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Storm Season Is Just Around The Corner… Are You Protected?

Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.
We’ve just celebrated the first day of Spring, and before you know it, the weather will warm up and tulips will bloom. Of course, we’re also headed into Spring storm season.

If you haven’t already, it is time to prepare for those pop-up storms that occur randomly at this time of year. These unexpected storms often result in everything from ice damage to lightning fires.

During this time of year the threat of fire, flood, severe storms, water damage from office sprinklers, and even theft is very real.

One of the most valuable assets for any company is its data. Hardware and software can easily be replaced, but a company’s data cannot! As a reminder to all of our clients, here are some simple things you should do to make sure your company is ready for any natural disaster. [Read more…] about Storm Season Is Just Around The Corner… Are You Protected?

Don’t Use Your Keyboard As A Dinner Plate And Three Other PC Best Practices To Live By

Michael Menor is Vice President of Support Services for Tech Experts.
Computers are complex devices that require special attention to keep in optimal shape. Unfortunately, some people don’t pay enough attention to the current state of their computers.

Once you’ve cleaned your computer properly, though, it’s important to make sure that it stays that way for as long as possible. Doing so can increase the longevity of your technology and prevent it from an untimely demise.

However, before you decide it’s time to clean your computer, power it down and unplug it before doing so. It’s better to be safe than sorry, especially with expensive hardware.

Don’t eat, drink, or smoke at the computer
Remember all of those crumbs that fall out of your keyboard when you turn it upside down? All of those crumbs got there somehow and it’s probably thanks to one habit that you might have: eating at your desk.

To minimize the amount of crumbs that fall onto your keyboard, it’s best to just lock your PC and go eat somewhere else, like the kitchen, dining room, or break room. Furthermore, smoking in the same room as your computer can gunk up your fans and other components with ash, tar, and other nasty substances that are found in cigarettes.

In general, it can be good to separate yourself from your computer while you eat. If you’re doing it at work, it separates the work environment from you momentarily, which can be helpful for maintaining your sanity.

Clean your PC regularly
Giving your PC a thorough cleaning is only the first step toward ensuring that your computer remains in optimal shape. In order to keep it that way, you need to set up regular upkeep cleaning sessions where you clean out the keyboard, the monitor, and the main body of your PC.

Doing so can considerably prolong its lifespan and it makes it more appealing to look at when you have to sit in front of it for hours on end.

We think it’s safe to say that you should clean your PC at least twice a year, maybe more if your lifestyle calls for it.

Give it room to breathe
In order to keep your PC functioning at optimal efficiency, you need to give it the space it requires to run without overheating. In other words, you should keep it in an open location, where all of the fans are capable of keeping air circulation flowing.

This prevents overheating and can improve overall functionality of the device. Furthermore, you should keep your PC tower off of carpet if possible, to help with keeping the heat low.

Constantly clear dust collection
Desktop PCs and workstations tend to be a bit on the large side and therefore, don’t move around as much as laptops or other smaller devices do. This leads to computers collecting dust in the fans, vents, and just about anywhere else.

It’s important that you keep your PC dust-free whenever possible; otherwise, it could run into operational issues due to overheating, keyboard stickiness, and so on. In fact, dust can even cause PC components to seize up and stop working.

The best way you can keep your computer dust-free is to keep a can of compressed (or “canned”) air right on your desk. This way, you’ll have a neat tool for cleaning your PC available at your disposal. Please be sure that you don’t spray liquids at your computer, ever. If you have to use a liquid cleaner, use water, and use a damp cloth rather than a spray bottle to directly apply the liquid, but never use water on an internal computer component.

Bots! What Are They And How Do They Affect Me?

First of all, what in the world is a “bot?” Most people have at least heard of them before, but may not know what exactly they are. A bot is a program designed to operate on its own and carry out whatever function it was intended to. Basically, a robot doing what it’s told.

They can run offline, online, or even as a combination, running offline and collecting information then sending it via email over the Internet.

An example of a bot is a web crawler. When you type in a search into Google, it uses crawlers to search the millions of sites and content for keywords you enter, then reports back. Web crawlers can also be used for data mining.

