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Almost Every Small Business Can Expect To Get Hacked

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

Juniper Networks recently commissioned a study on small and medium company network security.

The startling result: Over 90% of US companies reported at least one security breach in the last year, with more than half indicating they experienced two or more significant security problems with their networks.

There’s a misconception among a lot of small business owners that they’re safe from cyber attacks, because small companies offer a smaller payback for hacking efforts.

Small business network security is usually lax

The reality is, security policies and procedures at small companies usually make them an easy and simple target for hackers.

While the payout isn’t as large as hacking TJ Maxx, invading a small business’ network usually takes a lot less effort, and the business lacks a sophisticated response system.

Why is hacking so easy?

A new technique, called spear phishing, let’s hackers target a small group of previously identified people. Sometimes, the attack goes after just a handful of people who work at the same company.

Spear phishing does away with the need for hackers to gain access to your passwords. As more companies start to use social media sites such as FaceBook and Twitter, hackers using spear phishing are finding it easier to “trick” unsuspecting employees into installing crimeware on their company computers. This crimeware let’s the criminals access the computer system directly. Once they have access to one machine on your network, it’s easy to connect to the others.

Recent attacks have highlighted the growing need for companies to implement network security controls to catch the bulk of socially engineered spear phishing attacks.

They also need to take measures to quickly detect and contain security breaches.

The first thing you’ll want to do to protect your business is implement a strong firewall (see Frank’s article on page two) that lets you assign security restrictions for users based on the content of websites, and even keywords that might be potentially dangerous.

The next thing to look at is your company’s acceptable use policy. This can be as simple as a few pages added to your employee handbook that outlines what is and isn’t acceptable behavior on your network.

The final thing to examine is your backup and disaster recovery plan. The hacker’s aren’t giving up, which means it’s time to plan for what comes after a security breach.

Firewalls: What Do They Do And Why Should You Have One?

Firewalls are network security devices that protect your internal network (your servers and PCs) from your external network (the Internet).

We’ve put together a basic guide to firewalls – what they are, when you should have one, and why.

What is a firewall?
A firewall is simply a border between the device and the firewall software is installed and running on (and devices on the LAN side of the firewall) and any other devices on the outside of it.

For example, there are many different kinds of firewalls. Windows firewall gives you very basic features, and is built into Windows.

This firewall is designed to block unwanted access to the computer itself and is not designed to protect the rest of the devices on a network.

Another form a firewall can take is a separate device all together.

Having a device that specifically functions as a firewall gives more control over what the firewall can be used to protect.

For example it is possible to buy a firewall appliance that can be attached to the perimeter of your network and block specific connections to your LAN.

When is it a good time to look into using a firewall?
On most Windows based computers Windows firewall is generally on by default so most people already run a firewall on their computers without even knowing it.

That being said, Windows firewall does not give you anywhere near the control or protection of a dedicated firewall product.

If your business requires very strict security and data compliance, or you intend to store highly confidential information (an example would be client credit card numbers), it may be in your best interest to have a third party firewall.

Third party firewalls offer much greater protection and allow the ability to configure specific rules in much greater detail than Windows firewall.

Having the ability to configure rules with more detail makes it possible for you to lock down your network and its possible security holes more tightly.

The reason this is a good idea if you are storing confidential information on a network is that having a firewall gives you control over exactly what comes in and out of your network.

Without this added security it may be possible for your valuable information to be compromised or copied to a remote location without you even knowing it is happening.

Why have a firewall or invest in a better one?
Three words: Vastly improved security. A third party firewall solutions affords you the best protection for your data and network.

If you have important data to secure, a firewall is an excellent step in protecting your network from unwanted access to your network.

If you have questions about your firewall (or lack of firewall) and would like us to evaluate your network security, please give us a call.

Whether it is security holes left open due to a weak firewall or other possible security issues we can help you secure your data!

