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Episode 4 of the podcast is all about Phishing. Jordan & Scott have an in depth discussion on what Phishing is and how you can avoid being a victim. The episode begins with a run down of what phishing is and some of the new phishing tactics that criminals are using to gain important credentials and information. Scott bring up one particular scheme where an employee is contacted from what appears to be a legitimate coworker (Spoiler alert: it's not!) and asked to purchase gift cards the hacker then asks for the gift card information and spends the money on the cards. From this conversation Jordan gives some tips and tricks for what to look for when you receive a message and indicators that it may be a phishing scam. They also go into ways in which a criminal tries to trick you into giving out confidential information. At the end of the episode Jordan & Scott remind you that if you think you have fallen victim to any type of phishing email or scam contact your IT support staff right away. This is not something to embarrassed about and reaching out right away gives your IT staff the best chances of shutting it down before it goes too far. You can read more about phishing on our post here. We'll be back in 2 weeks. You can listen to our episode NOW on all of your favorite streaming apps or listen directly at www.mapletronics.com/podcast Mapletronics is a full-service IT planning and managed services company with offices in Indiana, Tennessee, and Florida. Since 1992, Mapletronics has been serving its mission in improving people’s lives through the use of technology by providing solutions to fit their needs. Today, Mapletronics serves hundreds of clients from large manufacturing companies and healthcare organizations to single employee business owners. Our solutions focus on four main areas: business continuity, security, stability, and support

In Episode 3 of Mapletronic's Tech Talk Jordan & Scott talk about productivity and collaboration with a couple of Microsoft's newer tools Teams & Yammer. They kick off the discussion with an overview of teams and a quick chat about some features they love to use. These include: Collaborating in real time with coworkers Chatting with coworkers in an easy to use format enjoying the security that comes with Microsoft Adding third party apps to increase the usefulness of Teams creating teams for different tasks and projects To learn more about teams and what we love about it read our latest post on Teams here. Next we summarize Yammer. We discuss how it creates a social media stream for your company and is great for making company wide announcements, sharing personal news, sharing articles and topics of interests and staying connected in a easy to use format. We are excited about Yammer and think it's a fun and unique way to implement your companies culture and keep your employees connected. Episode 3 is available NOW on all of your favorite streaming apps or you can listen to it directly here.

It's hard to believe but the first half of 2019 has already come to a close. In the latest episode of Mapletronics Tech Talk Podcast our hosts Jordan & Scott come together to discuss cybersecurity threats that made a major splash in the first half of the year and how we can work to protect our businesses from these threats. To begin Jordan references some statistics from Proofpoint's quarterly report on cybersecurity. These statistics detail who is being targeted most in security attacks and how these numbers compare to the end of 2018. Next Scott details what kind of attacks are happening most often including: malware (banking trojans, downloader, credential stealer, & ransomeware), Email fraud and spoofing (phishing), Social media scams (angler phishing / spoofing of social media customer service accounts), and Social engineering. The podcast episode ends with a wrap up of some ways to protect your business including user education (find cybersecurity awareness training program here), Knowbe4's phishing quiz (get started free here), email fraud protection, and having robust policies and protection strategies. If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to reach out at letstalk@mapletronics.com. Thank you for listening to our latest episode.

Welcome back for Episode 6 of Mapletronics Tech Talk Podcast. This week Jordan & Scott are back to talk about common computer issues and how to troubleshoot before calling tech support. We begin by going over the dreaded question we all receive when we call support "did you try rebooting your system?" While this question is often met with eyerolls and annoyance rest assured that there is a reason this question is regularly asked. We go over why rebooting is so important and the difference between a hard and soft reboot in this episode. We also talk about running Windows troubleshooter to see what may be causing your issue. You can find out more about running it in Windows 7 here and how to change your system password easily. We also go over how updating your system can keep you from running in to system problems and why backing up your data is so important. Thanks for joining us for episode 6. We'll be back in 2 weeks for our next episode. As always, we'd love to hear feedback in the comments.

In episode 16 of Mapletronics Tech Talk Podcast Jordan & Scott discuss how to use Microsoft's embedded security features to make sure that your Office 365 experience is as secure as possible. They discuss: Checking your organization's security score which you can find out more about here. 2 Factor Authentication. Learn more here. Advanced Threat Protection. Learn more here. Protecting your accounts with strong passwords. Learn more about strong passwords here or listen to episode 1 of our podcast for an in depth discussion on passwords and how they can protect your accounts. As always, thank you for tuning into today's episode. Make sure to subscribe and review the podcast and let us know in the comments or at letstalk@mapletronics.com any feedback or questions you have.

It has been a monumental couple of weeks for our country as well as the world as a whole. One of the major impacts has been workforces having to very quickly switch to a work from home model. Many small businesses are not accustom to this shift in work style and have scrambled to accommodate to new mandates and policies. While there are many considerations to make when having your team work from home including productivity tools and security concerns, one important aspect to remember is connectivity. During this stressful and uncertain time it important that your team feels empowered, connected, and supported. With this in mind, we have compiled some ideas for how your team can stay connected while shifting to full time remote work: Use a collaboration tool/program. When your team is remote its more important than ever to find a spot where teammates can easily communicate and collaborate throughout the workday. Some program options include: Teams, Slack, & Zoom. At Mapletronics we use Microsoft Teams (FREE to download currently), other options include slack and zoom. What we love about teams is it combines the most important aspects of collaboration: chat, video calling, and file sharing, in one easy-to-navigate platform. What you'll find in teams is that you can seamlessly collaborate and work on projects together effectively using all of Microsoft's other programs such as Excel and Word. You can also easily schedule and hold video calls, an important aspect of working remote. Due to an increased demand in learning how to effectively use teams, we have developed a remote 2 hour Teams training class. Join us to learn how your organization can use it to its full potential. Use video conferencing as much as possible. One of the main hurdles of working remotely is the isolation that can occur. Your normal day-to-day collaboration time is harder to achieve because people are not in the same building. While a phone call can address this issue, using a video conferencing/calling solution is even better. You get to see your teammates and interact as if you are together in the office. Schedule Daily Huddles/Check Ins. Working remotely makes connection more important than ever. Scheduling daily huddles within your teams helps to make sure that teammates are feeling connected as well as on task. Daily huddles don't have to be long but go a long way to boost team bonding and using video calling keeps the entire team feeling connected. Create virtual team building activities. Carry-ins and team activities don't have to go out the window just because your team is remote. Encourage fun virtual get togethers and share photos of your day to keep the team bonding alive during an uncertain time. Some fun ideas include: weekly questions of the day threads where teammates are encouraged to share a bit about their life. Ask to see pictures of workspaces, favorite vacation spots, funny memes, pet pictures etc. Hosting virtual events such as happy hours or lunch breaks helps encourage teammates to log on to a video call at the same time and spend time seeing each other's facing and connecting in an informal atmosphere. Daily off topic threads to keep casual office chatter and encourage discussion During a stressful time it can be especially important to tune into team building activities and assure that your team feels positive and connected. Set working expectations. While working from home can make it tempting for teammates to sleep in or work late at night, it is important to have your team on the same page and address expectations. It is recommended that teammates working from home stick to a similar schedule as held in the office. Not only does this help keep the workday flowing and project and collaboration on point, it also helps teammates feeling a sense of normalcy and schedule in an uncertain and stressful time. When your team moves to a remote atmosphere you do not have to sacrifice on connection or productivity. Make sure to address expectations and solutions for how your organization will handle the hurdles you may experience and encourage your team to share creative solutions along the way.