The modern smartphone user has well over 700,000 apps to choose from. One of the most important types of apps is email. If you are an iPhone user, you may be using Apple's Mail, which comes installed on the phone. While it is a solid app, there is one function that causes some confusion - email attachments.

Below is a brief overview of how iPhone's Mail app's attachments work.

How to open an attachment If you get an email with an attachment, open the message and scroll down to the bottom of the message. You will see the name of the attachment along with the file type and size. If you tap on it, your phone should open it in a new window. You can then zoom in/out and scroll around.

Some attachments can be downloaded by tapping and holding on the attachment. After about a second, a pop-up menu will show, and you should be able to select to save it. Instead of saving the attachment, you can also choose to open it using other apps.

Why won't some attachments open? There may be a time where you get an email with an attachment that can't be opened. You will still be able to see it in the email, but you won't be able to tap on it. This is because the Mail app doesn't support all file and document types.

Don't worry if you can't open an attachment as chances are there's an app in the App store that will open it. The easiest thing to do is look at the file type of the attachment, which is usually indicated by a three letter code at the end of the file name. For example, a Word document will be FILENAME.doc or FILENAME.docx. A quick Internet search for something like, 'iPhone app that can open .ddd' will usually return results with an app that can open your file.

Once you download the app, try pressing and holding on the attachment in Mail and selecting Open in... from the pop-up menu. Look for the app you downloaded and tap on it.

How to add an attachment to emails You can add an attachment to an email by pressing and holding on the body section of a new email. A pop-up menu should come up, if you scroll left you should see the Select/Paste option. Tapping on this will allow you to select either a photo, video or message which you can attach to the email. Unfortunately, there isn't much else you can attach, so if you need to attach a document or other file type, you would be better off doing so on your computer.

If you would like to learn more about the iPhone and how it can help you, please contact us today.

Using a tablet in the office or for business can help you be more productive or at the very least can make your job easier. One of the most popular tablets is the iPad, with many owners swearing that it has made them more productive. One common gripe however is that the keyboard isn't the best for efficiency. There are some features that help though.

Here's a tip on how you can improve typing on your iPad through the use of keyboard shortcuts.

What are they? Keyboard shortcuts are a built-in feature of iOS that allow you to type in a few letters and have your iPad input full sentences or words. This is similar to a Web browser's autocomplete feature which will fill in forms when you enter a few letters or even a word.

How it works Keyboard shortcuts require manual setup, you will have to set a phrase, sentence, word, etc. as well as the letters that will input the phrase. For example you can set the letters 'beml' to be a shortcut for your business email; when you type 'beml', your iPad will input your email address.

These shortcuts could be quite useful, especially if you find yourself continually entering the same word or sentence. This will make you more productive and, as long as you have the correct information, will ensure that there are no typos in important words or phrases. How to set it keyboard shortcuts Taking the business email example from above, here's how you can set keyboard shortcuts. Note: These instructions relate to iOS 6.1 (the latest version of the operating system.)

1. Open the Settings app (gray box with three cogs).
2. Select General followed by Keyboard.
3. Scroll down and select Add New Shortcut.
4. Enter the full word/phrase/sentence in the Phrase section. In this case you would enter your full email address.
5. Enter the shortcut letters that will be related to the Phrase. In this case you would enter beml.
6. Tap Save in the top-right of the window.

When entering shortcuts, it is a good idea to not use common letters or combinations that make up words. For example if you set a shortcut as 'mai', everytime you type 'mai', the phrase will be entered. To come up with a good shortcut, try using the first letter of the first word, a middle letter and the last. Or, you could enter three consonants or vowels in a row e.g., 'eee'.

How to edit keyboard shortcuts You may notice that when you navigate to the Keyboard section in the Settings app, there is a number of existing shortcuts. You can edit these by:

1. Opening the Settings app (gray box with three cogs).
2. Selecting General followed by Keyboard.
3. Tapping Edit and selecting the shortcut to edit from the Shortcuts box.
4. Editing the phrase and shortcut associated to it in the window that opens.
5. Pressing Save in the top-right of the window.

The next time you need to enter a phrase that you have setup a shortcut for, try entering the shortcut. This should make typing on the iPad a bit more efficient and save you time.

If you are looking to learn more about the iPad, or how using one can help improve your productivity at work, please contact us today.

