Blog 3 Column

A survey conducted by GetApp reports 43% of employees do not get regular data security training while 8% have never received any training at all. The report highlights the level of exposure businesses have towards cyberattacks such as ransomware.
This comes as cybersecurity remains one of the most challenging issues for small business owners. Small businesses bear 43% of the brunt of cyber-attacks, opening them up to huge liabilities. This includes business closure. Of those attacked, 60% will go out of business within six months.
Web-based attacks, social engineering and general malware are often the top three culprits of cyber-attacks among small businesses. As the techniques to exploit cybersecurity vulnerabilities continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, businesses need to bolster their security.
Using Employee Vulnerabilities to Launch Attacks Among the areas where employees are routinely targeted include social engineering, the art of manipulating someone into divulging secret information. Through phishing attacks, hackers use social media and research to strike up ..

A report by NICE inContact says 70% of businesses have their entire contact center technology in the cloud or are planning to partially move next year.
The Customer Experience (CX) Transformation Benchmark study shows businesses are benefiting from having their contact center in the cloud. They are experiencing customer satisfaction (CSAT) that is 18% higher than those with on-premises services.
Growth of the Cloud Contact Center The growth is being driven by the customer-centric culture digital technology has made possible. Consumers now want personalized services and real-time access to the resources they need to solve their problems. And this is not only taking place with large enterprises.
Small businesses also have to provide quality service if they want repeat customers. The good news is there are more affordable tools than ever to make this possible. The challenge comes in making sense of all the data these tools generate to deliver great customer service.
This is exactly what Paul Jarman, NICE in Contact CEO, explains in the press release for the report.
Jarman says, “Fr..

You’ll find it tough to recruit in a full employment economy. So try to embrace intelligent automation and structure proven processes to grow profitably. Do not rely on more people to complete tasks inside your company. Instead use smart artificial intelligence (AI) to automate the many processes your small business does every day.
Intelligent Automation This week on the Small Business Radio Show we’re joined by Wade Foster, CEO and co-founder of Zapier. The company provides a workflow automation tool used by over two million people. Foster discusses the importance of connecting work apps. Small businesses use these daily to improve productivity and profitability.
In their new report, Zapier found that 83% of people use 3 or more applications for work. Companies tend to buy a new application to run each time they have a new problem in their company. But Wade points out most of these applications don’t talk to each other. Employees spend a lot of time entering the information multiple times into different applications. Or they manually transfer data from one to the other. This cause..

A recent data breach at German IT service provider Citycomp has resulted in a flood of data being published online — including financial and private information on all of Citycomp’s clients. You need to know how to fortify your defenses against data breaches.
The data breach included a client list that covered major companies such as Oracle, Airbus, and Porsche. More than that — seventy thousand services and storage systems are now publicly available.
Cybercriminals Believe Breaching an IT Service Provider like Citycomp is the Ultimate Win By cracking the defenses of a single business, criminals get the keys to dozens — or even hundreds — of the service provider’s clients’ business networks. However, amateur hackers are far more likely to pursue an easier target like your small business.
The Cost -to the Criminal- Conducting Cybercrime has Continued to Drop The rise of malware as a service is allowing amateur hackers to join the ranks of more seasoned cybercriminals. Not surprisingly, research shows that small businesses now make up the majority of commercial cyberattack victims.
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The cyber threat businesses face is an evolving menace in today’s digital ecosystem. And this is why you have to continually evaluate the readiness of your organization in dealing with this threat. Because the attacks are relentless and ever-changing.
Big Rise in Cyber Attacks According to the third Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report, the number of businesses reporting cyber incidents has gone up from 45% last year to 61% in 2019. Not to mention the final cost of these attacks.
As it relates to small businesses, the report says they are just as vulnerable as large enterprises. Adding, more small organizations were targeted this year and smaller companies are now also caught up in the cyber battle.
Even though it sounds bleak, Gareth Wharton, Cyber CEO, Hiscox, says there is much you can do to protect yourself.
In the report, Wharton says, “The cyber risk may mutate rapidly, but progress in mitigating and managing it is also evolving. I hope this report will go some way to helping promote a better understanding of the issues and encourage the adoption of rigorous and effective measures..

Work has evolved to mean anywhere and anytime, and this is made possible because of digital technology. And platforms like Skype are adding more features to the collaborative and communications process to increase productivity.
A little over two months ago Skype added screen sharing, call recording, and subtitles on mobile devices. This time around the new features will allow you to draft messages, bookmark messages, preview media and files before sending, along with a new approach to display multiple photos or videos.
As more businesses allow their employees to work remotely and hire freelancers, these features will improve the overall workflow. For small businesses that are increasingly reliant on these changes in the workplace, Skype offers a great value.
The New Skype Features Message Drafts Saving drafts is one of the great tools in business. Because as any entrepreneur will tell you, not every message is finished in one sitting.

image: Skype With this new release, Skype now lets you save your drafts whether you are finished or you are interrupted. Any message which is unse..

Smartphones and other mobile technologies are as important to the modern office as paper and pens were years ago. They help your small business increase productivity by 85% if used properly. But there are security and employee use concerns.
Small Business Trends spoke with TRUCE Software CEO, Joe Boyle. He explained how to create a mobile device policy that works for your small business.
Creating a Mobile Device Policy He started by talking about how any policy needs to balance mobile device usage and compliance.
Simple and Effective Policies “We spend a lot of time talking with our customers about how they use simple and effective mobile device management policies,” he said. “We think about them being simple, smart and enforceable.”
Small businesses need to start putting one of these policies together by asking some simple questions. Laying some groundwork for a policy means deciding what the goals of letting mobile devices into the workplace are.
Avoid the One Size Fits All Trap These can include both long term and short-term objectives. Think about a team that’s involved with..

Owners need to decide between growth, liquidity, and control. Source: https://tz2d.me/?c=sGj