Author: ARRC Technology

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, it was reported that victims of Ransomware paid out roughly $24 million in 2015.  And, unfortunately for the public, the FBI predicts this number will continue to grow in 2016.

In fact, we’ve already seen some rather anxiety-inducing Ransomware attacks this year – like the one in Los Angeles last February.  In this particular incident, hackers hit a Hollywood hospital with Ransomware and demanded $3 million from the hospital.  Eventually, that figure was reduced to $17,000 – which the president of the hospital quickly agreed to pay.

So what is Ransomware?  Well, the simplest explanation would be that it’s a form of malware that has the ability to lock your entire computer or individual files.  Once this malware locks your data or device, the hackers will demand payment.

This demand can come in multiple forms.  It can be a simple message that states clearly what is occurring – your computer has been infected with Ransomware and you must pay to retrieve your data.  It can also be an elaborate story created by the hackers – you’re being investigated by the FBI (or another threatening government agency) because you illegally downloaded files on your computer (or something of that nature) and if you pay the fine, you will not face jail time (funeral arrangements and pending court hearings have also been reported).

Whatever the case is, these hackers will usually request a semi-reasonable fine to unlock your business.  The bigger your business, the bigger your fine.  However, it’s incredibly important to note that businesses aren’t the only targets.  Recently, individuals have come into contact with Ransomware on their phones.  In these incidents, the victims are asked to pay a fine between $10 and $100 to unlock their phone.

Hackers have found Ransomware to be unusually effective and profitable because of these “reasonable” fines.  But that doesn’t mean they won’t ask for a large fine, as we saw in the Hollywood hospital scenario.

So you might be wondering how someone becomes infected with malware, and to be quite honest, it isn’t much different than any other form of malware.  If you open a malicious attachment or click on a misleading link or advertisement, you can easily be shut down by Ransomware.

If this does happen to you, it’s extremely important that you have all your data backed up to avoid paying the fine (don’t make it easy for the hackers even if it easy to pay $10).  As a business, you should try to have your data backed up offsite, and as an individual, you can rely on a solution like DropBox or Google Drive.  Whatever it is you decide to do, just make sure you aren’t left to contemplate the price of your data.

It can be frustrating observing people who are just ridiculously confident.  They can do or say anything and not worry about the potential for mistakes or social blunders.

And when they do make an error, nobody cares and barely anyone even notices.  These inherently evil, confident people are self-assured even in the midst of something horribly embarrassing like tripping down a flight of stairs or ripping their pants in the middle of a presentation.  It’s wholly unnatural but completely natural for these people nonetheless.

So how do we less fortunate individuals rise to a level of confidence that is somewhat near these disgustingly confident people?  Well, here are a few tips for you.

Be in front of people more.

You’re never going to be confident in front of others if you’re never in front of others.  It’s just common sense.  So if you want to be more confident, you need more opportunities for you to feel, be, and act like a confident person feels, is, and acts.  Get out of the house and out of your cubicle and into large groups and big gatherings.

Adopt the right mindset.

Part of being confident means that you accept the fact that you will fall flat on your face, and when this happens, you’ll be perfectly alright.  You’ll get up, laugh it off, and walk away like nothing ever happened.  Feeling this way about mistakes is wholly reliant on the fact that you have the right mindset—that you know everyone does it and no one really cares about it at the end of the day.

Befriend confident people.

How do you expect to become a more confident person if you’re always hanging around people who are the furthest from confident?  If your friends and your family members doubt their abilities and second guess who they are on a consistent basis, then you will more than likely fall into that same pattern.  Befriend people who are confident, and their confidence will rub off on you.  You’ll learn firsthand how to be a more assertive, self-reliant individual.

There’s a ton of advice on how to improve your productivity—quick tips, simple hacks, and general guidelines.  But, unfortunately, if you have bad working habits, all those tips, hacks, and guidelines will do nothing for your productivity.

