MSPNetworks Blog

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, many people are avoiding human contact by turning to the Internet and mobile apps. On a national scope, mobile banking alone has seen an increase of 50 percent over just the last few months. In what certainly is no coincidence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently put out a warning that identified banking apps as likely targets for hackers.

As was said in the FBI’s announcement:

“As the public increases its use of mobile banking apps, partially due to increased time at home, the FBI anticipates cyber actors will exploit these platforms.”

We recommend that you take a few minutes and read the entire announcement, as it has a lot of information about these threats and quite a few tips that can help protect your mobile banking as well as many other applications.

If you don’t have the chance to go over all of this now, we’ve put together some of the most important tips to abide by if you’re trying to protect yourself and your financial interests.

Use 2FA

2FA, short for Two-Factor Authentication, and often seen nowadays as MFA or Multi-Factor Authentication, is effectively the addition of another identifier to ensure that someone trying to access an account is who they claim to be. Via texting, emailing, or generating a unique code through an application like Google Authenticator, Authy, Duo, or LastPass Authenticator, a user is given the key to open the additional lock on their accounts.

Any account you use should be protected by 2FA/MFA, especially those that deal with your finances or other sensitive information.

You should always set up 2-Factor Authentication on any account you have, especially if it deals with sensitive information or your money.

Be Smart About Your Passwords

Make sure that any passwords you use are sufficiently secure for your purposes. Rather than using common phrases or easy-to-guess combinations, like your birthday or a pet’s name, use a unique string of characters, numbers, and symbols for each account, or a passphrase consisting of unrelated words.

If You Aren’t Sure, Don’t Click on It

In what is probably the best piece of advice you can give someone who does business online in 2020, if you don’t know who sent it or where it will take you, don’t click on it. In fact, if you aren’t 100 percent sure about something, don’t click on it. Chances are your bank has a mobile app. Download that one from a reputable app store. They may have the link on their website, but if it doesn’t take you to the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, don’t click on any link. Your bank has spent significant resources to make sure that their app has the security needed, don’t risk using any other app. 

Contact the Bank if You Have Questions

Confirmation that it was your bank sending you information, or that their app isn’t working properly at the moment won’t take more than a simple phone call to confirm. Go to their official website and get the customer assistance number.

We’re really glad the FBI covered this tip too, as it’s often glossed over. If you have any suspicion that something is strange or not working correctly, just call your bank. Go to their official website, or use the number on the back of your card or from a statement. You don’t want to be fooled into making a mistake that puts your finances in the crosshairs of hackers or scammers. Your bank will never ask you for your name or password over the phone, so never give that information out. 

Keep your money out of the hands of cybercriminals by being vigilant and understanding the signs of a scam. If you would like any more information about keeping your finances secure, call the IT security professionals at MSPNetworks today at (516) 403-9001. 

More people than ever are utilizing the conveniences of the Internet and mobile apps to avoid unnecessary human contact during the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, mobile banking alone has increased by 50 percent over the last few months, nationwide. In a recent PSA, the FBI warned that hackers are likely to be targeting mobile banking apps.

According to the FBI’s public service announcement:

“As the public increases its use of mobile banking apps, partially due to increased time at home, the FBI anticipates cyber actors will exploit these platforms.”

The PSA is definitely worth a read, and includes some good tips and potential threats that are out there. It’s worth noting that many of the tips apply to a lot more than just mobile banking.

If you are in a rush, here are some of the best tips to take away from it to protect yourself.

Utilize 2-Factor Authentication

You’ll see this called 2-Factor Authentication, Multi-Factor Authentication, 2FA, or MFA. That’s where a website or service will email or text you a little code to log you in. Some services will utilize an authentication application, such as Google Authenticator, Authy, Duo, or LastPass Authenticator. Using an authentication app is definitely a safer way to go, as they are harder to spoof than email and text, but anything is better than nothing.

You should always set up 2-Factor Authentication on any account you have, especially if it deals with sensitive information or your money.

Always Have Good Password Hygiene

Use strong passwords that contain lower and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Your passwords should always be unique and not be used for multiple accounts, and your passwords should never contain information that could be guessed like your name, birthdays, your pets, and so forth.

If Something Seems Fishy, Don’t Install It

Never install something you aren’t 100 percent sure about. If your bank has a mobile app, be sure to download their official app, which they should have linked in their website. Avoid installing a mobile banking app that is sent to you via email or text message, because there is a chance that it could be bogus. 

When In Doubt, Call the Bank

We’re really glad the FBI covered this tip too, as it’s often glossed over. If you have any suspicion that something is strange or not working correctly, just call your bank. Go to their official website, or use the number on the back of your card or from a statement. 

If you accidentally called the number from the banking app, and that phone call seems suspicious, immediately hang up and be sure you use the number from their official website. If the hackers were clever enough to get you to download a fake banking app, they could easily have a fake support number to get you to call and submit your credentials. Your bank will never need your username and password over the phone.

All in all, be ever vigilant, because cybercriminals want to take advantage of the chaos to grift people out of their money. Don’t let them!

If you need help locking down your business and protecting your staff from cyberthreats, give MSPNetworks a call at (516) 403-9001 today!

Nowadays, laptops are the weapon of choice for productivity. They function much like a desktop computer but are mobile enough to go anywhere with. Unfortunately, most laptops chew through their batteries in only a few hours of work and need to be plugged in in order to function. With so many people working from home, many people are using their laptops more like a desktop and keeping them plugged in around the clock. For this week’s tip, we’ll discuss the best practices of a laptop battery. 

Is Overcharging a Laptop Battery a Problem?

Of course, like everything there is a qualified answer to this question. The first qualification is the age of your device. It wasn’t too long ago that battery innovation in these devices was truly lacking and devices that have older batteries have a much better chance of degrading when they are overcharged. On the other hand, newer batteries made of lithium-polymer or lithium-ion don’t have this problem. Hardware improvements have also played a role in keeping batteries juiced without ruining them. 

If you have a laptop on its power source for long periods of time that the device itself starts getting warm, it may be smart to remove it from the power supply as it can damage internal components and ruin the device. The temperature you are storing the device at matters too. In fact, enough research has been performed on the subject to suggest that leaving a fully charged laptop at high heat will significantly degrade the battery compared with a laptop stored at lower temperatures, to a point. 

In total, you will want to monitor your laptop’s heat levels when keeping it plugged in, but if you store it in a cool well-ventilated area, you should be fine keeping your laptop on the charger for as long as you want. 

For more great tips and tricks about how to manage your hardware and use your technology, return to our blog each week.

A lot of people aren’t aware that working from home is not a recent innovation. It can arguably be traced back over a million and a half years, when our ancestors would work relatively close to their dwelling places. Throughout our history, work has shifted away and back again to the remote methodology. Let’s look back through the years to see the progression of how people worked, based on the technology that was available.

Working from Home Was Largely the Norm

In the years leading up to the Industrial Revolution, especially in the medieval period and the Renaissance, working from home was how people worked. European peasantry lived in structures called “longhouses” with their livestock and workplaces contained inside with them. In fact, it wasn’t until 1760 and the Industrial Revolution that working someplace else was a common option.

Even then, factory managers often operated out of small buildings adjacent to the factory that were built to reflect many of the comforts of home.

The Shift to Office Work

The office as we know it today didn’t come around until the early 1900s, as technologies like electricity, telephony, and typing became available, with Ford Motor Companies adopting the now-traditional 9-to-5 workday in 1926.

By the 1960s, clerical work had taken over much of the job market, and with it, an intense obsession with productivity. Managers of the time kept detailed notes of how long it should take to carry out activities that today aren’t even considered. In case you were wondering, turning in your swivel chair should take you 0.009 minutes, as a guide from 1960 dictates. The cubicle, the epitome of removing distractions in the workplace, was first designed in 1968.

Technology Helped Encourage Remote Practices

However, in the 1970s, a variety of factors were introduced that made the prospect of remote work more appealing. For instance, rising concerns over the environment brought up the concept of remote work, and technology was developed that enabled remote productivity.

Once the Internet was introduced in 1983, remote work was considered a legitimate option again. With Wi-Fi’s development in 1991 and various professional and governmental innovations over the next few decades, we now have the means to support remote operations for so many—and thank goodness we do.

MSPNetworks is here to help you leverage the various tools that your business can use to support its operations on a remote basis. To learn more about these tools and how you can best use them today, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Productivity is a huge priority in any business. This makes it crucial that all tasks can be picked up and put down as efficiently as possible. With mobile browsing now playing a major role in most users’ lives, the version of Chrome for Android devices is a very utilized tool. With these factors in mind, we’re sharing tips to make your use of Android Chrome that much more efficient and productive.

Continuous Productivity

Everyone takes a little while to ramp up their productivity, mainly so that they can get everything arranged and organized before diving in. With so many tools now online, Google Chrome enables you to access them from essentially everywhere. However, as an added bonus, by logging into the same Google account on a computer and on your Android device, your history would contain exactly what you would need to open. Even better, if your desktop version was still active with certain pages, the Recent Tabs option in the Android version of Chrome could replicate them.

Download Pages for Offline Browsing

While mobile devices are incredibly useful, the occasional lack of connection you may encounter can put some of these uses on hold. However, if you know that your connection is going to be poor later, you can proactively save certain web pages with the Android Chrome browser. By selecting Download (the one that looks like an arrow pointing at a horizontal line) in the three-dot menu while you’re on a page, you can save that page for later in the Downloads section.

Referential Search

Context is an important thing to have, especially when you are reviewing online documents and other materials. On an Android device, this context would be a pain to get, as you’d have to open a new tab and start an entirely new search, just to go back and continue. Would be, if the Android version of Chrome didn’t have a feature to work around this need.

By highlighting a word or phrase that they need more information about with a long press, a user can generate a small tab at the bottom of their display that displays a search for whatever was highlighted. This tab can then be dismissed or opened as an additional page in the browser.

What are some of your favorite tips for using Google Chrome to browse while on a mobile device? Tell us some of them in the comments, and make sure you subscribe today!

We all have our favorite websites to visit, as well as those we often have to visit to fulfill our responsibilities. As a result, it isn’t uncommon for us to try and access the same websites on both a desktop workstation and a mobile device, but some websites work better than others while trying this. This is because of something called responsive web design, which we’ll review below for our weekly Tech Term.

What is Responsive Web Design, Anyway?
The purpose behind responsive web design is to ensure that a website remains functional, even when viewed at different sizes and using different devices. This is accomplished using specialized elements to display the content in the way that is best suited to the attributes of the device being used. Essentially, the website ‘responds’ to the device, so instead of squinting to see a website meant for a desktop crammed onto the screen of your smartphone, your visitors will see a website meant for the smartphone.

This is achieved through three basic web design processes: fluid grids, responsive media, and media queries.

Fluid Grids
Like any design grid you may come across, fluid grids allow you to arrange your site elements to make them look as good as possible. However, fluid grids differ in that they adjust based on the size of the screen by using relative measurements, like percentages, rather than using pixels.

Responsive Media
Just like the rest of the page, the media files you include (like video or images) need to be able to adjust in size as your screen size changes. This usually requires fixed dimensions to be entered, but because fluid grids don’t use fixed measurements, these kinds of files must use the max-width property set to 100%.

Media Queries
Media queries are effectively the web design version of crowdsourcing. By gathering data, a website is able to determine the size of the screen it is displayed on so it can adjust its appearance accordingly by loading the proper CSS (or Cascading Style Sheet).

Why Responsive Web Design is Important
A business will want to have a responsive website for a variety of reasons that all originate from a focus on visitor experience. Not only will a responsive website attract and retain more visitors due to its improved experience for its users, but will improve its search engine optimization ranking as well. These fast-loading, mobile-friendly websites also allow businesses to nurture a greater percentage of their visitors into customers, buyers, and clients.

The IT professionals at MSPNetworks are dedicated to providing the knowledge and know-how to provide businesses the best chance to succeed with technology. What other technology terms would you like to see us to cover? Leave your suggestions in the comments!