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The Top 10 Tech Mistakes Small Businesses Make (And How To Avoid Them): Pt 5

Published on: March 3rd, 2012

We’ve made it to the final post of our 5-part series on helping small businesses avoid common and costly tech mistakes. Thanks to those who have stuck with it to the end. If you’ve missed any, check out the previous parts:

Part 1: Weak Tech Support and Old, Cheap or Inconsistent Hardware
Part 2: Inadequate Power Protection and Illegal Software
Part 3: Inadequate Training and Weak Security
Part 4: Insufficient Data Backup and Virus Vulnerability

Mistakes 9 and 10: Top Tech Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Toping off our list of the Top 10 Small Business Tech Mistakes are #9 and 10, Spyware Threats and Spam. Learn more about these common mistakes below.

Mistake #9: Spyware Threats

Spyware programs pose as big a risk to small businesses. Whereas viruses work to replicate themselves, distribute unwanted email, attack other systems or even render PCs inoperable, spyware typically intercepts user information and relays it to third parties, and often redirects user commands. For example, spyware can monitor a user’s personal or confidential information and send it to a hacker, or prompt so many pop-up advertisements that a system essentially becomes unusable.

Making matters worse is that, like viruses, spyware usually installs itself without the user’s knowledge. This covert tactic is a primary factor in why some estimates state that 80% of PCs used in businesses are infected with spyware.

Small businesses should be just as vigilant about protecting their systems from spyware as they are about virus protection. To get started, we recommend the following steps for combating spyware:

• Install a reputable antispyware program and keep it updated.
• Perform regular antispyware scans.
• Do not allow antispyware licenses to expire.
• Avoid forms of free security software.
• Avoid clicking links within pop-up advertisements and unsolicited email messages.

Mistake #10: Spam

SPAM can mean several things these days, but most often it refers to unsolicited commercial mass emails received from unknown and/or untrusted senders. Email is an indispensable business tool, which makes it even more problematic that SPAM accounts for almost half of all email you and your staff will receive. Radicatti Research Group Inc. estimates that SPAM costs businesses over $20.5 billion annually in technical expense and decreased productivity. Fortunately, despite it’s prevalence, SPAM is one of the easier issues for small businesses to protect against.

Our recommendations for combatting SPAM line up with those of the The United States Federal Trade Commission, and include:

• Do not display your email address in public (such as on a website).
• Avoid responding to or forwarding electronic chain letter email messages.
• Treat the following types of email with care: money-making opportunities, work at-home schemes, weight-loss programs and product ads, credit recovery/counseling, and advance fee loans
• Use a reputable email filter.
• Leverage unique (not easily guessed) email addresses.
• Review a websites’s privacy policy before providing your email address.
• Read and ensure you understand web forms before submitting personal information.

We hope that this series has given you some solid, actionable information on how to avoid typical tech mistakes made by small businesses. The benefits of these protection tactics begin with you taking action, and are deepened with the involvement of a professional Computer Troubleshooter specialist. Find a Computer Troubleshooters office and start the process of transitioning the IT aspects of your business from a potential liability to a professional asset.