Before you can become a truly productive person, you need to eliminate some of those bad habits holding you back.  Here are a few to get you started.

Accepting Distractions

Technology can make it very difficult to remain focused.  Between texts and emails, apps and websites, switching to another piece of technology every 30 seconds or so is normal for the average Joe.  But how can you possibly stay productive if you’re breaking focus this much?  You need to find effective ways to eliminate distractions—shove your phone in a drawer, install a program that blocks certain websites for a specified amount of time, and fully log out of your email.  Whatever you decide to do, make it a daily part of your workday.

Overscheduling

Scheduling your tasks and activities can make people extremely productive.  But it’s easy to go overboard, like scheduling something for every hour of the 8-hour workday.  What happens when you’re given extra assignments or you fall behind on scheduled activities?  Everything will start to overlap, and you’ll quickly begin to feel stressed and unproductive.  And when you feel unproductive, it’s easy to be unproductive.

Overcommitting

The worst thing you can do to your productivity is to spend your entire day in presentations, in meetings, and on phone calls.  If you’re always in meetings, when do you actually get to work? Limit your time spent participating in these activities to the bare minimum—only when absolutely necessary.  You’ll start to find that when you do have meetings, they’re more substantial, and as an added benefit, people will start to consider your time as more valuable.

Working long hours

People often think that working longer hours equates to a more productive workday.  This is hardly the case, though.  Occasionally, the 12-hour workday is absolutely necessary—something new comes up or there’s a client emergency.  But if this becomes a habit, you’ll end up paying for it with your productivity.  You need to take breaks, leave your office for lunch, and pack up for home at the right time.  If you fail to do this, then your productivity will teeter off at some point during the afternoon and never come back.

Multitasking

You might think you’re super productive when you’re working on multiple things at one time but, really… you aren’t.  All you’re actually doing is failing to exert the right amount of effort and focus on the right tasks.  All tasks are not created equal, and if you treat all tasks like they are equal, then you’ll end up with mediocre output and a chaotic workload.  How can you stay productive with a workload that’s far from balanced?  You can’t.

Yes, it’s true.  Too much technology can lead to some rather serious issues… like more stress, less sleep, anti-social behavioral tendencies, and a lack of focus.  None of which sound all too pleasant.

But what choice do we have?  A lot of our daily activities are somehow connected to our phone, tablet, laptop, TV, or connected smart gadget.  And for some people, this daily reliance on technology has surged upwards into an addiction, rendering it difficult to make eye contact or to participate in a meaningful conversation.

It doesn’t have to be this way, though.  All you have to do is stand up for yourself.  Be aggressive and unshackle portions of your day from technology.

Establish tech-free zones. 

Tech-free zones are especially important at home around your family members.  Create areas where technology is not allowed—the kitchen table, your bed, and, yes, the bathroom.  Doing this will give you and your family more of an opportunity to connect with one another and to actually look at each other every now and then.

Disable notifications.

Break your day into parts and disable notifications during some of these times.  This can be sectioned off—two hours on and two hours off.  Or, you can try disabling notifications between the hours of 6 pm and 7 am.  Not only will you sleep better, but you’ll finally have the chance to stop working, giving you the time you need to fully de-stress.

Block apps and websites. 

There are programs available that will block websites and applications on your PC and connected devices.  This is helpful if you don’t want to completely disable your notifications—so your phone is still active, but you aren’t wasting your day to social media, smartphone games, and online shopping.  An app like RescueTime can block sites and other applications, but it can also monitor your habits to present you with an accurate picture of how you really spend your time on technology.  At this point, you can ask yourself, “Is it really worth it?”

Keep your mornings to yourself.

The time before work and after work are essential to your mental health.  If you spend this time on your phone answering emails and responding to text messages, you aren’t doing yourself any favors.  A huge chunk of your day is already devoted to these tasks, so why not give your mind a rest in the morning?  Take this time to relax, drink your coffee, and prep yourself for the day.

Hold off on responding.

