Month: February 2017

Everyone these days is throwin’ out tech terms, using them in normal conversation like it’s nothing. But do any of these people – or you, for that matter – actually know what these terms mean? If not, here’s a quick list of 8 commonly used tech terms to get your mind prepped.

Web App

A web app is a website that looks and feels like an app. You can access a web app from your browser just like any other website. But unlike traditional websites, a web app allows you to access other components of the site without reloading it. An example of a web app could be Buffer, Dropbox, or the web version of the Microsoft productivity suite.

Front End Development

There’s the backend of a website or app and then there’s the frontend. The frontend is everything a user sees and interacts with, like the fonts, colors, menus, and buttons. Some people like to say that the frontend is what makes the website or app look ‘pretty.’

Keyword

It’s important not to think of your keyword as one word. Your keyword can be as long or as short as you need it to be. This word or set of words should encompass the main idea of your webpage and should be incorporated within your Meta Description. Typically, the longer the keyword is, the more specific it is.

Malware

Any malicious software meaning to do harm to your computer or other connected devices is considered malware. This includes viruses, adware, trojans, and worms.

Long Tail Keywords

When you start getting into very specific keywords, they become long tail keywords. This type of keyword is usually applied to blog posts or other content-heavy material. An example would be going from “potty training animals” to “potty training a small dog in an apartment.”

IT

IT stands for information technology, and it refers to all the hardware and devices within your business that sends, stores, and receives data.

MSP

An MSP stands for managed service provider, and it is a company who fully manages another company’s technology. Within this MSP, there are a handful of technicians who provide their clients with preventative hardware maintenance and routine network monitoring. The goal is to prevent IT issues from occurring and avoid downtime.

Content Marketing

All the content you push online – through social media, vlogging, blogging, cornerstone pieces, and the likes – is considered content marketing. It builds up your brand, focuses on key areas, and can help your business attract new leads and maintain the attention of current consumers.

Phishing attacks are steadily on the rise. Every day, more and more people are duped into opening malicious emails and trusting in its contents. As a result, they give away personal information or find themselves picking up some nasty form of malware. However, avoiding phishing attacks is more manageable than most people think. Here are a few simple tips to follow.

The sender

Look the sender up and down before you take any email seriously. Do you know this person? Does it sound like a legitimate email address? Does this person have any business sending you an email?

And keep in mind, if you do “know” the person, always double-check the email address. Sometimes people will do their research, find someone you know, and do their best to replicate his or her email address. But this email address will usually be off by a letter or two – it’s easy to catch if you take a few seconds to look it over.

The urgency

Emails typically aren’t used for urgent communication. But if an email does contain an urgent message, usually it’s something that’s already been discussed and the email merely serves as a follow-up or reminder.

However, this doesn’t mean you should throw every urgent email into the trash automatically. You should be cautious of them, though. If an email requests a payment or personal information from you, make sure to double-check and triple-check the sender before you do anything.

The grammar

Malicious emails usually aren’t written that well. They’ll probably contain simple grammatical errors that a business professional or popular brand would never make. So if you see something like this in an email, it should set off a silent alarm in your head. However, this isn’t always the case. Phishing emails can be written perfectly, and non-malicious people have been known to make grammatical mistakes.

The subject line

It can be quite difficult to call out a phishing email with nothing but the subject line. That’s a tough one. But what a subject line can do is lend to the overall examination of the email.

Does it feel wonky? Is it off-base? Does it not make sense? Is it too generic? Is it too urgent? Use the answers to these questions to help you determine whether or not an email should be trusted.

The topic

The actual subject of an email can be a surefire indicator of a phishing attack. Does it make sense that this person is talking to you about this topic? And if it does, is the timing appropriate and are the specifics surrounding the topic accurate?

For example, does this email claiming to be from Joe who works at a company you contract with have the authority to ask for payment information? And if he does, do you usually pay invoices this way, to this person, and at this time of the month? If your answer to any of these questions is no, then you’ll need to find a way to verify the request.

The attachments

Occasionally, the point of a phishing email is to make you download a malicious attachment, thereby infecting your computer with malware. Because of this, you should always be incredibly careful when you are thinking about downloading any attachments from your inbox.

Again, it’s best to ask yourself a serious of questions. For example, if you receive a document from a company like Geico or Progressive, ask yourself if this is how they normally do business. Phishing emails pretend to come from large companies all the time, but large companies normally don’t send out documents through email. They’ll either ask you to log into your account to view new information, or they’ll send you snail mail.