Manage your WordPress with this Checklist

WordPress is one of the most powerful blogging and content management systems (CMS) today. Since 35% of the internet is powered by WordPress, there’s no room for sluggish load times, potential security vulnerabilities, or search engine delistings. Follow this checklist to avoid those problems.

Make backups

It’s crucial to perform a daily off-site backup of your WordPress files and database. This ensures data security in the event of a network breach or natural disaster, and it will facilitate the resumption of your business’s regular operations. Although plugins like BackUpWordPress and hosting servers like SiteGround automate the backup process, manual backups are still necessary.

Verify backups

Not only should you be making backups, but you should also be verifying them. By doing so, you are making sure that the backed up files are going where they are supposed to, and backups are being updated. The last thing you need is a failed backup strategy on the day you need it most!

Daily security reports

If you ask any cybersecurity expert, “Is it crucial to maintain a daily network security report?” the answer will be a resounding “YES.” While you might not have enough time to carry out thorough inspections and create these reports yourself, you can use security monitoring services like Sucuri. Not only does it carry out the inspections, but it also sends an SMS to notify you of any suspicious activity and emails you a daily status report.

Malware scans

Cybercriminals are growing in both number and sophistication. With every passing day, new strains of malware are developed and released onto the systems of small- or medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Unless you are a bonafide hacker yourself, detecting malware might be a little tricky. WordPress plugins like Wordfence keep your website safe using the latest firewall rules and flagging the latest malware signatures and malicious IP addresses.

Speed audits

Slow and steady may be qualities valued by some, but not so much for your website. Plugins like Google PageSpeed Insights test how fast your site loads. If it takes more than five seconds, you should consider implementing caching and other measures to speed up your site. Slow sites put off visitors, and that further lowers their search rankings.

Review your site

For this step, sit down with an impartial friend and let them explore your website. A fresh pair of eyes will highlight issues you may have overlooked, such as forgetting to update the copyright date in your footer.

Forbes, National Geographic, and The New York Times are all powered by WordPress, which means you are in good company. By sticking to the checklist, you too can harness the power of this online, open-source website creation tool. Or, instead of signing up for half a dozen services that need daily check-ins, why not have us take care of all of it for you? If you have further questions, don’t hesitate to send us an email or give us a call!

7 Ways Cyber-Criminals Get Into Your Head…and Into Your Data (And 7 Ways to Get them OUT!)

According to a 2019 Small Business Trends survey, 58% of all cybercrimes committed last year targeted small businesses, and most of these crimes came in the form of a “social engineering” attack. Social engineering is a mode of cybercrime that’s used to lure well-meaning individuals into breaking normal security procedures. These attacks appeal to their targets vanity, authority or greed to exploit and steal from their victims. Even a simple willingness to help can be used to extract sensitive data. An attacker might pose as a coworker with an urgent problem that requires otherwise off-limits network resources, for example.

These attacks can be devastatingly effective, and extremely difficult to defend against.

The key to shielding your network from this threat is consistent, ongoing awareness throughout your organization. To nip one of these scams in the bud, every member of your team must remain alert to these five telltale tactics criminals use to get into your head, and steal your data:

1. Clickbait. A particularly popular approach is to capitalize on the innately human desire to crane one’s neck to see an accident on the side of the road.  What if you came across a video link to view an ugly accident, or a three-headed baby?  You just might be tempted to click, especially because many legitimate articles and other pieces of content use similarly eye-catching headlines to get people to look at their stuff. Cybercriminals get this, and they exploit it. So, beware of links to overly graphic terrorist attack images, natural disasters, and other tragedies.
2. Phishing.  Phishing employs a fake e-mail, chat or website that appears legit. It may convey a message from a bank or other well-known entity asking to “verify” login information. Another ploy is a hacker conveying a well-disguised message claiming you are the “winner” of some prize, along with a request for banking information. Others even appear to be a plea from some charity following a natural disaster. And, unfortunately for the naive, these schemes can be insidiously effective.
3. Pretexting. Pretexting is another form of social engineering where attackers focus on creating a good pretext, or a fabricated scenario, that they can use to try and steal their victims’ personal information. These types of attacks commonly take the form of a scammer who pretends that they need certain bits of information from their target in order to confirm their identity.

