Over the past two years, we have been speaking and writing a lot about digital transformation and how it can be a game-changer in what has become a truly digital world. (Think Uber, Netflix, Amazon and a ton of smaller companies). It’s truly revolutionary and since your business is already on its way (email, VoIP phones, Microsoft Office), we thought we would give you some suggestions on how to continue the march forward. And, by the way, here at DynaSis, we want to help your business grow and prosper by making sure that your upgrades are network safe and scalable.

Modernized Business Telephone Systems: Today’s business telephones using VoIP (voice over internet protocol) are exceptional business tools that can be used for much more than simply making calls. Today’s “Unified Communications” systems offer ease of use, flexibility and security that advances businesses in many areas. In fact, today your telephone system can be a business building asset.

Live in the Cloud with Office 365: Earlier in this piece we mentioned that by using MS Office you are already using digital technology. True. But Office 365, which relies on the cloud to feed you applications and files, takes the software to a whole new level. Office 365 offers an incredible array features that can save time, increase productivity, and add security. Will you use all these features? No. No business will. So, what if you don’t want to pay for a lot of features that you don’t need? You can select what you want and only pay for that. You never really buy Office 365; you “rent” what you need. At DynaSis, we are experts in Office 365 and we can help you design a cost-effective configuration that makes sense for your business.

Digitize Your Paper Files: It’s a process and it can take time, but once it has been completed, information becomes easily accessible, no matter how old it is. And misfiling becomes a thing of the past. Transferring or sharing documents between individuals, departments, even offices and clients in other cities becomes effortless.

Real-time Network Security Protection: Your vendors, partners, employees and, most of all, your customers, except a high level of security, and they have a right to. In today’s world of ever evolving cyber-crime, cyber-security is critical. Every business person today is aware of the attacks on major companies and governments over the past few years, but don’t be lulled into a false sense of security because you are a small to mid-sized business. The vast majority of cyber-attacks, including ransomware, are against small to mid-sized companies, just like yours. (Learn more from our recent white papers on Cyber Security 2017 and Cyber Security 2018. Different approaches and both highly relevant today.) Make sure your managed IT support company provides real-time, real-live 24 x 7 x 365 monitoring, managing and maintaining of your network.

Protect Your Printers: Printers? Aren’t these essentially the same as they have been for years? Nope. Today’s printers are highly advanced and, consequently much more expensive. Because of this, many companies network their printers and have multiple employees using the same machines. There is nothing wrong with this, but the keyword here is “networked”. If your printers are networked through your IT infrastructure then they are vulnerable to cyber-attack and must be protected.

If you have any questions on any of the above suggestions, please give us a call. 678-373-0716, or visit us at www.DynaSis.com. After all, we have been working with businesses just like yours in Atlanta for more than 25 years.

If you follow our weekly DynaSis blogs, you know that we regularly put out some very important information. As much as we would like to believe that you eagerly await each Tuesday’s post, read every one, and even save many of them, realistically speaking, in today’s impossibly busy work environment, we know that’s just not true. Consequently, we have decided to recap some of those from the past year that we believe can be most helpful to you, and give you links to the full posts.

Cloud Back-up for Business Speed & Efficiency

Mobility and efficiency have been given much greater emphasis by businesses over the past ten years, all made possible by the tremendous advances we have seen in technology. Employees can now remain fully connected to their offices and peers while they are on the road. This post will help bring you up to date on how these technologies can make your business more mobile, and will also let you know how cloud technology can protect your business from data loss, corruption and theft while your people are traveling or working from home. See the full post here.

Solving Major Problems Before They Become Major Ones

This addresses a partial list of problems that may erupt, including your network going down and along with it your email, phones, and internet; printers and other devices not working; computers freezing; slow performance; corrupted files; recurring viruses; and so much more. The basic concept of solving these minor problems before they become major ones has long been one of our major driving principles and in this post, we discuss why. See the full post here.

