What’s the Best Way to Manage Password Security?

The number of passwords that we need to use on a weekly basis typically far outmatches our ability to remember them all. That is, if we’re using password security best practices like making a unique password for every login and ensuring they’re at least 10 characters long, with a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. 

But the fact is that most people fall into bad password habits, like using the same password for multiple logins and not making them difficult enough (so they can remember them). The result can be several weak links in your office’s data and network security. 

When working on cybersecurity solutions with our business clients, password security is one of the many areas we address because poor passwords are often the easiest way for a hacker to breach your network.

The balance of user experience with security is one that many companies struggle with, but password management tools can help you have the best of both worlds, secure and unique passwords and a login process that doesn’t slow your team down. 

Why You Should Consider a Password Management Solution

While cybersecurity tools, such as an anti-virus or firewall are important, password security is just as crucial to preventing unauthorized access into your system. 

81% of company data breaches are the fault of poor password management.

Accounting software, bank account access, your entire customer contact list… all of these are usually just a hacked password away from being breached. Weak passwords are one of the top causes of data breaches, which can have costly and dire consequences for businesses of all sizes.

The average cost of a data breach is $148 per record. If just 500 records are stolen (usually, it’s much more), that’s $74,000. Quite a hefty cost for weak passwords. 

One of the best ways to ensure you’re keeping passwords “hack-resistant” while not making it more difficult for your team to get their work done is to use a password management application, like LastPass.

How Does a Password Manager Work? 

A password manager keeps track of all your passwords in a secure and encrypted environment. All you need to remember is a single strong password to get in, and the password manager remembers everything else.

It’s recommended that for your master password you use a passphrase, which tends to be more secure than just one word because of the length and complexity.

LastPass is the password manager that our BrainStomp team trusts and recommends. It’s simple to use and allows you to access your passwords in two ways:

·     Using a browser extension

·     Using a mobile app

Security features include local-only encryption, meaning your data is encrypted and decrypted at the device level. LastPass never receives the encryption keys, ensuring security. You can even enable multi-factor authentication to add an additional layer of security to your login credentials.

Once you set up your master login, you’ll be taken to a password vault where you can set up passwords for each application and website you log into. You can then strengthen any weak passwords by letting OnePass make a new one for you, and can also ensure unique passwords for all logins.

Business Password Management

Have you ever had an employee leave abruptly, and everyone was scrambling to try to find their password to unlock their computer? 

The average employee has to keep track of 191 different passwords and if you multiply that by the number of employees you have, it can be overwhelming if you don’t have a tool to help you centralize password management. 

LastPass has a business version of their application that allows you to manage authentication across your entire organization from a single dashboard. This not only ensures your team’s passwords aren’t going to leave you vulnerable to a hacker, it will also ensure you don’t get locked out of devices when an employee leaves the company.

Some of the features that are especially helpful to businesses include:

·     Adaptive authentication

·     Choice of authentication methods

·     Support for biometric authentication, like face or fingerprint ID

·     Verification through contextual factors, like phone location or IP address

·     Easy user experience across all devices

·     Ability to secure every digital access point

·     Flexibility to automate user provisioning

·     Implement security measures company-wide easily

·     Centralized reporting

The bottom line is that a password manager can help eliminate poor password habits, while actually making the process of logging in easier for your employees. The centralized control also helps you control all ways into your network and data so you can rest easy knowing you’ve secured one of the biggest data breach vulnerabilities.

Talk to BrainStomp for Solid IT Security Solutions

Whether you’re struggling with data privacy compliance or need to ensure you’re protected from that next phishing attack, BrainStomp’s Cybersecurity Team can help you protect your business from a costly data breach and help you with password management.

Contact us today for an IT security consultation at 260-918-3548 or reach out online.

Work Smarter in Microsoft Outlook, Word & Excel with these Super Tips & Tricks

Learning just one software power tip can save you minutes per day and hours per month. While those tips and tricks seem obvious once you learn them, until you’re enlightened, you can be doing things the “hard way” without even knowing it.

Over half of organizations around the world use Microsoft’s Office 365, which includes the popular standards, Outlook, Word, and Excel. It’s #1 most used cloud service of any type, which means many offices rely on it and it’s a huge part of their daily workflow.

As a certified Microsoft partner, BrainStomp has helped many a client increase productivity and reduce inefficiencies by teaching them the best ways to use their Office 365 suite of applications. Through our Modern Office IT, we also prevent downtime by fixing issues before they impact business. 

