Passwords are an integral part of securing both IT systems and online accounts. In order to keep your system and information safe, it is important to take the time to create strong passwords that hackers and online thieves won't easily figure out.

If you think using 'password' as your password is no big deal, then it's time to rethink.

Security experts have recently compiled a list of the worst passwords users can choose, and 'password' is at the very top of the list. Weak passwords make your information more vulnerable simply because hackers can guess them. It may be easier to pick a password that you don't have to think about, but it's a choice that you may come to regret.

To help you avoid common password choice mistakes that users make, management application provider SplashData has compiled a list of the 25 worst passwords to use:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

Make a smart password choice Experts advise using a combination of letters and numbers when creating your passwords, and to avoid things that anyone might be able to guess, such as birthdays and anniversary dates. Passwords with eight characters or more are safer and it's best to use different passwords for different accounts and websites. Use a password manager to help you keep track of all of your passwords if you're finding it difficult to remember them all..

No matter how sophisticated your security system is, a weak password gives hackers and online thieves an advantage. Helping all the users in your organization understand the importance of password strength will help you secure the IT systems in your organization.

If you're interested in learning more, please contact us so we can develop a comprehensive and custom security blueprint that meets your specific needs.

Reference: Worst Internet Passwords

If you are using Windows Gadgets (or those small mini-applications that are embedded on your desktop that show interesting things like the latest news, weather updates, or sports scores), you may sometimes wish you can just quickly hide them to declutter your workspace.

In Windows 7, you can do just that. Simply right-click on the desktop, go to View, and then clear the check mark on Show desktop gadgets. This will hide the gadgets. If you want to bring them back, just restore the check mark again.

A massive network of bots – an estimated at least four million of them – was taken down in a raid recently. Completed with the cooperation of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), authorities in Estonia, as well as security firm Trend Micro, this bust is the biggest cybercriminal arrest in history.

Four million is a big number – which makes four million bots, in security terms, a staggering and frightening number as well.

It is a good thing, then, that four million is also the number of bots taken down in a recent bust by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Estonian Police, and security firm Trend Micro. Data centers in New York City, Chicago, and Estonia were raided by authorities, shutting down hundreds of servers used to create a network of bots that spanned some 100 countries.

The said bust, dubbed “Operation Ghost Click”, is one of – if not THE – largest cybercriminal bust in history, putting to sleep a sophisticated scamming operation that victimized 4 to 5 million users and was said to have generated at least $14 million in illegal revenue.

The scam mainly involved hijacking Domain Name Server (DNS) settings in infected computers, which can be used not only to introduce more malware into an IT system, but also to hijack search results and replace advertisements loaded on websites visited through an infected computer.

While this bust does bode well for all IT users everywhere in the world, it also illustrates the scope of influence and level of organization behind security threats. Since this is probably not the only scam / fraud / botnet operation in the world, it is always best to have a comprehensive security policy for your IT infrastructure to minimize the risk of compromising your company’s data and information.

For more details on the bust, check out Trend Micro’s blog post here.

Have you ever sent an email and then immediately regretted sending it? If you are using Gmail as your mail client, you can do just that with an interesting but buried option in Gmail settings.

To enable this feature, go to Mail Settings in Gmail (upper right corner, under the gear icon). Navigate to the "Labs" tab. In the labs search box, look for "Undo Send" and choose Enable, then save. Now in Mail Settings you will see an option to "Undo Send: Send cancellation period: __ seconds." Enter the number of seconds that Gmail will allow you to change your mind in the future (try 10 seconds).

With this enabled, the next time you send an email, you’ll be able to “Cancel” it from being sent out, as long as it is within the time frame you specified.

Security experts are predicting a rise in the use of personal gadgets to access company data – which means that you will have less control over what kind of data goes in and out of your IT system. The best way to rectify this is by having a concrete and comprehensive IT policy that secures your data – without compromising the freedom of your employees to use their mobile devices.

As technology continues to become more affordable and accessible to consumers, it's an inevitable fact that employers will see more and more of their employees using their own personal devices such as laptops and mobile phones to access the company's IT system.

This can be a dangerous thing. Since these devices aren't company owned and regulated, you have limited access and control over how they are used. Employees could download all sorts of malware and viruses on their devices and pass the infection along to your IT system when they access it.

The solution: a comprehensive IT security policy. It's important that you find a compromise between the freedom of the employee to use the device as desired and your need to keep your IT system safe from viruses and other threats to your data's security. Steps such as having employees run mobile device management (MDM) software on their devices is one of many actions you can take to lessen the risk of security breaches. You may also want to implement applications and software that check and screen for malware, both for laptops and mobile devices. And don't forget that while Android seems to have a bigger problem with malicious software, Apple isn't exactly virus-free, either.

Employees have a right to use their personal devices as they see fit, but not at the expense of important company information stored in your IT system. Running a tight ship in terms of security is an effective way to protect your business interests and your sensitive company data. If you are interested in knowing more about developing a concrete and effective IT security policy for personal device use as well as general system access, please don't hesitate to give us a call so we can sit down with you and discuss a custom security blueprint that's just right for you.

