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4 Things That Make Moving To A New PC Simple

November 16, 2022 By Dominick

Do you have an outdated PC? Are you ready to upgrade to new equipment? It may seem daunting. Depending on how many files, photos and data you have on your current computer, it may be. Let’s make this easy. I’m going to share four useful tips to make your transition seamless, take less effort and be foolproof. These tips can be used at home or work.

Let’s break it down. There are the four steps to follow as you move to a new PC:

Use Webmail for your eMail:

You don’t need to make new accounts and ditch your old ones, if you’re using Webmail you simply have to log-in to your accounts on your new PC. You can use webmail with GMAIL, Yahoo, AOL or Outlook). Email clients are desktop software that allows users to access their emails on their computer without having to log in via the web, this is a bit more complex and results in frustration for many people.

Use Services to Save Your Files:

The easiest way to transfer your files to your new PC is to use a cloud storage service. Your files are stored online and are available to all your computers and mobile devices that are signed in. It’s essentially instant transfer! Cloud also saves on storage for your devices since the consumption occurs on the cloud. The most popular cloud storages are Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive. They are free at the base level. Upgrades are available, of course. OneDrive has 1TB of storage if you buy MS-Office (365).

Sign into Your Browser:

Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers and you can create multiple profiles to make transferring computers that much easier as it saves your browsing data, like bookmarks, cache, history, etc., on the cloud. All you have to do is create a new profile and link it to an existing Google account on your new computer.

Microsoft Edge works the same way as Chrome where you have a profile that stores all your data, to transfer onto your new computer launch Edge on your old computer, go to Settings, and click on Profile in the left-hand pane. Next, click on Sync, and select the items you want to sync. Make sure to include your bookmarks on the list. Then launch Edge on your new PC, log in to your Microsoft account and hit the Sync option again.

Firefox also has profiles that store all your data, the easiest way to transfer your data without having to move everything to a flash drive is to move your profile from the old PC to the new one. Log into your profile on your old PC then copy everything you need, then go to your new computer sign in again and paste it all to your new computer.

Have a Microsoft account:

With a Microsoft account, you can manage everything in one place. Track your subscriptions, organize your family’s digital life, update your privacy and security settings, and mange the health and safety of your devices.

Everything stays with you in the cloud and across devices. Your OneDrive account is linked to your Microsoft account so you can back up your files online. When you’re ready, sync them onto a new PC. Alternatively you can leave them in the cloud without having to download them. This saves space on your new PC’s hard drive and leaves your files and photos easily accessible from any of your devices. If you do not already have an account, you may create one here.

All in all moving to a new computer isn’t as much of a headache than one may believe. With the right accounts, programs and apps moving from your old PC to a new one is as easy as can be. Just be sure to keep track of all your account information such as username and password, have all your files sorted and up-to-date and try to keep all your files in one place to avoid confusion or loss. If you need any help navigating your new or old computer, I’m here to help!

Contact Dominick

What is Account Verification? Should I Really Verify My Accounts?

October 3, 2022 By Lisa Velasquez

Yes! Ensure your accounts are your own. It’s important to verify that your account as belonging to you. . Generally verification is done by email or text message. Google may ask you to verify your account using a separate email address. sThis is important to help keep your accounts safe. It keep you in solid and good standing.

Signing into an account through an unknown or new device may prompt a verification. This gives you that extra peace of mind and keep your accounts secure.

Verify your accounts. It will prove you own them. It’ll prove you (or your business) use them. Creating a new account automatically prompts verification through email or mobile device. If not, it is in your best interest to see how you can verify your account with additional safety measures.

ADVANTAGES OF VERIFICATION

Avoid breaches of your accounts.
Guard against improper use of data.
Ensure proper recording and valuation of assets and data.

All you need to do is provide the account with your email or your phone number to verify your account. Not doing so can risk someone else accessing your account. Your data can become exposed. You may get locked out of your own account. No longer having access to your account leaves you jumping through hoops to regain access.

You can check to see if your accounts are verified or not here:

Do not get locked out of your accounts. If they are verified it will be easier to gain access again.

For a Google account: If you have a recovery email address, you will be sent a verification code to reset your password. If you don’t, provide an email address or phone number where you can receive a code. Once you receive the code, type it and click Next. You’ll then create a new password.

