Tech Insight – Gjertsen [dot] ca

Clean Your Toys!

Rob Gjertsen — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 03:01:53 +0000

Read Time:2 Minute, 37 Second

Nobody likes a dirty keyboard, or a phone with smudges all over it. But we use technology every day, and did you know just how disgusting most of it is? Your screen may look clean, but studies show that a mobile phone can be 18x dirtier than a public restroom.

It gets worse (sorry). That keyboard you tap on while eating your morning toast? It’s probably the biggest bacterial threat in your household or office, with about 20,000 times more germs than a toilet seat (more so, if you share it with children. This keyboard, not the toilet…).

It’s not just sickness we’re up against, because as dust builds up inside our gadgets, they also slow down, malfunction or overheat. Your device essentially chokes on ick, as vents and filters are clogged by sucking in pet hair and floating debris. Here’s how to clean your essential technology items without damaging them:

1. Skip the household cleaners: Most cleaning products are too harsh for our technology and can end up causing permanent damage. You want something that can kill germs and remove everyday grime, without scratching or leaving behind a scented residue. Your best bet is Isopropyl Alcohol. You’ll find it in the first aid section of supermarkets and pharmacies, or at the hardware store. You can even purchase individual wipes, that are specifically designed to clean electronics safely.

2. Power down completely: Turn your tech off all the way, not just sleeping, and unplug from any power sources. Switch wireless keyboards, mice, etc off underneath or remove the batteries.

3. Remove any cases or covers: Undress your device as much as you can, but leave screen protectors on (unless there’s grime underneath). If your screen protector needs replacing, have a new one ready to apply.

4. Grab a microfiber cloth: Dampen the cloth with Isopropyl Alcohol and wipe screens and external surfaces gently. Older build-up may require extra effort.

5. Go deep: You can use a toothbrush or cotton tip to clean between most crevices, but some areas will need a bit more ‘oomph’ to clear. You’ve probably seen people use vacuum cleaners on their keyboard, but these are often TOO powerful and may suck keys or internal parts loose. They also generate damaging static electricity. Another option is to use a tech-specific vacuum, but these are usually under-powered.

Insider tip: Use a can of compressed air to blow the dust out. You can get these from many stores and they come with a long nozzle so you can really get in and direct the pressure. You’ll be surprised what flies out, so it’s best to do this outside! We don’t recommend using compressed air on your computer’s internal fans though, as this can make them spin too fast and damage them.

How often you clean your tech is up to you and your lifestyle. But it’s a good idea to blow out computer internal dust at least twice a year and wiping your tech down 1-2 times per week will definitely reduce germs and grime.

About Post Author

Happy

0 %

Sad

0 %

Excited

0 %

Sleepy

0 %

Angry

0 %

Surprise

0 %

Tech Insight: How the Bad Guys Get Your Password

Rob Gjertsen — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 13:00:26 +0000

Read Time:4 Minute, 4 Second

Passwords are essential to your cyber security. You know it, but if you’re like much of the digital society, you probably have dozen of passwords to remember. It’s a lot to keep in order, so many of us take shortcuts. Taking advantage of your laissez-faire attitude is one way bad guys access your passwords.

Despite what you might think, incredibly there are still people who use ‘password’ or ‘123456’ as their password. Many people don’t change the default passwords on the devices they purchase. In these instances, anyone can pickup a router to look a the sticker with the identifying password, and access that network.

TIP: Avoid obvious passwords. When you need to create a new password, make an effort to make it complex. When it’s time to update a password, take these same steps. Try and stay away from simple, and easily guessed passwords, as well as using patterns in your passwords.

Cybercrimnals can also guess your password. With a relatively small amount of resource about your online, they can make some uncannily informed guesses. Common passwords will often include pet names, birthdays, and anniversaries. These are all easy to find via your social media accounts.

TIP: Be careful about what you share on social media. I’m not going to go into my own personal opinions about my opinion on sharing habits that take place on different social media platforms (that is for another article), but be wary. Don’t automatically befriend strangers, as you are providing them access to a golden of info for personalizing an attack on you.

If social engineering your password doesn’t work, cybercriminals may attempt to brute force your credentials. They might write a script to automatically attempt thousands of password choices against your account(s) until they get a hit. This software will typically attempt a long list of common passwords, as well as run through variations of such passwords.

TIP: Use a complex password with letters, numbers, and symbols or a passphrase. A passphrase is typically at least 19 characters long, but is more memorable, and (hopefully) unique to you.

