Phone text danger! – Flubot

Phone text danger! – Flubot

As most everyone knows, cyber-crime has increased massively over the last year or two. Dodgy emails have been the weapon of choice for criminals.  But now a new threat is growing, catching out victims via SMS text messages on our phones.

Flubot, having done the rounds of European countries has arrived in Australia and I’m getting plenty of dodgy text messages wanting me to click on a link to listen to a voicemail message.

Find out what happens if you tap…

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Using Outlook on Other Devices

Using Outlook on Other Devices

Using Outlook on other devices is very easy and will help you have convenient access to your email inbox.

Microsoft Outlook has lots of features that help you organise your work and personal life with the barrage of emails that flood in daily.

Most are familiar with using the Outlook desktop app, but away from your usual PC or Mac, you can still have access to Outlook.

Open any internet browser and browse office.com. Here you can log in with your email address and password.

Access to other Microsoft 365 Apps

You’ll have access in the left-hand menu, to all of the Microsoft 365 apps that you have a license for, including Outlook. As Microsoft is pushing users to the cloud, you will find that you have many if not most of the features that you are used to with the desktop app.

When receiving email on your iPhone or Android phone, it’s best not to use the built-in email app but to download Microsoft Outlook. Your organisation should have set up security in Microsoft 365 so that your company emails and data on the phone can be controlled and remotely wiped if the phone is lost or stolen. All of your email accounts can be set up in Outlook so that you can easily see all emails.

A very recent addition by Microsoft is the ability to listen to your emails being read to you. This is great if you want to go hands-free and listen to and delete, archive, reply just with voice commands.

Here’s a short video on the new feature (it mentions Apple iOS but is now added to Android as well).

Now, you’ll be able to see that using Outlook on other devices will help you access your emails anywhere you go.

If you are interested in learning more about Microsoft products, please call at 1300 795105 and we can discuss options for your business needs.

Prima Technologies is a local IT managed services company with a passion for helping businesses to work efficiently, and safely with their computer systems.

Keep your business running smoothly and your data safe and secure. We take care of all your technology needs so you can achieve your company’s dreams and objectives.

In the meantime, check out our previous blog posts:

What Is OneDrive? – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Storage – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Sharing From OneDrive – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Known Folder Move – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Microsoft Lens – Use it, you’ll love it

Don’t Use The Same Password – A cautionary tale

Why Use a Password Manager?

Microsoft 365: Why Use Outlook

Check out our latest case study published on the D-Link Australia website.

Read it here: Historical Village Deploys Latest Wireless Technology, Delivering Reliable Wi-Fi for Staff and Guests Alike.

Microsoft 365: Why Use Outlook

Microsoft 365: Why Use Outlook

Outlook

                     Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft 365: Why Use Outlook

If you are not using Outlook 365 or a similar modern email system, you may be using obsolete technology to receive and store emails. This is not a good idea as it makes you vulnerable to attack. Your mailbox is probably only on your computer hard drive, and you could easily lose the lot. Also, you won’t have all of the other functions that a business can take advantage of.

An overview of features in Outlook 365 includes:

  • Calendar, contact, and task lists.
  • A large 50GB primary mailbox.
  • Add an archive and you have an extra 100GB of storage space
  • Email recovery: Emails deleted from the deleted folder can still be recovered for a short period of time or you can turn on…
  • Litigation Hold. With this function, ALL emails are kept in a separate repository. That includes all deleted emails. Litigation hold enables businesses to have all of the emails needed for a court case, even when an employee has tried to cover their tracks.
  • Option to monitor other mailboxes (e.g., a PA can monitor the boss’s mailbox and action emails with the ‘send on behalf’ or ‘send as’ function).
  • Shared mailboxes. These do not need to have a license. Mailboxes such as admin, info, enquiries, for example, could be set up and allocated to the appropriate staff members.
    As long as the staff members each have a paid license they can also send and receive using the shared mailbox.
    Room or equipment mailboxes can also be set up without consuming a license.

With these features and other security functions, you can work more safely and efficiently.

Outlook also integrates with other Microsoft 365 apps such as ToDo and Planner, etc. to contribute to the Modern Workplace, work from anywhere, environment.

