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Articles Posted by Joe Iarocci
Microsoft Teams hits 20 million daily users
The battle between Slack and Microsoft Teams continues, and it now looks like Microsoft is gaining the upper hand, according to an article written by Buckley Smith at IT World Canada. As of Tuesday, Microsoft said in a press release it has garnered over 20 million daily users on its communications platform, which comes parceled into Microsoft’s Office 365 subscription bundle. This represents only 10 per cent of the more than More »
Cyber Attacks – What You Need To Know
Financially motivated hackers target many SMBs in North America. With the attack, the infected company or user usually ends up with a banking Trojan ( a hidden file that monitors your banking information), or Ransomware malware (file encryption) in their systems. Ransomware campaigns are not customized for each organization. They are targeting manufacturing, healthcare and accounting businesses that possess critical data and can likely afford More »
Remote Desktop Warning
This article outlines why you need a VPN (Virtual Private Network) when using any type of remote desktop software. Call us if you are not using a VPN. It is free with Windows 10 PRO. Ever since it was discovered six months ago, a malicious software called BlueKeep was found in a Windows component known as Remote Desktop Services. It affects machines running unpatched versions More »
Cyber Attacks
The plight of SMBs facing cyberattacks has been a predictable story: smaller companies with limited budget, staffing, and expertise rarely fare well when faced with an attack. And, for the longest time, SMBs seemed reluctant to acknowledge that every SMB is a potential target. In 2019, SMBs offer cybercriminals enough potential return on investment to be just as viable a revenue-generating victim as mid-market and More »
A review of the Google Pixelbook Go
This is an excellent review of the Google Pixelbook Go from Tom Li (ItBusiness.ca) If you are a G-Suite user, you will want to read about Google’s newest laptop. Mr. Li writes, “I’ve been an avid PC user for as long as I can remember. Throughout the years, I’ve handled a manifold of Windows devices from the corpulent to the sleek, from the robust to More »
Why it is important to log off or close an application program before shutting down your computer
Recently, we had a client call us in a panic stating “all of my project files are gone”. It appeared that all the project files they were working on, some as old as two years, went “missing”. Upon further investigation we found that all of these files, close to 200, were still on the server, but they were corrupted. Since they were corrupted, the files More »
Ontario Science Centre Data Breach
The names and email addresses of 174,000 members, donors, and customers of camps and birthday parties at the Ontario Science Centre were exposed in August, according to the company that does email blasts for the provincially owned tourist attraction. The breach was made public Monday evening when the Science Centre alerted its newsletter subscribers, although the Science Centre has been aware of the breach since More »
LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen officially launching in Canada on Nov. 1
The LG G8X ThinQ inherits much of the hardware of the original LG G8 ThinQ: A Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. It also features a 12MP standard wide camera, a 13MP Super Wide camera, and a 32MP front camera. On the software side, the G8X ThinQ runs the LG UX based on Android 9 Pie. LG’s take on a Dual More »
Alexa and Google Home Abused to Eavesdrop
Privacy threats posed by Amazon Alexa and Google Home are common knowledge. Workers for both companies routinely listen to audio of users—recordings of which can be kept forever—and the sounds the devices capture can be used in criminal trials. Now, there’s a new concern: malicious apps developed by third parties and hosted by Amazon or Google. The threat isn’t just theoretical. Whitehat hackers at Germany’s More »
Report Says Average Cost of Downtime Due to Ransomware Highest in Canada
The world’s most prominent malware threat is alive and well, and its devastating financial impact on businesses has only increased, especially in Canada, according to Datto Inc.’s fourth annual Global State of the Channel Ransomware Report. In 2019, Canada has the highest average cost of downtime related to a ransomware attack at $180,000, according to Datto’s annual survey. Last year, that number was $65,724. More than 1,400 managed service More »