Macro Systems Blog

Cyberattacks will only continue in the weeks, months, and years to come, making it increasingly essential that businesses have access to cybersecurity expertise. Even more unfortunately, professionals with this level of expertise are becoming harder to find. Globally, we’re short almost four million people, and those we have are prone to make mistakes in their first few years. This comes from a report by Kaspersky, entitled “The Portrait of Modern Information Security Professional,” Let’s review what the cybersecurity developer found and what we can take away from these findings.

It was very recently revealed that a global law enforcement effort took down a massive botnet that was in action for almost a decade. In light of this, we wanted to review what a botnet is and how it works, drawing from these events for some context.

Transferring data between different computers and devices has become a routine task. Listed below are the steps you need to take before ejecting memory from a computer to ensure your data's integrity and the memory card's longevity.

The last few weeks have been spent discussing ransomware's impacts on different subsets. First, we discussed how a ransomware attack impacts the customers of the infected business, and then we touched on the infected business itself. To conclude, we want to take a look at ransomware's impacts on society, specifically regarding economic health and geopolitical security, known as third-order harms.

Data is extremely imperative in the way that most businesses conduct themselves. This results in other people wanting that information, too. Listed below is a look at how seemingly everyone online is out for your data. 

Have you heard of the “man-in-the-middle” attack or MitM? It’s a situation where your data is stolen by an onlooker who situates themselves in the right place at the right time. Data interception is a very real thing that your organization should be prepared to fight against. Listed below are some strategies you can use to counter these sneaky attacks.

We recently discussed the many impacts your business being hit by ransomware has on “second-order harm,” downstream businesses, and average, ordinary people. This time, we wanted to return to “first-order harms”… those the impacted business has to deal with itself.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that enables phone calls over the Internet. It provides a modern alternative to traditional phone lines with various advantages, such as cost savings and advanced features. VoIP is revolutionizing business communication and is an essential tool for today's organizations, especially with the rise of remote work. Why it's so popular among modern businesses?

It can be too easy to look at ransomware as a business problem; it does attack businesses, locking down their data for ransom, usually selling it or spreading it, and sometimes altering it for the business if returning it at all. It can be too easy to overlook another impacted target in all the mess.

What happens to the people whose data a business has collected and uses?

There's a lot of pressure on (usually understaffed and overworked) internal IT teams to manage and maintain increasingly complex systems. For businesses noticing signs of strain on their IT staff, seeking assistance from managed services providers (MSPs) could be the remedy. Listed below are tips an MSP like us can use to alleviate the pressure and contribute to workplace wellness for all.

Business file sharing has become a daily routine. It's a critical part of collaboration, communication, and overall productivity. That being said, with the rise of cyberthreats, file security is more important than ever. It's not just about sharing files but doing it securely and efficiently. Listed below are some best practices for business file sharing.

What is digital waste?

Digital waste is all the useless data in our data storage that lingers until we do something with it. Extra files no longer needed, old emails and chats, and old, blurry pictures you never have and will never use… all qualify as digital waste. While it’s easy to discount digital waste as an annoyance, it creates a much bigger and more serious problem.

Modern businesses need to be prepared for almost every circumstance. You may have heard the term “BDR” used to describe a method of attaining this level of preparation. We wanted to discuss this term in more depth, covering what it refers to and what you need to do to protect your business should BDR be right for you.

Spoiler alert: it very much is.

Professional services make up a significant portion of the business landscape. They can be broadly defined as any company with trained professionals at the center offering a service of note. The most common professionals under this umbrella term are lawyers, agents, consultants, and others who help businesses in their day-to-day operations. Listed below are some of the technologies that fuel professional service providers.

There are several reasons to use a form to collect data for your organization: from customer impressions and service requirements to employee feedback about internal matters as a means of collaborative decision-making. The trouble comes when it is time to compile all the responses… unless you know how to use the tools at your disposal.

Listed below is the process of creating a form that self-populates a spreadsheet using Google’s toolkit.

Part of doing business is understanding certain types of trade-offs related to the decisions you make. Specifically, we want to highlight opportunity cost as it relates to technology. What is the opportunity cost of technology, and why is it a critical concept for a business owner to grasp?

Ensuring that your organization's file-sharing policies and procedures are built to enhance security can significantly improve collaboration, distinguishing between efficient, streamlined processes and time-purging, wasteful practices. Navigating this terrain can be a challenge. Listed below are several best practices your business can adopt to optimize file-sharing.

Remote and hybrid work models have become more popular than ever, in no small part thanks to the enhanced technology businesses of all sizes can now access. Nonetheless, this shift has brought new challenges for businesses everywhere. One such challenge is maintaining and enhancing remote workplace engagement—a critical aspect that directly impacts employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention.

There are many parts of running a business where you can't be too careful, one of which is the realm of cybersecurity. Many of the preventative measures you can implement aim to keep issues from making their way to your infrastructure in the first place, which makes sense from an operational standpoint. With an endpoint detection and response solution—or EDR—you’ll take an important step toward keeping most threats off your infrastructure.

It isn’t easy to be a member of the workforce right now. While we won’t cover them in detail, plenty of stressors related to and separate from the workplace can easily impact an employee’s performance. As a result, it is often in your organization’s best interest to invest in your team’s well-being, and one way to do this is by implementing and encouraging the use of different technologies.