Macro Systems Blog

Technology is meant to be the wind in your company's sails, propelling you forward, simplifying tasks, and making operations smoother, right? Sometimes, it is! Other times, it feels more like a mischievous gremlin has been let loose in the engine room, and certain seemingly small habits can escalate into full-blown operational nightmares.

Here at Macro Systems, we've seen a pattern or two. Listed below is a look at three common technology mistakes that might be silently sabotaging your productivity or even worse, leaving your digital doors wide open.

Do you ever wonder why some businesses seem to have endless technology issues? It’s not by accident. It's usually a matter of not having the smart, simple habits in place to combat problems that present themselves. Listed below are three ways that your business can avoid large technology headaches.

Third-party vendors are essential for today's businesses; they deliver mission-critical resources and tools to the organizations that utilize them, including raw materials, software, and other services. Alas, these vendors can also serve as direct lines into your business for a cyberattack to take advantage of for their own purposes.

Listed below: how you can still lean on your vendors without sacrificing your critically important security.

The constant talk about cybersecurity can really be overwhelming. While some Internet tales may be exaggerated, the reality is that these cybersecurity risks are a serious concern for every organization. Is your business truly prepared to confront the sophisticated digital adversaries of our time? Listed below is a look at three prevalent cyberthreats that could inflict significant damage on a business, and what you can do to keep them from negatively impacting yours.

We're all busy. Whether you're steering the ship or making sure the daily operations run smoothly, cybersecurity might feel like another drain on your time. Imagine a day when everything grinds to a halt, trust evaporates, or significant money vanishes into thin air. These aren't abstract fears, they are all-too-real consequences of cybersecurity oversights, creating moments that everyone in a business, from top to bottom, desperately wants to avoid… and can.

Technology is woven into almost everything we do, from collaborating on projects to connecting with clients. Making sure we handle this technology correctly is critical for the efficiency and security of your entire business. In this month’s newsletter, we just wanted to go through a couple of actions that can help any professional enhance their technology.

There are a few occasions that we get a very apparent example of how imperative basic cybersecurity is, regardless of where you are, and this year’s National Football League draft provides one such example.

For those who don’t follow the NFL or the draft proceedings, multiple draftees received prank calls during the process, although one in particular is applicable to businesses of all kinds. Let’s examine this situation to reinforce a few important cybersecurity best practices.

The world of cybersecurity is in constant flux, demanding that businesses continually reassess their defensive strategies. A traditional focus solely on preventing breaches, while crucial, is proving insufficient in the face of sophisticated and persistent threats. As highlighted in a recent Illumio podcast episode, "Trust & Resilience: The New Frontlines of Cybersecurity," the very foundation of digital interaction—trust—has ironically become a primary vulnerability exploited by attackers. This necessitates a fundamental shift in perspective. 

If you're like many small and medium-sized business owners, you're juggling countless online passwords for email, banking, software, supplier portals, and more. It can be overwhelming. This usually leads to using simple or repeated passwords, which opens the door to cyber threats like data breaches, a serious risk for any business. Fortunately, there's a straightforward solution: a password manager.

Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, is a common approach for businesses that want to take advantage of mobile technology to increase productivity. Instead of supplying each individual employee with company-owned devices, businesses allow employees to utilize their own devices for work-related purposes. While this is great on the budget, it’s only really effective, and safe, if the employee prioritizes security on their devices; otherwise, it’s a liability.

In business, paper tends to pile up, gets lost, and sometimes mysteriously multiplies overnight like gremlins exposed to water. If your business is drowning in paper or struggling to find critical files, it might be time to consider digital document management. But when exactly does it make sense to invest in this technology? 

You open your email and you have a message claiming your bank account has been hacked. You click the link, log in, and, whoops, you just handed your credentials to a cybercriminal. You’ve been a victim of phishing, where scammers bait you with fake messages and reel you in like an unsuspecting fish. You don’t have to be their next catch. Listed below: how to recognize and fight back against phishing attempts.

Does it feel like scammers are everywhere? That's because they are. Every day they’re scheming up new ways to trick people into giving up money, data, or access to their accounts. One of the biggest problems we run into is that we’re bombarded with so many scam warnings that we start tuning them out. That’s called threat fatigue, the phenomenon when you get so tired of hearing about security risks that you stop paying attention, which is exactly scammers want.

It's no surprise that cybersecurity is a big challenge for businesses and individuals alike. The problem: life pretty much revolves around being online these days, so there’s no avoiding it. Thus, it’s your responsibility to ensure that any data you collect from your customers, employees, and other key stakeholders in your business is well-protected, otherwise you will face severe consequences.

We’ve all had to confirm we’re human when attempting to log into an account. This is the core purpose of what once was called CAPTCHA… the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. That being said, it seems surprising that computers don’t easily overcome these simple-seeming tests.

Listed below is why these simple tests actually are effective at differentiating between human users and automated bots.

In the United States, tax season is prime time for hackers to take advantage of law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. They do this via all types of nefarious activities, such as phishing attacks conducted through text messages and emails claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service. If you want to avoid getting scammed this tax season, be sure to keep the following tips in mind to stay safe while you conduct your typical tax routines.

Despite some of the headlines that we saw last year, it wasn’t all bad news regarding ransomware. Crucially, 2024 saw ransomware payments plummet by hundreds of millions of dollars… despite many large-scale attacks and one record-breaking whaling payment of $75 million by one victim.

This is undeniably great to hear… but with that in mind, you cannot let yourselves slip into complacency.

Running a business is already confusing enough without worrying about security at all times. Whether you own a small business or a multi-level enterprise, security is just as imperative for all the same reasons. Listed below are a couple of security strategies you can implement today to feel better about the current state of your infrastructure moving forward.

Picture waking up one day to find your phone wiped clean with no contacts, no photos, and no messages. Now, imagine this happening to an entire business, where all their files, data, and systems are gone. Terrifying, right? That’s why businesses need a Disaster Recovery (DR) system. It helps them bounce back when things go wrong. Listed below is how to build one.

Your organization’s ability to keep its digital information safe depends largely on how well its technology performs. This is why it’s important to teach your employees how to protect your company’s data. To start, it’s imperative to understand your company’s security posture. This refers to how actively you or your team work to protect your online presence. With the increasing use of cloud applications and remote work becoming more common, every employee plays a role in keeping the organization secure. Listed below: how your business can create a security culture designed to keep your data and information systems secure.