Data Net Blog

Small and medium-sized businesses face a unique challenge in today's digital landscape. While technology has become essential for growth and success, maintaining an effective IT infrastructure often stretches resources thin. This is where managed IT services come into play, offering a customized IT services and support platform that helps businesses solve some of their most pressing technological and operational challenges. Understanding how these services create competitive advantages can help business owners make informed decisions about their technology strategy.

Downtime is a silent but powerful business disruptor. The moment operations grind to a halt, teams scramble to identify and resolve the issue. But imagine if you could avoid that chaos altogether. That’s our goal for today’s blog—to help you take steps to prevent downtime before it starts.

While now may not be the most dangerous time to run a business, it is arguably a contender. Businesses are more reliant on digital technology than ever, meaning that these businesses also have to deal with more threats than ever. One such threat: the phishing scam.

Subscription services are all over the place these days, and we’re willing to bet that you have a couple of lingering subscriptions that you’ve either forgotten about or don’t care enough about to cancel immediately. The Federal Trade Commission, however, seems to care enough to take action with a ruling that makes canceling subscriptions easier. Businesses won’t be able to add more hurdles to their subscription cancellations, which is good for end users.

Would you trust a bank that locks its doors at night but leaves all the money sitting in a big pile on the floor? Probably not—if someone got through the door, they could take all the money without any trouble.

This is kind of how cybersecurity used to work. If someone got into a company’s network, they could see and use anything they wanted. But now, many businesses are using a better system called zero-trust security.

Cybersecurity is super important for any business today, and it can make the difference between a business staying safe or failing because of a cyberattack. While there are many things you need to do to protect your business, there are some key steps you can start with to keep it secure. Let’s go over what you should do.

Did you know that social media accounts are one of the favorite targets for cybercriminals? You may think cybercriminals would prefer to hack online banking accounts or shopping accounts, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Here’s why. Social media accounts hold A LOT of personal information including name, email ID, date of birth, place of birth, place of work (your business!) high school attended, names of family, friends and pets, anniversaries, and more...which means, they are basically gold mines of Personally Identifiable Data (PII). Plus, if you play games and have your credit card details saved, there’s more information and better the chances for the cybercriminal to commit fraud. All of this data can then be used to hack into other accounts of the user, including financials. So, hacking into someone’s social media account can help cybercriminals gain entry into other, more ‘useful’ and secure accounts.

A lot of people don’t take cybersecurity and data privacy seriously enough, and that puts both them and others at risk. We’ve all gotten used to sharing personal information online—whether it’s on social media, shopping websites, or other digital services. But if we’re not careful, this can lead to big problems like hackers stealing your identity or money. When people don’t use strong passwords or turn on two-factor authentication, they leave gaps that hackers can take advantage of. These gaps don’t just affect individuals—they can lead to bigger cyberattacks that hurt entire organizations or communities.

Nobody likes getting big, unexpected bills from tech companies—neither the business owners who have to pay them nor the employees who might feel responsible for causing them. Small businesses face a tough choice: spend money to keep employees productive or save money and deal with slowdowns.

Let me start this blog by asking you a question. How did your business respond to the security threats brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic? The reason we are discussing this is because a recent survey conducted by Password Keeper and Ponemon Institute revealed that during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, the effectiveness of organizations’ IT posture in terms of cybersecurity dipped by almost 30%

"I don’t need to worry about cybersecurity… my business is too small to be in the crosshairs of hackers."

This is one of the most dangerous mistakes a small business can make when it comes to cybersecurity. If you think this way, it shows you might not understand how modern cyberthreats work. Let’s break it down and show you why this mindset can be risky.

The year 2020 was nothing like what we had seen before. At a certain point in time, it felt like the world would come to a standstill. With lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed across the world, businesses were pushed into a ‘new normal’. One of the things that was a part of the ‘new normal’, was working from home. This WFH set up brought along with it multiple challenges, especially to those organizations which weren’t into this model already. Accessing critical work information, carrying out meetings on Zoom, attending conferences remotely and even setting up trade show booths online, were all new concepts. While the pandemic may be temporary, one thing is certain--the remote work culture is not.

Today’s businesses need an established cybersecurity strategy. It’s as simple as that.

However, many businesses need guidance to create this strategy, which is why the National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed a framework for proper cybersecurity protection. Let’s walk through this framework and discuss what you need to do to meet its requirements.

You may remember the hubbub and hullabaloo that ensued when Josh Allen, a digital artist, won first place at the 2022 Colorado State Fair’s Fine Arts Competition in the Digital Arts/Digitally Manipulated Photography contest with an image—"Théâtre D'opéra Spatial"—that he had created using AI. Allen continues defending his work, now butting heads with the Copyright Office.

2020 threw a lot of challenges at the world. One of them, from the business perspective, that overshadowed the others was cybersecurity. How to ensure data safety and security in an environment where businesses can’t really control what employees do even during work hours? With the world almost a year into the pandemic, new best practices emerged that will be in use not just during the pandemic, but probably also in the future, post-pandemic era. Because the trend of working from home now seems to be here to stay. This blog will discuss some best practices for data security that can be deployed when working remotely

Problems with cybersecurity can really sink your business. Unfortunately, more opportunists are out there today looking to profit off of business’ lack of vigilance. One example of this are large-scale scam operations that have been running in Southeast Asia, and they are now spreading to other parts of the world. These scams, called "pig butchering" scams, have caused major harm, with around $75 billion lost worldwide in 2023.

One thing the Coronavirus pandemic taught businesses is the fact that it is important to move with the times and adopt and adapt to the latest technology. While you don’t have to be the first one in the market to invest in the newest technology, once its effectiveness and usefulness is proven, it does make sense to switch to it. Here’s how the cloud allowed businesses to overcome the challenges posed by having to suddenly switch to the remote operations model.

If you want to discuss the single most influential technology for the modern era, there’s a lot of competition—but the cloud is a serious contender. Through the cloud, your organization can pull off feats previously impossible for all but the largest and most profitable companies. Today, we want to look at how small businesses use the cloud and how you benefit from the various models.

It is a known fact that survival of any species depends on its ability to adapt to change. One major change for businesses in 2020 was the need to switch to the work-from-home model to keep things running during the time of pandemic. When countries all over the world started imposing lockdown restrictions, companies had no choice but to switch to remote operations if their line of business allowed them to do so. This blog post discusses the key challenges faced by businesses that had failed to adopt the latest technology on time.

Business is built on relationships, and to be frank, some can be quite challenging. Think about all the difficulties you’ve faced with customers, vendors, or employees. Sometimes, it's hard to imagine how your business could succeed without these key players, but they all can be a drain on any given day. Today, we’ll explore how the relationships you build in business can be the deciding factor in your success.