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Macro Systems Blog

Macro Systems has been serving the Metro Washington, DC area since 1997, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

The Data Broker Loophole

The Data Broker Loophole

There has been much debate in recent years about how companies collect, sell, and use personal data. Many businesses make extra money by selling data they collect about people. This might seem like a side effect of all the data we create online, but it can lead to some problems. Listed below is an examination of something called the "data-broker loophole," how it works, and what we can do about it.

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Why Keeping Your Operating Systems Updated is Critical

Why Keeping Your Operating Systems Updated is Critical

An operating system is the main program on any device, like a computer, phone, or tablet, that helps it work. It's what lets you open apps, go online, and get stuff done! For businesses, keeping their OS updated is imperative. Here’s why:

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Why Do Modern Businesses Have Such Difficulty Spotting Cyber Threats?

Why Do Modern Businesses Have Such Difficulty Spotting Cyber Threats?

Cybersecurity is intensely critical, so a business owner would think implementing every security feature and defense would be a good idea. As research has shown, this can be counterproductive, as only 67% of surveyed security leaders know what led to cybersecurity incidents in their businesses over the past year. 

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How to Utilize Patience for Productivity

How to Utilize Patience for Productivity

Spoiler alert: a business that lacks productivity is unlikely to see any amount of success. One of the best ways to ensure your productivity is to practice patience. How can patience enhance your productivity?

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How Your Business Can Adjust to Modern Cyber Threats

How Your Business Can Adjust to Modern Cyber Threats

The threat landscape is littered with companies that have failed to adjust their security strategy to the most prevalent and modern threats. If you want to ensure you have the best chance at keeping your network and data secure, you need to build a strategy that actively addresses the threats that are actively trying to undermine your business’ security efforts. Listed below is how to adjust to today's threats competently. 

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How Enterprise Software Can Assist Your Business

How Enterprise Software Can Assist Your Business

Software is critical for running a modern business. It helps with everything from managing schedules and paying employees to making and selling products. Essentially, businesses need software to run smoothly.

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The Latest Lesson We Can Learn from Disney: Manage Permissions More Cautiously

The Latest Lesson We Can Learn from Disney: Manage Permissions More Cautiously

The Disney brand has long cultivated an image of magic and wonder. That being said, this image has yet to materialize any magical effects in reality. For example: people still suffer from food allergies while visiting Disney’s various parks.

This makes it especially dangerous that a former Disney employee was allegedly still able to access a specialized menu-planning app and make alterations, like changing prices, adding language that Disney certainly would not approve of, switching text to the unintelligible “Wingdings” font, and worst of all… changing menu information.

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Three Safety Tips to Help Keep Your Email Secure

Three Safety Tips to Help Keep Your Email Secure

You probably use your email every day without even thinking about it. Email is, however, one of the main places hackers go when they want to steal personal information. Listed below are three easy steps you can take to keep your email secure.

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An NSA Recommendation Concerning Devices

An NSA Recommendation Concerning Devices

Rebooting your device provides several benefits. If you ever experience an issue with your device, rebooting it will likely improve it. Even the National Security Agency (NSA) recommends you do this… but why?

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Explaining Compressed Files and How to Utilize Them

Explaining Compressed Files and How to Utilize Them

A compressed file (also known as a zip file) is a convenient way to accomplish various tasks, although many people may not know what they are or do. Let's fix that; listed below is what a compressed file is and how to make one.

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The 3-2-1 Backup Rule

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule

There’s no getting around the fact that data backup and disaster recovery are vital to the survival of any business. Fortunately, the 3-2-1 rule makes implementing effective data recovery practices easy. Below is a look at this process and how you can do so.

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Redbox Kiosks Could Still Contain Your Data

Redbox Kiosks Could Still Contain Your Data

In June of this year, publisher Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, best known for its book series of the same name, filed for Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy and had many of its assets liquidated. One of these assets was the movie rental service Redbox and its eponymous scarlet rental kiosks, rendering the service defunct.

Nonetheless, many kiosks remain standing outside businesses even now, which makes us wonder… what about all the data they collected while they were in use?

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Five Functions of NIST-Supported Cybersecurity Framework

Five Functions of NIST-Supported Cybersecurity Framework

A well-structured framework is essential for establishing effective, consistent policies and strategies. This applies to many areas, including network security. Listed below is a look into the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework, which outlines steps to help safeguard your business.

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Episode 1 'Of Vice and Vulnerability': Ransomware

Episode 1 'Of Vice and Vulnerability': Ransomware

This blog post is written in the format of a daytime soap opera. Please make sure you read all of the dialogue as if being whispered by extremely attractive television stars and starlets!

Life goes on in the small town of Oak Falls, deep woods surrounding the little hamlet nestled on the coast of Cape Seguridad. Let’s follow the lives of some of the residents, their lives Of Vice… and Vulnerability.

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Signs You're Experiencing a Phishing Attack

Signs You're Experiencing a Phishing Attack

With digital technology taking on a greater importance for businesses than ever before, companies have to contend with a variety of threats, including increasingly popular phishing scams, regardless of their geographical location.

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How Tech Helps Businesses, including in Surprising Ways

How Tech Helps Businesses, including in Surprising Ways

There aren’t many successful businesses left that haven’t embraced technology in some ways. Even businesses that took a while to integrate it, like restaurants, are more often than not going to have some type of online ordering or point-of-sale system. Listed below is a look at some of the ways technology helps businesses advance.

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How to Protect Your Personal Data

How to Protect Your Personal Data

Modern wisdom states that if you’re not paying for a product, you’re the product.

For all the good the Internet is capable of doing, it is equally capable of being dangerous… especially when data is involved. Websites and social media platforms collect data from their users and track their movements across the Internet, sell it to advertisers, and more recently, use it to train AI.

Listed below is what you can, and arguably should, do to limit these platforms' ability to do so.

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The FTC are Trying to Make Subscriptions Easy to Cancel

The FTC are Trying to Make Subscriptions Easy to Cancel

It isn’t rare for people to subscribe to things and only stay subscribed because the cancellation process is challenging and inconvenient. Nonetheless, the Federal Trade Commission is looking to stop this, adopting a rule that eliminates the capability for businesses to put hurdles in front of cancellation processes.

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What Your Business Needs to Know about Zero-Trust

What Your Business Needs to Know about Zero-Trust

Would you trust a bank that locked its doors for the night but left all its cash in a big pile in the middle of the floor? Probably not— if someone managed to get through the doors, nothing would stop them from helping themselves to the money inside.

This is effectively how cybersecurity once worked, with the presumption that if someone had access to a network, they had permission to access any data on it. Luckily, many businesses have made the switch to a better approach, known as zero-trust security.

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How to Reposition the Taskbar in Windows 11

How to Reposition the Taskbar in Windows 11

Windows 11 takes a page out of Apple’s design playbook and provides a taskbar that, instead of being off to the side, is smack in the middle of the toolbar. While some may like this change, others may not.

Luckily for these others, a simple setting change can return the taskbar to its familiar place like on older versions of Windows.

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