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Tech News from FlexITechs
| Oct. 6, 2014
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CELEBRATING OUR
10TH ANNIVERARY!
FlexITechs is now in its 10th year of serving Sussex County residents and businesses!
After two years as the computer services arm of our sister company, Sussex County Online, FlexITechs was formed to better define the computer services offered by owner Eric Magill.
We thank all of our customers who have made it possible for us reach our 10th anniversary! |
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10% Off Online Backup Services!
Dear (Contact First Name),
Thank you for your continued interest in FlexITechs. If you'd prefer not to receive our occasional email newsletters, use the "Unsubscribe" link above.
Also, be sure to:
Sincerely, Eric Magill, FlexITechs |
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A Scary Story for Halloween
Being the month of October, and the month for ghosts, ghouls and goblins, I thought it appropriate to regale you with a scary story -- only this one is all too real.
I'm sure most of you have read by now about the data breaches at Target's and Home Depot's point of sale (POS) cash register systems that revealed the credit card information of tens of millions of customers at each of the retail chains.
Security experts believe the hackers, thought to be from Russia with some connection to the Russian government, either intended to steal more sensitive information such as Social Security and credit card numbers before being stopped, to scare U.S. financial institutions, or to seek revenge for the U.S.-led sanctions against Russia.
Now, before you run screaming to unplug your computer from electrical power, I want to make clear that these breaches affect every customer of these businesses whether they have a computer or a cell phone or a tablet they were attacks on the businesses, not the customers.
Too many American CEOs have, for too long, arrogantly glossed over the threats that hackers pose to their networks and in turn, their customer.
What should scare them -- and you -- about these ongoing breaches is the following: - Hackers can break into any system they put their collective minds to breaking into (no, you're not immune because you're on an Apple, cell phone or tablet)
- Typically, companies don't know they've been breached for days, weeks, or even months after the initial attacks
- Businesses don't like the negative publicity and financial fallout from reporting breaches and often don't do so in a timely fashion for their customers to take action to protect themselves
- Businesses tend to be arrogant about their security. JP Morgan officials now contended they have closed the hackers' access to their network and that they will not be able to get back in. Give me a break!
- Businesses, understandably, don't like to spend on security. It doesn't increase revenue or market share or stock prices. It hurts the bottom line.
- We have security experts in this country who are surprised by breaches like those at Target, Home Depot and J.P. Morgan because they're just so big after all. Seriously?!
These types of attacks, unlike others that guess weak passwords, gather your financial information from third parties that you have little control over. So what can you do to protect yourself?
- Monitor your financial information regularly -- at a minimum weekly -- through credit reports and bank statements, for irregular charges (look at the small ones, too) or new accounts that you didn't open. If you own a business, do it daily.
- Shred documents before you throw them away
- Set up automatic alerts with your financial institutions that will email you when a change is made to or requested with one of your accounts
- Be wary of anyone who calls you on the phone or emails or mails you seeking your personal information
- Be selective about who you divulge your personal information to, online or off-line.
- Read those Privacy Policies on web sites and don't be afraid to ask how your personal information will be used.
Note that none of those recommendations involves your personal computers or devices.
Ok. Enough with the scary. Just remember to be vigilant -- offline as well as online.
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Hold Off on iOS 8
If you haven't already attempted to upgrade your phone to iOS 8, don't do it. If you have and haven't experienced the issues that have plagued so many Apple users, congratulations.
Since its release on Sept. 17, iOS 8 has been riddled with broken Wi-Fi and Bluetooth access, slow performance, short battery life and crashes -- it seems nothing in the operating system has been immune to a bug.
A quick Google search for "iOS 8 issues" brings up a laundry list of bugs that seemingly affect every part of the OS. In addition to the above, users have complained about:
- Keyboards not working, including Apple's keyboard
- Content not fitting properly in the screen
- Notifications dangling at the top of the screen
- Audio apps playing over each other
- Siri not recognizing speech properly.
Worse, the iOS 8.0.1 update released a week later that was supposed to fix many of the bugs, introduced a new one when it broke the cell phone and data connections of iOS 6 phones.
The next day, Apple released iOS 8.0.2. That fixed the broken cell phone connections but problems persist with battery life, texting, Wifi and freezing.
Apple is working on another update to resolve the remaining issues after the iOS 8.0.2 update but a release date has not been announced for an iOS 8.0.3 or 8.1.
While Apple works on the remaining bugs, take the time to ensure you have a backup of your phone's data to prepare for the update when it becomes stable.
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BizTech Talk -- Offering Wifi to Customers
Many businesses have found that offering in-store Wifi access to their customers is a good driver of sales by offering on-the-spot discounts and allowing customers to perform product research while in the store.
The idea is not just to offer customers a benefit, but to stem the trend of "showrooming", in which shoppers go into a physical store to look over a product before looking for a potentially better price online.
The theory goes, when a customer connects to the store's wireless, the store has the opportunity to send a quick message offering a discount that day, thereby reducing the chances that a customer will look online.
Personally, I feel this makes more sense for much larger stores that can't offer the personal touch that customers get when they walk into a small business and are greeted by a sales rep.
At Macy's, for instance, it's much harder for sales reps to attend to each customer. Because Macy's tracks the web sites visited by customers on their store network, Macy's can send discounts to their email (customers have to sign up to use the wireless and accept terms such as tracking) if they see a customer looking at a product at another store online.
As usual, there are security and cost factors to consider in offering in-store wireless Internet.
Technically, offering Wifi access to your customers can be done without too much hassle, but you need to consider the ramifications.
First, access needs to be easy enough that staff doesn't get sidetracked trying to help customers log into your network. That means not requiring a password to connect to the network. At most, you would require customers to register for an account by providing their email address.
The lack of a password-protected network, however, opens you up to hackers. At a bare minimum, then, the Wifi access needs to be segregated from your business network and shut off during non-business hours to prevent hackers from sitting in your parking lot after hours conducting illegal activities over your Wifi.
If you have a small store that can be reached by a decent off-the-shelf router, the cost could be a couple hundred dollars for the equipment and setup. If you have a much larger store, the cost could go into the thousands for equipment capable of reaching into all areas of the store.
Here's a good outline from Inc. magazine on the many considerations you must mull over before offering Wifi access.
If you need help determining what type of Wifi access to offer your customers and setting it up, call us at 302-537-4198.
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We thank you for your business the past 10 years and hope we can continue to fulfill your technology needs in the future. If you have any questions about current technology issues, feel free to contact us at 537-4198.
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Sincerely,
Eric Magill
FlexITechs
Microsoft Small Business Specialist |
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10% Off Online Backup Services!
Now through Oct. 31, 2014, you can receive 10% off our automated online backup services to protect your critical business data or priceless personal photos or pricy music and movies from natural disasters, fires, theft and accidents. Includes monitoring to make sure the backups are working (many other backup services fail without warning).
| Offer Expires:
Oct. 31, 2014
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