Blog
Straight answers about business technology
Written for owners and office managers, not for engineers. No vendor marketing and no filler.
Your Microsoft 365 account was hacked. Here is what to do first.
Changing the password is the obvious move and it is not sufficient on its own. Here is the order to work in, and the four places an attacker leaves a way back that almost nobody checks.
Read itCompliance
How to prepare for a cyber insurance application
The application is not a form. It is a set of declarations about controls you are stating you have — and an answer that was aspirational when it was ticked is the most expensive kind of mistake, because you find out at claim time.
9 min readBackup
Microsoft does not back up your Microsoft 365 data. You do.
The most expensive misunderstanding in small business IT is assuming Microsoft keeps a copy. It keeps the service running. What happens to your files is your responsibility, and the deletion clock is shorter than almost anyone expects.
8 min readCybersecurity
What cybersecurity actually costs a small business
A fair amount of what materially reduces risk costs nothing but attention. Knowing which parts those are is the difference between spending well and spending a lot.
8 min readCybersecurity
How business email compromise actually happens, and how to stop it
There is no malware in most business email compromise. There is a person reading your mail, waiting for a payment to come up, and sending one message at the right moment. Which is why antivirus never sees it.
10 min readMicrosoft 365
Exchange Server or Exchange Online: what actually changes
The comparison is usually framed as cost. In practice the deciding factor is who is responsible for patching an internet-facing server on the day a critical vulnerability is published.
8 min readCybersecurity
Protecting a small business from ransomware, in the order that matters
Most ransomware advice is a list with no order, which is useless when the budget is finite. This is the same list, ranked by how much risk each item removes for what it costs.
9 min readCybersecurity
A small business cybersecurity checklist you can actually finish
Most checklists are forty items long, unordered, and abandoned at item six. This one is twelve, ordered by risk removed, and the first eight cost nothing but time.
7 min readCybersecurity
Securing people who work from anywhere
The office network used to be the boundary. Now the boundary is a set of identities and devices scattered across the county, and most small businesses are still protecting the building.
8 min readBusiness Technology
Break-fix or managed IT: which is actually cheaper?
There are businesses that should not buy managed IT, and we will say which. But the hourly model has a structural problem that has nothing to do with the hourly rate.
6 min readCompliance
What HIPAA actually requires from IT in a small Florida practice
Most small practices are behaving reasonably and cannot prove any of it. The Security Rule is less prescriptive than people fear and more evidence-driven than they expect.
9 min readCybersecurity
Someone can send email pretending to be your business. Here is how to stop it.
No malware, no breach, no stolen password. If your DNS does not forbid it, anyone can put your company in the From line — and your customers have no way to tell.
8 min readBusiness Technology
What actually drives the cost of managed IT
Quotes are almost impossible to compare because the scope varies so much. Here is what actually moves the number, and the four questions that expose the difference between two quotes.
7 min read
Ready to secure your business?
Book a first on-site visit for $89 — we come out, look at your network, backups, Microsoft 365 and exposure, and tell you where you stand. Work after that is billed at $100/hour. No monthly contract required.