What Was My Password Again?

What Was My Password Again?

Secure Your Business Operation With These Easy Methods

Every day the news seems to be filled with stories about phishing scams targeting practically everyone or data breaches at a large company that compromised untold numbers of customers.

Develop a Culture of Security Mindfulness

In this modern and digital world, it’s important for individuals and business owners
to be security conscious and pay close attention to best practices, which starts with password protection. More and more systems call for complex passwords, which includes a mix of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols. Passwords alone aren’t enough. As we use more programs and software in our lives, including social media platforms, the need for additional passwords increases. Security experts will tell you that it’s unwise to use the same password over and over for multiple accounts.

Old School Way of Managing Password – Don’t Do This

So, with the plethora of passwords in use daily, what’s the best way to remember them? You could use a notebook or write the passwords down on a scrap piece of paper, but that’s not the most secure of ways to store your passwords. One could opt to use simple passwords that are easy to remember, but again, that’s not secure. Hackers could easily guess those passwords or use some sort of algorithm to break it fairly quickly.

Great Password Management With These Key Tools

That’s where password managers come into play. Password managers, such as LastPassKeepPass, OneID and more, use encryption codes to safely store your passwords. Users only need to remember one password to access the entire database. In fact, many password manager programs will actually generate strong passwords for users, so you won’t be stuck with guarding all your passwords with a weak password. In January PC Mag rated a number of free and low-cost password managers, with LastPass and LogMeOnce Password Management Suite Premium 5.2 as the top two choices.

Mac users can manage their passwords through Keychain Access, Apple’s password management system. The Keychain, according to MacWorld, can store passwords for emails, websites, servers, Wi-Fi networks, and encrypted disk images. It can also store secure notes, private keys, and certificates.

Use a Security Proficient IT Partner

Here at ITonDemand, we take Internet security very seriously. We encourage the use of long passwords that are typically more difficult to crack than some of the more simple ones people tend to use. Creating a password with 8 characters (a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols,) is a minimum we would recommend. ITonDemand also suggests regular changing of passwords to stymie any hacking attempts. We also encourage the use of two-factor authentication to double the security measures. In another blog we talked about how passphrases provide greater security over passwords. But, if you want to talk real security options, our IT Security Services package offers multiple layers of security to protect end users from threats and nuisances like Spam.

Why You Need More than a Managed Services Provider?

Why You Need More than a Managed Services Provider?

You already know that today you can’t manage a growing company and your technology needs alone. As a CEO, COO, CIO, or someone in management of your technology in your responsibility you have to leverage experts. Managed services providers have sprung up to provide this, but they too are now falling short due to the real need for more than a reactive partner with outside experience.

Critical Differences in Provider vs Partner Model

Managed Service Provider

Partner Approach from ITonDemand

FORCES CONFORMITY
Cookie Cutter products and services you  have to fit into

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION APPROACH
Well engineered solutions specifically for your business

LIMITED SCOPE OF SERVICES
Confined to set number of solutions

COMPLETE USER EXPERIENCE SERVICE
Fully managed approach from the end user out

MAINTENANCE PERSPECTIVE
Serves as maintenance, alerting you when things go wrong

PROACTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY
Well-engineered infrastructure that is ready for your business today and tomorrow

INCREASED & HIDDEN COST
Bills per device or hourly, relying on your issues to drive revenue, hidden fees

FLAT RATE BUDGET
Budget friendly predictable costs

MISALIGNED SOLUTIONS
Provides services that can be manipulated to fit your specific business needs and goals

BUSINESS GOALS ALIGNED
Provides solutions meeting business goals, using technology

What You Need Is a Partner, Not a Service Provider

Service providers do just that – they provide a service.  Managed services providers tend to approach clients looking at their existing environment and conforming to how to leverage that environment. They are not engaged in the critical function of being a partner engaged in ongoing technology transformation. The landscape is changing, literally daily, when it comes to security, continuity of business, operational efficiency, distributed environments, hosting, and more.

At ITonDemand we have evolved the business of Managed Services to incorporate our years of experience in dozens of industries from Government to Agriculture to Manufacturing and established ourselves as more partner than a vendor (MSP), a differentiating mark that has allowed for substantial improvements in the customer experience.

Business Aligned Solutions, Not Cookie Cutter Conformity

Breitbach said the Enterprise Email Solution package was developed as a means to provide the best protection possible for clients, particularly in this era of malicious scams. Before signing on with ITonDemand, Breitbach said one client learned the hard way about the importance of email security and unwittingly sent a large sum of money to scammers due to human error and the lack of competent security.

But, no matter how good a security system, there’s a human component to security as well. Breitbach said there are a number of best practices that email end users should apply, including not following links found in emails from unknown senders, having complex passwords and a good antivirus software.

“We’ve all gotten those emails that shouldn’t have gotten through and a good antivirus comes in handy for user errors,” Breitbach said.

Finally, Breitbach said email end users should also apply some common sense, especially when it comes to handling sensitive or personal data. Even if an email sender is known, it’s possible that account has been “spoofed” and could ask for inappropriate information.

“As a general rule, even if it’s someone you know and there are requests to hand over information in an unsecure manner that should be a big red flag,” Breitbach said.

Are You Getting Suspicious Email? – Spoofing May Be To Blame

Are You Getting Suspicious Email? – Spoofing May Be To Blame

It’s happened to all of us. We open our email account and there glaring at us we see a plea for help from a friend or family member. Perhaps the email says your friend is stuck in London without any money or credentials and needs your assistance to get home. Your friend or family member pledges to pay you back after he or she returns home.

Most likely you saw the email and deleted it– which is the proper course of action. It’s a scam email called “the stranded traveler.” Unfortunately, it’s an email that some people do fall for because it’s coming from the account of a trusted friend or family member and money is sent to help out.

So why did this happen? And, what’s the best way to deal with it?

Email Spoofing Explained

What happened is a common type of scam called email spoofing. Email spoofing is designed to look like a known account, but is actually a forgery and originates elsewhere. Email spoofing is effective because those who receive the email are likely to open it because it looks like it comes from a known account.  As TechTarget noted, the goal of email spoofing is “to get recipients to open, and possibly even respond to, a solicitation.” It turns out, as Lifehacker says, spoofing emails is a fairly easy thing for nefarious hackers to do, which is one reason phishing has become such a common scam.

You’ve Been Spoofed, Now What?

Now that you know what email spoofing is, what’s the best way to handle it should you be on the receiving end of one of these suspicious emails? The best way to verify whether or not an email is legitimate is to contact the person who sent it and verify it was from them. If they confirm they didn’t send it, delete it. Usually, a simple deletion is the best response.

However, TechTarget said there are some emails that are maliciously designed to pose security risks for an individual. As an example, some phishing and email spoofing experts clone popular shopping websites and ask the recipient to provide sensitive data like a password or credit card numbers. Or, the email could include a link that, if clicked, would install some type of malware on your computer. That’s just one additional reason it’s important to have good antimalware installed on your computer alongside a good antivirus.

So, How Do You Prevent This Kind of Malicious Attack?

1. Be aware of who is sending the email. Pay close attention to the sender’s name and email address. Sometimes the false email can have a .net vs. .com, or could include a /au or something similar.

 

2. Install antimalware and antivirus software on your computer.

 

3. Turn up the spam filters on your email account.

 

4. Never, ever click on unfamiliar links or download unfamiliar attachments.

 

5. Finally, if you are unsure, that’s what ITonDemand is here for. Contact us and we will be happy to analyze the email and let you know if it is legitimate or not.

PHISHING

Download our infographic and learn how to identify a phishing scam when you see one.