Unfortunately, email remains one of the most effective methods of attack for cybercriminals. That’s why, as a trusted managed services provider, we want to keep both our clients and the community at large up to date on the latest spam schemes to crop up. Awareness is half the battle in cyber security, and we want to do our part to spread it.

To the point: over the last 6 months, the internet has seen a rash of blackmail spam schemes. The most common of these involve emails suggesting that the sender, a hacker, has hijacked the recipient’s computer and recorded evidence of the recipient viewing pornography. The sender threatens to send that evidence to the recipient’s contact list—unless the recipient sends a Bitcoin payment to a provided address.

So, what should you do if you receive one of these emails? Read on to find out

We’ve all experienced lost productivity due to technical difficulties. Slow-loading computers, bogged-down internet connections, printer issues, and dropped phone calls can turn what should be quick, everyday tasks into long, painful ones.

These issues are frustrating for everyone. But tuned-in business owners know that they’re not just frustrating; they’re costly. Lost productivity translates into fewer sales, less production, longer lead times on key data preparation—all of which ultimately mean a reduction in revenue and profits.

The natural question for business owners, then, is how much productivity—and how much profitability—is your company losing?

At Affinity, we believe that being the best managed services provider for businesses in the Greater Nashville area means striving toward a mission and vision that helps us focus on serving the best interests of our clients and keeping our team excited about their work. At every team meeting, we begin by reading every bullet point in our mission and vision, and discussing ways we have succeeded in—or could do better at—living up to them.

To help us carry this practice with us into our daily work managing, supporting, maintaining, and strategizing our client’s IT, our owners, Sean and Betsy Wright, decided to boil the essence of our mission and vision down into a single core values statement.

As we close the book on 2018 and look ahead to 2019, we’re all curious about what trends might affect our businesses and our lives in the new year. And it’s hard to think of an industry more dynamic, with new trends from one moment to the next, than technology.

Still, as your managed services provider, we wanted to give you some sense of what kinds of developments we see coming down the pike in the new year. While no one has a crystal ball, our team of technology experts have some educated predictions about what we can expect in technology, from consumer devices to cybersecurity, in 2019. Our hope is that these predictions will be helpful to you in your business planning, as even developments in consumer tech might affect your customers in interesting ways. Plus, if you’re anything like us, thinking about what technology might make possible in the near future is just plain fun.

Outsourcing your IT to a trusted managed services provider is essential for growth and the key to keeping your startup agile and secure.

Join us and get a successful IT strategy for your company serving in the hospitality industry. Contact us online or call us.