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Ferrum Technology Services Blog

Ferrum Technology Services has been serving the Elgin area since 2007, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Three Tricks to Spot Phishing Attempts

Three Tricks to Spot Phishing Attempts

Cybersecurity needs to be a priority to any business that wants to continue their operations in the long-term. One threat that is very common today is the phishing attack.

Patch Procedure Insight

Patch Procedure Insight

Patches are one of the most important aspects of your technology. As with anything, technology is constantly changing, so shouldn’t your software? Today we will discuss three tips, sharing advice on optimizing your patch management process. 

Tip of the Week: How to Better Manage Your Glut of Emails

Tip of the Week: How to Better Manage Your Glut of Emails

Email is a presence in almost every business, but some businesses use it better than others. Some use it as a be-all, end-all business communications solution, while others use it for correspondence that isn’t time sensitive. No matter how your business uses email, managing it properly will go a long way toward improving your efficiency and productivity.

Prepping for On-Premise Hardware

Prepping for On-Premise Hardware

Cloud computing has changed the way that businesses function, including some organizations that have foregone the on-premise server entirely in favor of it. Unfortunately, this approach can be problematic, as the data security and privacy issues associated with cloud-based resources might prove to be less than sustainable for your particular business.

Tip of the Week: Learning How to Create Effective Email Subject Lines

Tip of the Week: Learning How to Create Effective Email Subject Lines

Ever get an email with the subject line “No Subject” and not feel compelled to open it? Us too. Your email subjects are crucial to getting a user’s attention and helping them understand what the email is about. We’re here to help you develop more effective email subjects to ensure your messages are opened and responded to.

Make Sure Your Staff Understands How Data Disasters Come to Be

Make Sure Your Staff Understands How Data Disasters Come to Be

Disasters lurk around every corner in the workplace, even on an end-user level. All employees of a business should understand how to identify specific office disasters and what to do when they are encountered. We’ll discuss some of the most common (and deceptive) disasters, as well as how your team should handle them on the off chance they show themselves.

Multitasking Is Not Just Overrated, It’s Impossible

Multitasking Is Not Just Overrated, It’s Impossible

It seems that businesses today are obsessed with productivity, and while this isn’t a bad thing inherently, it can encourage you and your employees to pick up bad habits. Unfortunately, those who try to juggle responsibilities are often less productive than people that focus on one task and take it through to completion. Let’s discuss why this is, and how you can better, more productively make use of your time.

Tip of the Week: Improve Your Business’ Communications

Tip of the Week: Improve Your Business’ Communications

Communication is imperative to the success of your business, but sometimes it’s easier said than done--particularly if your organization relies on technology-related communication that can make context and subtext difficult to detect. Here are some tips to ensure that your employees are as clear and concise as possible with your communication mediums.

A Testimonial From the North Pole

A Testimonial From the North Pole

We’ve always been a proponent of preparing for the worst and hoping for the best where a business’ solutions are concerned. That’s why we were happy to receive an email from our friends at the North Pole telling us about a situation they ran into just a few days ago...

Other Options for Visual Excel Data

Other Options for Visual Excel Data

If you need to condense data into a concise and comprehensible form, Microsoft Excel is tough to beat. This is despite the fact that your average spreadsheet isn’t exactly an eye-catcher. However, Excel provides a few native options that boost your data’s visual appeal, making it more engaging and much more meaningful. We’ll review a few today.

Antivirus, Analyzed

Antivirus, Analyzed

Antivirus is a crucial component to any network security platform, but do you know how it works? Below, we’ll go over how your security is improved by an antivirus solution.

Tip of the Week: Why Optimization Is Key to Your Success

Tip of the Week: Why Optimization Is Key to Your Success

The business world is inherently somewhat Darwinian: instead of organisms with desirable traits surviving and carrying on, better businesses tend to outlast those that are inferior. In order to keep on, you need to ensure that your business has the tools it needs to be better than the alternative. Part of this is a great staff, yes, but for today’s tip, we’ll discuss how optimizing your technology can help.

How to Thwart Targeted Phishing Attacks

How to Thwart Targeted Phishing Attacks

Modern businesses rely on email as a central part of their communications infrastructure, but this comes with its own set of threats and issues that can derail operations. Spam in particular is troublesome for organizations to deal with, as it wastes time and exposes your users to danger. While spam can be blocked, more dangerous types of messages can make their way past your defenses. These types of threats are known as phishing scams, and they present a considerable threat to your organization.

How to Ensure Your Business is Hurricane-Ready

How to Ensure Your Business is Hurricane-Ready

As headlines shout about Hurricane Florence approaching the East Coast later this week, with Helene and Isaac also stirring in the Atlantic Ocean, it seems as good a time as any to discuss preparing your business for hurricane season; and, really any adverse weather effects that could negatively influence your business. Preparing your business for events like these is key to its survival, making it crucial that you know what your responsibilities are when awaiting a potentially devastating event such as a hurricane.

What to Look for in a Mobile Device Management Solution

What to Look for in a Mobile Device Management Solution

Regardless of the policies your company sets, your employees are going to have their mobile devices on them; and, depending on their circumstances, they may be tempted to use them to further their work processes. While this may have been cause for concern at one point, there are now methods, collectively known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), that allow you to leverage these tendencies.

A Physical Backup Has a Place in Your Overall Strategy

A Physical Backup Has a Place in Your Overall Strategy

Physical data backup can be a key part of data backup and disaster recovery. Even if you utilize the cloud for your business continuity solution, there can be no discrediting the importance of having physical data backup. A simple physical data backup can be effective under the right circumstances.

A Clean Office is a Successful Office

A Clean Office is a Successful Office

Spring is traditionally a time of rebirth and renewal, which has inspired the tradition of spring cleaning - starting fresh and organized after long months of darkness and cold. While the home is the traditional target of spring cleaning, people spend enough time at the office to make some cleaning worth it. In this blog, we’ll go over the benefits of a clean office, as well as how to achieve one.

Troubleshooting a Patchy Internet Connection

Troubleshooting a Patchy Internet Connection

Most businesses utilize the Internet in some fashion, and a slow connection can be a major annoyance and inconvenience. Thankfully, there are several ways that you can improve or troubleshoot your connection in the event that it’s suffering. Here are some of the ways you can make sure your Internet connection remains as consistent as possible.

Tip of the Week: 3 Ways to Get Windows 10 to Boot Faster

Tip of the Week: 3 Ways to Get Windows 10 to Boot Faster

Have you ever waited far too long for your Windows workstation to boot up? Chances are that you’ve seen first-hand how much time can be wasted during this process. If you want to save some time, you can review our three tips to help you speed up your Windows 10 computer’s boot time.

Take These Steps to Make IT Security Top of Mind

Take These Steps to Make IT Security Top of Mind

Here’s the thing about IT security: it requires a little more than a decent firewall and a reasonably-strong password. We talk a lot about how to ensure that your business’ network stays a top priority, and the best way to do that is to implement what we call a Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution. An enterprise security system like a UTM can provide a considerable improvement for the way you protect your organization, but even something as simple as a little bit of user error could bypass these protocols.

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