So how do these affect you? People employ the use of both good bots and bad bots. Most that you encounter are good ones, such as the search engine crawlers, but others can collect your private information.

Good bots or data miners are helpful, making your life easier or personalizing your ad experiences.

They can track statistics for marketing, like what types of things you shop for or what videos you watch on YouTube. In turn, they use this data to put those personalized ads on your screen. Sure, they might be annoying, but their intention is good.

Another example of a good bot could be when you post something on your Facebook account. A bot goes out to the site you’re sharing from and grabs whatever information it is programmed to take, then that information is posted on your page. Although it might seem simple, it’s a time-consuming task to complete manually, which the bot takes care of for you.

Then we have the bad side of bots. As easy it is to program a bot or data miner to collect innocent information, it is just as easy for a malicious person to program a bot to gather information they should not have, like banking information.
They can be programmed to go to hundreds (if not thousands) of sites, servers, or computers where highly sensitive data is stored. They take the information and send it back to their creator.

A recent example of malicious bot would be from the Ashley Madison hack. What they did was create bots that acted as profiles to attract others and steal information from them. Of course there are a myriad of other bad bots out there.

So how do you handle bots? Typically, you would handle them just as you would other malicious content through anti-virus and strong firewalls – along with using your judgment and staying away from suspicious sites, emails, and chat messages.

Data-mining can be blocked, but contact your trusted tech support provider before downloading or installing any programs or browser extensions.

As always, if you have any questions or if you’re interested in finding out how to better block bots, feel free to give us a call at 734-457-5000, or email us at support@mytechexperts.com.

Ransomware Now Targeting Mac Computers

While ransomware has been around for some time, it has never appeared to pose a threat to Apple’s Mac computers. That recently changed with the first attack of its kind last month. Ransomware is a malicious software that, once downloaded, essentially locks important files on a computer and then prompts users to pay a fee to have those files unlocked. There have undoubtedly been attempts to target Mac users in this way in the past, but this incident involving KeRanger software transmitted through the peer-to-peer file sharing network BitTorrent was the first successful one.

The attack affected approximately 6500 Mac users who downloaded the malicious KeRanger software. In the scheme of things, that number is quite low. The incident, however, proves that Mac users aren’t immune to this type of threat. As John Bambeneck of Fidelis Cybersecurity notes, “It’s a small number but these things always start small and ramp up huge. There’s a lot of Mac users out there and a lot of money to be made.” In this case, Palo Alto Networks detected the ransomware quickly, which is why Apple was able to neutralize the problem.

In the future, however, ransomware attacks on Macs may become more subtle. Apple reports that it has increased its security measures and revoked the digital certificate that was responsible for launching the KeRanger software.

Should Your Business Get A Backup Internet Connection?

With most business operations tied to the Internet, it is important to consider a backup plan in the event that your Internet connection goes down.

A host of things can cause issues with Internet service from natural disasters to provider caused issues, and unfortunately, those are beyond your control.

Choosing whether or not your business should have a backup Internet connection, however, is within your power.

You should first identify how much your business depends on the Internet for its operations when making this decision. In other words, could your business operate, if the Internet was to go down for a few hours without suffering a significant monetary loss? What about for a few days?

Chances are that your business would at least operate at a disadvantage without another way to access the Internet. If that is not the case, deliberating about backup connections may not be your best use of time.

For the rest of the business world, however, the real question lies in what kind of backup Internet connection you should seek.

Most experts will agree that it is wise to have your backup connection one notch lower than your primary one.

For instance, if your primary Internet connection is fiber, your secondary connection could be a T1 line. If your primary is a T1 line, try DSL or cable for your secondary.

That way, you’re not making a huge downward leap such as from fiber to dial-up, and your employees wouldn’t be at too much of a disadvantage.

This approach also takes into account your business’ budget. Your secondary connection will be a little less expensive than your primary while still being somewhat close in capability.

You’ll also need to make sure that your firewall has the capability to support more than one Internet connection. Most of the firewalls we recommend to clients include this as an option; however, the consumer grade routers sold at big box stores rarely offer this as an option.

Another important feature is to make sure your firewall can automatically detect outages, and switch Internet connections to keep you up and running without manually having to switch connections.