A big reason technology can become so stressful to people is because of the whole “instant gratification” concept.  For instance, you receive a text message, and you instantly respond.  Then another one and another one and another one—all of which you respond to immediately.  After so long, you start to feel like people expect you to respond immediately, and this feeling is a surefire way to create anxiety.  No law says you have to respond to social media posts, text messages, or emails immediately.  So don’t do it.  Some people might be upset at first (like a spouse or coworker who is used to getting instant responses from you), but eventually, they’ll get it.  All you have to do is take a stand.

People always try to give technology a bad rap, saying it consumes our lives and causes us to actually work more and not less.  And while, for some people, this may be undoubtedly true, it’s not technology’s fault.  It’s your fault for not using technology like you should be using it.

Technology can help you work less by giving you the ability to work smarter and more efficiently.  In the times when you should be working, you’re doing it faster and doing it better, making it much easier to leave work at work.  But first, you have to find the right technology to do this.  So, here’s a nudge in the most productive direction.

Office 365

When it comes to working and working well, you need a great productivity suite—like the one that comes with Office 365.  But that’s not all Office 365 is good for.  Install it on up to five separate devices and work on projects no matter where you’re at or what device you’re using—phone, tablet, laptop, or good ol’ fashioned PC.  Use the tools that Office gives you to collaborate and communicate with team members, create engaging presentations, and manage your appointments, meetings, and daily to-dos.  Office 365 allows you to capitalize on all eight hours of your workday, not just portions of it—work from anywhere, at any time, with a guaranteed uptime of 99.99%.

Dropbox

How much time do you waste with back-and-forth communication and file-sharing?  Send this, send that, reply, send another version, edit, send again, edit, send again, reply, send another version… the process goes on forever and will make a significant dent in your workday if you allow it to.  Dropbox solves this problem in the simplest, most straightforward fashion.  Upload documents to an online folder and receive automatic alerts when changes are made to any of the uploaded documents, meaning there’s no need to email someone every time an adjustment is made.  Request documents from people with a link, share documents with a link, and receive documents with a link.  No more attaching, no more forgetting to attach, and no more back-and-forth.  It’s time to cut out the waste so you can do more with your day, and it starts right here with Dropbox.

Slack

So, we’ve got the document creation and sharing out of the way… now for the integration and communication of said document creation and sharing.  Introducing Slack—the cleanest way to rid yourself of emails and multiple communication platforms.  Slack allows users to create separate boards, or threads, or channels (however you want to look at it) to communicate with your team as a whole, with individual people, or with specific groups of team members.  Title the threads by project, team, or department and receive instant updates and notifications as documents and thoughts are shared.  Use it on multiple devices and integrate it with a handful of other applications (hint, hint: like Dropbox).  Keep everything in one place and everyone on the same page.

It’s a new year, which means it’s time for some new passwords.  But you already know this, right?  Your passwords should be changed about as often as you change your toothbrush (once every three months or so).  This habit will keep hackers at bay for a little while longer, which is crucial given the 38% increase in cyber-attacks last year.

But, still, for many of you, you simply refuse to put the work in—no matter how many times you’re lectured on changing your passwords, you just won’t do it, and your passwords will remain unchanged until you’re prompted to change them, or until you forget your login credentials.

So maybe we should take another approach.  Rather than changing out all your passwords (which nowadays the average person has about 40 online accounts), only change the ones that really need it and the ones that matter the most.

1. Take all those really, really bad passwords and change them out.  You know the ones I’m referring to… the accounts secured with “password123”, your dog’s name, or your favorite football team.
2. Determine which accounts require the most security and give these accounts new passwords.  Your online banking account and email are prime examples.After you make a list of accounts you’d like to give new passwords to, then you need to do what so many people do incorrectly—give these accounts unique passwords.It’s far too tempting for people to apply the same password for each account they have.  Even an incredibly strong password won’t do you any good in this situation.  If a hacker does stumble upon your login credentials for one account, then every single one of your accounts with the same credentials will be compromised.  And it’s not a matter of “if”; it’s a matter of “when.”  If a hacker takes the time to hack into your account, then you better believe they’ll spend the additional ten seconds it takes to test out your credentials with all your online accounts.This being said, it seems we should include an additional category to the two listed previously…
3. If you have any accounts that currently use the same password on another account, then apply a new and different password to each one.

