SMART Blog

Smart Services has been providing independent agents with proactive, fast, and expert technology services since 1991.

How to Keep Viruses from Hurting Your Chances of Success

How to Keep Viruses from Hurting Your Chances of Success

Every year, new malware, ransomware, and general cyber-nonsense emerge from the depths of the internet, evolving like a villain in a sci-fi movie. One moment, you’re minding your own business, and the next, your company’s data is held hostage and someone is demanding you pay them in Bitcoin.

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Google’s Android Update Should Remind Us How Crucial Maintenance Is

Google’s Android Update Should Remind Us How Crucial Maintenance Is

The Android operating system periodically receives updates and patches detailed in online publications called Android Security Bulletins. In the March 2025 edition, Google announced that 43 malicious bugs had been resolved, two of which were zero-day vulnerabilities.

Let’s talk about how to implement these fixes and why this is a practice that should reach every aspect of your business’ IT.

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Don’t Apologize for a Data Breach (Do This Instead)

Don’t Apologize for a Data Breach (Do This Instead)

It should come as no surprise that cybersecurity is a big challenge for businesses and individuals alike. The problem: life pretty much revolves around being online these days, so there’s no avoiding it. Therefore, it’s your responsibility to ensure that any data you collect from your customers, employees, and other key stakeholders in your business is well-protected, otherwise you will face severe consequences.

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How Does CAPTCHA Work?

How Does CAPTCHA Work?

We’ve all had to confirm we’re not a computer when attempting to log into an account. This is the core purpose of what once was called CAPTCHA… the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. However, it seems surprising that computers don’t easily overcome these simple-seeming tests.

Let’s dig into why these simple tests actually are effective at differentiating between human users and automated bots.

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Tax Season Brings Scammers Out of the Woodwork

Tax Season Brings Scammers Out of the Woodwork

In the United States, tax season is prime time for hackers to take advantage of law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. They do this through all kinds of nefarious activities, such as phishing attacks conducted through text messages and emails claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service. If you want to avoid getting scammed this tax season, be sure to keep the following tips in mind to stay safe while you conduct your typical tax routines.

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Ransomware Payments are Less Frequent, But It Isn’t All Good News

Ransomware Payments are Less Frequent, But It Isn’t All Good News

Despite some of the headlines that we saw last year, it wasn’t all bad news regarding ransomware. Critically, 2024 saw ransomware payments plummet by hundreds of millions of dollars… despite many large-scale attacks and one record-breaking whaling payment of $75 million by one victim.

This is undeniably great to hear… but with that in mind, we cannot let ourselves slip into complacency.

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Is Windows 10 Via Extended Security Updates Feasible for a Business?

Is Windows 10 Via Extended Security Updates Feasible for a Business?

Windows 10 is rapidly reaching the end of its secure lifetime, with support scheduled to end on October 14, 2025. While this doesn’t mean that the OS will no longer be available to use, it does mean that it will no longer be able to be safely and securely used—a critically important distinction.

That is, however, unless you pay for the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates… but is this a feasible or maintainable strategy for businesses?

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3 Common-Sense Security Measures You Can Implement Today

3 Common-Sense Security Measures You Can Implement Today

Running a business is already confusing enough without worrying about security at all times. Whether you’re a small business owner or a multi-level enterprise, security is just as important for all the same reasons. Today, we want to share a couple of security strategies you can implement today to feel better about the current state of your infrastructure moving forward.

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Three Reasons Why You’re Falling for the Phishing Schemes in Your Inbox

Three Reasons Why You’re Falling for the Phishing Schemes in Your Inbox

Phishing is the most common way hackers “get you”, but have you ever wondered why it’s so effective? Today, we want to explore the reasons why phishing schemes are so enticing to even the most security-conscious individuals out there. You might be surprised to know that even security professionals can fall prey to these types of attacks, and for very good reasons.

