Device and network security can fall a bit by the wayside until there’s a crisis. This is even truer for smaller businesses that don’t have a dedicated IT team. Meeting sales goals, preparing for an audit, and getting customer complaint statistics out of the red zone are usually far more pressing (and measurable) tasks than shoring up your systems against outages or attacks.

But downtime and data vulnerabilities get expensive quickly. If you don’t have the time or the revenue to have a dedicated IT employee, then get a managed IT support service to automate security and implement these two requirements:

1. Make password changes mandatory and regularly scheduled

People don’t like changing their passwords. Typing in the right configuration of keys becomes as habitual as hitting the right keys on the keyboard throughout the day, and nobody wants to regularly upset that routine. But keeping the same password for too long puts your network at risk. Create a protocol for your operating system that mandates a password change every sixty or ninety days. Not only does that guarantee that the passwords are being changed, it roots out easy passwords. Even if your employees start with common iterations of ‘[Company]123’ and personal information, they have to create more complex ones eventually.

2. Update programs remotely

A lot of us put off updates on our personal devices. Whether it’s the operating system requesting a shutdown in the middle of a movie, or specific programs suggesting an update but letting you click away from the reminder, it’s easy to not update. But those patches and new versions don’t just fix operational bugs. They often include new security mechanisms for new threats and modes of attack. Instead of reminding employees to update or checking computer by computer, have your IT expert force updates during a slow weekend or overnight.

Some security measures have to be taken, regardless of the inconvenience.

Go to 4 Corner IT for an IT management team that can automate security for you.

Spotting Brand New Phishing Pages Made Easier: There is always a lot of buzz about machine learning and artificial intelligence and in this case it’s been put to good use in order to protect browser users.  Google will soon use a new predictive feature in its Safe Browsing technology to warn users when they visit a questionable site that asks for their credentials.

Prevention First

In the past, the only way for companies like Google to stamp out phishing sites was after a number of people had already been scammed.  Using their new predictive technology will give companies like Google, an additional edge to stamp out phishing sites beforethey do their damage.  Initially, Google will only protect an individual’s Google account password, however eventually their predictive technology will protect all the passwords listed in a user’s Chrome password manager.  Beyond that, the technology will be made available to others that use Google’s Safe Browsing technology including the Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox browsers, Snapchat and other apps.

Need More Security?

For those that need additional security, Google is also rolling out their Advanced Protection Program, in which users may choose to enroll.  This advanced security program uses small wireless or USB devices (security keys), in addition to digital signature and public-key cryptography to protect a user from security threats.  Some of the additional features of this program put barriers in place to avoid the situation where a user shares sensitive data by accident, and it also blocks against hackers who fraudulently try to access a user’s account.

Want to know more about how to keep your online activity safe and secure?  Contact us.

The chances of a business being impacted by cyber crime increases every day. Thankfully, businesses like yours can have a network support team on your side to defend your business against network hacking and computer hacking.

Hacking is always a wide concern, and with the risk of confidential information being stolen and shared, it is not a surprise that the world loses an excessive amount of money due to cyber crimes. Learn how to prevent cyber crimes.

We know that no business owner or business manager wants to spend their precious time worry about viruses, malware threats, harmful software, etc. This is why it is so important for your business to invest in network support that will keep all eyes on your network, 24/7.

When you invest in the right network support team, you will have experts on your side who are trained to provide your business with the support it needs at all times. You have worked hard to turn your business into what it is today, and you do not want your business to crumble because of the lack of proper network support.

When you have the network support your business needs to succeed, you will not have to worry about keeping an eye on your networks because someone else will do that for you. You will now have the freedom to focus on improving your business and providing the best customer service.

If you would like to learn more about the importance of network support or how a hacker can find a way to control your business, contact us today.

We are all aware of how much businesses have changed over the years, and one of the biggest changes is social media. Social media is not only great for staying in contact with all of your customers, but social media makes it much easier for you to sell your products and services.

However, it is highly important that your business uses social media in the best way. There are plenty of things that can limit your business’s ability to maximize its full potential. Today, we want to offer you some tips on how you can get everything you can out of social media when you are in the workplace.

We know that you can easily get distracted when you are using social media in the workplace. If you want to market your products and services on social media, you can sometimes feel the need to message your family members and friends who are active. One of the best ways for you to avoid this is to have a social media account for your business and a personal account.

When you use a social media account for your business, you have to make sure that you know who you will be directing your content to. You have to know your audience if you are going to be active on social media networks. You will need to get to know your audience on a personal level. When you learn as much as you can about your audience, you will have better results when it comes to marketing your products and services.

For more computer tips, contact us today.

One of the most common methods for protecting someone’s online account and authenticating the person who is using the account is secure passwords.

If you have noticed that there have been multiple failed sign-ins on any of your accounts, it could be because someone has compromised your accounts. There is also a chance that one of your accounts may be compromised if you use the same password on all of your accounts.

If any of your passwords have been compromised, the data that you access with your passwords can also be compromised. When you ever believe that someone has accessed one or more of your accounts, you should change your passwords as soon as possible. When you create a password, you should make sure the password is unique. You want to avoid choosing a password that anyone can guess easily.

When your password is complex, you will have created a simple method of identifying yourself. Your complex password will only be something that you know. Your password will be something like a secret that you have only shared with the computer or network you are using to access your information.

In order to ensure that everyone in your office is using complex passwords, you can enforce rules that will require everyone to use complex passwords. When you configure the complexity rules, your users will not be able to set a password until they have met all the requirements.

We understand that creating complex passwords may cause some users to write their passwords on paper or keep them in one of their mobile devices. These passwords can eventually be found if the papers are accidentally placed in the trash or if a device is stolen. We want you to avoid running into any of these complications.

Contact us today for more information on how you can make sure everyone in your office creates passwords that are difficult to hack while ensuring the passwords will not be seen by any unwanted eyes.