More advanced attacks will also try to manipulate their targets into performing an action that enables them to exploit the structural weaknesses of an organization or company. A good example of this would be an attacker who impersonates an external IT services auditor and manipulates a company’s physical security staff into letting them into the building.

Unlike phishing emails, which use fear and urgency to their advantage, pretexting attacks rely on building a false sense of trust with the victim. This requires the attacker to build a credible story that leaves little room for doubt on the part of their target.

4. Watering hole attacks. One of the things cybercriminals do best is collect information about their targets. Browsing habits tell a lot about a person, which is why that ad for wreath hangers keeps popping up in your Facebook feed. Cybercriminals use this information the go after the sites most visited by their target group. Once they discover a particular website is popular with their targets, they infect the site itself with malware.
5. Tailgating. Another social engineering attack type is known as tailgating or “piggybacking.” These types of attacks involve someone who lacks the proper authentication following an employee into a restricted area.

In a common type of tailgating attack, a person impersonates a delivery driver and waits outside a building. When an employee gains security’s approval and opens their door, the attacker asks that the employee hold the door, thereby gaining access off of someone who is authorized to enter the company.

Tailgating does not work in all corporate settings, such as in larger companies where all persons entering a building are required to swipe a card. However, in mid-size enterprises, attackers can strike up conversations with employees and use this show of familiarity to successfully get past the front desk.

6. Ransomware. Ransomware is nasty business. It’s also social engineering at its finest/worst. Ransomware is a type of malware that holds your files or part of your system ransom. In order to return access, you have to pay cybercriminals. People who want their precious data back might pay up right away. But for those who need additional scare tactics, criminals have come up with law enforcement scams that make it appear as though the U.S. Department of Justice or FBI Cybercrime division are contacting you to claim that you’ve done something illegal.
7. Quid Pro Quo.  Here a con artist may offer to swap some nifty little goody for information… It could be a t-shirt, or access to an online game or service in exchange for login credentials. Or it could be a researcher asking for your password as part of an experiment with a $100 reward for completion. If it seems fishy, or just a little too good to be true, proceed with extreme caution, or just exit out.

One of the most common types of quid pro quo attacks involve fraudsters who impersonate IT service people and who spam call as many direct numbers that belong to a company as they can find. These attackers offer IT assistance to each and every one of their victims. The fraudsters will promise a quick fix in exchange for the employee disabling their AV program and for installing malware on their computers that assumes the guise of software updates.

So what steps can you take to prevent these psychological attacks? Here are a few methods to start with:

• Equip yourself with antivirus, anti-malware, and anti-exploit security programs. These can fight off malware attacks from a technical standpoint.
• Anonymize your data by using the privacy features of your browser. It’s also a good idea to clear cookies every once in a while.
• Lock down privacy settings on social media accounts. Make sure you’re making information available only to those you wish to have it.
• Use the right software and hardware systems. If you just use your computer to surf the web, you probably don’t need a powerful processor or the Adobe suite. Consider this: the more applications and programs you install on your machine, the more sources of trouble you have built into your system.
• Have a company security policy in place and back it up with good awareness training. Give employees clear guidelines on the appropriate response to a particular situation, such as those 7 nasty demons described above.
• Take personal ownership of your IT security; remember your personal data might be as much at risk as company business.Treat company data with the same care you would of your own assets.
• Finally, and most importantly, use common sense. A healthy dose of skepticism goes a long way. Verify information. Contact the claimed source. Make sure you have professional IT support to protect your systems, provide training and guidance, and keep you up-to-date with the latest cyber security protection tools and tactics.

