The ACCENT Learning Hub

When the idea of using Microsoft Teams for handling after-hours calls came up, we were skeptical. After all, technology professionals know that it’s a lot easier to get an application to do what it’s designed to do, rather than ask it to do something that’s not its primary purpose. But after lots of investigation and testing, Accent has changed the way after-hours IT support calls are handled and has started using Microsoft Teams.

When you’re going about your daily business, does the culture of your organization pop up into your mind? Maybe you’re prompted to think about culture as you’re reading books and articles on organizational improvement by folks such as Patrick Lencioni, Jim Collins, or Gino Wickman. The books may spark interest and a few great ideas, but then the real world takes you to another fire and culture takes a back seat to what you have right in front of you.

You may not always think of it this way, but your business information is a valuable asset. Without your data, business operations would come to a screeching halt or at least a slow crawl. Like any other asset, your business data needs to be protected. Unfortunately, many companies unknowingly compromised the integrity of their data when they sent people home to work. What’s more, they don’t realize how spreading out their people to their individual remote locations may have affected their data backup strategy.

Suddenly, more employees than ever are working from home. Many employers have transformed their companies into a remote workforce practically overnight. While you want to keep your business operational and allow your employees to continue working remotely, you also want to ensure that you are still meeting regulatory compliance standards, protecting business, your employees, and your customers. Here are a few tips to help you remain in compliance while working from home. 

As he has adapted to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, getting set up with the technology that he needs to continue in his role as Senior Support Specialist at Accent Computer Solutions has not been a problem for Jason Barnes. Preventing his kids from bursting into the room while he’s working is another story. Jason is a lead technician on the Alpha Support Team, the front line for handling day-to-day issues and user requests from Accent’s numerous clients. Not only has he had to adapt to working from home a few days each week while California has been under shelter-in-place orders, he has been on a learning curve with the rest of the team as they have been faced with new problem-solving situations that have arisen because of the explosion of remote workers within their client companies.

It's no surprise to hear that WordPress is the single most hacked website platform on the internet. Considering that WordPress sites make up about one-third of websites, you might even think this is a normal statistical fact, but it's not. Time and time again, dozens to thousands of sites are exposed to hackers and actively hacked, not because WordPress sites are a common target, but because WordPress sites are unbelievably easy to hack.

Do you have employees working from home? Congratulations! You’re now a multi-location business! As a multi-location business, your IT network is a lot more complex than it used to be when everyone was working under the same roof. You have more to think about in terms of security and productivity, which includes making sure that your data is 100% visible to IT. If your data isn’t visible, what is it? Invisible? Let’s call it out-of-sight. Before we talk about how this happens, let’s explore why you should be concerned about out-of-sight data.

For decades, consumers on both sides of the Atlantic have been concerned about the ways in which businesses collect, protect and use their sensitive, personal data.  Those concerns resulted several years ago to the passage of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union.  That legislation impacted American companies collecting personal data from customers in Europe, but many states felt the need to extend broader rights to consumers in the U.S.  One of those states was California, which in 2018 passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Phishing attacks are growing more sophisticated and spam filters aren't as effective for every kind of attack. Old-style spammers sent the same message to many people, hoping some of them would take the bait. The newer, more dangerous approach targets individuals. It's called spearphishing, whaling, or high-stakes phishing.

More and more businesses are moving parts or all of their IT operations to the cloud. According to one estimate, in 2019 about 60% of business workloads were being hosted in the cloud. And that figure can only be expected to increase. For many businesses, the advantages the cloud offers, such as reduced costs, increased flexibility, higher scalability, and easier disaster recovery, are too compelling to forego.