Email Demands Two-Way Vigilance

Hackers are not always the brightest bulbs in the box. Their success depends more on you making mistakes than almost anything else. When they hack or spoof an email account, you’re dependent on your friends and associates to tip you off. Then, it’s up to you to resolve the problem as soon as you can. Here’s how our client handled their issue and how we handled one of our own.

Our client’s hack of their Comcast email started off simply enough. Hackers got their address book and sent an email to everyone asking if they used Amazon. That’s a normal start to a scam. Our client and spouse got tipped off when both got text messages from recipients – and the spouse got emails – suggesting that one of their email accounts might have been hacked.

Both of them were out of the house when they got word of the problem, but one of them was able to get home and start looking into the problem. The first thing they did was to change the password and the secondary email address used for notifications from Comcast. They also set up two-factor authentication (2FA) to the client’s cell phone number and changed the password again.

Those were two good steps to take, but there were two more surprises. First, they discovered that the hackers had set up an email address that they tied to the Comcast account. Our clients checked through all their accounts but didn’t see an email address that corresponded to the one set up by the hackers. They thought they were in the clear, but they hadn’t found the second surprise.

Later in the day, the client noticed they hadn’t been getting any emails on their Comcast account. They could send messages. Suspecting that a forwarding rule had been inserted by the hackers, they contacted Xfinity by telephone and after a few branches on the phone tree, they were able to speak to a security specialist. After an exhaustive security check, the specialist was able to remove the forwarding rule, securing the account.

They were fortunate that no emails involved responding to financial or healthcare websites. Had that happened, they could have been compromised. They did the right thing by changing the password, setting up 2FA, resetting the secondary email address and changing the password a second time. Those are things you can do immediately. They should have contacted Xfinity immediately after to see about any other changes and had them resolved right then and there.

Those are steps you can take if your email is hacked.

Our hack involved our QuickBooks address, and it’s typical of the problems small businesses can face. I noticed an email that looked like junk mail, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. But soon after, I took a closer look because the email address was [email protected]. It still didn’t seem that urgent, but it began to bother me.

So, I called QuickBooks (remember, we always urge people to pick up the phone if a problem seems bad enough) and explained what was going on. We have a merchant account. They said that hackers had set up an invalid account using the bogus email and an invalid tax ID number. It was a bare, basic account, but it was enough to raise a white-risk flag at QuickBooks. Our phone call put it on their radar screen.

This story should be on your radar screen, too. As small businesses – and even as consumers – we constantly get emails that we’ve been “approved” for something or other. We also get a lot of fake invoices that look like they’re coming from companies we do business with.

We need to be on guard against these. It’s easy to impersonate a business, and if the recipient isn’t careful, they might make a real payment to a real bank account that’s not tied to the legitimate vendor account they thought it was. As a business owner, we likely have no responsibilities or liabilities to the company or person that paid the fake invoice. HOWEVER, this is not a discussion I want to have with anybody.

At the end of the day, small businesses remain a huge target for hackers and cyber thieves. We need to depend on our own vigilance and the help of people we do business with to monitor anything that seems out of the ordinary and let someone know. I want you to let me know you got something odd from me – just like our client was tipped off about the bogus email. Any of these breaches can have serious consequences.

If you’ve been hacked in some way, take immediate steps to secure your accounts, including multiple password changes built around other security measures that you can take. Then, you can call us – 973-433-6676 – to let us know about the breach. We can help you investigate if any further damage was done and help mitigate the consequences as best as possible. If you have security questions, you can call or email us to discuss them.

Watching TV in the Electronic Jungle

Watching TV was so simple for anyone who remembers life before cable. Today, we have more options than ever before – and more confusion. If you’re ready to go back to Square 1 and start all over again, here’s what to look at to reset your TV – or streaming content.

If you are still into watching live broadcast TV, which many do for news and sports, you could start with good old rabbit ears. That’s the term for an antenna – just in case you hadn’t known. Channel availability and picture quality depend on whether you can get a strong broadcast signal. Cable solved that issue nearly 50 years ago and gave us more choices. (Digital channels for broadcast offer more choices, though quantity should not always be confused with quality.)

Cable was simple. A cable company got the franchise for your community, and you paid – more and more without any recourse until satellite and the internet eventually gave you more options. The old cable companies and telephone carriers still have lines that carry the internet to most of America, but our “TV viewing” is changing at the pace of a revolution.

We have countless ways to get our programming because there are so many content providers and so many companies that package or bundle the programming we want to see. Even the carriers are becoming content bundlers and creators.