Making Technology Work for Your Company

We always say that “today every company is a technology company” and we find that becomes more true with every passing year. Technology is great in so many ways, but when it moves so quickly, it can be very hard to keep up. In this blogpost, we look at how managed IT support companies in Atlanta, like DynaSis, can keep you up to speed on the latest developments for both business productivity and cyber security. See the full post here.

Myths About Managed IT Support Managed IT support (or managed IT service) means outsourcing some or all of your IT support to a third part provider. For some business executives, this seems a bit scary, like you are giving up important control. In this blog post we address concerns such as: “Outsourcing is more expensive (it’s not)”, “Outsourcing will make us less secure (not true)”, “Service levels will suffer (the opposite is true)”, “Outsourcing only works for large companies (it’s best for small to mid-sized firms)”, etc. This post is a great way to begin a conversation with us that can lead to a complimentary IT service and security assessment so you can better understand where your IT network is today, and where it can be in the future. See the full post here.

VoIP Training for Non-Technical Employees

This blogpost addresses modern VoIP telephone systems from two perspectives: first, most end-users (your employees) are unaware of most of the great features that modern phone systems provide. For some, productivity and efficiency can be significantly improved, and boredom and fatigue reduced, when they become more familiar. On another level, employee failure is still the leading cause of cyber security problems and this post also discusses how employee training can have a positive effect. See the full post here.

Speeding Up Slow Running PCs.

This is a problem we hear about fairly often, and one that can be prevented and/or fixed. In this post we explain how pre-installed software and bloated registry files, among other things, can cause slowdowns, and how this “clutter” can be eliminated. We also discuss the importance of installing software manufacturer updates on a regular basis. See the full post here.

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We hope this “reboot” of some of our recent posts is helpful. And remember, at DynaSis we have been working with small to mid-sized businesses in Atlanta for more than a quarter century and would love to begin a no-obligation conversation and IT network and security assessment with you, so give us a call at 678-373-0716.

No one is perfect. Mistakes are made. Some are big; some are small; most importantly, many can be easily averted. Technology in particular is a place where easily avoidable mistakes happen every day, so here are a few things you should look at within your organization.

Skipping (or not doing) Backups

Backups are about the most important thing you can do to protect your business. Stuff happens. No matter whatever else you do to protect your data, stuff happens. Cyber theft, ransomware, fire, flood, weather, employee error. Stuff happens. As a managed IT support provider, we consider it so important that we have written a whole white paper on the subject, and we STRONGLY suggest you read it. We also have more information on our website. Then call us so we can provide a complimentary IT network security assessment

Skipping Updates

Big mistake! It’s a war out there with hackers and software developers hard at work fighting with each other. The hackers are trying to break into your network (and everyone else’s) by seeking out vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the programs, while the software people work like beavers patching and fixing so they can protect their customers, including you. If you aren’t taking advantage of the hard work they do by installing their updates, you really have no one to blame but yourself when things go haywire. Again, the IT pros at a qualified managed IT support company will monitor, manage and maintain your IT network, including 24 x 7 installation of patches and updates.

Understanding What You Are Agreeing To

We all do it. We see this mountain of text that we are supposed to read before we hit “OK” or “Next”, or “Continue.” Admittedly, most of the time there is nothing noxious in there, especially when dealing with large reputable companies…most of the time. However, by not reading what is in front of you, you could be agreeing to terms and conditions you may not like, or may potentially put your company, or at least your computer, at risk. You may inadvertently be giving permission to download bloatware and/or other software you really don’t want on your device. Some downloadable software will have a blanket “I Agree” box at the bottom, but will give you the option within the document to opt-out of these downloads. If you skip to the bottom, you miss this opportunity. Our thinking: it’s always better to have your IT pro do the installs, anyway.

