Years back, A1Care owner Percy Syddall upgraded his business with a state-of-the-art system for storing all the company’s records and customer data in a single place. The network was a massive boon to both his customers and employees. But when his entire organization found themselves locked out of the data by ransomware, with the hackers demanding a price too steep to pay, the company had to act fast. They learned how to respond to an attack the hard way.

The first step was to evaluate the threat. They decided not to pay the ransom (which they couldn’t afford, anyway) and instead thoroughly documented the issue. Then, they got the authorities involved and alerted their customers about the breach. In the end, the attack cost thousands of dollars, but they weren’t about to let it happen to them again. They began looking for more powerful solutions that would prevent future attacks and started asking more pointed questions to determine exactly what vulnerabilities their system might have. Most importantly, they began to back up their files and trained their team to recognize threats before they became full-on crises. You live and learn.

SmallBizTrends.com, 7/14/2018

3 Ways The Digital Transformation Is ChangingOur Everyday Lives

1. Artificial intelligence has gonemainstream. Amazon Echo, Siri,Google Home a n d oth e rpe rsona l assistants would haveseemed like science fiction even 10 yearsago. But now they’re just another facetof our contemporary reality.

2. Robots are continuing to push industryforward. You probably don’t have anandroid making copies in your office,but“cobots”(collaborative robots like Festo’sBionicCobot) have started to intuitivelyautomate manufacturing cycles andindividualize even the assembly line.

3. Homes, cars and shopping areundergoing a revolution. Smart homeplatforms are becoming more and morecommon as we push forward, and thosesystems are becoming more and moreadvanced. Cars can drive themselves, to-dolists can order groceries without your inputand digital technologies are leaking intoevery single aspect of our lives.

Inc.com,1/22/2018