Your Next Mobile Phone is All About the Apps

If you’re in the market for a new mobile phone, it won’t be a Windows phone. With Windows 10 as the operating system for less than 1 percent of the mobile market, Microsoft is killing its mobile phone. It’s all about the apps – more specifically about app developers.

With Android and Apple accounting for more than 99 percent of the worldwide mobile market, app developers have put all of their efforts into those systems. Apple generally gets the nod to get an app first, but selling an app to Android can be equally enriching for developers.

Both Apple and Samsung are expected to release new phones this year, the iPhone 8 and Galaxy S8, respectively. Samsung needs a replacement for its ill-fated 7 series, and Apple needs new energy for its 8 series. Whichever manufacturer and OS you choose, you’ll find plenty of features and power – and an abundance of apps.

The apps are critical because we use our phones for just about everything but talking. We shop, find restaurants, use navigation to find the best route to places we’ve gone to for years, research healthcare options, watch TV and movies, read newspapers…

We’re not only untethered from a desktop computer or television, we can do or watch anything on our phones as long as we have internet access. Why, we don’t even need to reach into our wallets for charge cards to make some purchases. Apple, Google, financial institutions and merchants all have secure apps that help protect your credit card information through series of transfers between the merchant and your account. This is one of those few instances in which convenience can be more secure.

According to the website Statista, there were some 2.2 million apps available from the Apple Store as of this past January, and there were a similar number available from Google Play last year. Microsoft, by comparison, had 669,000 apps available from its Windows Store. While gaming apps are in decline, which some parents may find hard to believe, Smashing Magazine reports the biggest growth is coming in customization apps, such as launchers, icons, wallpaper and lock-screen apps. The next growth area is newspapers and magazines.

Other categories for app growth include:

  • Productivity tools
  • Lifestyle and shopping solutions
  • Messengers and social apps

The trend toward mobile apps shows no signs of letting up. With slightly less than half the world’s population owning smartphones, you know there’s an upside waiting to be tapped. A growing number of major companies in the world see mobile devices as a catalyst to transforming their businesses, and the value of mobile apps is expected to more-than-triple by 2020. With mobile apps and Bluetooth integrating with our cars and homes as well as just about every aspect of our lives, apps will fuel the growth of mobile devices, and more users will demand more apps.

We happen to like Apple phones and tablets because we believe they work better with Outlook for email and calendars and because we believe its proprietary OS offers better security. But we are impressed with the creativity that Android’s open software spawns. For most users, either OS will run apps equally well. Your choice may simply come down to the cost of the device and the best plan you can find from a wireless carrier or provider. We can help you whittle down the daunting number of considerations in mobile device selection – and we can help you set up your device to integrate with other systems, including storage options. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to discuss your mobile device needs or with any questions you have about using your apps more efficiently.

Nomorobo = No More Robo Calls? We Hope It Adds Up

If you’re tired of robo calls and caught in the web of spoofed telephone numbers, Nomorobo might be the app for you. It is for us. It’s one product to help you manage your telephone.

For most of us, robocalls are a major annoyance. Even when you don’t pick up the phone, they ring and ring until your answering machine picks it up, and then you need to follow whatever instructions your answering machines provide to get rid the message.

For many others, however, robocalls are an expensive trap. Scammers posing as IRS agents steal millions every year, despite regular warnings from the real IRS that its agents will never contact you by phone if you owe them money. They send a letter first, and they tell people that if they have questions about whether they owe taxes, they should call the IRS toll-free phone number.

At one time, you could register your phone number with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to block robocalls and telemarketers representing companies with which you did not have a relationship. But VOIP (voice over internet protocol) technology made it cheap and easy for scammers operating outside the US to make long-distance calls that look like domestic calls. Essentially, the same technology that gives you a free Google Voice number gives scammers and thieves the ability to reach you under false pretense. How ridiculous can it get? You can get a call from a device identified as your own phone.

As phone carriers and the FCC went ‘round and ‘round in pointing fingers and passing along suggestions for the “other side,” the logjam broke when the FCC allowed the phone companies to block robocalls. One of the industry’s concerns was that it would block legitimate phone numbers, including those used by emergency-notification organizations.

