Information Technology News & Information

Finally, A Solution for PDF to Word Conversion!

The days of retyping PDF documents into Word documents is over. Adobe has come up with a subscription based service to convert PDF documents into editable Word documents. The solution is known as Adobe Export PDF. For $1.99 per month, Adobe allows the user to convert unlimited PDF documents into Word or Excel format. There is no program to install, the conversion is made, and then the document is available for download. The service is available through web browser and mobile device. During the conversion, Adobe Export PDF will keep the formatting as well. So, a financial document will be converted to Excel with the proper columns, headings, etc. Signing up for the service is easy and can be done here. You’re able to choose how to pay for the service: Monthly Annually Additionally, documents can be converted to Rich Text Format (RTF) and scanned documents can be formatted to Word and Excel as well. This service makes life so much easier for anyone who’s struggled with typing out PDF documents into Word documents. Find out more about the latest services available to simplify your workday. {company} is here for all of your information technology needs. Call {phone} or email us at {email}.

Information Technology News & Information

Establishing a Web Filtering Policy With 3 Simple Steps  

It’s no secret that at times staff and management alike spend a portion of company time perusing the internet for sales, checking up on social media, and even taking in the occasional cute kitten video or two. As many as half of all employees are taking part in these midday indulgences, which can wreak havoc on productivity. You may think there is little you can do about the situation, seeing as your workforce needs to access the internet to perform, but in reality, your hands are not tied. It is absolutely necessary to implement some sort of policies regarding internet use in the workplace, however before doing so you must first look at your individual business, and how policies enforcing internet use will affect it. How much of a priority is web filtering for you, and how will productivity and creativity be impacted when web filtering is implemented. Every business is different, so your answers may not be the same as someone else’s. While creating a web filtering plan is a critical component to your technology roadmap, there is no one size fits all solution. It is hard sometimes to find that perfect balance between shifting to a more mobile and independent workplace and maintaining strict control over the activities occurring on company time. Some sort of regulating is necessary in order to meet the compliance mandates that a lot of companies face, as well as for security reasons, to keep threats minimal. Developing Your Web Filtering Policies So, what is the best way to approach web filtering? On an individual, user by user basis. The goal is to use these tools to maximize productivity, but avoid negatively impacting the company by imposing creativity stifling limitations. Well, implementing web filtering policies may not be easy, but I can offer you these three simple steps to begin creating your web filtering plan. Establish a General Policy – The first step is to block malevolent websites, and establish a general policy that applies to all employees. This will make employees unable to access sites that contain content that is unacceptable for the workplace, such as violence or nudity. In addition, the general policy should block sites known to contain malware by default. Clearly Identify Roles and Categorize Them – Identify the different roles within your company and categorize them. You can them group them into common requirements, and apply filters that pertain only to those groups. For example, you can limit the access certain departments have, based on their need. This allows you to give certain people, such as designers, management, and others access to areas of the internet that those in the finance department would have no use for. Regular Review and Revisions – Once the policies have been put in place it is still necessary to regularly review them, and revise them accordingly. Upon review you may find that some applications are consuming too much bandwidth, or too much employee time is being spent on something unproductive, meaning policies need to be changed and adjusted to realign with your business goals and values. This is a job for a strategic technology advisor, as they can help you answer those difficult questions about web filtering and internet use in the workplace, guiding you to the best decisions for the most favorable outcomes. A good technology advisor can help you align company policies with your personal and professional goals, helping you use you your technology to it’s full potential and get the maximum advantage from it. To learn more about web filtering and the importance of a technology advisor reach out to the experts at {company}. Call us at {phone} or send an email to {email}.

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What Is The FBI Asking from Apple?

