In his book The Road Less Stupid, Keith Cunningham makes this correct observation about succeeding in business: “I don’t need to do more smart things. I just need to do fewer dumb things.”

When it comes to cyber security, I see a lot of dumb decisions made by smart people based on gross ignorance about what can happen or the desire to stick their proverbial head in the sand to avoid having to spend the money and time to protect their assets.

Covid changed everyone’s lives in dramatic ways on many levels – but small and big businesses alike were radically impacted, from events, restaurants and retail being shut down to sending everyone home to work remote.

It’s no surprise that the tech sector thrived during this time, from remote work solutions to online ordering, telemedicine, virtual events and more.

A little over a year ago, the FTC made several amendments to the existing Safeguards Rule requiring even very small businesses to ensure the protection of client data. These changes, set to go into effect back in December of 2022, are now going to be enforced starting June 9, 2023 – and it’s very likely that your business, regardless of how small or how your tech is being handled, WILL be required to implement certain new security protocols.

The new year is upon us, and many business owners will use this opportunity to create plans to ensure that 2023 is as profitable as possible. You can devise all kinds of business resolutions you want to focus on during the year, but most of the time, business owners think about key performance indicators like sales opportunities, customer loyalty or referrals.

We use passwords for just about everything. Most of us have to enter a password to get into our computers and then enter other passwords to access our e-mail, social media profiles, databases, and other accounts. Even our cell phones and tablets can and should be password protected.

Students are returning to the classroom now that back-to-school season is officially underway. During the first few weeks, teachers will be reteaching their students the topics they learned in the previous school year to help them regain knowledge they may have forgotten during summer break.

It’s not just cybercriminals who hack into networks and steal data.

Most business owners erroneously think cybercrime is limited to hackers based in China or Russia, but the evidence is overwhelming that disgruntled employees, both of your company and your vendors, can cause significant losses due to their knowledge of your organization and access to your data and systems.

One of the common issues on the Dark Web – whether you use it or not – is the sale of passwords, bank account information, Social Security numbers, and other private data.

Hackers can breach firewalls and software to obtain this information and then go to the Dark Web to sell it to other criminals.

For a long time, Starbucks has called itself the ‘Third Place,’ which they defined as the place between home and work.

And while it could be a great place for a cup of coffee or to work outside the office, the truth is if you or your employees ever work from anywhere but the office, they may be exposing your entire business to danger.

Now more than ever, we depend on technology to run our business (and our lives). When the "internet goes down," most businesses are at a standstill until they are back online, costing thousands in lost productivity and sales.

It's not just the BIG problems but things like file access, password protection, being able to print and recovering files or versions of files.