If your team is spending a good part of their day working in the MS “power programs” Excel, Outlook, and Word, read on for some productivity-boosting super tips that can help you work smarter and faster.

Power Tips for Outlook

Outlook has been around, pretty much since email has been in use in offices around the world. First launched in 1992 for MS-DOS, it’s become synonymous with the term “email” and much of a person’s day is spent there. 

The average office worker spends 2.5 hours per day reading and replying to email.

Here are some tips and tricks for making your use of Outlook more efficiently. 

Filter for Unread Messages

Often, we pick through our inbox, trying to find the most important messages to reply to first. That leaves a bunch of unread messages mixed in with those you already read, and sorting through those can take up unnecessary extra time. 

Just click Filter Email > Unread on your home tab menu to quickly display only unread messages.

Use Live OneDrive Links 

Have you ever collaborated on a document with colleagues, and then end up searching your inbox to find the latest version to work on? Instead of sending several document copies back and forth as file attachments, send a link to the live OneDrive document. This is much more efficient and ensures everyone has the most updated copy. 

Select Attach File > Browse web locations > OneDrive (the attachment icon will show a cloud on it).

Use Clean Up to Help Tame Your Inbox

Email inboxes can easily get out of hand and you end up with multiple email trails that are pretty much duplicates of each other and an unruly inbox to sort through. Using Outlook’s Clean Up option can help you move redundant conversations, folders or subfolders to the Deleted Items folder automatically.

From the Home menu choose Clean Up then either Clean Up Conversation, Clean Up Folder, or Clean Up Folder & Subfolders. 

Power Tips for Word

Word is one of the earliest Microsoft programs for office productivity, being released in 1983. Here are a few tricks to make the most of this popular word processing program. 

Pick Up Where You Left Off

Are you working on a long document and having trouble finding where you last left off? Save yourself some time searching through paragraphs by letting Word take you there automatically.

When you re-open your document press SHIFT+F5 and Word will take you to the last place you were editing.

Create & Share a Custom Dictionary 

Is auto correct continually flagging your company name or a specific technical term you use as being misspelled? It can be annoying (and time consuming) to have to correct it back to a spelling Word doesn’t recognize. Fix this by creating a custom dictionary with words, names, and other technical teams your organization uses. This can then be shared with others to help everyone save time. 

Go to File > Options > Proofing tab then click Custom Dictionaries and create new.  

You can share it by locating the file, typically located in Boot_Drive/Documents and Settings/user_name/Application Data/Microsoft/Proof, then send the file to another user or uploaded to a shared folder.

Find What You Need Faster

Have a paragraph setting that’s leaving extra space in your document? Need to quickly insert a hyperlink? Save time by letting Word take you where you need to go to make the edit fast. 

On the Home tab click into the “Search” bar at the top (Not the one that says “find”), and type in what you need to do, like “paragraph setting” and you’ll get a link that takes you there.

Note, this search area used to be called “Tell Me”.

Power Tips for Excel

 We’ll close out by giving you three helpful tips for the popular spreadsheet program Excel.

Total Without a Formula

 Rushing to get a quick spreadsheet column total to give the boss? You can use a keyboard shortcut that will bypass the need to enter the sum formula and total your column in milliseconds.

Click into the Excel table beneath the column you’re totaling and press Ctrl+Shift+T and Excel will add the total row at the bottom automatically.

Make Your Numbers Stand Out with Data Bars

Sometimes you don’t need a fancy chart to get your data to stand out. Impress your team by using Data Bars in Excel, which include representational bars right inside the data fields. 

Select your data range then go to Home > Conditional Formatting > Data Bars and choose your desired color scheme.

Separate First and Last Name into Their Own Columns

Most of us have had this happen at some point, we have someone gather a list of contacts (or we’ve made this mistake ourselves), and when the spreadsheet comes back, the first and last names are in the same column instead of separated like you need them to be.

Use this trick in Excel to separate them automatically without having to retype them all. 

Select the column to separate, go to Data tab > Data Tools group and choose Text to Columns. In the Wizard select Delimited and then next. Choose one or more delimiters (tab, comma, etc.). Select the data format and destination and click finish. See it step by step here.

Let Us Help You Keep Your Office Efficient

BrainStomp can help you keep your office and your Office productive and efficient. We can help with software, hardware, and IT consulting to take the burden of ensuring your tech is secure and effective always off your shoulders.  

