Behind Last Month’s Internet Breakdown

We’ve harped for years about the inherent conflict of convenience vs. online security. That conflict reared its ugly head during the distributed denial-of-service attacks, using – maybe – millions of computers to hit some of the world’s largest and most popular e-commerce and news websites.

Investigators have been able to pin part of the cause on hackers using IP addresses commandeered from millions of home devices, commonly called IoT (Internet of Things) – such as interior and exterior security cameras, doorbell and baby monitors, thermostats, etc. – that are increasingly popular with consumers. Too many people install them on their Wi-Fi networks and never bother to change default user names or passwords. That just leaves the door wide open to have their devices hijacked and used for malicious purposes.

From our point of view, it’s what happens when we get lazy and sloppy because we are so tuned into convenience. And, a DDoS attack can be the least consequential problem for you, personally. The hacker can gain control of your device and peak into your house at will – and even change your thermostat settings.

Users are not the only sloppy parties in this turn of events. The device manufacturers share the blame because they don’t require you to reset your user name or password as part of the installation process. After all, they don’t want the blame for your inconvenience, and we think that’s wrong. They can require you to reset user names and passwords as part of the installation process.

You can help prevent these DDoS attacks by making sure you change user names and passwords for the devices during the installation process. You can further protect your privacy by making sure your Wi-Fi network has a good, strong password. Too many people leave the default user name and password on their routers, too.

We should note that businesses, including professional services providers, can be just as lax as home users. We’ve had client systems hacked because their system administrators did not set up stronger log-in credentials.

We strongly urge everyone to have somebody look at their networks and IT systems and procedures once or twice a year. This may not be a comfortable analogy for some people, but even though you brush your teeth and floss every day, you still maintain better health when you visit the dentist once or twice a year for a cleaning and exam.

If you avoid the visit because of expense, it’s costlier – and more painful – to fix the problem instead of preventing it. What would be your cost for system downtime and repairing security breaches? Contact us by phone – 973-433-6676 – or email to find out what our security audit would cover for you and to set it up. In today’s world, you can’t afford to overlook any possible weakness.

Holiday Cheer from Microsoft and Apple

Microsoft and Apple have put some new, high-price goodies on the market for the holidays. In a word, they’re getting “touchier” as tablets get more computing capability and computers use more touchscreen technology.

If you’re looking for an apples-to-apples comparison…no pun intended…maybe that should be oranges-to-oranges comparison, that may be tough. Both are pricey and feature Intel i5 and i7 processors. Each will do fine for those willing to spend the money. That said, here’s what we like and what you can expect.

Microsoft is heavily promoting its Surface Studio as a highly creative tool for design tasks that have long been associated with Macs. A tablet that acts like a computer, it starts at $2,999 and can go up to $4,199, and it can be used with a variety of tools, including the Surface Dial and Surface Pen, which enable you to draw on the screen. Because it’s a Microsoft product, it comes with Windows 10 Pro and a 30-day trial of Microsoft Office.

The Studio has four USB 3.0 ports (one high power port), a full-size SD™ card reader (SDXC compatible), a mini display port and a headset jack, and it has a high-resolution display and graphics card for artistic and gaming applications.

If you don’t need all the Studio’s computing power, you can choose the Surface Book at $1,499 or the Surface Pro 4 at $899. The trend we see is that mobile users who need more computing power and the flexibility of a tablet for mobility and touchscreen/keyboard capability will be looking more closely at a Surface.

Microsoft is also rumored to be planning to release a Surface phone in the spring of 2017.

The MacBook Pro doesn’t have the Dial or a pen, but its more advanced models have the Touch Bar, which is a strip just above the keyboard. It’s more like something you would find on a tablet. It appears and disappears as needed to give you shortcuts to the controls, sliders, menus and tools that relate to the task at hand. As you tap, swipe or drag the Touch Bar keys, you see the results of your actions. Touch Bar can help you access favorite websites in Safari, answer (or reject) incoming FaceTime calls or get predictive suggestions of the words you may want to use when writing, just like with iOS devices.

With Touch Bar opened to outside app developers, you may see it for many apps, and you can still use versions of the physical function keys, such as for adjusting screen brightness or speaker volume, that used to reside above the keyboard.

