SMART Blog

Smart Services has been providing independent agents with proactive, fast, and expert technology services since 1991.

Comparing the Relative Danger of AI-Aided Crimes

Comparing the Relative Danger of AI-Aided Crimes

When we think of cybercrime, most people’s minds go to one of two places. On the one hand, some think about the annoying, misspelled emails that are so obviously scams, while on the other, we can’t help but think about the hacks that we see in movies, where a criminal manages to overcome the best the government can incorporate into their defenses.

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Tip of the Week: A Beginner’s Guide to Wireless Networking

Tip of the Week: A Beginner’s Guide to Wireless Networking

When creating an office’s network, wireless functionality has become a necessary element to include. Of course, this is usually easier said than done, as wireless signals can be notoriously persnickety. That’s why we’re offering some tips to help you make the most of your business’ wireless network setup.

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Are VPNs Really Secure?

Are VPNs Really Secure?

We’ve not been shy about promoting the use of VPNs (virtual private networks) as a means of protecting your security while you are online. However, we wanted to take a bit of time to specify what a VPN can - and cannot - do to help you.

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Online Platforms are Collaborating for a More Secure Election

Online Platforms are Collaborating for a More Secure Election

The United States of America is well into its 2020 election season. Social media platforms, and other online services, are taking notice. Given the misuse of social media and other platforms in past contests, there is little wonder that there is some very real pressure on these platforms to establish policy and security measures to prevent these behaviors this time around.

Here, we’ll take a neutral look at the situation, and explain the initiatives that online platforms are now enacting.

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Are Breaks During the Workday all that Helpful?

Are Breaks During the Workday all that Helpful?

Modern society is greatly focused on the virtue of hard work, of productivity. This has led to a kind of unspoken prejudice against breaks in the workplace, that any break that is not earned is the sign of an unproductive employee. As it turns out, the opposite is true. This week, we’re going over how you can turn your breaks into a way to accomplish more in the workplace.

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Will We Soon Leave Passwords Behind?

Will We Soon Leave Passwords Behind?

If I were to tell you that one variable was responsible for more than 80 percent of cyberattacks, what would you guess that variable was? If you guessed “stolen access credentials,” you’d be correct. The traditional username/password combination may soon be a thing of the past as more tech companies transition to alternative authentication measures.

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New Cyberattack Targeting Remote Workers

New Cyberattack Targeting Remote Workers

Since the onset of the coronavirus, many businesses have managed to sustain themselves through remote work—also commonly known as telework. While this strategy has allowed quite a few businesses to survive, it has also opened them up to security threats. Here, let’s focus on one such threat: vishing, or voice phishing.

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Tip of the Week: Getting a Better Wi-Fi Signal at Work or at Home

Tip of the Week: Getting a Better Wi-Fi Signal at Work or at Home

Chances are you’re still spending a lot of time at home, and a lot of that time is being spent on the Internet. With so many still working remotely, and many educational institutions continuing remote learning, the strength of a household’s Wi-Fi signal is going to be crucial. We wanted to offer you some tips to help you maximize the signal strength of your router.

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Professional Services are Getting a Technology Makeover

Professional Services are Getting a Technology Makeover

Professional services include some of the oldest professions in the world, and some of the newest. Regardless of what kind of professional services business you run, it is hard to continue to meet your customer’s needs without incorporating some technological changes. Furthermore, there are new innovations that can help your business thrive. Let’s examine some of this technology to see if it could benefit your business.

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Three Ways (Out of Many) That VoIP Boosts Productivity

Three Ways (Out of Many) That VoIP Boosts Productivity

VoIP—Voice over Internet Protocol—is an incredibly useful tool for today’s businesses to make use of, especially in terms of improving productivity. Let’s consider a few capabilities that can give you and your team a leg up.

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Tip of the Week: When Do I Need to Clean My Computer?

Tip of the Week: When Do I Need to Clean My Computer?

As your employees go about their workdays, it is important that they do so with the resources they’ll need to remain optimally productive… and that these resources are in the best condition for them to do so. While this is often an overlooked consideration, this means that their computer needs to be clean and fully functional. Let’s go over a few best practices to follow when it comes to keeping a workstation clean enough to work optimally.

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Phishing is a Threat, Even By Phone

Phishing is a Threat, Even By Phone

Telework has become crucial for businesses to sustain themselves right now, as remote work became a hard and fast requirement in the face of the coronavirus. However, if businesses aren’t careful, they could trade one issue for another in exposing themselves to security threats.

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What Would Happen if All Data Was Publically Available?

What Would Happen if All Data Was Publically Available?

What if I were to tell you that, by the time you finished reading this sentence, all personal data in existence was exposed? If every text sent, every Google search executed, every website visited, everything we had ever done online, was made public? Gizmodo recently reached out to an assortment of experts for their insights. Here, we’ve assembled their responses for you to consider.

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Tip of the Week: Gmail’s Newly-Improved Collaboration

Tip of the Week: Gmail’s Newly-Improved Collaboration

Clearly demonstrating their prioritization of their G Suite offering, Google continues to innovate the platform’s many solutions to improve the user experience. Most recently, this has included giving Gmail a few extra functionalities to help further integrate a business’ communications. Let’s look at these functionalities together.

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Is Older Technology Really That Bad?

Is Older Technology Really That Bad?

While it may sound strange coming from a managed service provider, there is some wisdom to the adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” We know, we know… it sounds a little hypocritical for us to say something like this, when we spend so much time touting the values of proactive maintenance and similar strategies. However, this now-cliché statement certainly holds water, as exemplified by many modern technologies—including the Boeing 747.

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How Should IT Be Used as Employees Return to Workplaces?

How Should IT Be Used as Employees Return to Workplaces?

Many workplaces have started the processes necessary to safely return their employees to typical operations. However, this is going to involve no small amount of preparation in terms of your business’ technology and proactive planning. Let’s consider the different approaches that you could take as you resume operations in a way that helps protect your team while still enabling work to be done.

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Tip of the Week: Six Keys to Managing Your Phone’s Battery Life

Tip of the Week: Six Keys to Managing Your Phone’s Battery Life

Considering how much as we rely on our mobile devices each day, it comes as no surprise how stressful the “LOW BATTERY” notification can be. While you might assume that it only seems to appear earlier and earlier in the day, there are in fact a variety of conditions that cause your device to die much faster. That’s why we wanted to share a few tips to help you understand what is happening to your battery, and what you can do to manage its longevity a little better.

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Can We Innovate Electronic Health Records?

Can We Innovate Electronic Health Records?

It’s important to note that all parties involved in patient care (including the patient) benefit from the Electronic Health Record (EHR). These systems are now fundamental to a successful health maintenance system. As more technology is developed that could be integrated into the EHR platform, there is a stalemate of sorts keeping EHR technology from being what it could be. Today, we will briefly discuss some of the issues. 

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Alert: Update Windows Netlogon Remote Protocol Now, says Homeland Security

Alert: Update Windows Netlogon Remote Protocol Now, says Homeland Security

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released an emergency directive concerning a critical exploit known as Zerologon, that affects servers running Windows Server operating systems that needs to get patched as soon as possible.

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Is Your Smart Assistant Undermining Your Security?

Is Your Smart Assistant Undermining Your Security?

Smart assistants commonly appear in the office and home, so much so that the novelty seems to have finally worn off and they are now just another appliance—and, like any other appliance, there are a few quirks that can be frustrating to deal with. For instance, anyone living around these devices has shared a particular experience: the device registering something as a wake word that certainly wasn’t meant to be the wake word.

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