Many business plans in the past year had been derailed or canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting business owners to become more vigilant, agile, and innovative. While the pandemic continues to rage in 2021, the new year sparks hope that the next 365 days will be better.

A ransomware infection is not something victims usually discover until they’re confronted with a notice demanding payment in return for being granted access to their encrypted files. While ransomware isn’t as prevalent as it was a few years ago, it remains a serious threat.

With entire industries decimated by the pandemic, 2020 is a year that many of us can’t wait to wave goodbye to. But while there’s finally some real hope on the horizon, some things won’t be going back to the way they were before, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Workforce productivity is critical to business growth, so employees are expected to perform well and deliver quality work day in and day out. But the reality is that a person’s productivity can fluctuate due to several factors.

If you’re struggling to be productive at work, the first step in getting out of the slump is to identify its causes.

The deeper integration of technology into our modern lives has changed the role of the email from simply being an inbox to becoming a proof of identity. When you sign up for a subscription service or create an account for an app, for instance, you are often asked to prove your existence by verifying your email.

Data is under more numerous and more sophisticated attacks than ever. The heavier dependence on cloud technologies — partly brought about by the shift to remote work — has opened more doors for cybercriminals to exploit data systems, and they have wasted no time in deploying attacks.

2020 saw more businesses adopting remote work setups, not only to keep operations running but also to curb the spread of the pandemic. And with this deeper dependence on online systems came more aggressive spam attacks. In fact, the highest number of spam attacks in the second quarter of 2020 was recorded in April, when the pandemic started picking up its pace and businesses began implementing work from home arrangements.

In April 2020, Office 365 became Microsoft 365. But the move was more than just a name change for Microsoft’s suit of subscription-based enterprise software. According to the technology giant, the new name better reflects “the range of features and benefits in the subscription, to meet the unique needs of individuals and businesses.

Technology has become interwoven with our daily lives. It has become indispensable that the first thing we check as soon as we wake up is our smartphone. We work and play using different devices, and even monitor our health using smart watches. And because the pandemic has normalized remote working and distance learning, we've become even more dependent on IT.

But while technology has made daily tasks more efficient, it has also made our homes vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks.

Almost every business today uses the cloud for at least some of its computing workloads, with 81% of enterprises operating a multi-cloud environment comprising a variety of public and private cloud resources. And while there are still certain cases for keeping IT in-house, in the new age of distributed computing, it makes more sense for businesses to outsource their IT.
Outsourcing enables organizations to reduce their expenses while enhancing their technology capabilities as demand requires.