goleadingit.com

Nothing kills a productive day faster than technology that doesn't work.

Your team is trying to get things done, and instead they're waiting on a system that's slow, rebooting after a crash, or sitting on hold with a help desk that doesn't pick up.

Every one of those interruptions has a real cost in lost time and frustrated employees.

The three IT mistakes that hit Chicago businesses hardest:

⬆️ Reacting to problems after they've already disrupted operations, instead of catching them early

⬆️ Tolerating recurring downtime, bugs, and glitches that chip away at productivity every single week

⬆️ Running outdated technology with an IT team that's stretched too thin to keep up

Proactive managed IT fixes all three.

Not by adding more tools, but by having the right people watching your systems before things go sideways.

If any of those sound familiar, let's talk 👇

goleadingit.com/contact-us/

Your email filter is blocking malicious links.

So attackers stopped sending links.

Now they're sending QR codes.

Here's why that's a problem.

QR codes embedded in email images can't be scanned by desktop security filters.

So when an employee opens that email and scans the code with their phone, the click happens on a personal device that has zero corporate security on it.

The filter never saw it.

The threat never got flagged.

The numbers from Q1 2026 tell the story pretty clearly:

📱 Email-embedded QR codes surged 336% in March 2026 alone

📈 QR phishing volume grew 146% across Q1 2026

💸 U.S. phishing losses jumped 208% from 2024 to 2025

🪤 CAPTCHA phishing climbed 125% year over year

This is what happens when attackers adapt faster than defenses do.

The technique works specifically because it routes around the tools most businesses already have in place.

Employee awareness is the first line of defense here.

If your team doesn't know what QR code phishing looks like, they're walking into it blind.

Not sure if your team is ready?

Let's find out.

goleadingit.com/contact-us/

Sources: Microsoft Q1 2026 Email Threat Landscape, FBI IC3 2025, Keepnet Labs, Kaspersky

This is what the LeadingIT tech team actually looks like:

People who are focused, genuinely good at what they do, and enjoy working together.

We're hiring engineers and technicians to join a team that supports Chicagoland businesses every day.

Real problems, real clients, real work that matters.

If you're the kind of person who gets satisfaction from figuring something out and handing it back to a client fully resolved, this is the right environment.

We're not a faceless corporation.

You'll know the people you work with and you'll see the impact of what you do.

👉 Apply at goleadingit.com/careers

Tag someone on your team who should make the jump.

Congratulations to our very own Tina Congine on earning her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute!

The PMP is one of the most respected credentials in the world, and it's not easy to get.

It requires proven experience leading projects, 35 hours of formal project management education, and demonstrates the ability to manage people, processes, and business priorities across any industry.

Tina put in the work and earned it.

This is a reflection of what we already know about Tina, she's sharp, she's thorough, and she gets things across the finish line.

Having that recognized at the highest level of the profession is well deserved.

Tina, the whole LeadingIT team is proud of you.

Now let's get back to work. 🎉