All it takes is a few minutes to improve the security and privacy of your online accounts.  Are you willing to put the forth the effort to change out your credentials or do you feel that your current passwords are strong enough to go head-to-head with a hacker?

Phishing attacks have steadily risen since 2011, according to a report released by Verizon this year.  23% of people who receive phishing emails open the email, and 11% of these people click on links in these emails.  50% of these people open and click within the first hour.

Verizon also claims that at one point, phishing was a cute AOL hack.  You’d receive an email with an offer for a free cup holder, and once you opened the attachment, your CD-ROM drive would open (you might have seen this commercial).  Nowadays, however, opening attachments like this can potentially destroy your hardware, software, reputation, finances, business, and future.  We’ve certainly come a long way from an innocent and humorous hardware hack.

Phishing attacks may be on the rise because the tactics hackers employ are far more superior than they once were.   We went from general attempts to hopefully pique interest to sophisticated and targeted that will definitely instill some degree of curiosity.  Hackers research job titles, partner information, and company background to nearly force your hand into opening emails and clicking attachments.

To avoid these detrimental actions, we have put together three categories to help you maneuver through your inbox more safely and, hopefully, more guarded.

The Sender

Always pay attention to who the email comes from.  If it comes from a person or a business you are unfamiliar with, you may not want to open the email at all (or at the very least, not touch anything inside the email).  Reviewing the subject line can assist you in determining whether or not the sender has malicious intentions.

The Content

With more sophisticated attacks, this category may eventually prove to be less useful.  But for now, you can probably avoid many attacks by scrutinizing the content within the email.  How is it written?  Are there any mistakes?  Is everything spelled correctly (links included)?

Take into consideration a large business.  They have multiple rounds of edits before sending out an email—on top of the fact that most established companies have a designated copywriter creating their content.  There should be absolutely no errors inside their email.

The Call to Action

What is it that the email is asking you to do?  Send personal information?  Verify your login credentials?  Open an attachment?  If you receive an email that asks you to do any of these actions, don’t do it.

Think about the company you receive your car insurance from.  Progressive, for instance, does everything on their website.  They would never ask you to verify your login via email, and they would certainly never ask you to respond to an email with personal information.  And 99% of the time, you receive documents and attachments after logging into their website and once you’ve accessed your user profile.

As far as links are concerned, it’s always best to find a workaround.  If Progressive asks you to complete an action by clicking on a given link, don’t do it.  Access their website by typing their homepage into your address bar.  If there is no way to get to the link from their homepage or user profile, then pick up the phone and call the customer service number on their website (do not use any numbers in the email).  It is significantly more work, but it’s definitely worth it.

At the end of the day, skepticism is your greatest ally.  If you open an email or click on a link, make sure you can verify the three categories above.  The sender is legitimate, the copy is well written, and the call to action is reasonable.

Data backup is important, which I’m sure you’ve heard before.  You know the spiel…  What happens if there’s a tornado or snow storm and your hardware is completely destroyed?  How are you supposed to recover your data if you ever expect to regain operational status?

But here in Kern County, that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon.  The only thing we’re worried about is not having enough water.  At this point, a massive flooding would be welcomed with open arms.  And if there is an earthquake, we’ll end up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, right?  Our data will be the last thing we think about.

So does that mean you don’t have to worry about data backup?  Since we aren’t normally prone to destructive natural disasters are you immune to data disasters altogether?

Not exactly.  You see, there’s such a thing as an everyday disaster and these bad boys will destroy your data faster, better, and more times than a tornado, earthquake, or fire ever could.

