 The greatest threats to your company and its data come from hackers and cybercriminals. It’s just as important, however, to ensure the physical security of your devices while working from home.
Implement these recommendations: • Shut down your device and store it in a secure place before leaving your home for any reason. • Lock your computer when you step away from it. This is especially important if you have children or other family members around. • Place your work devices out of sight at the end of the day. Not only does it keep them from being stolen, but helps you maintain work-life balance. Want more tips for setting up safe Work From Home networks? Check out our free resources here. Of course, if you have an immediate IT need, you can always reach us at 614-233-1648.
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The weather’s getting nicer, the infection is spreading less rapidly that it was, and stimulus checks are about to come in! The usual grim headlines we’ve been hearing, while not gone, are finally being joined by some good news. Positivity is spreading, and people are finding ways to be physically distant while socially connected. In fact, I really dislike the phrase ‘social distancing’ because it incorrectly implies that you can’t enjoy the company of your friends and family while quarantined. I’d like to share a few ways that you can connect during these unusual months!
Video conferencing apps such as Zoom are a great way to simply chat face to face with your friends and loved ones. With all of the technology we have at our disposal, there’s no reason we can’t sit down in front of the computer and connect with anyone we want on a daily basis. Beyond just chatting, Zoom and some of the other programs have games that you can play to entertain the whole group. If they don’t already know, teach your parents to play Words with Friends and have fun video chatting while you play! The thing that I spend most of my indoor time doing is watching movies. If things were normal, I’d be at the movie theater all day, but just because the theaters are closed doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a flick with your friends, your family, or even your physically distant date! There are programs out there like the Chrome extension Netflix Party that will help you sync up what you and your movie partner are watching. Pair that with a voice or video chat, and voilà: movie night! Also growing in popularity are group virtual meetups. For instance, an app I use called Meetup is typically used for planning in-person get togethers for people with a common interest or hobby. I’ve noticed that the app has recently adapted to the times by pivoting to virtual get togethers. As previously mentioned, people are getting online for movie nights, but also for dinner parties, book clubs, and many other various fun activities! If you’re feeling isolated at a time like this, or any time for that matter, I strongly recommend finding some groups that you can relate with and participating in these virtual meetings. Lastly, and most simply, go outside! Taking a walk all by yourself or with someone you already live with doesn’t break quarantine. Exercise is still important and necessary to avoid becoming stir crazy while you’re cooped up all day. As long as you give strangers you come across a wide berth and don’t touch the crosswalk buttons with your bare hands, you’ll be safe! We’re all dealing with a strange world right now, but the last thing we should feel is disconnected. Whether it be friends, family, or strangers with likeminded interests, now is a great time to find new hobbies and catch up with the people we care about. Stay safe out there and our world will be back to normal in no time. If you have any thoughts or concerns, please comment on this video or feel free to reach out to us here, at Nice Guy Technology. We’re here to help. Transcription of Video:
Oh look, yet another group of people taking advantage of the Coronavirus panic. The FBI is reporting that scammers are sending out false government stimulus checks and stealing the personal information that they receive. There are other reports of phishing scams circulating including treatment offers, claims of a cure, online vaccinations, and fake charity donation requests. Most of these scams are being spread by email and some by phone application. We like to remind you to always look at the sender before clicking on links in an email. If you don’t recognize it or even if there’s just something off about the email, do not click on that link. You should also be using two-factor authentication to make sure your accounts are as secure as can be. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us here at Nice Guy Technology. We’re here to help.  With so many people now working from home, it's important to keep safety at the top of your to-do list. Here'a a 10 step checklist for you to follow as you and your employees work remotely. 1. Treat equipment just as if you were at the office
2. Enable full disk encryption
3. Password Policies
4. Access to company networks
5. Implement Two-Factor or Multi-Factor Authentication
6. Don’t mix work and personal usage on corporate IT
7. Authorizing Financial Transactions
8. Communication
9. Email
10. Protect Endpoints from Malware
Ahhhhhh scammers… they’ll take advantage of anything to make a buck. We’ve talked before about how scammers will follow the headlines to find weak spots and prey on people’s fears. The worry surrounding Coronavirus is no different.
Scams are popping up left and right in the form of social media posts, emails, texts, and phone calls. These malicious messages appear to have helpful tips but instead contain fake information about cases of the virus in your neighborhood. Hackers will occasionally use this to appeal to your altruistic side and ask for donations to help these fake victims. Please do not give any money or any personal information to anyone who emails, texts or contacts you through social media. If you’re looking for legitimate information about the coronavirus or any connected programs, please visit cdc.gov. Stay safe out there and if you have any tech questions, feel free to call or email us. We’re here to help! Once again, Android phones are being targeted by phishing emails to gain access to your financial information. This malicious piece of software is called Anubis banking Trojan, and it pretends to be a pop-up to enable a program called Google Play Protect. However, instead of protecting you, this piece of malware actually turns off Google Play Protect entirely, which makes it much easier to get into your banking and shopping applications.
