5 Reasons It’s Essential to Store Your Documents Digitally on a Server

Since the advent of the digital age, the number of documents created each week in the average office has increased by leaps and bounds. In just the last two years, 90% of the world’s data has been created.

For offices still using paper files, multiple dangers exist, such as physical damage, getting lost or misfiled, or becoming aged and unreadable over the years.

Many offices now struggle with managing both paper and digital files effectively, including:

·     Ensuring they’re safe from unauthorized access

·     Keeping them easy to find when needed

·     Preventing destruction or loss of files

·     Storing them securely in archives for years

There are also multiple workstations and mobile devices used to create and store company files, which makes proper IT management of that data even more complex. The best solution for keeping a handle on all your files is to use a server for centralized storage.

Both on-premise and cloud-based servers give you one central location for file storage, they also enable software that can facilitate backup and recovery. For paper files, those should really be scanned in and converted to digital so all your company’s files can be stored in the same place.

Why Server File Storage is Important

58% of small businesses are not prepared for data loss, and it can cost them dearly. Whether files are lost to accidental deletion, due to a stolen laptop, or a fire or flood, they can significantly impact a company’s bottom line and in some cases cause them to have to close their doors.

When storing files on a server, it’s important to remember to always keep one copy offsite. The best backup plans use both a local on-premise server for backups as well as an offsite cloud server through a 3rdparty provider.

Here are reasons it’s essential to use server storage for your business documents. 

Locate Files Faster

Office professionals spend an average of 4.5 hours per week just looking for files. If you’re not using server storage with search capabilities, you could have employees looking through filing cabinets or searching various hard drives for hours to find a specific document. That’s an inefficient use of time that saps office productivity.

Server storage platforms include keyword search capability that make it easy to instantly find files that are even years old. By having all your office files on the same server, you also ensure nothing is missed if you’re looking for all past customer orders, for example, and can ensure paper orders forms are represented digitally, so everything’s in one central location. 

Protect Your Business from Catastrophic Data Loss

In the case of a natural disaster, fire, or theft at your premises, if you have your files stored on an offsite server, you ensure business continuity. Backup and disaster recovery software can allow you to quickly download lost data to another device that’s internet connected.

 If you’re storing all your files onsite, a single catastrophic even can cause you to lose the copies on your workstations and your entire backup copy.

Save on Storage Costs

Digital file storage is much less expensive than storing paper files in a filing cabinet. Beyond the cost of the paper itself, you have the cost of filing cabinets, folders, and the square footage that those filing cabinets take up. As the years go by, your ability to archive is limited by your physical space.

With your files being stored on a server in digital format, the cost per file is minuscule compared to a paper file. Scaling up as more files are created is as easy as clicking a button. You not only save on the paper and filing costs, you’re also not giving up a portion of your office to storage of paper documents.

Improved Data Security & Compliance

When you have files spread out in filing cabinets and multiple desktop workstations, ensuring that sensitive information that needs to be protected under data privacy rules like HIPAA or PCI, is extremely difficult.

Using centralized server storage for your documents allows you to not only know where they all are, but to also put safeguards in place, such as user privileges and password requirements, that ensure they’re properly protected from being stolen or from unauthorized access 

Allows for Better Visibility

Say your website team is working on your About Us page and they need some older files to fill out your history timeline. If those files are stuffed in a folder in the back of a dusty filing cabinet, they might never find them, or it may take them hours of unproductive time to locate them.

When all your files are digitized and stored electronically on a server, your team has instant access to whatever they need, facilitating their task at hand and ensuring better file visibility to all that need to access them.

Need Help Organizing Your Digital Documents?

If you’re somewhere in between “all digital” and still using folders and filing cabinets, BrainStomp can work with you to put together an organized, easily accessible, and secure server storage system. 

Schedule a free consultation today! Just call us at 260-918-3548 or reach out online.

Answers to the Most Common Questions About Password Security

Passwords have become ingrained into our daily lives. We use them for getting into our personal bank account or social media as well as for multiple work applications each day. 

The average email address is associated with approximately 130 different online logins, so it’s no wonder that most people feel like they have password overload. 

