Cool Tools & Tech Tips
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Cool Tools & Tech Tips Mike Knapick – CIO, Sanmar & Dino Bangiorno, CAS – Application Development Team Lead, HALO Branded Solutions Session Goal To provide you with information and a number of takeaways that will enable you to avoid some pitfalls, adopt some new technology and learn some new things about technology you probably already use. Safety Tips What is Malware? • Malware is an abbreviated term meaning “malicious software.” • Software that is intended to damage or disable computer systems. • Viruses – executed code that replicates itself to do something malicious (destroy data, steal passwords, spam your contacts, etc.) • Ransomware - A type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system (or data) until a sum of money is paid. Malware Impact & Statistics • Paying a ransom pales in comparison to the actual damage costs involved with a ransomware attack which includes: - Damage and destruction (or loss) of data - Downtime - Lost Productivity - Post-attack disruption to the normal course of business - Restoration and deletion of hostage data and systems - Reputational harm - Employee training in direct response to the attacks • Tallying it all up, Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that ransomware damages will cost the world $5 billion dollars in 2017 and climb to $11.5 billion in 2019. Those figures are up from just $325 million in 2015. Malware Impact & Statistics • 20% of computers in Sweden have been infected with Malware. That’s the lowest in the world! • The rising costs are driven by an uptick in the frequency of attacks. Ransomware is projected to attack a business every 14 seconds by the end of 2019 up from every 40 seconds this year. How Malware Infects Computer Systems • Methods of Infection • Email (Most effective method) • Attachments • Links • Web Browsing • Social Media Scam Links • File Downloads • App Downloads • External Media How Malware Infects Computer Systems • Email Attachments & Links • One of the most popular methods to distribute malware • Typically sent from unknown senders but sometimes disguised to look like a legitimate email • Companies and/or persons have been targeted specifically targeted • Email with attachments Were you expecting an email with an attachment from this company/person? If the end of the email address (NOT THE DISPLAY NAME) does not end with the following top level domains and has an attachment or link, exercise caution. .com .org .gov . edu .mil .net • Email with web/hyperlinks Teaching your folks a lesson Sometimes the best way to reinforce these lessons is to show people how easy it is to be deceived • Free Option – • Create a free Gmail account • Send an email with an attachment with a funny picture saying “You shouldn’t have opened this. Please come see me.” • Phishme.com/free • Knowbe4.com/ • Paid Options • Knowbe4.com • Phishme.com How Malware Infects Computer Systems Web Browsing – Infected web sites • Browsing to a web site that has been compromised can infect your computer just by opening up the web sites main page. • Only browse to well known Web sites. • Browsing to web sites not relevant to corporate business increases risk of infection. • Restricting access would be inconvenient. • Be diligent in protecting the network. How Malware Infects Computer Systems • Web Browser Pop-up Windows • Some pop-up windows or boxes will attempt to corner you into downloading software or accepting a free "system scan" of some type. • Disable pop-ups, then only enable for sites you trust – browser specific (settings) • Don’t ever click on pop-up windows. • If you ever see the following type of pop-up window, immediately shut down your PC. How Malware Infects Computer Systems Ransomware • Charge to unlock your data • What options do you have? • Pay – in bit coin • Use backed up data • Lose data Is your network vulnerable? Visit KnowBe4 & find out for free! https://info.knowbe4.com/ransomware-simulator-tool-its Top 10 most dangerous list DON’T! • Try to get a free iPad, Playstation, XBOX or similar gadget • Search for celebrity gossip/incriminating material. • Use BitTorrent to download/stream copyrighted film/TV/software • Search for free porn • Online gaming (especially free/social games on Facebook & beyond) • Leave your Facebook privacy settings wide open • Connect to unknown wireless networks • Use the same password for every single online account • Forget to update software (Windows, Java, Adobe Reader & Flash) • Check the “keep me signed in” box on public PCs Tips for safe web browsing • Use an internet filter • Take advantage of search engines’ built-in filters • Don’t guess the address of a website • Never click on sites that seem questionable • Choose your searches carefully • Use approved websites • Make web safety a priority