SMART Blog

It's no surprise that technology is taking over our lives. It's everywhere; from the workplace to every inch of our homes, new technology exists where it wouldn't have twenty years ago. Bluetooth-connected kitchen appliances allow their owners to turn them on and off from a distance. Cars can connect to the Internet. Google has produced glasses that allow you to browse the Internet. There are tons of innovative, new inventions that have had a huge impact on the way small business owners manage their workplaces, but nothing can compare to the significance of being able to receive text files from anywhere in the world via email and fax.

It's the nature of trends for people to want to capitalize on them, which means that many sellers of what's trendy may have little experience working with the trends that they're selling. As a business looking to take advantage of the latest technology trends, it's important that you're not bamboozled by a smooth talking technology marketer with no depth.

There's nothing quite like the feeling of getting scammed, and the scammers of today love using technology to rip you off and leave you with that sinking scammy feeling. The best way to avoid scams is to be proactive and know what to look for. New to your list of scams to be on the look out for are fake apps.

The Internet is a powerful tool. Another powerful tool is the circular saw. You wouldn't give your kid a circular saw and let them use it without any supervision. In the same way, you shouldn't let your kid use the Internet unsupervised and without any training.

Cloud computing is making everything easier. Companies that operated IT infrastructures of their own before the cloud know firsthand how much easier it is thanks to the cloud. A brief comparison of doing business before and after the cloud will show just how much cloud computing is changing things.

2014 has been a year of technological advancement, but with any kind of advances such as these, there will always be those who want to steal the work of others. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center and , as of March this year, there have been 204 instances of data breaches this year alone. These affected companies are perfect examples of why web protection is important. SMART Services can provide you with this protection and peace of mind. Here are a few of the more unbelievable breaches, most of which could have been easily avoided.

April 7th 2014 was a big day for the world, not only because Microsoft ended security support for Windows XP, but because a massive security flaw was found in the OpenSSL cryptographic library. This problem, called the Heartbleed bug, was found by Google Security, and it leaks information from any applications and services utilizing OpenSSL. The problem, however, is not that it was found; the problem is that over two-thirds of the entire Internet contains sites that utilize the OpenSSL/TLS protocol specification. It also doesn't help that this bug has been active since December of 2012.

Not too many years ago comedian Jeff Foxworthy became a star with his trademark "You Might Be a Redneck If..." jokes. Rednecks are an interesting breed that do things backwards because they stubbornly believe that it's the best way, and like all of us, rednecks use technology. Are you a technology redneck? Check out our redneck technology list to find out.

What kind of phone do you have? Or rather, what kind of person does your phone have? With people relying on constant connectivity and constant communication, do devices have an interface for constant productivity, or is it just a constant distraction? Do all these outstanding new gadgets have the kind of value business professionals claim they do?

The CEO baton at Microsoft has been passed from Steve Ballmer to Satya Nadella, making Nadella the third CEO in Microsoft's well-publicized history. You may not think that this will have an impact on your business, but considering how intertwined Microsoft is with the the global economy, you may be surprised to learn that this move will affect your company.

When your business runs efficiently, you will see the positive side effects start relatively quickly. While this seems pretty reasonable to most everyone, there are many business owners that don't know how to best produce the kind of efficiency that will take their business to the next level.

Last week, we shared four tips to help you search the web and find anything that you're looking for. In part 2, we will take a look at additional search tools that will help you refine your searches so you can become a search master!

The Internet certainly has changed the way we live, work, shop, and communicate. We may think we're superior to previous generations because of all our Internet-based technology, but we have video proof that the Internet was actually conceptualized in 1969. In many ways, our parents and grandparents were spot on with their predictions. In other ways, not so much.

It's time once again for holiday shopping, and you've got a plethora of technology choices before you. With so many options, it's easy to get confused and grab the first thing you come across. To help you avoid the stress of shopping for technology this holiday season, we've prepared for you this guide so you can be sure that you're purchasing the best item for people on your list.

The CryptoLocker virus is a new ransomware that began attacking computers via the Internet last September and has now grown to become one of the world's fastest spreading and most dangerous malwares. If your business isn't prepared for CryptoLocker, then your company's data is at serious risk.

The Internet is a place of wonderment where you can find almost anything you can imagine, but you have to know how to find it. How good are you at online searches? Anybody can type a query into Google, Bing, or Yahoo, but a simple search like this may not yield the best results.

If you haven't yet upgraded from Windows XP, then you (and 500 million users) must have strong reasons for hanging on to a twelve year old product. Unfortunately, everybody's strong reasons won't hold water come April 8th, 2014 when Microsoft stops supporting XP with new security patches.

As many of you know first-hand, virus and malware infections are an annoying and painful part of computer use in this day and age.  Because there are so many infections floating around the internet, and due to the wide variety of infection types, we usually don't send out messages like this one targeting a specific type of infection.  Even the recent "FBI" virus did not warrant an alert, since those infections are simple to remove.  However, the new CryptoLocker infection does warrant an alert, which is why we are writing to you today.

On October 17, Microsoft publicly released the Windows 8.1 update. It is the first major update for Windows 8 and Windows RT. The Windows 8.1 update was designed to confront some of the usability issues that Windows 8 PC users have encountered since the release of the OS, last year.

If a hacker manages to get their grubby hands on your computer, you're going to have a bad time. Of course, how bad of a time you have depends on your hacker's intentions. There are several things hackers can do to harm you, here are four of the most common ways hackers can disrupt your life.