Here’s where Nomorobo stepped in to fill the breach. It won a $25,000 cash prize from the Federal Trade Commission in 2013 for figuring how to stop robo calls. The system reroutes calls to your phone number to a service that checks the incoming phone number against a database that whitelists the good guys and blacklists the bad guys. Once you sign up for Nomorobo, you need to wait until the second ring to pick up the phone. Nomorobo uses the first ring to check the incoming number against its database. If you don’t get a second ring, then you know a robo call was blocked.

In a perfect world, good calls, such as those from emergency-related organizations get through. Of course, the world is not perfect, but it is “trainable.” If you experience any problems, such as a school closing or a call from a hospital, you can report it at www.nomorobo.com/report under “A Valid Number That Was Blocked Incorrectly” and correct the database. The service won’t block charity calls, but it can block political calls. You can enable or disable this feature by clicking “Edit” next to your number.

Nomorobo is free for landlines, and it supports most carriers. It has an iOS app that costs $1.99 per month, and it plans to have an Android app soon. The company has an online help desk that covers most questions users would have about using its system or deleting it.

Nomorobo has plenty of company in the robo-blocking space, and you might find one you like better. One place to start your search is the CTIA website product listings. CTIA represents many wireless telecom companies in the US. If you have any questions about selecting a call blocker or installing on a landline or mobile device, we’re here to help. Just call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us.

How About an App to Navigate Airports?

Trying to cover the distance between gates for connecting flights can be a huge – if not insurmountable – problem for flyers. After catching our breath in Atlanta, I’d like an app that can tell me where my connecting flight is, how I get to that gate and how long it should take me once I finally get off the airplane.

Until somebody develops a universal app just for that, an increasing number of airports have their own apps, which include maps (helpful if you’re connecting to another flight or just beginning your visit at a destination). As part of your trip planning, see if the airports you’ll use have apps and download them ahead of time. That will make them quicker to access, especially if you need to scramble. You may be able to download information ahead of time that you can use offline to more easily find your way to baggage claim areas, ground transportation and rental car areas.

If you’re planning to travel during spring break or this summer, or if you’re a regular business traveler, there’s no shortage of apps that are useful or entertaining. Most are available from both the Apple Store or Google Play.

Handling Emergencies

The multitude of websites that let you find and book the best flights can be your best friend if you run into problems because of weather or delays that prevent you from making a connecting flight. If you’re flying routes served by multiple carriers, those apps can help you better identify your options, but they may not give you the immediate information you need. You may want to think about a premium app or premium version of a free app if you regularly run into the need to make changes on the fly.

Some apps you might want to look at include Kayak, GateGuru and TripIt. All offer you the ability to input your itinerary, which helps you know where you need to be and when, and all push out alerts with information about security wait times, flight and gate changes and similar information. As part of its premium service, TripIt can give you alternative flights when you run into trouble with weather delays or problems that can prevent you from making a flight.

Kayak syncs with your Apple Watch, which can be a welcome feature when you’re trying to get to a gate as quickly as possible.

App in the Air is a “personal flight assistant” that uses SMS texts to push information on flight changes, eliminating the need for an internet connection.

Whether you use one of these apps or your airline’s apps, use an app if you need to change a flight quickly instead of going to a desk and standing on a line. The app enables you to tap into the airline’s reservation system quickly to change a flight, select seats (if possible) and get your boarding passes.

While you may need to juggle apps, they can help you get a better outcome, and they’re faster if you have them installed and configured before you need them.

Getting There

Most likely, you’ll have used Google Maps or Waze to find the best route to the airport, and you – or rather one of your passengers – may have consulted the airline’s website or one of the many flight-tracker apps to make sure your flight is on schedule. If you’re coming from your home and need to park your car, there’s an Apple app, Airport Parking Reservations, that lets you compare and select off-site parking lots for some 150 airports in the US and Canada. And, of course, it lets you know about available discounts. There are many apps for parking reservations and discounts, but this one specializes in airports.