This downloadable cheat sheet identifies THE Red Flags you need to be on the lookout for in EVERY email you receive. Get yours now.

7 Reasons your Company Should Be Using Microsoft Teams

1. Microsoft Teams makes meeting easier, more flexible, and more effective.

Most likely, people in your organization are using different tools to schedule meetings, whether they be audio, video calls, screen sharing, etc… Microsoft Teams gives you the ability to schedule meetings with audio, video, and screen sharing ability on the platform with it’s integration with Skype for business. Unlike other applications that require a call-in number and pin code, hosting a group meeting in Teams only requires that you just be part of the team. If your team members are located in different locations, having a single meeting place eliminates the confusion of, “Where or which line are we meeting on today?”.

One of the more functional benefits for using teams is that once you schedule a meeting, it will sync with your Outlook calendar, so you don’t have to double back to add it. Also, with in the platform you can see your Outlook calendar adding more ease in tracking the events of your day. One of the underrated features of using Microsoft Teams for meetings is being able to take and share meeting notes with your group/team. Within the Teams tab, where the meetings are hosted, you can add multiple applications such as OneNote to record any important point during the meeting (pictured below).

Features & Apps for meetings:

• Skype for Business
• Conference Calls
• Screen Sharing
• Meetings: Organize Meetings
• OneNote

2. Teams take the communication and files chaos out of collaborating on projects.

Like reason #1, Teams makes collaborating with members in your building or in other locations much easier – easier meaning more organized. Here is the real problem – when collaborating through email, it is much harder to keep track of the conversation and files being sent back and forth. Now with teams, we eliminate the chaos and disorganization by having the conversation and files stored in a central chat-based location. Using teams for collaboration eliminates the need to sift through emails to find what so-and-so said or trying to figure out which document is the latest version.

Within Teams, the messages being sent back and forth are more akin to Facebook Messenger/ test messaging setting instead of an email format. Although, like the email format, you can send files to the team. When you send files to the team, they are kept in a separate tab, making it much easier to find the file. Even better, these documents are stored in OneDrive. Being stored in the cloud eliminates the issue of figuring out which file is the newest version.

Another underrated feature about Teams is the ability to real-time edit. When working on files, all the member of the team can edit and give feedback in real-time. For example, a team is working on a PowerPoint presentation. All of the members watch the edits being made and simultaneously offer suggestions on the edits. This saves so much time in Team members sending their ideas and edits back and forth through emails.

Features & Apps for meetings:

• Cloud Storage: 
  • SharePoint
  • Dropbox
  • Box
  • ShareFile
  • Google Drive
• Editing Applications: 
  • Word
  • Excel
    • PowerPoint
• Adobe Creative Cloud

3. It offers communication truly on-the-go

Grab your coffee and go! With the Microsoft Teams highly-functional and seamless app, you do not need to be worried or stressed about missing a beat or finding your way to a desktop to join a meeting. Like the desktop and browser apps, you can set meetings, chat, call, and add & access files. The only difference is the real-time editing. Editing in general requires that you have the Microsoft apps such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel downloaded. Nonetheless, the Teams app makes communication much easier with its user-friendly chat design.

Features & Apps for meetings:

• Teams Mobile App: Available on the Apple and Play Store

4. You can customize your team suite with the apps you need.

Every organization, down to the person, requires a little something different. Microsoft Teams has an app store that gives you the choice of numerous apps that your business needs. Some of our recommended apps include:

Features & Apps for meetings:

• Adobe Creative Cloud: Connect the assets (Photoshop images, illustrator graphics, etc.) that are in members creative cloud to your Team.
• Adobe Sign: Efficiently manage document-signing workflows.
• Flow: Automate repetitive tasks
• Planner: This is perfect for project management. It allows you to assign tasks and keep track of progress.

