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New Year, New Resolution: Protect Against Cybercrime

New year, new you.

You may be asking, “What’s the secret to protecting my business against cybercrime?”

The answer: a layered approach incorporating security software, a security driven IT support staff, and employee training.

PremierePC can check each of those boxes.

First, let’s take a deeper look into cybercrime.

Cybercrime uses impersonation, fear, threats, lies, and other manipulation tactics to gain a victim’s trust or trick them to sharing sensitive data.

Impersonation in cybercrime is especially dangerous due to cybercriminals’ expert ability to hide in plain site and create legitimate-looking websites and emails.

Cybercriminals are also able to host malicious content on legitimate sites.

Phishing attempts are also able to, at times, slip through DNS and endpoint protection. This is where employee training is your last defense. Humans are consistently the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain of defense. Therefore, social engineering risks are far greater without a security driven IT support staff willing and able to train your employees.

Everyone, from receptionists to executives, are potential victims of an impersonator. In fact, help desk and call center employees are especially vulnerable because they are trained to be forthcoming with information.

Action items:

  1. Instruct employees to delete any requests for financial information or passwords. When in doubt, call the person who “sent” the request and conduct these transactions in person or over the phone.
  2. Use cybersecurity software with real-time anti-phishing services. If you’re suspicious of any links or emails, don’t click! Contact your IT provider first.
  3. Follow IT security best practices by patching software and securing email servers.
  4. Regularly participate in up-to-date Security Awareness Training and phishing simulations for employees.

Sound like too much? Contact PremierePC and we will be happy to walk with you through every step.

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Compose Now, Send Later.

Eager to clean out your inbox but don’t want an influx of replies right before your week ends?

Microsoft Outlook offers delayed and scheduled email sending!

Delays can be applied to single messages or you can create rules to delay the delivery of all messages.

Delay the delivery of a single message in the Outlook desktop app

  1. While composing a message, select the More options arrow from the Tags group in the Ribbon.
    Select More Options to set a delivery delay.

  2. Under Delivery options, select the Do not deliver before check box, and then click the delivery date and time you want.
    Set a date and time to deliver your message.
  3. Click Close.
  4. When you’re done composing your email message, select Send.

After you click Send, the message remains in the Outbox folder until the delivery time.

If you decide later that you want to send the message immediately, do the following:

  1. Switch to the Outbox folder.
  2. Open the delayed message.
  3. Select the More options arrow from the Tags group in the Ribbon.

    Select More Options to set a delivery delay.

  4. Under Delivery options, clear the Do not deliver before check box.

  5. Click Close and send.

Note: Outlook must be online and connected for this feature to work.

Delay the delivery of a single message in the Outlook web app

  1. While composing a message, select the arrow next to the Send button.
  2. Select Send Later
  3. Set the desired date and time for the email to be sent.
  4. Select Send. Your message will now be held in drafts until the selected time and date.

Contact PremierePC today to maximize your potential through technology.

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The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We love this time of year. It’s filled with fun, family, fellowship, food, and unfortunately phishing…

Scammers love this time of year too. The holiday shopping frenzy makes for easy phishing attack and hacking victims. PremierePC is here to help you learn how to protect yourself so you can have a great holiday season.

Do not click on links in emails.

If you’re not sure of the sender, or you didn’t request the email, do not click on any links or open any attachments. Instead, contact the company via their website or phone and ask for more information.

Beware of urgency.

Scammers will play on the fear of missing out on something, like a big holiday sale or a deadline for a bill. Resist any pressure to “act now.”

Watch for emails asking for private information.

Legitimate organizations will never request personal information via email. Do not email information such as passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc.

Research the website.

Scammers are getting better at creating fake websites that look real. Do your research before submitting payment to any sites.

Know your Wi-Fi.

Using public Wi-Fi creates many potential areas for hackers to breach and grab your data or sensitive information. Do not make purchases using public Wi-Fi networks like coffee shops, libraries, hotels, etc.

Keep track of orders.

Scammers will send fake delivery failure notices or package tracking emails to sway you into clicking a link or submitting personal information. Always keep track of what you’ve ordered and who will be delivering it. If you receive one of these emails, call the delivery service or as your post office.

Some of the best ways to avoid scams is continued education and a comprehensive security plan for your business. Contact PremierePC today to see how your security stacks up.

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PremierePC - Managed IT

12 Fun Tech Facts You May Not Know

1. Over 6,000 new computer viruses are created and released every month. 90% of emails contain some form of malware!

2. The Firefox logo isn’t a fox… it’s a red panda!

3. Samsung is 38 years and 1 month older than Apple.

4. One Petabyte (PB) = 1024 (TB). To put this in perspective, a 50PB hard drive could hold the entire written works of mankind from the beginning of recorded history in all languages.