Login credentials are one of the hot commodities on the cyber black market, because they can get criminals into all types of different accounts and allow them to breach a company’s network. Passwords are generally more valuable that just the benefit that can be gained from one account breach, because people typically use the same password for multiple logins.

But as annoying as it is to have to juggle multiple passwords, they’re often the only barrier that’s keeping a network or device from being breached. No matter how good your managed IT security is, if a hacker has a user’s password, they can bypass security and gain access to plant malware or spyware and steal all types of sensitive data.

It can be a constant battle to convey the importance of password security to employees and have them understand the significance of why a particular policy is put into place that might make it slightly harder for them to use their applications. We’ll try to make it a bit easier by providing answers to several common questions asked about password security.

Understanding the Importance of Credential Security 

According to“The 2019 State of Password and Authentication Security Behaviors Report,”51% of survey respondents had experienced a phishing attack, but 57% of them said it did not have any impact on how they managed their passwords.

Passwords seem to be one of those things that everyone knows they need to secure, but unfortunately many people just don’t and fall into the same bad habits of:

·     Using weak passwords

·     Sharing passwords with colleagues

·     Reusing the same password for multiple accounts

·     Not changing passwords regularly

Here are answers to common password security questions that can hopefully illuminate the importance of putting good password management at the top of your data security checklist.

Why does my password have to be so complicated?

The weaker a password is, the easier it is to hack. Cybercriminals have a list of the most common passwords (12345, qwerty, password123, etc.), and too often that’s all they need to break into a corporate network.

Passwords that are too short (less than about 7 characters) and use all lowercase letters, make it easy for a hacker to breach either by guessing or using a software designed to crack a login.

Complicated passwords that are long, use a combination of symbols, numbers, and upper and lowercase letters are much more difficult for a hacker to get past.

Why do I have to change my password so much?

If you keep using the same password for years without changing it, that makes it much more susceptible to being breached. And even if you use a strong password, with data breaches happening more often at large corporations like Target and Marriott, your credentials can easily get exposed, and generally these breaches aren’t found out until months after the fact.

Changing your password regularly can help keep it more secure, especially in the event it’s been exposed in a data breach of a vendor you use. The use of a password manager can help with remembering passwords when they’re changed regularly.

Why is wrong to share my password with a colleague? 

You’re on the road and need to access something at the office, you call in and give a coworker your password so they can access the file you need. What’s so wrong with that? Well, anytime you share your password with someone else, you lose control over its security. 

Even if it’s a trusted friend, they could accidentally leave your password written down on a sticky note on the desk or share it with someone else. Whatever happens on your login is your responsibility, even if it wasn’t you that logged in, so it’s best to never share your password. 

How much does multi-factor authentication (MFA) really help?

You may be wondering if you should use multi-factor authentication (also known as two-factor authentication) or if it’s going to be more hassle than it’s worth. It turns out that MFA significantly increases the security of your logins. 

According to a study by Google, enabling MFA prevented 100% of automated bot attacks that use stolen password lists and 96% of phishing attacks trying to steal passwords. So, using MFA on all your logins is definitely worth the few extra seconds it takes to enter a code sent to you via text message as a second factor of authentication.

How am I supposed to remember a bunch of unique, difficult passwords?

If someone had even 20 different logins (most people use many more than that between home and work) and each of those used what’s considered a strong password and each one used a completely different password, it would be impossible for the average person to remember them all. And especially so if they changed regularly.

The answer is to use a password management application. Not only does it reduce the passwords you have to remember to one, it also can suggest strong passwords when setting up logins and will keep your passwords stored securely in a password vault.

Get a Handle on Your Company’s Password Security

For many companies, their password security is the weakest link in their cybersecurity strategy. Working with BrainStomp, you can put policies into place that will be easy for you and your employees to adopt and keep your data safe.

Schedule a free consultation today! Just call us at 260-918-3548 or reach out online.

Why You Should Never Use Your Work PC for Personal Reasons

It usually starts innocently enough. You’re expecting a shipping email with tracking for a holiday purchase, so you add your personal email to your work PC. Then it just becomes so darn convenient to have a chance to check on your emails during the day you just leave it there.

