Arming the ‘Road Warrior’

I’ve been traveling a lot over the past two years, and that’s made me more conscious than ever about what we all need to do to create mobile fortresses wherever we are. Some of the best defenses are tried and true, and some take advantage of new technologies. Here are steps for you to consider.

If you haven’t done so already, the first thing you should do is install a VPN on every device you use in a place that’s not your office or home. A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, creates a secure connection between your device and the internet. It encrypts your internet traffic, making it unreadable to anyone who might intercept it, and routes it through a remote server, which helps protect your online activities from being monitored. It also protects sensitive information, such as passwords and personal data, especially on public Wi-Fi networks. And if you’ve been reading this newsletter for several years, you know that we don’t consider a password from a publicly provided network, such as a hotel, to be secure.

A VPN can replace your real IP address with its own server IP address and enhance your online privacy by making it difficult for websites and services to track your location and browsing habits. It also allows you to bypass geographic restrictions on websites and streaming services so you can access content that may be blocked where you are.

With a VPN significantly improving your online security and privacy, you can take advantage of other technologies, such as Microsoft’s Cloud PC, which allows you to access a full Windows desktop experience from any device with an internet connection. For business travelers, this means you can replicate your work environment during a flight or while sitting in a public place.

I’ve started using it during my travels to conferences as well as while on vacation. It has two major caveats, which don’t bother me at all. One is that it is a subscription service, so I wouldn’t recommend it for casual use. The other caveat is that it works better on a laptop computer or a tablet. Because it displays what you would get if you logged into your Microsoft 365 account on your office computer, you need a bigger screen. I think a telephone display is too small to be effective.

Combining a VPN and Cloud PC are just two tools you can use to make your online life safe and efficient. We can help you find and configure the tools you need to be productive on the road – or in the air or at sea. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to discuss your needs for online safety when away from the office.

Make Reading a Habit

We’re so overloaded with emails, texts, WhatsApp and other communications that we’ve fallen into the bad habit of skimming messages and probably doing the same with websites and documents. It’s time to get back into the habit of reading things more closely because not everything is as it seems.

For example, you may be expecting to get a payment from a customer or a client, or you may be asking someone for help. When you get an email that appears to be responding to your expectation, many people tend to click on something without reading all the details closely. That’s when disaster strikes because that click opens the door for a hacker.

Hackers have taken really good advantage of artificial intelligence (AI). They can use it to create exact matches for corporate logos and write messages with perfect spelling and the most appropriate language for their target. This makes phishing attacks easier to carry out, and phishing attacks are the most common means of hacking an email account.

The obvious way to combat AI-generated phishing attacks is to use your own RI – real intelligence. Read the sender’s address very carefully. Is it the real address that you know, or is there a slight misspelling, such as an extra letter, a missing letter, or transposed letters? Does it make sense to you that the sender has included an attachment or link?

If you’ve skimmed over a phishing email and didn’t catch a warning sign, you may have provided a hacker with an opening to your personal information and the ability to access your financial accounts. If you’ve skimmed legitimate invitations to use two-factor authentication (2FA) for websites and – especially – your email login credentials, you may have provided an opening for hackers.

Protecting your email login credentials is critical to your online security. If a hacker steals access to your email and you have no 2FA, they can go to your bank’s website, for example, and use the “forgot password” process to reset your password. Signs your email account has been hacked include the inability to log in with your correct password, notifications about changes to your account settings or messages sent from your account that you didn’t initiate.

The start of the year is a good time to get a security audit and initiate strong security procedures, such as 2FA measures and the use of a password manager with unique passwords for every website you and your employees or family members access. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to set up an appointment.

DIY Email

We can expect cable and telecom companies to accelerate their exit from providing email services. Verizon/FIOS long ago transitioned their email management to AOL, which is really Yahoo Mail. Comcast is about to follow the same route, handing their email off to Yahoo. Getting live support from an actual person will become even more difficult. If you think Gmail is an answer, when did you EVER talk to a person from Google? It’s time to take matters into your own hands by getting your own domain and better managing how you handle your email accounts.

The problem with email from your cable or telecom company or from Yahoo/AOL is that it’s not a profit center – unless they can convince you to buy a support subscription. And buying a support subscription is the only way you’ll get a chance to talk to an actual human being if you have a problem.

Support can be critical when your email gets hacked. In cases with Comcast, for example, it can take human intervention to clear out any contact info a hacker may have planted in your account. Then, you’ll need to reset your password and set up a phone number and secondary email address that can be used for two-factor authentication (2FA) and notifications of problems if you get hacked again. Support people are generally good when you get to one of them after navigating their cumbersome phone trees. When you move to the Yahoo platform, it will be harder to get human support – unless you get a subscription. The cost of Yahoo Plus is $49.99 per year, which includes features such as ad-free email, priority customer support, and premium features for Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Fantasy.

Instead of sliding over to the Yahoo platform when your cable company ends its email, we recommend you go to Outlook or Gmail. Microsoft (Microsoft 365 subscriptions) and Google (lots and lots of ad revenue) have many other ways to monetize their relationship with you, so they put more stock in maintaining email support. Additionally, IT consulting services know the ins and outs of their systems and your needs. We can help you transfer all your folders and messages to your new system. We make it a point to provide the personal support you need when you have problems.

But a much better solution is to get your own email domain for both business and personal use. For security and management, the key benefits are:

  • Enhanced Security and Control: You can create better security processes to prevent unauthorized access, and you can create multiple addresses for specific purposes.
  • Improved Deliverability: Custom email domains allow for proper authentication and are less likely to be flagged as spam.
  • Long-term Consistency: Whether you’re a business, non-profit organization, family or business, you can keep your system going forever and ever if you wish, and people will always know where to contact you. It keeps life simple.
  • Flexibility and Scalability: You can create as many email addresses as needed for various functions. For businesses and organizations, you can manage functions or projects better. For individuals, you can keep various parts of life separate, such as a shopping address where you can get coupons or messages you only want to check occasionally.

 Getting your own email domain is no different from getting any other domain. We can help you with everything involved from securing a domain name to setting up all the email addresses you need. Then, we can work with you to transfer all your messages, folders, etc. from your old email account to your new domain. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to answer all your questions about email accounts and get you set up with a system that can work for you long into the future.