Change is inevitable. In some industries it happens slowly, while in others it happens at a blazing speed. The tech industry is one that never sits still; there is always something bigger, better, faster and newer being released. The problem many businesses have with this is that the changes are unaffordable, so they stay with the same software or systems for years. This can be an issue, especially when the developer of software stops supporting existing systems. Microsoft has announced that they will stop supporting some software that you may be using.

For businesses running Office 2003 or Microsoft XP SP3, you need to be aware that Microsoft has announced that they will stop supporting these products on April 8, 2014. This could have far reaching consequences for businesses that use these platforms.

What does this mean for my business? When a company like Microsoft says they will 'stop supporting' what they mean is that they will usually stop providing updates, paid support, security updates and maybe even online based support.

The biggest problem with a move like this hinges on security. If a hacker finds a security exploit on an older system that a developer has stopped supporting, your systems could be open to attack. Beyond that, if you have paid for support, you will no longer have it if the software stops working. These two reasons alone will eventually lead to higher IT costs.

When it comes to programs like Office and XP, there is another downside to this withdrawal of support: It is highly likely that future versions of the software will be incompatible with what you are running. This means you likely won't be able to open newer versions of Office documents, which could create problems especially if you have clients who use newer versions; you won't be able to read/edit the documents. What can we do? The easiest thing to do is to upgrade your software. This may be easier said than done, especially if you have a tighter budget. Luckily, you have more or less one year to upgrade, and in this modern age you have more than one way to update. Possibly the best is to work with an IT partner who can help develop a solution that will fit your business and budget.

If you're still using Office 2003 or XP SP3 in your office, contact us today to see how we can help.

Presentations are an integral part of almost any role in business. While the information conveyed in these presentations varies, every presentation follows a general structure. This structure, or outline, can be time consuming to layout in Microsoft's PowerPoint. Did you know that there's an easier way to create these outlines using Microsoft Word?

Here's how to use Word to create a PowerPoint presentation.

How does this work?

The idea here is to use Word to establish the outline and basic text of a PowerPoint presentation. This outline can then be opened in PowerPoint and converted into slides. The way the program does this is through the use of heading styles in Word. Assigning a different heading style (we'll explain how below) will create the outline of your presentation. For example, Heading 1 will be the title of each slide, while Heading 2 becomes the text.

There are two ways you can create an outline. Here's both:

Using Outline view

1. Open a new Word document.
2. Click on View in the menu bar and select Outline.
3. Type your outline - enter the title of each slide, hit Enter to create a new entry. You can also enter the text in the slide under each title.
4. Select each line and hit either Promote or Demote (they look like the indent text buttons, and are located in the Outline menu bar).
5. Click on File and Save As when you have finished the outline.
6. Name the file and under the Format section select Rich Text Format (.rtf). You can also just save the document as a normal Word File, but saving as a .rtf file will ensure that PowerPoint can read the outline properly.

Using Heading styles

1. Open a new Word document.
2. Enter your outline. The best way to do this is to enter the slide title, hit enter and insert the body/bullet points. Don't leave empty spaces as these may be read as empty slides.
3. Highlight the first title and look at the main ribbon for the Styles section. Press the down arrow beside the box that says body and select Heading 1.
4. Highlight the related body text (if any) and press Heading 2. This should be just below the Heading 1 option above.
5. Repeat for the rest of the slides.
6. Click on File and Save As when you have finished the outline.
7. Name the file and under the Format section select Rich Text Format (.rtf). You can also just save the document as a normal Word File, but saving as a .rtf file will ensure that PowerPoint can read the outline properly.

Creating the presentation

When you are ready to create the presentation you can:

1. Open a new PowerPoint presentation.
2. Create the title slide and in the navigation bar (left side of the window), click on it.
3. Click on the gray arrow beside New Slide which is located in the Home bar, under the Slides section.
4. Select Insert Slides from Outline.
5. Locate the outline file you saved and double click on it.

The slides should automatically be created below the title slide. If you didn't apply any formatting to the text, it will likely show up in a slide on the left-hand side with no spacing. You will have to go in and edit it.

By creating an outline in Word first, you can cut down the time needed to format and edit slides in PowerPoint. Of course you will have to edit the slides and add color, themes, images, etc. But, this should help you create more professional presentations.

If you are looking for more tips on PowerPoint, Word or any of the other Office programs please contact us today.

 

Computers are incredibly useful, however they are also complex beyond belief. This is made even more so because of the large number of confusing acronyms, words and terms. If you read tech blogs, or have friends/colleagues who are in-the-know, you have likely heard them mention overclocking and may have wondered what it is, and if you should be looking into it.

