Ferrum Technology Services Blog

Your desktop can often become cluttered with files and programs while you’re going about your workday, and those files and programs will all have desktop icons associated with them. It’s a good practice to clean it up from time to time, but you can get immediate relief from the clutter by adjusting the size of the icons.

You will find dozens of different file formats on your computer, but for images, you may not know how to tell the difference. In order to know how an image is used, you need to understand what type of file it is. This month, we’ll go through some of the different types of images and what people use them for. 

Communications are critical for a business’ success, which makes it only make sense to utilize the best options available for them. Today, we’re examining an option for your telephony to see if it would make a good fit…Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

Spoiler alert: it almost certainly will.

Do you remember the “Hello, I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” commercials that aired from 2006 to 2009? These ads, which featured actors Justin Long and John Hodgeman as Mac and PC, respectively, were put out by Apple to promote their line of computers, highlighting the advantages that Macs had over the PC. One advantage the ads referenced repeatedly was the idea that Macs “don’t get viruses,” something that research conducted by Elastic Security Labs has disproved beyond any doubt.

So, you’ve spent a ton of time and energy transcribing data into Microsoft Excel, only to find out that you need this same data elsewhere in your spreadsheets, too. Bit of a bummer, unless you know how to accurately and easily copy all of this data. Let’s go over how you can do so.

The smartphone app ecosystems today are extraordinarily vast. The Google Play store has over 3.5 million apps available, while the Apple App store has over 1.6 million apps. The question becomes, with so many different applications available on these platforms, how can you be so sure that the apps you are downloading to your mobile device are secure? Let’s take a look at mobile app store security and why it’s become more than just a security issue. 

Artificial intelligence has become a popular topic to discuss in the business world, and like just about any current technology trend, you know Microsoft has to hop on the bandwagon with its own solution. Microsoft’s new AI-powered image generation tools will be integrated into many of their applications moving forward.

It’s often the case that the demand for new software outstrips the stock of available coders, a trend that has led to many businesses looking to adopt what are called “no code” tools to help them build the software they need. Let’s take a look at these no code tools and how they can help businesses stay ahead of the game.

Sometimes security breaches and hacking attacks come from the most unlikely of sources, even going so far as to utilize trusted applications to infect an endpoint or network. This is the case with a new phishing attack which uses the Calculator application that comes built-in with Windows in a very creative way. This is just one example of how hackers have been forced to innovate to combat the increasingly secure systems which businesses and users rely on today, and it should be a testament as to why you can never be too careful.

Mobile devices are crucial to the productivity and success of modern businesses, but they bring with them countless opportunities for security risks and issues. To combat this, you need to be cognizant of these risks and manage the permissions of your applications. Let’s discuss how you can manage the permissions you grant applications on your Android smartphone.

The modern business requires many different types of tools to be successful and productive throughout the workday, but one of the most notable is the productivity suite. They are incredible solutions that give organizations access to several different applications that perform various functions for companies.

There are numerous reasons to update your business’ technology—particularly if this technology is crucial to your business’ processes. However, many businesses still rely on legacy systems. This makes it a challenging prospect to update them appropriately, unless you know what you’re doing. This week, we’re devoting our tip to helping you do just that.

Cybercrime is a major issue for everyone and especially for businesses. In fact, if you don’t have a solid handle on the actions you take, your IT may be more exposed than you think. This month we thought we would go through a few really simple actions you can take to enhance your security posture.

How much time does your business invest in software and its management? There are some that you can’t really go without, like email solutions and productivity suites, but you might have other specialized software that also requires attention. When you acquire new software, you can either go the traditional route or you can go the Software-as-a-Service route. Which path is the best choice for your business?

Today, collaboration software’s use is widespread, no doubt as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the hands of businesses everywhere to implement them while operations were still remote. However, now that many workers are returning to the office environment, businesses are finding that these collaboration platforms still offer immense value. What features can you look for and expect from your collaboration platforms?

Have you heard of Log4j? If we asked you a week ago, you almost certainly did not. Now it is dominating headlines as one of the largest cybersecurity risks we’ve ever known, and your business needs to act immediately to make sure you aren’t at risk.

If your business could make money based on its process, you’d never need to worry about results. Unfortunately, things don’t work that way. You need to bring a product or service to market and sell it in order to make enough revenue to continue doing business. With the results-based nature of things, it becomes essential for the good of your company that you optimize your team’s ability to get things done. Today, we’ll talk a little bit about how collaboration gets better when your team is organized. 

Nowadays, every company relies on some kind of software. It has immense value as it can be used to make business more efficient and help reduce costs. In order to get the most out of your software, it has to be continuously managed. This is done with three steps: leveraging the assets available, testing your strategies, and understanding what it is you have.

Some businesses struggle to obtain the appropriate software solutions, especially if they are on a budget. Some even choose to take advantage of free, open-source software simply because it helps their bottom line. There are some benefits to using open-source software, but there are also dangers involved.

Businesses and their employees ultimately need a lot of different online accounts, which means there are a lot of passwords that need to be sorted. To assist with this, many have turned to using password managers—applications that store passwords in an encrypted vault. There are a lot of reasons that these password managers are a popular choice. Let’s go over a few of them.