Most people have two or three passwords the always use and they never change.  This means that are using the same passwords for multiple things, like social media, online games, e-shopping, and even banking and credit cards.  It is a good idea to use different passwords for different website, especially your banking, credit cards, and other financial websites.  At the very least, any website that is related to finances or is a service that can impact your credit should have a different password.

For banks and financial institutions, digital security is a top priority.  They spend top dollar on websites and systems to keep your information safe.  They require two-factor authentication, and many require you to change your password every so often, usually every 90 days.

And yet, with all the tools that are in place and all the money that is spent on data security, the weakest part of the system is the user.  When the average person sets up their banking account, they use the same password they use for mostly everything else.
Non-financial website and mobile apps do not have the same encryption and data security requirements that financial institutions have.  Therefore, when you hear about companies that have been hacked, you rarely hear about companies like Chase or Morgan Stanley.  When a company like that gets hacked, it becomes big news.

The companies that get hacked are the smaller ones that do not have as much in the way of data security.  Hackers go after smaller companies or mobile apps because they want to get email address and password combinations.  They know that most people use the same email addresses and passwords for everything, so if they have email and passwords pairs, they then go out and check those combinations out on different banking sites, and when they get a hit, they now have access to all of your money, credit cards, and personal information. You could be completely wiped out.

• Use different passwords for different sites.  Therefore, if a site gets hacked and someone gets access to your password, that password will not work anywhere else.
• Change your passwords on a regular basis.  If you have been using the same password for years, chances are that someone along the way got that password in one of the major data breeches that has happened over the last few years.
• Don’t use passwords that are obvious. Such as kid’s names, or pets, spouses, loved ones, or even your favorite television characters.
• Use combinations of upper- and lower-case letters as well as numbers and special characters.
• Use a string of random words that are easy to remember, but hard for the a computer to guess.
• Most of all, don’t write your passwords down on a pad and place it someplace you think no one will ever look, like under your keyboard.  If you have to write down your passwords, keep them in a pad that you keep safely locked away somewhere, or better yet, use an app like LastPass to safely store your passwords in a way no one could easily get to them.

Be sure you protect yourself by keeping your passwords safe.  There is a lot of personal information that is stored online.  You have to make sure that your information is protected.

Windows 7 is now officially a thing of the past.  This shows the importance of keeping up with the patches, updates, and fixes to the operating system.   A lot of people will say that Windows is so insecure because they always must send out more updates to fix things.  This does not mean that Windows, or any other major operating system is insecure, it just means that there is a lot going on.  There are a lot of different things that can cause an issue which requires an update to an operating system or just require that the computer be properly maintained.  We list a few here.

Hardware manufacturers are constantly coming out with new models with the latest and greatest parts and equipment.  Memory is faster, processors have more computing power, sound cards are louder, and the motherboards are doing everything more efficiently with every new version.  Sometimes software is not prepared for new hardware, so parts of the operating system must be tweaked to account for the new hardware that is on the market.

There are people, and even governments around the world who make it their business to look for an exploit every possible flaw they can possibly find in an operating system.  With the uncountable lines of code that it takes to create an operating system, there is always going to be an error, a weakness, or just a hole in the code that went unnoticed until hackers come across it and create viruses and malware to exploit the weakness.  It is then up to the creators of the software and operating systems to find the code that was exploited and fix it in a way that doesn’t break other parts of the operating system and doesn’t plug one hole by exposing another.

There are a lot of processes and routines that are run by operating systems to make sure that an operating system is running smoothly.  We used to hear a lot about disk defragmentation.  This is still an issue with hard drives, but most operating systems clean these things up in the background, so you never have to even think about it.  Not all system or processes clean themselves up that well.  Some processes and other applications will create and leave behind temporary files that just pile up, or the apps will  use memory but not release it properly, called a memory leak, so the computer has less memory to work with, so it slows down and can possibly even crash.

The longer a computer goes without being properly maintained, the more things will accumulate causing your computer to slow down.  People will say that their computer is “slow this morning,” like it didn’t have its morning coffee.  Computers don’t have moods; they should always operate the same way.  The issues is that computer software can slow over time due to issues within the operating system.