5. You’ll be able to eliminate the guesswork on trying to figure out who you are working with.

Who is that? Is that the point person from Boston? Is that the IT guy? Who is Michelle? It is hard to know who everyone in your organization, even if you are in the same building. Sometimes, you are put into Teams with different departments and have no idea who you are working with, just that you know you are supposed to be working with them. Although, sometimes you might not even know if that person is the right person. This is where the Wiki tab comes in to play. In the chat boxes, there is the Wiki tab which gives you a short bio on who that person is. No longer must you guess on what role your team members play and who that person is.

Features & Apps for meetings:

• Wiki Tabs

6.The Intelligent Bot Ecosystem

If you’re still not convinced, let’s talk about these amazingly intelligent bots. A bot is essentially a “helper” by helping you obtain the information you need. The bots interact with the team member in a natural chat manner. Bots are great to help you answer questions and find information much faster. There are many bots that you can add to your Teams suite. The standard bot that with Teams is T-bot. T-bot is used to answer any questions you may have when navigating through your Teams’ suite. And don’t worry, you’ll know if you’re chatting with a real person or a bot. A bot’s profile picture icon will be in a hexagon, not a circle.

Features & Apps for meetings:

• App Studio
• AtBot
• AttendanceBot
• Cloudbot for Azure

7. Ultimately, The Office 365 Suite.

Finally, Teams integrates flawlessly with the Office 365 Suite. The suite can feature over 30 different applications that help run the business in an effective and highly organized manner. With so many applications that keep your day to day tasks running seamlessly, it is a major advantage that Teams, and really the entire suite, has a great synergy between every application. And remember, Teams not only has a great synergy with Microsoft apps, but with many other 3rd party applications that help to keep your business running at peak performance.

With all this being said, it is clear to truly define Microsoft Teams as an efficient and all-around essential hub for communication and collaboration. If you ready to learn more about making the most of Microsoft Teams in your organization, contact Net Activity at 216-503-5150.

To learn more about Office 365, and whether it’s a good fit for your business, download our eBook here.

What Are the Biggest Cybersecurity Concerns To Look for in 2020?

Cybersecurity should always be a priority for a business, and cyber criminals are always evolving their tactics. As a result, it pays to keep an eye on the horizon for the next looming threats. Here, we’re reviewing a few threats that cybersecurity professionals say that businesses should be concerned about in the near future.

Compliance Fatigue

Unfortunately, in a world as heavily reliant on security measures as ours is, this is the threat to cybersecurity that makes the most sense – businesses simply giving up under the increasing weight of the growing list of compliances and regulations that they are beholden to. As more and more standards are outlined for businesses to uphold–without much apparently being done to enforce them–businesses are just more likely to let a few things slip through the cracks.

We hope that we don’t have to explain how this could be dangerous. It goes without saying that these compliances are put in place for good reason, and as such, are meant to protect the welfare of a business and its clients. “Letting things slide” therefore translates to “putting all involved parties at greater risk.”

Furthermore, there are also concerns around the idea that some businesses could be beholden to overlapping regulations that demand contradictory or prohibitive elements. Faced with mounting demands, cybersecurity may suffer through oversight or worse, omission, due to an overtaxed resource.

Misconfigured Cloud Environments

Cloud solutions have seen explosive growth as their benefits to businesses have been made clear. Unfortunately, this growth far outpaces the development of the workforce needed to maintain these cloud infrastructures and security configurations.

As should come as no surprise, Gartner attributes a full 95 percent of public cloud security failures to the customers, not the providers of the platform. There are countless examples of misconfigured cloud solutions creating major security issues, many of which have taken place throughout 2019, like the infamous Capital One breach.

Based on history like this, it can reasonably be expected that 2020 will see more of the same.

Mobile Malware

Again, surprising almost no-one, our increased reliance on mobile devices for many of our needs has led to a similar increase in malware intended for these mobile devices. In 2018, Kaspersky Lab discovered a considerably larger number of malware attacks meant to target banking applications, and the number of malware files rose from 18,501 to 29,841 within that year. That increase certainly isn’t nothing, and can be attributed to the simple fact that more people are using mobile banking applications. The cybercriminals have just shifted their focus as their targets have.