In our next blog posts, we’ll look at using Outlook on different platforms.

If you are interested in learning more about Microsoft products, please call at 1300 795105 and we can discuss options for your business needs.

Prima Technologies is a local IT managed services company that has a passion for helping businesses to work efficiently, and safely with their computer systems.

Keep your business running smoothly and your data safe and secure. We take care of all your technology needs so you can achieve your company’s dreams and objectives.

In the meantime, check out our previous blog posts:

What Is OneDrive? – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Storage – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Sharing From OneDrive – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Known Folder Move – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Microsoft Lens – Use it, you’ll love it

Don’t Use The Same Password – A cautionary tale

Why Use a Password Manager?

Check out our latest case study published on the D-Link Australia website.

Read it here: Historical Village Deploys Latest Wireless Technology, Delivering Reliable Wi-Fi for Staff and Guests Alike.

Windows 11 – Microsoft’s Big Announcement

Windows 11 – Microsoft’s Big Announcement

Windows 11

                  Microsoft Windows 11

Microsoft Windows 11

Microsoft’s Big Announcement was anticipated by the tech community.

With the launch of Windows 10 back in 2015, Microsoft stated that there would be no further Windows, just updates to Windows 10.

Well, technology moves on, and now that changes.

Recently, Microsoft announced their newest operating system which is now certain to be called Windows 11.

There has been an early build leaked to the internet so much is already known about the product. It’s got a new start menu, new sounds, icons, an updated look, and feel.

It’s rumored that this upgrade could be free for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users.

Take a look at the above picture courtesy of Microsoft. That’s Microsoft’s Big Announcement. They’ve bent the laws of physics to portray the number of the Windows build-in the rays of light coming through the window.

In our next blog posts, we’ll start a series on Outlook 365. Email is such a big component in most businesses’ technology.

There is much worth knowing about the functions and features that are available when your email is hosted on Microsoft 365.

If you are interested in learning more about Microsoft products, please call at 1300 795105 and we can discuss options for your business needs.

Prima Technologies is a local IT managed services company that has a passion for helping businesses to work efficiently, and safely with their computer systems.

Keep your business running smoothly and your data safe and secure. We take care of all your technology needs so you can achieve your company’s dreams and objectives.

In the meantime, check out our previous blog posts:

What Is OneDrive? – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Storage – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Sharing From OneDrive – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Known Folder Move – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Microsoft Lens – Use it, you’ll love it

Don’t Use The Same Password – A cautionary tale

Why Use a Password Manager?

Check out our latest case study published on the D-Link Australia website.

Read it here: Historical Village Deploys Latest Wireless Technology, Delivering Reliable Wi-Fi for Staff and Guests Alike.

Why Use a Password Manager?

Why Use a Password Manager?

Why Use a Password Manager? In these days of increased cybercrime, a good password (as well as other defenses), is extremely important.

A common problem with passwords though is that it’s hard to remember all of them. This means that many people end up with one or two passwords that they use everywhere.

This problem can be solved with a password manager.

A good password manager:

  • Generates complex passwords.
  • Will auto-login into your accounts including those protected by MFA (multi-factor authentication).
  • Many will monitor the dark web to discover compromised passwords.

There are many password managers available online. Good ones include Myki, DashlaneRoboformKeeper, and LastPass.

Why Use a Password Manager

LastPass is a popular choice. You can start with a free version and upgrade for very little cost for more features, including installation on more than one device.

Why Use a Password Manager? When you set up your password manager, its password is the only password that you will need to remember.

You’ll need to make it complex, of course, so how can you remember it?
Creating a pass phrase, a sentence including the spaces between the words means that it is very hard to crack but quite easy to remember.

Then you can get your password manager to generate long, complex, passwords and once you have it installed on your phone and other devices you will never have to remember passwords.

So, you can have unique and very complex passwords for every account, but easily log in via your password manager.

Check out our previous blog posts:

What Is OneDrive? – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Storage – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Sharing From OneDrive – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Known Folder Move – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Microsoft Lens – Use it, you’ll love it

Don’t Use The Same Password – A cautionary tale

 

See our latest case study published on the D-Link Australia website.