For an Apple ID account: Open a browser and go to iforgot.apple.com. Enter your ‌Apple ID‌ email in the box. Follow the onscreen prompts and answer the questions to verify that you are the owner of the account.

For an AOL account: Use the Sign-in Helper to locate your username and regain access to your account by entering your recovery mobile number or alternate email address. If you know your username but need to reset your password, make sure you create a strong password after you’re back in your account.

Account Verification VS. Two Factor Authentication

What you need to know! Account verification and two factor authentication are different. Account verification is the process of you verifying that this account is owned by you. Two factor authentication involves verifying two different factors of authentication. This is before granting access to your account and may done every time you sign in to your account. You only need to verify your account once.

If you have any questions or need help making sure your account is verified and you have all the information you need to help keep your accounts safe, contact Dominick for further assistance and guidance.

Reach Dominick

6 Things To Do With Your iPhone Photos

August 24, 2022 By Dominick

Chances are you snap a photo anytime you visit a new place, have family gatherings, or your pet does something absolutely adorable. What about when your kid celebrates a milestone or life simply makes you feel good? It’s worth taking a photo with your iPhone.

But, what do you do with it afterwards? Does it just sit there on your phone? You may pull it out to show someone, but for the most part it sits on your phone underutilized. Be more social with it. I can help.

You have so many options for fun, creative ways to share your photos and turn them into something you can look at and appreciate everyday!

Don’t Let Thousands of Photos Just Sit on iCloud

Send Them in a Text message
Email Them
Make an Album
Share Folders
Print a Book
AirDrop to People Nearby

Free Your Photo from Being On a ‘virtual’ Desert Island All Alone

If you’re wondering how. I’ll show you to share your photos with friends and family. They will enjoy them also. There are different and creative ways for you to use your photos and get the most out of them

Text Photos To Contacts On Your iPhone

Have a family member or friend that would enjoy a picture on your phone? You can text photos to your contacts by simply going to your messages, selecting your chosen contact and selecting the camera icon to choose a photo to share! This is a great way to keep friends and family up to date on your latest adventures!

Insert Pictures Into Your Emails

A more formal way to let your friends and family know what you’ve been up to is to add photos to your email to share. You can add photos to your emails by selecting the attachment icon and select upload to upload the photo you wish to share! This can also be a visual aid to your emails when trying to communicate your inspiration ideas!

Make Albums On Your iPhone

Organizing your photos can help you easily access the photos you are looking for whether it’s a time of year, a certain trip or memory you’d like to access. You can create albums on your iPhone to organize all your favorite memories! Go to your photos app on iPhone, navigate to albums and on the top left corner hit the + icon to create a new album and add your desired photos to that album!

If you don’t already have a Google Drive account you can get one for free. There you can easily upload your pictures or even videos and share them as a folder to anyone! This is another great way to keep your photos and videos organized without taking up storage on your iPhone. Simply create a folder on Google Drive then upload all your photos to that folder.

Make A Printed Book:

There are so many services where you can send or upload all your photos and make printed books, canvas wall art and so much more with them! Here a just a few:

This is a great way to physically have your favorite photos with you and it can also be a great gift for weddings, anniversary’s, holidays or other celebrations!

Airdrop Your Photos To People Nearby

Airdrop is a great feature from Apple that lets you automatically send pictures, videos or even contacts to people within your range and it will automatically save it to the recipients phone. So when you’re at a party or gathering and you’ve just taken a picture and someone wants it you can send it to them then and there!

These are just some ways you can utilize your pictures that gather on your phone for others to enjoy.

Don’t let precious memory just sit on your iPhone gathering dust. With plenty of pictures apps, the latest IOS updates and printing services out there you can make the most of your photos and relive those moments for years to come!

If you need help figuring it out, guidane on what to do next with your photos.

I can help you navigate your iPhone, Airdrop, emails or google drive

Contact me further assistance.

Contact Dominick

The Best Way To Keep Your Passwords Safe

July 9, 2022 By Dominick

Changing the passwords regularly seems like a tedious and daunting. But it is in your best interest. Your computer has sensitive and important information. If your credentials are in the wrong hands the damage will be a burden, costly and time consuming to repair. Hackers are becoming more advanced and always have new tricks. We’re now seeing more and more major data breaches such as the recent T-Mobile breach.