Getting Through Checkpoints

Once you have the car parked or if you’re on your ride to the airport, there are apps to check you in, get you through security and find a good place to hang out until boarding time. And if your phone is charged, you don’t need any paper.

If your airline doesn’t have an app to check you in, GateGuru, TripIt and Kayak are three of many apps that can help you check in and/or get to security.  They all give you security waiting times and airport maps to help you find your gate and amenities along the way. They’re all free for iOS and Android devices.

Going through security lines is usually the next challenge after checking in, and you can choose a variety of apps to help you or least give you information to help navigate the process. The TSA has its own app, My TSA, which gives you real-time info about wait times and updated information about what you can carry on a plane, etc. Its biggest advantage may be the info on which airports and airlines support TSA PreCheck® and how to sign-up.

For international travel, you can combine it with Mobile Passport. Officially authorized by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), it lets US and Canadian passport holders skip the customs and border protection lines at US airports. Simply fill out your profile and answer four of the CBP’s questions. Once they receive your data, you can go straight to the “Mobile Passport Control” express lane at 20 US airports and the Port Everglades cruise port in Florida. It’s a free app for iOS and Android, and while you won’t need it on your way out of the country, it can speed up the process when you return.

 Inside the Terminals

The apps we discussed earlier, TripIt, Kayak and GateGuru all provide info on flights and gates, amenities along the way and maps. Kayak now boasts maps with turn-by-turn directions, and it has a companion app that lets you see if better seats are available for your flight.

A growing number of airports worldwide now have their own apps, too, which give you information about amenities on the way to your gate – or to baggage claim – and maps.

One app that goes above and beyond just telling about restaurants and lounges is AirGrub, which is only available in a limited number of airports. It’s an Uber-type app that uses your flight info to help you locate participating restaurants near your gate. When you provide your flight info, you can view menus and arrange to have food delivered to the gate area before you board – all paid for through the app.

Of all the apps that center around airports, my favorite is LiveATC.net, which lets you listen to air traffic controllers in real time. It gives me a real feel for what’s going on with landings and takeoffs and helps me figure out how much time I’ll need to spend in the airport based on flight conditions.

If you have any questions about configuring travel apps or any apps for your mobile device, call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us for help. Especially when you travel, your app should be a resource – not a source of frustration.

Anatomy of a Solution

In our quest for value, we sometimes take shortcuts to an improved bottom line by buying off-brand equipment at a lower price. In some cases, it’s a shortcut to danger that can leave us walking the edge of a cliff and essentially wipe out any savings we might have gained. It’s taken a concerted effort by a lot of people to pull this one back from the edge of disaster for a new client.

The problem started early in the morning of Martin Luther King Day – and 7 a.m. is early when it’s a holiday. A manager at a new client, called to say the server was “beeping.” Their previous IT firm, which purchased and installed the server, had always told them to reboot the server, and the problem would go away. Two hours later, we got a call that the beep was still there – it was a nuisance – but worse, the company couldn’t do its work.

Phone support didn’t work, so we went to the office, and we wound up spending most of the day – plus all day Thursday and Friday – trying to solve the problem. One of our problems was that the server was not a name-brand, top quality unit. While we are brand-neutral, we believe the top brands for hardware provide the best products with the most up-to-date components, and we consider that an essential in a field where slight variations can have a major effect.

To recap a long story, we spent time on the telephone and on Facetime with the technicians at the server company. We never could get the server running, and by later Monday, our client agreed to ship the server back to the supplier – at a cost of several hundred dollars.

We next turned our attention to their customized application software and that provider. Our client had some issues at the end of 2016 with back-up space on the drive where the application was housed. The software provider claimed it was an IT problem, but during a conference call, we learned they were not providing all the service they were supposed to. They had shut off the backup services about three weeks before all the problems were discovered.

We decided to install new drives, including a “spare” that I had purchased, and began to build up the server, again. We also ordered new drives from the server company. By this time, our client had been down for a few days, and employees were manually processing orders. We worked with the software provider to recover most of the data files. But as we started to rebuild the repaired server, which had new drives, it crashed halfway through the process. By 3 p.m. Friday of that week, we had dealt with a number of issues with several vendors, including Microsoft, and we thought we had the system operational.