Surge Protection & Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS)

Electricity is great, can’t live without it, but it is also inconsistent. It goes out. It surges. And surges can cause a lot of damage. Many surges are caused when lightning hits power lines. The lines may not be damaged, but the increased electrical flow can fry computer components in a split second. The easiest way to avoid this is by simply using surge protectors. What’s that? You have them throughout your company? Wanna bet! You probably did at some point, but as time goes by, you added new equipment, or someone needed a protector and the only place they found one was at someone else’s work station. It’s not uncommon to do a survey of a growing company and find 10% of equipment unprotected.

If you want to take it a step further, use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS). In addition to protecting your equipment, they will supply a brief amount of battery power so you can save your work. Note, however, that most UPSs are not intended for long-term use, but they will give you enough time to finish and save what you are doing.

Not Working With an Experienced, Qualified IT Support Provider…

…like DynaSis. We have been providing managed IT service in Atlanta for small to mid-sized businesses for more than a quarter century, so if you would like to speak with us, give us a call at 678-373-0716.

5 Ways Managed IT Support Benefits Your Business

Here at DynaSis, we have been providing managed IT support for small to mid-sized businesses in the Atlanta Metro area since 1992, so we may be a bit prejudiced about the value of such a service, but this bias comes from seeing first hand the benefits that our clients have realized. Here is what we have found:

Effective Management of IT Costs

When you manage your own IT network, you have to be prepared for unexpected costs at any time. This can include needing expertise that your in-house person or small team doesn’t possess, equipment failure, employee turnover, etc. When you are working with a qualified managed IT service provider, however, they will have people readily available with the training necessary to handle virtually any problem that may arise, and at fixed monthly costs. Since they take on the responsibility of keeping your infrastructure up and running, it behooves them to make sure everything is in tip-top shape at al time. Truly a win-win situation.

Training

Technology today is moving at lightning speed and the only way anyone can keep up-to-date is through ongoing training. This costs you money and means your IT person (people) will be out of the office at seminars and even out-of-town classes. If they are not, you run the risk of them not being prepared. When you engage the right managed IT support company in Atlanta, they make sure that their people are up-to-date and they can do it better because that training benefits many clients. This way you know that you have the availability of experienced specialists.!

Up-To-Date Technology

Along with keeping training current, your IT support provider will be better able to make sure your technology, including all-important security protections, are the most current and most effective available. They are also in constant touch with the best IT vendors in the business and together with your staff, can implement the projects that can help move your business forward. (See our White Paper on A Digital Business in a Digital World.)

Concentrate on Your Business

Your time is valuable and as important as IT is these days, and as time-consuming as IT considerations can be, you will find it is a great relief to be able to take this concern “off your plate.” The right IT company can effective function as your CIO and/or CTO. Until your company has reached the point where it makes sense to staff these expensive positions, the team at your support provider will very effectively fill the bill.

Support: 24 x 7 x 365

Effective IT Support has to function around the clock. Your employees are in the office, working from home, on the road, and need support when they need support. Cyber intrusions also take place around the clock and equipment fails around the clock. Can your company really rely on people who, as well-meaning as they may be, are in the office from 9 to 6, then hard to reach? Or taking a sick day? Or on vacation? While we may have saved this for last n this list, it is by no means the least important. The right, qualified IT service provider will monitor, manage and maintain your IT infrastructure 24 / 7 / 365 because in today’s environment this is all-important.

So if you have ever considered working with a managed IT support company, or would just like to start thinking about it, give us a call. No pressure. No obligation. Just an open and frank discussion. 678-373-0716.

Ransomware has been the big cyber security news story during the past year, and with good reason. It is extremely aggressive and is capable of locking down files, only freeing them up when a ransom is paid. Importantly, however, you must understand how ransomware works and avoid certain misconceptions. Below are some misconceptions and the truth about them. (Note: if you want to learn more about how ransomware works, and how a managed IT support provider can be effective in stopping an attack, read our article “Attack! How Two Companies Prepared for Ransomware.”

Misconception: Ransomware will only affect the computer it initially infects and, while causing damage there, will also stop there.

