Making Technology Work Abroad

When you travel to some of the more remote parts of the world or parts of the world that lag in communications technology, you need to be flexible. You could need to work around slower internet service or service blackouts. But you may not be able to easily work around security and tech support issues that can crop up at the most inopportune time.

As experienced travelers and technology experts, we’re used to dealing with less-than-ideal conditions. But we still came across glitches we didn’t foresee. We need to plan for less-than-optimal service (sometimes no service) and problems with internet access, and we need to have some flexibility.

When we were in a game reserve in South Africa, we knew there would be limited Wi-Fi or cellular service, but we were too busy being awed by all the animals we saw. We were surprised on our cruise ship when we were in Madagascar. The ship had internet blackouts; there was no Wi-Fi service. Satellite connections were not available. We also had to work around 3G technology (which has basically been eliminated in the United States). In some cases, VPNs would not allow access to certain websites – and we had counted on that access for certain business needs.

This presents an interesting dichotomy. We take vacations to get away from our normal routines, but sometimes we need to stay in touch. We like being able to resolve issues remotely for our clients or get a detailed understanding of issues so that we instruct those who provide services on our behalf. We believe it’s a critical part of our pledge to serve you.

We also like to take a lot of photographs and shoot videos to share with family and friends during our vacations. With images and videos creating ever larger files, we rely on fast internet service, which may not be available.

Then, there’s the matter of security, especially with authenticator apps and VPNs (virtual private networks).

Authenticator apps are part of the two-factor authentication (2FA) process for accessing websites. The first thing you should do is log in to your authenticator app and make sure it works. You should especially make sure it works with any privacy measures you might take, such as a VPN. Microsoft Authenticator (our preferred app) and Google Authenticator are two of the most commonly used apps, and they work with mobile devices – even if you are logging in from a computer.

If you get a new phone or tablet, you’ll need to reinstall your authentication app; it doesn’t transfer. When we get a client call about an authenticator problem, the first question we ask is whether you have a new phone. We can always walk you through the setup process.

While we’re on the subject of VPNs, be prepared for yours not to work when logging in to a website you normally use. In some countries, an international company’s website might be hosted in a country outside the US. If you are running a VPN that identifies your device as being in the US, just hope it works well so that you can access the site. If you need to contact that company’s tech support, make sure you know what time it is in their location.

If you’re planning a trip to remote locations anywhere in the world – even here in the US – we can help you with contingency plans based on your needs. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to see what you can do.

Turn on 2FA with Microsoft 365

If you’re using Microsoft 365 without two-factor authentication (2FA), you could have a basic security problem. Cybercriminals are taking advantage of a loophole in Microsoft’s Basic Authentication, an outmoded system doesn’t require extra security checks, like a second password or a verification code sent to your phone. Here’s how to harden your system.

Hackers are using a method called “password spray and pray,” where they try common passwords across many accounts, hoping for a match. Security researchers have discovered that a botnet of at least 130,000 infected devices is being used in this attack. The hackers use non-interactive sign-ins, a method commonly used for automated logins between services. Because these logins don’t require human interaction, they often bypass 2FA protections, and many security protocols don’t pay much attention to them.

While Microsoft is phasing out Basic Authentication, it will still be partially active until September 2025. The threat is immediate and serious.

If you have a website, experts urge you to disable Basic Authentication and monitor non-interactive sign-in logs. You should also adopt access policies based on location and device security to restrict logins from unknown locations or requiring extra security steps for an unfamiliar device. Enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) or certificate-based authentication would require users to verify their identity with a second factor, like a phone code or fingerprint scan. Even if hackers steal a password, they still won’t be able to access the account without this extra verification.

On the user side, eliminate multiple-use passwords. A password manager makes it easy to generate long, unique, complex passwords that are extremely hard to hack. And if a hacker does happen to hit one, it’s highly unlikely they’ll get another one.

If the websites you use require 2FA, we suggest using your password manager to set up a six-digit token through your phone’s authenticator app. With a cell phone, you can use facial recognition or fingerprint for authentication. And there’s still the six-digit code sent to your phone as a text message or an email.

We can help businesses and individual users upgrade or improve their online security. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to talk about your needs.

When Old Technology Meets the Present Day

This is a cautionary tale about how many businesses maintain years and years of data storage. They’ve maintained servers and stored them on disks using RAID 5 technology. It’s a reliable system, but when you need to retrieve data, it can present a lot of costly complexities, as one of our clients recently discovered.

Our client was having trouble retrieving data and asked us to take a look. They gave us a half-dozen or so drives, and our immediate problem was that we couldn’t just pop them into a machine and take a look.

The problem was that our client had a server configured for RAID 5. In technical terms, RAID 5 is a configuration – redundant array of independent disks – that utilizes disk striping with parity. It enables you to distribute data across multiple drives with a parity check. This ensures data integrity even if one drive fails, and the configuration makes fast data retrieval possible.

However, it requires a minimum of three drives to function properly, and you need detailed record keeping to retrieve your data. That’s where the problem comes in. You need to take a Sharpie and identify each RAID 5 drive you have from the oldest to the newest. If you can’t view them in their proper sequence, you can’t retrieve your data.

If you have data on RAID 5 disks, you should consult an IT pro to see if you can dump your data to an external drive. However, it won’t be cheap. The cost can be $250 to $500 per disk to copy data to an external drive. The more disks you have, the harder it can be – unless you absolutely have them in the right sequence. And the process can be more difficult – if not impossible – if a disk is inadvertently fouled.

A better choice is RAID 1, commonly referred to as disk mirroring. Hard disks are kept in sync with one another so that if a disk were to fail, an exact copy remains, ensuring no loss.

In the event of a drive failure, recovery is easy since the duplicate drive can take over immediately. Read performance can be enhanced as data can be read from multiple disks simultaneously. The major drawback is that storage capacity is diminished, which means you’ll need more disks. In our opinion, that could outweigh the drawbacks of RAID 5, which requires more time and resources to rebuild data after a drive failure and can have slower write operations because of the need to update parity information.

We can help you determine which storage need is better for you or help you organize RAID 5 disks for more efficient data retrieval. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to discuss what’s better for you.