Here's a brief overview of overclocking.

Definition: Overclocking When it comes to most tech based devices, the processor (or CPU) is the integral component that functions as the brain of the device; it runs the show. The job of the CPU is to take instructions and input from all the other devices and components and execute them. For example, double-click on a program on your desktop and the CPU computes what to do with the mouse click (open the program), and runs the related code, which is shown as the program opening.

One thing many computer sales people talk about is processor or CPU speed. This is the number of instructions it can run in one second. These instructions are grouped together into one cycle, and one cycle per second equates to a Hertz. You may see computers that have 2Ghz processors, this means 2 Gigahertz or 2,000,000,000 cycles in one second.

Now, when manufacturers release a new CPU they design it to run at a standard, or optimal speed, and will generally limit it. This is done to preserve the life of the components, however there are often ways to break this speed limiter. When you raise the maximum clock speed, beyond the intended clock speed, you are overclocking it.

Why overclock? The main reason users overclock a processor is to make their computer or device run faster. By overclocking, programs will often run or open faster and the general operation will seem smoother. In other words, you can get more out of existing technology without paying to upgrade.

Are there any drawbacks? While overclocking will give you more power and speed, there are some serious drawbacks that make this option risky. The biggest being heat. As you probably have noticed, when you use some devices (say a laptop on your lap) for an extended period of time, they get warm. That's because the components of computers create heat, lots of heat. When you overclock, the processor works harder, thereby generating more heat.

Computers are designed to operate at certain temperatures and if this level is surpassed, the components can wear out more quickly or in extreme cases melt. This means that overclocking will cause your computer's parts to wear out quicker and will decrease the life of the device.

Should we overclock our devices? Did you know that you can overclock nearly anything with a processor? The most common are computers and new smartphones, especially Android devices. When you hear people talking about overclocking their device, they are almost always talking about personal devices.

While it's true, you will get a speed boost in the short run, overclocking will increase your IT budget in the future, because you will have to replace parts more often than is usual. Because most businesses tend to use their technology longer than personal users, any action that causes tech to wear out more quickly is not a good idea.

That being said, you can also do the opposite of overclocking. Underclocking is telling a computer's processor to run slower than it's designed speed. This will increase component life but decrease processing power, and could be beneficial for companies that have new computers and don't need intensive computing resources.

Before you take any actions however, it is best to talk to us, as we may have a better solution for you and one that will cost less.

Business owners and managers have many concerns they must address on a regular basis, or at least be aware of. Some of security concerns revolve around fraud, more specifically email fraud. While this isn't a new concept, email fraud and scam occurrences are on the rise, and it is vital to know how to spot them.

Here's five tips to help you spot email frauds or scams.

Look at the email address One of the easiest ways to spot a fraudulent email or scam is by looking at the email address of the sender. Many credit card application scams use third party email services like Gmail or Yahoo. Some scammers go so far as to set up accounts in the name of the company e.g., AMEX_121@gmail.com.

Sophisticated scammers will actually try to copy the legitimate company's email account - a practice called spoofing. They will usually have a few changes like a missing letter from the address, or an extra . added.

The easiest thing you can do is look for the sender's site on the Internet. For example: You get an email from AMEX OPEN (American Express's small business credit card) and notice that the sender's email address just doesn't look right. Go to Google and search for amex fraud. You'll likely find the fraud page which tells you exactly how the company sends emails. If the sender is a smaller company, most of these will have email contact addresses right on the site, take a look and compare the two. If they are different, the email is likely a scam.

Look at the sender's website If you think an email is fraudulent, try looking up the website associated with the sender. Should you be unable to find the site, it's likely a scam.

If you find a website, click through some pages to see if there is anything that looks out of place. For example a website selling a new financial service has pages with Coming Soon or you get errors when you try to load the page. If it looks fishy, it likely is - delete the email.

It would also be a good idea to go to archive.org's Wayback Machine, copy and paste the website's URL into the The Wayback Machine Search bar and hit Take me back. This will bring up previous versions of the website. If you see that the site in question was something completely different a few months to a year ago (e.g., it is a financial services page now, but six months ago it was a page selling prescription drugs), chances are high it's a fraud.

Call them Many scammers will put phone numbers into emails to make them look more legitimate. If you are unsure about whether this email is legitimate or not, why not try calling the number? Many scammers run more than one fraud operating at the same time and may answer the phone with another name, or not at all.

