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Smart Services has been providing independent agents with proactive, fast, and expert technology services since 1991.

Tip of the Week: How to Minimize Employee Burnout

Tip of the Week: How to Minimize Employee Burnout

Workplace burnout is a serious issue that can have far-reaching impacts in your business. Therefore, it is critical that you can identify when one of your team members is starting to feel it, and know what you can do to help reduce it. Let’s go over what can lead to burnout, as well as a few ways to remediate it.

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Malware That Targets Android Can Cause Major Problems

Malware That Targets Android Can Cause Major Problems

You often hear about malware that infects desktop PCs, laptops, or servers, but other types of malware that infect mobile devices also exist. One such malware, a threat called TangleBot, has been discovered, and it can become seriously problematic for both workers and consumers utilizing Android devices—especially in today’s mobile-centric workplace.

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Is Your Business’ Antiquated Technology Holding You Back?

Is Your Business’ Antiquated Technology Holding You Back?

When was the last time that you took a hard look at your business’ technology? How old are some of the devices that you rely on each day? These are critical questions to answer if you want your business to succeed. Let’s discuss why upgrading is so important, and how to determine when the time to upgrade comes.

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How Centralized Authority is Crucial for Your IT

How Centralized Authority is Crucial for Your IT

The cloud is undeniably an invaluable business tool, so long as you maintain control over your business’ usage of it. This centralized authority over your cloud’s access controls is key to its successful utilization. Let’s briefly discuss what this means, and the ways that this can be established.

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Cybersecurity Helps Keep Your Law Firm’s Data from Being Distributed Pro Bono

Cybersecurity Helps Keep Your Law Firm’s Data from Being Distributed Pro Bono

It can be too easy to overlook the importance of technology and its security, particularly in industries that are deeply steeped in tradition, regardless of how crucial that security may seem when actually considered. Just consider the modern law firm, where technology, data, and the security of such is paramount.

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A Hard Look at a Four-Day Workweek

A Hard Look at a Four-Day Workweek

When you think about the workweek, there’s a good chance that some iteration of the 40-hour week, broken into 9-to-5 shifts on the weekdays is what comes to mind. It’s just the way things are done. However, this may not be a good thing. Let’s consider the origins of our modern work schedule, and how changing it could provide us all with some serious benefits.

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Tip of the Week: Examining NIST’s Definition of Zero Trust

Tip of the Week: Examining NIST’s Definition of Zero Trust

Let me ask you something: how many people do you fundamentally trust? Well, in a zero trust network, that number is reduced to zero. The idea of such a network is that everyone, whether they’re operating inside of the network or out, needs to be verified… and as you might imagine, it has proven effective in preventing data breaches. 

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Is Your Web Browser Secure?

Is Your Web Browser Secure?

The Internet browser is easily one of the most-used applications in this day of cloud-hosted resources and online content… but for all that use, is it also one of the most-secured applications? In some ways, yes… but there’s always a few extra steps that can help you improve your protections.

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Could Voice Authentication Join the Ranks of MFA?

Could Voice Authentication Join the Ranks of MFA?

Authentication has been a major talking point for the past few years, particularly as the value of data has only increased and security has correspondingly increased in importance. As a result, more secure and reliable means of identity verification have also become more critical. Now, voice authentication is being considered as such a means.

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Is the VPN My Office Uses a Public VPN?

Is the VPN My Office Uses a Public VPN?

Virtual private networking, while maybe not the most familiar term to everyone, at least seems to be pretty straightforward. Such a specific-sounding term must apply to one aspect of technology and that one aspect alone, right?

Well, kind of, sort of, not really. In actuality, there are two kinds of VPN. Let’s go over what makes them different, and which your business should utilize.

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Looking at FoggyWeb to Better Understand Malware Attacks

Looking at FoggyWeb to Better Understand Malware Attacks

The cyberattack on SolarWinds was devastating for many reasons, and Microsoft has officially uncovered yet another type of malware used in the attack on the software provider. This time, it is a backdoor threat they have named FoggyWeb. What does this threat do and why is it so important to look at this incident even now?

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3 Reasons to Consider a Private Cloud Solution

3 Reasons to Consider a Private Cloud Solution

The cloud is a great opportunity for businesses to increase accessibility of data and enhance productivity, especially while remote, but for those who do not know how to approach it, the cloud can be intimidating. Today, we are going to make the case for a private cloud solution and why you should consider it as a viable option for your business, even if it does not seem like it at the moment. You might be surprised by what you learn!

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Tip of the Week: 3 Ways to Emulate Enterprise Networks

Tip of the Week: 3 Ways to Emulate Enterprise Networks

The major difference between an enterprise and a small or medium-sized business is just its size. As a result, many of the tools that the enterprise takes advantage of can easily be used by their smaller counterparts. Let’s review just a few of these processes and technologies.

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Vulnerabilities Found Inside Azure-Linked Managed Database Service

Vulnerabilities Found Inside Azure-Linked Managed Database Service

It’s not unheard of for some threats to remain undiscovered for months or even years, as is the case with a particularly nasty one in the Microsoft Azure database system. This exploit, discovered by cloud security provider Wiz, is built into Cosmos DB, Microsoft Azure’s managed database service. Let’s take a look at the exploit and see what we can learn from it.

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Is Your Business Following These Essential Best Practices Right Now?

Is Your Business Following These Essential Best Practices Right Now?

Whenever your technology is involved in your business processes, it is important that you abide by best practices to see the most effective results. Let’s run through the most effective practices that you should reinforce in your operations.

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Tip of the Week: What’s the Point of CC and BCC in My Email?

Tip of the Week: What’s the Point of CC and BCC in My Email?

We’ve all seen the fields in our email, CC and BCC, and most of us have probably used them before. Let’s consider where we get those terms, and how each of them is properly used.

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Remote Work Can Offer More Benefits than You Might Expect

Remote Work Can Offer More Benefits than You Might Expect

Remote work has been embraced over the past two years, in no small part due to the impact of the pandemic. However, some of the impacts of remote work have made it clear to many businesses that its advantages shouldn’t be sacrificed once it is no longer necessary. Let’s review how businesses can improve by continuing the practices of remote work, even after the need for remote work has passed.

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What the Windows 8.1 End-of-Life Event Means for Your Business

What the Windows 8.1 End-of-Life Event Means for Your Business

Windows 11 seems to be rapidly approaching, so now is the perfect time to discuss Windows upgrades and upcoming end-of-life scenarios, including Windows 8.1, which is slated to expire in 2023. You might be wondering if you have the hardware to handle this upgrade, and that’s a valid question, but what does the end-of-life scenario for Windows 8.1 really look like for your business? Let’s take a look.

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Tip of the Week: Scaling Your Wi-Fi Network

Tip of the Week: Scaling Your Wi-Fi Network

Most modern businesses rely on wireless internet connectivity in their day-to-day processes. Of course, this means that their potential productivity is tied to the quality of their internet and its capability to serve the entire workforce. As a business grows it becomes more important that its Wi-Fi setup can support it. Let’s go over the process of properly scaling your network to your needs.

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What are IT Best Practices, Anyways?

What are IT Best Practices, Anyways?

We throw the term “best practice” around a lot… enough that, without an appreciation for what the term actually means, it can start to sound like just another buzzword that the IT guy is using to sound more impressive. We assure you that this is not the case, and that the term “best practice” actually does mean something.

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