Read it here: Historical Village Deploys Latest Wireless Technology, Delivering Reliable Wi-Fi for Staff and Guests Alike.

 

Don’t Use The Same Password – A cautionary tale

Don’t Use The Same Password – A cautionary tale

Don’t use the same password

Don’t use the same password should be your company’s mantra on creating safe access to each account.

On May 7 of this year Colonial Pipeline based in Houston, Texas, suffered a ransomware attack that crippled its operations. Colonial Pipeline is an American oil pipeline company. Their system is the largest fuel pipeline in the US. They paid a ransom of 4.4 million dollars in Bitcoin within several hours of the attack.

The way that hackers were able to gain entry to Colonial Pipelines systems was through a single compromised password.
Cybersecurity consultants found that on April 29 a virtual private network (VPN) account was the means by which the hackers accessed the companies network.

This VPN was no longer in use. However, it had not been deactivated and the account’s password was discovered in a batch of leaked passwords on the dark web. This would mean that a Colonial employee would have used that same password on another account that was previously hacked.

Password manager

This shows how important it is to not use the same password for multiple accounts.
It takes one breach of a site that uses that password, and your company or private data is exposed.

So how do you remember all of those passwords?
Is having different passwords for every service that you access just too hard to manage?
The answer is a password manager.

And remember, don’t use the same password.

Business Cyber Security Protection

Check out our previous blog posts:

What Is OneDrive? – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Storage – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Sharing From OneDrive – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Known Folder Move – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Microsoft Lens – Use it, you’ll love it

 

See our latest case study published on the D-Link Australia website.

Read it here: Historical Village Deploys Latest Wireless Technology, Delivering Reliable Wi-Fi for Staff and Guests Alike.

Microsoft Lens – Use it, you’ll love it

Microsoft Lens – Use it, you’ll love it

Microsoft Lens – Use it, you’ll love it! Just like we do!

Microsoft Lens is an app that is an essential tool in my business, formerly called Office Lens.

It’s no longer a part of Microsoft 365 but a free app for Android and iPhone.

It’s better than your phone camera for capturing that PowerPoint slide at a conference, a whiteboard sketch, digitising business cards, your old printed photos, or my most common use of capturing receipts.

When I make a business purchase I will take a picture with MS Lens. You can see this in the screenshot below.
I’ve just purchased petrol. The receipt is on my car’s passenger seat and MS Lens has automatically selected the receipt, cropping it from the background scene.

Microsoft Lens

Once you take the picture you can adjust the captured border if needed. MS Lens will straighten up an angled shot too.
Confirm the capture. In this next screen, you can crop, rotate, insert text, or add more pages of a document that you are capturing, etc.

Clicking ‘Done’ moves you onto the save screen (see below image). Here I’ll change the title so that my bookkeeper knows what the receipt is about. OneDrive, where I keep the receipts, is already selected because I used it last time.
Captured an article? You can even have MS Lens read out the text to you, maybe even in a different language with an immersive reader. Tap ‘save’ and I can dispose of the printed receipt.

 

Microsoft Lens

Microsoft has made some improvements to Microsoft Lens this year, including a few that I’ve mentioned above. You can scan up to 100 pages as images or pdfs. And by the way, colour is great in scans of printed photos.

Microsoft Lens has become an essential app in my business. Try it, I’m sure you’ll like it.

Check out our previous blog posts:

What Is OneDrive? – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Storage – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Sharing From OneDrive – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Known Folder Move – Work Smarter with OneDrive

 

See our latest case study published on the D-Link Australia website.

Read it here: Historical Village Deploys Latest Wireless Technology, Delivering Reliable Wi-Fi for Staff and Guests Alike.

 

One Day Backups May Save Your Business

One Day Backups May Save Your Business

One Day Backups May Save Your Business

One-day backups may save your business from big trouble if you had been keeping file backups. There was a story the other day about a company that was hit with a ransomware virus and all their data was encrypted. Because they didn’t have consistent backups, they had to pay the ransom to get their data back.