Alternatively, the attacker may be working with information they purchased from a data breach. The Dark Web is a very real place. In 2019, a security researcher found more than 2.7 billion email + password combinations available on the Dark Web. Criminals accessing that database could use the data as a starting point, as there is a significant percentage of users who use a single password across multiple accounts.

TIP: Use a unique password for each account or site. Yes, this can be overwhelming and at time an inconvenience, but that is why I recommend you leverage a password vault. It is a piece of software specifically designed to help you securely manage your credentials for you (see recommendations below).

Cybercriminals can also access your account if you’ve used a hacked public computer. The may have installed a key logger on the computer. The logger records every key pressed on the keyboard. Or they may have compromised a router or server to be able to intercept your information (why you should use a VPN when access a public network).

TIP: I feel this one if obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway. Be cautious about your online activity when using computers or networks you (or someone you trust) control. Using a VPN client on your laptop and phone, is a good practice to secure your communications if you need to use non-trusted network.

Then, there’s the tried and tested phishing attacks. When successful, they allow the attacker to have you give them your password. For instance, you get an email that appears to have been sent by your bank. It leverages the fear of the message, to try and get the user to visit the link provided and to enter their credentials. These are amazingly successful when you look at the percentages, and given how many are sent out, it is easy to see why they continue to compromise people.

TIP: Always pay close attention to whom is sending the message you are reading, and hover over the link provided before clicking on it. If you are concerned about the authenticity of the message, visit the site directly through a web-browser. Just like when your Credit Card company calls you, you shouldn’t be providing them with information. Tell them you’ll call them back at the number on the card.

I hope these tips will be useful to some, and that they help you protect your valuable passwords. A Password Vault (aka. Password Manager) can help you with your password security also, and I recommend you have a look at some of them below.

1Password
Bitwarden
Dashlane
KeePassXC
Keeper
LastPass
RoboForm

If you need support to get ahead of cybercriminals, or want to chat about your password management practices, let me know. Feel free to reach out to me.

About Post Author

Happy

0 %

Sad

0 %

Excited

0 %

Sleepy

0 %

Angry

0 %

Surprise

0 %

Tech Insight: To Backup or To Archive? That Is The Question…

Rob Gjertsen — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 13:00:23 +0000

Read Time:7 Minute, 10 Second

ENTER HAMLET
Hamlet: To be, or not to be, that is the question.

That is the famous lines so much of the population of this world know, about half-way through William Shakespeares play Hamlet.

Hamlet worried about whether to be or not to be. You may be more preoccupied with whether backup or archiving is better for protecting your data, or you may not (I feel like the second of those options, is often the case). You (hopefully) know you need to secure your data, but how? This blog post examines some of the different benefits of both options.

For hundreds of years, businesses have kept important information on paper. They stored important records and notes in nearby filing cabinets for easy access. Sometimes the papers are in the correct folders, sometimes they aren’t (an experience we have all suffered I feel). Sometimes, the folders themselves decide they want to go to Mexico, and make you question whether your parent taught you the correct order of the alphabet. But I digress…

When there are too many files to close the cabinet drawers properly, and I you have sworn ~~too many~~ enough times when trying to yank one out, someone would do a big cleanout. Older, important documents would get boxes for the basement or another storage area. They might still be needed for tax purposes, compliance requirements, or other reasons. But you didn’t need those files readily accessible any longer.

A similar scenario is true of digital records and data. You can backup it up to recover from hardware failure, cyberattack, ransomware, or a disaster event. Or you might choose to archive the data for space management and long-term retrieval needs.

Deciding Between Backup and Archive

When it comes to the right form of data storage, you’ll need to weight the following:

the period of time you need to keep the data
what protection from loss or illicit access your method provides
whether the data can be easily restored or retrieved
how accessible, searchable, and quickly available the data will be
any industry or compliance standards that need to be met

A backup is a copy of your current data. On a regular basis, you’ll make a copy of the data to provide you with a starting point in the event of a disaster, be it malicious or not in nature. You’ll decide how often to backup said data based upon how often the data changes and the important of data currency for yourself, or your business.

Backing up data, an operating system, or application files doesn’t delete the originals. However, your older backup may be deleted when you make the new copy depending on the system and configuration of your backup itself. If it doesn’t destroy the previous copy, it can allow users to go back and review / recovery earlier versions of said data. Make sure you know the impact of your backups, and how they work. If you have a bad assumption on how they work, you may make bad decisions on whether they can help you recover form a loss or not.