MacBook Pro has a big track pad, which we rate as a plus, and the 15-inch model has four USB-C ports — that double as Thunderbolt 3 ports — which can be used for Thunderbolt, USB, DisplayPort, HDMI, VGI, and charging. The USB-C ports are new technology. The basic 13-inch model only has two USB-C/Thunderbird 3 ports. This means you may need a dongle to attach certain hardware. There’s no SD card reader, which could be a problem for photographers.

We’ll have a MacBook Pro in a few weeks, and we’ll see how it’s all set up.

If you’re thinking about either or both of these systems, contact us by phone – 973-433-6676 – or email to discuss how you plan to use it and your budget considerations. We’ll also be able to guide on what to expect when integrating your purchase(s) into your home or office network – and among multiple users.

Following the Money Conversations

Money is the only reason somebody steals information. Some 70 percent of the emails that lead to information theft are related to either financial institutions, businesses or something that mentions money in the subject line. Another 20 percent are related to espionage, and 5 percent are related to employee grudges. In most cases, curiosity kills your security.

Phishing expeditions are still one of the most effective ways for hackers to get into a computer system, and that’s because people have insatiable curiosity, especially when it comes to money. We’ve told you time and time again to be very careful about the links you click on from within an email. It is so easy for a hacker to mimic the logo of any bank or financial institution and to create an email address that can be close enough to looking real that you won’t notice it’s a fake in your haste to check out a great offer or respond to a dire warning.

So, as we’ve mentioned ad nausea, your curiosity could open the door to a Trojan horse virus that will enable someone to get into your computer. And once they do that, they can insert themselves into your financial conversations. To whom are you talking about money? Is it your financial advisor? Is it an attorney or a CPA? Is it your bank, credit card company or several merchants? They can identify every single one of them just by looking at your email. After all, you keep thousands of them in your Outlook application or on a website – which they can easily find once they get into your computer.

How will they put your email conversations to work for them? Well, let’s see. There’s your financial advisor, who’s been talking to you about your 401(k). Hmm. That’s good. Bet you have the password for that account stored on your computer. That makes it easy.

But wait, what if you “forgot” your password. The hacker can go to the website with your 401(k) and use your email address to reset the password. If that security is lax – say, for example, there’s no two-factor authentication – the hacker can have your email address routed to his, and now he’s in your account and can clean it out.

Of course, that could be just part of his haul. He knows who your financial advisor is, and maybe their system isn’t 100 percent locked down. You can imagine the fallout.

What if you’re involved in a large business transaction, such as buying a business or even a house? Your attorney may be dealing with a financial institution or two – even through another attorney. Again, a hacker can insert himself in a conversation with any party connected to the money, spoofing your email address or that of anyone involved. And once the hacker is into that next system, it opens more doors.

Just to add to your “watch list” when checking your email, also be wary of somebody sending you updated files that you are not expecting. We have a client who clicked on a PDF and wound up with an infected computer. Fortunately, it caused a major inconvenience more than anything else. Because all of the client’s files were backed up offsite, we had to wipe the computer clean and then find the infected files to delete from the backup. We were able to fully restore everything after that, but it took 18 hours.

So, let’s recap the steps you need to take:

  • Look before you click. Do I get this kind of email message from this sender on a regular basis? Is this an offer that’s too good to be true? Is there anything that looks just the least bit out of the ordinary – even if it’s from a sender I know and trust? Remember, you can always access the sender’s website from your Internet browser instead of the email, or you can pick up the telephone and call a company or a person.
  • If something looks odd even before you open the email, just delete it. I am amazed at how many people just let something suspicious just sit there.
  • Don’t conduct financial business or visit passworded sites while on a public Wi-Fi network. Non-secured networks can be viewed by anyone from anywhere.
  • Be very careful with flash drives. Someone can use one to invade your computer. If you are running a good anti-virus or anti-malware program, it should intercept any external device and give you the option to scan it.
  • Keep your anti-virus and anti-malware software up to date. And make sure they’re both running.

Finally, if you suspect your computer has been infected with a virus, call us immediately at 973-433-6676. We can assess your system and begin the process of restoring its health. If you have any questions about online security, call us or email us. We all have too much at stake.