Once this malicious software is installed, it compiles a list of all your downloaded apps and then decides what to target. If you try to open one of those apps while infected, Anubis will show you a fake login page and after tricking you into handing over your credentials, they steal them. This malware has various features and commands that it can run, like capturing screenshots, altering administrator settings, recording audio, and locking the device as well as many other harmful features. If you’d like to know more about this terrible virus and how to better protect your devices, please feel free to reach out to us here at Nice Guy Technology, we’re here to help! Something terrible is happening. I can sense the pain and fear, the unimaginable suffering of... oh it’s just TAX SEASON again. With it being the start of the busiest time of the year for the Financial Services Industry, your favorite hackers have gotten you a little present: targeting you relentlessly while you’re at your most frantic. This isn’t anything new, hackers always target a specific demographic depending on the time of the year, but to ensure that you’re protected here are few things you can do:
Make sure that you’re backing up to either a physical drive or to the cloud. We actually recommend doing both because this step is so incredibly vital! Next is to make sure that your antivirus software is up-to-date and working properly. Overlooking your basic computer’s security is a bad reason to lose your money, or your career. After that, you should have two-factor authentication turned on for all of the software applications you use. Using two-factor authentication is a huge help in deterring hackers. Lastly, be sure you’re monitoring your network. A lot of times when you’re hit by malware the hacker has had control of your network for months. Most business owners don’t have time to continuously monitor their tech so hiring an outside tech company to do this for you is always a smart option. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us here at Nice Guy Technology, we’re here to help! Video Transcription:
More than 60% of small and medium sized businesses are hit each year by cyberattacks, and this percentage has been increasing for a while. They can be a debilitating obstacle for your business and your wallet. If you’ve already suffered one of these unfortunate attacks, one of the ways to fight back is to share your story with the community. It can feel embarrassing to share with others what happened at your company, but if you can help another by talking about the mistakes that your company made than it’s more than worth it. One of the most commonly used tactics cyber attackers use is phishing emails. Phishing emails look like they’re emails sent to you by someone you know or from a service you may use, such as UPS. It prompts you to click on a link, and then takes you to a malicious website. There are lots of ways to fight against and avoid phishing emails and if you’d like to hear more about it and other methods to keep your company safe from hackers please feel free to reach out to us here at Nice Guy Technology. Video Transcription:
Imagine it’s dusk, there’s a man hunched over his keyboard typing frantically and he’s about to gain access to your bank accounts. All he has to do is click enter and they are his for the taking. Then he gets stopped by something so simple to set up: two-factor authentication. Having extra protection can always be more helpful than having less or no protection. Two-Factor Authentication is that extra part, it asks you to put in a code on top of entering your password correctly. You will either be given the code through text, phone call, email, or an app that can hold these codes for you. So, if someone you didn’t want to access your account got a hold of your password they would be stopped by the two-factor authentication. Another option for two-factor authentication is a device that cycles through those codes and is not connected to the internet so it can’t be hacked into. But, if you would like to hear more about two-factor authentication and how to implement it in your business, feel free to reach out to us here at Nice Guy Technology. Video Transcription:
Everyone has them and most of them are known or not as complex as they should be. Obviously, I’m talking about bio-metric safes to store our consciousness for the zombie uprising. Either that or passwords. It can be very hard to want to make multiple passwords or even have long passwords because it’s a pain to take all that time to type it. And don’t even get me started on multiple passwords, it is very difficult to remember the passwords you use and the correct one you use for that account. However, I’m about to let you in on 2 little secrets; how to easily make complex passwords and how to manage them. Starting with complex passwords, for whatever reason, people have the idea that having so0me long string of random characters is the best way to have a complex password. But that is FALSE. Using a phrase or a couple words joined together is stronger than using random letters and numbers. For example, using Coleslaw is gross with capital letters, numbers and symbols thrown in for your password would be stronger than a random string of numbers, letters and symbols for your password. But having complex passwords is only half of the battle. Now that you’ve got all those complex passwords, what do you do with them? Post it notes are not the answer! An easy way to organize and remember your passwords is to use a password manager app, like Passportal or OnePass. These apps hold all of your important passwords and some account info in a vault and you only have to remember one, single password. At Nice Guy Tech we use PassPortal in our own office and for our clients. If you’re interested in us helping you wrangle all your passwords, let’s talk. You’ll be amazed how easy it is! By using password management software you can now rely on it to remember your passwords and you can use the extra brain power to worry about the zombie uprising. |
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