Datalyst Blog

Password changes, multi-factor authentication, and countless changes in policy and procedure can make daily workflows more and more complicated. Cybersecurity can truly be a pain—a necessary pain, granted—but a pain nevertheless, and one that can gradually lead to burnout if you aren’t careful. Let’s go over how to mitigate the likelihood of it.

The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, has put together a Safeguard Rule to help establish guidelines for how businesses store and interact with customer information. Enacted in 2003, this rule was recently revamped in 2021 to stay relevant with the latest technology used by businesses. Let’s look at some of the policies and procedures that your business needs to know about the FTC Safeguard Rule.

There is no denying that Quick Response codes—better known as QR codes—are a handy little invention. Just a few years ago, many businesses heavily adopted these contactless communication tools, allowing customers with a smartphone to access menus, documents, and more with ease. Having said that, we unfortunately can’t deny that cybercriminals are taking advantage of how handy QR codes are, too.

The southern New England area has been such a great place to live, raise a family, and start or expand a business, and thanks to the proximity to a few great cities like Boston, Providence, Worcester, Springfield, and Hartford, there are plenty of resources and opportunities available. One critical resource that nearly every organization needs is a trusted IT consultant to help leaders make informed decisions on their technology and to ensure that businesses aren’t putting themselves at risk by implementing IT solutions incorrectly. Let’s talk about how business owners can find the right IT consultants throughout southern New England.

One of the biggest arguments for remote work is that it poses environmental benefits, but how much truth is there to this statement? Today, we want to dive into the details and see if there is actually a solid benefit to working remotely—for the environment, at least. The answer might surprise you.

Your business’ computing infrastructure is a pretty resilient system. It has all types of tools added on to keep malicious code, bad actors, and even sabotage from ruining the good thing you have. This reliability has led to hackers changing the way that they go about their business. Nowadays, most of the attacks that affect businesses are phishing attacks. In today’s blog we will go through the elements of a phishing attack and how you can protect your business from them.

When it comes to IT services, the businesses of Boston have a lot of options to choose from—and that’s even after you eliminate the break/fix providers and focus specifically on managed service providers. So, how can you be confident that you’ve made the right choice?

While we’re admittedly biased, we wanted to share what you should look for (and ask) of any potential IT provider you’re considering for your business.

Data breaches are serious threats, particularly for businesses here in Massachusetts, where we have things like the Data Breach Notification Law to contend with. In the interest of keeping your business on the right side of the law, let’s review what this law requires of you.

There are quite a few platitudes that we support, in terms of business IT. Some that we haven’t really touched on, however, are Schofield's Laws of Computing. Let’s fix that today by reviewing where they came from, and what these laws entail.

Massachusetts Businesses are Required to Meet Certain Cybersecurity Compliances for Business Insurance

As technology advances, the potential for cyberattacks and data breaches has increased, putting sensitive information and the reputation of a company at risk. Massachusetts has recognized the importance of protecting businesses from cyberthreats and has implemented certain cybersecurity compliances for business insurance. In this article, we will discuss what these compliances entail, why they are necessary, and how businesses can meet them.

Small manufacturers and distributors operate under a whole separate set of conditions than their larger competitors. This is because they don’t have the available capital to have any noticeable inefficiencies, and if they do have some, they are going to definitely affect their ability to compete. One solution that these organizations can lean on is a logistics platform. 

Email groups are remarkably useful. Instead of sending a copy of an email to each individual recipient, you can effectively create a simple forum post that everyone can participate in—a feature that certainly helps when collaboration is a priority. Let’s go over how you can quickly and easily create a group in Gmail.

Did you know that tomorrow is World Password Day, 2023? As the result of a campaign to spread awareness of the importance of sufficiently secure passwords, it has become an annual reminder of how critical sufficient passwords are to proper cybersecurity…despite passwords not being sufficient protection on their own. In light of tomorrow’s observance, let’s take some time to review why passwords are important to get right, and what else you need to have in place.

The Internet of Things is everywhere and that means that it’s important to understand how much of a potential security risk these devices can be. From smart speakers to smartphones, it's important that you understand how these devices can create problematic situations. In this week’s blog we will discuss how you can protect yourself against IoT vulnerabilities at home.

Technology is a big part of doing business for a lot of organizations. One issue that comes into play is that managing that technology can get a little much for a small organization or one that doesn’t actively have some type of plan of how to organize their IT in a way that can keep that technology from being a risk or a problem. This month, we’ll take a look at a couple things that can be done to clean up your IT and make it be more of a benefit to your organization.

I was meeting with an old colleague the other day. We met over Microsoft Teams to just check in and see how they were doing—no real itinerary, just to check in with a familiar face that I haven’t personally talked to in a few years. They had a little trouble getting into Microsoft Teams, since they were used to Zoom. I patiently smiled and helped them through it, and told them “No worries, it’s always the little differences that complicate things!”

At the time, I said this just to be empathetic. At first, the nerdy computer-geek part of my brain told me that the process to get into a Zoom meeting vs a Teams meeting, from their perspective, is exactly the same. But after the call, I really thought about this small interaction, and you know what? Things have gotten complicated.

Security is extremely important for every single organization that uses IT. Like any other part of a business where practices and demands change frequently, there is bound to be significant innovation involved with the strategies built to protect users and the business as a whole. Let’s look at why it is important to continuously innovate your organization’s cybersecurity policies and procedures.

There is a lot made about ransomware, for good reason. It is quite simply one of the nastiest cyberattacks out there and it demands your attention. A lot of people understand what exactly ransomware sets out to do, but they don’t understand how it got that far and how to address the situation if they have the misfortune of being put in that position. 

If your business is fortunate enough to make it through the first stage and is looking to open a brand new facility or add onto its current setup, you will need to figure out how you are going to use your technology. This can be a challenge. 

A large number of business owners and professionals can probably relate to this. Have you ever had a computer issue or some other technical problem that hurt your confidence? I’m not saying that an error message turns you into a shy little duckling or anything, I’m talking about letting technical limitations, or even gaps in your IT knowledge, affect the decisions you make within your organization.

It’s an easy pit to fall into, and you definitely aren’t alone. It also shouldn’t be the status quo.