Macro Systems Blog

Ransomware has been a serious threat to all kinds of organizations for a couple of years, and 2018 is no different. For those who are somehow unaware, ransomware is a form of malicious software that threatens the elimination of hijacked and encrypted data if a user doesn’t pay a ransom. It is known to be one of the most prolific and pervasive threats seen on the Internet today. Below we'll examine how ransomware has evolved over the past several years, what the future of ransomware looks like, and what you can do to protect yourself against it.

It’s not every day that you come across a business technology solution that’s capable of connecting all of your employees together in a fast and simple way. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a great tool for your business’ employees to collaborate in and out of the office. Listed below are three reasons why your business should invest in VoIP now to further upgrade operations and efficiency regarding employee collaboration.

Imagine your business has experienced significant growth over the past couple of years. It’s not outpacing your IT infrastructure, and the cracks are starting to show in more ways than one. This makes it hard to plan for the future, implement new IT initiatives, and react to issues as they crop up. If your organization doesn’t have an internal IT department watching these developments, outsourcing can be a viable option to make sure all of your organizations technological needs keep your progress moving forward.

Phishing scams have one of the most descriptive names in all of computing, mostly because of how similar phishing is with fishing. When someone goes fishing or phishing, bait is dangled in the hopes of getting a bite, and different types of bait can be used, depending on the catch one is trying to make.

You need to get as much productivity out of your computer as possible while working. If you can speed up some of the ways you access specific information, you can accomplish even more. Shortcuts are very helpful to this end. Below are some of the easiest ways you can save time while working with a computer.

From electronic billboards to office televisions to nearly evert consumer electronic device, displays are everywhere these days. Because of the high demand for these displays, many manufacturers have turned to OLED technology in an attempt to make high definition capabilities more accessible. The differences between OLED displays and how they are fundamentally better options compared to the traditional LED displays are discussed below. 

If you have a computer that is currently running Windows 7 as its operating system, it’s time for you to start thinking about the future. Microsoft has officially revealed the End-of-Life date for Windows 7; this means they will eventually stop supporting computers running the popular operating system. What does this mean for your organization, though?

The contemporary worker spends a significant amount of their time looking at a computer screen. Considering this, it only makes sense that their screens and the items displayed on them are arranged in a way that they like. Listed below are a few shortcuts to help you arrange and view the items on your workstation a little faster.

Tech-support scammers are typically just people who dial random numbers, try to convince the person on the other end that their computer has problems and they can fix them if the user allows them to remote into the device. They utilize tactics that are as generic and vague as possible to avoid having to mention any specifics; because some people find that their system’s performance is sluggish, they will give these people access, which usually ends in disaster.

How many Vendors do you have to deal with? The answer to that is most likely, quite a few. Now consider how much time is spent managing each of them. Wouldn’t it be awesome if there was some way to limit this time to essentially nothing? 

In the ancient fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, the titular characters decided to leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind them so they could find their way back home. While this strategy didn’t work out as planned for the siblings, the same concept is utilized in computing today. We even refer to it as breadcrumb navigation in honor of the German fairy tale.

It's fair to say that not everyone has an impeccable memory. The capability for multiple browsers to remember our passwords seem like a godsend. However, is this capability actually a good thing for your cybersecurity? 

Managing business technology is no simple task, especially if your budget doesn’t isn't large enough for an internal IT department. You want professionals who know what they are doing to be the first ones handling your organization’s technology solutions, but sometimes this just isn’t possible. While the concept of outsourcing technology management and maintenance to a third party sounds odd at first, it is better just about any other alternative out there. 

Every business owner must contemplate how to approach network security. This is especially true with the continuously-growing list of threats that face their organization’s network from simply being connected to the Internet. It may sound like an overstatement, but when considering what some huge corporations have dealt with very recently, it becomes evident that figuring out how to approach cybersecurity is one of the most vital considerations any business owner has to make.

Organizations must protect themselves in our current climate littered with cyber threats. This fact can’t be negotiated, but many businesses have found themselves attempting to get by without protecting their assets or network infrastructure. Failing to implement security standards for your company could put its future on the line.

What would you do if you sat down at your desk one morning and found message on your computer claiming that Microsoft has detected a fatal issue with your workstation, and if they aren’t allowed to remote in and fix it, the entire network could be at risk? Would you be able to, in the heat of the moment, recognize it for the scam that it is and ignore it?

Like every other piece of equipment on your network, printers require careful configuration and regular maintenance to ensure that they aren’t placing your data and users at risk. Security researchers recently discovered two enormous vulnerabilities in HP Officejet All-in-One printers that make it very, very easy for hackers to spread malware and gain acquire to an organization’s network.

Your business operations are contingent on your budget; your business will rely on its budget to guide it fiscally through the next year of operation. Alas, IT resources, which can be unpredictable, care little about your budget. Let's examine some ways that you can keep your IT budget from breaking the bank, as well as how you can improve success over time via proper management of your IT assets.

In this era the smartphone camera has transformed into one of the biggest selling points when consumers want to buy a new phone. This is mostly because it is vital to the use of many of the applications that your average user utilizes the smartphone for. It just goes to show that, in less than two decades, how much more utility the phone has than it did when the Samsung SCH-V200 first provided users the option of taking pictures with their phone.

Email security has suffered recently because of the commoditization of basic email security services. If every spam solution is the same, then they can be changed out to just about any other solution out there, removing quality and replacing it with quantity. This trend has taken antivirus--the fact that free antivirus exists and many people prefer it over some paid solutions is a testament to this--but will spam protection move in the same direction?