Phishing Attacks

One thing that no amount of algorithm tweaking or patching is ever going to fix is the nature of the person sitting at the keyboard. Your users (AKA you and your employees) are the weakest parts of your cybersecurity implementation, as you are the easiest to fool and will continue to be going into 2020 and beyond.

Without the right training into effective cybersecurity practices, your company is going to be vulnerable to phishing attacks and similar scams.

Net Activity can help. To learn what we can do to help protect your business in the new year, give us a call at 216-503-5150 today.

Google Knows a Lot About You. Here’s How to Control It

Nearly everyone uses Google in some way or another. The search engine is, by far, the most common way people get answers and find content online. The margins aren’t even close, either. Currently, Google handles about 90% of search queries, while the second and third place goes to Yahoo and Bing, who share just below 5% of the search market share.

Google curates the search results on the fly based on a lot of variables including where you are located, what kind of device you are on, and your online surfing habits. This means Google is collecting a lot of information about how we use the web to give us a better experience. Let’s look at how you can control what Google knows about you to better protect your privacy.

First Off, What Does Google Collect, and Why?

There are a lot of obvious things that Google knows about you. For example, it knows what you search for, and what result you click on. Google watches traffic across the web to determine what web pages are the most popular or the most authentic. Google can tell approximately where in the world you, and that gets even more accurate when you are using a mobile device. Google uses all of this data to refine search results. If you are looking for a place to order lunch, Google wants to give you results that would be feasible.

When it comes to data privacy at this scale, you have a few options. You can either:

1. Ignore it and just allow any entity to collect, store, and share your personal information at any time.
2. Disconnect from the grid, throw your phone into a lake, and move to a self-sufficient cabin in the woods.
3. Do your best to understand and control what data gets collected, and find a balance between being private and being connected.

As nice as option two sounds sometimes, most of us are probably better off with option threen. Let’s dive in and discover what Google knows about us, and how we can control what information they use.

Let’s Look At Your Public Google Profile and Lock Things Down

First, go to https://myaccount.google.com/ and sign in with your Google account.

This page is going to look a little different depending on what services you have and use through Google, but we’re going to be focused on privacy and security-related options.

On the left-hand side, click Personal Info.

Google will display your basic information, such as your name, your date of birth, and any contact information Google has for you.

If you scroll down, you’ll see an option that says Go to About me. Click that and Google will let you control what other people can see about you. You can click the pencil icon to edit any of the information, and click the green globe if you want to hide a particular piece of information from the rest of the world.

This is just a small tip of the iceberg. Next, we’re going to look at Google’s historical record of everything we’ve ever done online.

How to Pause Google’s Web and App Tracking

Google keeps a historical record of all of your Google searches and other online activity to cater their results to you. While you are signed in to your Google account, go to myactivity.google.com to review your activity. You can scroll through years of your personal search history, YouTube videos you’ve watched, apps you’ve used, and more.

Go to https://myaccount.google.com/ while signed in with your Google account.

This time, on the left-hand side, click Data & Personalization.

Look for Activity Controls.

From there, select Web & App Activity.

You can pause all web and app tracking by clicking the blue switch on the right. This will prevent you from seeing relevant search results or recommendations that are catered to you. It doesn’t delete the tracking data Google has on you, but we will go over that in the next step.

Google will warn you that they still might temporarily use information from your recent searches in order to improve the quality of your active search session, which is the norm, even when you aren’t logged into Google.

How To Remove Your Historical Search History from Google

Even if you decide that you want Google to continue to collect data on you to provide a more customized experience (personally, I paused Google from tracking me but ultimately I turned it back on), it’s still a good idea to go through and curate your historical activity.