Two More Tips to Protect Your Money

  1. When you travel by air, don’t just throw your boarding pass in the first trash bin you find in the terminal. The barcode on the pass has a wealth of information, including your frequent flyer account information – and any other personal information in that database – and your itinerary, which can let somebody know how far away from home you are and how long you will be away. If you can’t shred it, tear it into pieces that also separate the barcode and throw them into different trash bins.
  2. Check all of your financial accounts frequently, especially with business bank accounts. When you have a lot of money coming in and going out electronically, that means a lot bank treasury departments are accessing your account. If you monitor the accounts regularly, you have a much better chance of catching fraudulent activity.

The Firewall is Mightier Than the Electrical Tape

Electronic Peeping Toms are always a concern, and putting a piece of electrical tape is one way of drawing the curtains on your laptop’s camera lens. A better way is to make sure you have a strong firewall activated, strong password protection for your network and the latest anti-virus and anti-malware software running. Here’s your checklist.

  1. Make sure your firewall is activated and that all the software for it is up to date.
  2. Make sure you change the default password on your Wi-Fi network. If we set up your network, we gave you a unique password – one that’s long.
  3. If you are not sure about the security of your network or firewall, you can power down your computer, but the downside to that is that you’ll miss the legitimate updates (which typically include security patches) that come in overnight.
  4. If you install a camera system in your house to monitor selected rooms, change the password for the system, too. This should be a no-brainer, but it’s something a lot of people forget to do. Even the most incompetent hacker can get the default password for any system, so just change it and make it a strong one.

In most cases, networks are infiltrated because people don’t have them secured, and to be honest, having a Peeping Tom see you in your underwear might be the least of your problems. If somebody can hack into your computer’s camera or into your room-monitoring cameras, they likely have gotten into your computer and all the sensitive information you have stored there.

On the flip side, having internal and external cameras – and a system such as Ring to monitor your doors when someone rings your bell – can be a strong deterrent to crime. With all of the secure ways to use the Internet and mobile devices, you can monitor everything about your home from wherever you can connect to the Internet.

We think using firewalls and other technology to secure your cameras works a lot better than a roll of electrical tape. We can help you configure all of the software on your in-home systems and mobile devices to make sure you keep out prying eyes. Contact us by phone – 973-433-6676 – or email to make sure your cameras are secure.

iPhone 7 and New Product Evolution

I have my new iPhone 7 – without the headphone jack. You know what? I have computers without built-in CD/ROM drives, and automotive entertainment systems don’t have CD players either. Get used to more with less because device makers are under constant pressure to provide more features and capabilities in the smallest possible package.

By removing the jack, Apple has freed up more room for other bells and whistles, such as the better camera system. If you’re one of those people who takes a lot of photos or video with your iPhone, that’s likely to be more important to you than the headphone jack.

Removing the jack, by the way, doesn’t mean Apple has eliminated headphones. You’ll just have to go wireless, which more and more of us are doing anyway. Just about everyone has a Bluetooth connection in their cars, for example, or a Bluetooth headset. For those who still plug in headphones or headsets, it’s just a change you’ll need to get used to.

We can look at a couple of developments to put technological evolution into context. Apple was the first computer maker to eliminate internal CD/ROM drives from its units. That allowed them to make their computers lighter and smaller. If you carry the development forward, across a number of platforms, you can easily see why tablets are replacing laptops for many people.

Tablets don’t have to hold built-in hard drives. By using either cellular or Wi-Fi networks, they connect to the Cloud, where users can access application programs and data. Continually evolving software development gives users a great deal of computing capability for mobile platforms, and you generally have the choice of using a lightweight, portable keyboard or using an onscreen keyboard and swipes to do your work or find the information you seek. In some cases, voice technology is making the keyboard obsolete.

In more technologically advanced cars, you don’t find CD players – which, by the way, replaced cassette tape players many years ago. Who needs either one of them? With Bluetooth technology, you can connect your playlist from your phone or tablet to the car’s sound system. And when you get out of the car, just switch to your Bluetooth headset and never a miss a beat.

Technology is changing the way we do business, too. For example, a kitchen designer can give a couple virtual reality goggles and let them view a potential kitchen as though they are standing in the room. From a computer, the designer can change configurations or colors of cabinets and countertops.

For some, change is intimidating and confusing. We can help you be more comfortable with selecting new technology and learning how to use the features you need or want. Just call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to set up a time.

Payments and Rewards with Your Smart Phone

We love near-field communications (NFC), the technology that enables you to pay for purchases with your smart phone. We love the security factors built into it. Banks and merchants are loving it more, too, because now they launch more loyalty programs to reward themselves – and even you. It’s the logical extension of programs that started with books of trading stamps from grocery stores and gas stations and now extend electronically from purchases at coffee bars to international vacation packages.

