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SCW has been serving the Spokane Valley area since 1997, providing IT Support such as helpdesk support, computer support, and technical consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Sam is a network engineer with a broad range of experience spanning more than 35 years. He wrote is first piece of code in 1979 and has been involved with the industry ever since. For the last 20 years, he has worked for SCW Consulting where he has embraced his passion for network technology and security.

Tip of the Week: How to Pick the Best Wireless Headphones for You

Tip of the Week: How to Pick the Best Wireless Headphones for You

A reliable pair of headphones is swiftly becoming an office necessity, and wireless capabilities have improved enough to make a wireless set comparable to its wired counterpart. However, there are plenty of other considerations for you to make when selecting a pair to help boost your productivity. For this week’s tip, we’ll review some of these deliberations.

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Ransomware Attack Strikes Atlanta

Ransomware Attack Strikes Atlanta

Ransomware can target all kinds of entities, but one of the most devastating attacks in recent memory was launched against Atlanta, Georgia earlier this year. Atlanta suffered from an incredibly sustained and powerful ransomware attack that disabled much of the municipal government.

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Is it Better to Shut Off Your Computer, or Just Put it to Sleep?

Is it Better to Shut Off Your Computer, or Just Put it to Sleep?

It’s the end of the day, and you’re faced with a dilemma - shut down your workstation, or simply put it to sleep for the night? This is a topic that is debated quite often. We’ll compare the positive and negative aspects of both approaches to identify which is the better option.

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ALERT: Change Your Twitter Password, Says Twitter

ALERT: Change Your Twitter Password, Says Twitter

Twitter is recommending that all 336 million users change their passwords as soon as possible due to the discovery of an internal security flaw. While the issue has been fixed and no data breach seems to have taken place, Twitter is clearly taking this situation seriously.

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Tip of the Week: It’s Possible to Change Your Windows Password Without Knowing Your Password, Here’s How

Tip of the Week: It’s Possible to Change Your Windows Password Without Knowing Your Password, Here’s How

In a recent survey, it was discovered that the average computer user has a whopping 27 online passwords to remember. Unsurprisingly, the same survey found that 37 percent of people forget at least one password each week. For many online services, forgetting a password means simply resetting it via email, but what if you forget your Windows password?

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Tip of the Week: 4 Dead Giveaways That an App is Fake

Tip of the Week: 4 Dead Giveaways That an App is Fake

The applications on a mobile device allow us to use that device in a number of ways, from productivity, to entertainment, to networking. However, despite the efforts of Google to keep out the riff raff, the Google Play Store has plenty of malware available to download in the guise of a desired app. Today, we’ll review a few tricks to help you spot them before pressing ‘Install.’

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World Backup Day Highlights the Importance of Backup Practices

World Backup Day Highlights the Importance of Backup Practices

March 31, 2018 is World Backup Day. Data is a commodity, but unlike other commodities--it can be replicated without hurting its value. As a result, data backup has become a critical need for the modern business. World Backup Day has been created to remind people to protect their assets by backing up their files.

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Understanding a Government’s Approach to IT

Understanding a Government’s Approach to IT

IT is important for more than just businesses. Governments and other similar organizations that handle top-secret information or important operations should also dedicate considerable resources to guaranteeing security and efficiency to the best of their ability. In the wake of so many dangerous entities, governments are having trouble keeping up with the latest trends, often at their own expense. What can your business learn from this development?

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Internet Troubles? The Reason May Be a Simple One

Internet Troubles? The Reason May Be a Simple One

A slow Internet connection should be the least of our worries, but somehow, this most minor of inconveniences can be one of the most frustrating experiences in modern computing. Fortunately, there are a few ways to potentially improve your connection. At the very least, they might help to explain why your connection suffers.

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Can You Answer These 5 Crucial Questions About Your Data Backup?

Can You Answer These 5 Crucial Questions About Your Data Backup?

Of any solution that might help your business out of a jam, a data backup is possibly the most important. However, a backup is only as reliable as it is configured to be. To ensure your backup is optimized to your business’ needs, we’ve compiled a few questions to ask as you examine your backup solution.

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Tech Term of the Week: Dongle

Tech Term of the Week: Dongle

Words are always changing to meet the needs of the times. As they grow in usage, new words are added to dictionaries on a daily basis. Today’s Tech Term, dongle, is one of these words. Have you ever heard it being used before? It might sound a bit silly at first, but dongle is a word that is used in technology more often than you might think.

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These Companies Provide A Benchmark For Password Strength

These Companies Provide A Benchmark For Password Strength

We are never shy about insisting that certain standards are met when devising passwords, but many major companies are seemingly far less worried about password security than we are. A recent study conducted by the password manager developer Dashlane paints a troubling picture of the state of password security, providing anecdotal evidence in the form of some very well-known and trusted companies scoring at the low end of the password security spectrum.

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What to Expect of Ransomware this Year

What to Expect of Ransomware this Year

Ransomware exploded in 2017, and after a year with as much success as these attacks saw, it is no wonder that 2018 is expected to see more. However, in order to remain successful, ransomware will have to change and improve. In today’s blog, we explore a few predictions as to how this threat will do so.

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Are You Able to Identify Malicious Links?

Are You Able to Identify Malicious Links?

The Internet is gaining quite the reputation as a dangerous place. It hosts countless threats, many of which hide behind links that shield their intentions. Considering how much is on the line for your business, you need to make sure that you know which links are safe to click on, and which ones are best left ignored.

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Tip of the Week: Managing your Cloud Data

Tip of the Week: Managing your Cloud Data

There’s no denying the importance of data management for businesses, but companies that utilize cloud-based data storage and infrastructure access have to be extra aware. How can your business ensure that your data storage methods are working for you, and not against you? For this week’s tip, we’ll discuss some of the ways that businesses can best use their cloud-based data storage without compromising efficiency.

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Tip of the Week: How To Keep Twitter From Telling The World Where You Live

Tip of the Week: How To Keep Twitter From Telling The World Where You Live

You may have noticed how social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter often share the location of any pictures you post, if they are set up to do so. Well, you’ve probably asked yourself if your device will share this information automatically, or if you have to enable this setting yourself.

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IT Security Starts and Ends With Your Staff

IT Security Starts and Ends With Your Staff

We wish IT security was as simple as setting up a good firewall and installing an antivirus. We talk a lot about security solutions that cover a lot of your bases, such as our Unified Threat Management (UTM) system. While these enterprise-level solutions are important, any investment in protecting your network can be upended by a single act of user error.

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Antivirus Fights More than Just Viruses

Antivirus Fights More than Just Viruses

Antivirus is one of the simplest means of protecting a computer network, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a business should overlook the benefits of having an antivirus. If a business doesn’t have antivirus on its systems, it’s usually because they really don’t believe they are in any danger. The harsh reality emerges after a data breach. Regardless of its size, any business holds the kind of data that would draw in thieves and rogues. From Social Security numbers to credit card numbers to many other kinds of personally identifiable information, businesses possess plenty of data that can bring in a pretty penny on the black market.

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Popular Font 'Calibri' Enough To Prove Documents Falsified

Popular Font 'Calibri' Enough To Prove Documents Falsified

A corruption case in Pakistan has taken a new twist, thanks to an unexpected source: Calibri. The font is being examined as key evidence, as its presence in key documents has caused a few bumps in the case. This is because the font is used in documents that are dated a year before the font was released.

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Tech Term: Spam

Tech Term: Spam

Spam: it’s something that just about every computer user has heard of, and knows is bad. However, how much do you really know about spam? For today’s Tech Term, we’ll slice into the different types of spam, as well as some theories as to where the term itself originated.

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