The ACCENT Learning Hub

I got an email the other day from a friend in one of my networking groups. The subject line read, “Please sign - You have received a secure document via DocuSign.” Alarm bells went off in my mind because I was not expecting an email like this from her. Further investigation revealed that this was a “phishing” email – a kind of scam where unscrupulous individuals try to capture information by pretending they’re someone they are not.

I’m sure you’ve heard the terms “backup,” “disaster recovery,” and “business continuity.” What most business owners do not realize is that these are three separate things and without all three pieces, their business is in a vulnerable position. Data Backup First off, data backup is just copying your data onto another device. This could be a tape drive, an external hard drive, or an offsite backup. In most of these forms, your data is being stored in a raw format. This means that your applications, configurations, and network settings are not being backed up with it, so if you needed to restore, or recover, your network from the data backup, you may be down for days or weeks.

Did you make any new year's resolutions as the calendar turned over to 2019? In addition to the usual personal resolutions, such as eating healthy and spending more time with family, I encourage business owners and managers to add a few business resolutions to their list. Information technology is critical to operations for most companies and has the power to stop, or at least disrupt, business if things aren’t going well. When utilized properly, information technology can give companies a strategic advantage and help them accomplish their business goals and objectives.

It’s that time of year in California. Dry brush and Santa Ana winds put thousands of lives, homes, and businesses at risk. The recent Woolsey and Camp fires remind us that wildfires can start any time and they make quick work of any area, destroying everything in their path.

As you may have heard, Microsoft will be saying its official goodbye to Windows 7 on January 14, 2020. The “end of life” of an operating system means that they will no longer be releasing any of the updates that keep it safe and secure.

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

January 14, 2020 marks the end of support for one of the most popular operating systems for businesses – Windows 7. It was released in 2009 and has served us well, but the end is near and it’s time to start planning your transition.

With the recent enforcement of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on May 25, 2018, there’s been a lot of talk regarding regulatory compliance; specifically, who is responsible for what.

    Most small business executives agree that cyber security threats are real. From malware to phishing scams, many have gone through the pain of losing data, money, productivity, or all of the above. If you haven’t suffered a loss yet, you should count yourself among the lucky. You know that your company data should be secured as much as possible, but cyber security is an expansive topic with many areas to cover, so where do you start?

To get some insights into what we can expect in 2018, I reached out to a few Southern California executives in varying fields and asked them what their predictions were for the year. Once I gathered the data, a few themes emerged. Not surprisingly, many of them had to do with technology, or the impact technology is having on other areas of business. Here are a few of the trends we can expect this year: