Beginning January 2017, if your website asks for sensitive information and is not utilizing a HTTPS web encryption, your site and data fields will be flagged as “Not secure”. While this will not change your website’s ranking or how it operates, it may give pause to some of your clients/visitors and perhaps stop them from being more interactive or making that purchase. Some of these sensitive information fields include passwords, bank account information, social security numbers, credit card numbers, etc.

Hackers can more easily capture your data when the information at hand is being transmitted from your device to the website you’re interacting with through an HTTP site as opposed to an HTTPS site. That extra “S” means you’re accessing that particular website through an encrypted connection. There is also a padlock in the left side of your address bar notifying you whether or not you’re on a secure site.

But remember, just because you’re on an HTTPS site, does not necessarily mean you’re protected 100%! So always be cautious when entering sensitive data online. If you’re not sure how this affects your site or you’re not even aware if your site is secure and encrypted and don’t want to be stymied come January 2017, contact Optfinity today and we can provide you with a free assessment and give you advice on some next steps.

According to the company, “Our security teams are always watching out for new threats to our users. As part of these ongoing efforts, we learned about an old set of Dropbox user credentials (email addresses plus hashed and salted passwords) that we believe were obtained in 2012. Our analysis suggests that the credentials relate to an incident we disclosed around that time”.

It is also highly recommended that you change any other passwords for sites which shared the same password as your Dropbox account. Remember to use strong passwords, use a different password for each account, and utilize two-step verification, when possible. If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to us at Optfinity anytime!

If you cannot change this regulation within your company, you may want to at least provide your staff with some helpful advice when changing passwords. By just changing a few letters, numbers, or symbols, new, safe, secure passwords can be created that are still easily memorized by the user. Some examples are given in the article.

There are other tricks for password storage such as sites like lastpass.com which allows a user to safely store usernames and passwords for every single online account. The service is free to a point. For more tips and tricks, software solutions, or a free assessment, contact Optfinity today!

The main point of this article, is to be vigilant in your online usage and maintain a constant dome of security around your personal information. Some good lessons are to limit your friend lists to just those you actually know. Keep private details about yourself private. Just because you limit who can see this information does not mean that a hacker can’t somehow gain access to your account and be privy to this sensitive data.

Lastly, avoid all strange and unusual links. If you receive a weird email from a trusted friend, it can’t hurt to text or call them and see if they really meant to send that to you. If they didn’t, let them know they were hacked and definitely do not click on the link! We here at Optfinity have many tools at our disposal for helping you and your staff ensure their online security and can even monitor, test, and screen their behavior to prevent accidental link clicks or wrong emails opened.

The assumed nature of the breach is perhaps due to internal user error. This is, by far, one of the major reasons why data breaches happen. This usually occurs when an employee accidentally gives out sensitive credentials, like passwords and usernames, to the wrong person. With one phishing email, scam phone call, or dubious website, a cybercriminal can have access to your company’s internal data.

Do not think this is limited to just large corporations. Many small businesses are finding themselves prone to these types of breaches. Ensure all of your employees know the dangers out there and how put in place procedures to mitigate these incidents. Optfinity has many tools at its disposal for its clients to help companies maintain their security and safety, and help to ensure employees are fully aware of proper protocol when dealing with sensitive credentials.

Higher end keyboards usually have encryption built into their products, so this hacking is not a problem. Additionally, Bluetooth keyboards are not susceptible because Bluetooth encrypts all data transmitted over the air.

So if you’re unsure of your keyboards safety, best to upgrade to a Bluetooth version if you need something wireless, or better yet, just stick to the old-fashioned wired keyboards. Want to ensure your safety until you can upgrade? Enable 2-step authentication when possible, avoid using the same password on multiple sites, and ensure security questions have answers only you would know.

Optfinity can provide you and your business with free assessments to check if all your equipment is as secure as possible. We pride ourselves in ensuring our client’s systems and data are fully secure and backed up in the event of a disaster.

There are many reasons why this threat may not be a serious as it seems, but to be safe, you should still take precautions to ensure your security and online safety. First and foremost, enable two-step verification. Also, do not reuse passwords across multiple sites. Finally, ensure that you change your current Yahoo password just in case your account was one of the 200 million that was accessed.

And as always, feel free to contact Optfinity if you’re still unsure of your full security or if you need assistance in accomplishing any of the suggestions we mention. Don’t forget, Optfinity also provides free assessments for businesses so you can be sure you’re safe company wide.

While you might want to limit your employees access to buy apps and games through the Windows 10 Store, Windows wants you and your employees to buy their products. Forcing you, the savvy business owner, to pay extra for Windows 10 Enterprise to have access to restrictive features preventing your employees from making these purchases.

You can’t blame Windows for this decision as most companies would do the same. What you can do, however, is install productivity-tracking solutions, or look into a web content filtering system that keeps employees from browsing dangerous or wasteful websites. The point is to keep your employees accountable for the time they spend in the office, whether they’re on the clock and working diligently, or wasting time to whittle away the workday.

If opting for the latter decision, contact Optfinity and we can help as this is something we currently do for many of our clients. Micromanaging is never a good thing, but ensuring a way to keep your employees accountable for their work day is always a win-win situation.

While there is no reason to think this update will be anything but positive, nor is there any cause for alarm, you could have reasons for wanting to delay the update: upcoming vacations, no time to deal with learning new tricks on old tools, or you just want to wait for others to get them to hear the feedback before committing.

So if delaying is your preference for now, follow the tips in the full article and it will walk you through this settings change. If you’d rather not deal with it and want a professional to assist you, that’s what Optfinity is here to help you with.