Reality: Understand this – cyber criminals are really smart and are constantly working on new ways to get into your files. Think of it the same way you think of a program like Microsoft Office.  Office started with limited features, lots of bugs, and got better and stronger over time. Ransomware is going through the same transition. Early versions of ransomware generally infected a single machine and stopped there. Today’s ransomware is much more aggressive and will not only attack the computer in which it lands, some versions can quickly migrate and lock-down an entire network. Some versions will also steal data and credentials from throughout your network.

Misconception: Cyber criminals who use ransomware are only interested in on-premises networks.

Reality: In a recent survey, 35% of infections spread through well-known SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms such as Google Drive, Dropbox and Office 365. They found that infected files that were synched on Dropbox, for example, were not automatically wiped clean of the infection. If colleagues use such files on Dropbox, they can bring the infection back to their own computers and in this way, the infection can rapidly spread throughout the network. Some advanced ransomware does not trigger the lockdown until some time has passed. This allows the bug to migrate throughout the network.

Misconception: Ransomware infections are easy to detect and can be stopped before they spread.

Reality: It can take even experienced users several minutes to realize and diagnose the problem. Ransomware is usually designed to encrypt files very quickly and in the few minutes it takes to realize what happened, it can spread throughout the infected device and into others.

Misconception: Antivirus software will stop all ransomware before it can do real damage.

Reality: By necessity, antivirus software is reactionary, meaning that until there is an attack by a new virus or a new form of an existing virus, the antivirus manufacturers cannot produce the antivirus to fight it…they need to see it to beat it. Consequently, you need to do several things to protect your company:

• Educate your entire staff.
• Make sure all your software is up to date and the latest patches are installed.
• Establish proper backup and recovery protocols based on recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery point times (RPTs) that work for your company.
• Speak with us about our proprietary Crypto Containment System (CCS), developed in conjunction with 12 other managed IT services from across the country. CCS quickly detects and locks down infected files, dropping them out of the network and preventing the spread of the virus. This also allows rapid re-upload of locked files and restores your network to 100%

Misconception: Once the ransom has been paid, your files will definitely be freed up.

Reality: We have seen cases where the cyber-criminal was unable to unlock the files that his ransomware encrypted. What happened? The perpetrator apologized and walked away, leaving years of data permanently locked and essentially destroyed. (Read the article “Attack!” Mentioned in the note above.)

DynaSis has been providing managed IT support and IT security to small and mid-sized companies of all types throughout the Atlanta metro area since 1992. For a complimentary IT assessment, or to just start a discussion, give us a call at 678-373-0716.

Cloud Migration Strategies for Small to Mid-Sized Businesses

While we recognize the relevancy of keeping data storage on premises for many small to mid-sized businesses, we also recognize that for many other companies, moving data to the cloud is often the next logical step in computing. This migration can lead to cost savings through workload reductions as well as capital equipment costs. Add to this unlimited scalability and the ability of your employees to access data from anywhere, at home, on the road, even on vacation, along with increased network protection, and the logic starts to add up.

But making the move isn’t necessarily the easiest thing in the world. Cloud migration has great benefits for many companies, and is something we believe you should at least consider, but in order to make the implementation flow smoothly, you need to plan this out. Here are our thoughts on making this happen:

Cloud Infrastructure

In broad terms, there are three types of cloud infrastructure that can be examined.

Public: These include well-known companies such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Compute. All three have tremendous scalability but also provide their clients with less control…you have to follow their rules. If you have to deal with strict government regulations, this could become problematic.

Private: While private clouds will give you more control, which can also give you better performance and even a higher level of security, your in-house IT team and/or your managed IT service provider will have to remain involved. Many companies have determined that this is the option that works best for them because of the control and security issues.

Hybrid: Hybrid systems, where some data and functionality reside in the cloud and some within your own facility, are also a common choice. A qualified managed IT support company can help you make this determination.