Feature article by Tech Experts,
Service Manager for Tech Experts

Improve Your Web Browsing Experience With Add-ons!

There are multiple Internet browser add-ons that can make your web browsing experience more productive and more enjoyable.

Add-ons are programs that are installed into your browser application, which provides additional functionality.

The first Internet browser to introduce is Internet Explorer (IE). IE is one of the most popular web browsers available because it’s native to all Windows Operating Systems.

IE has been negatively criticized by many users and technical websites for security issues, but with careful web browsing and the right add-ons Internet Explorer will get the job done.

In the business world there are many websites that requires the use of Internet Explorer.

This limits us from the functionality that we are used to in other Internet browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome.

For example, in Firefox and Google Chrome if you accidently close one of your Internet browsing tabs you can recover it by going to the History option and clicking on recently closed tabs or a key combination of Ctrl+Shift+T. IE doesn’t offer this option.

Until Microsoft updates IE, the recommended add-on is called Open Last Closed tab. It is a free download from www.download.com. Search “Open Last Closed Tab” download and install and you will be satisfied that your Internet tabs are safe from getting closed accidently.

Since it is the most popular browser, Internet Explorer has had more issues with security than most others. It’s the most popular, therefore, hackers will get the most “bang for their buck” by attacking IE.

The best way to prevent browser security issues to install the add-ons/toolbars that comes free with the antivirus of your choice.

Phishing is the most common problem. What happens is if you misspell a website or click on a link from an email it will take you to a website that looks similar to the one you are used to.

So when you enter your username and password it actually steals your login information.

A good Choice is Norton’s Internet Securities toolbar; all of them will protect you from phishing. However, Norton verifies many popular banking and shopping sites.

One of the best things about Norton is if you see the Antivirus Norton Toolbar display a shield, you know you’re dealing with a site that’s been authenticated by Norton as safe and legitimate.

Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending e-mails that look like they’re from legitimate companies to try to get you to reveal personal information, such as credit-card numbers or online banking passwords.

Another very useful browser add-on is Last Pass. Last Pass is an application and add-on that stores all of your saved passwords, login information, and important notes.

For example, if you are in the automotive industry. You will have a number of parts ordering applications and websites to that require passwords.

Last Pass will securely store all of this information and this will also speed up the process when logging in to your software or websites. You can purchase last pass from www.lastpass.com.

Try out a few for yourself. For Internet Explorer add-ons visit http://www.ieaddons.com/en/.

For Google Chrome add-ons visit https://chrome.google.com/webstore.

And for Firefox add-ons visit https://addons.mozilla.org. There are several thousand add-ons available to choose from.

Are You Suffering From Email Overload?

A cluttered and unorganized mailbox can make it difficult to find the email you need. This messy situation can be remedied.

Microsoft Outlook offers great tools that help you sort your email and organize your messages in meaningful, easy-to-control ways. Outlook can even help increase your efficiency and productivity.

Sort messages quickly
Outlook 2010 has a great new feature for organizing messages by date and arranging them by Conversation.

Using this feature, messages that share the same subject appear as Conversations that can be viewed and expanded or collapsed by clicking the icon to the left of the Subject line.

The messages within each Conversation are sorted with the newest message on top. When a new message is received, the entire Conversation moves to the top of your message list.

To turn on Conversations, on the View tab, in the Conversations group, select the Show as Conversations check box.

In all versions of Outlook, you can find messages in mailbox folders more quickly by changing how they’re sorted in your email folders. For example, you can arrange your email by date, sender, or file size.

Group similar messages in folders
By creating new mail folders, you can group messages related to each other. For example, you can group messages by topic, project, contact, or other categories that make sense to you. You can even create a folder for all the messages from an important client or vendor.

In Outlook 2010, to create a new folder, on the Folder tab, in the New group, click New Folder. In Outlook 2007 or 2003, on the File menu, point to New and then Folder.

Create search folders to find messages fast
Search Folders are a quick way to look at predefined collections of email messages.

