Cybercriminals are still coming for your customer and business data. They are continuing to attack with ransomware delivered via email and other phishing scams. Overall ransomware numbers are dropping, though that indicates a shift in criminal strategy from focusing on consumers to focusing on businesses (where the money is). However, there are signs that people are FINALLY getting the message that clicking on every link in a suspicious email is a bad idea. The success of attacks via email are declining. That doesn’t mean these crooks are giving up on their efforts to steal your data and expose your business to legal risk. Nope. It means they are switching up how they attack you. Here are four new ways cybercriminals are plotting to take what’s yours.

When you are down in the trenches in the day-to-day of your everyday business operations, it’s so easy to miss the big picture. That’s why so many leaders fall into the trap of setting IT goals that they can never actually achieve, especially when it comes to managed agreements. Pair that with the fact that it’s not always easy to hand over control to an outside IT consultant and you have the two reasons why IT projects often fail. The professional comes in, thinks they understand the client’s goals, and they completely miss the mark. Projects are launched, and over time, fail because the company’s real challenges and goals were never fully communicated. Whatever your kryptonite — communication, unrealistic goal setting, or the inability to relinquish control — the key to completing a successful IT partnership is to first take a step back and evaluate your goals (and limits) so you know what you are even asking for a solution for. Ask yourself these four questions:

A new year means new threats. Small businesses across the country are scrambling to keep up with the new normal that is the Internet of Things (IoT) - the billion or so devices sharing data and information around the globe. As brilliant as it may be to be so connected, security breaches that can compromise personal and company data are closer than ever before. Today, everything is connected to make life easy, more fluid, and self service. Whether it’s a mobile phone, workplace desktop, or even home-based digital assistant, people are increasingly dependent on technology with very little understanding of the risk.

They say history repeats itself, so in honor of President’s Day this month, we’ve collected a few tidbits of wit and wisdom from our founding fathers and applied it to navigating the challenging world of small business IT. "It is by a thorough knowledge of the whole subject that [people] are enabled to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper direction to the future." - James Monroe It’s hard to know where you are going if you don’t know where you have been, or even where you are for that matter. That’s why having “A Plan” for IT always starts with a thorough assessment of your company’s network infrastructure.

Every business -- including us -- relies on a reliable, stable network to work internally and to communicate with customers (email, online chat, voice over IP, etc.). When your network and IT infrastructure isn’t working at peak efficiency, neither is your office or business. Keeping your network updated and secure, managing data backups, and troubleshooting users’ IT questions are all necessary, albeit time-consuming, tasks that prevent your IT staff from focusing on more strategic goals. Outsourcing your network and other elements of your IT to a managed IT services partner is a way to improve network performance, lower costs, and free up your IT staff’s time to focus on more strategic initiatives with a single decision. But who are the best managed IT companies in Minneapolis/St. Paul area? To help you decide who the best company for you is, we believe in maximum choice. Here are four managed IT providers (besides us) in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

The most important thing to know about ransomware is that it’s not going away. Criminals will continue to use ransomware to extort money from anyone they can -- business or individual. Every article or piece of research about cybersecurity issues in 2019 named ransomware as one of the top threats for next year. This is where I remind you that small and medium businesses are targets too (if you’re thinking this is only a challenge for the Fortune 5000) -- 43% of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses (Small Business Trends). As we begin to look ahead to 2019, here are a few key things you need to know about ransomware.

The benefits of ANY type of outsourcing remains simple -- someone else can perform a task better than you can do it yourself (and usually for less money). This is especially true of managed network services. As office networks have become a commodity, they still require time-consuming effort by IT staff to manage them -- the software must be patched and upgraded to prevent security holes, you need to identify bottlenecks and causes, server maintenance, backing up data, and more are all needed to ensure the maximum amount of uptime.

The reason to outsource any service rather than DIY is simple -- will it cost you more in time/expense to DIY or to find an expert to accomplish the task for you? For tasks that require deep knowledge and expertise, this can be an easy question to answer. I have no idea, nor the time and equipment, to make any car repairs that I’d need, for example. On the other hand, I could paint a room. For a business service such as outsourcing your network needs, you could do it yourself. Most SMBs have IT support with a small IT team or an outside “IT guy” who helps out as needed. Many businesses think outsourcing IT functions, like managed network services, is going to be a budget buster. Depending on the size of your business and the users that need to be supported, the monthly cost of an MNS contract could be higher than for a full-time IT person (even though for most SMBs that’s not the case). However, when you take into account the overall value of managed network services, the decision to outsource becomes nearly a no-brainer -- do it.

Managed services. IT managed services. Managed IT services. The cloud. Cloud services. Managed network services. As usual, the IT industry is awash in TLAs (three letter acronyms) to describe outsourcing various IT functions to a third party to supplement (or even replace -- though that’s not our goal) a company’s internal IT staff. We’ve explained our approach to IT managed services before, read IT Managed Services: How Does It Help Your Business here. This blog is focused on a piece of overall managed IT -- managed network services (MNS).