Power Failure

If a power failure occurs in your building, the potential for hardware malfunctions and corrupted files is pretty high.  Say you’re working on a very important presentation and the power shuts down.  A few minutes later when the power kicks back on you attempt to work on your presentation again.  But, for some reason, every time you try to open up your files you’re greeted with an error message.  Instead of being able to recover all that work, you have to start from scratch, losing time, money, and productivity.

Spilled Liquid

If you’re going to drink coffee, water, soda, or any other liquid while you’re around hardware, you’re playing a very risky game.  With sugary drinks especially, liquid can corrode your critical hardware components and corrupt the data it contains.

The Wrong Button

This category contains the, “Whoops.  Did I just do that?” and the, “I’m so frustrated I’m going to pound on my keyboard for a few seconds.”  And, unfortunately, accidentally deleting items is far more common than you may think.  There are ways to permanently delete files from your server and even ways to delete system files that allow your PC to function properly. When this happens, the only way you can recover files or fix your workstation is if you have the backup solution that allows you to do so.

Vindictive Employees

Usually, when someone is fired, it isn’t something they necessarily want to happen.  And, many times, the anger and contempt the freshly unemployed have for you and your business can boil over to instigate vindictive acts.  If they can find a way to access your database, they can do some serious damage; damage that can be expensive, embarrassing, and highly destructive to your data.

Common Malware

If you don’t have the best security or the most private employees, malware and hackers can easily slip into your network.  Once they’re inside, they can steal, corrupt, or encrypt your data—all of which is expensive and extremely difficult to recover without a comprehensive backup and recovery solution.  For example, Cryptolocker is an extremely rampant virus at the moment.  This nasty malware will encrypt your files and force you to pay for a decryption code.  And the delivery of the code after payment is never a guarantee.

Passwords are slowly reaching their point of extinction, emphasis on the slowly.  It’s too easy to create a weak password, and it’s way too easy to crack one; therefore, something must be done, and everybody knows it.

It simply boils down to the ‘when.’  When will society overcome the convenience associated with a password and hop on over to a more complex sign-on method?  And, surprisingly, it may come sooner than we all think thanks to 2-factor authentication.

2-factor authentication can be an alternative or additional layer to the customary password, and can be applied in a variety of ways.  CNET describes these ways or methods as something you have, something you are, and something you know.

Something you have

All three categories are self-explanatory in nature; therefore, something you have is something you have.  When you enable 2-factor authentication and utilize this approach, you will receive a notification asking you to approve the login, usually a push notification on your smartphone.  Even if someone has physical access to your computer or if there is keylogging software installed on your computer, they still could not reach your inbox.

Something you are

Something you are would involve a biometric identifier, such as a fingerprint or retinal scan, which isn’t as far-off or as high-tech as you may think it is.  Google is currently working on a project that involves identifying a user not by whatthey say, but by how they say it.  Considering many cyber security analysts believe a fingerprint can be just as hackable in the future as a password is, this is an innovative idea that may just be the level and convenience of security everyone is looking for.

Something you know

Many of us actually utilize this method of 2-factor authentication without even realizing it.  This would involve answering a question with a predetermined answer, such as, “What is the name of your favorite football team?”  Websites tend to stick with the same questions and people tend to stick with the same answers, making this category not as secure as it should be.  For instance, the football question only has a few possible answers, which makes it easy to crack.  And if it happens to be a question regarding your maiden name or the street you grew up on, that’s easily found on your Facebook page, LinkedIn, or online dating profile.  You see the point.

There’s no reason you shouldn’t apply 2-factor authentication to any of your online accounts that offer it.  Even using something as basic as “something you know” adds a second layer of protection to your account.  A second layer makes it more difficult for hackers to crack your password and may give you the opportunity to change login credentials after a breach occurs and before your account is accessed.  Although it may add a few seconds to the login process, it’s well worth it.

