Three Tips To A More Secure Lifestyle
It's all over the news! Data Breach at Target! Several Credit Card Numbers Stolen! How can anybody be safe anymore? Target says an intruder stole a vendor's credentials and used those credentials to get into the system. The crooks stole credit card information from over 110 million customers.
Many of our clients are with us for Healthcare IT Solutions and handle sensitive client information on a day to day basis. In dealing with our client systems, we some some pretty scary stuff. (Don't worry, we won't name drop you!) But, here are a couple of tips that can keep you safer than normal:
1. Use a complex password. This is a potential problem we see every single day. 'Password1′ and '1234′ are not very secure passwords and any disgruntled employee or cyber hacker can easily get past the log in screen. A complex password is at least 8 characters long with capitol letters, lower case letters, a number, and a special character like '#' or '@.'
2. Be weary of the internet. Stay away from links and banners that seem just too good to be true. The term 'Free' might seem like a good idea, but then again, everything has its price. Avoid giving out personal information in non-secure sights. Make sure the sight has an SSL certificate. 'HTTPS' and an icon resembling a lock should appear at the top of the web browser . The lock icon and the 'https' means your on a secure site.
3. Avoid fishy emails. It is very dangerous to open emails from someone you don't know, especially ones with attachments. Just the other day we had a client who received an email from a funeral service that said 'click here to view your invitation.' She recently had a friend who died, so she decided to click on it. Five seconds later, she had a virus!
There are also programs out there that you or your business can pay for to make sure everything is secure. We have partners who can help you to become Info Safe certified. Being certified means you pass all the criteria to work on the internet without getting breached or harmed.
Internet Security will be one of the topics of the year, especially since we are getting close to April 8th. On April 8th, 2014, Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003! Historically, it has been proven that deployment of new upgrades to your business machines could take as much as 32 months to complete, depending on the size of your company. So, if you have an XP machine, it is time to upgrade to Windows 7 or 8. If you do not upgrade you could be extremely vulnerable to data breach and attacks!
About the Author
Andrew works for MMA Systems, a Phoenix IT Soltions company. MMA systems serves the greater Arizona region and has been established 8 years ago. You can also see some of Andrew's work at Tempe Web Design. http://www.mmasystems.net http://www.mmasystems.net/phoenix-it-solutions
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