BEI Blog

BEI has been serving the Ohio area since 1991, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

The Right Practices Will Get Employees Thinking About Their Own Security

The Right Practices Will Get Employees Thinking About Their Own Security

People look at their work differently, just as they view their lives differently. The many different perspectives of your staff brings a bit of variance of how they view data security. This isn’t so good for your business as you need to trust them to prioritize the security of your data and infrastructure. Let’s take a look at some of the best practices that you should be training your staff in, which will allow them to protect your data better, and theirs. 

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How Can the Zoombombing Issue be Solved?

How Can the Zoombombing Issue be Solved?

Conferencing has played a crucial role for businesses, and never more than in the past year. Unfortunately, this has presented the opportunity for trolls to join in these remote collaboration efforts, interrupting them with inflammatory and vulgar content. Labelled “Zoombombing”, these attacks have led to the implementation of numerous privacy protections and countermeasures… but the question remains: how effectively do these protections defend a business’ efforts?

As a study has revealed, not effectively enough.

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Are Apple Computers Really More Secure?

Are Apple Computers Really More Secure?

For the better part of four decades, Apple has bragged that not only are their devices more secure than PCs, hackers don’t bother building threats specifically for their operating systems because their security is so superior. For this reason, Apple has routinely refused advances from law enforcement to share workarounds so that police can get into phones. Apple’s rationale for this constant refusal is that it would undermine their ability to keep the most secure personal computing devices, secure. Federal law enforcement officials went ahead and developed their own workaround and the findings may surprise many Apple aficionados. Let’s take a look:

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How to Resolve the Most Prevalent Security Threat to Your Business

How to Resolve the Most Prevalent Security Threat to Your Business

If I were to ask you what you believed was the biggest potential threat to your business’ future, what would your answer be? The correct answer for most is the risk that an employee might let in a threat—intentionally or not. Let’s investigate how this might happen, and what you need to do to stop it.

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We All Just Saw the Largest Cyberattack Ever - Here’s What You Should Know

We All Just Saw the Largest Cyberattack Ever - Here’s What You Should Know

Based on how the rest of the year has gone, it should come as no surprise that 2020 has come to an end with the news that the United States was targeted in the largest cyberespionage attack ever. Let’s go into what this attack signifies, and what we should all take away from it.

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IT Hard: A Reimagined Christmas Story

IT Hard: A Reimagined Christmas Story

During this time of year, many people like to sit back and reminisce upon favorite stories from the past. We figured we’d join in the fun by reimagining what many argue to be a holiday classic: Die Hard.

Let’s take a few moments to consider how the story might play out if the action were to take place today…

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Understanding VPN and How One Helps Your Business

Understanding VPN and How One Helps Your Business

With remote work remaining a popular option embraced by many businesses nowadays, it is more important than ever that security is prioritized amongst the employees now operating outside of the office. One facet of doing so is to implement a virtual private network, or a VPN. Let’s go over what a VPN is, and how it works to protect your business’ data.

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Cybersecurity Lessons to be Learned From a Spotify Hack

Cybersecurity Lessons to be Learned From a Spotify Hack

We will often keep an eye on current events to find practical examples to use as evidence in support of our recommended best practices, but a relatively recent Spotify hack has given us a special opportunity. We now have the opportunity to use this one story to reinforce not one, but two such practices. Let’s dive in, shall we?

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Dangerous Zero-Day Threats in Chrome Patched by Google

Dangerous Zero-Day Threats in Chrome Patched by Google

We’re always talking about the importance of keeping your software up to date. It is the very best way to avoid the vulnerabilities that can cause data breaches. When the Department of Homeland Security tells organizations to patch their software, however, it is urgent. This is exactly what has happened recently regarding the world’s most utilized Internet browser, Google Chrome.

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Remote Workforces Forces Business’ Hands on Security

Remote Workforces Forces Business’ Hands on Security

It was pretty evident from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that many businesses were not prepared to pivot their operations offsite. Many of these company’s leaders spent the past several years convinced that allowing people to work remotely would sap productivity in unsustainable ways. Cybercriminals have taken advantage of many organizations since then. Today, we will talk about what needs to be done to secure your endpoints when supporting a remote workforce. 