When your phone breaks, it’s on par with the death of a loved one, worse than a large asteroid falling to earth and only slightly better than running out of a coffee on a Monday morning.  We’ve all been there at one point—lost, alone and shunned from society, reeling from the aftermath of a broke-down, cracked-up phone.

As soon as it lands in a large puddle, cracks on the pavement or fails to take a charge, panic immediately sets in.  The mad dash to buy a new phone officially starts.  Suddenly, you’ve resorted to Neanderthal speak, “Now.  Phone.  Need.”  You are unable to process basic human needs; the need for a phone trumps the need for food, shelter and water.

It’s impossible to avoid this dismal, desperate, dire situation forever and somewhere down the line some scientific study will prove this theory to be true.  Your phone will break; it’s simply a matter of when, in what way and how many times.

So, in order to make this situation somewhat less frequent, here’s seven simple tips to keep your phone alive and well and you civilized and sane.

Protect thy screen.

A screen protector will not make your phone invincible; however, it will postpone those inevitable scratches and cracks.  The longer you keep your phone scratch-free and without cracks, the higher your ROI is.  And, considering the most popular phones are nearing the $400 mark, a higher ROI is good by anybody’s standards.

You can score an inexpensive pack of 10 plastic screen protectors for about $5 or you can go up a level and purchase a high-quality tempered glass screen protector for about $30.  Your phone will have a ton of smudges in its future and it’ll gain about half a millimeter in thickness… but just think…ROI.

Sleek and modern or bulletproof?

Yes, your phone is quite nice.  It’s shiny and slim, with curves in all the right areas; it’s a smokin’ hot piece of technology.  But, just how good looking will it be when it cracks out and loses its ability to think?

Not so good looking, right?  So, let’s keep it covered in a rock-hard, nothings-getting-through-this, brick of a case.  Your phone probably won’t look as good but at least it’ll have a brain.

Well, hello there toilet.  We meet again.

According to CNET, 75% of people use their phone while on the toilet.  Of this 75%, 19% will then drop their phone inside the toilet.  This will not leave your phone in a very good spot—both mentally and physically.

Don’t take your phone to the bathroom with you.  It will not end well.

Cradle it like a newborn baby.

Think of your phone as you would a newborn baby.  Would you pick a newborn child up by her toes and dangle her at your side as you walk from room to room?  Probably not.  You cradle a newborn with both hands.

The same should go for your phone.  Your phone is delicate and expensive just like a child is.  Don’t pick your phone up at the corners; cradle it.

Liquids aren’t welcome in these parts.

This is just plain commonsense.  Don’t put coffee, water, soda, tea or any other beverage near your phone.  If you do,you deserve every wet second of it.

Also, do not put your phone near a tub, sink, things that go flush or anything that dispenses a liquid substance.

So many pockets, so little space.

Pockets are never a good idea.  But, if you must put your phone in the pockets of your pants, pocket wisely.  Back pockets are a certified and definite absolute no, never, not ever.  You sit directly on your back pockets.  In other words, you sit on your phone.  Sounds like a good way to break it.

Also, as you sit, your pocket curves.  During this process, anything too big inside your pocket falls out.  Translation?  Your phone falls out—onto the hard floor, into the liquid-filled toilet, towards a broke-down, cracked-up future.

Your front seat loves a good show.

A great majority of phone breakers suffer from the Spidercrack Syndrome.  If your phone is too cracked, it becomes useless, unreadable and untouchable.  Many times this happens as you get out of your car: Your phone is on or near your lap and as you move to exit your vehicle, it gracefully falls from your lap straight onto the pavement.  If this happens, your phone will see the likes of the Spidercrack Syndrome.

Avoid an early grave and keep your phone away from your lap.  Not only is it distracting while driving but your phone’s future may include the dark side of the pavement.  The dashboard, passenger seat or middle console are fine alternatives.  And, retrieve your phone only after you’ve successfully exited your vehicle.