The DynaSis Business Cloud can be implemented as a public, private or a hybrid solution. Contact us for an analysis.

Data Backup & Disaster Recovery

Nothing in the IT world is more critical than effective, professional data back-up and recovery preparedness. Stuff happens. Brilliant cyber criminals are at work 24 x 7 figuring out how to steal, destroy, and/or lockdown your data files. Equipment crashes. Fires happen. Floods happen. Tornadoes and hurricanes happen. Employee theft and destruction happen. Your customers may be sympathetic to your problems when these things occur, but they fully and rightly expect you to be back up and running just as soon as possible. You need to review and understand the service level agreements (SLAs) provided by your service providers. You and your managed IT support provider, or your in-house IT team, need to set proper recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs), and understand how these will be met.

Data Governance & Security

Cloud migration is a disruptive process. Please don’t think that you can totally eliminate the disruption. You can’t. But you can manage it. You are also going to have to accept that giving up some level of control of your data is not necessarily a bad thing. If you are a large company with a large in-house IT team, you probably have a number of individuals on whom you can rely for network security. A small to mid-sized company, however, even with its own small in-house IT team, cannot afford the level of support and security that the right IT support company, along with the right level of cloud storage and data backup, can provide. If you carefully research and choose the right partners, you will soon take comfort in the services they provide.

Cost

Many companies delay looking into cloud solutions, or managed IT services, because they believe these will increase their expenses. Here at DynaSis, we almost always find that our clients’ costs are less than they were previously spending, plus they have all the benefits started above, along with having a tremendous operational burden lifted.

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At DynaSis we have been providing managed IT support to Atlanta’s business community for more than 25 years. If you would like us to provide you with a complementary IT Network and Security Assessment, please give us a call at 678-373-0716 or visit us at www.DynaSis.com.

Everyone has things in life that they would rather ignore…letters from the IRS, toothaches, creepy crawly sounds in the attic…but the reality is that these things rarely get better by ignoring them. Your company’s IT problems fall into the same category. Like the rest, if you don’t fix them, they will probably get worse.

Here is a partial list of problems you might have encountered recently and then we will talk about why they need to be addressed promptly:

• Has your network gone down, taking your email, phone system and internet connections along for the ride?
• Do your printers and other devices give you trouble for no apparent reason?
• Do desktops and laptops freeze when you access (or try to access) specific programs? Does the same happen with servers?
• Are you getting slow performance from your desktops and/or mobile devices?
• Do you find that files that are corrupted and cannot be opened are also unrecoverable from your backups?
• Do your workstations “blink” off and on after a power surge or failure?
• Are the same viruses and spam reoccurring over and over?

Does this sound familiar? But this is the short list. There is no question we could double or triple it. The point is that these are little signs of trouble that business owners and managers tend to put aside. Your people start and restart computers, open and close applications, or develop other little workarounds, all because they don’t want to confront the underlying issues. And they applaud themselves, as do you, for solving the problem. But they really haven’t.

This is a band-aid approach and it can work…until it doesn’t. It could be that these issues don’t seem big enough to worry about, or it could be that management just doesn’t want to spend money on finding a solution, so the warning signs go ignored. But wasting time and annoying your employees aren't the real issues. Taking these seemingly innocuous actions can be very dangerous because they ignore the fact that there can be serious problems that are triggering these minor symptoms, and you can end up with equipment failure, data loss, expensive repairs or be forced to replace expensive equipment that could have been saved.

We said earlier that these early warning technology problems are similar to IRS letters, creatures in the attic, and toothaches. How? Take care of them when they first show themselves, and you will be avoiding real headaches down the road. If your company hasn’t had a professional IT support and security assessment lately, at DynaSis it’s complimentary and you will learn a whole lot about your IT infrastructure and how fixing small problems can prevent bigger ones down the road. Give us a call at 678-373-0716 or visit our website www.DynaSis.com.