Or you may work remotely, and instead of having to switch from your work PC when you get off, it’s just easier to make that family photo collage on the same computer. Before you know it, you’ve got personal items in folders throughout your hard drive and may not realize these all are being backed up to a corporate account by your employer’s managed cloud backup.

While it’s often more convenient at the time, using your work PC for personal reasons can be a huge problem for both you and your employer that can come with consequences ranging from the embarrassing to the severe.

 If you’ve ever saved personal files to your work computer, you’ll want to read on to find out why it’s not a good idea and you should probably clean all those personal files off it as soon as possible.

Don’t Mix Work & Personal on Your Work PC 

While many employers will have no trouble recognizing the problem with mixing personal items with your work on your company computer, the person doing it might not realize the risks they’re taking. Following, are several of them.

Personal Photos Ending Up in the Wrong Hands

Once you start using your work computer for personal use and possibly connect your iCloud or OneDrive account that automatically downloads your smartphone photos, you could end up with personal pictures showing up and being seen by your superiors that you wanted to keep private.

The digital world is so automated today that being able to send personal texts from your work PC might have been the reason you added your account in the first place, but that one connection could open the floodgates to automatic syncs of your music, photos, videos, and more.

A Former Employer Could End up Owning Your IP

There was a case mentioned on Quora where an employee used their work laptop for a personal coding project. They parted ways with their employer and started their own company. As their former company was recycling their PC, they found the code that was the basis for the employee’s new company and claimed it as their property because it was made on a computer that they owned. 

After going to court, because the personal code had been created on the former employer’s work computer, they ended up winning and took possession of his business.

If you’re using your work PC to work on any type of personal project from creating a new software idea to designing graphics, technically your employer could claim that work is theirs since you created and saved it on their property.

You Could End Up Downloading a Virus

A phishing email can come into any email inbox, but if your employer has special anti-phishing protection on work emails, but your personal email does not, you could end up accidentally infecting your company’s network due to use of your personal email on a work device.

If you have accounts that are connected to your work PC but not protected by their cybersecurity applications, you’re putting your company at a huge risk of a data breach.

Your Personal Data Could End Up on the Company’s Cloud Backup 

As we noted, using a company PC for personal use generally happens innocently, with just a file or two. But that can quickly snowball into you having multiple personal files in different folders on the hard drive.

Many companies put automated backup software on employee computers to ensure data is safely backed up and recoverable in the event of a data breach, natural disaster or other serious event. That means all your personal items on that hard drive are being backed up as well to the company’s cloud backup system and even if you delete them from your PC, they could still be stored on the cloud service.

You Could Get Fired

Of course, one of the most severe consequences is being fired because it’s found out you’re using your work PC for personal use. Checking personal emails during working hours? Automatic downloads of swimsuit photos taken over the weekend? Unsecure email putting the company’s network at risk? Any of these could be grounds for dismissal. 

It’s better to have a policy where personal and work data do not mix at all on any computers. That not only keeps you and your data protected it also protects your company from a security breach.

Looking for Reliable Workstations or Servers? We Have You Covered!

Employees often like working on their work PCs because they tend to be faster and have more capabilities than consumer computers. If you need help finding anything from routers to PCs, BrainStomp can provide competitive pricing on multiple hardware solutions.

 Contact us today for any hardware needs. Call 260-918-3548 or reach out online.

Is This Email Real? What to Do If You Aren’t Sure an Email is Legit

The average office worker receives about 121 emails per day. These consist of a mix of spam, phishing emails, along with the legitimate ones. That’s a lot of messages to have to sort through on a daily basis.

The sheer volume of email that a person has to go through daily coupled with the sophistication of fake phishing emails can make if easy for someone to accidentally click a malicious link or download a malware-laden attachment.

How many of those 121 emails per day are legitimate? Less than half. According to the “2019 Internet Security Threat Report” by Symantec, 57.5% of the email received in the U.S. is spam. Of that about 16 per month are malicious phishing emails.

If you have just 25 employees, that means there could be 400 chances each month for someone to get fooled into downloading a malware like ransomware into your network and initiating a data breach. 