By the following Tuesday, we got the new drives. We shut down the system that afternoon to install them and scheduled the data transfer for that night. When it failed, we saw that the drives were the wrong ones. On one level, they met the specifications, but there were a number of internal components that were not correct – and the server provider did not verify all of the specifications involved. As we prepared this article, we had ordered a total of 12 drives – even though only four were needed, and the system still was not working properly.

Compounding the problem, the software provider had a licensing issue, which did not inspire a lot of confidence on our part. The software company had been provided access to browse the file area, but we have decided to block their access. There are too many questions about securing the integrity of the server, and this just shuts off the access until we get everything back and running. The good news is that our client has not lost any data. We appreciate the ability of the software provider to recover all the data, but we continue to have issues with some of the contractors we had to work with.

We continue to have problems with the server and with workstation computers in the company that also are not top-brand products. We also have had problems with a networking card. We are working with the client to replace the workstations, and we are developing a budget for replacements going forward.

The server presents a major problem because it is reaching the end of its warranty period. Even though some of the work on their system has been covered by the warranty, shipping costs and the extra drives were not covered. Also, our client incurred costs related to downtime. We think keeping the server will result in throwing more good money after bad. If they haven’t reached the breaking point already, it’s safe to say they’ve probably wiped out any saving that the lower cost of the hardware may have provided.

Our guiding principle is to buy top-quality hardware and software to meet your expectations of reliability. As your IT consultant, we are equipped to lay out your hardware and software options and to show you their cost-of-ownership options, including the cost of servicing broken-down systems. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to schedule an evaluation of your system and to determine the most cost-effective way improve your operating efficiency and profitability.

Who’s Watching? Internal Software and the IoT

Connected homes. Connected cars. Doing more over the internet. The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing faster and faster. And that begs two questions: 1.) Who’s watching? 2.) How do you pull the shades on prying eyes?

The answer to the first question is unnervingly simple: It could be anyone in the world.

The short answer to the second question is: Shore-up your security.

As I walked around CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas last month, I looked at all the devices that are connected to the internet. I thought about all the internal software in those devices – and wondered who’s upgrading that software for security?

Software is at the heart of every device in our house that’s connected – usually wirelessly – to the internet. While we continue to encourage you to change the username and password for every device you have, it’s still possible for hackers to use an open “back door” to get inside the internal software for, let’s say, the camera systems inside and outside your house. We all need to make sure that the companies who provide all these great connected devices are updating their software security. It’s no different than the security patches issued by all software publishers.

In the absence of device manufacturers pushing out software updates, you should make it a habit to visit their websites to see if any updates are available for your products – and to download them and install them right away.

It’s also important to know what’s in your house – even if it’s wired. We visited a house that somebody was buying, and we found a mound of wires in the basement. Not only did the new owners not know what all the wires were connected to, the old owner didn’t know about all of them, either. We found the whole house had been hard-wired, and that there was an old security camera system. We connected all the access points in the house to relieve the pressure on the new Wi-Fi system we installed, and we set up the camera system and made sure it was secure. But had we not been there, nobody would have known how everything was supposed to work and if anything had been exposed to a security breach.

Automobiles, by the way, have internal software, too, and you generally need to visit a dealer to have that checked. It has been demonstrated that hackers can break into certain parts of your car’s computer system and affect your car’s operation. While there’s likely not a widespread benefit that makes economic sense for doing this, you could be an isolated, totally random victim of someone who’s just playing around with the idea of hacking a car.

If you have any questions about the security steps you need to take for your devices, gather all the information you can find about the product and call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us with your questions. If need be, we can help you find the correct software updates or get the information you need to ask the right questions when you contact your device manufacturer.

A Time and a Place to be Connected

You are picking up your child! GET OFF YOUR PHONE!!!!

The message you see here hit one mother right between the eyes when she picked up her kids at a day care center outside Houston. She posted her reaction on Facebook to this sign, and it generated nearly 1.5 million shares. I say it’s a wake-up call to a disturbing trend.

