During the COVID-19 Pandemic, it was reported that cybercrime increased by 600%. As the world has become more reliant on technology, whether for personal life or for business, cyberattacks have risen with it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of cybersecurity misconceptions that prevent businesses from adequately preparing for and responding to these attacks. More time and resources need to be spent protecting this critical information.

Network management is the ongoing monitoring, administration, and maintenance of any networked system of computers. That said, networks have grown beyond the desktop computer, now encompassing all manner of end devices — mobile devices, laptops, printers — and the hardware that facilitates their interaction.

Let’s be honest. Patching is tedious work. In a recent patching study by Ponemon and ServiceNow, it was revealed that 65% of businesses say that it is difficult to prioritize patches. Even after applying a patch, the patch management process doesn’t end there. Sometimes, new patches create more problems than they fix. This step-by-step guide prepares for such situations and explains how to uninstall a problematic patch.

Last month, I introduced a new blog series for 2023 that aims to focus on how we can do a better job of making our New Year resolutions stick. Why do so many resolutions fail? Because we attempt to do too much, too quickly. We place too much pressure on ourselves to change EVERYTHING we don’t like, which can then become overwhelming to manage and keep up with.

Did you know that your choice of a data protection solution can not only help you recover from cyber-attacks, but can also reduce your vulnerability to those attacks? By storing your primary backups safely off the local network, and choosing a remotely hosted SaaS data protection application, two critical attack vectors will be safely out of the reach of ransomware.

This is the first in a four-part series focusing on the findings from our 2023 Network IT Management Report. We surveyed 4500 IT professionals from internal IT teams and MSPs across North America to gauge where their organizations are heading from a network management perspective. In part one, we’ll detail the overarching needs network professions across all industries to have in common. You can read the full 2023 report and compare your own IT statistics here.

Black Kite reported that 53% of organizations were hit by ransomware attacks in 2021, and that number was expected to increase to 69% in 2022. Cyberattacks show no sign of slowing, so it is critical that organizations have necessary cybersecurity precautions in place. One of the best ways to protect your IT environment is with an endpoint security process.

Very early in my career, a mentor taught me an extremely important lesson: “There is no substitute for talking to your customers.” No market research, focus groups, or surveys can take the place of getting face to face with your customers and having an honest conversation.

Microsoft Windows, one of the world’s most popular operating systems, has declared that support for Windows 7 - 8/8.1 operating systems will come to an end. In the next few weeks, this update will drive significant changes for both IT professionals and MSPs. Mark January 10th, 2023 in your calendars because that’s when the era of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 will come to a close.