As I’m just hitting my 5 year anniversary here at RCI (woohoo!), I’ve seen our clients have to go under some very tough, reactive surgeries, simply because they weren’t aware of some preventative medicine that could have saved them dearly (in money, time and mental health).
Here are 5 of the most potent pills Dr. Daher (disclaimer: not actually a doctor) is prescribing to every RCI patient (in no particular order):
- When in Doubt… Backup!! You can ALWAYS delete flies later if you don’t need them, and wouldn’t you rather have too much of your entire career’s work to fall back on after a hard drive failure, rather than the opposite? Bonus tip: Most IT experts agree, one copy of your backup isn’t actually a backup. Have a *minimum* of 2-3 copies of your irreplaceable data (so for example, one copy on your local computer, one on an external HD, and one in the cloud). If you’re not already using a cloud solution like Datto, Crashplan or Backblaze, we’ll be happy to help you choose an option and get setup. We also offer solutions to backup cloud data platforms like Office 365 or Google GSuite.
- Context is King. Does Jim from Accounting typically (or ever) send you emails asking for personal financial details (like bank account/routing number etc.)? Or send mysterious links with no context other than something like “Please click here to see your documents”, or a random invoice attachment when you don’t handle invoices? If not, use that knowledge to get the upper hand in these potential scamming situations. Bad actors (aka scammers, hackers) don’t know your coworkers like you do, simply being aware of that fact already gives you an advantage.
- If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try…. Then Replace. Unlike with people (or even pets!), it’s not always worth the doctor bill to keep an ailing PC breathing. PC life is measured similarly to dog years, each passing one compounds significantly and increases the chance of a component failing. At some point, are you throwing good money after bad for something that may need replacing anyway? And when it does fail, be rest assured it will most likely happen during an extremely inconvenient time when you can least afford downtime. Replacing before it’s absolutely necessary ensures you can schedule the process for a convenient, non-critical time.
- Variety is The Spice of Life. Passwords are the worst, I know. That’s why using one password for everything so you can reserve that space in your head for more important information is SO tempting. Don’t do it! Major security breaches are happening at a record pace, if one of your passwords is among those compromised, you’ll be sleeping better at night knowing the hacker doesn’t immediately now have access to 5-10 other sensitive websites that use the same password. If you only want to remember a single password, see the next point.
- The Shortest Pencil is Better Than the Longest Memory. If you’re already taking pill #4 above, great! But that’s only half the battle, with password diversity comes another struggle… password amnesia. At the very least, please write down your passwords, but don’t ever just stick them into an Excel or Notepad file on your desktop! More ideally for security reasons, as well as convenience, we recommend using a password manager like Keeper or 1Password (but NOT Lastpass, due to several recent security issues). With this option, not only are all your passwords safely encrypted and stored in the cloud behind 1 single (complex) password that you’ll need to remember, but it will also help you generate complex passwords automatically, as well as a number of other features. RCI offers Keeper licensing and can train your staff to use it, just let us know when you’re ready to ditch that old sheet of paper!
Remember, we are here for all of your IT and Cybersecurity needs. Please call us at 858-880-0355 x2 and we’ll be happy to help and advise!
-Nate, IT Support Member at Regala Consulting