Your Portland & Vancouver IT Information Source

Passwords – the necessary evil in the information technology world. If you have one that is simple, it will be easy to crack and just doesn’t seem safe. If you have one that’s safe and complex, you’ll never remember it. It’s a frustrating conundrum for everyone.

Technology systems don’t last forever. No matter how good a computer or a server is, it will need to be fixed or replaced at some point down the road. Unfortunately that’s lead to some business owners treating their information technology like disposable razors: whoops, this one’s dull – better go buy a new one.

Are you prepared to recover from every-day disasters that could leave your business vulnerable?

September is FEMA’s Disaster Preparedness Month, and many businesses across the country are taking a hard look at their information technology. They’re setting up backup processes and making plans for recovery in case a flood or fire damages the equipment in their office.

Did you know that there were 614 reported data breaches in the United States alone in 2013? That’s an average of 1.68 security breaches a day, and that’s only the reported numbers. The actual number is likely much higher factoring in the unreported incidents.

You hear a lot of chatter these days claiming that hackers have managed to pull your confidential information out of Google. There will always be rumours like that floating around. THIS IS NOT A RUMOR.

Google wasn’t hacked. What happened is that hackers appear to have leaked accounts and passwords from over 5 million GMAIL accounts.

It seems that every day more and more companies, both large and small, are targets of hackers. Did you hear that Home Depot was one of the latest victims of hackers? ABC News says that the breach against Home Depot’s payment systems could turn out to be “the biggest breach of any retailer.

Kids these days, right? Yeah, that does sound like something someone who says “whippersnapper” would say, but you might be shocked at how fast teenagers can pick up technology. Arm a teenage with a laptop or a smartphone, and they become technology masters overnight.

Never let this happen to you. Don’t Take Your Email for Granted.  If you fail to have a business email continuity strategy in place for your company....you will be sunk.

It may seem like email is so ingrained in your daily routine that you don’t even notice it, but it’s the cornerstone of your communications and the gateway to all your other information technology.

Facebook continues to add new features and services at an alarming rate, many times without even telling you what they are or what they do. Have you been jaded by a new Facebook feature that exposed your personal life to the Internet? Many of us have been without our knowledge – that’s the way Facebook rolls.

Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities’ personal affairs were made public recently after a brute force attack by hackers on the Apple iCloud. The hackers stole and leaked private nude photographs after compromising the security of the celebrities’ Apple iCloud accounts.