Too many people just don’t know when to put their phones in their pockets – or close their connected devices. I find it disrespectful and representative of misplaced priorities.

The sign read:

“You are picking up your child! GET OFF YOUR PHONE!!!! Your child is happy to see you! Are you not happy to see your child??”

“We have seen children trying to hand their parents their work they completed and the parent is on the phone. We have heard a child say ‘Mommy, mommy, mommy…” and the parent is paying more attention to their phone than their own child. It is appalling. Get off your phone!!”

The sign and reaction of the mother were the subject of a Fox News report. The mother said she usually doesn’t have her phone when she picks up her children. But this time, it was in her hand. She said she thought the message was awesome and decided to snap the picture and post it on her Facebook page.

Naturally, there was some pushback. One Facebooker commented that she would pull her child out of a daycare center that posted a message like that, and another said her work keeps her on call.

I don’t what kind of work she does, but this strikes me as a misplaced priority. I know there are emergencies: work, family, disasters, etc. But I also know there can be a time when we need to put our phones away and give proper attention to our families – especially to the children whose lives we are shaping by our words and deeds.

So, I applaud the sign and the mother who posted it. And, I want to take it a step farther to talk about phones in places where they shouldn’t be used, such as houses of worship.

I am not an especially religious person, but I attend a synagogue in my community, and I am always shocked by the number of phones that are out. Sometimes, they are out inside the sanctuary, and that’s disrespectful of those who want to worship. I also see children and adults alike using their phones in the lobbies of their houses of worship, and I wonder why they just don’t go outside.

It’s equally disrespectful for people to use their phones during movies, concerts and plays – even if they are just texting. It disrupts everyone nearby, and in some cases, it can affect performers.

Yes, I know it’s good to have a phone handy to handle real emergencies, but you can keep a phone on vibrate, and you can leave the building if your attention is required by someone. That way, you can maintain respect for people and institutions. What do you think? Leave a comment or send us an email to let us know.

Apple’s New Adapter

I don’t know when Apple is going to replace its Lightning adapter with a new and improved model, but it’s going to happen. And when it does, the bellyaching will begin. But take a step back. Every time our hardware providers change ports and adapters, it’s because you want to transfer more data faster.

The Lightning adapter, the 9-pin connector now used with the latest Apple products, replaced the 30-pin connector. Just the fact that it changed upset a lot of people because they had to replace a slew of old ones – that seemed to work just fine. But in reality, it gave you access to newer, faster ports and improved performance.

Not be left out of the connector race, Android and Windows devices have started using USB Type C. This connector isn’t smaller than the Micro USB, but it introduces one standard port for both phones and computers. Soon it won’t matter which side of the cable you use or which orientation you insert the cable.

For Apple, it still matters, but for the past year, you’ve had a host of options.  For nearly a year, Apple’s Lightning-to-USB 3 Camera Adapter has made it much easier to transfer photos and videos from your high-resolution digital camera to your iPad Pro. After you connect it, your iPad Pro automatically opens the Photos app, which lets you choose photos and videos to import – and organizes them into albums. It supports standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW, along with SD and HD video formats, including H.264 and MPEG-4.

You can even power the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter with a USB Power Adapter and connect USB peripherals like hubs, Ethernet adapters, audio/MIDI interfaces, and card readers for CompactFlash, SD, microSD, etc.

Both the USB camera adapter and SD card reader take advantage of the faster speeds offered by USB 3. While USB 2 can transfer at up to 60 megabytes per second, USB 3 has a transfer rate of up to 625 megabytes per second. Think about that when you wonder if it’s worth a few dollars for a 10X increase in transfer speed.

Even though Apple calls it a “camera adapter,” it supports an array of devices that can be plugged into its full-size USB-A port to connect keyboards, microphones, USB hubs for multiple accessories at once, and even Ethernet adapters to an iPad.

In addition to a USB-A port, the camera adapter also includes a female Lightning port to charge your iPad while using a connected device, and you can add Apple’s 29-watt power adapter to connect with the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and charge it at a faster rate.

