Trusted Tips and Resources

Trusted Tips & Resources

Trusted Saskatoon IT Pro's at Burnt Orange Discuss Technology and Your Customer's Experience

Gareth McKee and his Trusted Saskatoon IT team at Burnt Orange Solutions promise to have a one-hour response time for all your IT support needs. Honesty and respect are important to them. They pride themselves on ensuring their clients understand IT concerns by providing a straightforward and reliable solution with exceptional service. Burnt Orange Solutions are your Trusted Saskatoon IT Experts. In their latest Saskatoon IT expert tip, they discuss technology and your customer's experience.  

Technology and Your Customer's Experience


Customer service expectations have grown over the last few years, and Saskatoon businesses have had to adapt to meet the needs of their customers. If you have not added any technology to improve your customer’s experiences here are a few ideas for you.

49% of consumers have left a brand in the past year due to poor experience; however, the emerging technology of today can power the customer experiences of the future. In order to create a positive customer experience, fuel brand loyalty and drive sales growth, Saskatoon businesses and beyond must find the right digital tools for their business. Here are a few options:


The Cloud

The Cloud and the tools backed by this technology are very important in every business organization. As technology advances, the amounts of available sales channels increases as well. Think about it, you can make a purchase at the local retail store by walking in, phoning it in, or ordering it online. There are about eight different channels for most customer engagements. No matter what channel customers choose to use, brands need to gather, centralize and react to that data. Organizations are relying on cloud technology to manage these interactions and keep the information. The days of pen and paper don’t work as well anymore.


Chatbots

With today’s technology, i.e. smartphone and mobile search features, today’s consumers are used to immediate answers and on-demand access to the web. Most people are willing to wait up to four hours for an online response. However, approximately 90% of consumers' inquiries go unanswered by brands. In comes Chatbots. They are artificial intelligence designed to engage in conversation with human users over the internet. They are quickly taken over customer service functions for many businesses as they are able to respond to customer questions and fulfil the consumer’s desire for an immediate response.


Augmented Reality Technology and Your Customer’s Experience

90% of all information is visual, our brains are built for visual information. It takes only 13 milliseconds for the human brain to process an image. Based on this fact, it is known customers often have a difficult time, visualizing what an item will look like when they buy it and put it in their home. Augmented Reality allows a consumer to take a picture of the room, place the item in the picture and now they can visualize it in their home.

There are many ways to improve technology and your customer’s experience and we can help with that. Contact the Trusted Saskatoon IT professionals at Burnt Orange Solutions and we will take IT worries off your plate.


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Trusted Saskatoon IT Pro's at Burnt Orange Discuss the Purpose of a Cybersecurity Audit

Gareth McKee and his Trusted Saskatoon IT team at Burnt Orange Solutions promise to have a one-hour response time for all your IT support needs. Honesty and respect are important to them. They pride themselves on ensuring their clients understand IT concerns by providing a straightforward and reliable solution with exceptional service. Burnt Orange Solutions are your Trusted Saskatoon IT Experts. In their latest Saskatoon IT expert tip, Gareth shares the purpose of a cybersecurity audit. 

WHAT IS A CYBERSECURITY AUDIT?


If you were hit by a cyber attack tomorrow, is your business ready? Ensuring the appropriate cybersecurity measures are in place is vital in protecting your business. A cybersecurity audit is a helpful tool in assessing the cyber security strength of your business and ensuring important information remains secure.

What Is A Cybersecurity Audit?

A cybersecurity audit is a comprehensive review of your business’s IT infrastructure. Cybersecurity audits are helpful as they detect vulnerabilities, recognize threats, and reveal high-risk practices in relation to IT security. Cybersecurity audits are all about data security and protecting information to ensure cybercriminals are unsuccessful in their hacking attempts.

What Does It Cover?

A cybersecurity audit involves a full audit of your business’s cybersecurity measures in order to assess risk, detect vulnerabilities, and recognize threats across all areas. These areas include but are not limited to:
  • Data Security – Involves a review of network access control, encryption use, data security at rest, and transmissions. 
  • Network Security – Involves a review of network and security controls, antivirus, and security monitoring capabilities. 
  • System Security – Involves a review of hardening processes, patching processes, privileged account management, and role-based access.
  • Physical Security – Involves a review of disk encryption, role-based access controls, biometric data, and multifactor authentication.
If it has been a while since you revisited your business’s cybersecurity measures, they are likely out of date and may no longer be effective. A cybersecurity audit will help ensure your business is prepared in the event of a cyber attack. 

If you have any questions regarding cyber security and how we can help secure your data, contact the IT experts at Burnt Orange IT Solutions. We can help your business mitigate risk, and be prepared for any IT-related emergency.