Our brains are here to help. Call 260-918-3548 or reach out online.

How Can I Avoid Becoming a Victim of Spam, Scams, and Phishing Attacks?

The digital workplace has benefited us all through faster communications and the ability to do business anywhere the internet can take us, but it’s also brought along new cyber predators working to infiltrate networks and steal sensitive data. 

Email fraud rose 80% from the third quarter of 2017 to the third quarter of 2018. (Proofpoint) 

Both email fraud and credential phishing attacks, where malware is planted to steal login credentials, rose significantly in 2018 and the trend continues in 2019. Phishing is the number one cause of data breaches and email is used most often (96% of the time) as the delivery method.

As part of our Modern Office IT support, BrainStomp monitors the health and security of business networks 24/7, preventing costly downtime and dangerous data breaches. We work with businesses to beef up their end user security, which is often the last line of defense against network intrusions via spam and phishing emails. 

What can you and your team do to protect yourselves from falling into a phishing trap? We’ve got five vital tips below to help keep you safe.

5 Important Tips for End User Security

Hackers use email as their favorite form of attack because it works. Phishing emails have become more sophisticated, mimicking the look of an email from a legitimate company and often employing scare tactics or promises of a sale to cause people to click before they think.

Examples of common phishing tactics employed:

·     “Your email account has been compromised, click here now to secure it.”
·     “Please find an urgent purchase order attached and send payment details.”
·     “We’ve just processed your (non-existent)order for $375.22. Click here to see more.”

But despite the shady tactics used by cybercriminals, you can protect yourself from spam, scams, and phishing attacks by employing end user security best practices.

Hover Before You Click

Phishing emails will often hide the true URL of a malicious site behind linked text. You can’t see what the real URL is until you hover over it with your cursor. Get in the habit of hovering over all links in an email or social media post BEFORE you click on them to see whether they’re taking you to a legitimate site.

In this example below, this phishing email is designed to look just like one from AT&T, but when hovering over the linked text “right here,” the true URL is revealed to be a fake going to a malicious site having nothing to do with AT&T. 

Use an Anti-Phishing & Anti-Spam Software 

During the course of a hectic day is when users are most vulnerable to accidentally clicking on a phishing link or downloading a malicious attachment. They’re trying to get through their inbox as fast as possible, and their defenses are down.

 A good anti-phishing and anti-spam software can help users out by being on the lookout for any dangerous emails and sandbox anything suspicious, protecting your system from a virus infection and alerting you to dangerous spam patterns.

Use Two-Factor Authentication 

One of the main pieces of information that malware-laden phishing emails go after are login credentials. If they can plant spyware on your system that records keystrokes, they can gain login access to any number of company applications and access sensitive data.

Two-factor authentication requires a second factor to login beyond just your username/password combination. This is typically a code that’s sent via text message to your phone at the time of login that has to be entered to gain access to the site or application. 

This helps thwart hackers that steal your login credentials, because even with that stolen username and password, they won’t be able to get past the two-factor authentication to breach your account.

Keep Software and Operating Systems Updated

The more users you have, the more chance that all workstation computers aren’t being regularly updated for software, firmware, and operating system updates. It’s easy to hit “remind me later” when an update reminder pops up, but this means your system could be missing important security updates that patch vulnerabilities.

Spammers sending phishing emails often exploit these vulnerabilities, just hoping the user hasn’t applied the latest updates. Using an automated or managed method of keeping all systems updated ensures you won’t fall victim to a breach that could’ve been easily avoided.

Be Suspicious & Get a Second Opinion 

Often after an employee mistakenly clicks on a phishing link and downloads a virus, they’ll say, “I thought that email looked strange, but I wasn’t sure.”

When it comes to email security, being suspicious of anything in your inbox that’s not both expected and from an email address you know is one of the best ways to avoid becoming a victim.

Some things to question are:

·     If the “to” email address line is to “multiple recipients” rather than just to you
·     If the sender’s email address is hidden or unknown to you
·     If you receive an email you’re not expecting (i.e. a PO from an unknown customer)
·     An email that’s trying to elicit an urgent response
·     An email with improper grammar or misspellings 

When in doubt, it’s always better to get a second opinion from someone else at your office or an IT pro that you have a help desk relationship with before you do anything else. A few minutes double checking a strange email can save you days of trying to recover from a virus infection.

