Ransomware is one of the fastest growing cyber-crimes in the world. Last year, 37% of businesses were victim to an attack. In case you didn’t know, a ransomware attack is where cyber criminals infiltrate your network (or device) and steal your data by encrypting it. The data is still there, but you can’t access it. Then they demand you pay a large ransom fee for the encryption key.

Early on in the first lockdowns in 2020, did you ever sit at your computer and think “I really like working from home”?

Some people are in the office. Some are at home. The days of having everyone together at the same time are gone. Maybe forever. Which means that video calls are here to stay. If you want to invest in your video call setup, here are three easy upgrades for you.

The domain name system or DNS is kind of like a phone book. When you try to go to something on either a public network or a private network odds are DNS will get you there.

The most common instance of this is when you go to a website, that is actually translated in the background to what’s called an IP address and routed to that website so you can see it, all in the background.

No-one likes passwords. Creating them. Remembering them. Typing them in. Your whole mood can change when an application you’re using suddenly logs you out, and you have to go through login all over again. It’s frustrating for everyone.

So, here’s some very welcome news, courtesy of Microsoft, Apple, and Google. The tech giants have joined forces to kill off the password for good.

We’ve all been in that situation where someone in our group, could be a lunch or dinner, whatever, has this great idea. And the great idea essentially is this, if we do this, then this will happen and it’ll be great. We’ll be rich, we’ll make lots of money, we’ll be popular, we’ll go viral, whatever. And you know it’s a bad idea usually because it’s unrealistic, it isn’t well thought through, it has all sorts of nuance to it, whatever.

The use of Microsoft Teams has just exploded in the last few years, and it now boasts 270 million people using it every month. Of course, it was the right tool at the right time when we all rushed to working from home at the start of the pandemic. But the growth of Teams has continued, even if some believe the growth has slowed down a little recently.

The fact is, a lot of us can be judged as stupid based on one bad practice or habit. Sometimes that habit is a personal one. Other times it can impact our entire family or even organization. So we shouldn’t judge a person as a complete idiot unless we’re ready to turn the mirror around and look at our own behavior.

That said…it’s time to start taking security seriously.

Microsoft is always introducing new features and services to keep your people safe online, and your data secure. As a business owner or manager, you should already know that weak or reused passwords are one of the biggest risks to data security.

We’re talking about multi-factor authentication. So what does that mean? You might be more familiar with “two factor authentication”

Simplex-IT will be exhibiting and holding a Cyber Security seminar at this year’s AmCon Advanced Design & Manufacturing Expo. The expo is being held at the Huntington Convention Center, Hall A, on Tuesday May 3rd from 9:30am - 3:30pm and Wednesday May 4th from 9:30am - 3:00pm

Attend the Simplex-IT Seminar: Cyber Security 101 Tuesday May 3rd, 12:45 pm to 1:45 pm.

As a business owner or manager, you know how important good IT is. Your business couldn’t function without it. Your IT isn’t just about computers and data. It’s everything from your phone system to your printers to where you access your documents.And that’s without going into the measures you must take to keep your data and infrastructure safe and secure from cyber criminals.

So, Microsoft 365, their pricing, their arrogance, their, their ughhh I want to, what?

Here’s the one most telling thing about Microsoft’s latest changes, things that they’ve done that have outraged the Microsoft partner community and Microsoft resellers. What’s plan B? And what I mean by that is not just what are you going to do with your clients? Are you going to have them go to Google Docs ?

If you have people working remotely in your business, you’re probably used to emails flying around at all hours of the day or night. Working from home has been life-changing for some. Your people can be more flexible with their time during the day, fitting in time for school pick-ups and appointments where perhaps they couldn’t before.

And in return, it means that more work is being done in the evenings.

We all have different ways of working. Some of us prefer to have a minimal number of things displayed on our screens. Others thrive when everything is open and insight. But we can all agree that having 20 tabs open in your browser at any one time has a negative effect on productivity.

Hello! My name is Dan and I joined Simplex-IT on March 21st, 2022, as a Senior Technician. I have previously worked in many aspects of IT ranging from PC Tech at a family-owned computer repair business, to Server Administrator at a call center.

I pride myself for my wide variety of skills and experience in the field and am looking forward to further expanding those experiences here at Simplex.

Hello! Nice to meet you! My name is Jessi Buser and I am the new Client Relations Manager in town here at Simplex-IT.

I’ll be honest, I’m a total black sheep here in the IT world. For the past sixteen years, I had worked as a reference librarian in public libraries until a friend here encouraged me to apply for this client relations position. After a complete leap of faith, here I am in a whole new career.

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a sharp rise in cyber attacks. While many of the attacks are between Russia and Ukraine, there is real potential for other countries to fall victim to cyber-attacks by Russia, thanks to the sanctions placed upon it.

The White House has issued a warning and some great cyber security advice to all businesses.

You’re in IT, I’m in IT, and you know something, we love us some good data. Start with Charles Joseph Minards “March on Moscow”, a fantastic graphical display, and it answers questions.

So how do you answer questions about data when you don’t even know what data you have? You should create for your organization a data database. Really all this needs to be to start out with is a list of all the databases that you folks have internally. These can be applications, ERP, MRP systems, customer support systems, whatever, as well as anything that you can get from 3rd parties.

A new report has discovered that 67% of remote workers are using faulty tech when they work remotely. And often that’s because they’ve accidentally damaged the tech themselves and they don’t want to admit it to their boss in case they get into trouble. A company that sells refurbished technology surveyed 2,500 employees. It found that laptops were most likely to be broken, followed by keyboards, monitors, and PCs.

What’s up! I’m Drew Larsen, I was brought on recently as Simplex-IT's Video Producer and Editor. While studying integrated media, marketing, social media, and forensic chemistry (trust me my academic advisors didn’t get it either) at Ohio University, I was able to work on plenty of short films and have had amazing opportunities such as moving to Los Angeles for a semester to experience and take part in the entertainment industry firsthand.