Burnt Orange IT Solutions Products & Services:

"IT Support You Can Trust and Understand"

Burnt Orange Solutions are your Trusted Saskatoon IT Experts

Trusted Saskatoon IT Pro's at Burnt Orange Provide Tips on How to Create Secure Passwords

Gareth McKee and his Trusted Saskatoon IT team at Burnt Orange Solutions promise to have a one-hour response time for all your IT support needs. Honesty and respect are important to them. They pride themselves on ensuring their clients understand IT concerns by providing a straightforward and reliable solution with exceptional service. Burnt Orange Solutions are your Trusted Saskatoon IT Experts. In their latest Saskatoon IT expert tip, Gareth shares how to create secure passwords to protect yourself online. 

HOW TO CREATE SECURE PASSWORDS


Data breaches and identity theft are on the rise. Therefore, using strong passwords is necessary to protect your accounts against cyber attacks. Here are some tips to create secure passwords and help keep your accounts unbreakable. 

To help keep your accounts unbreakable, follow these password guidelines: 

  • All passwords must be at least 16 characters or more. Longer passwords are more secure than shorter ones. 
  • All passwords must involve a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. 
  • Different passwords must be used for each account. 
  • Passwords must never include personl information or any information that can be accessed through social media such as the names of children or pets. 
  • Passwords should never contain any consecutive letters or numbers. 

Why Password Security Is Important

Without strong passwords, hackers are able to gain access to accounts and sensitive information. Hackers use personal information such as names, addresses, and bank account information to steal money or the identity of the user. Identity theft is extremely concerning. It results in financial loss and makes it difficult for the user to get a loan or a job.

Password security is also very important for businesses. Whenever hackers gain access to sensitive information, they consequently share the data with the business’ competitors or store it for ransom.  

Other Ways To Protect Yourself Online

Besides utilizing strong passwords, there are other ways to protect yourself online including: 

  • Using a VPN – Internet Service Providers are able to track the online activity of users and can access private IP addresses. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and is the alternative to connecting to a public Wi-Fi network. Using a VPN ensures web activity and IP addresses are not accessible to your internet provider. 
  • Identity Theft Protection – Using identity theft protection software will help protect personal information from identity theft. Identity theft protection software will flag criminal behaviour to help protect personal information. 

  • Using Antivirus Software – Antivirus software helps protect users from viruses, ransomware, and other cyber threats. Antivirus software scans for known viruses and alerts the user that their computer or phone has been compromised.

  • Using a Password Manager – Password managers encrypt usernames and passwords and require biometrics to log in. Password managers keep passwords safe and secure. 

These tips will help keep your accounts unbreakable, therefore protecting you and your business. If you have any questions regarding strong passwords to keep your accounts secure, contact the IT experts at Burnt Orange IT Solutions. We can help your business mitigate risk, and be prepared for any IT-related emergency.

We hope this article gave you some insight. If you want to ensure your business’s IT security, contact the Trusted Saskatoon IT professionals at Burnt Orange Solutions and we can take IT worries off your plate.


Trusted Saskatoon IT Pro's at Burnt Orange Explain Antivirus Mechanisms and Attacks

Gareth McKee and his Trusted Saskatoon IT team at Burnt Orange Solutions promise to have a one-hour response time for all your IT support needs. Honesty and respect are important to them. They pride themselves on ensuring their clients understand IT concerns by providing a straightforward and reliable solution with exceptional service. 

Burnt Orange Solutions are your Trusted Saskatoon IT Experts.  In their latest Saskatoon IT expert tip, Gareth shares why antivirus is useless against modern attacks. Antivirus software identifies malware and detects threats. However, now that attacks have evolved, today’s threats are able to get around Antivirus mechanisms.

WHY ANTIVIRUS IS USELESS AGAINST MODERN ATTACKS

Antivirus Software (AV): Signature-Based Approach

Antivirus software identifies malware based on signatures. These signatures are like fingerprints, and each malware has a unique pattern. Antivirus software contains the memory of each signature that it uses to identify malicious threats. Each time antivirus software recognizes new malware, antivirus companies add the signature to their blacklist. These blacklists contain the signatures that are denied access to your system. Thus, Antivirus protects your system by blocking these specific signatures from attacking.

Why Antivirus Software is Not Sufficient

This signature-based approach worked for detecting older malware that had already been identified and labelled. In the past, provided the malware was known, and your antivirus company’s signatures were up to date, you were protected. Unfortunately, threats have evolved and malware is not the only concern. Specifically, today’s threats include targeted attacks using unknown malware variants, file-less malware attacks, and exploits that leverage unknown software vulnerabilities. As a result, these persistent threats and ransomware attacks can all bypass antivirus detection. 

