Capstone Works Blog

When you think about the data your business processes and stores on a day-to-day basis, it’s pretty easy to disconnect it from the people you do business with. After all, it’s your company data. That being said, a lot of the information that businesses collect comes from their customers. If something happens to that data, whether it is lost, stolen, breached, or sold, it can have a negative impact on your customers, which not only looks very bad for you, it can also result in legal action.

Austin, Texas is a thriving tech hub, sometimes called Silicon Hills. With an active tech scene and a growing number of tech companies, there is a lot of opportunity for a small business to grow and thrive. To stay competitive in this tech-savvy environment, businesses in Austin need to embrace technology and ensure they have reliable IT support. A good IT consultant can help businesses in Austin navigate the complex world of technology, providing expertise and support to keep their operations running smoothly and securely.

By choosing the best Austin-based managed IT consultant for their needs, businesses can benefit from specialized services tailored to their requirements. Whether it's network security, data backup and recovery, or cloud services, a reputable IT consultant can help businesses in Austin optimize their technology infrastructure and stay ahead of the competition.

Just about every business owner finds themselves searching for a trusted IT consulting service at some point. Establishing and maintaining a complex business network is essentially a full-time job, and even the smallest businesses start to run into some pretty tough hurdles when it comes to this process. Once you mix in the modern-day line of business applications, user management/active directory, and cybersecurity best practices, even the most technical users are going to fall short of the knowledge and skill required to keep the gears turning.

Disasters tend to happen when you least expect them to. That’s what makes them disasters. A bad situation is often made much worse simply because you didn’t expect it, and that can be the case here. Let’s say an employee suddenly quits, and deletes all of their files on the way out. This can be a sticky situation, so here are a few ways to handle it when it happens, and a few ways to prepare for it just in case.

We all use email almost every day for work. Day after day, week after week, our inboxes are flooded with notifications, password resets, correspondence, invoices, marketing stuff, and countless other types of information. Have you ever thought about what a cybercriminal could accomplish if they had access to your email inbox?

A newly released report reveals that there were over 3,000 reported data breaches in 2023. This resulted in the personal information of millions of people being stolen. The average cost of one of these data breaches was $4.45 million. Almost every single organization polled (97 percent!) reported that they have seen an increase in cyber threats since 2022.

Cybersecurity is absolutely critical today, and it’s a problem that everyone needs to be aware of. As a regular person, going about your day, you might not even notice if you are the victim of a data breach.  Because of this, most people have a big forcefield of blissful ignorance that makes them feel immune to the bulk of cyberthreats.

But that’s the point—the best cyberthreats are hard to spot. You don’t realize you are being scammed.

As your business grows, or as you invest in expensive technology solutions to assist your business growth, you may need significantly more help managing, maintaining, and supporting the technology within your organization.

This usually happens when you outgrow your current computer support provider or get too busy to research, learn, and take care of everything yourself. Either way, you must focus on your business and need someone else to handle your IT.

Sure, you can hire internal IT staff; in some cases, that’s a pretty good call. We will discuss some pros and cons and alternative options before you spend a ton of money you don’t need to.

Austin, Texas is among the best places in the country to start and grow a business, and for good reason. We’ve got a great situation; we’re in a great place to raise families, and we have some of the best and brightest people in the talent pool. With all this growth and potential, however, Texas businesses have a proportionate risk to fall victim to cybersecurity threats.

With the increasing number of cyberattacks and data breaches, it's more important than ever for companies to prioritize cybersecurity compliance. In this article, we'll explore the importance of cybersecurity compliance and the role it plays in protecting Texas businesses and their customers.

With the ever-changing landscape of technology and the increasing presence of cybersecurity threats, it's crucial to have a well-planned and strategic IT budget in place. Let’s discuss the steps you can take to plan your organization's 2024 IT budget to prevent excess costs and get the most out of your IT investment.

Data is the lifeblood of any business. From customer information to financial records, data is essential for making informed decisions and driving growth. It’s also your responsibility that the data you keep on customers and prospects stays safe. That leads us to the big question—do you know where your business stores its data?

The time when businesses could ignore cybersecurity has long since passed. For over a decade, the general consensus among decision-makers for small and medium-sized businesses was that cybersecurity was a luxury item; a want but not a need. Ten or fifteen years ago, this wasn’t too far off, as typically just covering your business with some basic protection was usually enough to stop most problems. Today, we’re in a very different landscape.

When it comes to managing IT issues, some companies still rely on the older way of doing things. In our industry, we call this the break-fix model. This approach involves waiting for something to break and then paying someone to fix it. While this may seem like a cost-effective solution, it can actually lead to more problems and inefficiencies in the long run.

In this article, we'll explore the break-fix model and why it's an inefficient solution to IT problems. We'll also discuss alternative approaches that can help your business save time, money, and headaches.

When it comes to disaster recovery and business continuity planning, one of the most important metrics to consider is the Recovery Time Objective (RTO).

But what exactly is RTO, and why is it crucial for your organization? In this article, we’ll dive into the definition of RTO, its importance, and how to determine the right RTO for your business.

Ransomware is every business owner’s worst nightmare. It not only brings with it an aura of desperation, but it also brings with it numerous practical issues that can really harm a business. It is not overstating that it is one of the most abrupt and serious problems that a business can have with its technology. 

Most people these days are somewhat familiar with the traditional attack vectors of cybercriminals. Because of this, the bad guys are always exploring alternative options for spreading malware and stealing data, often in places where you would least expect it.

Here are three unexpected cybersecurity risks that you and your staff need to be aware of.

Are you a business owner in Austin, Texas looking for a reliable and efficient way to handle all of your IT-related needs? Look no further than managed IT services. In today’s digital age, technology plays a crucial role in the success of any business. From communication and collaboration to security and compliance, IT covers a very wide area within any organization, and as a business grows, it becomes harder to manage with in-house staff. That’s where managed IT services come in. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of managed IT services in Austin  and why they are essential for your business.

Businesses, especially those in our native Austin, rely on technology more and more all the time—and with this increasing reliance, these businesses need a reliable IT infrastructure. A reliable managed service provider will be a huge asset in this regard, but it's important that you work with the right one. Let’s talk about some of the considerations to have when selecting your managed IT provider, and walk you through the process of making the best decision for your business.

Austin, Texas is undeniably one of the world’s largest tech hubs. Some of the largest tech companies in the world have installed themselves in Austin thanks to a large number of factors. For instance, the cost of living tends to be much more reasonable compared to other tech-based cities, the lack of state income taxes attracts business, and the generally nice year-round weather and recreational scene attract great people who want to accomplish great things. We love it here, from the growth opportunities, the talent pool, right down to the Keep Austin Weird bumper stickers.

But Austin businesses do face some additional challenges that come with being some of the brightest, most forward-thinking organizations out there.

AI has been the buzzword of the year when it comes to the technology world, and for good reason. While what we know of as “AI” isn’t necessarily new, and it isn’t even technically artificial intelligence, it’s definitely becoming a groundbreaking new industry that is changing the way a lot of businesses and individuals do things. That being said, like all technologies, it can and will be used for nefarious purposes.

For most people, the only thing protecting all of their personal data, their email, access to all of their online accounts, their bank, and more, is just a handful of characters. It’s estimated that there is about a 20% chance that any given account doesn’t have any sort of multi-factor security, so if you can figure out a person’s password, you might be able to gain access to whatever you want.