Google Maps “Guesses” Your Destination, Getting Smarter

In further proof of how the digital age has transformed daily life, you no longer have to make tough decisions about where to go when you access Google Maps from an Android device.

Google Maps now has a new feature that predicts where you would like to go and weighs all the pros and cons for you between potential destinations – even if you weren’t actively debating your options.

Let’s say you usually go to a favorite coffeehouse at about the same time every Saturday. Google Maps can now alert you if the traffic to your normal destination is exceptionally bad and can automatically provide you with less stressful alternatives based on your past behavior. You don’t even have to enter a destination – it all happens just by opening Google Maps.

The mapping app will also alert you to gas prices in the area, your estimated time of arrival to each option, and tell you the quickest way to get to your preferred choice. You can even add shortcuts, that Google Maps may have overlooked, for future use.

While this all sounds futuristic, it has the potential to be a huge time saver. Any time that you’re not quite sure of where you’re going, you can get the lowdown on the trip to your potential destinations without having to actually go there.

You can access this new feature on Android devices on the sidebar of Google Maps. Choose the option to Start Driving, and the application will quickly help you decide, if you really want to try the newest restaurant on the other side of town or stick closer to home with a tried-and-true location and have time to spare for an after-dinner coffee or cocktail.

Improve Your Staff’s Productivity Using These Five Tips

Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.

Increasing employee productivity is a positive approach for companies, regardless of the industry; however, the concept can be rather vague.

Productivity means more than just working to meet a given quality standard, therefore, it isn’t always immediately clear how to achieve optimum outcomes while maintaining standards and keeping your employees happy.

Here are a few concrete methods that can help your staff be more productive:

Block certain Internet sites
With the rise of social media, online gaming, video sites, gaming and contest portals, and entertainment websites, there are many potential distractions on the web. Even if an employee is well-intentioned, there are plenty of well-designed trappings to keep them there, wasting your company’s time and, ultimately, money. [Read more…] about Improve Your Staff’s Productivity Using These Five Tips

Does Your Backup Plan Stand Up To A Disaster?

Michael Menor is Vice President of Support Services for Tech Experts.
Technology, while a great asset that can be leveraged for your benefit, can also frighten businesses due to how unpredictable it can be at times. The constant threat of data loss, identity theft, and hardware failure can cripple your business’s ability to retain operations.

Specifically, businesses can learn about risk management by analyzing the processes used by an industry where risk management is absolutely critical: nuclear power plants.

In the wake of two of the most destructive and violent nuclear disasters, nuclear power plants have begun to crack down on how they approach risk management. The Chernobyl incident of 1986, as well as the tsunami-induced disaster at Fukushima in 2011, are the only nuclear disasters to reach the peak of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) at a rating of 7.

This means that they had an immense impact on the immediate vicinity, as well as the environment on a worldwide scale.

The meltdown at Chernobyl was the result of an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction, ending in an enormous explosion that resulted in fire raining from the sky and radioactive core material being ejected into the vicinity. A closer inspection of the incident revealed that the explosion could have been prevented, had the plant practiced better safety measures and risk management, like having a containment system put in place for the worst-case scenario.

In comparison, the Fukushima plant was prepared to deal with a failure of operations.

The problem that led to a disaster was one which couldn’t possibly have been prevented: the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and the resulting tsunami. The Fukushima plant had a contingency plan to shut down the plant in the event of a disaster, but tsunami prevented this from happening properly by flooding damaged power lines and backup generators, leading to heat decay, meltdowns, and major reactor damage.

Disasters like these lead to professionals searching for ways to prevent emergency situations in the future. For example, the Fukushima incident kickstarted conversations on how to prevent problems caused by the unexpected issues.

In response to emergency power generators being flooded or destroyed, off-site power generation will be implemented as soon as November 2016.

One other way that nuclear plants have chosen to approach these new risks is by outsourcing this responsibility to third-party investigators, whose sole responsibility is to manage the reliability of backup solutions. In a way, these investigators function similar to a business’s outsourced IT management, limiting risk and ensuring that all operations are functioning as smoothly as possible.

What we want to emphasize to you is that businesses in industries of all kinds expect the worst to happen to them, and your business can’t afford to be any different.

