Ep. 16 The Tech Industry Uses So Much Jargon – IT with Alan Youngblood
Building a better you tech talk new podcast just dropped today! When Nick Spindler and Chris Morgan, co-hosts of the Garner Young Professionals‘ Building a Better You podcast invited our founder Alan Youngblood to join for an episode he was delighted. We’ve listened to several episodes of the podcast and highly recommend that you listen, subscribe, and like the channel.
Nick and Chris are doing a great job collaborating with the Garner Chamber of Commerce. They created a great resource that is sourced by our community and the shared knowledge and wisdom we each bring.
Building A Better You Tech Talk
In episode 16 Alan Youngblood shares about Building a Better You and talks tech with Nick and Chris. The conversation covers the fundamental IT security practices that everyone can do to improve and mitigate real risks. There’s even some decidedly low-tech suggestions that Alan shares about how he connects with nature and integrates more humanity in life and work. Listen below and contact us if you have questions or need help with your company’s technology!
In this episode, Nicole Barone is back to help us take a look at the podcast so far and dive deeper into some of the insights we've gained from it.
Info about the Garner Young Professionals: HERE
Info about Davis Insurance and Financial Services: HERE
Contact Nicole: [email protected]
Info about Community of Hope Ministries: HERE
Info about Chris Morgan – Grow Local Realty: HERE
Info about Nick Spindler – Grow Local Realty: HERE
Music by Zeph Park
Security Checkpoint Twitter Part 3: Hardware Tokens
Security Checkpoint – Twitter – is a new series of web videos where we go through and improve our digital privacy and security one step and one minute at a time. These are all great security and privacy practices. You can follow along as Alan goes through his digital life and cleans up data and access.
Multi-Factor Authentication
In this quick video we go through multi-factor authentication or MFA. It’s also called Two factor or two step authentication. Think of MFA as a layered approach to verifying you are how you claim to be. Why a layered approach? Simply, the more layers of security you have create more hoops for hackers to jump to breach your data. Good security requires knowing what you value. Then you take as many reasonable measures to prevent valuable data and systems falling into the wrong hands.
Follow along with the video in your own account at twitter.com
Authenticator Apps
We covered these last time, so watch the previous episode for more info.
Hardware Token Keys
We also demonstrate setting up a hardware token key. These function like the technology equivalent of a house key. You’ll have to pay a premium if you want this next-level security. We have the Yubikey 5C with NFC and Yubikey 5 with NFC.
You’ll want at least two (one shared backup is fine for a small company or department). Remember house keys? What happens if you accidentally lock yourself out of your house in a hurry to get somewhere? Well maybe you have another key entrusted to a neighbor or nearby family or friends. You don’t hide it the first place any thief would look under your doormat, do you? Maybe you need to check on that too. That’s why it’s important to buy at least a couple keys whenever you choose to use them. Set up both the same way at the same time and store your backup in a safe place. You can literally use a safe or locked filing cabinet for extra security!
Because you’ll want two hardware token keys and they are roughly $50 each, you should budget $100 to get started with these. You will also need to plan a couple of weeks lead time for the order process and until you get the devices delivered.
Don’t Care About Twitter? Think Again
Don’t use twitter much anymore but still have your account? Neither do we! Who cares? Well we do, and you should too! Cleaning up old data, accounts, and systems is a very vital part of your digital security and privacy well being. Imagine you had your old email from middle school without updates and just left the account running. The old server never got updated enough and now someone got into it and used it to compromise your work Instagram. Yikes! So safe removal, deletion, or updated security are required for all systems you use in your digital life.
If this post helped you improve your digital security and privacy please like, subscribe, and click the YouTube bell. You’ll be the first to know when we have more tips on Security Checkpoint for twitter and other digital services.
Security Checkpoint – Twitter – is a new series of web videos where we go through and improve our digital privacy and security one step and one minute at a time. These are all great security and privacy practices. You can follow along as Alan goes through his digital life and cleans up data and access.