We have the opportunity to speak an almost daily basis about why people are concerned about out-sourcing some or all of their IT support to a managed services provider (MSP). Sometimes it is as simple as concern over giving up control (truly not an issue), while other times they have clear, but misguided, notions about some aspect of managed support, and we are going to address some of those here:

Concern #1: Outsourcing is more expensive. While this was never really true, with the use of cloud computing it is even less so. Not that you need to be in the cloud for out-sourcing to be cost effective, but being in the cloud shifts a good part of your expense from capital to operational, which can help your bottom line. Additionally, competent managed it support companies have learned how to package their services so that clients can either choose full support, or select certain services.

Concern #2: Outsourcing will make us less secure. This is something we hear fairly often, and on a couple of fronts. First about the cloud: How can data that is stored in someone else’s facility be more secure than when stored in our own? It’s simple. The facilities that your data will be stored in have levels of security that no small to mid-sized business can match. Not even close. We’re not just talking about cyber-security, which has more to do with your IT support provider (we’re great at that, too) than with the storage facility, but your office cannot compete with a Tier 3 or 4 data facility that is weather proof, theft proof, fire proof, earthquake proof, has fail-over capabilities to remote cities, multiple internet channels, long-term generator capacity, etc.

If you do choose to keep your records in-house, still a viable option, your MSP will be better equipped to make sure that your equipment is functioning properly and the latest and greatest protections are in place. This includes cyber-security.

Concern #3: Service levels will suffer. After all, who will take better care of you than your own in-house people? Your managed IT service provider will. Is your team actually monitoring, managing and maintaining your IT infrastructure 24 / 7 / 365? Not likely. But the right MSP will do just that. Their goal is to find minor issues and fix them before they become major problems, and most of this type of work is done overnight and on weekends, so your workflow is not disturbed. They will also have a helpdesk team to deal with immediate situations, such as lost passwords, disconnected printers, etc. As an MSP, we are constantly running the most up-to-date diagnostics on our clients infrastructures and work-stations. And, very importantly, the right MSP will also have a team of experienced IT pros that have the diverse cumulative knowledge base needed to handle virtually any situation that may arise.

Concern #4: Outsourcing only works for large companies. Actually, the reverse is true. While outsourcing remains a great option for enterprise level companies, this is particularly true of the SMB, as there is no way that a small company can cost-effectively provide itself with the same level of service and security that it can get from a good managed IT service.  Companies like ours are tuned in daily to the major hardware and software manufacturers, as well as cyber-security experts. A small team, try as they might, simply does not have the resources to provide this on the same level.

At DynaSis, we have been providing this high level of care and service to Atlanta’s small to mid-sized business community for more than 25 years. Our full team of seasoned IT professionals is here to keep your company’s IT infrastructure safely and securely functioning at peak performance. Give us a call at 678-373-0716 or visit us at www.DynaSis.com.

Level 1 Help Desk Technicians

Slow tech support when you’ve got a computer or printer issue is rather frustrating. Your employee, and maybe a co-worker or two who are trying to help, have his/her productivity come to a grinding halt. Your employee is unhappy, and so are you, because it’s costing you money. Even if your company has a small full-time IT team, someone on that team, who could be spending time on truly important things like patches, updates, backups, etc., is spending time trying to figure out how to change Joe’s password.

This is the type of problem that should be handled on a help desk level, not by your IT administrator, but this is what happens when there are no alternatives to your high-level staff. These are events that should not fall on the shoulders of over-worked and stressed out IT admins.

They say don’t present a problem unless you have a solution. Here is ours:

Supplemental Help Desk Support (like that provided by DynaSis) and here’s why:

1: Your In-House IT team, even if it is a single person, should spend their time on keeping your mission-critical systems up and running at peak performance. Time spent fixing things that can be handled over the phone (and the vast majority of problems can) are counter-productive.

2: Increased Productivity: Our DynaSis Help Desk technicians have the experience and expertise to get your people back to work as quickly as possible. We have a full team of Level 1 technicians who can also rapidly escalate problems when necessary. No waiting for the IT admin who had a long list to get to…or went home for the day…or is on vacation!