There’s a lot at stake for banks and retailers because the citizens of nations with developed economies still spend a lot of money. And while some older consumers dislike waiting for charges to be approved using the more secure chips in their credit cards, millennials and their older siblings are embracing mobile payments. With smart phones almost always accessible, it’s easy to tap a payment station with your phone or hold it close to the station, enter your passcode and keep going with life.

That phone, of course, contains a wealth of information that merchants and banks can tap into with their big-data systems. They can use the data to optimize rewards programs for their customers based on what you and where you buy it. Financial industry research shows that the more affluent you are, the more likely you are to use digital payments whenever you can. And a good number of you are likely to use digital coupons on your smart phone.

You might say a perfect storm is forming. As the use of smart phones grows for all sorts of purchases, merchants and bankers will offer more incentives, and that will draw more people to the technology. That will ratchet up new programs to attract more users in a continuing spiral. The financial industry sees big changes in the next three to five years.

What can our transactional environment look like over the next few years? It’s not that hard to imagine. Your browsing history may show, for example, that you are looking for a new computer in the $1,000 range. With location services turned on for your phone – because you used it to find the fastest route to the shopping mall – the retailer and the bank that supports your credit card can easily deduce that you are entering a store to make a purchase.

Together, the retailer and bank can send a message to your phone to let you know that if you buy a specific computer-and-accessory package today, you are eligible for a discount from the price you saw during your online shopping – or you may be eligible for extra miles from the airline that sponsors your credit card – or you may get extra cash back for this purchase.

Or, your credit card company may have an arrangement with another retailer nearby, and they can offer you rewards to go to their retailer. They can let you know about their specials before you go into any store.

The driver in all of this is likely to be the bank that supports your credit card – or more realistically that has the credit account you access from your phone. They are the ones who “lend” the money when you charge a purchase or collect a handling fee on a debit purchase. The sheer volume of money changing hands creates incentives for them to incentivize you.

In turn, you will need to pay closer attention to the security of your smart phone. You will need to make sure you always have the latest operating system on your phone and that you have all appropriate anti-virus and anti-malware software running – on your computer or tablet as well as on your phone. And you will need to pay special attention to all offers you receive over your smart phone. If a retailer or bank can send a special offer to your smart phone, so can a scammer.

We can help you reap all the benefits of your rewards programs by making sure all of your technology has the latest security software properly set up to match the way you live. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to help you make sure you are good to go.

 

Is Your Phone Prepared for a Weather Emergency?

September is National Preparedness Month, and storms along the East Coast can be extremely dangerous as air temperatures drop faster than water temperatures. We all remember Sandy, too, which wreaked havoc in our entire region in October 2012. Now might be a good time to think about apps for smart phones to give you adequate warnings.

Look first to your city, township or county. Morris County, for example, has a web page where you can register for alerts that you can receive as a text message or phone call on your cell phone. The service will also call you on a landline. It’s not a personal call. Rather it’s one generated as a mass robo call to phone numbers registered for specific locations, such as your home or office. Some communities also use social media channels to notify “friends and followers” about weather emergencies.

The federal government makes weather emergency information available to cell phones through Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA).  The system allows customers who own certain wireless phones and other enabled mobile devices to receive geographically-targeted, text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their area. The technology ensures that emergency alerts will not get stuck in highly congested areas, which can happen with standard mobile voice and texting services. Governments can target specific areas through cell towers in cooperation with wireless carriers.

Alerts are broadcast only from cell towers whose coverage areas best match the zone of an emergency. That means that if your phone is WEA-enabled, you can receive a warning from a tower in the alert zone if your carrier is participating in the program in that area.

With more of us traveling and reifying on our smart phones for driving directions, Google Public Alerts is a good option. It’s Google’s platform for disseminating emergency messages such as evacuation notices for hurricanes, and everyday alerts such as storm warnings. It’s worldwide through Google Search, Google Maps, and when you activate Google Now on your Android device. Google publishes information in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Colombia, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, India, New Zealand, and Brazil. While Google can’t guarantee that you’ll see every alert, they’re using feedback mechanisms to increase its capabilities. You can learn more from their FAQ page.