Taking a proactive stance on your technology maintenance is of critical importance. While your server that suffers from hardware failure might not explode and rain impending doom from the sky or expel dangerous particulates into the atmosphere, it will lead to significant downtime and increased costs.

In order to ensure that your business continues to function in the future, Tech Experts suggests that you utilize a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solution that minimizes downtime and data loss risk.

BDR is capable of taking several backups a day of your business’s data, and sending the backups to both the cloud and a secure off-site data center for easy access.

In the event of a hardware failure or other disaster, the BDR device can act as a temporary replacement for your server. This lets your business continue to function while you implement a suitable replacement.

Small Businesses Experience Increase In DDOS Attacks

Some readers may already be wondering, “What exactly is DDoS and why should I worry about it?” DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service – and a DDoS attack is when a person (or group) acts maliciously and uses a program which has a sole purpose of flooding a server with traffic.

Why would someone do this? There are many reasons one would execute this devastating attack. For instance, you run a news website. You publish an article that this person doesn’t agree with. They, in turn, run their malicious program. It sends thousands upon thousands of page requests (unique requests to open the website), which causes more traffic than your server can handle.

Your server crashes from the load and no one is able to view your site. Of course, this could be one reason among an infinite amount. For whatever evil agenda they have, it does not fare well for those on the affected side.

In 2015 alone, there were some 50,146 attacks that were detected – averaging 137 per day and 5 per hour (Newswire, 2016).

While these attacks may not make national news or headlines, the IT world is paying close attention. With more devices and easier programs to use, almost anyone could be on the bad side of the cyber war.

One of the more recent attacks that happened was on New Year’s Eve. A group calling themselves New World Hacking took down BBC’s global site and Donald Trump’s site. Another big attack was aimed at a big part of the Internet itself. Namely, the 13 DNS servers on the backbone of the Internet.

These servers are important because they translate the words we use (such as website addresses) into the numerical equivalent that the machines understand. There were two separate attempts, one being 160 minutes long and another lasting about an hour. It caused three of the DNS servers to go offline for a couple hours or so, which is enough to cause a lot of slowness issues or DNS errors on a lot of people’s screens.

What can be done to help mitigate this issue? There are a few things. You definitely should have an IT department or IT security group who is able to handle this. Bigger corporations especially should be keeping up with threat trends and keeping their firewalls and security prevention up to date and active.

Now, say you’re a small to medium size business and you have no security on your network. It would be a good idea to have an IT service provider such as Tech Experts to help with your IT and security needs. These days, especially in recent years, it’s not a good idea to just pay your cousin under the table to install a router and call it good.

If you can’t afford to have anything happen to your data or to be down for a day or more, hire a professional. We can set you up with a network designed with your needs and security in mind.

Easy Spring Cleaning Steps For Your Computer

Just as it’s a good idea to periodically clean out closets and other areas of your home as part of spring cleaning, your computer needs decluttering attention as well.

This not only makes it easier for you to find files when you need them, but can also speed up the computer performance.

Check for viruses
If you do not have an antivirus installed and set to regularly check your system, make it your first priority to install an antivirus.

Not all viruses put out obvious signals like the blue screen of death; some can lurk in the background, slowing down your computer’s operations or running malware without your knowledge.

Use a disk cleaner
Disk cleaners scour your system looking for files you don’t use, particularly useless temporary ones. Such files won’t impact how your programs work, and they just take up valuable space and can even make your computer run slower than it should.

Organize your files
If you have long lists of files, try grouping them into folders. This will save you a lot of time when looking for something in particular and also makes your storage more aesthetically pleasing.

Toss unnecessary programs
You’ve likely tested out programs and decided they weren’t for you or even grown tired of them. There’s no reason to keep them. Go into your Control Panel and select Programs to see everything that’s on your computer.

Uninstall the ones you can readily identify as ones you no longer want or need, and leave the ones you don’t recognize alone in case they are important. Check and uninstall any web toolbars, too.

Delete your web history and cookies
Over time, all the little data records of where you’ve been while surfing the web accrue, and can greatly slow the functioning of your computer.

Deleting your web history, including cookies, is something you should not be doing just during spring cleaning, but on a regular basis to keep your computer operating at optimum speed.