Alright, buckle up folks. February might be known for love and flowers, but for digital ne’er-do-wells, it’s another golden opportunity to fleece the unsuspecting with various scams. Stay Vigilant—this February, keep your wits about you because, let’s face it, these folks are getting sneakier by the minute.
Romance Scams: Swipe Left on These
Cue the heart-eyed emojis, folks. Valentine’s Day is coming, which means your digital Casanova might be more Don Juan with a bad intention than your knight in shining armor. Before handing over cash or those steamy selfies, remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably because they’ve copy-pasted that line from the last person they swindled. Be sure to pay close attention because romance scams are all about manipulation, and they thrive in February.
Suspicious Emails: Click and You Might Sink
We’ve all gotten those emails, right? The ones telling you to click a link before your account goes nuclear? In 2025, expect a flood of these digital predators pretending to be your bank, utility company, or even a colleague. Before you click, hover. Hover over that URL to see where it’s actually sending you – if it’s not to the place it’s pretending to come from, it’s a red flag.
Spear Phishing Scam: Personal and Deadly
Here’s the worst part: It’s no longer the big, broad net cast by scammers. They’re using your own information against you. Emails that almost look genuine, mentioning that event you went to last month or a payment you made. How do they know? They’ve been watching, learning.
Phone Scammer Strikes
If you think an email is bad, wait until you get the scam call. “It’s the IRS, and you owe back taxes!” or “We have an arrest warrant if you don’t pay up!” No, these aren’t legitimate callers; these are bandits with a script and a phone line. They aim to spook you into quick, unthinking action. Your first move should always be to hang up.
The Wrap-Up
Listen, I’m not here to rain on your February parade, but these alerts are needed like a trusty umbrella in a sudden rainstorm. Keep yourself protected online. Educate yourself, because knowledge is your best defense. Report suspicious activities to the FTC, share your stories with your more digitally timid friends, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll make February a month where scammers get their heart’s broken and not yours. Stay savvy, friends.
As a small business owner, you know that effective IT support is crucial for keeping your operations running smoothly. But managing your IT infrastructure in-house can be time-consuming and expensive. That’s where IT managed services for small businesses come in. In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of IT managed services for small businesses and how these services can help your business succeed.
IT managed service providers offer a cost-effective way to outsource the management and maintenance of your IT infrastructure to a third-party provider. With IT managed services, you can enjoy all the benefits of a fully-fledged IT department without the associated costs and responsibilities.
One of the biggest benefits of IT managed service providers is improved efficiency. By outsourcing these tasks, you can free up your staff to focus on what they do best, rather than spending time and resources on IT management. This can help your business to operate more efficiently and effectively.
IT managed services can also help you save money in the long run by reducing the need for in-house IT staff and minimizing the costs associated with hardware and software maintenance. Many IT managed service providers offer flexible pricing options, including pay-as-you-go plans and bundled services, which can help to fit your budget and meet your specific needs.
In addition to cost savings and improved efficiency, IT managed service providers offer scalability. This is especially useful if you experience rapid growth or seasonal fluctuations. With IT managed services, you can scale up or down your IT support as needed, without the burden of hiring or laying off in-house staff.
Another advantage of IT managed service providers is their expertise. These providers have a team of trained and experienced professionals who can provide expert support and guidance on a wide range of IT issues. Whether you’re dealing with a technical problem or trying to implement a new system, IT managed service providers can help you find the right solution.
But the benefits of IT managed service providers don’t stop there. These providers can also help you to stay up-to-date with the latest technology and best practices. With the fast-paced nature of the IT industry, it can be challenging to keep up with the latest trends and innovations. But with IT managed services, you can access the expertise of a team of professionals who are on the cutting edge of the industry.
Finally, IT managed service providers can help you implement robust cybersecurity measures to protect your business from cyber threats. With the increasing frequency of data breaches and other cyber attacks, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your business is protected. IT managed service providers can help you implement firewall protection, antivirus software, and other security measures to keep your business safe.
In summary, IT managed service providers can provide your business with the IT support it needs to thrive, without the burden of managing it in-house. From improved efficiency and cost savings to scalability, expertise, and security, IT managed services offer a wide range of benefits for small businesses. If you’re considering outsourcing your IT management, it’s worth considering the advantages of IT managed services.
