In the small business world, Intuit’s QuickBooks accounting software continues to dominate. When QuickBooks first debuted in the early 1990s, it quickly claimed up to 85% of the market, and subsequent releases have maintained and even increased that impressive share, with an estimated five million companies using the program today.
As last week’s QuickTip pointed out, many Americans are worried about information security and the safety of their online data. For good reason, too, news that broke last Wednesday indicates: a Russian crime ring has stockpiled the largest known collection of stolen credentials — 1.2 billion username and password combinations and 542 million unique email addresses.
No technology trend has been more ubiquitous lately than online security (or the lack thereof). With major corporations, social media sites, old cell phones, and even Internet browsers getting hacked left and right, Facebook announcing ramped-up plans to sell user information, and the separation between private and public life continuing to erode, can the public be blamed for losing trust in businesses and their ability to properly handle the data we hold sacrosanct?
A Gallup poll conducted in June delivered revealing results that nearly all of us can relate to (particularly the part about how, “In an increasingly insecure world, consumers need all the data security friends they can get”):
• 37% of the public reported that their trust in the companies they regularly do business with had “decreased a little” or “a lot” over the past year.
When you think of disaster preparedness, what comes to mind first? Boarding up in advance of a hurricane? Hunkering down in the face of a tornado? Cleaning up after a flash flood? Thawing out after a killer blizzard?
Depending on what part of the country you live in, natural disasters can mean vastly different things.
Finally, some good news on the cybersecurity front: after almost nine months of CryptoLocker infecting over 200,000 systems and extracting astronomical ransom payments from affected users, the cybercriminal ring responsible for the virus was broken up in early June.
As of June 1st, hurricane season was officially upon us here in the East. For those that live far from us here the East Coast, remember that you’re not out of harm’s way, either — multiple tornados have affected the Midwest so far this spring, while wildfires in California and mudslides in Colorado have also claimed homes, lives, and the blood, sweat, and tears of our treasured first responders.
Picture this: you’ve been stuck in IT limbo for years. On nights and weekends, a savvy friend helps you get your technology up and running. In her spare time, an office manager does her best to keep systems in working order.
After a while, you realize the need for an IT professional to diagnose problems and resolve major issues.
Our recent brutal winter weather should serve as a reminder for business owners: even the best-laid plans can be wrecked by natural and manmade disasters. Across the Mid-Atlantic and South, thousands of car accidents, at least a dozen fatalities, and untold numbers of stranded drivers and students were blindsided by the snow and ice that descended on the region.
December and January were dark days for data security. Just before Christmas, Target announced that credit and debit card info from over 40 million customers had been hacked over a three-week period of holiday shopping.
Our QuickTip from December 17th discussed the problems many small businesses experience firsthand when they use the archiving feature within Microsoft Outlook. Contrary to its name, “archiving” within Outlook doesn’t truly “archive” emails.
