October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month! This is a great opportunity to raise awareness about a topic that is more pertinent than ever, as recent headlines show, and affects all businesses and organizations. To help in that effort, below is a curated list of helpful articles from our resource archives. All nine of these articles give businesses and organizations practical advice on how to keep their data safe. Read through them, and share this post with your friends and colleagues!

One of the best lines of defense against the threat of fraudulent emails impacting your organization is to raise awareness, which has become a key component of a holistic cybersecurity strategy. To help you get started, here's a test. Take a look at the email below, which was sent from the email address office@365.com. The "User ID," which is blacked out, was the recipient's email address.

Would you click the links in this email?

Check out the Nashville Medical News website for coverage of some of the exciting changes we have announced over the last few months. From our new name and tagline to Betsy Wright's new role as Vice President of Operations to our exciting momentum in growth, we are thrilled to be sharing our story with this community!

Join us on Wednesday, July 20th, at the offices of Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, a prominent employment law firm, for a Breakfast Briefing event titled "Cybersecurity for the Wired Employer: A Survival Guide." Sean Wright, Affinity's Founder and President, will join Mallory Schneider Ricci, a founding member of Constangy's Data Privacy Practice Group, in a presentation that will arm employers with tips for crafting employment policies and technology systems make adequate provisions for data privacy and cybersecurity. 

On Monday, the Nashville Post featured a Q&A interview with Sean Wright, Affinity's Founder & President. Sean discussed wide ranging topics, including Affinity's rebrand, Nashville's booming tech scene, and advice for business leaders on how to defend against breaches and cyberattacks.

In our work, we see a lot of businesses’ technology systems. That means that we’re familiar with signs that a company’s systems may be vulnerable to threats that could lead to a breach of data. Here are the top 10 cybersecurity red flags we encounter in our work:

When it comes to purchasing computers, it’s best to balance the needs of employees with the company’s operating budget. Investing wisely in technology usually doesn’t involve buying the cheapest hardware on the market, but it also doesn’t have to break the bank.

Affinity is proud to partner with the Pathway Women's Business Center to join the "Grow Your Business with Digital Media" event sponsored by PWBC, along with SCORE and Dex Media. The free half-day symposium, which centers around equipping small business owners to grow their businesses through technology, will take place on Tuesday, 5/3 from 8:30 a.m. until noon at the Tennessee Banker's Association Barrett Training Center.

It has now become commonplace for businesses and nonprofits to outsource their IT needs to a trusted technology partner, often referred to as a managed services provider. Outsourcing IT can be a powerful way to boost growth and profitability, as it allows IT experts to efficiently handle your IT in a cost-effective manner, while you focus on doing what you do best. This only works, though, when the managed services provider is equipped to meet your business needs and aligned to work well with your staff.

3n1media is excited to announce that Eric Ross has joined our team of Systems Engineers! Eric comes to us after working for Premier Radiology as a Senior System Engineer, where he managed over 60 virtual machines as well as the company’s EMR software. He previously worked as a Systems Administrator for the State of Tennessee and as an IT Support Specialist for another managed IT services firm in Nashville.