They don’t actually store any messages themselves. They’re virtual folders that offer a view of all the messages in your Inbox that match your search criteria.

You can use Search Folders to help you find all the information related to a particular project, an important client, or an upcoming conference.

To create a Search Folder in Outlook 2010, in Mail, on the Folder tab, in the New group, click New Search Folder. To create a Search Folder in Outlook 2007 or 2003, in Mail, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Search Folder.

Route mail efficiently using mailbox rules
By creating rules for Outlook, you can automatically perform actions on both incoming and outgoing messages based on criteria you establish.

For instance, you can automatically forward all messages sent by your VIP clients to everyone on your sales team, assign the category Sales to all messages you send that have the word “sales” in the Subject line, and more.

Routing mail efficiently not only organizes your mail for you – but also frees up your time from performing routing tasks.

Reduce unwanted email with junk filters
Keep distracting and unwanted messages out of your Inbox by using Outlook Junk Email filters.

These filters send junk email to a separate mail folder in your Inbox.

You can review these messages to ensure that no legitimate messages are there, and if they are, you can adjust the filter to avoid flagging such messages in the future.

It’s a good practice to monitor the Junk Email folder to make sure you don’t miss any important messages.

Five Ways to Manage Your Company’s Social Media And Online Reputation

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

Your company’s online reputation is one of your most valuable assets. A good reputation instills confidence in clients and prospects, and gives you the upper hand when competing for business.

In large part, social media has taken the control of a company’s brand and placed it in the hands of the consumer. It doesn’t matter how you define your brand, it all comes down to what your audience says.

One negative comment on a social networking site can spread like wildfire. To help prevent that, here are five tips on managing your company’s social media and online reputation.

Set up e-mail alerts
An e-mail alert will send you links to any new web activity around a keyword or search phrase. Use variations of your company’s name and the names of key employees. While alerts won’t show you everything on the web about your company, it provides an excellent daily snapshot.

Keep an eye on industry forums
Discussion forums are a combination of blogging and social networking. If there are forum sites for companies in your industry, they bear close monitoring. They are a breeding ground for oftentimes anonymous and unfounded consumer complaints.

Consumers will often turn to a forum when they have troubleshooting questions about a product. They are looking to their peers for the solution to their problem.

By becoming an active member of the popular forums in your industry, you’ll be able to directly respond to customer questions or complaints, building a stronger reputation and customer service program in the process.

Social media silence = death
If you find your company on the defense, make sure you respond quickly and efficiently. Companies no longer have the luxury of waiting a week, a day, or even a few hours to issue a press release to tell their side of the story.

When bad news breaks, respond quickly. Social media is all about instant connections, so clients have little patience for a company that takes their time responding to a bad situation.

Build strong relationships with industry leaders
Almost every industry has a blog (or blogs) dedicated to it. Popular and well respected bloggers have quite a bit of power when it comes to a business’s online reputation. A popular blog reaches thousands of people a day, so what they say has a far-reaching effect. Having a popular blog author on your side means you have their unspoken endorsement.

It also means that you have a strong support network if someone starts attacking your company online. Having a community of industry leaders on your side is a great way to defend your company’s online reputation.

Keep communication lines open
One of the easiest ways to hurt your online reputation is to shut yourself off from clients and prospects. If you don’t allow them to communicate with you (for better AND for worse), you are removing yourself from the conversation.

Encourage your customers to write online reviews about your company. Thank the ones who write a good review, and definitely reach out to the ones who weren’t as positive.

Customers are the lifeblood of any business, and communicating with them quickly and honestly will build a strong and positive online reputation.

The best way to manage your online reputation? Be proactive. Invest the time to build a solid social media reputation and before you need to defend your company from attacks or criticism.

Microsoft Office 365: Work Anywhere, Anytime?

Microsoft is coming out with a new product called “Microsoft Office 365.”

