyber security experts. The CIA in this case stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, & Availability.
Microsoft 365 Price Hike – Wack or Warranted?
There’s a price increase for your Microsoft 365 licensing coming in March. Now before you start complaining, Microsoft has not increased the pricing for their products for about 10 years so it’s kind of overdue. They have added a lot of additional functionality without increasing the price. Also, it’s not every product that’s increasing, however it is the following:
We’re Hiring!
We currently have 4 open positons. We are looking for reliable Service Desk Specialists to act as a Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 Technicians. We are also looking for a Client Relations Manager.
You must enjoy talking to and working with people. We offer a relaxed drama-free environment with cool people, and you will learn a ton in a supportive environment.
You've Been Breached!
So, your organization has suffered some kind of data breach. Encryption. Theft. Destruction. It’s a sucky day to the highest degree. It’s time for an Incident Response Plan. Actually, it’s past time for one. It’s too late for one, actually. But let’s talk about what you can do if you don’t have an Incident Response Plan.
The Ident-i-Eeze
Douglas Adams. You may know this famous Sci-Fi author from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, or Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Sure, he was an accomplished author, with an impressive understanding of science and a unique perspective on technology, but was he also a prophet..?
The Internal Threat
We almost always talk about security in terms of the external, the bad guys out there, doing bad things.
Today, we’re going to talk about those other icky-type people: Employees.
From the CEO/HR standpoint, the first thing you need to do is keep an eye out for employees who are being terminated/fired/let go.
Stop Power Cycling Your Batteries
Here’s a tip for getting the most out of the batteries in your cell phones, tablets, and laptop computers!
You may have heard that by power cycling, or letting a device go completely dead before charging it back up, extends the life of your batteries. That may have been true for old NICAD batteries, but modern lithium ion batteries do NOT like being power cycled!
Report Performance Complaints
If you’re responsible for the IT of your organization, chances are you’re going to get complaints about performance. Complaints specifically on report performance from your line of business application. Your line of business application being the critical application that basically drives the service or product that your company delivers to your clients.
So, let’s talk about report performance and basically database performance and some key things that you can do.
Protect Your Domain Registration Info
So you’re the CEO of an organization and part of your job is to make sure that your company assets are protected. One of your most important assets is actually your domain name. Notice I didn’t say company name, but your domain name. Ours is Simplex-IT.com.
Now most of us know we have to go and register our domain name with an internet registrar like Go Daddy, Network Solutions or some other registrar. There are a lot of us that take the lazy way out and we register through our web developers, our managed service providers or someone else.
The Coat Check Analogy
So you’re going to go to a cool restaurant and you take your car and you drop it off at the valet parking. They give you a ticket and you take the ticket and put it in your coat pocket. Then you take your coat and put that in the closet because you’ve got your suit coat on and this is your outside coat and that’s cool.
Somebody watched you do that and they just walked in the closet and they take out your coat. They have your valet ticket.
End Users Criticizing You?
Do your end users criticize you? Maybe they should…
So you’re handling IT for your organization. Technically this means the end users and the department heads who are using computer systems, business applications and resources are your customers. Do you think they feel comfortable giving you critical advice? Do you feel comfortable asking for it? It’s important for you to get positive critical feedback from your end users.
New Website
We are really excited to launch our new website! We’ve taken a different approach, which resulted in a much more concise site. We will be adding some more pages here and there (we have a really cool “our Team” page in the works) but the bulk of it is done!
We’re Hiring
We need an awesome salesperson to add to our Simplex-IT family. We’re looking for someone who uses a consultative approach to sales, no high pressure or arm twisting.
May Webinar:
Use the Power of LinkedIn to Increase Your Reach, Increase Your Revenue. Join us for this special 30x30 webinar (30 minute presentation, 30 minute open discussion) on what we did (and are still doing) here at Simplex-IT to increase our LinkedIn presence and use LinkedIn as a lead generating machine.