We saw a statistic the other day that really boggled our minds. LoJack, a security firm that specializes in theft, estimates that two million laptops are stolen each year. That's about a one in ten chance that your laptop will fall into someone else's hands. What can you do to prevent that?

To most people, computer viruses are things that cause annoyance, downtime, and cost money to fix. That's pretty bad on it's own, but some viruses are much more complex than others and can be far more dangerous. Let's look at Stuxnet, coined as the first weapon made entirely out of code, and why it is so frightening.

Television and films have almost desensitized us to the very idea of dangerous viruses. From nonsensical 'hacker' jargon in crime investigation shows to Jeff Goldblum using a computer virus to save the world from an alien invasion. While they might not have their science down, computer viruses can be crafted to do cause some pretty serious trouble.

Stuxnet is a computer virus that was discovered in 2010, infecting computer databases in power plants all over the world. It has some very specific features that target nuclear reactor, specifically centrifuges that spin nuclear material at Iran's enrichment facilities. Viruses like Stuxnet aren't just fabricated in basements by angry, malevolent computer nerds - hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of data, meticulous research, and even knowledge of very classified internal systems all go into the development.

On top of that, viruses like Stuxnet can be available for anybody to find and toy with - it could be retooled for other malicious purposes.  Check out a short video about the threat of the Stuxnet virus.

Network security is becoming increasingly important for businesses, corporations, and organizations of all sizes. Malicious software is becoming more intelligent and more devastating, and even harder to purge from infected computers. Taking proactive measures is necessary to ensure business continuity.

Is your network at risk of malicious viruses, worms, and malware? Contact us at 888.505.2880 to get an evaluation of your network's security.

Business owners, this one is definitely for you. You've probably experienced the fact that shaving expenses here and there can lead to more flexibility and long-term savings, but at what cost? Are you limiting your company by nixing those extra services and costs? Sometimes you can get more and still save money. Let's look at a few ways Southern California businesses can do just that.

The problem with carrying around an expensive, portable piece of equipment is that it's possible for someone to pick it up and run with it. According to LoJack, a security firm that focuses on stolen property, two million laptops are stolen each year. What should you do if you are a victim of laptop theft?

Unfortunately cell phone service providers are discovering that smartphone users love their bandwidth. With the majority of carriers dropping unlimited data plans, when a user goes over their limit massive charges can apply. Let's cover a few tips to limit the amount of bandwidth you use on your smartphone.

Google has gradually become a major part in our lives. Most of us use it every day to find answers, research products, and determine what Southern California restaurants are open on a Sunday night.  Google is on our phones, we watch videos on YouTube, and we get from point A to point B with Google maps. So what does Google know about us?

Whether you are going completely paperless or just want to send digital copies of paper documents, there are a lot of solutions out there for quickly scanning a doc and converting it to PDF for easy archiving and emailing, but most of these devices aren't exactly portable. Here's a quick way to digitize documents with the camera on your Android smartphone.

If you've been using computers for a while, then there has probably been at least one point in your life that you've lost data. Maybe it was something you were working on when your computer crashed, or maybe a disk failure wiped out some data. Does this bring back memories of frustration and angst?

There has been a growing trend where businesses are allowing more employees to work from home or other remote locations. Technology makes this possibly by letting users remote into their work environment securely as if they were sitting at their desk at the office. VoIP phone solutions can even bring the worker's office phone to them, no matter where they are.

At Manage My IT, we hate seeing our clients suffer from slow computers, bogged down networks, and other computer issues that prevent work from happening seamlessly. That's why we are so passionate about proactively safeguarding your network BEFORE issues happen, in order to prevent expensive downtime.