As a company or organization, you have a legal requirement to retain information and communication.  Studies show that most employees have no idea what these policies are, and chances are, neither do you.  Read the full article to see what the actual statistics are.

These policies should not only include what to retain and for how long, but also your company’s policies on personal computer usage, personal emails, and social media.  Not only can these issues pose problems for the company and its data retention, but it can also pose privacy problems of which most employees are not aware.

Don’t forget, if you’re using your company’s WiFi on your personal device, that data is not private and your company now has access to it.  Likewise, when you use your company email to contact your doctor, financial advisor, or lawyer, your private information is now the property of your company. 

How would you feel if you knew you were responsible for the hacking of others’ websites?  What if you could have prevented it?   The problem is that in today’s technology connected world, things like this are happening all the time because every device out there is a mini computer and if not updated and secured, that device could be taken over to bring down websites all over the world.   Check out this article for more information and, if you are concerned about your businesses devices, contact us at OptfinITy. 

We all write emails all day long, sending them to friends, family, colleagues, vendors, existing and future clients/customers.  Are you aware that how you end your email can directly affect the response rate from these emails, especially if you’re asking for advice or help and expecting a reply?

The least effective way to end an email is with “regards” or “best”, and the most effective way to end is with some form of “thanks or thanks in advance”.  Likewise, your sign-off should be equally grateful as “thanks in advance” had the highest response rate and “best” had the lowest.

Don’t forget to be equally appreciative when on the receiving end of these emails.  And while you’re welcome and no problem are just fine, “I know you’d do the same for me” tops the list.  As an IT service support company, we try to always thank all our clients every time we communicate with them.  So, if you’re missing out on having a vendor show you their appreciation, we’ll show you how much we care by first offering a free assessment of your IT systems.

Do you have your elevator pitch ready?  You know, those 90 second speeches you have prepared to give at networking events and run-ins with colleagues.  Did you know, even if you haven’t given one professionally, you’ve probably already given them when trying to explain to your family and friends what you do for a living? 

There are four simple things to include to help you perfect these pitches.  Capturing your audience’s attention by talking about how great your company is doing, who your customers are and what problem you’re solving, how the problem is currently being solved and how you’ll do it differently, and explaining how your solution is the best.  There are a few more steps if you’re trying to attract venture capitalists, but the concept is the same.

Not sure how a strong IT services support fits into all this?  Well, you won’t have a functioning business if all your systems go down due to hacking, or you will lose your customers if your phone systems and website go down, you also won’t have a good presentation to give if you’re staff are not up to date on their software knowledge to put it all together.  Not to mention that most businesses run entirely online, in the cloud, or behind software.  Optfinity offers free assessments to help every business truly understand their demands, needs, and wants to function at peak capacity.

Recently, a terrorist used WhatsApp to send and receive encrypted messages to help plan an attack, and there have been demands by some that there should be a weakening or banning of this type of encryption.  Would this help prevent this type of terrorist communication?  Absolutely not.

Some have also called for backdoor systems to allow our politicians and law enforcement agencies access to this data.  The danger therein is a surrender of our personal liberties and right to privacy.  Not to mention that criminals would just find other ways around these channels, like compiling their own end-to-end encryption messaging system.

We must remember that encryption protects everyone, which unfortunately includes the “bad guys”, and prevents hackers from gaining access to our sensitive data which abounds on the internet.  Every time you make an online purchase or access your bank account, these encryptions are ensuring your safety and security.  Be wary of those fighting to weaken your privacy rights and ensure your systems are set up accordingly, and don’t forget, Optfinity provides free assessments to make your business life a little easier.

Slack awarded $3,000 to a security researcher at Detectify after they uncovered a vulnerability which could have allowed hackers to seize a user’s account.  The researcher, Frans Rosen, discovered the flaw, which was a way of stealing a user’s private token and then gaining access to their account.

While this hack is extremely specified and the odds of someone falling victim were very low, Slack, nonetheless, took immediate action and fixed the problem within 5 hours of being notified by Rosen.  Slack wanted to be sure they were being proactive and correcting a potential problem before it got out of hand.

This is a good lesson for every small to medium sized business out there.  Why put off protecting yourself from hacks, malware, ransomware, power outages, system failings, or data breaches?  What may seem like a big cost today might be miniscule when your company falls victim to one of these disasters.  Call Optfinity for a free assessment and you may find the preventative measures are more affordable than you think.

There is a new phish in town, and now its targeting iTunes users trying to access their personal information.  This attack is emailed in the form of a receipt which appears to come from your iTunes account listing movies the victim supposedly purchased.

There is a link at the bottom which, when clicked, directs the victim to a page asking for personal information in order to obtain a full refund including credit card numbers, social insurance numbers, and even mother’s maiden name.  It is quite obvious what they can then do with all this sensitive data once it is stolen.

To stay ahead of the curve, be sure you are always reviewing the source of the email, sender’s email address, and the actual URLs of the links being suggested, among other things.  And of course, double check your credit card and bank accounts to see if these charges are, in fact, real.  Once you realize these charges are not even listed on your accounts, it is more obvious that this potentially is a scam.

While this current scam is aimed at our Canadian neighbors up north, it won’t be long till it makes its way down to the lower 48.  Always be suspect of any email asking for you to click on a link.  If you’re not sure all your employees are properly trained on how to look out for these types of scams, Optfinity provides training and testing for you and your staff to prevent security breaches by victimized employees.

WordPress recently released a new version of their software which also included an update that fixed a previously undisclosed critical vulnerability.   If left unpatched, hackers could possibly modify the content of any post or page on a WordPress website.

Initially this vulnerability was not made public in the hopes of staving off hackers; however, it didn’t take long for hackers to strike after the news broke, and it seems over 100,000 webpages may have been the victim of defacement.

You should always ensure you and your company are running the most current version of any software and are constantly downloading the updates provided.  If you can, automatic updates will help alleviate the need to manually check for these. 

Optfinity provides this level of support for all our clients, so they never have to worry about using an old version of any software or not being up-to-date on any security patches.  If you’re not sure of how robust your systems are or whether or not auto-updates are configured, Optfinity can provide you with a free assessment to help you determine how susceptible your data may be.