How’s Your Cybersecurity Situation?

 If you got hit with a phishing attack tomorrow, would your network and user security protocols hold up? Don’t wonder, get a security review from BrainStomp. We can take a look at your cybersecurity plan and make any needed suggestions to ensure your network safety.

Contact us today to ensure your security at 260-918-3548 or through our contact form.

Prepare Now Before Windows 7 Loses Support for Good

You’ve been using Windows 7 at your office since it first launched in 2009. It’s been a good stable operating system that everyone’s used to. But even the best of them must come to an end and that time has arrived for Windows 7.

Microsoft product lifecycles tend to run about 10 years, and they come in two phases. The first phase is when mainstream support ends, and the second is when extended support ends (aka end of life).

That critical end of life (EOL) date is fast approaching for Windows 7 and arrives on January 14, 2020. After that date, standard patches and all security updates will be discontinued (unless you purchase a limited extension plan).

With Windows 7 nearly at its end of life date, we’ve been busy helping clients upgrade before the end of the year. If you haven’t upgraded yet, there’s still time if you act now. Read on for our tips on preparing your business for an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. 

What Happens If I Use Windows 7 Past January 14, 2020?

If you’ve procrastinated and still have PCs running Windows 7 past its end of life date in January 2020, you’re leaving your business at extreme risk of a data breach. When extended support ends for an OS, it means found vulnerabilities are no longer patched, and your network becomes an easy target for hackers.

Nearly 60% of organizations that had a data breach within the past two years point to an unpatched vulnerability as the cause. 

Here are the key problems with running an operating system after it’s reached the EOL date:

·     Your network and data are at high risk for a data breach
·     Newer peripherals and software will increasingly stop supporting the older OS
·     As technology evolves, you may find that your system is not keeping up and experiences more errors and incompatibilities

Steps to Prepare Your Office for a Phase Out of Windows 7

You still have time to plan and implement a phase-out of the older operating system and upgrade to Windows 10. Here are the steps to take as soon as possible to ensure continued data security for your business.

Identify All Computers Running Windows 7

Before you purchase that first Windows 10 replacement; you first need to know how many replacements you’re going to have in total. Do a full inventory of office desktops and laptops and identify which ones are running the Windows 7 operating system.

Decide Which PCs to Upgrade and Which to Replace

Not all PCs will have the hardware necessary or be worth it to upgrade to Windows 10. Our recommendations for running Windows 10.

·     3 gigahertz or faster processor
·     8 GB Memory  – 16 GB if running Office
·     256GB gigabytes or larger hard disk Solid State Drive (SSD)
·     Graphics card that’s compatible with Direct X 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
·     800x600 display
·     System less than 3 years old

From your list of all computers running Windows 7, separate those that can be upgraded from those that can’t or shouldn’t due to age.

Upgrade and Purchase

You’ll have several months to spread out the cost of the OS and computer upgrades if you start right away. For each non-upgradable PC, you’ll want to price out replacements. Include any IT costs needed to help to migrate the data from the old PC to the new one.

Companies will want to ensure they’re getting Windows 10 Pro and not Windows 10 Home preloaded on any new PCs, so you’ll have all the features you need for business, such as support for Active Directory.

For those PC’s being upgraded, you’ll need to purchase Windows 10 and plan for an OS upgrade. The time it takes to do the upgrade can vary from an hour to several hours, depending upon factors like the age of the computer, how much data is on it, and the speed of your internet connection.

Planning for Staff Transition

Beyond just the hardware and OS upgrades, you have a team that’s going to be impacted by the upgrade to the new system in a couple of key ways that you’ll want to manage.

1.   Work disruption during the time their PC is being upgraded
2.   Learning the new operating system

You can minimize disruptions by planning upgrades during non-working hours or have an alternate device for staff to use while the computer is being upgraded.

Help your team reduce any productivity dips after the switch from Windows 7 to 10 by having a training session on the newer OS to get them up to speed before they’re sitting in front that new desktop environment.

Need Help with a Windows Upgrade?

BrainStomp can ensure a smooth transition for your office before the Windows 7 EOL date, and as a Microsoft partner, we can also help you find the best prices on new PCs and Windows 10.

You don’t have to do this alone.

Our brains are here to help. Call 260-918-3548 or reach out online.

