The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) created many of the password best practices you probably loathe, including using a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. The NIST now says those guidelines were ill-advised and has changed its stance.

With more devices, apps, and users than ever before, now is the best time to rethink your cybersecurity strategy for your organization. Have you recently wondered if your IT manager or IT provider is doing enough to keep your business secure from hackers, breaches, and lack of employee training?

To learn more about what questions you should be asking your IT provider TODAY, watch our webinar recording below:

View our time stamps below ⬇️
0:00 Intro
0:20 What business owners need to focus on
0:44 Cybercrime’s current state: it’s growing!
2:13 Learn more about the big threats that’s been happening in 2021
4:26 Question #1 “Do you have 2-factor on all client-facing or information-owning systems?”
8:47 Question #2 “Do you have separate admin user login emails for all internal systems?”
11:05 Question #3 “Are all passwords different and stored in an audited SOC 2 compliant environment with enforced MFA?”
13:36 Question #4 “Are you running EDR, MDR, or SIEM on all internal endpoints?”

17:55 Question #5 “Do you have an incident response plan for internal or client breaches — because it WILL happen”
20:21 Question #6 “Do you have Offline air gapped backups for all client-owning data or systems, whether on cloud or on premise?”
23:03 Learn about i3 Business Solutions’ journey to cybersecurity over the years

If you need help setting up cybersecurity in your small or medium business in West Michigan, call 616-719-4100 today and we can get you started.

Investing in new IT tools is one of the best ways to improve your business’s efficiency, data security, and ability to serve your customers. But it won’t always produce the outcomes you want if you go about it haphazardly. When purchasing new technology, make sure to avoid these mistakes.

This past Wednesday, the FBI confirmed that a group called Ransomware Evil and Software Sodinokibi were the ones behind the latest large-profile cybersecurity attack on international meat produce, JBS Foods. Although the company claimed that customer, supplier, and employee data hadn't been compromised, the attack still left a harmful effect on operations and company privacy.

With more devices, apps, and users than ever before, there is additional complexity when it comes to managing and protecting user access in your business. Did you know that 80% of data breaches are caused by weak, reused, or stolen passwords? These unprotected passwords are what create endless risks for your business, making it all the more important to ensure password security among your employees.

If you missed last week’s webinar on Mike Ritsema’s top 6 Microsoft Outlook functions, we’ve brought you a recording of it! Select the topics you are interested in below:

0:00 Intro
0:50 How to work offline in Outlook - send all
2:11 How to customize the Outlook top ribbon - save the folder; attach file; delay delivery
4:15 How to create quick parts and email templates
7:05 How to create quick steps - right clicking on emails - moving to folders
9:00 How to reply with IM - through Outlook, you can share to Teams and OneNote
10:20 How to share my calendar through email
11:27 How to create auto-text
13:30 How to create rules in Outlook to organize your emails

Mike also went over his favorite Teams functions a few weeks ago, so if you are interested, you can view that video below:

As the saying goes… in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes. Although it originated more than 200 years ago, this notion still stands true today, but it now holds even more of a burden and complexity thanks to hackers and their ever-present quest to steal your identity.

At the beginning of the quarter, i3 Business Solutions acquired the assets of Computer Alliance (CAI), an IBM-system reseller in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Mike Ritsema, President of i3, and Joe Love, Owner of CAI, go back 15 years and have a common history with IBM, so when Joe reached out to Mike, they began discussing a business transition.

Just this past week, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reported that a federal agency was hit with a malware attack from an unknown source. This proves that even federal agencies can have vulnerabilities. The attack first started with a set of an internal user’s Office 365 credentials.

On Monday, September 21, a number of our i3 employees received a seemingly harmless email from Microsoft. It looked like this:

Mike Ritsema, after seeing the email, forwarded it to our security training professional, Benny, and asked to confirm if it was part of a security test for the week.