The iPhone belonging to the couple who shot 14 people in San Bernardino is embroiled in a hot debate. The FBI is asking for Apple to give them access to the device, and Apple is stating privacy concerns as its reason for not complying. So what exactly is the FBI asking for? There have been cries of creating a “backdoor” into the device which Apple states could compromise the security and privacy of every iPhone. The FBI states this is not the case; they just want access to this particular iPhone. Self-Destruct Mode One of the issues with the iPhone is the erase feature, which can be activated. This occurs after ten unsuccessful attempts to enter the passcode onto the main screen. The entire phone is wiped clean within minutes of the last attempt, and then the phone is useless. Which Version? Another concern with this iPhone is the version of this particular model. This model has some variation of iOS 9 on it and an A6 chip. This means that this is one of the most restrictive phones for getting data without the passcode. Each subsequent model of iOS made encryption more complicated and jailbreaking even harder when the phone is locked. Without the passcode, the encryption key will not be activated and will keep the data hidden. Any extraction will result in only the file system and metadata being viewed. TV Makes It Look Easy While the actors in the shows can catch the bad guys within 30 to 60 minutes, this is not actually the case in real life. There are tools available to law enforcement or other protective entities to determine the passcodes for phones, but the tools only work with the permissible versions of the devices. One such tool, IP-BOX, worked with early versions of the iPhone because it exploited a vulnerability that it found. This vulnerability has been patched in later versions. Other choices only work with specific versions of iOS. None of these choices are currently usable for the iPhone in question. What About a Thumbprint or the Cloud? Again, this is specific to the version of the device. While the iPhone 5s allows for the thumbprint feature, this specific phone is an iPhone 5c. This is the model before Touch ID was introduced. The cloud offered some information, but the data discovered was, at least, a month old. There were no further back-ups to the cloud because the password was reset and needed to be re-entered before any further cloud back-ups could occur. What’s In The Phone?Here’s the rub, the phone could contain no useful information. Then again, it could. The FBI cannot determine this until they get into the phone. Phones normally store contact information, email, messages, phone numbers, notes, schedules, etc. Additionally, some phones have location information and logs of places visited. This information is available when the correct passcode is entered. This is what the FBI wants to know, is there anything useful on this phone to determine further motives for this attack or to offer information for future attacks? Their current situation requires the assistance of Apple to determine this. AppleApple’s concern is multi-faceted. They stand behind the idea that privacy and security issues will be born if they help the FBI gain access to the iPhone. If they help the FBI, who else will begin asking for help to access iPhones? Every model of iPhone has a deeper layer of encryption added to it, with the current models having the most intricate. Apple does not want to establish that there is a way to break these phones. Another concern is the apps that could be found on this phone. Most app developers have added their own level of encryption that Apple cannot help with. So the FBI might be able to access some information on the phone, but other information will need to be unlocked as well. Find out the latest technology concerns you need to know about. {company} is here to handle all of your technology needs – from monitoring to maintenance to security. Call {phone} or email us at {email}.

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Ransomware Criminals Infect Thousands with WordPress Hack

An unexpectedly large number of WordPress websites have been mysteriously compromised and are delivering the TeslaCrypt ransomware to unwitting end-users. And what’s worse, Antivirus solutions are not yet catching this is. In the last few days, malware researchers from Malwarebytes and other security firms have reported that a massive number of legit WordPress sites have somehow managed to be compromised, and are silently redirecting visitors to sites with the Nuclear Exploit Kit.  It’s not yet clear how the WordPress sites are getting infected, but it is highly likely that there is a new vulnerability that is being exploited in either WP or a very popular WP plugin. “WordPress sites are injected with huge blurbs of rogue code that perform a silent redirection to domains appearing to be hosting ads,” – Writes Malwarebytes Senior Security Researcher Jérôme Segura in a blog post published Wednesday. “This is a distraction (and fraud) as the ad is stuffed with more code that sends visitors to the Nuclear Exploit Kit.” The compromised WordPress sites were hacked and included encrypted code at the end of all legitimate JavaScript files. The malware tries to infect all accessible files. The attack tries to conceal itself, and the code redirects end-users through a series of sites before dropping the ransomware payload. Once a WP Server is infected, the malware also installs a variety of backdoors on the machine including. 5 Things to Do If You Run WordPress: Patch Server Operating Systems. Patch WordPress, does your current web provider do this for you? Get rid of as many WP plugins as possible and patch the current ones. Update all your WP instances at the same time to prevent cross-infections. Lock down all WP instances with a very strong password and the WP 2-factor authentication. 5 Things to Do to Protect Your End-Users Keep workstation Operating Systems and 3rd Party Apps updated at all times. Hammett Tech SimpuCare client machines undergo weekly maintenance ensuring the latest patches are deployed on all managed machines. Backup your data and keep daily off-site backups. Regularly TEST, and then TEST again to see if your restore function actually works. The latter is often overlooked. If you don’t have your data backed up to off site storage, our SimpuCloud Backup solution provides a low consists fully managed backup and business continuity solution all in one. Run the latest V5.5 of Microsoft’s Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) on workstations. Step all users through effective security awareness training. This should be a yearly exercise for every business. Employees should be educated on things that could affect your productivity and cause unneeded downtime costing your business money. {company} offers comprehensive IT security solutions that will safeguard your vital data and networks from malicious attack. Contact {company} today at {phone} or send us an email at {email} to discuss how our offerings can enhance and protect the functionality of your operations

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Can Selfies and Sales Data Mix?