One of the most common and frequent problems that face many users is a slow, sluggish and unresponsive computer. Thankfully, computer repair is possible and there are actions that can be performed to help alleviate or remove the problem completely. These actions are: cleaning up and removing unnecessary data, optimizing the system, maintaining the hard drive, checking for malware and finally, upgrading the hardware.
1. Cleaning
Cleaning up old and unnecessary data is one of the most common and simplest ways to speed up a computer as a full hard drive can cause massive performance issues. The most common form of cleaning up a computer is uninstalling unused and unwanted software that we tend to accumulate slowly over time. The second most common form of cleaning is deleting old files. If you have trouble finding what files to delete or don’t know where to start, Windows has a built-in tool that can help called ‘Disk Cleanup.’ This tool will automatically search for and display all the potential files that you can delete. To run ‘Disk Cleanup’ you type it in the search box and then select the app of the same name. It will then open a small window with multiple locations that you can checkmark. Checkmark the files you want removed and then press the okay button.
2. Optimization
Optimizing the system is relatively simple and straightforward. Computers that start up slowly can often trace their problem to having too many and unnecessary applications running at startup. To disable them, open task manager and then select the ‘Startup’ tab. From that tab, select the desired applications you want to disable and then click the ‘disable’ button at the bottom. Windows includes a built-in disk optimization tool. To access it, type in the search box ‘Defragment and Optimize Drives’ and then select the app of the same name. Once it is selected, a window will pop up, and you will have the option of analyzing or optimizing all available drives. Select the desired drive and press the optimize button. If you are using a traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD), you can also defragment (defrag) it. Some developers provide their own optimization software such as Norton AV, Lenova and Dell computers. However, in the case of Dell and Lenova, you will need to be using their brand of computer.
3. CHKDSK
If you feel comfortable, you can run CHKDSK. CHKDSK is a built-in tool provided by Microsoft for basic computer repair and it is used to check the integrity and health of the storage device. There are two ways to activate CHKDSK. The first is going into the properties of the drive itself and the second is running it from the command-line (CMD). To run CHKDSK from the drive properties menu go into ‘File Explorer’ and from there go to ‘This PC’ and right-click the desired drive. From the drop-down menu select properties and go to tools and select error checking at the top. To activate CHKDSK from the CMD type cmd in the search box and then run it as an administrator. Once you open the cmd, type CHKDSK /r. This will read the disk and fix any bad sectors it finds. You can also just check for bad sectors by running CHKDSK without the /r. Please note you will have to restart your PC once you run the CHKDSK /r command. You can also select a specific drive by including it after the CHKDSK command (CHKDSK C: /r to check the C drive).
4. Malware
Malware, spyware, and adware can significantly slow down your system even if everything else seems normal. The most common method is to run your relevant anti-virus software you have installed and if not you can run the built-in ‘Windows Defender’ program that comes with Windows. Other free antivirus software includes Super Anti-Spyware, Malwarebytes, Webroot, and McAfee.
5. Upgrade
Upgrading and replacing a PC’s hardware can greatly increase the speed and performance of a particular system. A common upgrade, in basic computer repair, is increasing or upgrading the RAM of a computer. Another sure fire way to increase speed and reliability, especially for older computers, is to replace the HDD with a newer Solid State Drive (SSD). Unlike an HDD which uses slower mechanical moving parts. SSD’s use flash memory instead which makes read and write times exponentially faster. If you upgrade your HDD to an SSD you don’t have to worry about losing data as disk cloning software can replicate your old hard drive to your new one.
As you can see, there are many ways to improve the performance of your computer. Some of which can be done with the preinstalled software included with your copy of Windows. If you ever feel like your PC is not working as fast or is as responsive as you remember it. Give several or all of these options presented in this article a try. Your computer should work hard, not you.
This article was written by Luke Greer, AEH Solutions Lead Technician.
It is common for AEH Solutions, LLC. technicians to use software to help speed up and repair a computer or hard drive with commonly available software like SUPERAntiSpyware. As a proud reseller, please ask us how we can repair your computer with SUPERAntiSpyware found here – https://www.superantispyware.com/