Password stolen — Learn best practices for keeping your sensitive information safe and secure from getting into the wrong hands.

Changing your credentials regularly reduces your risk of exposure. Think about how we use the internet. It’s an integral part of our daily routines. We shop online, email, check our bank accounts, pay bills, watch TV, schedule doctors appointments and much more. Are you using the same password for multiple accounts? If you get hacked and you have reused credentials other accounts are at risk.

Why you should be changing your passwords
When you should be changing your passwords
Password best practices
Offering help and resource to help you manage your passwords.

Why Change Credentials?

If you use the same password for multiple accounts it can lead to multiple hacks across all your accounts. What a headache that would be.

Prevents use of saved passwords in the case of a lost or changed computer. It’s convenient now to saved passwords. Just click and the save automatically. What if your computer is lost or stolen ? AYour sensitive data is now being accessed by someone. Changing your passwords will relieve your worries. Those saved passwords are irrelevant. You’re protected.

Prevents consistent access to your accounts. If a hacker gains access to your account they may just take what they want and leave. But sometimes hackers continue to access different accounts and information about you over time to steal your identity. Prevent this. Have multiple passwords and change them frequently.

When Should I Change It?

Have you logged in recently? I s that the first password ever used? A stagnant account is subject to a hacker gaining access. If you u haven’t used an account in a year consider deleting the account if it is going unused or simply update your password.

It’s too simple and personal to you. As stated above it has only been recently that accounts are encouraging us to use strong passwords and if yours is too weak it can easily be subject to hacking or if your password is too personal such as a birthday, children’s name or address.

Change credentials immediately If you are made aware of a data breach consider. When the T-Mobile data breach occurred millions of T-Mobile customers had personal data exposed. T-Mobile encouraged changing passwords to make sure customer information and identity was safeguarded.

Shared access. If you have shared your account login with someone. IE: Netflix or Hulu. It’s a good idea to change your credentials to avoid them getting into any of your other accounts.

Logging in at public places. After you’ve logged into one of your accounts at a public place, such as a library computer, it is good practice to update those credentials. If you do, you’ll avoid leaving a digital footprint behind for someone to access.

When you discover malware or if your computer had a virus. You want to keep your information safe and switch them out. Hackers will give your computer a virus to gain access and steal information. A virus can expose your sensitive information.

Best Practices

Now that you’ve learned why and when you should change your password let’s talk about best practices for your password so that you can always be protected.

Use two-factor authentication when applicable. This means to access your account your account you’ll have to go through a two step process such as a regular login and then a one-time code optin sent through text or email.

Audit your passwords. Don’t use the same passwords for multiple accounts. Don’t include your name or a series of numbers in a sequence (i.e 1234). Make them are long and varied. Always have an uppercase, a lowercase, a numeral and a special character. Example: “password” become’ “p@ssW0rD”

Stronger password? The less you have to change it. Before, it was said that you should be changing your passwords every 90 days but with all the accounts we now hold who knows how long that would take us! Recent data has now shown that a unique, strong password doesn’t need to be changed as frequently. Having said that if you find yourself in any situations mentioned above you should change your password at that time.

Install LastPass

Make your life easier Install LastPass. It eases the pain of forgotten passwords. It leaves you only one phrase to remember.

Make LastPass, your new best friend. LastPass can be used on your computer and your iPhone. Have all your passwords in one place. Never lose or forget your password again!

Now with this knowledge hopefully you’ll know how to protect yourself from any cyber attack and keep you information safe. If you want to learn more about Lastpass or you need help installing contact me below.

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6 Things To Avoid When Making New Passwords

January 20, 2022 By bytesized

What is the current state of IT security?

It is commonly known that passwords are personal, more like family secrets. The rules are simple; keep it where people can’t see it, and importantly, do not share it with anyone.

Password simplicity is a thing of the past. With cyber-attacks rising, hackers have taken their game a notch higher. Numbers don’t lie; take a quick look.

According to Verizon, 58% of data breaches leave personal information exposed.
Google discovered that 68% of internet users use the same password for multiple sites.

As you can see, the risks are high. There are two main reasons why hackers can hack passwords faster than before.

