Tech Solutions IT Blog

It starts before most people have had their first cup of coffee.

Before anyone calls. Before anyone emails. Before anything has gone wrong.

The monitoring dashboard gets checked - overnight alerts, anything that flagged after hours, any system that went quiet when it shouldn't have.

Then backups.

Not just "did the job run" - but did it actually complete, and can it actually be restored. There's a big difference between a backup that ran and a backup that works. Most people never find that out until it matters.

Server backups. Cloud backups. Microsoft 365 data - email, files, everything. All verified before the day gets started.

Then the security console.

Every endpoint protection agent has to be checking in. If a machine goes dark - stops reporting - that's not nothing. That gets looked at.

EDR Agent versions get reviewed. If they are out of date, they get pushed. Threats don't wait for a convenient time.

Then the email filter. Active, healthy, nothing unusual getting through.

Then Microsoft 365 alerts. Unusual sign-ins. Policy changes. Anything that looks off gets pulled up and reviewed.

Then client websites. Up or down. A business whose website quietly went offline at 2 AM deserves to know before their customers find out first.

Then VPN tunnels. If a client's remote connection is down, someone's already frustrated. Better to catch it early.

Then internet connectivity checks across client sites. If a location is offline, the clock is already running.

A few clients internets went down in the middle of the night, but they are reporting online now.

Then the tracking list.

Domain names with upcoming expirations. SSL certificates getting close to the edge. Software licenses due for renewal. Hardware warranties that are lapsing.

None of these are emergencies - until they are.

A domain that expires takes a website and email down instantly. A certificate that lapses throws security warnings to every customer who visits. A warranty that ran out six months ago means a repair bill instead of a covered replacement.

The job is knowing before it becomes a problem.

Somewhere in the morning, open orders get reviewed.

Hardware that was ordered for a client - where is it, what's the ETA, does anything need a follow-up call to a vendor.

Anything waiting on a third party gets touched so it doesn't stall.

By the time most businesses are getting settled into their workday, a real IT company has already done more than most people realize.

And here's the thing - when all of that is working the way it should, you never hear about it.

No call. No email. No drama.

That silence isn't nothing.

That silence is the whole job.

And it's not even 9 AM yet.

And we haven't even started the client work yet.

If the last time you heard from your IT person was when something broke, it might be worth asking what's happening in between.

Reach out to Tech Solutions IT. 

Most cyberattacks don’t begin with someone specifically targeting your business. In reality, attackers cast a very wide net. They send out phishing emails to hundreds of thousands or even millions of people at once, hoping a small percentage will click a bad link or open a malicious attachment. It is a numbers game, not a targeted operation.

They do not need everyone to fall for it. If even a tiny fraction of recipients click, that is enough to make the attack worthwhile. These emails are often designed to look legitimate-shipping notices, invoices, password resets, or messages that appear to come from someone you know. The goal is simply to get one action: a click.

This is why small businesses get hit just as often as larger ones. Attackers are not filtering by company size when they send these messages. Your business ends up in the same pool as everyone else. If someone in your office is busy, distracted, or caught off guard, that one moment is all it takes.

Once that click happens, the situation can escalate quickly. It might start with a stolen password, then turn into access to email accounts, shared files, or internal systems. From there, attackers can send more emails from your account, spread further inside the business, or lock things down entirely.

Understanding this changes the way you should look at cybersecurity. It is not about being important enough to be targeted. It is about being prepared for when one of these mass emails reaches your inbox. The difference between a minor annoyance and a serious problem often comes down to whether the right protections and awareness are already in place.

- This article is intended for small businesses, Tax & Accounting firms, and businesses looking to improve their cybersecurity, reduce IT issues, and better protect client data.

It was a Tuesday morning.

Mark was rushing to get out the door for a client meeting.

His phone buzzed with an email notification.

FedEx. A package delay. Click here to reschedule delivery.

He clicked it without thinking.