The best thing you can do for your computer is to keep it maintained by a professional who is up to speed on the latest operating systems, hardware, tools, and processes.  Call Steven at Unfrustrating Computers to take care of your machines before you curse at your cursor.

Windows 7 support is ending on January 14, 2020.  Mainstream support for Windows 7 ended back in January of 2015.  Microsoft has been providing extended support ever since and now that is coming to an end.

Mainstream support is when a company like Microsoft offers full support for a product.  Full support means that besides offering security updates and patches or fixes to resolve issues,  they are actively working to improve and enhance the product.

Mainstream support means that the operating system or software is still an ongoing concern for the company.   It means the company is spending time, money, and significant effort to ensure that your experience with the product is the best that it could be.

As we all know, software companies, like Microsoft, will eventually retire an older version of their product to release a new version.  When this happens, that time, money and effort are moved to the new product, and less time is spent on the older versions.
Extended support means that the product is no longer a priority for the company. They understand that many people and many companies will not upgrade the latest and greatest as soon as it comes out. So they continue to provide security updates as well as patches and fixes to issues to keep the operating system safe and secure for use.

For Microsoft, its policy is to provide extended support for an operating system for five years.  An extended five-year window, no pun intended, will give people and companies enough time to plan their upgrades.  Often, those upgrades coincide with the purchase of new computers.  Most people, especially business owners and managers, will upgrade their computers within a five-year time frame.  The hope is that older operating systems will fall out of service due to attrition.

For those that do not plan an upgrade or buy new computers have to make the decision to upgrade their operating systems in one of three ways.

1. Buy new computers designed for the new operating system.  New operating systems often require more memory, more disk space, or better sound, video, or other hardware.  Getting new hardware will guarantee compatibility.
2. Reinstall the new operating system on the current hardware.  Some people choose to back up their data and start from scratch with the new operating system on the old hardware.  This clean install ensures that no issues or corruption from the old operating system finds its way into the new operating system.  Some people like to have a “clean” install.
3. In-place upgrade.  The easiest, though most risky upgrade, is to do an in-place upgrade from the new operating system to the new OS on the existing hardware.  Make sure your data is backed up and there is a risk that the upgrade will not work, and you will not be able to go back to your old OS.

Give Steve a call to discuss which is best for your circumstances.

Regardless of which method you use, you should upgrade.  End of extended support means that Microsoft will no longer release security updates or patches.  With the lack of updates, your old operating system will become a greater risk.  These risks can leave your computer and your information open to hackers.   Hackers will exploit possible security flaws knowing that Microsoft will no longer write the update to fix it.

Aside from the security issues, any technical bugs that pop up will no longer be addressed.   As you introduce new software, such as new browsers, or office products, and new hardware, such as new printers or monitors, the possibility of issues increases significantly.

With the end of support only weeks away, it is important to plan your next move.  

Whether it is new hardware or an in-place upgrade, call Steven at Unfrustrating Computers.   You need to be ready when support for Windows 7 ends two weeks into the new year.

Protecting your data is an essential part of being in business.  If you lose access to your data, your business can be in real trouble.  On average, a company can be without access to its financial data for three days before serious issues start to settle in, including possibly even going out of business.

In the area of data protection, two terms you will hear are “backup” and “disaster recovery.”  While both of these areas have the goal of protecting your data, backup and disaster recovery are not the same thing, and should not be treated as such.

What is Disaster Recovery?

It is all in the name.  Disaster Recovery is what you use to recover from a disaster.  The description hits the nail on the head.  In disaster recovery, we are not looking to back up individual files and folders.  The goal here is to create a full image of your server.  Full image protection means that the software is making a bit by bit copy of the server’s hard drives and storing the entire server as a single entity.  If you lose your server hardware due to a disaster, such as a fire, flood, or even a catastrophic hardware failure, your entire server can be restored either to the repaired server or entirely new hardware.   In a disaster situation, there is also the possibility of “failover.”  A failover is when you switch over from your production server, which is inaccessible, to the disaster recovery version of the server.  Failover can be a virtual image in the cloud, or on temporary hardware.  After your hardware is repaired or replaced, you would be able to “failback,” which is the process of moving your server’s data, including data that has changed since the failover, back to it’s new forever home.

