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- Posted by stratchi
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Thanksgiving is just a few days away! As you gather around the turkey with your family, you may start to reflect on things you’re thankful for. And whether it be your health, job, friends or family, there are plenty of things to choose from. But what about your IT? If you have Stratosphere Networks at your side, here a few more things to be thankful for this year:
Proactive Monitoring
With Stratosphere Networks’ proactive monitoring, you can stuff your face with turkey, mashed potatoes and pie, all with peace of mind knowing that someone is monitoring your system for any issues. Although we can’t protect your house from any thanksgiving –related disasters, if any technical disasters were to occur, one of our technicians would be on it immediately.
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For many businesses, operating efficiently is inevitably tied to the efficiency of the IT system and its myriad of resources. In some cases, IT resources are inefficient because they fail to fully address the issue that they are intended to resolve. In other cases, IT resources are inefficient because they have become obsolete. Regardless of why an IT network is inefficient, receiving professional IT support can solve the problem, and yield the following benefits for your company.
Simplified Implementation
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- Posted by stratchi
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Last year, Microsoft released apps for iPhones, Androids and iPads for their Office Suite. However, it required an Office 365 subscription in order to actually edit Word documents. Not being able to edit or store documents made user experiences far from productive, which is why Microsoft has changed their tune.
On November 6, Microsoft announced that mobile users will no longer need a paid subscription to edit and store documents. iPhone users can now download new, individual apps for Word, Excel and PowerPoint to replace the original Office Mobile app.
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According to a new poll, the number one crime that Americans fear is having their credit card information stolen by hackers.
Apparently all of the recent security breaches from big retail stores such as Target, Home Depot, Michaels and Neiman Marcus have affected people. According to a recently published survey from Gallup, 69 percent of U.S. residents worry either “frequently” or “occasionally” about hackers stealing their credit card information.
The second most-feared crime in America is having a computer or phone hacked to steal personal information, with 62 percent saying they worried at least “occasionally” about it. Following behind both of the hacking crimes, the next most-feared crimes include having your home burglarized when you’re not there, having your car stolen or broken into, getting mugged, and having a school-aged child physically harmed attending school.
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- Posted by stratchi
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With most disasters, tragedies and other newsworthy events that occur these days, there seems to be spammers trying to take advantage. The Ebola outbreak is no exception. Cybercriminals and spammers have been unleashing malware designed to capitalize on the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
The phishing attempts include an email that appears to come from the World Health Organization (WHO) and encourages recipients to open an attachment to learn how they can protect themselves from the disease.
The fake emails from WHO reportedly carry a DarkComet Remote Access Trojan (RAT). Once a user clicks on the attachment, the malware is downloaded on the computer and gives the hacker access to the victim’s files, sound capture, passwords, webcam and more.
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At the Apple event on Thursday, October 16, the company unveiled new products including the iPad Air 2 and the new iMac. Additionally, Apple announced the official launch of OS X Yosemite. The developer preview has been available since June, but the software is now open for everyone to download for free.
With Yosemite, Apple worked to streamline their Apple mobile and desktop operating systems. Therefore, much of Yosemite will look similar to OS X. The interface has been altered so that the menus are translucent, the buttons work a little differently and it has a more flat appearance.
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- Posted by stratchi
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Voice controls have long been thought of as the safe alternative to using phones while driving. While they are successful in keeping eyes on the roads and hands on the wheels, it turns out they’re still quite distracting. In a new study, AAA reports that voice-activated, hands-free systems are still distracting due to being prone to errors and increasing cognitive loads. The worst offender in this study is Apple’s assistant Siri.
The AAA used a scale of 1 to 4 to rate distraction levels. The best voice control system was Toyota’s Entune, which received a score of a 1.7, although the system has very limited functionality. Hyundai’s BlueLink received 2.2, Chrysler’s Uconnect 2.7, MyFord Touch 3.0, Mercedes’ Comand 3.1 and Chevy’s MyLink 3.7. Siri was far behind the pack with a 4.15.
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On Tuesday, September 30, Microsoft held an event in San Francisco to announce its next Windows operating system. While the name of the new OS was speculated to be Windows 9, Microsoft decided that counting is overrated and called it Windows 10.
The new OS is all about unifying the Microsoft products: “One product family. One platform. One store.” Windows 10 will have a tailored experienced between different screen sizes, but the code will run across all devices.
Microsoft is bringing back a few features of their past operating systems, including the beloved start menu from Windows 7. A combination of that start menu with the re-sizable tiles of the Windows 8 start screen makes for a nicely redesigned start menu in Windows 10.
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- Posted by stratchi
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Meetings are an inevitable part of most businesses, and traveling for those meetings has been an integral part of the corporate world for a long time. However, the process of business travel has become outdated. Business travel can be very expensive, time-consuming, as well as unreliable. Just in 2014, 98,017 flights have been cancelled and 766,539 flights have been delayed (and it’s only September).
When it comes to cost, the average domestic business trip costs $965 and lasts 3.3 days. American companies spent roughly $225 billion sending their employees on trips in 2012. Additionally, it takes an average of 53 hours and 24 minutes to prepare, travel and attend an in-person meeting with five people. Overall, that’s a lot of time and money spent for meetings.
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- Posted by stratchi
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These days, it seems that every week brings news of a new hacking. Between the recent breaches at Target, Home Depot, Neiman Marcus and Michaels, tens of millions of people have had their credit card numbers exposed to hackers. But does that apply to online shoppers?
It seems that the answer is no. The retailers of the most recent ones have all stated that online customers were not affected. So does that mean that online is safer than shopping in person? According to Nicholas Weaver, a senior researcher at the International Computer Science Institute, this is true because it’s easier for hackers to profit by stealing information linked to credit cards. That data taken when a credit card is swiped in person can be used to create counterfeit cards.
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