It’s not a bad idea to have several backups. In a previous post (Tech Insight: Facebook is for Sharing, Not Storing), I mentioned a ‘3-2-1’ backup strategy. With this method, you have 3 copies of your data, and have a higher tolerance for failure than a less robust method.

Archiving puts a copy of business data into long-term storage. This is the data equivalent of moving that box of files to the basement. In many cases, the archived version becomes the only available copy of that data.

The archives’ permanent record of data may prove useful in future legal disputes. Archived data is often tagged to enable for a streamlined search down the road. Moving information to archive can only improve processing speed and storage capacity of your production computer systems.

While a backup may be overwritten, archived data is generally not altered or deleted (in fact I would argue that it shouldn’t be possible, or at the very least it shouldn’t be part of the standard process). In fact, it’s often physically disconnected from the computer or network. So, you’ll turn to a backup to restore your data if necessary, and to archives to retrieve information data.

Key Takeway

Both backups and archives can prove useful. It’s not going to happen every day, but entire digital archives can be lost if a server drowns in a flash flood. All the paper backups can be burnt to cinders in an electrical fire. That external hard drive could be stolen or crushed by falling debris in a hurricane.

It’s always best to avoid having a single point of failure. Both backing up and archiving data is a smart precaution. Ensuring continuity by preparing for the worst.

My Final Thoughts

I know all too well how easy it is to be complacent with your backups, I see it happen all the time. But I have also lived it, and wrote about it in the article I Told My Pregnant Wife, I Lost The Photos here on my blog.

I obviously have a unique, and very extensive history of experiencing the impact that data loss can have upon individuals and businesses, thankfully. I have seen it put companies out of business, and put incredible strain on relationships. It’s because of my experiences that I consider data and its preservation priceless, and it’s why personally, I have a 6-layered approach to protecting my data:

Original Source (My Laptop)
If my laptop dies, I know that through my iCloud and SilverSync backups (see Item 2 below), I can go to any Apple Store, and be back up (pun intended?) and running fully functional with all my files and applications within just a couple hours. And yes, I have done this as a full test before, and while I did sweat a little, it worked perfectly.
Initial Backup: iCloud (Personal) and SilverSync (Business)
I know that if I delete or lose a file somehow, I can recover them easily. iCloud is limited in it’s ability for this, however SilverSync (offered by our good friends over at SilverPoint System Ltd.) allows for versioning, and reverting back to previous copies of files as needed back to the original. It’s also Canadian based, so none of your data is kept outside of Canada (a requirement for businesses going to electronic storage, that is often overlooked).
Encrypted Local Backup: Airport Time Capsule (Entire Laptop)
This is my second line of defence for file-level recovery and restoration for any of my personal data. It works well, and I wish Apple had not stopped selling these because (in my opinion) as a personal backup solution they are great. Plus, they provide double-duty as an Access Point (yes, they are monstrous).
Encrypted Local Archives: Network Attached Storage (Personal)
I take snapshots of all my personal data at periodic points in time, and archive them on my Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. These snapshots provide me a recovery point, that should my first 3 levels of protection fail to allow me to recover something, I can always revert back to these archives as a failsafe.
Backup of NAS Archives: Cloud Storage Provider
Three of the first four methods above are susceptible to failure should we have a disaster in our home. The iCloud and SilverSync backups are independent of both my home, our offices, and our local datacenter. But things do happen, and my ultimate failsafe to cover me against an issue with iCloud, SilverSync, and a facility failure is my Archived Cloud Storage (it costs me less than $10 / month currently). It would take a while to pull down an archive, and restore it to a system, but it’s doable in my most extreme circumstance.

Honestly, if this is how I’m restoring data, I have other more pressing matters to be upset about, I’m sure. Either that, or I really have fled to Mexico…

So for anyone who has made it all the way to the end of this article, congratulations. You are the only person who has.

But in all seriousness, I hope all of these topics I have mentioned lately make us all stop and think about our backup or archiving strategy, and if nothing else hopefully saves someone somewhere from losing data that is important to them.

Not sure how you should or want to proceed, or if your methodology is sufficient for your risk tollerence? Reach out to me via Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn and I’d be happy to discuss.

About Post Author

Happy

0 %

Sad

0 %

Excited

0 %

Sleepy

0 %

Angry

0 %

Surprise

0 %