In recent years, there has been much debate about how companies collect, sell, and use personal data. Many businesses make extra money by selling data they collect about people. This might seem like a side effect of all the data we create online, but it can lead to some tricky problems. Today, we'll look at something called the "data-broker loophole," how it works, and what we can do about it.

Over the past few years, artificial intelligence has become a bona fide buzzword amongst businesses of all sizes, with 97% of respondents to a Forbes survey seeing a potential benefit in some way, shape, or form. However, with it being integrated everywhere in our modern lives, it is important that we remember that AI is still a human invention, as such, it is vulnerable to our own implicit biases.

Any business can benefit from data and use it to improve its operations. This is especially the case where information technology is involved. By collecting the right metrics, you can better evaluate your business IT’s performance and identify areas for improvement.

Let’s review what some of these metrics should be.

Recently, artificial intelligence has become a widely discussed topic among businesses of all sizes. According to a Forbes survey, 97 percent of respondents see potential benefits in incorporating AI into their operations. Despite its pervasive integration into modern life, however, it's crucial to recognize that AI is a human creation and, as such, is susceptible to bias.

Most nonprofit organizations rely on grants to fund their operations, meet goals, and achieve their mission. This means these grants are absolutely vital for these types of organizations. There are a lot of different types of grants out there, and many organizations can usually find very specific grants for the type of work their nonprofit does. There are also specific grants for technology, allowing the organization to achieve the funding to develop or refine existing technology, or establish technology that will help them achieve their mission. We’re going to touch on the importance of modern IT and how it can make a massive difference for nonprofits of all types, and talk about a few places to start when it comes to getting technology grants.

Identity can be a complex thing to discuss, but in terms of security, it’s fairly straightforward. You either are who you say you are, or you’re not. With the metaverse taking off, individuals will need to be careful about how they are authenticating their accounts and identities, but what does this mean for businesses?

How much information does your typical book hold? If you haven’t read it yet, go back and read our last blog about how much data is stored in the Library of Congress, then come back here to learn more about the everyday applications of data and how much we store on a day-to-day basis.

It isn’t a secret that technology has come so, so far as compared to just a short time ago. Take data, for instance. Let’s dive into why something so incredibly small is so incredibly important (and while we’re at it, how much space today’s data would take up in other formats).

If Edgar Allan Poe worked in an office, here’s what one of his works would sound like:

True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I have been and am, but why will you say that I am mad? The office had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was my sense of hearing. I heard all things in heaven and on earth and many things in…the other place. So, how then am I mad, especially when I can so healthily and calmly tell you this story?

With cryptocurrency having its heyday over the past few years and the increased attention it has brought the blockchain, it should be no surprise that another trend has arisen. NFTs. or non-fungible tokens, have been all the rage as of late… but is this trend something that might apply to businesses?

Per our role as cybersecurity professionals, part of our responsibility is to put the developing threats out there in the world into perspective for the clientele that we serve. After all, with so many modern threats seeming to border on science fiction, it is only natural for smaller organizations to assume that their size will protect them from such attacks through simple lack of interest—or even that such threats will never be used practically at any significant scale. Unfortunately, these assumptions are too often mistaken.

Business success is largely based on the quality of the relationships you develop with your prospects and clients. Of course, no relationship is ever easy, and they usually don’t number in the hundreds. To simplify things for you, we want to discuss a tool that provides a lot of benefits: CRM software.

Portable Document Format files (better known as PDFs) have become incredibly common as a means to save documents in a constant and consistent format that can be viewed on just about any device. They also allow users to make some simple changes to make it even easier to review the data they contain. Here, we’ll go over a few options for this year’s first tips.

Blockchain technology is all the rage these days. Business owners are going to start hearing this buzzword as a bullet point in software solutions. Developers from all over the world are trying to harness the power of encrypted, distributed data, mainly due to the reputation that blockchain has regarding the “unhackable” permanence of the data stored upon it. However, it as powerful as blockchain is purported to be, it isn’t totally infallible.

As the technology that businesses have available to them develops, so does the propensity for this technology to be used unethically. This has become especially apparent where data collection is concerned, and what that data is used for after it has been collected. How can you keep operations moving both productively, and ethically?

Election Day for the United States is November 6th, and regardless of your feelings regarding U.S. politics, the fact of the matter is that millions of Americans will soon go to the polls and cast their ballots. Unfortunately, what many of them don’t realize is how insecure their voting machines actually are, and how they are potentially putting their vote at risk.

Security is a necessity. Every technology professional will tell you this, but in an age where employees are taking information on the go, it’s trickier than it’s ever been before. Encryption is one of the ways that businesses are attempting to shore up their security, but this also requires having an encryption key. This week’s technology term is all about encryption, as well as how encryption keys protect your business’ data.

Businesses of all sizes have come to depend on their IT for productivity. IT administrators that constantly monitor their network and infrastructure reduce downtime, leading to higher resource availability. With the increasingly complex makeup of an organization's network this becomes quite the task.