It seems that phishing scams are always on the rise and ever-changing, but the "gift card" scams have been a mainstay for years.  This video will explain how to spot such phishing scams before it's too late.

I won't name names, but I have been shocked at some people I know who have fallen for these scams, including seasoned technical types.  It's best to always be on the lookout and and to be suspicious if you want to avoid these clever phishing scams.

Back in 1999, the first Prometheans were trying to come up with a name for this venture of ours. Earlier tales have been told of how Promethius came to be a part of it, but what I’d like to discuss today revolves around the “Consulting” portion of that storied name.

You see, consulting has always been a major value that we bring to the table, but many of our clients don’t avail themselves of it. In the early years of the Promethius experience, it was very common for Prometheans to be part of our clients’ teams. We attended staff meetings, board meetings and sometimes even staff birthday parties. We consulted on annual budgets, strategic initiatives and even staffing decisions. As technology progressed, however, it became much more common for small companies to departmentalize their tech. It became common practice to rely on software vendors for advice on software functionality, for instance. Rather than work with a trusted advisor to gather requirements and wish lists, company leaders, and sometimes general staff, would start meeting with software vendors and let the demos do their work.

In recent years, many of our prospects/customers approach us already knowing the products and services they wish to purchase. Too often this sort of thinking has led to computer support being viewed as a commodity. Seeking the lowest-priced help desk support can cause some real problems and has left many small companies in dangerous positions in this age of cyber threats.

The risks today are too great to rely on client/vendor relationships. We need to go back to a world of partnership. We need relationships in which we can have real discussions of threats, problems, options and solutions. If there is no trust, then everything seems like a sales pitch. The fact is that the most profitable solution for Promethius, the vendor, is often the “solution” that we would advise against. It would be easy, for instance, to recommend a time and materials solution to our clients that only reacts to problems after they have revealed themselves through some sort data loss or security breach. This kind of arrangement might be good for our bottom line, but it would be irresponsible for us to recommend such a strategy.

So, the moral to the tale is to discuss technology strategies with your trusted advisors and more importantly, choose vendors that you can trust as the number one criterion. View your technology providers as a team of experts that is there to help you make decisions to run your business. If your website developers can’t work with your SaaS providers or your Managed Services Provider, then some changes might be in order because technology needs to work in concert to be effective. Give us a call if you’re interested in discussing your IT strategy.

Supply chain issues abound, and if you plan on purchasing computers this year you had better plan way ahead.  In fact we are advising clients to expect delays as long as six months.  This video explains the situation in detail!  

Nobody likes a "gotcha" in any walk of life, and that certainly holds true in IT.  No one can argue that it pays to be prepared.  This is why we buy insurance, financial advice, medical checkups etc., etc.  

Well, at least we’re all in this together. There is certainly disagreement on where we go from here, but we are all here together now. By here, I mean we’re all immersed in the mess that the novel Coronavirus has wrought. Regardless of your politics, religion, color of your skin or number of genders you believe there are, we are all doing our best to do our jobs from the comfort (confinement) of our homes.

At Promethius, we’ve had this ability for years and most of us have taken advantage of the opportunity from time-to-time. I doubt, however, that many of us will look forward to that opportunity for quite some time in the future. I have had the opportunity to speak with lots of our clients, vendors and friends during this unique time and most of us seem to be in pretty good spirits, all things considered. Sometimes we need a change of pace and it can be a bit of a relief knowing that we have to do it and that the rest of the world has to do it too. Our hearts go out to those who suffer from illness, to those separated from loved ones and to those who have lost their jobs.

If there is anything we can do to help you, as a friend and neighbor, please give us a call. These are weird times, but maybe it’s our opportunity to get back to being neighborly. I don’t know about you, but I’m finding that I have a little more time on my hands these days. Of course, we’re still here and available to help as your friendly neighborhood IT vendor as well. Just let us know how we can help!

If there ever was an industry that perpetually promises “New and Improved,” it’s the IT industry. I can’t think of another high-ticket item that loses value and performance as quickly as a computer does. Selling a two-year-old computer is nothing like selling a two-year-old car, for example. You get my point.

Moore’s Law (which states that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles every two years) has given us computing power which grows exponentially over time (which is partially why computers don’t hold their value, by the way). I think we all naturally assumed that because of this never-ending improvement, computers would eventually become nearly trouble-free.

Gerald is a long-time owner of a substantial construction business, and like most successful business owners, he trusts his own wits and intuition in making business decisions. His keen mind is ultimately what got him to success, so why not keep betting on a winner? But Gerald also knows his limitations.

Last year his intuition was acting up a bit, and he was nagged by a persistent fear of losing valuable data. He finally decided to reach out to me to see if Promethius could audit his backup and disaster-recovery plan. Were there chinks in the armor? We would find out.

NOTE: I want to give you a bit of a warning before I start this article. My writing style is generally up-beat, jovial and fairly casual. Don’t let this style mask the fact that today’s topic is very serious. Please know that this article is written in a spirit of urgency and importance.

O.K. Now on to the article…

Let’s face it, the internet has an absolutely hypnotic effect on people. Many employees sit at an internet-connected computer all day. Only the most disciplined can steadily do their work and keep from straying into endless internet abyss.

They don’t call it the World Wide “Web” for nothing!