Author: ARRC Technology

If you want to retain your employees, you better make sure they’re happy.  In a way, your staff is like your children.  Do they feel loved?  Appreciated?  Supported?  Because if not, once they’re all grown, they’ll leave you and never look back…

Happy employees won’t just stick around; they are motivated, loyal and in it to see your business succeed.  So, in another way, a happy employee is kind of like the goose that laid those golden eggs; they’ll lay golden eggs of productivity all over the office.  Imagine what you could do with three, four or even an entire staff full of them (other than throw one heck of an Easter egg hunt).

So, how do you make your employees happy and then, keep them that way?  Well, it’s really not as hard as you might think.

Here are four very simple ways to keep those golden eggs coming your way.

Exclamation points all around!

Positivity is a no brainer.  How are you supposed to have happy employees if you and your staff are a bunch of Debbie Downers, choking on negativity and spewing cynicism?  You can’t.  It’s impossible.

All you need in order to create a positive environment is a little encouragement.  And (hint, hint), it doesn’t hurt if it starts from the top.

Throw out some praise, reassurance and kudos every now and then.  Tack a cheesy motivational quote to the front door of your office, email an inspirational story to your staff every Monday and thank them for all their hard work after every meeting.

Yay or nay?

Even if it’s a nay, employees want to know how they’re doing, what they’re doing wrong and how to make it better.  If they work and work and work and never receive any feedback, they’re basically in limbo—they don’t know what you think of them, where they stand and if they’re doing a good job.  How can anybody be happy with that much doubt surrounding them?

That’s so sweet.

It’s important to show your employees that you care.  Sure, you could always tell them, but what’s better than showing them?

Bring a box of donuts in one morning, give them a random day off or host a company BBQ.  Anything (no matter how small) will make a difference.  Not only does this promote positivity but it encourages collaboration, as well.

Speaking of collaboration…

If your employees can’t work with each other, then you have a problem.  If they’re constantly on the verge of an office-wide rumble, you also have a problem.

Your employees don’t have to like one another.  But, they should be able to work with each other.  If they can’t, changes should be made.  Whether you train your staff on interpersonal communication or you make an effort to implement weekly group exercises, you should do it fast.  And, really, it doesn’t even have to be that difficult.  Introduce applications like Lync or Dropbox into your daily operations and you’ll experience a notable jump in communication… and productivity.

For some reason, data breaches keep popping up to say hi; they follow us everywhere we go.

In 2014 alone, Data Breaches could have taken you out to dinner (P.F. Changs), remodeled your home (Home Depot), picked up your groceries (Albertsons), shipped that package for you (UPS), taken you for some ice cream (Dairy Queen), bought you a new pair of pants (Bebe) and then taken you for a movie (Sony).

And, that’s only the beginning.

Want to chat 2015?

Try Kaspersky Lab, one of the largest security firms in the world.  Even they were hacked.

Want to incite a full on panic attack?  Try LastPass.  (Don’t know who they are?  Check out their website and you’ll understand why I would say panic attack.)

Enough about that, though.  Let’s get to the how-to.  And, since a key target of data breaches is credit card information, here are some tips and tricks to keep your credit card from jumping ship.

Ask for a replacement.

If there’s another data breach and you feel that you are directly affected by it, immediately request a new card.  If possible, deactivate your current card.

Monitor account activity.

Watch your accounts daily.  By doing so, if one of your cards is compromised, you’ll immediately see external charges (instead of two, three or five days too late).

Maintain your passwords.

Keep strong passwords that are unique to every account you have.  Change them as often as you would your toothbrush and never save them on websites.

Monitor your credit score.

About once a month, check your credit score.  There are a multitude of legitimate sites that offer free credit reports.  Exploit these avenues.

Follow your card.

When you purchase items with your credit cards at stores, keep an eye on it at all times.  Make sure the cashier isn’t jotting down your number or photocopying it in the back room.

Lock your phone.

Nowadays we use our smartphone to check our bank, purchase items and store personal information.  So, don’t leave your phone unattended and make sure it always has a secure lock.

Understand phishing.

When someone asks for your number over the phone, through email or by any other means, make sure you trust this person, organization or source.  Figure out a way to verify the source before sending anything.

Don’t go public.

Never use a public device to purchase items or send personal information.  Keep it close to home and secure.

Shred everything you can.

Purchase a shredder and shred all statements, bills and important documents.  Don’t leave important numbers or background information just hanging out in the trash, waiting for someone to find it.

Carry less, not more.

Plan your trips and pack accordingly.  If you’re going to Wal-Mart, only take the card you need to complete your shopping trip.  Don’t bring all 20 of your credit cards.  Lock them up at home.

Days following the announcement of a security flaw in Android’s media playback system Stagefright, a new security vulnerability has been discovered.

According to security firm, Trend Micro, the new security threat affects all devices running Android 4.3 to the present version, 5.1.1. That’s around 57% of all Android devices in use today— or more than 900 million devices.

Like Stagefright, the new bug developed from the way that Android handles video. The mediaserver service used by Android to index media files on the device can crash if it’s exposed to a “malformed” video using the Matroska containter (usually a .mkv file). Once this happens, the Android device will become non-responsive, meaning that the user will not be able to hear a ringtone or any notification sound, accept calls, and if the phone is locked, they will not be able to unlock it.

A hacker could build a website to do this to your phone, with the .mkv file embedded into an HTML page but that could be fixed by restarting the device. However, if an attacker creates an app with the embedded .mkv that autostarts at boot, then the device will crash immediately after it’s turned on.

Unlike the Stagefright bug, this vulnerability does not allow for remote code execution, making it a bit less dangerous.

At the time of publication, Google has issued the following statement:

“While our team is monitoring closely for potential exploitation, we’ve seen no evidence of actual exploitation.

Should there be an actual exploit of this, the only risk to users is temporary disruption to media playback on their device. So, simply uninstalling the unresponsive application or not returning to a website that causes the browser to hang would correct the issue. In addition, we will provide a fix in a future version of Android.”

The release of Windows 10 has been one of great anticipation. It’s all over the internet. There’s plenty of praise regarding the new features such as Cortana, Edge, scheduled restarts, multiple desktops and universal apps. However, you’ve waited this long… So, why not wait a little longer?

Windows 10 won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Here are 5 reasons to hold off.

Take out the bug spray.

It’s bound to happen. There will be issues and you’ll have to wait as Microsoft sorts through them. There have already been a few issues during pre-release that have gotten some people pretty riled up. So, keep what you have for now and wait for the bugs to be discovered and exterminated. Once you decide to jump over to Windows 10, you’ll have a far less stressful experience.

If they’re old, they might not make the journey.

Microsoft has stated that if you have older hardware (printers and scanners included), they may not work properly with Windows 10. Unless you’re willing to go out and purchase new peripherals, you may want to wait a little longer.

One. Whole. Year.

If you meet the requirements for a free upgrade, there’s no reason you shouldn’t wait for at least a little while. Like mentioned previously, the whole bug thing can really put a damper on your user experience. Wait a few months and get a whole year of Windows 10 instead of half a year of glitches.

Microsoft doesn’t mess around with the outdated.

If you’re computer barely meets Microsoft’s requirements to run Windows 10, switching your operating system may not be worth the hassle. You may experience more issues than your elderly PC can handle. If you’re not willing to update your printer, odds are you’re not willing to update your computer either. In this case, waiting is probably in your best interest.

Windows Media Center has no home here.

Windows 10 does not have Windows Media Center. So, if you’re still using WMC for some odd reason and you make the switch to Windows 10, you’ll never, ever see your precious media center again. If it’s that important to you, once again, hold off.