Another concern is that malware development has shifted. Attackers now test their malware against antivirus programs to ensure it can bypass them. In addition, attackers invent new malware at a faster rate. Thus, antivirus companies are unable to keep up with blacklisting all the signatures. Also, new types of malware can now go undetected by signature. New malware is hard to detect because it is polymorphic, meaning it changes as it spreads. Overall, as threats grow, Antivirus is no longer sufficient. 

Why Keep Using Antivirus If It Is Useless Against Modern Attacks?

The bottom line is antivirus software is necessary for legal and compliance purposes. For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requires up-to-date antivirus software for organizations that store, process, or send credit card information. Not to mention, a lack of antivirus protection makes companies appear irresponsible. This jeopardizes a company’s ability to collect insurance if a breach or lawsuit should occur. 

Though antivirus cannot detect modern threats, it does provide a certain degree of protection. As long as your current antivirus program can identify and block even half of the malware signatures, it is worth using. However, it must not be the only line of defence. 

Overall, as threats grow more advanced, an antivirus alone is not enough to protect your company. A more comprehensive IT strategy is a necessity. Contact the IT experts at Burnt Orange IT Solutions. We can help your business mitigate risk, and be prepared for any IT-related emergency. 

We hope this article gave you some insight. If you want to ensure your business’s IT security, contact the Trusted Saskatoon IT professionals at Burnt Orange Solutions and we can take IT worries off your plate.


10 IT Management Predictions From Trusted Saskatoon IT Pro’s at Burnt Orange Solutions

Gareth McKee and his Trusted Saskatoon IT team at Burnt Orange Solutions promise to have a one-hour response time for all your IT support needs. Honesty and respect are important to them. They pride themselves on ensuring their clients understand IT concerns by providing a straightforward and reliable solution with exceptional service. 

Burnt Orange Solutions are your Trusted Saskatoon IT Experts and in their latest Saskatoon IT expert tip, Gareth shares 10 predictions for the future of IT Management.  

10 PREDICTIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF IT MANAGEMENT

With today’s emerging digital business opportunities, IT management needs to be aligned with business strategy in order to be responsive and adaptable. In order to compete, businesses will need IT to provide strategic value to deliver innovative products and services.

Here are ten predictions for the future of IT management from Gareth, owner of Burnt Orange Solutions  :

1. Businesses will be reliant on cloud technology to remain viable.

In the future, 98 percent of business data will be stored in the cloud rather than traditional company data centers.

2. Everything-as-a-Service dynamic will take over. 

Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) dynamic is superior because IT is managed as an ever-changing product that is highly conducive to innovation. Cloud computing models such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) models will become less popular.




 3.Risk management, cybersecurity, and remote work will be prioritized for businesses.

As a result of these priorities, IT networks will need to be optimized for resilience in order to support businesses with regard to these priorities.

4. China will likely be in the process of building the first 6G networks. 

Therefore, 5G wireless networks will have evolved to deliver high-bandwidth, low-latency connections to power advanced industrial internet of things (IoT).

5. Advanced edge computing will be prevalent. 

This will provide real-time local data processing which will enhance IoT systems and reduce traffic in the cloud network. Machines will be communicating and making decisions without human intervention, and mechanisms will exist that will fix problems on their own.

6. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) will be common.

VR and AR will exist in many business environments including warehouses, as well as in employee training programs of various types.

7. Sources for analytics will diversify.

Having diverse sources to obtain analytics data will improve machine learning algorithms and make for stronger predictions to form better decision making.

8. Roles such as data entry, customer service, and manufacturing will become obsolete.

Advances in AI, robotics, and automation, improve productivity and efficiency for businesses. Jobs that do not even exist yet will fill any voids.

9. Network visibility and cybersecurity will be exponentially improved.

All network endpoints will be monitored from a single interface through unified endpoint management platforms.

10. GDPR-inspired federal data privacy laws will be enacted.

These laws will exist in most industrialized nations, and compliance with these laws will make data security management a top priority for every business.

As services become increasingly automated, the primary role of IT will shift in order to support business strategies. IT’s focus will be to integrate business systems, accelerate product development, and ultimately improve customer experience for businesses. Employees will have the ability to implement their own technology solutions through low-and no-code development platforms, so IT will need to be consultants in supporting businesses navigating their own IT functions.

We hope this article gave you some insight. If you want to ensure your business’s IT security, contact the Trusted Saskatoon IT professionals at Burnt Orange Solutions and we can take IT worries off your plate.

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