Here in the heart of winter, dangerous ice storms have left millions without power or internet access. Tens of thousands are still trying to navigate outages in Oregon. Millions are dealing with the cold and nowhere to go in Texas.

While the authorities deal with the mess, individuals are taking control in whatever way they can.

How did you implement your IT strategy into your business model?

Did you buy a few computers because you needed them, and invest in a few programs because they made sense for building your practice? That’s where most people start. They fall into a way of doing business rather than thinking and planning it out.

It’s easy to get excited about bells and whistles, inflated promises, and new programs or tools that promise the world.

We’ve been through a lot this past year. When you’ve changed everything, implemented new technology in weeks instead of months, it’s easy to jump at the latest and greatest things.

Cloud computing is often something practices fall into instead of taking the time to learn more about it. They lump everything together that they know about cloud computing, and never take the time to demystify it and determine if they are using it correctly.

A massive switch happened in 2020. Chances are you saw every aspect of your business change in just a few short months.

Have you implemented new services, added contactless systems, even allowed more opportunities for employees to work from home? Welcome to the new way of doing business.

What’s the one thing we’re relying on more than ever before, thanks to a pandemic? Our webcams. They’re everywhere. The desktop you’ve set up in your living room. The laptop you carry with you from room to room. Even your smart devices have the ability to connect you to a world beyond what you see in front of you.

Identity fraud is a security risk we read and hear about daily. Yet unless it’s happened to you, you might not think about its impact.

A hacker might steal your Social Security Number, open up a few credit cards, and leave you owing thousands of dollars to places you might not have heard of before.

Right now, working remotely has never been easier. If you need a service, you can find it with a simple search.

Take Google, for example. If you want to make a phone call, you can use Voice. And if you want to send email, set up a Gmail account.

And what makes it all even better, is all of that is for free.

People often think that hackers are in it for malicious intent. We hear horror stories of how they break in, steal data, and ruin a business’s reputation.

But what you don’t hear about are the silent break-ins that go unnoticed. Not all hackers are looking for immediate gratification.

They call it revenge hacking. When a former employee is angry enough to use their credentials to break-in to the company database and wreak havoc, it can be damaging to your practice.

People often associate criminal behavior with outside threats. But that is only one piece of the puzzle.