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January 1, 2016 by Vertical Axion
The short answer is yes. V-Tech and Hello Kitty join the depressingly long list of companies to have been hacked in 2015. This time, however, the data taken were overwhelmingly about children – their usernames, passwords, addresses, birthdays, photos, and other personal information. At first glance, you may be wondering why hackers would bother, but […]
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December 28, 2015 by Vertical Axion
There’s always a risk for personal belonging loss whenever you are traveling. Airports are never as secure as you would hope, and travelers going to unfamiliar places are always easy targets for thieves looking to make a quick steal. Laptops are good targets for thieves since they are small, light, and easily taken with little […]
December 25, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Can You Trust Siri? Apple has long claimed that one of its chief advantages over Android and Windows devices is greater security. There’s a lot of truth to that, but there seems to be one glaring flaw in that claim. Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant. Siri’s problems are both well-known and well-documented. As invaluable as she […]
December 23, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Sometimes, no matter how careful you are and how many precautions you take, the worst happens. Your company is successfully hacked. Given the number and sophistication of hacking attacks in recent months, odds are good that at some point, you’re going to be faced with this very situation. How you respond, especially in the hours […]
December 19, 2015 by Vertical Axion
In recent months, there’s been a tremendous amount of attention focused on upgrading corporate IT security, and with good reason. Hacking attacks are growing in both number and sophistication, and breaches are becoming increasingly commonplace. The hackers appear to be winning, at least in the short term. With all of the attention being placed on […]
December 18, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Audits. Nobody likes the term, and often, the mere mention of an audit is enough to make business owners cringe. It doesn’t have to be like that – audits can actually be opportunities. They highlight potential points of weakness that, when corrected, can actually enhance your bottom line. If it’s been a while since you’ve […]
December 15, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Did you know that smartphone theft is the fastest growing crime in the world? If it happens to you, it can be more than a mere inconvenience, it can cost a pretty penny in device cost, lost time, and possible recovery. Our smartphones have quickly become indispensable tools and are filled with all manner of […]
December 14, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Since the release of Windows 10, Microsoft has designated every Tuesday as “Patch Tuesday” and has made it a point to consistently release updates to their software that fixes vulnerabilities. This most recent Patch Tuesday saw a number of other companies getting in on the fun. With the end of the year drawing closer, it […]
December 9, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Mark this down as yet another in the seemingly endless parade of successful hacking attacks of high-profile targets. Recently, Starwood Hotels was hit, and hit hard. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide is the owner of high end hotels and resorts like Sheraton and Westin. If you’ve stayed at any of these in the US or […]
December 8, 2015 by Vertical Axion
It’s becoming increasingly common for businesses of all sizes to use fiber optics in their network architecture. Companies have been spending big bucks to “upgrade” their networks, and yours may be among them. Sprint, for example, made the news a couple years ago for setting new network speed records after building and upgrading its fiber-optic […]
December 4, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Whatever tech gadgets a small business owner chooses, keeping your contacts and content secure should be a number one priority. Many consumers love the versatile features and quality of Apple products but worry about security. Keep your iPhone or iPad safe from hackers and other prying eyes by following a few simple steps. Choosing a […]
December 2, 2015 by Vertical Axion
If you have more than two or three Facebook friends, odds are good that at some point, you’ve gotten someone’s quiz results on your wall. One of your friends took a quiz and found out which Lord of the Rings character they were most like, or what words they tend to use most often in […]
December 1, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Firewalls don’t get a lot of press, and some people figure if you have some or other antivirus software, that’s all the protection you need. Unfortunately, that’s very far from the truth. No matter how little press time they get, firewalls are, or should be, an important part of your overall security setup. First, if […]
November 27, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Google has introduced a new feature that harnesses the power of a fully integrated platform-to-platform system. As long as your smartphone is running Android and has GPS location enabled, you can now Google “where’s my phone?” and get an accurate answer. While a number of Android users have already discovered and used this feature with […]
November 25, 2015 by Vertical Axion
October 2015 marked the start of a new era in the world of payment by card. The switch to EMV cards is well underway, and it’s important to be aware of what they are and why the change is being made. What Does EMV Mean? EMV stands for EuroPay, MasterCard and VISA. EMV cards are […]
November 19, 2015 by Vertical Axion
If you’re not a Comcast customer, you may not have heard, but recently, a list of more than half a million Comcast user logins and passwords was found for sale on the Dark Net. Fortunately, a significant portion of those user id’s and passwords were for defunct accounts, but more than 200,000 of them were […]
November 2, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Gone are the days of having to seek out a Wi-Fi network in order to gain access to a company’s servers. Today, Wi-Fi networks are readily available everywhere and are often free for anyone to use. While this makes it much easier for your employees to work from almost anywhere, it does add significant security […]
October 13, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Nothing can make an IT manager cringe more than the mention of the phrase “Shadow Tech.” In an age when new software and hardware are released every day, it can be quite difficult for IT departments to maintain control of the business networks they have been charged with overseeing. Employees, in most cases, don’t understand […]
September 30, 2015 by Vertical Axion
The Target breach had absolutely horrendous consequences, and many businesses are struggling to up their security. New employees, technologies, and features are being put into place in attempts to stop that kind of thing from happening again. However, it appears that some companies—the largest of the large—just aren’t getting the message. TripWire recently put out […]
September 1, 2015 by Vertical Axion
All of the recent security breaches have some retailers running from online payment solutions like PayPal, a huge, multi-billion dollar platform that serves as a third party between a merchant and a buyer. However, this should not be the case: in fact, PayPal can protect you from problems that security breaches on your own networks […]
August 26, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Email scams, or “phishing,” are some of the most popular ways that scammers try to steal information from individuals and small businesses alike. Unfortunately for us, these scams are not always obvious and are sometimes not detected by a spam catcher. This means we have to be hyper vigilant about what we actually click on […]
August 18, 2015 by Vertical Axion
You probably know by now that protecting your small business from threats is absolutely essential, and even if you haven’t taken the steps to have an off-site backup or an on-board IT helper, you’ve probably done your best with your resources and installed the free software available to small businesses. Of course, this is a […]
August 17, 2015 by Vertical Axion
We know that as an SMB, you have a budget – and you have to stretch that budget each and every month to ensure you can keep conducting business. Sometimes this means not upgrading something when you would otherwise do so. Sometimes it means foregoing that business trip you wanted to take and sometimes it […]
August 8, 2015 by Vertical Axion
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the international effort to incorporate unique identifiers to give household and industrial devices the ability to transfer data over a network and avoid human-to-human or human-to-computer involvement. In other words, the chips included on IoT devices will do all the work. The advantages are that companies will be able […]