For this discussion, let’s focus on the systems that deliver content for viewing on a TV. Comcast’s Xfinity and Verizon’s Fios, the two major cable carriers in my area, still offer the most programming from traditional broadcasters and other producers. With more people spending more time at home, you probably want the most variety you can get to keep everyone happy. The cable companies still deliver by coaxial cable, and we know how to use their systems. You can watch content from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, etc. through your cable system, although you will need to pay for them either through the cable company or the content provider. However, convenience comes at a price. You can pay $5 or more for every cable box you have.

If you get your internet service from a cable/phone company, you may be able to stream your cable channel and – maybe – save the cost of the boxes. Why maybe? Xfinity, for example, has an agreement with Roku to stream content over TVs that use it as the streaming service. If you have a Roku-equipped TV, you can add the Xfinity channel from your Roku Home page by clicking on Add Channels. If you don’t have a Roku-equipped TV but have a TV with a USB port, you can buy a Roku connection device for as little as $30 and use your home Wi-Fi network. Your payback period is six months, and quality depends on your network.

You can get Roku boxes from Xfinity, which you pay for as with the old coaxial cable box, but we found a price break of sorts. We have nine TVs in our house, including one we carry out onto the back deck. By paying $40 per month for DVR service, we’re only paying for five Roku boxes; the rest are “free.” The advantage to the Roku boxes is that they’re not tied to a coaxial cable, giving us more flexibility.

We just installed this system, so we’ll need to get some operating experience before we can report on its success – or lack of it.

If you watch all your content on a computer or mobile device, the question of a cable box or Roku box is moot. If you don’t want to use your cable company to get cable-like viewing for broadcast TV stations and programming such as news and sports, there are numerous streaming providers.

What will work best for you? The variables include:

  • Broadcast signal strength for some live TV
  • The provider of the content you watch
  • Your preference of cable or internet-based content delivery
  • The devices you watch on and the number of devices you use at any given time
  • Your internet connection
  • Your Wi-Fi network
  • Your TV/internet budget

We can help you sort through the possibilities to put together a package that will meet your priorities, and we can install and configure any equipment you need. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to discuss your wants and needs.

Gigabit Service

For Verizon customers, 1-gigabit service for $70 per month sounds so good. But it may not be the service of your dreams. There’s a lot going on here, so let’s try to sort it out.

First, the initial offer is for new customers only. That shouldn’t surprise any consumers for anything we buy. Businesses routinely offer deep discounts to get new customers in the fold, and it can have one of two effects: 1.) it can upset existing customers and encourage them to churn through all their service providers, and 2.) it can be an attractive sample to get customers addicted to a certain level of service and immune to steep price increases later on.

For new customers looking to sign up, it’s not simply a matter of paying your $70 and getting a fast internet connection. There may be additional fees and required equipment upgrades (we’ll get to those shortly) on top of the initial fee, and there is a lot of confusion about how long you can keep the introductory rate before you get a big price increase. Verizon may be offering 1-gig service to existing customers as you read this newsletter, but we haven’t seen a clear description of prices for various packages as we write it.

Second, do you need that big a pipeline? Most of us don’t. Large online stores that sell lots of things through ecommerce are likely to need it. Businesses that send massive amounts of data through business applications, such as enterprise systems for huge, highly automated manufacturing systems, need it. Big, upscale hotels that offer streaming capability for their guests need it. Smaller businesses that push less data through their applications and home users who stream movies and TV programming probably don’t need it. Netflix, for example, recommends the following download speed in megabits per second (MBPS) per stream for playing TV shows and movies through its service:

  • 0.5 required broadband connection speed
  • 1.5 recommended broadband connection speed
  • 3.0 recommended for SD quality
  • 5.0 recommended for HD quality
  • 25 recommended for Ultra HD quality

Do your own math for what you need.

Third, do you have a wired network in place to use all that speed? Only a wired network can do it, and that’s why we recommend wiring office and commercial space for business. We also recommend it for new residential construction, and we recommend it if you are building a theater in your home for a big Ultra HD system. If you have devices connected to your gateway or router, you’ll get the connection speed. Any devices connected through Wi-Fi will get a slower speed, which can still be adequate based on Netflix’s recommendations.

Fourth, you won’t get gig-per-gig speed from the source. If Netflix recommends 25 MBPS for Ultra HD quality, they’re not pushing it out at 1 gig. The big businesses that need to get their data pushed out at that high a speed take advantage of a limited number of pipelines, and they pay for it.

