Technology Advisor Blog

Is my UPS a Generator?  This might sound like a crazy question, and we're not talking about the delivery service with the brown trucks, we're talking about an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). With last weekend's severe thunder storms in the area (and winter on the way), it's a good time to think about Power Management.

Security is the top technology concern among small business owners, and the flood of information about new security threats can seem overwhelming at times.  Just about every week we see a new headline about a new threat or breach.  

Thank you!  Thanks to everyone who sent in a customer survey card back in June!  As promised, in appreciation for getting cards back, we donated a big box of socks to Boston Healthcare for the Homeless:  122 pairs of socks were donated! 

Quick Tip:  During a busy work day you may find your computer desktop cluttered with many open browser tabs and applications.  Need to quickly get to your uncluttered desktop?  Remember the Windows shortcut:  Windows Key + D.  Hit the Windows Key and then the "D" key and your desktop will appear.

Every day we review security patch compliance for all our clients with managed services coverage with us.  Often, we see systems with security patches pending reboots.  Many security patches require a reboot to install, and some security patches are sequential, so the next one won't install before the previous patch is complete.  This can result in a system that isn't fully protected.

In our last post, we talked about suspicious emails that don't look so suspicious on the surface.  Here is an example of an email to show you what to look for.  In this case, a fake payroll report is being sent.   A busy, distracted person may open this by mistake, or an opportunistic employee may try to open it to sneak a peek at confidential information.  SLOW DOWN and check your mail carefully.  Even with up to date antivirus protection and spam filtering, some emails CAN get through because they are engineered to get through.  This can be a phishing email (trying to get confidential information) or a dangerous virus such as Cryptocker.   Don't open the door!  

We've all heard that we shouldn't open suspicious emails.  They can be phishing scams (attempts to get personal information such as username, password, and account number), or contain viruses.  The problem is, the "bad guys" know we're on the lookout, and the real danger lies in emails that are disguised to not look suspicious.  

Outlook has a time saving "autocomplete" feature that's a big help most of the time, but can sometimes cause issues.  When you compose a new email message in Outlook, as you start to type in the first few letters of the recipient's email address, you'll see that Outlook will have suggestions for you based on who you have emailed before.  This is a great time saver, and over time your list will grow.  An important thing to know, is that it's not actually your address book, it's a cached list of anyone you have emailed in the past.

Microsoft Outlook has a built in feature to process junk mail and send it to a "Junk" folder as a way to control Spam in your inbox.  This is a great feature if you only read mail in one place, but for most users these days, mail is read on multiple platforms - smart phone, tablet, laptop, browser, etc.  This is why we typically recommend filtering Spam in the "cloud" so the mail is filtered BEFORE it gets to your mailbox, and gets cleaned centrally before going to all your devices.

We've recently started upgrading our Spam filtering platform, so it's time to post some updated instructions.   These days Spam messages account for 80%-90% of all email sent worldwide, generating a lot of clutter and in some cases, security threats.  We strongly advise filtering mail before it gets to your mail server, and many of our clients have signed up for Spam filtering services with us.