If you’re a Twitter user, you can sign up for Twitter Alerts and then manage your alerts.

Your App Store or Google Play has way too many apps available. Some are free, including those from our metro area TV stations, and some require a purchase. We are more than happy to talk to you about the best app for your needs, and we can help you configure apps for your families and employees so that they can all be safe when severe weather strikes. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us with any questions you may have.

 

Cybersecurity Checklist

We doubt the Russians or WikiLeaks are looking into your computer, but there’s a good chance somebody is. Want to get ahead of any possible problems? Try this checklist.

  • Update your software – Security patches are almost always the feature of any software update for your operating system and application software, including Internet browsers. You can set your computers, servers and mobile devices to notify you when an update is available or have it installed automatically. Do it. It’s as simple as that.
  • Limit admin accounts – There are two things to shore up here. First, limit the number of people in your organization – or household – who have administrative rights to your system. The more people who have access to the inner workings of your system, the more possibilities there are for somebody to leave an electronic door open to an invader. As another precaution, always run your PC as a non-administrator unless strictly necessary.
  • Enable your firewall – This should be a no-brainer. It’s the first line of defense against hackers infiltrating your entire IT system or any computer in your system that goes out onto the Internet. Make sure you have it set to manage inbound and outbound traffic.
  • Use anti-virus and anti-spyware – This goes hand-in-hand with enabling your firewall. These programs are designed to stop viruses, worms and other forms of malware. They can also stop pop-ups and other threats. Make sure every computer and device (where appropriate) is regularly scanned by the anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and don’t let licenses lapse.
  • Beware of wireless – Enable encryption, turn off SSID broadcasting and use the MAC filtering feature. Be wary whenever out of the office using Wi-Fi.
  • Protect mobile devices – Always use passwords, screen locks and auto locks on mobile devices, and encrypt data transmissions when possible.
  • Use strong passwords – The latest research shows that longer passwords are stronger, and you should always have a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Change your password often and don’t use anything that can be related to your email address.
  • Backup your files – We can’t emphasize this enough – and we strongly encourage you to back up files offsite, on a cloud-based server. Have an automated backup and recovery plan in place for key data residing on your network vital for every computer user and organization. We’ve talked about ransomware before, and have securely backed-up files is your best protection.
  • Trust your gut – This is worth repeating, too: If a website, email or window on your PC offers you something that’s too good be true, ignore it or delete it. If something looks odd or out place, ignore it or delete it. Most companies, especially banks and credit card companies, don’t ask for personal information in an email. Don’t click a link. Instead, log back on to your browser and go to the website address you’ve used before to see what that company has to say.
  • Train your staff or family – Most cybersecurity breaches happen because of human error. Train your staff or your family members on how to be more secure while using computers and mobile devices on the Internet. Remember how you’ve told your kids not to talk to strangers or get into a stranger’s car? It’s the same in the cyber world.

We can help you with any of cybersecurity concerns and needs. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to get answers to your questions or to set up a training session.

Ransomware Doesn’t Stop with a Payment

If you think paying off a ransom demand to get back files is the end of your experience, you’re wrong. Getting to cough up a few bucks…well, Bitcoin…is just the start. Ransomware pirates are finding ways besides email to get access to your computer and all of your data – and they’re looking for long-term relationships, too. One tech columnist has sardonically suggested they need good customer service plans. You need a good protection plan.

Let’s start with some basics, which we’ve discussed many times before:

  • Be extremely careful about clicking on links in an email, even if it looks like it comes from someone or an organization you know and trust.
    • Personal email addresses get stolen and spoofed all the time.
    • It’s very easy for someone to recreate a corporate look – such as for your bank – that looks realistic at first glance. (Seriously, does your bank use a Hotmail account?)
  • Install and use anti-virus and anti-malware protection. Make sure update it, and make sure you update it from a legitimate site (see above).
  • Install all updates from application software provider (but make sure it’s legit). Most patches and updates cover security issues.
  • Back up your data files to an off-site server or, better yet, store them in the cloud. For an extra precaution, you can store files to portable hard drives, and keep them disconnected when you’re not backing up data.

One of the problems with storing data on a laptop computer, which many people do, is that when it’s stolen, your data can be accessed before any kind of Internet-based program kicks in to wipe your drive clean. All somebody needs to do it remove your hard drive and hook it up to a computer to see what’s on there.