Similarly, if you call a local number of a supposedly small business and get routed directly to voicemail, it's likely fraud.

Look carefully at the body of the message The body of the email can also be a great way to suss out email scammers and potential fraud. Because many fraudulent emails originate outside of the major English speaking countries, there will often be language that just sounds different from the way people write in your area. One great example of this would be a line like 'We wish to sell you a great product.'

You should also look for spelling errors, grammar mistakes or inconsistencies. While some fraudulent emails will have minor spelling inconsistencies, others will spell common words wrong. If you see mistakes like 'our product are a great deals', this should raise a warning flag.

Spelling and grammar errors are a part of business communication, so don't expect a perfect email from all companies, especially if you see that the company is located overseas. It's the emails with mistakes supposedly coming from companies in your area that should really raise alarm.

The sender asks for money or passwords It's kind of an unwritten rule that when sending out emails you never ask for a person's credit card number or account passwords. Banks, large companies and many social networks will never ask you for passwords or account information, credit card numbers, pin codes, etc of any kind over email. If you notice that an email selling something asks for you to reply with a credit card details so you can make a purchase, it's best to delete the email as it's likely a fraud.

Email fraud is a big deal, and unfortunately it will likely become even more common in the near future. This means you should be able to spot potentially fraudulent emails. If you think an email is a scam, it's best to just delete it immediately. Don't respond or forward it to colleagues or employees. If you need to let people know, write another email that describes the suspected email but has no links. You can also forward a screenshot to your colleagues or friends to illustrate the scam.

Looking for more ways you can protect your company? Contact us today. We can work with you to develop a security system that will meet your needs.

There are a wide variety of reasons the smartphone has become an integral part of any business owner's daily life. One of the biggest is that these devices are functional, largely due in part to the multitude of apps available that can help make our lives just a little bit easier. If you have an Android phone, here's one app that could help you while making calls.

Call Notes is an app for Android that adds notes to the phone interface while you are making a call. When you receive a call the note, which you can attach to the caller's profile, is shown on the screen under their picture or the call icon. The note can be moved anywhere on the screen and edited during the call if you purchase the Pro version.

Why is this app useful? If you make business calls on your Android device and would like to have some information about the caller on hand, this app could be a good tool. The Pro version also allows users to add a company name and a title which can also help. Being able to create notes while in a call is also useful. For example If the caller says something, or you agree on something and you don't have any paper handy you can add a note.

How does it work? You can download either the free or Pro version from Google Play and install it on your phone. To add a note to a contact you:

1. Open the app and select Edit Note.
2. Scroll to the contact you would like to add a note to and tap on their name.
3. Tap on the empty black area and your keyboard should pop up. Enter the note and press Save.
4. The note should show up the next time you call/receive a call from that contact.

If you get the pro version, you can enable the editing of messages during a call by opening the app and selecting Settings followed by Buttons. Tap on Edit note button so that the box is ticked and you will be able to edit notes during the call.

Another interesting feature is you can add a button to the note that will enable you to easily access your phone's calendar during a call. This can be a great help, in that you can easily schedule a meeting while on the call. To add the calendar button to a call note: Open the app and press Settings. Tap on Buttons and select Calendar button from the menu that opens.

This is just one of the numerous functionality based apps that can be added to make your Android phone even more useful. What are your favorite business oriented apps? Let us know. And if you're looking for more information on how an Android device can be used to improve your job, contact us today.

One of the most important tools of a modern marketing plan is social media. With the various platforms leveraged correctly, social media could be the best way to expand your brand and gain vital exposure. Pinterest, the newest major social network which all about sharing images, has recently had its layout overhauled and new features introduced. Businesses can really benefit from these enhancements.

Here's a brief overview of the new features introduced with Pinterest's recent layout changes.

How to get the new layout

Before you can use these features, it would be a good idea to upgrade to the new layout. While, like other social media services, this will be happening automatically over time. Unlike other platforms, the new layout is available for all users to switch to when they feel ready, however when you switch to the new layout, you will not be able to go back to the old one. Here's how you can switch:

1. Log in to Pinterest.
2. Hover your mouse over your profile/business name at the top-right of your profile.
3. Click Switch to the New Look.
4. Select Get it Now. Note: If you press this, you likely won't be able to switch back to the old layout.
5. Press Okay from the Welcome to your new look! pop-up window.