Multi-Factor Authentication
In this quick video we go through multi-factor authentication or MFA. It’s also called Two factor or two step authentication. Think of MFA as a layered approach to verifying you are how you claim to be. Why a layered approach? Simply, the more layers of security you have create more hoops for hackers to jump to breach your data. Good security requires knowing what you value. Then you take as many reasonable measures to prevent valuable data and systems falling into the wrong hands.
Follow along with the video in your own account at twitter.com
Authenticator Apps
In this video we setup an authentication app on our mobile phone. We use Authy and recommend it to everyone. If you already use Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Cisco Duo, or a similar app feel free to use that instead. These apps provide a good level of extra security with no additional cost. Don’t be distracted by that long list, just pick the one that you like the most and only use one.
Hardware Token Keys
We also demonstrate setting up a hardware token key. These function like the technology equivalent of a house key. You’ll have to pay a premium if you want this next-level security. We have the Yubikey 5C with NFC and Yubikey 5 with NFC.
You’ll want at least two (one shared backup is fine for a small company or department). Remember house keys? What happens if you accidentally lock yourself out of your house in a hurry to get somewhere? Well maybe you have another key entrusted to a neighbor or nearby family or friends. You don’t hide it the first place any thief would look under your doormat, do you? Maybe you need to check on that too. That’s why it’s important to buy at least a couple keys whenever you choose to use them. Set up both the same way at the same time and store your backup in a safe place. You can literally use a safe or locked filing cabinet for extra security!
Don’t Care About Twitter? Think Again
Don’t use twitter much anymore but still have your account? Neither do we! Who cares? Well we do, and you should too! Cleaning up old data, accounts, and systems is a very vital part of your digital security and privacy well being. Imagine you had your old email from middle school without updates and just left the account running. The old server never got updated enough and now someone got into it and used it to compromise your work Instagram. Yikes! So safe removal, deletion, or updated security are required for all systems you use in your digital life.
If this post helped you improve your digital security and privacy please like, subscribe, and click the YouTube bell. You’ll be the first to know when we have more tips on Security Checkpoint for twitter and other digital services.
Security Checkpoint – Twitter – is a new series of web videos where we go through and improve our digital privacy and security one step and one minute at a time. Because these are all great security and privacy practices you can follow along as Alan goes through his digital life and cleans up data and access.
In this quick video we go through app sessions and user sessions. We apply the principles of least privilege by getting rid of app connections and logged in sessions that are no longer needed.
Follow along with the video in your own account at twitter.com
Over time we all add apps and accounts that we no longer use or care about. Let’s take care of those now on Twitter. Each one of these increases our cyber attack risk surface. It’s a simple theory: any way that I can access my own accounts is also a potential opening for hackers.
If this post helped you improve your digital security and privacy please like, subscribe, and click the YouTube bell. You’ll be the first to know when we have more tips on Security Checkpoint for twitter and other digital services.
More than just ransomware, your hardware will break some day. We have already helped clients with both of these underlying issues recover their data, repair or replace their devices, and get back online. A lot of the downtime, pain, and costs can be avoided by having a backup plan in place now for the inevitable problems that will occur.
That’s why we are encouraging new clients to join our flexible subscription plans where we include backup plans, virus protection, and remote monitoring with our support. Our plans offer you a 30 days cancellation policy. We want to earn your trust through reliable work that addresses your core concerns, not contractually obligating you to trust us.
Most tech services can be run in the cloud. That provides you the flexibility to work in multiple offices, at home, or on the go. Do business anywhere with anyone. The best are everywhere.
Cloud systems provide resilience to disasters, rapid changes to your business operations, and even do it all while being more secure and cost effective!
We created a test lab with Microsoft Azure earlier this year and are happy to recommend that to your business. If you already have AWS never fear, we have plenty of experience with that as well. We have a deep understanding of the fundamentals. Therefore we can confidently help you with any cloud system if you want to try a different one.