Are your employees grabbing company mail on their personal devices? Do they have access to business information across many devices? You are not alone. Companies are looking to safeguard sensitive information while their employees are looking at data on-the-go. There was a study done that over half of all workers have at least three devices that they use for work related activities. In addition to work related activities, these devices are also used for personal use. This means that these devices have access to sensitive company information and also little Suzie’s birthday party. The concern becomes the inadvertent sharing of sensitive information by a slip of the fingers when trying to share video or photos from little Suzie’s party. Some companies have put into place policies and procedures that direct the use of personal devices for company business. The only issue with this is that even with policies and procedures put into place, almost 95% of employees polled stated that they did not follow these policies to the letter. So, while having employees more accessible is a good thing, there is also an increased risk of data breaches. This can either be from an inadvertent slip of the fingers or having personal devices hacked. In light of this, companies have looked to many choices to safeguard their information. Many solutions safeguard some of the aspects of the data (i.e. restricted to certain devices) but not all. So, businesses have put together several solutions to cover the different scenarios. There hasn’t been one solution to cover everything. Until now. Microsoft has developed an enterprise solution that will cover almost every device and app that workers use to conduct their business. Microsoft Enterprise Mobility allows the worker to have a single sign on to enter this solution. The service covers the following: Android iOS Windows Windows 10 2,500+ SaaS apps. This means that the cloud is also covered because the solution runs in the cloud. Running in the cloud allows the service to perform maintenance, conduct updates, and easily scale the service to accommodate businesses without a disruption to the business. This solution offers the ability to have real-time knowledge of suspicious activity or abnormal behavior on the device. Detecting this early means that sensitive information can be safeguarded. The devices trying to access the system can be checked for location and health before they are allowed to interact with the business information. These layers of protection can offer great piece of mind for the business. Find out more about the latest solutions available to safeguard against threats of all types. {company} manages all of your information technology – keeping you prepared and operating efficiently. Call {phone} or email us at {email}.

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Promoting Employee Awareness Of Ransomware

Ransomware is essentially a digital mechanism used for extortion. Most commonly, ransomware attacks encrypt the victim’s data and then demand a ransom for the return of the information. Data is an incredibly valuable asset, many people are willing to pay for its return. Unfortunately, paying the ransom is the worst decision you can make as a ransomware victim. Paying the ransom does not guarantee you will get your information returned, or will be returned decrypted. Modern crypto malware uses encryption schemes that seem to be unbreakable, so paying up may feel like it’s your only option to get your data back. We will discuss every aspect of ransomware, from how it happens, how not to be vulnerable, and the best course of action if you do fall victim. Ransomware Basics As cybercriminals become increasingly aware that ransomware victims are willing to pay to get their information back, the prevalence of ransomware and its variations will continue to rise. A common ransomware scenario is as follows. The victim receives and email from what appears to be a friend or other trusted source, and the email contains an executable link. The file is opened unknowingly because it appears to the recipient as innocent, and immediately this triggers the download of crypto malware. The victims files are then encrypted and held hostage for a ransom in order to get the decryption key. A different, more sophisticated crypto malware mechanism is delivered a Trojan of the Zeus/Citroni virus, which is easily purchased by attacks for only a few thousand dollars. This sum is not significant when considering the hundreds of thousands of dollars it can earn the cybercriminal. Attackers are able to drop the Citroni into a user’s computer using the Angler exploit kit. This particular ransomware contains a number of unique features, and according to researchers is the first ransomware that used the Tor network to command and control. Regardless of the delivery, victims are often made aware of the attack via the appearance of a dialogue box, informing them of the infection, and demanding a ransom amount. Users are often told that they have 72 hours to pay the ransom or the decryption key will be destroyed and their information will be lost forever. The Big-Business Of Ransomware A large number of victims simply pay the ransom and chalk it up to the cost of doing business in the digital age. And because of this, ransomware is big-business for cybercriminals.One of the most famous ransomware variations called “CryptoLocker”, has infected tens of thousands of machines, generating millions in revenue for the attackers behind it. The numbers don’t lie, and the threat of crypto malware is increasing, with attack reports in the millions, and growing by leaps and bounds every year. As long as people are willing to pay the ransom, the threat will continue.  Statistics show that up to 40% of victims pay the ransom, helping attackers rake in an estimated $30 million a quarter. Because of the inability to decipher files that have been encrypted by modern spyware spawns, there is an additional threat, that of a false remedy. Users who are desperate to resolve tier issue without paying the ransom search the internet for help and stumble across software that claims to fix the encrypted data. In reality, there is no fix, and the software is either a useless waste of money or worse, distributes additional malware. The Evolution Of Ransomware Cybercriminals become more sophisticated in their methods with every passing year. In the beginning, the first crypto malware used a symmetric-key algorithm, using the same key for encryption as for decryption. This made it easier, with the help of anti-malware vendors, for the encrypted information to be decrypted. It didn’t take long for attackers to step up their game, and they began using public-key cryptography algorithms that use two separate keys. Public key for encryption, and a private key for decryption. One of the first public-key crypto systems to be used by cybercriminals was called RSA, and experts were able to crack a 660-bit RSA code, but soon after the authors switched to a 1.024-bit key, making it practically impossible to decrypt. Ransomware Defense It is not possible to decrypt files that have been encrypted by modern crypto malware. This means the only measure of defense one has is it to keep data safe by backing up files. Unfortunately, a regular backup is not enough, as it leaves files that have been recently changed unprotected. Many ransomware variants are intelligent enough to look for backups and encrypt those as well, including those residing on network shares. In response to this, Kaspersky has developed an alternative method of defense, based on the System Watcher module. Don’t leave yourself vulnerable to malware attack. Contact {company} to discuss how to stay ahead of cybercriminals and ensure you are never left without your important information or resources. Call us at {phone} or send an email to {email}.                      