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Let’s Brush Up On Phishing Attack Responses

Let’s Brush Up On Phishing Attack Responses

Did you know that phishing is, by far, the most common security risk to your business? Just think, any of your employees could become the target of a phishing attack, and all it would take is downloading the wrong file or clicking on the wrong link to expose your organization to security threats. Today, we want to offer a refresher on the throwaway signs of a phishing attack and how to protect yourself and your team from harm.

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Why Data Privacy is Important and How You Can Make It a Priority

Why Data Privacy is Important and How You Can Make It a Priority

Since so much of the world is now online, businesses and organizations interact with people online now more than ever. This means they also collect people’s information, a practice they do for various reasons. Individuals need to consider their own data privacy and how it might be affected by business practices.

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The Importance of Secure Conferencing

The Importance of Secure Conferencing

Conferencing has been an important tool for businesses as stay-at-home orders have moved their operations out of the office and into worker’s homes. While there are dozens of video conferencing solutions on the market, businesses should consider security just as much as they consider functionality. Today, we’ll take a look at security for your company’s conferencing solutions.

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Protecting Your Data Privacy Is Harder than Ever

Protecting Your Data Privacy Is Harder than Ever

If you consider it, it’s amazing how much trust people have in Internet-based companies. They not only believe that these companies will fulfill their expectations, but that they will work to provide protection for some of their most valuable and sensitive information. Let’s take a look at some of the data collection practices that companies use and what they do with that data. 

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Cybersecurity Takes Effort at 3 Levels

Cybersecurity Takes Effort at 3 Levels

The way people talk about cybersecurity, it’s as if it is something like a television or a new phone: something you can just buy. That’s not the truth. When you are seriously looking at how you can keep unwanted entities off your network, while having control over what you do with your technology, you need to look at it as three levels of security.

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What We Can Learn from the 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report

What We Can Learn from the 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report

Starting in 2008, Verizon has produced a report outlining the cybersecurity incident trends that the previous year demonstrated. In doing so, they have provided a resource that gives businesses greater insights into where their cybersecurity efforts need to be focused. Let’s go over some of 2019’s trends and insights that were highlighted in the Verizon Business 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR).

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Why You Need to Audit Your Security

Why You Need to Audit Your Security

A security audit is designed to test the overall integrity of your business when it comes to its IT security. In today’s environment, businesses need to have strengthened fortifications in place to protect themselves from cyberthreats, and these fortifications need to be properly tested and reviewed over time. Let’s talk about some of the types of audits and their benefits, and how you can assess your security.

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Let’s Help You Understand PCI Compliance

Let’s Help You Understand PCI Compliance

Nowadays, every business accepts payment cards. To protect people’s personal and financial information when conducting transactions using credit, debit, and gift cards, the companies that stand to lose the most if these transactions are compromised: Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express, have implemented industry-wide compliance regulations. This regulation is called PCI DSS, short for Payment Card Index Digital Security Standard. Let’s take a brief look at this regulation.

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What We Can Learn from Some Foreboding Security Predictions

What We Can Learn from Some Foreboding Security Predictions

With the COVID-19 crisis far from over, many businesses have had their attention pulled away from their cybersecurity needs by the concerns that the current health crisis has generated. Here, we’ll be reviewing some of the observations that a group of 273 cybersecurity professionals have made, courtesy of an annual survey.

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Employment Scams Have Recently Exploded

Employment Scams Have Recently Exploded

With COVID-19 creating an unsure situation for so many businesses, and by extension their employees, these employees are suddenly finding themselves in a vulnerable position. Regardless of whether or not your employees are able to come into the office right now, it is important that you share the following information with them, as it may help to keep them out of a tough spot.

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Best Practices for Your Access Management

Best Practices for Your Access Management

As you oversee your business, there is a lot that you’re going to have to manage - including how much access your employees have to the data you have collected and generated throughout your operations. An access management policy can help you to accomplish this. Here, we’ll review a few key features you need to include in your strategy.

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