Best Practices (8)
The Ubiquitous Office Copier – Your Biggest Security Threat?
Written by MikrodotsWhat business hasn't scanned, copied or printed HR records, personal information, credit card information, drivers’ licenses, employment agreements, trade secrets, bank records, income tax forms or medical information using a copier or Multi-Function Printer (MFP)?
If your copiers and MFPs are not purposely secured there’s a very good chance all of your past scans, copies and prints are readily available on those machines right now - and who knows where your information will end up down the road.
I recently enjoyed an informative discussion with Security Expert and founder of Intelligence Security International David Cullen. David and I agree that even as we approach the two year anniversary of the CBS News expose on the security risks inherent in copiers and MFPs, many companies remain oblivious to their exposure.
So the obvious topic of today’s BLOG is: The Security Threat of Copiers and MFPs Revisited
MikroManage Operations Framework: Plan for success.
That old saying is true: "Fail to plan, plan to fail."
Your business has a repeating lifecycle that includes planning, delivery and operations. You must manage all three for your business to succeed.
Your Information Technology also has a lifecycle that includes planning, delivery and operations. All three IT lifecycle phases must be managed to succeed as well.
All three phases are equally important yet many IT service organizations focus on the operate phase of the lifecycle, neglecting the planning and delivery phases, leading to misaligned services, poorly executed implementations and never ending fires to extinguish - a recipe for employee and client frustration as well as lost time and money.
You don't run your business that way, why run your IT that way?
Plan for success.
Success requires planning, experience, established best practices and the proper tools to stay on track.
A well designed IT Operations Framework provides relevant, practical, and accessible guidance for professional IT organizations throughout the entire IT lifecycle. To provide consistent, reliable services, following industry best practices, your IT service company must develop and follow an Operations Framework
Using our fifteen plus years' experience in Information Technology and business, Mikrodots, Inc. developed The MikroManage Operations Framework (MOF) to plan, deliver, operate and manage exceptional, cost-effective IT services through all IT lifecycle phases.
MOF is designed to seamlessly blend business and IT goals while establishing and implementing reliable, cost-effective IT services. MOF encompasses the entire IT service management lifecycle allowing Mikrodots, Inc. to service existing equipment and deliver new services while understanding and planning for your company's future needs and budget.
The MikroManage Operations Framework:
- MOF is built on The Microsoft Operations Framework; the same framework Microsoft follows.
- MOF provides a ‘big picture’ view with granular management of IT services for your business.
- MOF follows IT Best Practices and standards compatible with ITIL, COBIT and ISO.
- MOF guides our management of your IT resources throughout the entire IT Service Lifecycle.
- MOF ensures Mikrodots delivers exceptional, reliable and repeatable services to your business.
If your company is experiencing recurring issues, delayed implementations and budget busting "surprises" from your IT service provider they may be operating on your IT systems without a framework, best practices or a plan.
It’s time to end the frustration and start planning for success. Partner with a team of IT and business professionals that understand and manage the entire IT service lifecycle.
Contact Mikrodots today to learn more...
How To Choose Very Strong Passwords That Are Easy To Remember
Written by MikrodotsWhat makes a password strong is the combination of different alphanumeric, special characters, and capitalization that you use, and of course the length of the password.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to remember and type an epistle when I fill out a password field. And, ideally, I don't want to use the same password on many sites, because if one is compromised then my entire life is unlocked.
I want to show you here how to choose very strong passwords for every website that you use, that are different for each website, and are each only 9 characters in length max.
A study found that an 8-character password that's constructed in the manner I'm going to show you has 7.2 quadrillion different combinations, and will take 83.5 days to crack if the hacker can try 1 billion different passwords per second.
Multitasking has become one of the buzzwords of the twenty-first century. Did you know that your browser lets you multitask, too? Most modern browsers (IE8, Firefox, and Safari) provide the user with a rich interface that allows for multiple windows to be open in the same browser at once. “How is this miracle performed?” you may ask. If you look at the tab shown in the image above, you will see on its right side is a smaller tab. If you place your mouse over it, you will see the option to open a new tab. Click on this tab and a new window will open within the current browser. By clicking on the tabs or pressing the TAB key while depressing the CTRL key, you may cycle through the existing opened windows in your browser. Do you want even more tricks? Once you have multiple windows opened in the browser, you may then notice a new icon to the left of the tabs with a down arrow. This button’s down arrow allows you to open any one window that you want without using the “cycle-thru” method. Click on the button itself and you will see your tabbed windows displayed all together on one screen. In that screen, you may close or activate any of the windows using your mouse. If you prefer to see your tabs in a particular order, you may drag them in order to rearrange them. Having multiple tabs may enhance your day. You can do the same with multiple Home Pages, but that may slow down the initial response of your browser.
Remember the vignette performed by Monty Python’s Flying Circus in which two diners float down into a dive filled with Vikings for a breakfast that doesn’t have much SPAM® in it? Back in the 1970’s, the word “spam” had a much different meaning than it does today
Your computer has been terrific—it opens files fast, connects to the Internet quickly, and gets onto the network lickety-split. But now, your machine will not connect to the Internet when you tell it to, it opens up porno websites and gives you pop-ups telling you that your machine has been infected. You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to see that something has infected your system. Now, what?
The time to implement a social media policy is now.
Your social media policy outlines for employees your companies guidelines or principles for communicating in the online world. Your company should have a communications policy in place that spell out your expectations for phone and email, it’s important that you add social media and online site usage to this policy.
Despite the increasingly vast trust we put into the Internet to keep our personal and business information safe and secure, many users take their passwords very lightly. In an analysis studying over 32 million passwords from RockYou, a company that develops software for social networks, it's been discovered just how little effort is put in to keep things secure. The results are shocking.
