Small-business owners need to understand and protect customers’ and employees’ data and intellectual property

October 20th, 2014

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Knowing what data owners have and where it is located will allow them to explore their risks, related state and federal regulations, and designate a privacy officer at the company. The plan should also include some simple workforce education on how data breaches come about and what can be done to prevent them. In addition, […]

More Retailers Keeping Tabs on Credit Card Security

September 26th, 2014

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In light of recent credit card security breaches, retailers are keeping tabs on credit card security. Target was hit with a credit card security breach earlier this year and Home Depot is investigating a possible breach. Craig Petronella, president of Petronella Computer Consultants, said hackers are getting better at infiltrating systems. “They’re really exploiting the […]

Experts advise staying smart with personal info on the Internet

May 28th, 2014

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Cybercrime has reached an all-time high, affecting business, the government and everyday people. And security experts say it’s going to take a concerted effort to get ahead of cyber criminals. Craig Petronella, with Raleigh-based Petronella Technology Group, is an Internet security consultant and author of several books on cyber issues. He says there are thousands […]

Malware threatens small businesses’ data, livelihood

January 20th, 2014

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Craig Petronella, president of Petronella Technology Group, has seen three small businesses hit with the CryptoLocker since October, and each company has spent about $300 to save their data. Petronella learned about CryptoLocker after Jerry Hall, who owns Total Systems Heating & Cooling in Spring Lake with his wife, Brenda, shared his concerns about a […]

Careful with your backup drive’s partitions

March 3rd, 2013

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Q: I have an older Dell desktop running XP. Disk partition C: has a capacity of about 60 GB and is getting full. Disk partition Backup (D:) has a capacity of about 18 GB and is 99 percent empty. Can I safely move some of the free 18 GB in D: for use? Can I […]

Upgrades make great gifts for techies

December 9th, 2012

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If you’re shopping for the tech enthusiast on your list this holiday season, the options are likely to overwhelm you. Among the swarm of new gadgets this year are dozens of new super-light laptops, tablets, mini tablets and smartphones, all of which offer consumers an upgrade to the sluggish systems they have in their pockets […]

Irritating system updates often protect your computer

June 24th, 2012

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Q: I have been getting the Windows notification for an update called “Security Update for Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package (KB2538242).” I run the update and get a notification that it installed, but within a minute, I get the notification to install it again. Why is this happening, and what can […]

Uninstalling programs during routine computer maintenance raises questions

May 28th, 2012

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Over the past few weeks, several readers wrote in to say they took our experts’ advice in doing a bit of spring cleaning on their desktops and laptops. But they also had a few questions. Q: I was intrigued about your comments regarding disabling Javascript and would like further clarification on them. I had always […]

Sorting out the jargon

October 17th, 2011

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Stump the Geeks Q: I’m looking to buy a new computer. Intel has new second-generation core chips, but I don’t know what the various specs really do for a computer. For instance, the i5 is 3 GHz with a 6-MB L3 cache, while the i7 is 2.7 GHz with 8 MB of L3 cache. So […]

N.C. MSP Spins Customers’ Servers Back Online After Tornado

April 28th, 2011

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Redmond Channel Partner RALEIGH, N.C., April 28, 2011 /Redmond Channel Partner/ — Petronella Computer Consultants Inc. faced the ultimate break-fix problem. Company President Craig Petronella got a call from one of his biggest managed services customers on the evening of Saturday, April 16, that a tornado had destroyed the customer’s offices. Severe storms ripped through […]

Two Days After Being Hit by a Tornado, Petronella Computer Consultants Gets Destroyed Business Back Online

April 27th, 2011

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RALEIGH, N.C., April 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Late on Saturday, April 16, 2011, Petronella Computer Consultants, Inc. (www.petronellacomputer.com), a North Carolina-based managed IT computer network support services company, received a call for help. The business of one of their largest clients had been destroyed in one of the tornadoes that had ravaged the state that […]