It's been over a month and a half since news of the SolarWinds hack started to spread, and the story continues to unfold. Just two weeks ago, a fourth strain of malware was discovered.

While there appears to be much that we don’t know, there are a few familiar themes from this hack that have once again been proven true, and they apply to networks of all sizes.

As the impact of COVID-19 continues to manifest, many professionals have been exclusively working from home. This presents new challenges in terms of connectivity, productivity, and coordination.
The opportunity to exploit
What is a crisis to many is an opportunity to others.

While it is impractical for most to become so specialized in their careers that they fail to develop general skills, there are many benefits to focusing the majority of your efforts on what you do well. In fact, allowing employees to work on projects that utilize their strengths has been shown to increase their happiness and health.

As cloud computing becomes more prevalent, some companies have begun to question whether there is still a context in which it is practical to purchase a server and locally host line-of-business applications.

Is in-house infrastructure obsolete?

At Team Technology, we are excited about the opportunities provided by cloud hosting, and we have had great success in hosting the infrastructures of some of our clients in our private cloud.

One of the assumptions of small-to-medium business owners is that they fly under the radar of most hackers. It's easy to assume that hackers are looking for the biggest payout by targeting the biggest companies. There are several reasons this is simply not the case:

Corporations are getting their acts together
Spending on business security has more than doubled in the last decade.

This complex issue often boils down to risk vs. cost

If you're suffering from a recurring computer issue, you've probably wondered whether to update or upgrade. As with any business decision, cost is a major factor. And as with most business decisions, there is more than one cost to consider.

Redundancy is important

As humans, we are born with two of a lot of things (like kidneys) for that very reason.

As cloud computing becomes more critical to business operations, a redundant internet connection is increasingly considered a necessity in business applications.

What is phishing?
Phishing is a social engineering strategy that imitates a reputable source requesting sensitive information. And these requests are not always direct. One phishing attack we see fairly often is the Office 365 password reset request. The reset email tells the user that their password has expired, and directs the user to what looks like the Microsoft 365 login page.

Windows 7 is turning ten years old later this month. At the same time, it has just over one hundred days until it will be no longer be eligible for technical assistance or software updates from Microsoft. As Microsoft committed to supporting Windows 7 for ten years from its initial release, this was not surprising.

It's hard to talk about information security without sounding alarmist. The cost and frequency of breaches is on the rise, and a breach is almost as likely to originate from a system glitch or human error as it is from something more sinister.

Security does not have a finish line.