Directive Blogs

How many employees do you have who keep your company’s passwords on sticky notes stuck to their monitors? This simple, seemingly benign trick could be putting your business at risk. After all, if you can see the password on a sticky note, so too can others who happen to be wandering around the office—including potential threat actors.

With the rise of generative AI infiltrating pretty much every sector of society, it’s no wonder that businesses are finding creative new ways to use it for their gain. However, you need to be especially careful when using generative AI in the workplace. Today, we want to cover three common no-no’s that your business should keep in mind as it navigates the wild landscape that is AI.

We've all been there. You're trying to quickly find that one photo from your vacation, or that important PDF for work, and you end up endlessly scrolling through a digital wasteland of screenshots, random downloads, and duplicates. Our smartphones have become extensions of ourselves, but without proper care, they can quickly turn into cluttered, inefficient tools that cause more frustration than they solve.

It’s easy for employees to reuse passwords just to make things easier for themselves; after all, why use different passwords when you have a dozen accounts to remember passwords for? Unfortunately, this habit will come back to bite you, especially if your business is ever involved in a data breach. These credentials could be put up for sale on the dark web… and that’s just the beginning of your problems.

For business owners, your most critical assets aren’t your office or your inventory; it’s your data. Every client list, financial record, and strategic plan forms the makeup of your company. Protecting this data, due to its importance, isn't just an IT issue—it's an essential business function.

When it comes to cybersecurity, businesses have a lot to keep tabs on—even a small business like yours. In fact, you wouldn’t believe just how much goes into cybersecurity and why your organization needs to make it a priority. Today, we want to convince you that cybersecurity is more than just a buzzword on the Internet; it’s a lifeline that will keep your company secure.

There are a few occasions that we get a very apparent example of how important basic cybersecurity is, regardless of where you are, and this year’s National Football League draft is one such example.

For those who don’t follow the NFL or the draft proceedings, multiple draftees received prank calls during the process, although one in particular is applicable to businesses of all kinds. Let’s examine this situation to reinforce a few critical cybersecurity best practices.

We all know companies collect a lot of data. After all, your business is no exception to this rule, and you likely collect significant consumer data to facilitate operations. But if you get the itch to protect your personal privacy (and you should), there are ways to limit how much advertisers, criminals, and other companies can gain access to. Here are just a couple of ways.

We’ve all had to confirm we’re not a computer when attempting to log into an account. This is the core purpose of what once was called CAPTCHA… the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. However, it seems surprising that computers don’t easily overcome these simple-seeming tests.

Let’s dig into why these simple tests actually are effective at differentiating between human users and automated bots.

You don’t want to get spammed; nobody does. Unfortunately, it happens to EVERYONE, and it’s just getting worse. All this unwelcome correspondence happens over the phone, through email, and especially on social media. In today’s blog, we’ll talk a little bit about how social media puts users at risk and what you can do to keep that risk from becoming a problem for you. 

When hackers steal data, they don't just sit on it. Sometimes they delete it, but most of the time, they sell it or use it for illegal activities. A lot of this stolen data ends up on the Dark Web, a hidden part of the Internet where people do shady things. That's why it's so important to keep an eye on the Dark Web to protect your business.

Every January 28th, with cyberthreats on the rise and consumer trust more vital than ever, Data Privacy Day is your perfect reminder that you have the power to take charge of your data. Whether you’re a small business owner or an executive in a larger organization, safeguarding sensitive information is not just a legal and ethical responsibility—it’s a strategic investment in your company’s future.

Your Android device offers a lot of capabilities in its little frame, with many people relying on theirs to keep their lives organized and generally handled. Many businesses even rely on Android mobile devices. This should only reinforce how critical privacy and security are.

In light of this, we’ve shared a few simple tips anyone can do to help make a smartphone that much more secure. 

Since so much of the world is now online, businesses and organizations interact with people online now more than ever. This means they also collect people’s information, a practice they do for various reasons. Individuals need to consider their own data privacy and how it might be affected by business practices.

Would you be concerned if someone, with only an image, could infer things about you with better-than-expected accuracy? I don’t mean snippets, either—we’re talking about entire paragraphs of context.

Probably, right?

How concerned would you be if I told you that’s precisely what Google Photos does?

X The Everything App®, formerly Twitter, has been experiencing a massive user loss for the past few weeks, with everyone from celebrities to average people evacuating from the platform. If you wish to join them for any reason, we’re sharing the process for fully extricating yourself and your data from this specific social media network.

In recent years, there has been much debate about how companies collect, sell, and use personal data. Many businesses make extra money by selling data they collect about people. This might seem like a side effect of all the data we create online, but it can lead to some tricky problems. Today, we'll look at something called the "data-broker loophole," how it works, and what we can do about it.

As technology continues to gain prominence in healthcare, it plays an increasingly vital role. Advancements in technology have allowed the healthcare industry to stabilize costs, improve access, and personalize care delivery—objectives that were challenging in the past. These benefits come with a potential downside: data privacy issues, which are becoming more concerning as technology advances.

We’re still getting more information on this, but at the time of writing this, every American can assume that their social security number has been stolen. Let’s share what we know so far.

Last week we went through some of the issues that Facebook is dealing with in regards to its security and data privacy. Today, we thought it would be helpful to give you the tools you need to protect your privacy on Facebook.