What can your Tech do for you?

Earlier this month our company founder Alan Youngblood was invited to speak as a guest at the 1099 Ladies Networking event. Alan gave his talk What can your Tech do for you. Thanks to Lyndah Tello for inviting us! We encourage any women in the NC triangle area who are self employed to check out their group.

Here is Alan’s talk about “What your tech can do for you?” from the recorded Zoom session:

Read more with our posts about Free Open Source Software Alternatives and BitWarden QuickStart for Password Manager.

What can your Tech do for you? It can boost your productivity and help you protect what’s important to you.

In addition to Free Open Source cost savings you can also use your technology to save time and improve your work. Configuring the tools you already use to communicate better with each other is all it takes to save time on routine tasks. Often your work can be easier if you have your tech tools optimized.

Cyber-Security planning is unique to your organization, but every plan shares a few common points.

  • Assessment of current systems, controls, data in use.
  • Identification of each one’s importance.
  • Taking reasonable measures to protect each item based on it’s importance.

The web-comic XKCD shows us why it’s important to protect your data with better unique passwords:

XKCD Password reuse

BitWarden Password Manager QuickStart

Bitwarden Logo
BitWarden Logo

The Password Problem

BitWarden is a free open source password manager that we will get you setup to quickstart.

We all use passwords everywhere because they are easy to implement and use and restrict data access to authorized people.

But they’re a pain to remember and create for every account.

xkcd.com/936 Password Strength

Worse, if you’re human like we are you can’t remember a unique password for every account you have. While larger companies use Single Sign On (SSO) Agents, there aren’t good options for small businesses. Don’t fret, we’ve got you with the password manager, and we recommend the free BitWarden.

xkcd.com/792 Password re-use

BitWarden helps with all these problems

  • Generate secure new unique passwords
  • Safely store your old passwords
  • Auto-fill passwords only when needed
  • Check for password re-use

Setting up BitWarden

  1. Start by thinking of a secure long passphrase much like the “correcthorsebatterystaple” example from above, but unique. Jot this down in a location you can physically access and protect like a locking file cabinet.
  2. Create an account with BitWarden. It’s free and easy.
  3. Download BitWarden (You will want to install it on all computers and mobile devices you use, but you can do that after you’re setup on your first machine)
  4. When you first install it on a device it will attempt to import any saved passwords from your web browser. Go ahead and do that. That’s what we want.
  5. Additionally you may want to disable your browser’s built-in password storage. We prefer using BitWarden because they work on all devices and browser built-in functionality invariably doesn’t.
  6. BitWarden offers some great written and video guides to use their software, check them out!
  7. Enjoy a free, more secure way to navigate your digital life!

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us for help.

***Please Note*** BitWarden is what’s called a zero-trust security solution. In simple terms this means that BitWarden nor Oak City IT LLC have any knowledge nor access to your master password to unlock your secure data vault. If you lose this password you can still request a reset to your account and begin using it again, but all the passwords and data contained in there will be wiped. This also means that there is no way for anyone to accidentally or purposefully steal your data without that password. So it is important that you guard it.

Save Money with Free Open Source

Open Source Initiative Logo
Open Source Initiative Logo

Free Open Source Software can save you a lot of money.

There’s a growing community of people developing and using Open Source Software. They call it “free as in freedom.” This means that you’re free to use it how you please, without forced updates, and you can configure it to work with your unique process.

Additionally, Free Open Source also means free as in no financial cost. This sounds too good to be true. Why would any business give away software that others profit?

Open Source is Good Business

Proving the success of this business style is Raleigh’s Fortune 500 industry leader, Red Hat. They develop and offer a free alternative to Windows called the Linux Operating System. Red Hat pioneered the open-source business model by charging for quality service and giving away their software.

Because they are so successful Red Hat boasted nearly 3.5 Billion dollars revenue in 2019 with nearly half a billion in profit!

Good Software Should be Free for All

However not everyone is in it for the money, others volunteer with online communities making free software because they believe great tools should be available to all people.

Many of these are developed in a way that they run the same on Windows, MacOS, Linux, or any device, adding further benefits.

Quit paying monthly subscriptions or big licensing costs for your software tools now and you’ll save from $32-$100 per month per person.

Free Open Source Solutions

If you use commercial software there’s often a great Free Open Source solution waiting for you.

Save with these free open source solutions:

UseCommercial SoftwareFree Open Source AlternativeAvg Cost Paid/Saved
Image EditingAdobe PhotoshopGNU Image Manipulation Program
Krita
$21/mo
Vector Graphics DesignAdobe IllustratorInkscape$21/mo
Office (Word Processor, SpreadSheet, Presentations)Microsoft Office 365LibreOffice OpenOffice$5-$20/mo
Simple PDF EditingAdobe Acrobat Standard DCLibreOffice
Inkscape
$13-$15/mo
Email ClientMicrosoft OutlookThunderbird*Typically included with MS 365
Video, Voice, and Text ChatZoom; MS Teams; Slack ChatNextcloud Talk$7-20/mo
Video EditingAdobe Premier ProKdenLive
OpenShot
$21/mo
Publishing DesignerAdobe InDesignScribus$21/mo
Grand TotalLow: $32/moHigh: $100/mo
***NOTES: Prices are based on recent best estimates and are subject to change for commercial software, while free open source software will likely remain free. There are some valid reasons you may need to continue or begin using commercial software, depending on your organization’s needs. ***Nextcloud Talk is a part of Nextcloud which is free open source but you may need help setting up a server to use with it, we’d be glad to consult on an installation.

You may want help setting up a server to run software like Nextcloud. Perhaps you want to ask about other free open source solutions. Please contact us and we would be glad to consult with you on how you can host a server or help you find cost savings.