This product is being pushed more for the business market and not towards home users as much as their popular “Microsoft Office Suite.”

Microsoft Office 365 is a subscription based web application that essentially gives you your copy of Microsoft Office anywhere you are and at any time, using Internet Explorer and a web connection.

This software is powered by Microsoft’s already popular “SharePoint” collaboration application.

Office 365 doesn’t give you access to all of the applications available in the traditional Office suite – for instance, Outlook isn’t included in the package – yet.

Microsoft Office 365 includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft OneNote, and something Microsoft is calling Microsoft Outlook integration.

Outlook integration links a local copy of Outlook that is installed on your PC to the Office 365 suite in the cloud.

One of the best features in Office 365 is the ability to share files and documents on the go through a web interface that acts like a centralized server for your company.

This connection is 100% secure with encrypted data transfers and is password protected allowing only those who know the password to access to your company’s data and files.

This gives you access to the documents that you were working on in the office while you are on the road. And, anyone else in your organization that needs access to your files can use them anytime, anywhere.

Another advantage of using a web based application like this one is that, since it is a web hosted application, you don’t need to install any software.

You can access your documents from any computer with and Internet connection using just your password. The ability to store and work on your documents anywhere doesn’t come without some caveats.

Although Microsoft guarantees 99.9 percent uptime, most Internet service providers don’t. If your entire organization was deployed on the Office 365 platform and your company’s Internet connection went down, you could very well experience a bout of low productivity until everything came back online.

Office 365 and other cloud services are undoubtedly the wave of the future.

If you’d like to explore some cloud solutions for your organization, please give the office a call at 734- 457-5000.

 

Google Makes “Plus One” Available Web-Wide

If you’ve seen those “+1” widgets are at the bottom of a lot of websites, articles, and links, then you’re in tune with Google’s latest social networking push.

Think of the “Plus One” as being similar to Facebook’s “Like” button or a thumbs-up icon. It’s a way to indicate that you find a page helpful or useful.

Clicking on the +1 does more than just increment a counter. Clicking a +1 widget requires that you have a Google account. The first and most visible thing that a +1 does is add the page to your Google profile.

Your profile page can be public or private, serving as a personal list of pages that you found valuable.

You’ll start seeing +1 icons appearing in US search results, too. If you see the icon underneath a search result, that’s an indication that a friend (or friends) have found that link useful. Your Google “friends” are contacts you’ve stored in your Google Account.

As time goes on, search results will become more useful as you can see which links and options are recommended by your friends, and might be useful.

Staying Safe: How To Back Up Your Outlook Email Data

Your Outlook data file, also called a PST file, contains all of the data that is created and received in Outlook such as emails, contacts, notes, your to-do list, calendars and other Outlook data.

If you rely on email for your day to day work, keeping your Outlook data backed up frequently could save you hours of frustration and potentially lost data.

Over time, your email data file grows and shrinks as you receive and delete email. While not extremely common, the data file is prone to corruption – which is the most common way Outlook users can lose data.

To prevent corruption and possible data loss, always keep in mind:

Close Outlook properly – shutting down your email without going through the “File, exit” dialogue can cause file corruption.

Watch your file size – A PST file that exceeds 3gb can be problematic. Although Microsoft says newer versions of Outlook (2003 and newer) will support PST files up to 20gb, in our experience, Outlook operates best if you keep the file below 3gb.

To manually back up your Outlook data file in Windows Vista and Windows 7, follow the steps below.

1. Open “My Computer” and browse to your C:/drive.

2. Click on tools. Once the drop down menu is displayed, choose Folder Options. If the tools menu is hidden press alt on your keyboard to display it.

3. In Folder Options, click on the view tab.

4. In the middle of the window there will be a list. Under Hidden Files and Folders, check show hidden files and click ok.