Information Technology News & Information

10 Must Know Cybersecurity Tips Your Employees Need To Follow

Most people are well aware of the very real threat of data breaches and cyber attacks, as they constantly make their way into headlines over and over again. Making sure your data is not at risk is crucial, and properly educating your employees is an important component of doing so. Employees are often at fault for security breaches, and more times than not it is done so unknowingly. Too often attackers are able to prey on the negligence or lack of education of employees to gain access to important and sensitive data. Training and educating employees can help minimize the risk posed to your data, and make your workforce more aware of the potential threats, and how to navigate them. Regular and Open Communication – It is important to communicate openly and effectively with employees, especially in regards to cybersecurity. Take to the time to educate your employees on the potential impact of a breach, and be sure to clearly define the employee’s duties in protecting the network. Include Management and IT Staff In the Education – Cybersecurity training needs to be the standard for all employees, including IT staff and upper management. Anybody who uses company assets needs to know how to do so safely. IT staff need to be well informed because of their unrestricted access to the network, and management needs to understand the policies and practices for mobile access, and understand they have access to some of the companies most vulnerable data. The System Is Only Secure As It’s Weakest Link – It is critical to make sure all employees understand that you make ever reasonable effort to ensure the company infrastructure is secure, but they play a large role in this as well. It is important they are not only compliant, but offer full cooperation in working to implement and maintain a policy that covers all possible attack vectors. Human error is unavoidable, but awareness and help to minimize instances. Conduct Focused Sessions To Educate – New employees join the team all the time, and cybersecurity training should be part of their training and orientation experience as they could be using the systems non-compliantly for some time before regular training sessions occur. Make sure these sessions are compiled of the most useful information and consider presenting it in an original way to make it more effective. Use relevant examples to illustrate, such as social media, or current news stories. Use Extra Caution Around Social Engineering Activities – All employees need to know to be aware of social media and suspicious links found in blogs and unknown sources while at work, or on work devices. Caution is a must, as many cybercriminals are unobvious and often pose as somebody who wouldn’t be suspect of such activity. Attack Recognition Training – Always develop your policies with the assumption you will suffer an attack at some point. Make sure the response plan is well documented and known, and that it is reviewed and updated on a regular basis. Employees need to know exactly how to proceed if they become aware of an incident. Training should clearly outline the rules for both email and web browsing, as well as social media and mobile devices. Encourage Employees To Speak Up Or Act On Concerns – You want to make sure your employees feel confident and comfortable red-flagging anything that causes them concern or alarm. A false alarm is better than suffering an attack, and proper training can ensure there are minimal false alarms reported. Keep Your Employees In The Know During Incidents – Transparency goes a long way in matters such as these. Keeping employees well informed can help reduce the impact of the incident. Make sure employees are well instructed on how to speak of the event publicly, and ensure there is a plan in place before an event ever occurs. You may also wish to consider insurance for cyberincidents. Regularly Test Employee Knowledge – It is easy to gauge the knowledge and understanding your employees have of cybersecurity by regularly testing and reviewing their knowledge. Results will indicate where further training is necessary. Listen and Be Responsive To Feedback – If your employees feel comfortable approaching you and offering your feedback the information they provide can be very beneficial. They will tell you where policies need to improve in regards to accessing the information they need to do their jobs, how manageable guidelines are, and where they can see room for improvement. Listening to their feedback can provide insight into the cause of root problems. When aligning with {company} as your technology partner we help you through the training and education process by providing education for our client user base on an annual basis in an effort to better protect our client’s data and system. Do you need help managing your cybersecurity needs, policies, and protocols? Contact the experts at {phone} or send us an email at {email} to learn how we can help you.