You can find numerous cables and apps to transfer data – and pictures and videos – from Android phones to Apple devices – and vice versa. We think it’s all intuitive, but if you have questions about what you need, call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us for recommendations. Just have the makes and models of the devices handy.

Don’t Wait When Hacked

A client got hacked at 5 p.m. and discovered it at 8 p.m. They waited until the next morning to call us. Our advice to them was to shut down their system. Our advice to you is don’t wait – but please use some common sense. We don’t appreciate calls at 5:30 in the morning because you can’t connect to the internet or get your email, but a hack is a whole other story.

If you think you’ve been hacked, shut down – as in “power off” – your computer or your system immediately. If nothing’s running or connected, nothing more can be taken from you, nor can anyone get deeper into your system. Once you call us, we can examine every part of your system and help you take steps to secure it before you and everyone in your business or home goes back online.

If we’ve learned anything from news reports, no system is immune from attack. But there are a number of steps you can take to make an intrusion more difficult – and for small businesses and homes, they may be enough to deter anyone from making a huge effort to invade your system.

In the case of the client who was hacked, he did not have administrative rights to his computer – and that was a big help in minimizing the damage. Administrative rights give those who have them the authority to make all sorts of changes to a computer or a group of networked computers. In addition to adding and removing programs and managing data files, administrative rights can be used to grant permission to other users to perform all of those actions.

In a small business, it makes sense to give several people administrative rights to keep business flowing smoothly. Even if you have automated systems to take care of certain functions, you may need to give people permission to do certain things. However, you need to pay attention to security to benefit from the convenience of this flexibility. We recommend:

  • Keep the number of people who need administrative rights to a bare minimum.
  • Make sure those people change passwords frequently and that they use strong passwords.
  • Limit permissions to certain functions to prevent a hacker from getting carte blanche to your entire system.
  • Set up separate users and log-in credentials for performing administrative functions and delete them after those functions are performed.

The same recommendations can apply to a home computer or home network, with the requirement that children and seniors should not have the ability to install or remove programs.

We also can repeat steps we’ve suggested before:

  • Do not use any simple usernames and passwords for any piece of equipment that is connected to the internet. Every device has a default name and password, and hackers know them all.
  • Use strong passwords and change them often. Strong passwords are usually complex passwords. Hackers have software to figure out certain patterns of numbers and letters, and they can pick up information about anyone from public records. Try not to relate your passwords to that information, but for any password, use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
  • Download and install updates from the publishers of your application software. In most cases, the updates contain bug fixes and patches to improve the security of your applications.
  • Keep your anti-virus and malware software up to date and active.

Again, if you get hacked, don’t wait to call us. Time is of the essence. Shut down everything and call 973-433-6676 for immediate help.

Of course, preventive measures offer the best protection. Call us or email us to arrange a security audit of your system. And don’t wait until you’re hacked to do it.

Holiday Greetings and Connections

We all get holiday greetings – electronically. Sometimes, they’re cards available from any number of websites, and sometimes they’re emails and Facebook posts. I appreciate them all. But as much as I’m connected, I do miss a card in a stamped, hand-addressed envelope.

Technology has improved our lives in so many ways and made it so easy to stay connected. With email, it’s so easy to keep up with family and friends across the country and around the world. You don’t need to write a letter, address and stamp an envelope and take it to the post office. You just need to write it and click “send.” You can share pictures, videos, news items – anything that you can attach to a message. And why restrict yourself to sending it to one friend or family member? You can send it to everyone you know.

With Facebook and other social media, it’s even easier to reach out and have “conversations” of a sort with everyone you know and who-knows-how-many people you don’t know. You can stay connected with people with whom you have all levels of relationships, and it’s exciting.

But sometimes, it seems so impersonal, too. We’ve lost something by reducing relationships to keystrokes. It’s great to hear from somebody at holiday time, and it’s gratifying to get a bunch of birthday wishes on Facebook or LinkedIn. Any of those messages can restart a relationship.

