Sound Computers Blog

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.

Just one ransomware incident can cost a business an average of $732,520 and that is if they don’t have to pay the ransom. If they pay it, their losses are nearly doubled!
Ransomware is a form of malware and it can be one of the most costly for a company because it can bring operations to a standstill. This will cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in downtime.  
One recent attack that happened in Stamford was at the Pitney Bowes headquarters. Ransomware encrypted some of their data which disrupted customer access to some of the company’s services like the ability to refill postage meters.

2020 has been a memorable year for businesses in Connecticut and around the world. The pandemic has changed the way that many companies think about how they operate and what their technology solutions need to look like.

Does your business use a lot of spreadsheets to keep track of different items? This type of manual list process to track devices, visitor logs and content scheduling can be tedious and make sharing that information cumbersome.
In order to optimize your Connecticut business for efficiency, one of the things you should look at is technology solutions that may be able to replace manual processes.
More than 40% of employees spend at least 25% of their work week on manual and repetitive processes.

The late American author Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, “New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.” Written in the 20th century, it has been put in practice by 21st century businesses. As the Internet has grown, the amount of companies expanded, and the amount of data that those companies collect has grown exponentially, especially now that there is a market for such data.

The password isn’t nearly as secure as it used to be. Hackers have begun to take advantage of extremely powerful solutions designed to brute force their way into accounts by using software to rapidly guessing thousands of passwords per second, making it extraordinarily difficult to prepare yourself for them.

Data security isn’t a matter to be taken lightly, as too many businesses have found out the hard way. Unfortunately, there are far too many simple ways to correct common security issues - enough that it’s foolish not to do so. We’ll review a few ways to fix security issues, after discussing one of, if not the, most egregious security failings in modern history.

Despite what detractors say, regulations are in place for good reason. They typically protect individuals from organizational malfeasance. Many of these regulations are actual laws passed by a governing body and cover the entire spectrum of the issue, not just the data involved. The ones that have data protection regulations written into them mostly deal with the handling and protection of sensitive information. For organizations that work in industries covered by these regulations there are very visible costs that go into compliance. Today, we look at the costs incurred by these organizations as a result of these regulations, and how to ascertain how they affect your business.