Inside the brain of a Geek: Undo an Accidental Move, Copy or Delete

Have you every attempt a file move only to have your mouse skills falter the process and now you must search to find where the file end up?  Or just delete the wrong file or folder? I’m good at select multiple files and accidently create copies.  In any of these cases using Ctrl + Z or Edit \ Undo will quickly reverse whatever you didn’t mean to do.

In the example, below I selected recipes to move.

I accidentally copied the recipes instead.

I select CTRL + Z or Edit \ Undo

Select Yes to verify that I want to delete the copies made.

Now I’m back to where I started.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Undo an Accidental Move or Delete With a Keyboard Shortcut [How-To Geek]

Inside the brain of a Geek: Taming cables with binder clips

Crawling around under a desk to retrieve a fallen cable is never a fun task.  There are hundreds if not thousands of product specially design to solve this problem.  Some work (I’ve bought those) and some don’t work (I’ve bought those also). It wasn't until reading an article from one of my favorite websites (lifehacker.com) that I solved my cable problem with binder clips. Clamp the binder clips on the edge of your desk, monitor stand, or book shelf.  Remove the handles, slide the cables into the handle, and then reattached the handles.  Problem solved!

Above is a picture of my desk.  The binder clip holds my network and power cable for my laptop.

Resource: http://lifehacker.com/5499838/binder-clips-as-cable-catchers-redux

Inside the brain of a Geek: New to Office 2013? Start here.

You can download free Quick Start Guides to all Office 2013 applications.  Each guide contains useful tips and shortcuts.  Microsoft offers guides for the following applications.

• Access
• Excel
• OneNote (Attached)
• Outlook
• PowerPoint
• Project
• Publisher
• Visio
• Word

Download Office 2013 Quick Start Guides
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/support/office-2013-quick-start-guides-HA103673669.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA103673691

Inside the brain of a Geek: First aid for a wet phone

It is summer; time for afternoons at the pool, weekends at the lake, and playing in the sprinkler. These fun summer activities increase the likelihood that your phone will come in contact with water. When your phone gets wet, act quickly and follow the steps below to increase the chance for survival.

1. Limit the phone’s movement to avoid moving the water through it.
2. Turn off the phone.
3. Remove the battery.  Not all phones have removable batteries.
4. Remove SIM card and all accessories to include ear buds, memory cards, and cases.
5. Gently remove any visible liquid from the outside of the phone.
6. If you have access to a vacuum, use it to pull the moisture out.  Don’t use a hair dryer because it will push the liquid further into the phone.
7. Put the phone in a bag of rice for a minimum of 24 hours.  Increase the time to 48-72 hours for phones that were submerged. 
8. Be patient! Turning on the phone before it is completely dry may cause it to short circuit.

Inside the brain of a Geek: Three reasons why you may be causing those email errors.

Pam, why isn’t my email sending? There are a lot of reasons an email might get stuck in the Outbox or cause a bounce back message.  If you email server is working, check these three common issues and see if you are the reason the email may not be delivered.

1.     Attachments.  The biggest reason size.  Most email hosts can only handle emails between 10 - 15 MB.  Please note that is total email size, not the size of each attachment.  My rule of thumb anything over 10 MB and I use a file sharing service.

2.     Financial Information.  You should never send credit card, account numbers, or social security numbers via email.  Some systems can detect and block the sending or receiving of emails with this information. The system looks for 000-00-0000 or 1234567890123214 (16 # string) and blocks the email. .  You should not send it, and they don’t want it.

3.     Mailbox Size Restrictions.  Large data stores will slow down a system and that is why most companies put restrictions on mailbox sizes. If users go over those restrictions, they stop receiving emails and the sender gets a kickback message.  The users get a few “Mailbox Size Warning” emails prior to email receiving stopping.  If you got one of those warnings, stop what you are doing and archive some emails.

Inside the brain of a Geek: Exploring the Search options in Outlook

In the past I used about 80 sub-folders to keep my Inbox organized. The advancement of the Search features in Outlook makes finding emails so easy and accurate that I no longer worry about putting emails in the right sub-folder. But there is a lot more to searching in Outlook than the Search field. Today I’m going to highlight just a few of the more advanced options available.

When you click on the Search field, the Ribbon opens a new tab labeled Search Tools.

The Search Tools tab has many options that can speed up your searches.  I often use the From and Recent Search options.

For even more options go to Search Tools – Advanced Find. Keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+F)

Below I used the Advanced Find feature to locate all the Reminder emails I sent last month.