When the new layout loads, you'll notice that the pins are bigger, the category button has been moved to the left side of the profile beside the Search bar. You'll also notice that the comment button has been moved from the pins, you can access it by clicking on the image. On top of cosmetic changes, two useful functions that businesses will find beneficial.

Discovery

Now, when you look at an individual pin (click on the image), you will notice a number of changes.

• You can see all pins on the same board.
• You'll also see pins from the same website. For example if you pin something from a restaurant, you'll now see similar pins from the same website.
• Most importantly, you'll now be able to see what other people have pinned along with the same image.

This will make it easier for users to discover what other people are pinning. For your business this means potentially higher exposure. Think of this as something similar to the way Facebook works: If a person likes you, the chances of this like showing on their friend's profile, and that friend visiting your Page is higher. It's kind of like easy brand exposure.

Analytics

Arguably the most useful feature added recently is Pinterest Analytics, which allows you to see if your pins are being clicked on or shared, and the general success of your activities. This will go a long way in helping you determine the overall success of your Pinterest oriented efforts.

The main caveat with this is that your profile/business's website needs to be verified and connected with your profile. If you have an unofficial Pinterest account, you can change it to a business one by:

1. Logging into your Pinterest account and going to business.pinterest.com.
2. Pressing Convert your existing account and choose your type of business.
3. Entering the relevant account information like the name of your business, address and website.
4. Agreeing to the new Terms of Service.

If you would like to have a new username or account simply go to http://business.pinterest.com/ and press Join as a Business. You will be asked to set your account information, username, etc. You will need to verify your account which will involve you having to download a file and upload it to the server that hosts your website. We, or your web hoster can help you with that.

After your account is verified, you will notice that if you hover your mouse over your account name a drop-down list should pop up with Analytics being about half way down. Click on that to be taken to the section.

This section will display a bunch of graphs including:

• The number of daily pins and pinners on your site.
• The number of re-pins you have done.
• How many times your content has been repinned.
• The number of clicks and website visits.
• The most clicked and repinned pins.
• The number of times your pins have been seen.

Overall, Analytics is a useful tool that will give you a clear picture of what is working and what isn't. If you pinned a picture of a dog and noticed that it got zero pins while another got hundreds, it may be a good idea to create/look for more similar content.

If you are looking to integrate Pinterest into your business's social media strategy or would like or learn more about how to use the service, please contact us today.

 

Excel is a common business tool that is used in an uncountable number of ways. Some spreadsheets are short, maybe one or two columns and 20 rows. Others can consist hundreds if not thousands of cells. When they get this big, it can be tough to quickly summarize or compare data. That's where the pivot table comes in, unfortunately it isn't perfect and may require a few modifications.

Here's four ways you can modify Excel 2013 for Office 365's pivot tables to meet your needs.

Make your tables look good

When you first create a new pivot table you may notice that the numbers aren't formatted properly, or the table didn't pull the format from the base spreadsheet. They may have too many decimal places, or are lacking currency figures. You can make edit this by:

1. Selecting any of the numbers in the Value field.
2. Clicking on the Analyze tab from the tabs above the table.
3. Pressing on Field Settings in the Active Field group.

This will open the Field Settings panel and allow you to edit the whole Value field, which means that if you change numbers, location, etc, the formatting will stick. Pressing Number Format will bring up the Format Cell window where you can apply numbers, currencies, decimal places, etc. Pressing Ok will apply the formatting you have selected to the whole field.

You can also apply color schemes or styles by pressing the Design tab and selecting the theme that looks good to you. This will not usually change the layout, just the color and style.

Change the name of the table and fields

If you are going to be sending the table to clients or colleagues, you may want to change the name of the table and fields to something a little more user-friendly. You can change the names by:

1. Clicking on the cell/name you would like to change.
2. Pressing on the Analyze tab.
3. Looking at the Active Field area of the Analyze tab and double clicking on the cell's name. You can also click on the box beside Pivot Table Name if you want to change the table's name.
4. Entering a new name.

Add gridlines for easier viewing

If you need to separate the information in the cell, the easiest thing to do is to add gridlines. This can be done by:

1. Clicking on a cell in the table
2. Selecting the Design tab and choosing any style aside from the first one.
3. Looking at the PivotTable Style Gallery and ticking the box that says Banded Rows.