The goal of Disaster Recovery is to get your data back into production in the shortest time possible.

RTO vs. RPO

Two goals for disaster recovery are the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO).  Recovery Time Objective is the amount of time it would take to regain access to the server and the information.  An RTO of 72 hours means that you can expect to have access to your information within three days of the disaster.

Recovery Point Objective is how old the restored data can be from the time of the disaster.  Since many disaster recovery systems copy data once per day, depending on when the last data synchronization was, the restored information can be up to 24 hours old.  If data is protected once per day, it would be an RTO of 24 hours.

With updated technology, including cloud-based services and virtual machines,  that can monitor data as it is changed, we can now measure RTO and RPO in minutes or hours rather than days.

Data Backup

The other form of data protection is called Data Backup.  Backup systems protect servers and workstations down to the file and folders level.  With Data Backup, you can restore anything from a single file or folder to an entire directory structure.  With Data Backup, as opposed to Disaster Recovery, Data Backup does not assume that you have had a catastrophic failure of your equipment.  While Disaster Recovery systems will be utilized to protect from things like fire and flood, backups are there in case you accidentally delete or overwrite a file.  

In both cases, you are protecting your data, and if you absolutely had to, you can use your data backup to restore data after a disaster, or you could use your disaster recovery services to bring back a file you accidentally deleted, but it would be overkill just like using a sledgehammer to put a push-pin into a cork-board.

Both of these services are an important part of your business risk management, and if you have servers in your network environment, both should be properly implemented and managed.

Protect your data and protect your company, call Unfrustrating Computers at 516-679-0210 and ask us about our Data Backup and Disaster Recovery services.

It is all in the name.  Disaster Recovery is what you use to recover from a disaster.  The description hits the nail on the head.  In disaster recovery, we are not looking to back up individual files and folders.  The goal here is to create a full image of your server.  Full image protection means that the software is making a bit by bit copy of the server’s hard drives and storing the entire server as a single entity.  If you lose your server hardware due to a disaster, such as a fire, flood, or even a catastrophic hardware failure, your entire server can be restored either to the repaired server or entirely new hardware.   In a disaster situation, there is also the possibility of “failover.”  A failover is when you switch over from your production server, which is inaccessible, to the disaster recovery version of the server.  Failover can be a virtual image in the cloud, or on temporary hardware.  After your hardware is repaired or replaced, you would be able to “failback,” which is the process of moving your server’s data, including data that has changed since the failover, back to it’s new forever home.

The goal of Disaster Recovery is to get your data back into production in the shortest time possible.

Two goals for disaster recovery are the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO).  Recovery Time Objective is the amount of time it would take to regain access to the server and the information.  An RTO of 72 hours means that you can expect to have access to your information within three days of the disaster.

Recovery Point Objective is how old the restored data can be from the time of the disaster.  Since many disaster recovery systems copy data once per day, depending on when the last data synchronization was, the restored information can be up to 24 hours old.  If data is protected once per day, it would be an RTO of 24 hours.

With updated technology, including cloud-based services and virtual machines,  that can monitor data as it is changed, we can now measure RTO and RPO in minutes or hours rather than days.

The other form of data protection is called Data Backup.  Backup systems protect servers and workstations down to the file and folders level.  With Data Backup, you can restore anything from a single file or folder to an entire directory structure.  With Data Backup, as opposed to Disaster Recovery, Data Backup does not assume that you have had a catastrophic failure of your equipment.  While Disaster Recovery systems will be utilized to protect from things like fire and flood, backups are there in case you accidentally delete or overwrite a file.  

In both cases, you are protecting your data, and if you absolutely had to, you can use your data backup to restore data after a disaster, or you could use your disaster recovery services to bring back a file you accidentally deleted, but it would be overkill just like using a sledgehammer to put a push-pin into a cork-board.

Both of these services are an important part of your business risk management, and if you have servers in your network environment, both should be properly implemented and managed.

Protect your data and protect your company, contact Unfrustrating Computers at 516-679-5540 and ask us about our Data Backup and Disaster Recovery services.