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Do You Know Which Remote Users Contribute the Biggest Risks?

Do You Know Which Remote Users Contribute the Biggest Risks?

With so many people working from home right now, businesses have managed to keep their operations going somewhat successfully by using the remote solutions that are available today. While it is fortunate that today’s technology enables businesses to do so, the importance of cybersecurity cannot be understated as remote work is implemented.

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Ransomware is Now Even Less Affordable to Consider Paying

Ransomware is Now Even Less Affordable to Consider Paying

We haven’t exactly been shy about sharing our recommendation that a ransomware demand should never be met with payment, but there is now an even more impactful reason not to. This deterrent comes courtesy of the United States Treasury Department, which has released a statement informing businesses of potential fines as retribution for doing so.

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Microsoft Thwarts Major Hacking Attempt, For Now

Microsoft Thwarts Major Hacking Attempt, For Now

With just shy of a month before the 2020 United States Election, there has been quite a bit of concern over the idea that external interests may try to sway the results—and it seems for good reason. Only recently, Microsoft interrupted a massive coordinated hacking plot that could have altered the very infrastructure needed to support a fair election. Let’s examine this plot, and what Microsoft did, in some more detail.

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What Data Privacy will Look Like in the Future

What Data Privacy will Look Like in the Future

I want you to step out of your role as a business owner for a moment and see yourself once again as the average consumer. How concerned are you that so many businesses have collected and are now storing your personal data, and that you have no control over its privacy? If you feel at all uneasy, you’re not alone… 87 percent of Americans feel that data privacy is a human right in these modern times.

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Hackers are Using COVID-19 As an Opportunity

Hackers are Using COVID-19 As an Opportunity

In true form, cyberattacks have trended upward during the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many people working from home, it’s not much of a surprise that some of the most popular hacking tactics are being used, using the worldwide pandemic as bait. Today, we identify some of these threats.

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Tip of the Week: Six Smart Practices for Data Security

Tip of the Week: Six Smart Practices for Data Security

If asked to list its most valuable assets, every modern business currently in existence should include its data on that list. This is part of the reason that data security should be treated as a priority. We know—this isn’t exactly a small ask, so to help, we’ve put together a few tips to get you started off on the right foot. If you’re already working on your data security preparedness, consider this a refresher.

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Are Passwords Soon Going to Be a Thing of the Past?

Are Passwords Soon Going to Be a Thing of the Past?

Did you know that over 80 percent, eight-zero, of cyberattacks are the result of stolen access credentials? It’s no wonder that the username/password combination that we’re all used to is being actively phased out by many tech companies—including Microsoft—in favor of more secure, passwordless authentication measures.

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How Much Good Does a VPN Really Do?

How Much Good Does a VPN Really Do?

We’re pretty outspoken in our support of VPNs (virtual private networks) as an indispensable tool for your online security. However, considering that there are things that a VPN can and can’t do, we thought it would be helpful to specify what a VPN is really for.

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Knowing, and Planning For, Your Organization’s Compliance Burden

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Despite what detractors say, regulations are in place for good reason. They typically protect individuals from organizational malfeasance. Many of these regulations are actual laws passed by a governing body and cover the entire spectrum of the issue, not just the data involved. The ones that have data protection regulations written into them mostly deal with the handling and protection of sensitive information. For organizations that work in industries covered by these regulations there are very visible costs that go into compliance. Today, we look at the costs incurred by these organizations as a result of these regulations, and how to ascertain how they affect your business.

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When it Comes to Security, Two Factors are Better Than One

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The password isn’t nearly as secure as it used to be. Hackers have begun to take advantage of extremely powerful solutions designed to brute force their way into accounts by using software to rapidly guessing thousands of passwords per second, making it extraordinarily difficult to prepare yourself for them.

What’s the best way to guarantee that passwords aren’t going to be the downfall of your company? A great start is by taking a close look at password best practices and two-factor authentication.

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BEI
4700 Rockside Road Ste 625
Independence, Ohio 44131