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Do You Know Who Sees Your Data Once It’s In the Cloud?

Technology is evolving and so should your business. As the years go by, the virtual world is making the life of a business owner a little easier and cloud computing is a contributing factor. You are now able to access your data anytime, anywhere, from any device. Being able to focus on your business while letting someone else run your datacenter can be a huge relief. But, there is one worry many cloud users tend to have, and that’s security. It’s troubling not knowing if your most sensitive data is hidden and protected from outsiders. This is where end-to-end encryption plays a key role. Sure, there might be an option to encrypt within the cloud, but this gives those at the cloud base the ability to access your most privy information. You should be encrypting your files before transferring to the cloud, and then only you will have access to the key or passphrase. You won’t have to worry about your data being compromised when you do it yourself. You also have full control over the files you encrypt and only you can access those files and read the contents. Encryption software that allows you to encrypt your data before transferring to any cloud provider: SpiderOak SpiderOak is US-based and has datacenters all over the world. It allows you to access, synchronize, and share your files with any cloud-based server. They offer encrypted cloud-storage and client-side encryption, but the preferable one for your business would be client-side encryption. SpiderOak’s encryption key creation prevents their employees from having access to any of your sensitive information or encryption keys or passphrases. Their “zero-knowledge” data encryption provides high security that prevents sharing and web access. Your passwords are never stored onto their servers and your files are always safe and secure with their backups and secure password management tools. BoxCryptor BoxCryptor is compatible with all major cloud-based provider. Your files will remain protected regardless of which one you use. This program securely encrypts your data and files before you transfer them onto the cloud anytime, anywhere, on any device. You have full control over the files you encrypt while also keeping full control of the encryption key and passphrase. Anything from personal information to corporate data will remain solely in your hands. Viivo Viivo is easy to use whether you’re using it for an individual or a company. Their public key cryptography secures all files and folders before you seamlessly sync your data onto the cloud. It works almost identically as DropBox and supports multiple platforms and mobile operating systems. You can use it with DropBox, Box, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or any other popular platforms. This program also automatically compresses your data before storing it onto your cloud, which saves you space and money. Encryption is always automatic, creating an easy to use framework and cutting down on complications. Viivo is one of the more popular programs, for their ease-of-use and layered encryption. This software is commonly used and trusted by industries such as: Government, Accountants Healthcare, and {company} puts the security of your sensitive data at the top of our priorities. If you haven’t moved your business to the cloud, now is the time, and we can help you. Book an introductory assessment now. You can contact {phone} or email us at {email} to speak with one of our IT specialists.

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Bugs In Routers Proven to be More Common Than You’d Think