Finally, how will you match your service to the router and cable boxes from your internet service provider (ISP), whether it’s Verizon or Comcast, and what are you willing to pay? Streaming aside, you can pay a hefty monthly fee for cable boxes capable of delivering programming and recorded shows to multiple TVs in your home. You can reduce your monthly outlay by replacing the cable boxes with a cable card that can work with four or six TVs, depending on the card. You’ll give up On Demand programming and on-screen caller ID (if you have a landline through your provider), but that may better fit your needs.

We can review your internet-connection needs for business or home and help you match equipment options to fit your budget. We can do the installation and setup – or walk you through the process and then use remote technology to help you with the setup. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us for an appointment.

Internet Browsers and Speed

Internet service providers are waging a speed war, and the browser providers are battling, too. While Internet speed is getting most of the attention, browsers are important for attracting eyeballs, which translate into advertising revenues. But there’s more to it for you than meets the eye.

First, the speed war.

Comcast recently announced it would roll out its new Gigabit Pro, which the company claims can download at 2 GB per second. The first installation will be in Atlanta, where a lot of stuff to hype is happening. Google is establishing a new office and planning to roll out its 1GB Google Fiber service. AT&T’s U-Verse is also planning to roll out 1GB service there, too. Comcast and AT&T are technical partners for the baseball Braves and football Falcons, respectively. We’re not fans of either team on the field, but both are aiming to build the biggest and baddest wireless systems in a sports venue when their new stadiums open in 2017.

What does that speed mean to you? The short answer is: something and nothing.

The proposed 2 GB service would be 200 times faster than the average for U.S. homes. It would allow you to download an HD movie in about 12 seconds (as compared to eight minutes on a 50 MB per second speed), and families could simultaneously use multiple online connections for work and play with almost no delay.

The numbers sound cool, but even if you have 2 GB or 1 GB service – or even 50 MB service – it doesn’t mean you’re going to download that movie before you open your popcorn bag. The real determining factors will be the location of the server where the movie is stored and the number of hops – or routing stations – your download goes through. The MSN.com site, for example, is not housed in the US. Your download is subject to any restrictions in the home country and any other country through which it passes.

If the movie is stored on a server that doesn’t have a high-speed connection, you’re not going to get that movie in a relative instant. And, if the movie has to go through a number of routing spots instead of a single run from the server to your computer, that will slow it down even more. Finally, if you have a small pipeline at your home – or office if you’re downloading application software and large data or video files – your feature movie may have to get in the queue along with a ballgame or the results of a Google search.

Another point to keep in mind when looking at pure speed is that your cable Internet provider doesn’t have to deliver, let’s say, 50 MB at all times. If you read the fine print, a cable provider that offers 20 MB download speeds and 5 MB upload speeds only needs to furnish 16 MB downstream and 2 MB upstream. Speed from a T-1 connection is typically 1.54 MB, and you can get a 10 MB service connection, which will deliver 10 MB per second no matter what.

Your choice of the type and speed of an Internet connection will depend on what providers in your location make available and then on the speed you need. The browser is strictly your choice.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is about to give way to Spartan. The new browser’s appearance will coincide with the release of the Windows 10 operating system. IE used to be the king of the browsers, but Firefox, Chrome and Safari have eaten deeply into its share. In addition, many users are accessing Internet content and shopping through their mobile devices.

Microsoft hopes Spartan will help its users tie together their browsing on desktops, laptops, tablets and smart phones. Because browsers are still the way we get movies and go shopping, the pages you access through them can be monetized, so there is quite a bit at stake. Microsoft is betting that by making its browser experience more like those of devices, users will go to Spartan across all platforms.

Browser choice is really a matter of personal preference when it comes to IE-Spartan, Firefox or Chrome. It’s a matter of what you’re used to and how easily you can navigate and deal with pop-ups and pop-up blockers. AOL still has a large user base, but it dates back to when Internet content had a lot more text and hardly any video. The interesting note is that clients who still use it are very attached to it. We get more complaints from the children of AOL users who tell them to use another browser and Gmail. But anyone with AOL has no reason to switch as long as they’re happy.

Personally, I think Microsoft should have gotten out of the browser war. It would make life a lot easier for web developers, who must contend with the differences in how IE-Spartan, Firefox, Chrome and all browsers display on various-size monitors and across all types of devices. It would probably lower web development costs and get sites online faster if the browsers were standardized. In addition, its quirky way of handling pop-ups can be annoying.

We can help you decide which browser may be best-suited to how you use the Internet. More important, we can help you evaluate which type of connection and how much speed is best for your home or office – and we can make sure your systems are equipped and configured to take full advantage of your connection. Give us a call – 973-433-6676 – or drop us an email to talk about your needs and options.