Many companies turn to modern office IT support and strong anti-spam and anti-phishing applications to help combat the constant influx of dangerous emails into employee inboxes, but the last line of defense is the employee who has to decide whether an email is legitimate or not.

What should you do if you aren’t sure about the legitimacy of an email you received? There are a few strategies you can employ to check out a questionable email before you unintentionally unleash a cyberattack.

Tips for Handling Emails You Aren’t Sure About 

There’s a reason that phishing is the number one method used to deliver malware and malicious scripts designed to hack networks for any number of insidious reasons. It works. 

Phishing uses multiple tactics such as a sense of urgency or offer of a sale to trick users into opening a seemingly innocent Word attachment or clicking a link to a website. Many high-profile data breaches that you hear about in the news are the result of a targeted phishing campaign designed to gain access to an organization’s network (such as the DNC email server hack during the 2016 election).

So how do you know if an email is a trap? Here are things you should do if you receive a questionable email that you’re unsure about. 

Hover Over Any Links to Reveal their URL

An easy way to tell if that “bill” from AT&T is legitimate, is to hover over the link without clicking it to reveal the true URL.

Phishing scammers often spoof legitimate companies, using their logos and signature lines to make their fake emails look like the real thing. But by hovering over the URL, you can see (as in the example below) when a URL does not match the company it’s pretending to be coming from.

Look for Common Phishing Keywords in the Subject Line

There are certain keywords that phishing emails will employ to tug on your emotions to get you to open an email. Be very wary when seeing the following, which are the top keyword’s phishing scammers use according to the Symantec report.

·     Urgent

·     Request

·     Important

·     Payment or Outstanding Payment

·     Attention

·     Info

·     Important Update

·     Attn

·     Transaction

Ask Yourself if the Email is Expected or Not

One tactic hackers use is the promise of a purchase order from someone, but it’s a company you’ve never heard of. Ask yourself if a questionable email is expected. Do you know the company sending it or the sender? Were you expecting a PO from this company? 

Or if the email looks to be from a colleague (accounts are often hacked) ask if the language the person is using matches what you expect from them and double check with them to make sure they really sent it. Any emails out of the ordinary should be questioned. 

Get a Second Opinion

It’s always better to pause and ask for a second opinion rather than click on a virus-laden attachment in a rush. If you have someone that’s computer-savvy at your office or an in-house IT person, ask them before you download or click anything on the email. If you use an IT provider, like BrainStomp, give them a call. We can often tell immediately whether an email is a phishing scam or not.

Look at the Header Source 

If you click to view the header source code of the message, you’ll often find that the sender has a completely different email address than the email purports to be from. Just like when you hover over a URL, the raw source code of the message can often be an indicator or a phishing email.

Run All File Attachments Through a Malware Scanning App

It’s a good rule of thumb to run all email attachments through a malware and virus scanning applications before opening them. One of the most popular document types that phishing scammers use is a .doc (Word document) that most people would think was legitimate. 

The most popular file types for malicious email attachments are: 

·     .doc, .dot (37%)

·     .exe (19.5%)

·     .rtf (14%)

·     .xls, .xlt, .xla (7.2%)

·     .jar (5.6%)

·     .html, .htm (5.5%)

·     .docx (2.3%

Find Solutions That Keep Phishing & Spam Away

The best way to mitigate the dangers of phishing email and anti-productive spam is to use a software that can keep these out of your employee inboxes in the first place. BrainStomp can help you deploy smart cybersecurity solutions to keep your network safe in the face of multiple threats.

Schedule a free security consultation with us today! Call 260-918-3548 or reach out online.

What is "Sandboxing" and How Can It Save My Company from a Data Breach?

One of the most vital pieces of data security at an office is the system that helps detect and prevent intrusions by viruses, ransomware, and other forms of malware. 

These malicious threats can wreak havoc on a network if it’s not properly protected by managed IT security or other strong antivirus/anti-malware tools. These tools need to be able to not only detect malware that’s been logged in a threat database but also those “Zero-Day” threats that have been just released and aren’t catalogued anywhere yet.

76% of successful attacks on an organization’s endpoints in 2018 were due to zero-day malware.