Go back to https://myactivity.google.com while logged in.

Use the search box to filter your activity by date or by Google product.

For example, if you just want to view and delete data about the Google Assistant, you can select to filter your search results, or set a specific date range.

The resulting list will allow you delete specific entries (click on the Trash Bin icon).

To remove large amounts of data in bulk, click Delete activity by on the left-hand menu.

A pop-up window will appear:

You can set the date range, or choose All time to delete everything. Remember, once it’s deleted, you can’t get that history back!

Remember, all of this data is used to make your experience on Google a little more personalized. Deleting everything will give you a fresh slate but you’d be surprised how much Google does to cater the experience to you.

Fortunately, Google lets you set up automatic deletions, which will keep your most recent data, but after a certain amount of time, purge old data. This gives you the best of both worlds – your historical usage data is eventually removed, but Google will hold on to the most recent to continue to provide a great experience for you.

To set this up, click Set up automatic deletions.

You’ll be given three options.

• Keep until I delete manually – this is the default option. No data gets removed unless you delete it.
• Keep for 18 months – old data gets removed automatically, but the last year and a half get preserved so you can continue to have a personalized experience on Google.
• Keep for 3 months – If 18 months feels like a long time, you can set it to only 3. This will probably lessen the amount of personalization you’ll get, but your data will be preserved for a much shorter amount of time.

Personally, I felt the 18-month middle ground was the way to go, but if you feel differently, that’s totally understandable!

Control Your Google Location History

Google handles your location history a little differently. Your location data can come in through a few different ways, including your smartphone and Google Maps. If you want to truly not allow Google to know where you are, you need to stop using Google Maps altogether.

You can manage your location history.by going to https://myactivity.google.com and clicking Other Google activity on the left-hand menu. Scroll down the list for Location History (it should be in the top 3 options), and click Managed Activity underneath it.

This will open up a map with red dots on all of the places in the world Google has seen you visit.

Underneath the map, click the blue Manage Location History button.

You’ll be able to click the blue toggle switch on the right to pause location history.

It’s important to note that this doesn’t affect all location services. For example, the Find My Device feature on your Android phone will still continue to work.

Of course, this doesn’t delete your historical data. In order to do that, go back to your timeline by going here:  maps.google.com/timeline

Then, click the trash bin icon on the bottom right of your screen.

Remember, this deletes everything and neither you nor Google will have access to it ever again.

What Else Does Google Know?

Google is a whole lot more than just the search engine. Google’s environment also consists of YouTube, Google Ads, Google’s default Android keyboard, Google Voice, Google Play, and a whole lot more.

Take a look at everything here: https://myactivity.google.com/more-activity

You can scroll down the list and manage each individual option.

Most of the time, each link will direct you to a different page across Google’s service stack with similar options to pause historical data gathering, and manage the data that has already been gathered, just like the options we’ve already covered.

Don’t Let It Overwhelm You

Having a decade of search history, every place you’ve been to, and every YouTube video you’ve ever watched flash in front of your face is a very overwhelming thing to put a human mind through. I imagine our readers will have a pretty varied response to all of this. Some of you might go the route of deleting everything, while others might do a little housekeeping.

The thing is, while understanding that Google knows where you are at all times can be pretty off-putting, as long as Google keeps this data very safe, and only uses it for the reasons we already know about, it’s not inherently bad thing. Google has made our lives a million times more convenient.

This doesn’t mean you should take your privacy lightly. While Google promises to only do good things with your data, there have been a few instances in recent years that looked shady. For example, Google scans your Gmail messages to track your purchases, despite saying in 2018 that “To be absolutely clear: no one at Google reads your Gmail, except in very specific cases where you ask us to and give consent, or where we need to for security purposes, such as investigating a bug or abuse.” Read the full article here. In this particular case, no, a human being isn’t reading your email, but Google’s artificial intelligence is.

