The ACCENT Learning Hub

If you are looking for a managed IT services price list, we might assume that you either know that you need to make a change in how you’re resourcing IT support or you’re wondering if you should be making a change. Either way, frustrations with IT are probably the catalyst for your research. If you’re like a lot of business owners and executives, you’ve lived with your IT problems for longer than you need to because you aren’t sure if there is anything better out there.

Want to make sure your smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices are as secure as possible? Check out this 90-second video tip from Chris, one of Accent’s vCIOs, with 3 tips to secure your mobile devices.

The best, and arguably the worst, thing about the rapid growth of technology is options. Long gone are the days where chocolate or vanilla were your only choices. In a post-Ben & Jerry’s world of Truffle Kerfuffle and Chubby Hubby, how are you supposed to know what to pick? And maybe the million-plus specialty ice cream flavors out there isn't exactly the same. But it’s easy to feel as overwhelmed by specialty ice cream as when you’re evaluating your server options.

I like watching professional magicians. I recently had the opportunity to see David Copperfield live at the MGM Grand and, I must admit, I found him absolutely amazing. When you watch him up close, it’s impossible to tell exactly what he does to create his extraordinary illusions.

Imagine that you get an invoice from a hospital for $125,000. No doubt you’ll experience sticker shock at the high cost of medical care. But wait a minute. This hospital is in a city that you have never visited, and it’s for a surgery that you never had. How did this happen? You’ve just become another victim of medical fraud. You can now expect to spend a few hundred hours of your life and thousands of dollars of your own money to clean up the mess that a cyber criminal made by stealing and using your medical records.

In a recent blog article, Marty Kaufman recounts the story of meeting with a business owner who was panicked and in crisis mode because of a cyber attack. If we could backtrack to the days, weeks and months before the attack, we would probably find that the business owner did not pay much attention to cyber security at all because he didn’t think that a data breach could happen to him. Well, it could, and it did. We can’t go back in time and undo all the damage that has been done by this cyber attack, but we can help other executives avoid stumbling over some common misconceptions that unknowingly increase cyber risk.

When cyber security is part of your business strategy, it acts like a fitness plan. You’ll never know what illnesses or injuries you avoided by being on the plan, but you notice that your ability to maneuver is much better than your peers. Still, it’s often difficult for executives to contemplate the ROI of cyber security. Maybe that’s because you can’t directly measure the output from the input. You can, however, when you make it a habit to consider security alongside your business goals.

It might be time to drop the word “cyber” when talking about cyber security because managing cyber risk is really about managing business risk. IT certainly plays an important role in how information technology systems and stored data are protected, but executives need to understand that there is more at risk than they realize. For example, executives sometimes make decisions in the name of productivity or cost savings that compromise security. Perhaps these decisions would be made differently if the executives realized what a risky situation their actions created and they asked themselves these five questions.

Just recently, I learned about a local business that experienced a cyber attack. All of the employees were sent home to work from their personal computers because the owner was afraid that using their business systems would make matters worse. This business owner called and asked me to come over to talk with him about the situation. As I sat in his conference room and discussed what was going on, he was actually being attacked while I was there! Bank accounts and financial information were being compromised real time.

You’ve just typed up your monthly email to your loyal followers and clients and you hit the magic button — send!