Most of your older forms of antivirus or anti-malware software worked exclusive off a database of known threats. While this database is still an important component of malware protection, today’s threats go beyond just the known dangers and now email inboxes are being hit with brand new forms of malware not seen before.

So, how do modern cybersecurity protections identify zero-day threats as well as other malicious malware and viruses? Through the use of something called “sandboxing.”

We’ll explore further what sandboxing is and why you want to make sure that any anti-phishing software, antivirus, or anti-malware tool you use includes this technology.

How Does Sandboxing Work?

The term sandboxing comes from childhood memories of playing the sandbox. You were pretty self-contained in there and could basically play in the dirt without messing up anything else outside the sandbox.

Sandboxing when it comes to malicious scripts uses the same concept. The sandbox environment replicates a computer environment, but it’s contained and separate from your own operating system and files. It’s designed to fool a virus, malware, or other type of threat into thinking it’s already made its way past any antivirus defenses, so it will start to “play,” aka do the malicious thing it was designed for, and get caught. 

As anti-malware programs have become more sophisticated, so have the malware and other threats they’re designed to stop. Many of them go into a type of stealth mode meant to get it past the security defenses of a firewall or software, then once it’s in a computer or server, it executes the pre-programmed commands. 

Here are some of the key benefits of sandboxing.

Catches Suspicious Threats Proactively

Phishing is the number one cause of data breaches. Hackers continue to use it because it works and is a fairly cheap way to deliver malware to a single device or entire organization.

When a user accidentally opens a virus-laden attachment, it can infect an entire system or network. 

But, if you have an anti-phishing program with sandboxing capabilities, it proactively checks file attachments by putting them in the sandbox environment, then watching how they act. Any dangerous activity, and the threat is quarantined and eradicated before it had a chance to reach your hard drive.

Is Able to Stop Zero-Day Threats

The sandboxing capabilities of a software are typically combined with advanced protection through artificial intelligence and ability to learn by observing how the threat acts in the environment. 

Since sandboxing uses observed behavior in a safe environment, rather that just checking a database of known threats, it’s able to catch zero-day viruses and malware that can get through other programs simply because their signatures aren’t recognized.

Works Well with Other Security Tools

Sandboxing compliments other securities tools, like firewalls, by sharing the information learned and updating your internal threat matrix with the data provided by the quarantined scripts.  

With this shared knowledge, your entire cybersecurity infrastructure is stronger and able to detect any similar patterns from new threats. 

Can Provide Remote Connection Protections 

When you have employees logging in from a variety of locations and devices, data security becomes even more complex. Sandboxing tools can be configured to collaborate with remote desktop protocol to secure remote connections to the company network from outside the office, boosting the security of your mobile workforce.

New Windows 10 Pro Sandboxing Feature 

If you’re a user of Windows 10 Pro, a handy feature was released in the latest 1903 update that came out at the end of May and was rolled out throughout the summer called Windows Sandbox.

This gives you an isolated, temporary desktop environment to use where you can run software that is untrusted or questionable. The Windows Sandbox is separate from your own files, so you can observe the program without worrying about it impacting your system. Once you complete the sandbox session, all files are permanently deleted automatically.

One note: This does not replace the sandboxing needed in an anti-phishing, antivirus, or anti-malware program, as it’s not built to work with email attachments, etc. like those programs are. However, it is a very useful new feature that will allow you run lesser known software in a safe environment before installing it on your computer.

Does Your Cybersecurity Include Threat Sandboxing?

If you’re unsure whether or not your cybersecurity can catch zero-day threats or protect you through sandboxing, give BrainStomp a call. We can do a complete assessment of your IT security and let you know where you stand. 

Get your security assessment today by calling 260-918-3548 or contacting us online.

Have You Backed Up Your Office 365 or G Suite Data? Here's Why You Need to Start

One of the conveniences of cloud-based platforms is that they save data on a remote server that allows it to be accessible from any location and device. You can log in to Office 365 from the office or at home or access your G Suite documents from a tablet while traveling, and they’re all right there for you.

But that convenience can give companies a false sense of security that their cloud data is “safe enough” and doesn’t need to be backed up separately to a third-party solution, which could lead to unexpected data loss. 

