Cyber Liability Risk…protect your business

While there are many publicized hacking attacks against large companies reported in the news, smaller companies face increasing computer liability risks, too. Almost every business uses technology in some way, and your business can be held liabile if certain types of information are compromised. It doesn’t have to be a hacking attack; it could be the loss or theft of a smartphone or laptop that could expose your business to liability…

Hyperspace

Bryley’s Backup Guy

Frank Walek runs all the backups for every Bryley client. Changes at Bryley, including a retirement, created a new opportunity for Frank: the timing coincided with Bryley’s broader deployment of new backup technology. Frank said, “that was exciting. I got to take on and really oversee the backup project, including the transition from older technology …” [4 min. read]

Bryley Systems Talks Technology on Career Day at Doherty Memorial High School

Bryley executives, Gavin Livingstone, President, and Kristin Pryor, Director of Services/Delivery, along with Helder Machado, President of Machado Consulting (left), were invited on November 21 to attend Career Day at Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester. The goal of career day was to introduce students to careers by bringing community members into the school to discuss their jobs.

Bryley Systems’ Services/Delivery Team Expands

Michael Racine of Fitchburg joins Bryley Systems’ Services/Delivery team as a Senior Technician.  With over 5 years of professional IT experience, Michael will support end-user service requests, both onsite at the client and remotely, in all facets of end-user technology. Mr. Racine completed the Computer and Networking Technology Program at Porter and Chester Institute in Westborough and is a CompTIA A+ Certified Specialist.

Don’t You Be Singing those Black Friday Buyer Beware Blues

Alongside links to Amazon, Home Depot, Staples, etc. Google’s sponsored shopping sections also show unfamiliar stores with lower prices than those of the well-known retailers. But are these really good deals?

Here are some ways to see if an inexpensive site is really going to get you what you want. None of these are absolute rules; the more information you have to make your decision about trusting an unknown website with your account or other personal information, the better sense you can get whether it’s worth making the bargain.

Bryley Honors the Nation’s Veterans

On November 11th, 2019, the Bryley Team, led by John DeCola, Senior Airman, USAF, assembled to raise the flag in honor of the Nation’s veterans.

We are proud to honor Mr. DeCola, as well as retired employee, James Livingston, Captain, USAF, and are grateful for the sacrifices made by all veterans, past and present.

We thank you for your service.

Low-Down on Office 365

Last week, Microsoft rolled out its promised “Unverified Sender” enhancement to Office 365 to help users “identify suspicious messages” (i.e. spam or phishing emails) that reach the Outlook inbox. 1 This comes after a bulletin in which Microsoft urged Office 365 administrators and users to not turn off its built-in spam filters to “minimize the potential of a data breach or a compromised account.” 2

Many users are mistaken that there are different kinds of protections to their data in the cloud. But the risks of data loss or compromised data are no less of a problem in the cloud than in a modern server, desktop or phone.

So What Gets Patched Around Here Anyway?

Given the number of vulnerabilities and exposures that are revealed every day [ https://www.bryley.com/2019/07/23/crunching-the-patching-numbers/ ], Mike Carlson, Bryley’s Chief Technology Officer, and Garin Livingstone, Director of Operations, agreed to be interviewed to walk me through the process they go through to keep computer systems updated. Mike has deep experience with local- and wide-area network design and implementation, and is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer™. Garin is a Microsoft Certified Technician™ and holds an A+ Certification, and has expertise in operations and technology.

Bryley Systems Picks Macs

Last month, I had an opportunity to volunteer at the Community Harvest Project located in Harvard; an event hosted by the Corridor 9 Chamber of Commerce.
Harnessed in canvas bags and supervised by farm staff, we rhythmically picked the trees clean in about an hour, then carefully sorted and packaged the apples for delivery to the Worcester County Food Bank.

Thirty seven volunteers picked a total of 4,500 pounds of Macintosh apples, 2,000 pounds were Grade A quality and packaged for distribution, and the rest were separated into bins for cider and pies.

It was truly an amazing morning. I picked apples as a chamber member, personally thanked the volunteers as a WCFB board member and 2,500 families received a bag of delicious, freshly picked apples.

Infographic: Tips for detecting a phishing email

Phishing emails are getting more complex all the time.  As the stakes rise, cyber criminals are employing increasingly subtle techniques and messaging.  Gone are the days when you simply had to turn down preposterous offers from royalty who had miraculously decided to become your unlikely benefactor.

The phishing email of today is designed to look as legitimate as possible.  It will try to distract you from clues that give away its true intent by creating a sense of urgency.  Typically they front as legitimate emails from familiar sources, sometimes even appearing to come from within your own organization.

Fortunately, once you know what to look for, these emails will be as easy to spot as those starting “I am a prince from [insert  random country name here], and I wish to bathe you in riches…”