5. Alexa is always listening to your conversations. Alexa stores all of your dialogue history in the cloud to improve the Alexa experience.

6. On average, people read 10% slower from a screen than from paper.

7. The first computer mouse was made in 1964 by Doug Engelbart. It was rectangular and made from wood!

8. On average, there is only one reply per 12 million spam emails sent.

9. Surgeons that grew up playing video games more than three hours per week make 37% fewer errors and have a 42% faster completion rate when performing laparoscopic surgery and suturing.

10. NASA’s internet speed is 91 GB per second.

11. Until 2010, carrier pigeons were faster than the internet.

12. In 1971, the first ever computer virus was developed. Named Creeper, it was made as an experiment just to see how it spread between computers. The virus simply displayed the message: “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!”

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how can i reopen my business safely?

How can an MSP protect my employees while they work from home?

2020 brought many surprises and changes. One of which shifted many in-office employees to start unexpectedly working from home.

In 2020, 88% of the organizations, worldwide, made it mandatory or encouraged their employees to work from home after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.

This flexibility is great to continue business operations. However, it brings about serious holes in security unless you are fully prepared.

So what can an MSP like PremierePC do to help boost security and mitigate threats for work from home employees?

  1. Secure VPNs – this can ensure employees are utilizing the same security tools that are available in the office, mitigating cybersecurity threats and data breaches.
  2. Network segmentation for home networks –  this allows for multiple individual networks under a single network, simplifying security policies if done correctly.
  3. Remote endpoint incident management – this allows technicians to access remote laptops and deploy patches remotely.
  4. Maintain the latest software updates – software vulnerabilities, security loopholes found in programs and operating systems, are typically revealed as they are solved in the latest version. If not updated, programs and operating systems are easy targets for the bad guys.
  5. Educate on phishing attempts – hackers are always looking for vulnerabilities and weak points to take advantage of. An MSP like PremierePC can provide continuing education and phishing training to employees to mitigate these threats.

We know this can be very overwhelming for someone who is trying to focus on actually running their business. PremierePC is here to help! Contact us today.

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What’s New with MFA?

MFA, Multi-Factor Authentication, is a security enhancement that requires two or more different forms of authentication to gain access to an account. These forms can be something you know (your password or pin), something you have (a smart card or key), or something you are (your fingerprint or eye scan).

MFA is a hot topic these days in the IT world. With hacking attempts consistently on the rise, it is becoming increasingly more important to secure online accounts and data as much as possible.

Last year, internal Microsoft users who enabled MFA blocked around 99.9% of automated attacks against their Microsoft account.

So we know MFA is important and effective, but what do the experts say about how to use MFA?

Microsoft is urging users to stop using SMS text and voice calls for MFA.

Experts know that telephone networks are prone to security issues:

  • SMS and voice calls are transmitted in cleartext and can easily be intercepted by the bad guys.
  • There are also readily available phishing tools that can quickly grab SMS-based one-time codes.
  • Phone network employees can also be tricked into transferring phone numbers to a bad guy’s SIM card, called SIM swapping, allowing attackers to receive the MFA codes on behalf of their victims.

A more secure option includes app-based MFA, like Microsoft’s Authenticator app.

The most secure option includes hardware security keys.

But always keep in mind, some type of MFA is better than no MFA.

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Microsoft Teams: New Features

Do you have multiple accounts in Microsoft Teams? Tired of logging in and out constantly?

Microsoft Teams on the desktop is getting a new feature that will allow users to add multiple accounts and manage them without logging in and out.

This new feature will allow users to link accounts together, enabling them to switch directly by altering their settings. This is set to roll out by end of this year or early next year.

However, there are more feature updates coming to Teams.

Users will be able to create custom pages, enabling businesses or educators to create a more cohesive team identity.

Invite links will be improved so that invited users will gain access to notes, files, or anything else shared during a call, even after the call has ended.

Contact us today to learn more about how to increase and streamline communication within your organization.

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holidays_laptop_buying_guide
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Holiday Laptop Buying Guide

laptop_buying_guide_gift_computing

Thinking of gifting a new laptop this holiday season to yourself, your employees, or a loved one?

Lost in a sea of tech specs with no idea of what to do?

PremierePC is here to help!

Here’s a list of specs to look for, what they mean, and what we recommend.

Platform

Windows – most flexible operating system, runs on more laptops than Chrome OS or Mac OS X.

Mac – limited line of computers, tend to run more expensive, less flexibility.

Chromebook – least expensive, however this functions more like a tablet than a laptop. Chromebooks use the Chrome web browser as the primary user interface and run applications rather than software and are highly limited in their feature set.

What we recommend: Windows

CPU

The CPU is the central processing unit of a computer where instructions are taken from programs and applications to perform calculations.

Typically, a faster CPU means applications will run faster.