Despite all the modern office technology and virtual solutions that we now have access to, data loss can still occur and devastate a business. A majority of smaller companies end up having to close their doors within 6 months of a major data loss incident.

58% of small businesses are not prepared for data loss

While most companies realize that it’s imperative to backup their computer hard drives, mobile devices, and any on site servers they have, they often leave their cloud data vulnerable to loss by not including it in their backup strategy.

Reasons You Need to Back Up Cloud Solutions

The costs of losing data add up to the tune of $150 per lost record, according to IBM Security, with the average number of records lost in a data breach being 25, 575. That’s a cost of over 3.8 million, a loss that’s significant no matter what size company you have.

This coupled with the fact that more of a company’s data is being stored in the cloud due to the convenience and flexibility of cloud-based solutions, mean some major risk if that cloud-based data isn’t backed up.

Aren’t the cloud providers backing up my data?

They may have a copy stored for you, but both Microsoft and Google say they’re not responsible for any data loss:

Microsoft’s service agreement states:

“We strive to keep the Services up and running; however, all online services suffer occasional disruptions and outages, and Microsoft is not liable for any disruption or loss you may suffer as a result. In the event of an outage, you may not be able to retrieve Your Content or Data that you’ve stored. We recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services or store using Third-Party Apps and Services.”

Google’s service agreement states:

“When permitted by law, Google, and Google’s suppliers and distributors, will not be responsible for lostprofits, revenues, or data, financial losses or indirect, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages.”

Whether you use Office 365, G Suite, or another cloud solution, here’s why you need to use a 3rdparty backup tool that’s designed specifically to back up the data generated and saved in the cloud.

Accidental Deletion by Users 

It’s great that Office 365 and G Suite allow users to collaborate on the same files to facilitate streamlined workflows, but that also means a user might accidentally overwrite or delete a file.

It’s not uncommon for a G Suite user to find out they’re running out of space, and delete things to free up more, accidentally deleting something they shouldn’t have.

A full back up of your cloud platform will ensure you have an additional copy of all your files, even if they’re accidentally deleted or overwritten.

Cloud Service Outage

When your data is “in the cloud” it’s stored on a physical server, usually within a large data center. That physical device is just as vulnerable to outages as a server in your office and can go down for any number of reasons, including: 

·     Hardware crash

·     Software conflict

·     Physical damage

·     Power outage

·     Brute force or malware attack

If an outage of your cloud provider occurs and you don’t have a backup copy of your data, you’re left at a standstill, hoping they come back online and that your data hasn’t been lost in the process.

Synced Files Spreading Malware

Both G Suite and OneDrive in Office 365 have the ability to sync your files between your device and the cloud storage, but this means that if an employee’s computer is infected with malware that destroys or encrypts files (like Ransomware) your cloud storage could also be infected as well, leaving you without your date, unless you’ve backed it up with a third party tool.

Lost or Stolen Devices

More of our workload is being offloaded to mobile devices in offices around the world. They make working when and where you want easier, but mobile devices are much more susceptible to theft or loss than a desktop computer that can’t fit in your briefcase.

If a tablet that’s logged into your G Suite or Office 365 account gets stolen, the thief could end up wiping out your data entirely if it’s not safely backed up elsewhere.

Get Help Backing Up Your Cloud Services Today! 

There are special types of backup solutions used for backing up programs like G Suite or Office 365. BrainStomp can help you find the right tool and get a backup plan in place, so your cloud data is never at risk of being lost or damaged. 

Contact us today to get started! Just call us at 260-918-3548 or reach out online.

7 Reasons You Need to Upgrade to Windows 10 Right Now

If you’ve still been hanging on to Windows 7, it’s understandable. It was one of the most popular Microsoft operating systems. And, even though it’s nearing its end of support on January 14, 2020, it’s still used by many loyal computer users.

As of June 2019, about 35% of all desktop users were still using Windows 7, just 10% less than Windows 10. We’d guess that many of those 35% haven’t yet realized all the excellent features that Windows 10 has to offer.
Windows 10 is a major upgrade in the user experience that includes many features that used to be enjoyed by Mac users only. It also happens to be a reliably stable OS, which puts many business owners at ease when it comes time to upgrade.