We hope we aren’t dating ourselves too much by mentioning computer punch cards, but they were once the means of inputting data into a computing device… at least, until the now-ubiquitous mouse and keyboard came into the scene. This variety of interfacing with our devices now seems to be one of the few ways to practically use them. However, other interfaces have emerged - do any of them stand a chance of unseating the keyboard and mouse?

If your business is looking to use technology beneficially, the ability to store data is going to be a major consideration you are going to have to confront. After all, not having enough storage space, or having too much, can be major problems for most businesses. Today, we’ll ask some of the most pressing questions you’ll need to answer to get the right (and the right amount of) storage space for your needs.

Let me ask you a question… let’s say that you’re about one year from your projected retirement, when a ransomware attack encrypts all of your files. What do you do? Pack it in and retire early? This is precisely the situation that the practitioners of Brookside ENT & Hearing Services of Battle Creek, Michigan, have found themselves in - and it may not be over yet.

Manufacturing products is still a major part of the western economies; and, like other businesses, manufacturers are using information technology to fuel and manage their supply chains and business processes. We’ll take a short look at what IT manufacturers use, and how it helps them forge their business ahead.

Microsoft OneDrive is a cloud file hosting service that uses synchronization to allow users real-time access to saved information. OneDrive, is most associated with Office 365, to which it offers one terabyte of cloud storage (there is a free tier for consumers as well). Since OneDrive is often used to save Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote documents, having access to this information from your navigation pane inside of Windows 10 makes it simpler for users to get to files inside of OneDrive. Today, we’ll take a look at how to set the feature up to sync with OneDrive.

Consultation is something that can save businesses a considerable amount of time and resources. After all, you can’t expect a business professional to know everything there is to know about everything. Professional services, like those of lawyers, financial consultants, accountants, advisers, and marketing specialists, are required by just about all businesses to at least some extent. Suffice to say that each of these specialists has dedicated software and IT solutions that are needed for success.

Tech Solutions IT is proud to announce the launch of our new website at www.tsboston.com. The goal of the new website is to make it easier for our existing clients to submit and manage support requests, and provide more information about our services for prospective clients.

There is no question that a small business can benefit from technology, as has been proven time and time again. However, an issue can arise if a business bites off more than it can chew, so to speak, and ultimately creates a spike in costs. A responsible business owner will resist this temptation and prioritize the solutions they need over the ones they want - building profitability and generating capital needed to make other improvements.

In this blog, we’ll examine some of the implementations that can deliver a good return on investment to a small business.

The cloud has proven to be an extremely useful tool for the modern business. Not only does it provide anywhere-anytime access to applications, processing, storage, et al; it also delivers those products as a service, allowing you to budget for recurring costs rather than major upfront ones. This provides your organization with functional, supported, and secure computing environments that eliminate a lot of the support costs that traditional computing environments require. It sounds like a perfect scenario for small and large businesses alike, but things aren’t always what they seem, as a lot of cloud users have found that they have incurred several hidden costs by using cloud platforms. Today, we take a look at these hidden costs.

Data security isn’t a matter to be taken lightly, as too many businesses have found out the hard way. Unfortunately, there are far too many simple ways to correct common security issues - enough that it’s foolish not to do so. We’ll review a few ways to fix security issues, after discussing one of, if not the, most egregious security failings in modern history.

The password isn’t nearly as secure as it used to be. Hackers have begun to take advantage of extremely powerful solutions designed to brute force their way into accounts by using software to rapidly guessing thousands of passwords per second, making it extraordinarily difficult to prepare yourself for them.

What’s the best way to guarantee that passwords aren’t going to be the downfall of your company? A great start is by taking a close look at password best practices and two-factor authentication.

How much does your business rely on technology to keep your organization running forward? As business technology becomes more complex, it’s becoming increasingly popular for organizations to have their own internal IT departments to manage and maintain it. Yet, small businesses don’t often have the necessary funds for such a feat. How can your company afford quality IT service? You can start by pursuing managed IT solutions from a managed service provider.