Washington Works Blog

If you’ve ever looked at your phone—or your laptop, or whatever allegedly “smart” device you happened to be using—and wished that things were how they used to be, you certainly aren’t alone. You aren’t imagining things, either… this perception of the products and services we rely on getting worse over time is widespread enough to have its own term, which has expanded beyond its social media-specific origins to all technologies, regardless of whether it's hardware or software. This term was actually named to be 2023’s Word of the Year (per the American Dialect Society), beating “AI” in relevance.

That word? Enshittification, as coined by tech critic and author Cory Doctorow. Let’s explore the concept and what it inevitably leads to.

Let me ask you something: say you had promised to protect someone, keeping them safe and healthy. Would you want them to actively partake in risky—and in many cases, completely avoidable—situations? Of course not. So, why would a business’ insurance provider want to provide coverage if that business did nothing to prevent a cybersecurity event?

They wouldn’t… and as a result, many providers are establishing minimum safeguards and compliance requirements to help protect themselves. Let’s go over what these safeguards are so that your safety nets will be there when you need them.

Collaboration with external vendors is a necessity. From software and cloud services to marketing and logistics, vendors are crucial partners that enable your business to operate and compete. This often requires vendors to access your business' sensitive data. Without proper controls, granting this access can expose your company to significant risks. Let's take a look at why vendors probably don’t need access to all of your data.

Two things are invariably true in the modern business landscape: technology will play an integral role in operations, and obtaining this technology will require a relationship with vendors and service providers. As such, anyone seeking to run a business successfully must interact with these external parties and enter into business contracts.

This needs to be handled carefully, so while we aren’t offering legal advice, you should follow a few practices before and during the negotiation of an IT contract.

Running a business is like juggling flaming torches while riding a unicycle, blindfolded. You’ve got employees, customers, operations, and, of course, vendors. Vendors keep the gears turning, but if you’re not careful, those relationships can turn into a never-ending headache that eats up your time, money, and possibly your sanity. So how do you make sure your vendors work for you, rather than the other way around? Here’s how to get the most out of them without losing your mind.

How many vendors are you managing? Probably quite a few. Now, think about how much time you spend on each one. What if you could reduce that time to almost nothing? We have some great news for you.

Perhaps predictably, the word “insure” has roots that tie it closely to “ensure,” as it is meant to ensure a level of security after some form of loss. Nowadays, that loss often pertains to data, making cyber insurance an extremely valuable investment for the modern business to make.

However, in order to obtain this kind of insurance, businesses commonly need to meet some basic requirements. Let’s go over some of these requirements now.

If you watch technology news, you might notice that there is one day out of every month that gets a lot of attention from the technology sector, and that day is what is called Patch Tuesday. This is the day each month when Microsoft issues all of their patches and security updates, and it’s important to know when this day falls each month—at least, for your IT team it is.

Businesses go through a lot of technology, but how does your organization dispose of electronics that are no longer in use? Let’s discuss this incredibly important topic, as the improper disposal of devices could not only put your organization at risk, but also the environment.

2020, unsurprisingly, has decided to go out with a bang, as it has been revealed that the United States was targeted in the largest cyberespionage attack to date. Let’s go over what this attack means, and how things will need to play out in the future.

While information technology is an important part of the modern business and its processes, it isn’t always the easiest topic for the average business user to figure out. In this series, we’ve been exploring how a managed service provider can add value to your business and its IT. Here, we’re focusing on how the managed service provider can serve as a knowledgeable consultant.