So, why should you upgrade to Windows 10 right away? Here are 7 reasons you’re going to want to make the switch sooner rather than later.

Top Features, Tips & Tricks Offered in Windows 10

At the end of 2018, Windows 10 was active on nearly 700 million devices, with adoption growing rapidly throughout 2019. It’s the number one operating system in the world.

Here are some of the reasons why.

Customize Your Start Menu

The start menu in Windows 10 is designed to give you exactly what you need to launch your most used applications quickly. You don’t have to search through a long list of programs to find what you’re looking for, just drag and drop your favorites into the start panel interface.

You can group similar programs into sections that you can also name. For example, you could have a “Work” section, and include inside for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Slack and Salesforce. Or have a “Play Time” section with Netflix, Xbox, and Solitaire. 

Send and Receive Texts on Your Computer

A feature that iPhone and iMac users have had for a while was the ability to connect their phone and send and receive text messages on their computer. (Much easier if you’re typing a long text!). Windows 10’s latest major update in October of 2018 brought this same feature for Android users. 

Just pair your Android device using the Your Phone app in Windows 10 and enjoy sharing photos, texts, and more between devices.

Dictate Work to Cortana

You can enable Microsoft’s voice assistant, Cortana, on Windows 10 and save yourself some typing or get answers to questions, like “What’s the weather today?”.

Set up Cortana by clicking the Windows Start icon and then typing “Cortana” into the search bar. It will walk you through the setup process to give you access to the powerful speech recognition assistant, which you can use for dictating notes, emails, and more.

Stay Backed Up to OneDrive 

If you have an Office 365 subscription, then each user automatically has a Terabyte of storage on OneDrive and it’s fully integrated with Windows 10. Store and share files across devices easily and securely and automatically back up your computer so every file is being saved as you type it.

OneDrive is a lifesaver if you have a program crash while you’re in the middle of editing a document. Instead of bemoaning the fact that you didn’t save before you crashed, you’ll be retrieving the file through the autosaved OneDrive copy. 

Take Screenshots of Any Area You Like

One feature that could potentially change your life, or at least your computing, is the flexible screenshot feature in Windows 10. This is an example of them “one-upping” Apple by offering more flexibility to how screenshots are done. 

Press the Windows Key-Shift-S, and you’ll get a small screenshot bar at the top of the window. You can choose the first option to drag a rectangle over the area of your screen that you want to screenshot or choose the freeform option to get a circular type screenshot, based upon how you drag the cursor. 

Screenshots are then opened in Snip & Sketch and you can add annotations if you like before saving.

Snap Windows Side-by-Side

Don’t you hate when you’re trying to see two windows at the same time and have to keep toggling back and forth? Maybe you’re typing numbers from a web browser window into an Excel spreadsheet and just wish you could see them both easily.

Windows 10 has a Snap Assist feature to help. Just drag a window to the corner and it will snap into place, taking up half the screen. You can also snap two, three, or four windows evenly just by dragging them to the appropriate corner.

Pin Favorite Webpages to Your Start Menu

Remember that customizable Start Menu? Well you can also save links to your most used webpages there too for quick and easy access when you need it.

You’ll need to pull up the webpage in the Edge browser. Then just click the three dots in the upper right corner and choose “Pin this page to Start.” Note: If you don’t see it, hover over “More tools”.

Get Help with a Smooth Windows 10 Upgrade

Want to ensure your upgrade to Windows 10 goes smoothly without any hiccups? Call BrainStomp! Whether you’re updating the operating system on the same PC or upgrading computers and need to migrate your data, we can make sure the transition is fast and efficient.

Schedule your Windows 10 upgrade today by calling 260-918-3548 or contacting us online.

How Windows 10 Can Make You (and Your Business) a Productivity Machine

Knowing a few tips and tricks can save you hours per week when it comes to your PC workflow. Windows 10 was designed to enhance user experience and basically make tasks easier to accomplish.

