quicktips
Here are a collection of quick technical tips to help you navigate today's technology waters. We will add a new tip every week so please check back often and share this link with everyone you know.
Encryption Virus and your computer data.
How to prevent data loss.
If an encryp4on virus hits your office it will encrypt all Word, Xcel,
power point, text files, all picture formats, PDFs, databases and email on all the computers and servers in seconds. Basically all data files
on your computer and network. Ransomware is most commonly distributed by email, social network messages and infected websites.
How to avoid this from happening: (See example below)
Email Phishing: Slow down and read all your email subjects fully.
Check to email address the email is coming from
Never open or download any documents without confirming with the person sending the info, they in fact sent the information.
Social Media: Never open a link or an attachment from a Facebook post or Messenger or any other popular social media site(s)
Infected Websites: Never download any data from website unless 100% sure it is safe. I.E. Always download updates for Adobe Reader from Adobe.com (I know this sounds like a lot of extra work – however – it may save you from gettng encrypted.)
Never down load updates from third party sites, go to the application(s) home site, I.E. Adobe.com...Once you have updated your program you can go back to the site you were on when prompt to update your software with confidence. If this site still asks you to update/install software then it could be a virus. Say no.
Backups:
We recommend a local computer and cloud backup together.
Setup offline backup(s) to restore your data when and if this happens:
Cloud backup services roughly cost $100/computer/year and can be configure to back up your local computer data.
NOTE; ALL APPLICATIONS HAVE TO BE CLOSED EVERYNIGHT TO BE ABLE TO BACKUP DATA.
POP3 EMAIL: The way your email is setup may also be a concern. If your email protocol is POP3 this means your email resides on your computer and not in an email server in the cloud like Exchange, Office 365, IMAP and Gmail. Which means it can and will get encrypted as well. So we strongly suggest adding cloud backup to all your local computers.
Phishing videos that should be watched by all associates. Email phishing attempts are gettng more sophisticated and users are flooded with more and more emails. It is very important to recognize these attempts that look SO REAL. If users are moving too fast
and not seeing the warning signs they will be compromised, at what level depends on what the hacker is trying to achieve.
Phishing attempt success rate in gaining your credentials is higher than ever! Below are two Youtube video searches, that I have watched and believe all users in your organizations should watch. This will reinforce better user email security going forward.
Each video is a little over 10 minutes. Once, you have watched them, share them with your associates, and if possible make it
mandatory viewing.
Phishing Defenses: Top Cybersecurity Strategies to Protect Your Data
Go to youtube and type, "Phishing Defenses: Top Cybersecurity Strategies to Protect Your Data" by IBM Technology.
"Avoiding Phishing Scams: How to Spot and Prevent Email Phishing Attacks." by Computer Learning zone
Computer habits:
Do not open emails from people you do not know.
Do not click on **ANY** web links in emails.
IF you MUST click on a link, Place your mouse over the link and pause (3) seconds, the full url will show itself in a window. If the url does contain the website you want to go to and has a funny url do not click on it. This is VERY difficult to spot a bad url if the hackers are any good. Most of the time they will mimic the original such as: paypal.managementportal.com instead of www.paypal.com. The user needs to know the domain name needs to precede the “.com or .net” suffix. Now do you see it??
Do not directly open attachments from emails, download the attachment and run a manual scan with your virus protection.
Depending on the antivirus software on PCs you should be able to right-click on the downloaded attachment and run a antivirus scan from the menu.
On Mac’s you will need to launch your virus software and run a custom scan onthe downloaded file.
Be careful typing your urls in a web browser – hackers are making identical websites of the real site you are trying to go to with a misspelling and once you are there you put all your personal info in or say yes to something and you have been hacked.
Activate a web browser pop-up blocker: A popular version is uBlock by origin. This is added via the extensions in your web browser. Google how to add unlock to chrome, Firefox or internet explorer.
Here is an example of a phishing attempt, read the read type for explantions.
How to make your Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS)
last longer. UPS systems come with two sets of outlets, "Battery Backup" and "Surge Protection".
So if you have a UPS on your computer equipment make sure not to connect your printer to the battery backup portion. Printers draw large amounts of power when printing which draws from the battery and will shorten the battery life. Plug your printer into the surge protection side. This will protect it against electrical spikes and not draw from the battery.
quicktips:
Encryption Virus and
your computer data.
Phishing videos that should be watched by all associates