Social Engineering Social Engineering Attacks • Verify authenticity of a caller asking for account information. Social Engineering Free/Cheap Malware Prevention • https://www.malwarebytes.com/ - Malwarebytes offers both free & paid versions of their software as well as home/personal vs. business pricing models. • https://www.safer-networking.org/ - Spybot Search & Destroy is offered in both free & paid versions as well home/personal vs. business pricing models. • https://www.bitdefender.com/ - BitDefender also offers both free & paid products. Tips for Teams Tools for Teams www.slack.com – the premier online collaboration tool that brings all your team's communication together, giving everyone a shared workspace where conversations are organized and accessible. www.stride.com – aka. HipChat - a complete team communication solution built for the future to meet teams' ever-evolving needs in the workplace. It not only has group messaging, but also native voice and video conferencing, and built-in collaboration tools. Tools for Teams www.formsite.com - Build web forms, online surveys, questionnaires, and polls, in addition to easy ecommerce and secure data collection. www.wufoo.com – create custom online forms www.asana.com - Allow teams to coordinate projects and tasks in a central repository www.teamwork.com – Project management, tasks Tools for Teams Voice and Videoconference applications Free voice conference calling for up to 10 participants OR $10 monthly for up to 100 participants • See who’s talking • Screen sharing • Call recording • No pin numbers required • Unlimited conferences Super easy (and free) video conferencing for up to 8 people; includes screen sharing too. Step 1: go to site https://appear.in Step 2: type in a room name Step 3: you’re in a video conference! Tips for Mobile Helpful mobile apps: Mileage Tracking What is it? Mileage tracking apps passively track your travel and allow you to classify them for business vs. pleasure. Allow for mileage tracking for logging expenses. • TripLog (Android) • MileIQ (iOS) • QB Self-Employed (iOS) Why it’s better? Leveraging the location services, this app will accurately measure your driving destinations and mileage, allow you to classify them and output these values directly for tax reporting or anyone who needs to report mileage for business purposes. Helpful mobile apps: Expense Tracking Apps that enable you to capture receipts, create and submit expense reports from anywhere. • Smart Receipts (Android) • Concur – Travel and Expense (iOS) • Expensify: Receipts & Expenses (iOS) Tips for PCs/Applications Managing Emails - Outlook • Rules Managing Emails – Outlook • Auto Reply and Auto Forward Managing Emails - GMail Working with PDFs • Convert them to word to Edit • pdf2doc.com • Fill from your browser • Chrome extension – FormSwift PDF Editor • Firefox Add On – PDF Editor Online • Tools to create or edit/markup PDFs: • PDF-X Change Viewer – a basic free PDF reader that includes extended/markup capabilities such as typing, highlighting, callouts, and notes. • PDF-X Change Editor/Editor Plus – a paid version of the X-Change product that can be used to create PDF files from scanned documents, images, text files, markdown files and much more. This software can also be used to convert Microsoft Office documents – a feature that many PDF applications do not offer. There are over thirty tools available to assist in the creation of document comments, annotations and links Excel - vlookup • VLOOKUP is an Excel function to lookup and retrieve data from a specific column in table • Look Up – D4 • In Array – B8:F17 • Return Result in Column – 4 • DO NOT find partial matches - FALSE Windows – Problem Step Recorder • Utility in all Windows systems after 7 • Records all mouse and keyboard activity • Generates easy to follow instructions automatically. • Creates video that shows, instead of text that tells • Great for communicating issues, creating documentation and for troubleshooting. • Find it by clicking the Windows START button and typing ‘PSR’. A Technology Tutorial: Cloud Cloud Computing: What is it? • It enables us to consume a computing resource, such as a virtual machine, storage or an application, as a utility -- just like electricity -- rather than having to build and maintain computing infrastructures for ourselves. • The cloud is a concept has grown over time, to include just about any service that can be provisioned quickly using the Web or mobile applications. Cloud – what are some examples • Web hosting for online/ecommerce sites • Digital media services for movies & music on- demand: Apple iTunes, Amazon, and Netflix • Storage: Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive) • Email services: Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook.com (hotmail) • Housing and transportation services: AirBNB, Uber.