2020 - Sound Computers | Westbrook, CT

Year end is when many companies are doing reviews in order to plan ahead for the new year. One area where it is vital to do this is cybersecurity.

Ongoing employee cybersecurity training offers a major safeguard to businesses. Keeping employees well trained can protect a company from phishing attacks and the resulting security incidents like ransomware infections or data breaches.

If you’re using your Microsoft 365 business account without any security customizations, your data and user accounts could be at risk of a breach.

November and December are the months when online holiday shopping ramps up. This year is expected to be even bigger than past years due to the pandemic.

Internet Explorer was introduced in 1995. This makes it one of the first internet browsers. However, in recent years it has become obvious that Microsoft has been planning a retirement for IE at some point in the not too distant future.

In many offices, a majority of the workload is now done via mobile devices. This means that mobile OS (operating system) updates have a larger impact on work productivity than they have in the past.

In 2013, the percentage of mobile internet traffic was just 16.2%. In 2019, it skyrocketed to 53.3%. This makes mobile devices one of the most important business technology tools for a Connecticut company.

Freelancing has risen dramatically over the last decade. There are currently 58 million freelance workers in the U.S. and by 2027 it is projected that freelancers will make up the majority of the workforce in the country.
If you are working as a freelancer then you are most likely trying to keep any expenses to a minimum. You might have a few SaaS subscriptions and the cost of your business computer and peripherals but not a lot else.

Technology purchases can be used for tax write-offs which effectively decreases the overall cost and means the payback time will be shorter.
The end of 2020 is approaching fast and many Connecticut business owners are working with their accountants to see what they can do in the last two months of the year to reduce their tax burden.
One of the best year-end strategies that you can implement is to upgrade your technology solutions. Both hardware and software purchases qualify for deductions on Form 4562, Section 179.  

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and the main theme is, “If you connect it, protect it”. This year’s campaign focuses on device security for all endpoint devices both at work and at home.
The makeup of today’s networks look very different than those of just a decade ago. Computers and servers used to be the main endpoints that businesses had to worry about protecting. Now they have been eclipsed by mobile devices.
60% of the endpoints in an average office are mobile devices. 

Are you using OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox as a backup system? If so, you may be surprised to find out that cloud storage systems are not the same as a data backup.
In fact, 1 out of 3 companies have lost data that is stored in SaaS (Software as a Service) applications. Often this data loss comes out of the blue and it is only then that a business owner realizes that data in cloud services needs to be backed up just like data on computers or servers.