Technology Advisor Blog

At the start of the pandemic, there was an intense scramble to enable remote work for many in the “laptop class”.  For many people, working from home was a welcome change from stressful commutes and a hectic family life. Some people are scrambling to get back to the office to escape makeshift dining room desks that compete with family life and chaos, or just crave the social interaction, creative interactions, and other structure that office environments provide. You might be in a hybrid situation, where you are putting in hours both at home and in the office. Either way, you’re back and you’re ready to go.

Social media is great for a lot of things:  Sharing photos, connecting with old friends, and finding like-minded people and groups to share ideas and hobbies.  Social media is also widely used by businesses to market products and events, keep on top of industry trends, and prospect for new customers.  But when does sharing become over-sharing and when does social media pose a risk?

One of the harmful byproducts of the digital age is e-waste.  The average person gets a new cell phone every three years and a new computer every five years.  When electronics end up in landfills, toxic materials like lead, mercury, and cadmium can leak into ground water.  Unfortunately, the EPA estimates that only 20% of electronics are properly recycled.  Improper disposal of electronics also poses a major security risk as the data from old hard drives can fall into the wrong hands.   

Cryptocurrency is a term that we hear a lot, but for many of us, it remains a bit of a mystery.  We’ll take a look at it from a high level to provide some understanding.  Why? Well, it isn’t going away, and it only seems to be gaining popularity.  And also, because if you are a target of a ransomware attack, it could very likely be how the hacker demands payment. Now, we are not suggesting you pay that ransom demand - in fact, the US Department of the Treasury has issued warnings against paying -  but getting familiar with cryptocurrency will help you in understanding how these cybercriminals are able to fly under the radar.

It's Tax Season (with an extra month extension for COVID) which means its also the season for tax scams.

If you're a user of ParkMobile, the popular parking app, your credentials were just leaked on line after a breach.  KrebsonSecurity reported this week that someone is selling account information for 21 million customers of Park Mobile.  The stolen customer data includes email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers license plate number, hashed passwords, and mailing addresses.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has just released its annual report.  Over 700,000 complaints were filed - an increase of more than 300,000 from the previous year -  and reported losses exceeded $4.2B.  

Here's a re-cap of our recent community cybersecurity training event.  Cybersecurity these days is like a game of chess.  For every move, there's a counter move.  As people put more technology protection in place, the cyber criminals just get more clever.  User awareness is often the key to staying safe!  Will your employee click on that dangerous link?  It takes just one wrong click to do a lot of damage.  The more you and your team know about the latest threats, the better.  We were pleased to host close to 100 local small business leaders from Westford, Acton, Littleton, Chelmsford, Concord, Waltham, Southborough, Northborough, and Wellesley during our recent small business cybersecurity awareness training session. Education is a key part of Ekaru's mission, and here are a few highlights from the event.

An important part of staying secure on line is keeping your technology up to date.  If you're running old technology, you're not benefitting from the latest security protections.  In January of 2020, Microsoft ended support for Windows 7. This led to a massive worldwide effort to get systems upgraded to Windows 10.  However, a recent report on The Verge indicates up to 100 million PCs are still running Windows 7.  Ouch!  If you made the move to Windows 10, kudos for you, but have you kept the rest of your technology up to date?

It's hard to believe we're approaching the one year anniversary of COVID pandemic related shut-downs.  Thanks to technology like laptops, Zoom, high speed Internet, VoIP phones, and more, the scramble to work remotely was possible for many.  With all the associated distractions, cybersecurity often winds up being an afterthought for many.  As a technology service provider in the greater Boston area, we've worked with many local small businesses to enable a smooth transition to remote work, and we strongly encourage a continuing culture of cybersecurity to keep your business safe.