If you have covered all the basics, you now face some new concerns, especially if you store confidential personal, financial or medical information as part of your business. You face additional risks because there is no way for you to control the security steps your customers or clients take. If they leave vulnerabilities, a hacker can use one person’s log-in credentials to see a lot more data than would ever care to expose.

You can protect your business and data in a number of ways – in addition to the steps listed above:

  • Insist visitors to your website use newer versions of all browsers. As browsers age, publishers stop supporting them. You don’t want to expose yourself to their vulnerabilities.
  • Encrypt your data and your emails. If you do a lot of email marketing or communicate confidential information, this is a no-brainer. Email services, such as Constant Contact, which we use, build in a number of security measures. Spend the money to take advantage of them; it’s cheaper than taking a financial hit (see below).
  • Check with your insurance agent or carrier to see if E&O covers you for cybersecurity breaches. It may be an extra cost, but remember that insurance companies like to collect premiums, not pay claims. They are motivated to minimize your risk and should work with you.

The back story on these tips starts with a client who has two offices. In the “main” office, nobody uses the Internet. But in the other office, people used a remote desktop to access the system in the main office, and the security was weak. The link was not secure, and the passwords were simple. I was able to hack in using an iPad that still had a SIM card from another country, and the client could not detect that I was in there.

That should be a wake-up call for every small business to install and maintain security systems throughout their information management system. Ransomware pirates are getting more sophisticated in ways they can get into your systems and stay there – which brings up the “customer service” observation from Glenn Fleishman in PC World. Our point is not to scare anyone away from technology. Every advance – from the bicycle to space travel – has a risk-reward component, and we all know the rewards are great when we follow the proper precautions.

We’d like to leave you with three steps to take right now:

  1. Encrypt all data
  2. Never send passwords in an open email
  3. Look before you click – disguises are getting better and more numerous

Sterling Rose can help you design, install and maintain a cybersecurity program. Contact us by phone – 973-433-6676 – or email us to make an appointment to discuss your needs.

Keep Your Pictures in Multi-Device World

With mobile-phone cameras getting better and better, it’s easy to click away and then download your pictures to a computer. And when you max out your phone’s storage, it’s easy to delete them from your phone and click away some more. Just one problem: if your phone and computer are synched, you could delete the files from your computer, too.

The problem came up when an employee of one of our clients told about her daughter losing pictures she thought she had saved on her Mac. The daughter had been in Europe for a study-abroad program, and she traveled after school ended. Lots of kids do it, and lots of kids have iPhones and computers.

Naturally, as her phone’s storage filled up with photos, our traveler decided to download them onto her Mac. Just about all of us who travel with a computer do the same thing so that we can keep on clicking away. You never know when you’ll get back to a travel destination, and you want to collect all the memories you can; you can sort them out later.

That’s what our young traveler was told to do. With the magic of wireless connections, she was able to sync her phone and computer so she could save her pictures to her hard drive. With pictures safely stored on the computer’s hard drive, it was a simple matter to delete the photos from the phone and free up space for new pictures.

However, there was a catch. The way her sync was set up, deleting from one device deleted from the other. So, when she came home and sat down to share her pictures, they weren’t there. But they were somewhere. Using Mac’s time machine, we were able to find previous back up files, and we were able to send the computer to Apple. Their technicians were able to recover the pictures, but it took a while for them to get all the pictures, and it was a very stressful time for our student.

Here are some steps you can take to avoid the problem:

  • If you have an iPhone, you can set your phone to store photos in an iCloud photo library and keep them there when you delete files from the phone. If your phone senses a Wi-Fi network, it will upload the photos automatically.
  • You can optimize your storage so that you can leave a thumbnail of your photo on your phone. Then, you can use the thumbnail to identify photos you want to retrieve.
  • If you are traveling with your computer, download the photos manually and turn off any synchronization that deletes files from your phone and computer at the same time.

I download photos all the time from my SLR camera, but it uses SD cards. I can get some redundancy by downloading the pictures to the computer and keeping all the images on the SD cards. I can also upload them to the cloud. When you add up all the costs of a vacation, this is a relatively small expense.

More and more point-and-shoot cameras have SD cards, too. But if you’re using your cell phone or an older camera with fewer features, you’ll have limited options. If you or any family members are getting ready to travel, we can help you make sure your gear is all set up to keep your photo and video memories safe and secure. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to get set up.