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RC Technologies is a big economic force in small town. The telecommunications cooperative is the largest employer in New Effington, a community of fewer than 250 residents in northeastern South Dakota.

Seventy third-graders at Hawthorne Elementary School in Sioux Falls were at risk of missing out on a field trip to the Washington Pavilion last spring. Many couldn’t come up with the $2.50 they each needed for the outing.

Firewalls have big jobs, and their duties are getting bigger all the time because of the rising frequency and sophistication of attacks.

Sioux Falls-based SDN’s new mentorship program is designed to connect new staff members with established colleagues outside their department.

A person seeking medical attention occasionally wanders into the Avera eCARE center in the industrial area of northern Sioux Falls. It’s an understandable mistake. While Avera eCARE professionals provide world-class medical services, they only serve patients remotely.

To adequately protect themselves, businesses and other organizations need to take a layered approach to cybersecurity. They have to have good policies in place, maintain good security equipment at every juncture and take extra precautions with their most vulnerable asset: their employees.

Bipartisan effort aims to improve persistent phone call completion problem plaguing South Dakota, Minnesota

There are no especially large businesses or colleges in the service area. However, Valley Telecommunications Cooperative’s broadband network is now 100 percent fiber, so the cooperative’s customers enjoy access to high-quality services.

I don’t know whether my Emma will grow up to be a Protector of the Internet. It’s too soon to tell, and she has years of career exploration ahead. But I do know the GenCyber experience, offering an empowering environment to learn about coding, hacking, robots, and more, will give her the confidence to pursue a passion.

Members of the 2016 class of interns came from several South Dakota colleges. Dakota State University in Madison, which specializes in computer-technology programs, has the most (five). But SDN offers diverse business opportunities for interns and career-seekers.

SDN Communications’ Board of Managers was elected during its recent annual meeting. Board members will serve a one-year term.

The 2016 edition of SculptureWalk in downtown Sioux Falls features attractions ranging from the whimsical (a flying pig, for example) to the serious and inspirational (such as a kneeling woman with her hands on her head).

The secrecy surrounding the creation of bitcoin is fitting, perhaps, because part of the appeal of the virtual currency is that users can acquire and spend it anonymously. It’s like two strangers making a private transaction with cash. Except bitcoins don’t physically exist. They only exist as electronic transactions.

Swiftel is the business branch of Brookings Municipal Utilities that provides telephone, TV and Internet services to homes and businesses in the city. The telecommunications system might be governed in an unusual style, but it’s effective.

Ransomware thieves might use trickery to deliver their malware, but typically they clearly explain the predicament confronting victims. They explain, step by step, what victims have to do to get their computers unlocked or their files restored.

Girls from 14 states will attend the camp, which has an impressive lineup of speakers. It includes two special agents from the FBI, the director of security operations for Facebook and a security engineer from Google.

Representatives of SDN Communications and several of its member companies planned to get together last winter for a round of disaster training. Ironically, a real-life disaster interfered. A winter storm forced the training session to be postponed until April.

Cyberattacks are big, growing and constantly changing threats to businesses. Successful strikes can be devastating to a company’s finances, image and survival. Effectively reducing the risk of cyberattacks requires a significant cultural shift within organizations.

Without good customer service, great products can lose value. Even the best offerings might go unused. The development of positive and trusting relationships between customers and representatives of a company’s sales and technical teams are crucial to the smooth delivery of telecommunications products.

A politically motivated attack on Donald Trump’s websites that began on April Fools’ Day appears to have been a limited success, at best. The fact that the attack was announced in advance and couldn’t be prevented remains concerning, however.