But unless you’ve thoroughly explored everything there is to know about this operating system, you or your staff might not be aware of all the great productivity-enhancing tricks that Windows 10 offers.

As a Microsoft Partner, BrainStomp knows Windows inside and out and we’re here to reveal our favorite Windows 10 tips for productivity so you can make the most of them!

Upgrade Your Productivity in Windows 10

75 percent of U.S. employees don’t believe they have access to the latest in efficiency tools to help them do their jobs as well as possible. But it’s possible that many just haven’t yet discovered everything that the tools they do have can do.

Happy workers are 12 percent more productive and being able to get through tasks faster can help remove frustration and boost that happiness quotient.  

Try sharing some of these tips for more productivity power.

1. Stop Distractions with Focus Assistant

Constant interruptions are frustrating and seriously drag down productivity. Studies show it takes an average of 23 minutes to recover from an interruption and get back to the mental space you were in before it happened.

Focus Assistant in Windows 10 helps you take control of notifications for incoming emails, apps, texts, alerts, VoIP calls, and more. You can control them in some key ways: 

·     Turn them all off during certain times of day

·     Prioritize which you want to show and which you don’t

·     Hide all notifications and show alarms only

·     Only show notifications from certain people

Get there by clicking the Windows Start icon and typing “Focus” into the search bar.

2. Get More Space with Virtual Desktops

In the course of a busy workday, you can have multiple Windows open trying to get things done, which can lead to “lost windows” and time wasted trying to click around until you find the one you need. 

The Virtual Desktops feature in Windows 10 helps you keep everything organized by allowing you to use multiple different desktops. For example, you could have your email open in one, your cloud-based CRM program and live chat in another, and a document you’re working on a third.  

Click the Task View icon in your task bar, then click the “+ New desktop” to add a new one. You can toggle between them using the Task View or Windows Key + Ctrl + Left Arrow and Windows Key + Ctrl + Right Arrow.

3. Print to PDF

This might seem like simple feature, but it saves a whole lot of time when you need to export to a PDF from a Word document, webpage, or anything else you might have open. 

Windows 10 shortens the workflow by removing the need to use a third-party application to create a PDF from a document. And it’s natively built in, which means it will work in anything, not just particular apps.

When you go to File > Print, choose “Microsoft Print to PDF” as the Printer.

4. Get a Master Control Panel in “GodMode”

One of the more secret tricks in Windows 10 is what’s referred to as “GodMode.” It’s a folder that you can create that gives you instant access to multiple optimization and program settings and features without having to search them out in the Settings area. 

You can activate this feature by right-clicking on your desktop and creating a new folder.

Name the folder: GodMode.

The icon will then change into a control panel.

Open the folder, and you’ll get all sorts of program tasks that you can execute from that one place. It’s also organized by category, making it even easier to locate what you need fast.  

5. Find Programs & Pages Recently Used in Task View

You just had that website open with some information you needed for a presentation, but you closed it and can’t find it again… or can you? Besides being used to create and toggle between virtual desktops, Task View is incredibly helpful for jumping to one of your open windows or searching for one you recently closed. 

Just open Task View from your tool bar and you’ll see at the top the currently open programs and windows. Just click to jump to one of them. Scroll down and you’ll also see a timeline of past open windows that can make it simple to get back to that webpage you were looking through two days ago.

6. Use the Pin Feature to Pin Settings, People, Documents

How much time to do you spend navigating to things like settings, files or contacts? Windows 10 has a Pin feature that works throughout the OS in several different areas to save you time.

Here are some examples:

·     In a program like Word, you can Pin documents you use most often to show at the top of the open file dialogue box. 

·     In Settings, if there is a specific one you use often, like desktop personalization, you can pin it to your Start menu.

·     Are there certain contacts that you want to always receive notifications from? You can open the People app from Start and pin those contacts to your taskbar. Then when you’re using Focus Assistant you can choose those contacts as a priority.

Need More Productivity Boosting Help at Your Office?

BrainStomp’s team of office efficiency experts can help you with multiple IT solutions that can streamline your operations, save you money, and boost productivity.

Contact us today to schedule your consultation and take the first step towards a more streamlined office. Call us at 260-918-3548 or reach out online.

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.