Do you prefer Bing over Google but like Google's sparse but fast loading page better? With this tip you can get the best of both worlds.

As users of Bing know, when you visit the home page of Bing, a page with a featured photo as the background is displayed by default, which increases the load time of the page. This can be distracting or annoying—especially if you have a slow connection. Disable this photo from loading by simply bookmarking this URL (http://www.bing.com/?rb=0). The next time you visit Bing, the photo will not appear.

A survey by StaySafeOnline.org shows some disturbing results – that a large number of small business, while largely dependent on their computer systems, do not see themselves as threatened by hackers and online thieves. This results in a significant percentage of them having poor or mediocre security.

StaySafeOnline.org, a website of the National Cyber Security Alliance, has recently released a study that chronicles the cyber security practices and attitudes of small businesses. Conducted in partnership with Visa, the study shows some interesting, if not disturbing, results.

It turns out that many small businesses (about 65% of the respondents) are highly dependent on their computer / IT / data systems, where they store important information, from sensitive company financial records to personal client information such as credit card info, addresses and phone numbers, and more. However, as many as 85% believe that they will not be targeted by hackers and online thieves, and less than half have data security systems in which they are confident. In general, small businesses have, at best, a mediocre security system.

Few realize, though, that it only takes one breach to compromise a company's finances and relationships with clients. And if you have less than stellar security, stealing from you is easier. You might not have as many online assets as big businesses, but hackers can make a hefty profit by victimizing several easy marks as opposed to bigger and riskier efforts with more secure systems of larger firms.

Don't take a risk with important data, and don't compromise the relationships and reputation you've built with your clients over the years. Good security is always worth it. If you're interested in knowing more about beefing up your security through company policies, software, and user education, please don't hesitate to contact us. We'd be happy to sit down with you and discuss a security blueprint that's cost effective and custom built to meet your specific needs.

Reference: National Small Business Study

With the new Microsoft Windows Multipoint Server, better and improved features are designed to make business operations much more productive and cost effective. With support for thin clients and older workstations as well as better connectivity with other Microsoft Server products, the new Multipoint Server is sure to be a much more versatile tool to help you do business better.

Cost efficiency and value are some of the major concerns many businesses – especially small ones – have these days. It is essential for small businesses to be able to minimize expenses while keeping productivity and quality up to standards.

Microsoft's Windows Server systems have always been designed with this concern in mind. And with the new version of Windows Multipoint Server, better and improved features are designed to enable businesses to be more flexible in the way they use Windows products while keeping costs to a minimum.

What's different this time around? For one, while we always recommend using the latest systems, Windows Multipoint Server 2011 accommodates older systems – so if you still have some older workstations you haven't been able to upgrade just yet, you can still squeeze some more productivity from them until you can upgrade. Windows Multipoint Server 2011 also supports thin clients (computers that depend on a server for the majority of their calculations), laptops, and netbooks using the regular LAN network – among other methods.

Another new feature of the new Multipoint Server is that it can be backed up by Windows Small Business Server Essentials, and it also provides better connectivity with Windows Small Business Server 2011 and Windows Home Server 2011. Through Windows Multipoint Server 2011, administrators can also view and interact with station desktops connected to it.

If you want to know more about the new Windows Multipoint Server, please give us a call and we'll be happy to sit down with you and discuss how it can improve the way you do business.

Did you know that on iOS5 on the iPad, you can actually split the keyboard into two? This can be useful for typing with your thumbs if you are holding the iPad with both hands.

To do so, press and hold the keyboard icon on the on-screen keyboard. An option will appear, allowing you to split the keyboard into two. Alternatively you can drag the keyboard icon up across the screen until the keyboard splits up. Still another way is to simply put two fingers around the center of the keyboard and simultaneously drag them apart in a splitting motion.

As the worldwide use of Facebook continues to grow, more and more scams are appearing on the popular social networking website. Using promos, "interesting" links and all other sorts of strategies to trap you, a grain of salt is always needed when dealing with things outside of what Facebook offers.

As more and more people continue to use Facebook – both for personal and business purposes – it seems to follow that all sorts of unscrupulous individuals and groups will find ways to exploit this popularity for their own illicit benefit.

In the same way people are phished through email, hackers and scammers use similar techniques to fool Facebook users into falling for their tricks. The combination of curiosity and trust is what hackers rely on to make users fill in contact details for non-existent promotions, visit suspicious websites, or download fake software, all through Facebook. While Facebook has instituted some additional security measures to counter this threat, the consensus is that it is a generally lukewarm, or even cursory response to the issue.

What makes it worse is that you aren't usually the first victim – those links and whatnot appear on your News Feed courtesy of a contact who has fallen into the same trap. So always be wary of events or promos your contacts invite you to join.

The most important thing is to have both the right knowledge and software to prevent getting scammed not only on Facebook, but anywhere else on the Web. Facebook is just a new medium for scammers and hackers to steal information and data – and they'll do the same thing once the next big thing on the Web comes along.

If you want to know more about Facebook scams and how you can better protect yourself – both through training and the right software solutions – please feel free to give us a call so we can help you set up a more secure system for your business that's custom-built to meet your specific needs.