On-boarding automation takes everyday tasks and makes them a breeze. Do you know how much your on-boarding and off-boarding cost?
You’re growing fast and have a booming internship program that’s great, right? Sure, but it takes a lot of time and money to maintain.
Setting up each employee’s laptop manually takes a technician four hours of labor. The employee cannot work until it is ready.
We can set up a provisioning system that installs all the needed software and configurations to multiple laptops at the same time. It takes a minute of setup and fifteen minutes of automatic configuration. That’s less than 1 percent of the paid labor and twelve percent of the down-time.
Perhaps your business is rapidly growing customers? The on-boarding process there requires many repetitive tasks we can help you automate. You want a streamlined process for new customer intake that collects all the relevant information from them, responds automatically and then creates a profile on your sale database? We can help you set up a system on your company’s website that’s quick and easy for anyone with an Internet connection to do business.
Ready to level up your security? Need a new software tool installed on all of your employee’s machines or even just one departments? Automation systems make this work a breeze and we can get everyone patched up and set up quickly getting you back to work.
But what if I use a Mac, or Linux machines, or a combo of all the above? There are options for mobile device management (MDM) that we can use to help you manage all your business’s tech assets from smartphones to laptops to servers.
In our first of many meetings Alan met Neal Isaacs of VR Business Brokers at the Oaks of Lake Benson Park. We walked about 2 miles over about 45 minutes while discussing business, life in Garner, and of course tech!
Meet at the Oaks of Lake Benson. Call our business number 919-480-1547 or see the bottom of our Home Page for more details to schedule a walk in the park to talk tech and how our business can help you!
From Left – Alan of Oak City IT and Neal Isaacs of VR Business Brokers
Neal is an ambassador at the Garner Chamber of Commerce and Alan has been getting to know other people and businesses at the chamber. It’s a fantastic group of people who are all passionate about community, their work, and helping others. Neal prioritizes relationships and has great ideas for improving businesses.
If you own a business and you’re looking to sell I encourage you to chat with Neal. You can find more info at his company’s website.
We talked tech briefly because I know not everyone wants to geek out like I do. Neal had asked about Internet Service options which seems to be a popular topic from other businesses I’ve heard. There’s often some relatively cheap and easy ways to boost your Internet speeds and I’m always excited to help clients discover those.
We shared our company goals and some strategies for how we’re both adapting to the rapidly changing market. I always appreciate chatting about business and helping others. This time around Neal may have shared more sage advice with me which I’m grateful. I’m sure it won’t be long before I pay it forward and help others like you!
Mac users: All Macs come with a built-in backup tool called Time Machine! It does incremental backups and full system restores. It’s an easy setup away from worry-free computing!
Definition | RansomWare : software that is designed to encrypt (basically garble) your files and data with a password that only the malicious hackers know, holding your computer “hostage” while they name a price for you to pay to have the password and decrypt/re-access your own files.
You’ve probably seen the reports of the WannaCry hack and those that have recently been hitting companies all over the world like Merck, Maersk, Ukrainian ATM’s (Cash Machines), and Chernobyl’s Nuclear Power Plant.
Most ransomware attacks are simple enough to evade with some preparation:
Never work with the hackers, always assume that the people hacking your computer have a malicious intent and be especially wary of those who offer you a fix to a computer problem they could have given to you in the first place. Find someone local that you can trust, whether it’s me or your local IT staff.
Backup important data today. It’s much cheaper to purchase an external hard drive and setup a backup now than having to deal with a multitude of problems later.
Do regular backups after the initial one, you can set up weekly, monthly, or what ever frequency works for you.
Once you have your backups, there’s no reason to panic. Some systems can take a while to re-install from that backup, but it’s an easy process and it puts you back in control of your data and computers even if something seemingly catastrophic like a ransomware attack happens. Best of all, a good plan and backups can resolve many other problems like accidentally deleting important files, or even unexpected threats.
Backups are a great defense against many computer problems, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