What we recommend: Intel Core i5 and above. (Choose i7 and above if you tend to run many applications at once, edit or create media, or run high-end games.)

Storage

The Hard Drive contains everything the CPU is going to need to do its job, including the operating system, apps, and files. There are two types:

  1. Spinning hard disk drives (HDD) drives read and write data with a head similar to a vinyl record album. HDDs are less expensive, however they are mechanical and fragile.
  2. Solid-state drives (SSD) are a bit more expensive but offer at least three times the speed and a much faster laptop overall. SSDs require less power and increase overall battery life and are shock resistant.

What we recommend: 500GB SSD

Memory

RAM, random access memory, stores just the portion of the data from the hard drive that the CPU needs at any given moment. If you run multiple applications at once, you will use more of your RAM. Therefore, more RAM means a faster machine.

8GB of RAM may be sufficient for day-to-day computing, allowing for fully loading Windows, a few productivity apps, and a web browser.

However, if you run multiple applications at once, you will need 16GB of RAM.

What we recommend: 16GB RAM

Other specs to look for

Displays running full HD (1920 x 1080) will look sharp and not consume too much of your battery life.

Decide if you want a full size (15-17″) laptop with a number pad or a 14″ portable laptop.

Understand your laptop’s docking station capabilities and options.

Touch screen capabilities are widely available in many laptops.

Integrated graphics chips are typically sufficient unless you are doing high-res video editing or gaming.

Ensure your laptop has the ports necessary for connections you need.

8+ hours of battery life is ideal.

Test out or research the keyboard and trackpad.

Research the brand. Don’t buy simply because you found a cheaply priced computer.

Our top laptop recommendations: Lenovo Thinkpad E14 or E15

You’ll end up wasting money in the long-run if you don’t do your research! Call PremierePC today for a laptop recommendation.

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PremierePC - Managed ITPremierePC

Holidays and Cybercrime

The holidays.

Full of fun, family, friends, food.. and, unfortunately, increased cybercrime activity.

In 2017, fraud attempt rates were highest on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and December 21—the cutoff date for express shipments to arrive before Christmas.

43% of all consumers who had their identity stolen say it happened while shopping online during the holidays in 2018.

The holidays are a key time for cybercrime, exploiting unaware and uneducated internet users. Attackers can defraud and monetize their actions with little effort.

For example, spoofed email addresses can be used to gain access to supplier or customer login. Phony websites can be made to look exactly like those of major retailers. Public Wi-Fi is another hunting ground for attackers. All of these can be used to capture and record credit card information.

So how can your data remain secure during this holiday season?

Never reuse passwords or even similar versions of passwords. Use strong passwords, mixing numbers, special characters, and letters.

Verify online reputation of the e-commerce sites you visit.

Avoid shopping online or accessing bank account information on anything other than secured, private Wi-Fi connections.

Never click on suspicious links, open unknown files, or download items from unknown sources.

Look at the URL of sites you visit, cybercriminals may create a site with just one character difference in the URL to gain access to your data.

Check in to your bank accounts and track all purchases. Report any fraud immediately.

Keep all operating systems and applications up to date, ensure you have security measures in place.

Educate! Stay up to date on cybersecurity trends and solutions.

Interested in analyzing your security posture? PremierePC is here to help. Fill out this form to start your cybersecurity plan today.

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NEW in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft teams is a communication platform in the 365 family of products, offering chat, videoconferencing, file storage, and application integration.

So what’s new?

The ability to create ad hoc breakout rooms will be available starting next month.

Microsoft says this is one of the most requested Teams features.

Meeting organizers will be able to split up participants into smaller groups to facilitate brainstorming sessions or workgroup discussions.

Presenters can then hop between breakout rooms, make announcements to all breakout rooms, and close the rooms to return everyone to the main meeting.

New Jive Communications integration, streamlining your phone calls.

Teams now allows people to start calls for the Jive platform from inside of Teams.

Microsoft is partnering with meditation app Headspace on a customizable “virtual commute” feature.

It uses automation technology to help users close out tasks and designate work for the following day, log their sentiment about the work day, and then directs them into a guided meditation process.

The company cites a 2017 study by Microsoft researchers that demonstrated the improvement in productivity that came from winding down from work at the end of the day.

Its more recent research finds that the blurred lines between work and home are hurting their feelings of well-being.

Teams is getting new “Together Mode” backdrops, and custom layouts for presentations. 

The new backdrops show participants in shared virtual spaces including conference rooms and a coffee shop.

Custom layouts will let presenters determine how their content appears to meeting participants, including the ability to superimpose their own video feed on top of the slide they’re showing.

As collaboration technology needs continue to rise, Microsoft offers secure and trusted opportunities for success. Want to learn more? Contact PremierePC today!

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