Thank you for your many years of loyalty an professionalism representing this company toward our client.

It is with mixed emotions that we announce the retirement of Joe Kosuda, who has provided excellent service to our clients throughout our central New York region for over 23 years. In his time with our company, Joe was an outstanding performer and has always fostered great relationships within the company and in our clients’ offices. Joe is known for his affable nature, his ability to reach clients at a human level and always gets the job done, timely and efficiently. We wish Joe all the best in his retirement, and we know he will be a success in all his future endeavors in the years to come.

Congratulations Phil Hettler for your 5 successful years representing Usherwood Office Technology! Your dedication and loyalty to this company is appreciated and we want to recognize you on this important milestone.

No one likes hacked accounts. Am I right? A hacked account can result in financial loss, identity theft, or just a whole lot of wasted time. None of which is fun. But unfortunately, you don’t have too much control over what is or is not hacked when it comes to third party data breaches. All you have control over is the aftermath. So, if you happen to find yourself on the receiving end of a data breach, here is what you should remember.

When is Skype for business ending? Skype for business is ending on July 31, 2021. For the next few weeks, it will continue running to allow customers time to transition to Microsoft Teams, but immediately following July 31st, the platform will no longer be supported by Microsoft. After acquiring Skype for business, Microsoft began working on a more comprehensive communication option which became what it is known by today, Microsoft Teams. Are you ready for the transition? To help you out with the process, we have put together some tips to make the transition as seamless as possible.

Usernames and passwords are quickly becoming the sole way we maintain privacy and security of our sensitive information. We exist in a world where everything you do requires some form of password, whether it be getting into your online banking, logging onto social media, or entering a passcode to get into your phone. As we continue moving towards a virtual world, it is more apparent that most of our personal information lies in our hands phone applications and online presence. For this reason, it is important that people know the importance of a secure password and the dos and do nots to ensure credentials and sensitive information is not leaked.

While the number of people falling for sending personal information to the crown prince of Nigeria in hopes of receiving his promised wealth and riches seems to be dropping, phishing remains a major issue. In fact, the number of phishing campaigns pursued by hackers around the world had a 667% increase within the last year that were using the coronavirus as a lure. What exactly is phishing? Hackers mimic the emails, forms, and websites of legitimate companies in an effort to lure people into providing their private, personal information, like credit cards numbers, social security information, account logins, and personal identifiers. The victim typically doesn’t realize they’ve been compromised until long after the event, and oftentimes only after their identity or finances are affected. In the past, an attack was carried out relatively quickly. As soon as the victim gave up their information, the hacker moved in and stole money from the compromised bank account. Today, it’s often more lucrative for hackers to sell that information on the Dark Web, resulting in longer-lasting, even more devastating attacks.

In the last decade, billions of people have had their information stolen from one, if not multiple, business sectors. Technology is constantly expanding, and with new technology comes new ways of hacking into seemingly secure data. As technology advances, people tend to forget about outdated technology and are lackadaisical about security. Outdated devices, human error, malware and theft are all things that contribute greatly to the possibility of a data breach. It’s important to ensure companies are well aware of all possible breaches in order to secure them. No business wants to face the PR nightmare other companies have.