3: Cost Effective: Our flat monthly fees are based on each company’s needs, without having to hire additional full-time staff.

4: Single Pont of Contact: No wondering who to call (or try to find). Every one of your employees will have the ability to call our help desk directly, or create tickets, so they can quickly get the help they need to get right back to work. BTW, Our help desk is available with live support 24 x 7 x 365 for those employees who like to work from home at odd hours, or are traveling in other times zones. (People sometimes ask: what do your overnight people do when they are not on the phone? Answer: they are monitoring, managing and maintaining the IT infrastructures of our clients that require full support, not just help desk.)

5: Brainpower: Technology today is so complex that it is impossible for anyone to know everything. By being part of the DynaSis team, our help desk technicians have access to our entire team of highly trained and experienced IT professionals. This is a tremendous asset to you, because no matter how terrific your IT administrator may be, even if he/she commands a team of two or three, there may be any number of things that they have not come across, or have not been trained in. Although you may be using only our help desk service, because we also provide full IT support for many companies here in Atlanta, we are fully knowledgeable in an extremely wide range of IT subjects.  Our people are constantly learning about the latest in technology and are equipped to use that knowledge for your support.

If you have been thinking about managed IT service, whether you are looking for help desk only, full support including Cloud solutions, or anything in between, give us a call at 678-373-0716.

Don't think this doesn't happen...it does!

You may not know it but the US Department of Commerce has a bureau called the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST for short) that developed the password standards we have been using for quite some time. The one sure thing you can count on from technology, however, is that things never stand still. After gathering and analyzing a serious amount of data, and looking at the fluid and evolving world of cybercrime, NIST’s researchers have come up with some new thoughts about what techniques work and which do not in terms of safe passwords. As a managed IT support company, we pay close attention to their reporting and as we now know, much of what the public has been assuming were best practices in password security, may not be that way anymore. Here are the newest recommendations:

Passwords 8 characters long are now the minimum, although MUCH longer is suggested. Shorter passwords are just too easy to crack. The researchers found that length of passwords are the single most important factor is keeping them safe.

Hang up those %s, and #s and @s. Yes, most websites these days insist upon you using “special characters”, but the NIST folks discovered that they just don’t help. To the cybercriminal, that special character is just another letter to run through the cycle…and they make it much harder to remember your passwords.

Use multiple words. Single long words (antibacterial, hippotamus, influenza) are not as good as several unconnected words strung together (cantaloupegluenose, concreteparrotphone) work better. These are called “passphrases” instead of passwords. Super long words like FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION may work, but then you have to remember them…good luck.

The use of sequential or repetitive characters is still a no-no. 1234abcd, qwertyuiop…seriously? The bad guys figured out how to get past those a long time ago.

Using your username, or the name of your website, as a password is too easy to guess. Yes, it might add complexity and length, but cybercrime algorithms will see through them.

“Hints” just make it easier to figure things out. Mom’s maiden name, daughter’s birthday…it’s just too easy to steal public and non-public records and let complex programs piece things together.

This one will surprise you: your passwords do NOT need to be changed all that often UNLESS you think you clicked on a suspicious link or if your computer got infected, etc., etc. Why not change them often? Well, changing them in and of itself isn’t a problem, except that when people do, they tend to begin to take the easy way out and make them shorter, or similar, and that defeats the purpose. Example: first password: n#we$12, next time: n#we$13, etc.

Use a good password manager. If you really want to do it right, use a password manager. As a managed IT support company, we strongly recommend Kasaya’s AuthAnvil, which provides complete identity and access management solutions, including credential management along with password auditing and reporting. This will give you complete control and you can rest assured knowing that the “keys to the kingdom” are safe and secure.

As always, we are here to assist. Give us a call at 678-373-0716

if you have any questions, visit our website: www.DynaSis.com.