5. On your C:/drive browse to the users folder, and select the user account you are using.

6. Select App Data, then Local.

7. Scroll down to the Microsoft Folder and open.

8. Select your Outlook data file. It is usually named Outlook.pst. Right click the file and select copy.

9. Open the destination of your choice, such a flash drive, or a different folder on your hard drive.

10. Right click and select paste.

11. You have successfully created a backup of your Outlook Data File.

To manually back up your Outlook data file in Windows 2000/Windows XP follow the directions listed below.

1. Open Computer and browse to your C:/drive.

2. Click on tools once the drop down menu is displayed click Folder Options.

3. In Folder Options click on the view tab.

4. In the middle of the window there will be a list.

5. Under Hidden Files and Folders check show hidden files, click ok.

6. On your C:/drive browse to Documents and Settings and select the user account that you use.

7. Select Local Settings then Application Data, and then scroll down to the Microsoft folder and open it.

8. Select your Outlook data file. It is usually named Outlook.pst. Right click the file and select copy.

9. Open the destination of your choice, such a flash drive, or a different folder on your hard drive. Then, right click and paste.

We recommend backing up your Outlook PST file at least once a week for normal users, and if you’re an email power user, daily backups make sense.

Put Your PDA To Use: Six Tech Tools For A Healthier You

Forget going to the weight room or penciling calories into a food journal.

Tons of new technologies have been designed to help you get fit fast and conveniently. Check out these tech-savvy tools to aid in physical fitness.

Wi-Fi Scale
The advanced Withings scale, which measures weight and body fat, automatically sends your daily statistics to your phone or computer. You can then monitor your weight over time, catch patterns and set goals. The scale allows multiple users, so the whole family can lose weight together.

It might look like a run-of-the-mill bathroom scale, but the Withings scale is WiFi-enabled to track your weight directly on your computer.

Tweet What You Eat
While there are many food journal sites out there, Tweet What You Eat should particularly please the health-minded nerd in all of us.

The system syncs with your Twitter account so that you can send it messages throughout the day about your eating habits.

It also lets you log your weight and tallies daily caloric totals. SMSenabled Twitter lets you record your weight via text message, so you can keep up with your journal from anywhere – at a restaurant, on the street or in your kitchen.

While your food log can be kept private, many users find the public atmosphere of Twitter particularly motivating.

Body Bugg
Finally – a device that calculates exactly how many calories you burn in a day. Worn on an arm band 24/7, it provides accurate and detailed information about caloric expenditure and heart rate.

While it will track calories burned during exercise, the device is especially useful for learning how much daily activities – like house cleaning or playing with your kids – actually burn calories.

Any dieter knows that weight loss is a matter of calories in and calories out. The Body Bugg has calories out covered.

Wii Fit
While you might not have played a video game since you were a kid, Wii Fit is designed for users of all ages and health levels. The console guides you through all fitness needs, from cardio to strength training to yoga.

It even lets you chart your progress by calculating activity levels and body mass index. Cheaper than a gym subscription and certainly more fun, a Wii Fit in your living room leaves no excuse not to exercise.

Mobile Apps
There are hundreds of apps out there to help you reach your fitness goals.

Some of our favorites include Lose It!, which helps you track your daily calories and exercise; Fitness, a comprehensive database of exercise tips and videos; and iTreadmill, which turns your iPhone into a pedometer. Since you already carry mobile devices everywhere, apps might be the most convenient way to get healthy.

Tech Experts Launches New Website, Support Portal

We’re excited to announce our new website, which has been under development for several months. The new site is much more intuitive and easier to navigate.

Links to our most-used features – connecting to Remote Support and our Tech Experts Support Portal – are now at the top of the page. You’ll also find links to our social media sites such as FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

We’re in the process of consolidating all of our technical support resources, such as email setup guides, web hosting control panel instructions, and support ticket creation and review functions into one easy to use support portal: http://www.MyTechExperts.com.

Your feedback is very important to us! If you have the opportunity to review the site, please let us know your thoughts by sending an email to info@MyTechExperts.com.