Google might be best known for its search engine and groups of desktop apps, but it’s also known for innovating and rattling the cages of how we live our lives. One of the ways it’s doing so is with Google Wallet, an app that’s designed to make sharing cash and money transfers online even easier. What a lot of people forget, however, is that Google Wallet, and its associated card, can still be the target of fraud.
Microsoft’s most recent addition to the Windows family of operating systems, Windows 10, is full of new features, but when it comes to implementing it, many businesses are still dragging their heels. However, the primary reason for this seems to be the fact that organizations want to make sure Windows 10 won’t break their IT infrastructure. Despite this handicap, Windows 10 is still being tested on twice as many PCs as Windows 8 was following its release.
When running a business, you can’t always upgrade your technology to the latest and greatest equipment or software every time something new comes out. Yet, you also don’t want to be left behind, which would be limiting to your growth and mobility. Moving forward can be a daunting task, especially if you haven’t revamped your IT strategy in some time. Paying attention to the details is an important part of avoiding potential roadblocks with your future IT strategy.
Sometimes you might write an email to someone who you’ve never emailed before (perhaps you scrawled down their email while on the phone or at an event), and questioned the authenticity of your recipient’s email address. Those who use email frequently know all too well what this feels like. It makes the most sense to first make sure that you have the right email address before sending a message.
The introduction of new and exciting technologies keeps changing the ways people interact. Innovations such as email, instant messaging, and the development of mobile devices are now turning out to be just fundamental steps to a more connected planet. The Internet of Things is set to turn human civilization on its head. What does this shift mean for the immediate future?
Businesses always try to eliminate unnecessary costs, but printing isn’t necessarily everyone’s first idea of an unnecessary cost. With so much revenue being invested in paper, ink, and toner every year, just think of how many resources this can free up for your business if you could find a way to eliminate them from your budget. With the right technology solutions, you can easily cut costs on printing.
Listening to the radio is a great way to pass the time during your morning commute, especially if you don’t have a CD player or an auxiliary port in your vehicle. While listening to the radio, you might hear a catchy tune that you want to look up later. Now, thanks to various smartphone apps and technology solutions, you can do it while listening to the song.
2015 was a brutal year for major corporations, as one by one they fell victim to hacking attacks. Major organizations like Blue Cross Blue Shield, Anthem, and even the United States Office of Personnel became victims of major hacking campaigns. A fact that’s often lost amongst these details is that not all hackers use their skill for evil actions, even if they are still illegal.
Mobile devices are challenging the traditional perception of the office environment. When employees bring their own devices to work, this is called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and it’s an increasingly popular trend. Initially thought of as a threat, BYOD is proving to be a valuable option for businesses wanting to increase productivity, so long as it’s regulated properly.
Virtually every kind of online account requires a password. Yet, due to the aggressive nature of hackers, passwords alone are no longer enough to protect your information. The best way to approach network security is to have more protections in place than just a flimsy password.
You’ve heard about a ton of high-profile hacks over the past few years, and it’s important to note that these numbers will only continue to climb. A recent incident involving Time Warner Cable, a large ISP in the United States, shows the world that even huge companies that specialize in providing Internet for users can suffer the embarrassment of a data breach.
If you’re one of the unfortunate souls still using Windows 8 (as opposed to 8.1) on your business’s workstations, you should consider upgrading, and as soon as possible. Microsoft has cut off support for its infant operating system, so if you want patches, security updates, and just a better overall operating system, upgrading to Windows 8.1 or 10 is an ideal solution to this dilemma.
Mobile devices have taken the workplace environment by storm, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t use their smartphone, laptop, or other device for work purposes. This trend, called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), helps employers spend less on new solutions, but it also presents a risk that needs to be managed: the Internet of Things (IoT).
Firewalls are one of the most common IT security measures on the market today, and for good reason. They act as the first line of defense against any incoming threats, and without them, your organization would have to deal with one data breach after another. Of course, that’s only if you’re taking advantage of a proper firewall; if not, you should seriously consider doing so as soon as possible.
As an increasingly more important component of the modern technology infrastructure, the cloud can be a daunting new addition to any organization’s business strategy. Yet, many businesses still haven’t made the jump to the cloud, perhaps out of fear that their use of the cloud won’t significantly benefit them.
In an age when working remotely is a commonly accepted practice, many organizations are still skeptical about letting their employees work from home. They think that doing so will disengage them from the workplace environment and that they’ll be too distracted to perform their work to specification. Yet, businesses that aren’t flexible on this issue could be missing out on several significant cost savings.
Let’s say you get an email from a close friend. It looks like it’s legitimate, until you check the contents of the message. It’s an advertisement, or it’s trying to get you to click on a link to see something “important.” Regardless of what the content of the message is, you should probably slap that bad boy in the Spam section of your email inbox. You’ve just been the target of email spoofing, and it’s more common than you might think.
You might remember Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency known for increasing the anonymity and privacy of transactions on the web. Bitcoin was gaining ground for a while, but a couple of key events left it in the dust, sinking to seeing use only as a currency used by hackers and criminals in online black markets. Now, however, it seems that Bitcoin is being used again, and with a few key innovations in how it’s spent, Bitcoin will continue to grow more popular as a payment option.
Security is a huge problem for businesses that take advantage of the cloud, but never to the same degree. It’s often the nature of the industry which dictates how much a business should invest in cloud security. However, despite these differences in policy, there are some aspects of cloud security that absolutely can’t be overlooked, including data permissions, account security, vulnerability to malware, and other online issues.
We’ve all seen the various accent marks, or “diacritical marks,” used in languages all over the world. For example, the umlaut (as seen in the word “über” ) is used in some German and Hungarian words to signal how to pronounce specific vowels. While these have mostly disappeared from the English language, we see them from time to time when going about our business on the web, and every time, the same question plays in our heads: “How the heck do you type that?”