Your privacy is important, but in a world where we are essentially putting always-on microphones in our homes and cars, and carrying around a device that is constantly sending data to and from various entities, it’s really about controlling and understanding what your data footprint looks like.

When it comes to your business, and protecting your company and customer data, that is a whole other ball game, and we can help. Give Net Activity a call at 216-503-5150 to talk about how we can help you regain control.

6 Time Management Tips For The Busy Entrepreneur

Face it, there will never be enough hours in the day to accomplish everything you need to do. But if you methodically review how you spend your days and instill focus and discipline while completing daily priorities, you will soon find more time to work on the long-term success of your business. Here are six ways to do it.

CONDUCT A TIME AUDIT.

Sit down and review three months of activity. The data from the analysis will show where you spent your time (which projects, tasks and priorities demanded your attention) and with whom you collaborated to get the

work done. The audit will also shed light on areas where you were distracted, where you were the most productive and which tasks/projects took more (or less) time than anticipated.

ELIMINATE TIME DRAINS.

These are the kinds of things that sneak up on you and steal time and can be better put to use growing your business. Look for these time drains: not delegating tasks, not managing meetings efficiently (tip: always

have an agenda!) and spending too much time writing/responding to e-mails. If you’ve done your job as a leader, members of your team can handle a majority of meetings and e-mails. You hired great people. Now let them do their jobs.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR CALENDAR.

Remember: you drive your schedule; don’t let others drive it. Block time throughout your day and guard against

changing your schedule to work on tasks that are not important or urgent. The way you allocate your time has a direct correlation to your effectiveness as a leader and, ultimately, the performance of your business. Prudent

calendar management will also send a strong signal to your team that you take this seriously.

PLAN YOUR DAY.

When you know your priorities for the day, you will be better prepared to reset your work schedule if the unexpected comes your way. Once your schedule is set, block off chunks of time to work on your priorities.

I recommend 90-minute blocks so you can concentrate on big-picture items or work on a group of related tasks. Stay disciplined and don’t allow yourself to go over that allotted time.

LIMIT INTERRUPTIONS.

Now comes the hard part. Once you start working on each priority, you need to remain focused. Close the door and don’t answer the phone unless it’s a critical issue. Avoid checking e-mail. Don’t let distractions slow you down.

HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE.

Share your tasks, priorities and deadlines with a colleague. Meet with that person at least monthly to review how well you managed your time. The probability of success increases when you have someone watching your progress and coaching you across the finish line.

The End of Windows 7 Support is Almost Here

Do you still have a few machines in your company that are running Windows 7? If so, be aware that Microsoft is formally ending Windows 7 support in less than 2 weeks.

January 14, 2020 is the end of the line. After that, you will have the option to pay for extended security updates for up to three additional years. That will see you through to January 2023, but there are a couple of catches and caveats.

Initially, Microsoft extended the offer of Windows 7 security updates to large companies only. They received volume discounts on Windows 7 licensing. Earlier this year though, in October 2019, the company changed course and made the same offer to small business owners, including sole proprietors, which at least, is good news.

It isn’t, and here’s why: If you got a volume discount on your Windows 7 licenses, Microsoft makes it quick, easy and painless to purchase your ESUs. If your business is small enough that you didn’t qualify for volume discounts, you have to get yours from one of Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider partners, which sounds simple, but isn’t.

You’ll find that you have to jump through a number of hoops, fill out online forms, wait for a response, then jump through even more hoops. The process can be intensely frustrating. When you select which Cloud Solution Provider partners you want to work with, the most common reply you’ll get back from the automated system is that the partner you selected is “unavailable.” No reason will be given. It’s just a cryptic, one-word response.

If, eventually, you find a partner that is available, rather than simply being able to click a button and pay for your EUSs, you’ll have to get on the phone and jump through even more hoops to actually get signed up for extended security updates. If you’d rather avoid those hassles, the time to upgrade away from Windows 7 is now. Contact Net Activity today to get started.