First, hackers now use brute force attacks. Using powerful computers, hackers can process zillions of combinations related to your password in a flash.
Secondly, tons of personal information is now available on google and social media. Hackers take their time to find out more about you, for instance, your birth date, favorite shows, family members, cars, etc. Armed with these details, hackers can easily bypass security questions, gaining access to your account.

With that in mind, let’s avoid password mistakes.

1. Avoid Simple Ones

Now that we use the web for multiple tasks like shopping, banking, and communication, it is easy to end up with tons of passwords to remember. As such, it is to succumb to the temptation of creating simple passwords.

Do you know the most common passwords? Examples of top easy-to-remember passwords include qwerty, password, admin, and 12345679012. Take the last numerical password; its length does not make it stronger. Anyone can guess that.

What to do instead?

Use a mix of lower case and uppercase letters, numbers, and special symbols such as @ and $ to create strong and secure passwords. Using such combinations to create strong passwords slows down hackers and may discourage them completely.

2. Avoid Reusing Them On Different Sites

As we saw earlier from google, many people use the same passwords for multiple logins. This is a blatant blunder due to the following reasons.

If one account goes down, then the password-sharing accounts may as well follow.
Hackers can easily piece together the puzzles about your life and use the information to crack the rest of your accounts.
If you use the same password as that of an active but unused account, hackers can use it to trace your current accounts.

To mitigate such threats, create unique but easy-to-remember passwords for individual accounts.

3. Avoid Using Personal Information Within

Using personal information in this age is a grave error. Most personal details are no longer confidential, thanks to social media. Anyone can know a person without even meeting them. Therefore, while striving to create memorable passwords, avoid using;

Your name or that of your family members
Names of your pets
Favorite celebrities and shows
Street names

Adding characters or numerals to the above cannot help either. Software made to crack codes will crack it within the day. The safest bet is using a random combination.

4. Avoid Short Ones

One time I asked some of my friends why they had short, simple passwords. Know what they told me? Because they didn’t want to forget their passwords. Yes, short passwords are memorable. But, the shorter the password, the easier it is to hack.

Likewise, with the increase in computer processing speeds, a six-character password is as good as none.

Although the length of an effective password is debatable, I recommend nothing short of 10 characters. 12 to 14 characters is a good fit, too, if you are up to it.

5. Avoid ReUsing Them

It is easy to consider reusing old passwords and tweaking them a little when creating new passwords. While it may seem like an entirely new password, it is not any more secure than the old one. This is because people tend to create simple, memorable passwords to begin with.

What is wrong with password recycling?

Passwords recycling leaves you vulnerable to credential stuffing. In this case, hackers use bots to attempt logging in to your account using the old credentials. They will keep hammering until they hit the right combination.

Needless to say, a brand new password is in your best interest.

6. Avoid Storing Them Unsafely

Creating a hard-to-crack password is in vain if you store it improperly. Sometimes, people may create folders to store passwords on personal computers. But this carries a huge risk. In case malware attacks the computer, hackers will celebrate.

On the other hand, some people may write passwords on sticky notes or diaries that they keep on their desks. While hackers can’t reach the notes, snooping friends of family members can access them. Or worse, burglars can make away with them, causing tons of problems.

If you need a secure way to store your credentials, consider getting a password manager such as LastPass or Kaspersky Password Manager. Such programs help you store and lock all your passwords behind a master password. This way, you only need to remember one password.

Bonus Tip: Don’t Share Your Password

Passwords are meant to stay personal for a reason – to prevent unauthorized access. As such, do not share your personal login information with other users.

For instance, if you share your shopping account login, you risk exposing your credit card details. What if your friend turns rogue?

Again, if you must share your password, how you do it matters. Note that you diminish your account security if you share it via communication apps such as emails and messaging apps. It is safer to key it in for the other person as opposed to sending it.

In a nutshell, I cannot overemphasize the importance of creating strong, secure passwords. Your banking or personal details are at stake here. Therefore, take time to create a secure password to protect your accounts. It is worth the effort.

Do you have any short, simple, or reused passwords? Have you shared your password recently? If yes, you need to consider creating new, stronger passwords now. Passwords are key to security and sources like this New York state newsletter are key to giving out current trends.

Need help with passwords, PC, or tech in your office? Reach me.