Change blanks to 0s

There may be an issue where the data that's used to create the table leave blank spaces when they should be 0s. This isn't a big deal, but it would be a good idea to ensure that, for consistency, blank cells are represented as a 0, especially if other related cells are numbers. You can force Excel to fill blank cells with a 0 by:

1. Right clicking on the table.
2. Selecting Options followed by Layout & Format in the pop-up window.
3. Entering 0 beside the box that says For empty cells show
4. Pressing Ok.

Excel and the pivot table bring some excellent functionality to the spreadsheet, and having a properly formatted pivot table could go a long way in ensuring the information shown is easier to read. If you would like to learn more about how Excel or any of the other Office 365 programs can help, please contact us today.

It can be argued what the most important invention of the last 100 years has been, but many would agree that the computer has to be among the top. These complex machines helped usher in the information age. Unfortunately, they come with a downside: Destructive malware such as viruses have become a major problem for businesses because viruses have been built up to such mythical proportions that many users simply don't know fact from fiction.

Here are five common myths about viruses that confuse people, and the truths associated with them. Before we delve deeper it would be a good idea to explain what a virus is.

A virus is a computer program that infects a computer and can generally copy itself and infect other computers. Most viruses aim to cause havoc by either deleting important files or rendering a computer inoperable. Most viruses have to be installed by the user, and usually come hidden as programs, browser plugins, etc.

You may hear the term malware used interchangeably with virus. Malware is short for malicious software and is more of an umbrella term that covers any software that aims to cause harm. A virus is simply a type of malware.

Myth 1: Error messages = virus A common thought many have when their computer shows an error message is that they must have a virus. In truth, bugs in the software, a faulty hard drive, memory or even issues with your virus scanner are more likely the cause. The same goes with if your computer crashes, it likely could be because of something other than a virus.

When you do see error messages, or your computer crashes while trying to run a program or open a file, you should scan for viruses, just to rule it out.

Myth 2: Computers can infect themselves It's not uncommon to have clients bring their computers to a techie exclaiming that a virus has magically appeared on the system all by itself. Despite what some may believe, viruses cannot infect computers by themselves. Users have to physically open an infected program, or visit a site that hosts the virus and download it.

To minimize the chance of being infected you should steer clear of any adult oriented sites - they are often loaded with viruses, torrent sites, etc. A good rule of thumb is: If the site has illegal or 'adult' content, it likely has viruses that can and will infect your system if visited, or files downloaded from there.

Myth 3: Only PCs can get viruses If you read the news, you likely know that many of the big viruses and malware infect mostly systems running Windows. This has led users to believe that other systems like Apple's OS X are virus free.

The truth of the matter is: All systems could be infected by a virus, it's just that the vast majority of them are written to target Windows machines. This is because most computers run Windows. That being said, there is an increasing number of threats to OS X and Linux, as these systems are becoming more popular. If this trend keeps up, we will see an exponential rise in the number of viruses infecting these systems.

Myth 4: If I reinstall Windows and copy all my old files over, I'll be ok Some believe that if their system has been infected, they can simply copy their files onto a hard drive, or backup solution, reinstall Windows and then copy their files back and the virus will be gone.

To be honest, wiping your hard drive and reinstalling Windows will normally get rid of any viruses. However, if the virus is in the files you backed up, your computer will be infected when you move the files back and open them. The key here is that if your system is infected, you need to scan the files and remove the virus before you put them back onto your system.

Myth 5: Firewalls protect networks from viruses Windows comes with a firewall built into the OS, and many users have been somewhat misled as to what it actually does, and that firewalls can protect from viruses. That's actually a half truth. Firewalls are actually for network traffic, their main job is to keep networks and computers connected to the network secure; they don't scan for viruses.

Where they could help is if a virus is sending data to a computer outside of your network. In theory, a firewall will pick up this traffic and alert you to it, or stop the flow of data outright. Some of the bigger viruses actually turn off the firewall, rendering your whole network open to malware attacks.

What can I do? There are many things you can do to minimize the chances of infection. The most important is to install a virus scanner on all of your systems, keep it up to date and run it regularly. But a defensive strategy like this isn't enough, you need to be proactive by:

• Not installing programs from sources you don't know or trust
• Being weary of any program that asks you for your password
• Not installing any browser add-ons or plugins suggested by websites. Instead, download them from the browser's app store, or the developer's website.

If you are worried about the security of your systems and network, call us today. Our team of security experts can work with you to provide a plan that will meet your needs.