BlackCSI Blog

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) is one of the most popular productivity suites used in business today. As such, there are shortcuts available to help speed up productivity, and a lot of people simply aren’t aware of them. Today, we’ll take a peek at a couple shortcuts you may not have known of inside Google Workspace.

You hear the term “best practices” quite often, but unless you know what the buzzword means, it is pretty much meaningless. There actually is some merit to understanding what the term “best practice” is and why it is so important, so without further ado, let’s take a deeper dive into what a best practice actually is.

Employees come and go in the business world, so you should be prepared to handle this turnover when it happens. If your company does not have an adequate response to employee turnover, you could potentially put your business at risk. Here are three ways that you can make sure former employees cause you the least amount of worry, especially in regards to staffing and cybersecurity.

Wi-Fi is a major part of any modern office, and when it is absent, people become painfully aware of just how much of a luxury it is. Let’s discuss some strategies you can implement to optimize the speed of your business’ wireless connection.

Incorrect configurations on your infrastructure’s hardware are surprisingly easy mistakes to make, and even worse, they can have severe security ramifications if they are not discovered promptly. It can happen to anyone, as evidenced by a recent data leak. One of the most popular software developers out there, Microsoft, made a pretty nasty blunder with one particular setting that led to a huge data leak that could have exposed millions of records.

With the release of Windows 11 on the horizon, it is important that businesses looking to implement it start to consider not only their hardware, but their strategy to upgrade away from their current operating system. But that’s a topic for another day—we’re focused today on the folks who don’t even have Windows 10 yet and are still stuck in the days of Windows 8.1, an OS expiring in 2023. Don’t get caught unawares without a plan to upgrade.

These days, if you are not taking cybersecurity seriously, then you are waiting for something bad to happen that could potentially destroy your business for good. While the number of threats out there has increased significantly over the past couple of decades, so too has the number of powerful security options out there. In fact, one way that you can leverage these solutions to your advantage is to use “self-healing” security software, the concept for which is pretty neat.

Modern businesses need to take advantage of every opportunity they can get in today’s crowded marketplace, almost regardless of the industry they work in. One great way to gain an advantage is to put technology in place that can significantly enhance how your business works, inside and out.

Ransomware is such a major problem for computing-dependent organizations that even government agencies are getting involved, equipping businesses and organizations with tools to help themselves identify whether or not they are at risk of these attacks. The most recent addition to this group, the United States’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have made their Ransomware Readiness Assessment, or RRA, available as part of its Cyber Security Awareness Toolset.

How often do you run out of storage space on your computer? Hopefully, never. If you notice your computer’s hard drive is filling up but you aren’t adding a lot of files to the drive, it might be temporary files such as cookies and browser cache files taking up space.

As a business owner in a sector that is not necessarily dedicated to technology, chances are that you do not need to know everything there is to know about computer hardware. That being said, it helps to have a passable knowledge of the various hardware terms you might use on a daily basis. This will especially make it easier for you to talk to your technician or your service provider—whoever handles your technology.

Technology has enabled some of the greatest changes in the business world, so it makes sense that your company should try to implement it as needed. Unfortunately, it can be a bit confusing, especially if you have not thought about it in recent years. Thankfully, there are three pillars that can hold up a digital transformation strategy and enable change for your business. 

People are spending a lot of time online, especially as of late, with many working remotely and using tools and resources sourced through the Internet. In light of this, it seems to be an opportune time to review a few useful shortcuts that can help speed up one’s Internet browsing.

Phishing attacks are a major problem that all businesses must be prepared to handle. Sometimes it comes in the form of messages or web pages designed to steal information from your employees, but other times it might come in the form of phone calls asking for IP addresses or network credentials under the guise of your IT department. It’s especially important that your staff members understand how to identify these tricks, and it all starts with phishing training.

BlackCSI, a leading managed technology services provider (MTSP), recently shared that their robust cybersecurity solutions have protected their customers from consistent, daily attacks on small to mid-sized businesses. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many IT companies that leverage other systems like Kaseya, an IT solutions software developer, that was compromised by hackers in July through a malicious software update that Kaseya unknowingly pushed out to SMBs. 

IT support can be challenging to handle for small businesses. They might understand the importance of IT, but their actions often do not speak to this. Some small businesses fail to invest properly in IT support, or they simply do not know what to look for in the services they need. Thankfully, you have us to help you make the right call for your business IT.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to respond quickly and radically change operations, but despite the circumstances, productivity is still at the center of most business professionals’ minds. If we can learn more about how businesses have managed to thrive even in the face of the pandemic, we can learn more about how to succeed when things get back to “normal,” whatever that looks like, particularly in regards to technology and the role it has played over the past year and a half.

A new ransomware threat has surfaced, this time targeting unpatched and end-of-life products in SonicWall’s line of Secure Mobile Access (SMA) 100 series and Secure Remote Access (SRA) products. The threat is currently being exploited in the wild, so if you utilize these devices in your business, it is your responsibility to take action to mitigate damages caused by these ransomware attacks now.

BlackCSI, a leading managed technology services provider (MTSP), recently shared that some of the nation’s largest corporations, like McDonalds, Adobe, eBay, Equifax, LinkedIn, Marriott, Target and Yahoo have all been affected by cybersecurity breaches. While many of these breaches have been widely publicized, they only represent a small fraction of the attempted cyberattacks, which the modern business owner now faces. As a result of these breaches, we are also beginning to see cybercriminals become more emboldened, targeting more critical infrastructure in an effort to demand heftier sums. 

The recent news on the cyberattack against the Colonial Pipeline resulting in gas shortages along the east coast really got me thinking… “Are we really, still, not concerned about cybersecurity in 2021?” The cyberattack was in the form of ransomware which has now been around since the 1980’s when the first documented ransomware attack took place against the healthcare industry. I do not have to explain the cost involved in such an incident, you can see it firsthand and unfortunately, some of you have experienced it firsthand. As the years go on, the cost of a cybersecurity attack increases.