It’s not like you’re going to recover all the encrypted data at all. Not to mention many cases that paid ransom only to find out that they still couldn’t get the data that were withheld. You can’t expect that to happen at all.

One thing I cannot stress enough is the importance of backing up your personal or company data. I believe in the rule that any data that is important enough to back up should be kept in at least two other locations.

Anything can happen in the blink of an eye; hard drive failure, virus infection or ransomware encrypting all your files, or even a fire in your office building.

If you are interested in learning how backups can benefit your company, please call at 1300 795105 and we can discuss options for backing up your company files.

Prima Technologies is a local IT managed services company that has a passion for helping businesses to work efficiently, and safely with their computer systems.

Keep your business running smoothly and your data safe and secure. We take care of all your technology needs so you can achieve your company’s dreams and objectives.

See our latest case study published on the D-Link Australia website.

Read it here: Historical Village Deploys Latest Wireless Technology, Delivering Reliable Wi-Fi for Staff and Guests Alike.

Business Cyber Security Protection

Check out our previous blog posts:

What Is OneDrive? – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Storage – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Sharing From OneDrive – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Known Folder Move – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Known Folder Move

OneDrive Known Folder Move

Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Known Folder Move

onedrive known folder move

Want to know more about how to Work Smarter with OneDrive?

With OneDrive, you can backup your important folders automatically. Important folders may include documents, desktops, and pictures. This is known as OneDrive Known Folder Move (backup).

This means that you can continue to work in the ‘traditional’ manner. In fact, you can save documents in your documents folder on your PC. These documents are safely backed up with OneDrive known folder move so you have access to them from any other device. No need to copy documents to a flash drive and you can work on them when you go home from work.

The known folder move is probably set up by default. But to check, select ‘help and settings’ by clicking on the OneDrive cloud symbol on the taskbar. In settings, you will see a ‘backup’ tab. On that tab, you can control whether or not you want your local folders to be backed up to OneDrive.

Restore OneDrive

If something goes wrong, you can restore your OneDrive to any time over the previous 30 days.

View OneDrive online and click the settings cog in the top right.

Select ‘restore your OneDrive’ and then select a time period to see a histogram that shows file activity so that you can see where you should restore back to.

We have other helpful topics about OneDrive for Business.

Check out our previous blog post about using OneDrive:

What Is OneDrive? – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Storage – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Sharing From OneDrive – Work Smarter with OneDrive

See our latest case study published on the D-Link Australia website.

Read it here: Historical Village Deploys Latest Wireless Technology, Delivering Reliable Wi-Fi for Staff and Guests Alike.

Sharing From OneDrive – Work Smarter with OneDrive

Work Smarter with OneDrive

Sharing From OneDrive

Sharing from OneDrive

OneDrive is great for securely sharing files.

You have a lot of options when you share a document that can make sure that the document is only made available to those who it is intended for. You can specify who to share to, set an expiry on the share, share with password, allow editing, or only allow read access.

When you right click on a document the share option appears in the displayed menu. Select share and you will see a window like the one above.

If the document has been already shared you can check who has access by clicking the three dots at the top right of the window (not shown in this picture). Here you can immediately block access.

Moving down the window you can select who can access the document. Anyone with a link, anyone in the same organisation or only specific people.

You can untick ‘allow editing’ so that the receiver can only view the document.

You can set an expiration date after which time the document is no longer shared., and you can set the share to only be accessible with a password.

If you have unticked ‘allow editing’ you can also block downloading of the file.

There are controls in Microsoft 365 that allow the ability to not only stop downloading of a document but prevent the printing or forwarding of a document.

This can be valuable, for instance, to a business that does not want printing or forwarding of quotations that they send to prospective customers.

Check out our next blog…’Known Folder Move’

Known Folder Move (backup) – Work Smarter with OneDrive

We have another helpful topic about OneDrive for Business.

Check out our previous blog posts about using OneDrive:

What Is OneDrive? – Work Smarter with OneDrive

OneDrive Storage – Work Smarter with OneDrive

See our latest case study published on the D-Link Australia website.

Read it here: Historical Village Deploys Latest Wireless Technology, Delivering Reliable Wi-Fi for Staff and Guests Alike.