I have a curious question for y’all. Who is your role model? Who is that someone whom you want to be, or hope to one day grow to become? Who is that one person you look up to so much? For me, it is my mother. My mother is the strongest woman I know in my life – no matter what struggles or emotional pains life hits her with, she still continues living each day to its fullest and never lets these sufferings depict or pave out her life. There is this one video from my childhood

What do y’all think of the name Teddy for a dog? Ok, close your eyes and imagine a cute small white-ish mini labradoodle or poodle with a furry body and floppy ears. Now on the count of 3, what’s the first name that comes into your mind? Is it Teddy? Or is it Pappi? Charlie? Bear? It’s Teddy isn’t it? (Yes, I am asking you for that validation I need for my future dog that I may or may not even get). Ok, but back to the story. For those of you who did not read last week’s arti

Do you like dogs? I like dogs, especially those small mini ones. In fact, I have already decided that if I were to get a dog in the future, it would either be a mini labradoodle or a poodle. I mean, they are just so cute with their furry bodies and floppy ears! But I am digressing. There is actually a point I am trying to make here! Now what if I told you that online puppy scams are a thing and has amounted to over $300,000? Now that is a scary and worrying thought isn’t it.

COVID-19 is a roller-coaster. Why do I say that? Well, just this time last year, Singapore was in its Circuit Breaker or “Lockdown” period due to the steep rise of migrant worker cases. But after that died down and Singapore slowly but surely moved to Phase 1, 2 and then 3, we thought that Singapore had COVID under control, and that we were almost back to “normal” (except with face masks of course)! But just recently, one year after our “lockdown”, we face yet another wave of

In this day and age, technology plays an integral role for businesses attempting to reach their goals. While the dependence on technology varies for each company, the situation is simple: each business needs to ensure their IT system is functioning at its best. If you or your employees are competent with computers, you will have the know-how to complete standard IT-related tasks. This can include everything from managing updates to installing antivirus software. Yet if you wa

What is a Man-in-the-middle Attack (MitM)? A man-in-the-middle attack requires three players. There’s the victim, the party with which the victim is trying to communicate, and the “man in the middle,” who’s intercepting the victim’s communications either to secretly eavesdrop or modify information traveling between the two. Critical to the scenario is that the victim isn’t aware of the man in the middle. Man-in-the-middle Attacks are commonly used to steal login credentials,

The key is this: if you want to stop a hacker, you got to think like a hacker! So what are some of the psychological techniques used by hackers to commit cyber crimes? #1: Providing something the victim needs The most common psychological trick is quite simple: providing, or seeming to provide, something the victim needs. Many of us scoff at emails promising free products, but it can be much more crafty than that. Perhaps you’re at a conference when the Wi-Fi goes down. Befor

Yes, yes, I know, you will probably tell me that you can easily spot an email threat. I don’t doubt you one bit! But with email attacks on the rise, this ‘probably’ simply isn’t enough anymore! And the reality is that cybercriminals are definitely taking advantage as we move further into the pandemic and adjust to this new normal – especially since people are partly working from home or outside of the office! Here’s the thing. There are over 3.9 billion active email users in

Let me just put it out there. IT and Telecommunications are the lifeblood of any company. If your systems aren’t working and your phones aren’t ringing in your new office then you can’t operate. It cannot be overstated that getting this aspect of your office move wrong (i.e. delays & downtime) can have dire operational and financial consequences for your business. And when it comes to commercial office fit-outs, planning is crucial, no matter where your office is located. Exp

Did you know that more and more of our clients are migrating from a pay-per-use or utilization based support service agreement to our managed service? This means that all their IT expenditure is wrapped up into one recurring monthly fee, giving your people the best tools to do their jobs and the business a predictable IT spend. It changes the relationship into one where we act in the capacity of a complete outsourced IT capability. But why Managed IT Services? Why pay a month

Smart Hands IT Support Service is becoming a more and more essential service that’s being offered by IT companies, especially now more than ever before! With borders restrictions and the need to quarantine for 2 weeks in Singapore before being allowed to go around, it is challenging and costly for businesses overseas who have local clients in Singapore who need technical help and support! So this is where Smart Hands comes into play! What is Smart Hands? Smart Hands is an on-