Wi-Fi devices, including home routers, are vulnerable to hackers because patches are rarely applied and updating software is difficult after release. Well over a year ago, attention was brought to what would be a web security vulnerability of epic proportions, with the receipt of an email by a small software company. The email, sent by a computer security researcher, stated that a flaw in one of the software company’s programs was putting millions of people across the globe at risk of falling victim to being hacked. Allegro Software Development Corp set their engineers to analyze the flaw in the program, which can help users access the controls of home Internet routers. Upon investigating, something very odd became apparent, this particular bug had been fixed 10 years prior. Yet here it was, continuing on in new devices. The reason for this was a component maker had included the outdated 2002 version of the Allegro software with its chipset, and it had yet to be updated. These chips, specifically, are used in the making of more than 10 million devices by router makers. Router makers have responded by stating they weren’t aware the bug had been fixed by later versions of the software. Problems with Computer Security This particular instance shed a great deal of light on an ongoing security problem in computer security: It is difficult to fix bugs after they have been released and often gets overlooked completely. In order for this to be done, the creator must develop the fix, or “patch”. Once this is done, potentially millions of users need to be alerted, and are required to install the patch themselves, regardless of technical ability. This creates vulnerabilities at many points. Patches often are not distributed, and when they are, users fail to install them or are unaware of the patch, meaning hackers are given a weak link to exploit. Routers Specifically The problem Allegro specifically had was that they were unable to apply the patch because they have no access to the effected devices. That being said, all the company can do is urge manufacturing companies to use the latest version of the software, but there is no way to require them to do so. The Wall Street Journal conducted an experiment in an attempt to better understand the problem with routers and commissioned a computer researcher to test 20 well known Internet routers, all purchased within the last six months. It quickly became evident that a problem of great magnitude was upon as, as the following results were revealed: Half arrived with well known, documented security weaknesses, running outdated firmware. 4 in the group were running outdated firmware that had subsequent updates that could potentially contain undocumented security problems. 10 of the 20 tested routers didn’t easily allow for users to check for new software during the initial setup process. Users were required to run optional programs instead, or search the Web. 2 of the routers told users that no software updates were available, when in fact they were. 1 even directed users to download software that had a documented severe security flaw. These findings align nicely with those of another investigation done by a former researcher at Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., who was also responsible for finding the Allegro bug that has been deemed “Misfortune Cookie”. This is because it allows hackers to attack the router using malicious Web cookies. In Internet scans conducted by the researcher in the spring, it was found that almost 80% of the routers that originally contained the Misfortune Cookie were still vulnerable. This was 5 months after device makers made public announcements. The Problem With Router Makers Security is being put on the back burner by router makers. It is the end user, not them, who pays the price for poor security, therefore, the focus is on cutting the price in order to win contracts, not on the device’s security. Several router makers have gone on record saying security is a priority for them, with many having plans to improve how they notify users of new software. Currently these notifications are usually dependent on the user noticing an update on the routers website. In addition many manufacturers also stated that routers are fixed according to how new they are, with routers a couple of years old or older rarely getting fixed. You need a trusted technology partner that specializes in keeping your technology up-to-date with the latest patches. Call {phone} or email us at {email} to find out more about our managed IT services.

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Business Advantages to Technology Leasing

In our fast-paced, highly competitive lives access to technology is essential in order to maintain a competitive advantage. This critical technology, however, does not come without a price. While views on IT are constantly changing, one thing remains consistent. The approach on funding, as cash still dominates. Many businesses opt to pay cash up-front for technology-based equipment and IT services. This is a means of effectively prepaying IT expenses, many years In advance, giving little to no thought as to how their needs will change over time. IT hardware is likely to depreciate in value over time and has a range of hidden costs associated with it, including, installation of the equipment, managing and maintenance of the assets, and removing data once it reaches end-of-life. Benefits of Leasing IT Equipment Changes appear to be headed our way where the investment of IT equipment is concerned, and the leasing of such equipment is becoming a far more feasible option for many organizations. By leasing the necessary equipment, the ownership risk is transferred from the business owner to the lender. Also, financing costs are able to be claimed as an operating expense. Another major benefit to leasing is that it can free up cash flow that can be better served being used for other business purposes. How It Works Operator leases work by the lender paying for the customer’s required equipment. The customer then agrees to lease or rent the equipment for an agreed period of time, generally a period of a few years. Once the duration of the term has lapsed, the customer has several options available to them, as described below: The equipment can be returned, and exchanged for updated models. Continue the rental term on a month to month basis, taking the time to evaluate costs, financing options and improved technologies before deciding your next move. Purchase the IT equipment for market value or use a combination of all of the above. Tips For Leasing IT Described below are several useful tips to help ensure you get the most out of your IT lease. Be sure to use an asset management solution that will manage your IT equipment for the entirety of its life-cycle, including removal at the end-of-life stage. Take special note of return clauses and policies, as it should be simple to return the equipment. Ensure the IT provider has your security in mind. Determine their policies for wiping your data upon return of the equipment. Regularly review contracts to look for ways to create more flexibility from the lender. Take the time to clearly understand your annual IT spending’s. An Asset Finance specialist can provide guidance and advice on the different financing options, and your accountant can help to determine what is the right choice for you. To learn more about opportunities for technology leasing contact {company} at {phone} or {email} and talk to one of our information technology experts.