Samantha Drake, writing at Forbes.com recently said that the odds of being hacked are "so strong" that the federal government has begun sharing guidelines to help businesses recover from attacks. "Many small companies say they don’t have sufficient personnel, budget or technologies to support strong security measures." Strong security measures start with training yourself and your employees, and taking simple reasonable precautions. Our "Internet, Email, Computer & Smartphone Security" presentation and workshop is an affordable first step. Read the Forbes article, here.

You know that I'm a big proponent of never opening unexpected email attachments. I've recommended to my clients that they never do it. Not even if it's from their dad, or their daughter, etc. But, they keep on opening those files. Recognizing that, I offer you a new and useful tool for peeking inside those file attachments before opening them. It's called VirusTotal and it's definitely worth a visit if you have an unexpected attachment that you're just dying to open. Just visit VirusTotal and upload the questionable file. It will then be scanned by, I kid you not, 55 different antivirus systems including AVG, Avast, Bit Defender, ClamAV, Kaspersky, Malware Bytes, McAfee, Sophos, Symantec… ne

Checking your email address to see if your username and password have been hacked on the net is easy, safe and free.Perhaps you should check

Nearly four in 10 Americans say they would give up sex for one year in exchange for a lifetime of cybersecurity, according to a Harris Poll conducted for password manager Dashlane in October 2016. I guess that means we take the idea of being hacked or phished pretty darned seriously. People want to be safe online. But, the truth is that wanting ≠ having. There needs to be doing. As the old story goes, the way you get to Carnegie Hall is "practice." The way you get cybersecurity is to do something about it. The good news is that "doing" isn't all that tough. You just need to make a plan and then take regular, simple steps. Our Internet, Email, Computer & Smartphone Security lecture and worksh

Side-by-side keyboard antics may work for some piano duets but not on computer keyboards.

The hack of Clinton Campaign manager John Podesta's email account was front page news for much of the summer. In a wide ranging interview in TechCrunch, Podesta talks about the politics and the fallout, but also the tech security lessons he's learned. Here's an interesting and useful takeaway: "I just didn’t realize how much I had archived on Google. I’m fairly sophisticated, but it just was not in my consciousness how much, including in the delete folder, was still there. I should have known that. I should have thought about, on my personal email account, what my retention policy is. We have one in the campaign. But I didn’t and I bet you a lot of people don’t. [ emphasis added.] They rely

While awaiting the arrival of snowmaggeddon here in the northeast, I had a few clients call me with complaints of no email service. That's always disturbing, especially in cases where I have just recently been visiting… and tinkering. "That Rob, he's always tinkering…" The sudden loss of email connectivity can create quite a panic. But here's the good news: it's almost always temporary, and it usually has nothing to do with your own computer, your settings, or your own in-home/office wifi or network connection. When your email goes down, here's a few things to check: Do I have other Internet features? Does my web browser still connect? If so, you know your connection is OK. Can I get my emai