Do you own an iPhone 8? If so, you may have problems. Apple has recently reported that a small percentage of iPhone 8s "contain logic boards with a manufacturing defect. Affected devices may experience unexpected restarts, a frozen screen, or won't turn on." The company has isolated the defect to phones manufactured between September 2017 to March 2018, in Hong Kong, India, Japan, China, New Zealand, Macau, and the United States. To find out if you've got one of the impacted iPhone 8s, … Read more
Reddit Users Advised To Reset Their Passwords
If you're a Reddit user, it's time to change your password. According to the company, they recently discovered evidence of a hack that exposed all company data from the site's launch (2005) to 2007, including user emails and account credentials. The company also reported that all public messages from that time period were downloaded, as well as an unknown number of private conversations. In addition to that, the hacker was apparently able to access the logs containing the email digests … Read more
6 Ways to Avoid HIPAA Penalties
It looks like the OCR (Office of Civil Rights) is getting in full swing to start auditing for HIPAA violations. There's not a day that goes by where we don't find some entity, large or small, getting breached. The threat is real and it requires action to keep you and your practice protected. Depending upon the issue, HIPAA violations can result in penalties ranging from $100 to $50,000 per violation. Violations that are deemed "willful neglect" result in a minimum fine of $10,000 per … Read more
5 Keys to Building a Better Team at Work
One of the biggest challenges for any entrepreneur or business person is what Gino Wickman; author of the book Traction, calls "Letting go of the vine." This simply means to trust those around you more and put responsibilities on others. There is a very important step before this is prudent, and that is to surround yourself with people who have a love for the "vine" and a clear understanding of how the "vine" operates. Ultimately, a team who is worthy of the "vine". The challenge of building … Read more
What is the Cost of IT Support for Small Business?
One of the greatest challenges among small business owners today is making the decision about IT support and maintenance of the information system; whether to hire an in-house IT tech or to outsource IT support for their business. With the relatively recent availability of Managed Services for small business, the list of choices – and decisions – has grown once again. The Greenville IT support experts at Triangle IT Group are constantly searching for ways to make the decision making process … Read more
Network Security: Is It Really That Important?
A Story about the Risks of "Non-Vaccination" On a recent appointment, I met with a pediatrician to perform a network review. In our preliminary meeting, we discussed the issues they were having and I was certain I'd find a pretty sick network. My suspicions were correct. It's our practice to schedule a follow up appointment after the report of findings has been written and risks weighed. During this meeting, the pediatrician told me about the struggle she having with unimmunized children … Read more
Understanding Managed Services
Managed Services - Proactive IT Support The IT Support buzzword of today is "Managed Services". It's a concept that's picking up increasing traction and for a very good reason. Every day, more and more businesses are evolving from a reactive IT model to a proactive IT model to save money and run more efficient operations. But what does the term "Managed Services" actually mean? And how can you tell if an IT Support company is truly offering Managed Services or just using the buzzword as a … Read more
5 Traits of an Effective Leader
I have often heard it said that there are three types of leaders; those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. In working with hundreds of small to midsize businesses as CEO of Triangle IT Group over the past 15 years I would have to concur. Sadly, many of those are in the latter category of wondering what happened in most situations. This failure in leadership costs companies countless dollars each year in revenue, huge missed opportunities, … Read more
Uber Paid To Hide Massive Data Breach From Public
It has recently come to light that the company was hacked in 2016 in a massive breach that exposed the personal information of more than 57 million Uber users and drivers. A wide range of data was stolen. Where users were concerned, names, email addresses, and phone numbers were compromised. As bad as that is, the problem was even worse for more than 600,000 of the company's drivers who had their driver's license numbers hacked, too. Standard protocol is that when a breach like this … Read more
9 Steps to an Effective Cyber Security Plan
There is not a day that goes by that you do not read in the paper or hear on television that some company has been the victim of Cyber Crime. The alarming thing is that for every incident that you hear about there are probably six more that have happened that you don't hear about. There are many reasons why people don't report about breaches. Probably the biggest of which is the damage to their reputation and the cost of properly handling the situation. Ponemon Institute recently reported that … Read more