One of the biggest misconceptions about Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is that many people believe that this phone system is only ideal for big businesses. However, in reality, VoIP has many features that small business owners can take advantage of! Now, before we move on to the benefits of VoIP, let me first answer the question of “What is VoIP?” for those of y’all who are not too sure what it is exactly. VoIP allows users to make and receive calls using a broadband int

As companies sent millions of employees to work from home, and, more recently, kids went back to school remotely via video meetings with teachers, organisations’ attack surfaces expanded exponentially. Meanwhile, attackers had a heyday with COVID-19 related attacks. All of this means a ton of overtime work for security professionals. According to a Microsoft survey, a majority of business leaders reported budget increases for cybersecurity (58%) and compliance (65%) as their

Let me ask you this, doesn’t it seem like new major cybersecurity breaches are happening almost every day? Of course, the bigger the company, the greater the cost of downtime caused by an attack. Companies with 250 or more employees were revealed to be more than two times more likely to be targeted for an attack as companies between 10 and 49 employees. However, don’t get me wrong – this does not mean that small and medium sized companies (SMEs) are immune to such attacks! Al

Now, let me quickly educate you on something here. You all know of this thing called the World Wide Web, right? I mean, you are practically using it right now to read this very blog article! But did you know, that there is also this thing called the Deep Web, and this other thing called the Dark Web? Sounds ominous doesn’t it? Well, this photo basically sums up to you what the 3 different layers are. But that aside, let me just explain it a bit more for you. Inside the Deep W

Cybersecurity preparedness is one of the major obstacles businesses are facing today. Yet, despite the increased focus on making companies cybersafe, there are several common cybersecurity misconceptions that still pervade the business world. And if you or your employees believe any of the myths below, you could be opening up your business to unknown risks or potential cyberattacks. So here are 11 cybersecurity myths you need to stop believing right now: Myth #1: Small and me

Email is a popular messaging method used by many, particularly in organisations. However, dangerously it is also an effective entry for cybercriminals to enter your domain with spoofing and phishing attacks becoming common via emailing. In an organisation, it could only take one employee not being sufficiently vigilant about email security to compromise the safety and security of countless others, and even the whole enterprise. In fact, your employees are the biggest vulnerab

Tell me if this is not true. You probably have read many stories about people being scammed in Singapore. But here’s the thing. You probably think that that will never happen to you. Am I right? I mean, what are the chances that you would unwittingly fall victim to such scams? But in reality, more than S$7 million has been lost to scammers posing as technical support staff in the first four months of this year, an increase of more than 40 times from the same period last year!

This article was taken from the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA). When you learn to spot the signs of phishing, you can better protect yourself and your loved ones against phishing scams. Phishing is a method in which cyber criminals use to fraudulently obtain your personal and financial information such as your login details, bank account numbers and credit card numbers. They often disguise themselves as a legitimate individual or reputable organisation in email, ins

COVID-19 has indeed turned what used to be our “normal”, one eighty! And in response to this pandemic, everyone had been suddenly and abruptly forced to work remotely. No transition or preparation period whatsoever. But while many employees might be currently enjoying the luxuries of working from home – sleeping that extra hour in the morning, not having to dress up for work, finally having the time to exercise after work, not having to squeeze like sardines in the packed tra

It’s a whole new world really. A whole new normal that everyone is forced to adapt to overnight. Gone are the days where colleagues can simply shout across the office or roll their chair to their colleagues’ cubicle to ask them a question. With everyone no longer working in the same office, and thus working remotely, confusion and unproductivity can result if employees do not have the right tools. Managing your employees and IT while working remotely is therefore crucial to t

As governments around the globe scramble to launch contact tracing to accurately map the transmission of COVID-19 amongst their citizens, this inevitably has led to an invasion of privacy, with applications (apps) about the pandemic being retooled to track a person’s every step. Some governments have even opted to launch a mobile app, which allows users to scan QR Codes at any location they are at, thus accumulating a database of users’ location, allowing the healthcare indus

As the number of new local cases of COVID-19 remain low, and there is the gradual easing of Circuit Breaker measures, it’s time that we take a step back and consider the new security challenges during our return to the office. In fact, no matter which country you are living in or current social distancing in right now, everyone is more or less in the same boat. This pandemic has driven huge, immediate changes to both our personal lives and working lives. I mean, it has litera