Still, there’s nothing like talking to family and friends – to hear a voice over the telephone. We need to make more of an effort to pick up the phone, as the old telephone commercials implored us to reach out and touch someone.

But wait, technology can help us with that, too. The same company that invited you to reach out is one of many internet and cellular providers making it possible for you to use Skype, Facetime and other programs to see and talk to people anywhere in the world.

Yes, that hand-addressed card is really great. The ability to talk to people and see their faces is even better. And in the world of business, seeing a face and hearing a voice can convey so much more than an exchange of keystrokes.

Let’s resolve to use our connectivity to strengthen our connections. And if you need some help in setting up your computers or devices to run any videoconferencing applications, give us a call – 973-433-6676 – and we’ll walk through it – and test it out. And of course, you can email to set up an appointment.

Smarten Up! The Spoof is On

I was at a client’s office when the email – to her as president of a service organization – arrived, asking for a wire transfer of money. Other members of the organization got the same message, and some actually sent money. A scammer had spoofed a name or email address that was recognizable. This is becoming a growing problem. Is technology making us stupid?

The answer is “no,” but it is making us careless because it gives us the ability to do too many things too easily with too little forethought. That, in turn, leads to doing stupid things – and that’s what spoofers and other Internet-based thieves are counting on now and will continue to do so.

Email seems to open the doors to your computer and your data more conveniently than anything else. The biggest breach opportunities come when you click on something or follow through on instructions because you didn’t take the time to look carefully at an email and when you send sensitive information in an unencrypted email.

Spoofing is the most effective way to get you to open an email and link yourself to trouble. It’s remarkably easy to recreate a company’s logo and attach a fake email address to it. When many people see what they think is a legitimate logo, they just click to open. If nothing jumps out as a red flag, they’ll continue to a bogus website, and BINGO, it’s too late.

People are particularly susceptible to spoofs at this time of the year. Online merchandise sales continue to grow at holiday time, and merchants or shipping companies often send tracking info so you’ll know when your packages should arrive. If you take a little time to look at the message, you’ll probably see that the domain attached to the shipper or merchant bears no resemblance at all to the company. You might also note that the message itself is generic – and it likely has misspelled words or syntax that just doesn’t fit how we converse in the United States.

If you want to verify the tracking on a package, you can go onto the merchant’s or shipper’s website and enter a tracking number you received when your order was confirmed. If you don’t have that number, there is often a way to get the information.

Similarly, as we move from the holiday season to the tax season, be especially careful of financial-related information. There’s a reason why your financial advisor doesn’t let you leave trade information on voicemail or email. They don’t want your financial data left out in the open, and you should feel the same way. When financial advisors and institutions – and even healthcare providers – have messages for you, they generally tell you to access them on their secure websites – and require you to sign in.

DO NOT click a link on an email you think was sent to you by anyone who wants financial, health or other sensitive personal data. If you know the website, open a new browser window and go to the website by typing in the website address. Even if the domain name in an email looks correct, something like “account@mybank.com” can really link to “you’vebeenscammed.com.”

And, of course, never, never send user names, passwords, credit card info, bank accounts, Social Security numbers (even the last four digits) or other personal information in an email. Unless you and the other party have activated a mutually agreed-upon encryption process, the data is wide open. Email messages can go through multiple communications systems, and it’s impossible to know when a data thief is waiting to pick off any number of random messages at any point. They can pick off thousands in the blink of an eye and then take their own sweet time pulling out key info and wreaking havoc.

It all goes back to convenience vs. security, with a dose of distraction thrown in for good measure. We’ve had clients accidentally open a door to their computers, and the invaders took their info and denied the owners access to their systems. Fixing it on the computer end generally requires a visit from us, and then there’s the nerve-wracking hassle of working with other companies to close your breaches. When you have to go through all of that, it’s more than just an inconvenience.

We’re not telling you anything you don’t know. We are telling you to take a deep breath and a closer look at your email and the links inside them. We’re also telling you not to send sensitive information in emails. If you think you may have had a breach in your security, we can help you patch up your computer system. We can also help you set up an email encryption system. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us with your questions or to have us help resolve an issue.