How To Discover The Greatest Risk Facing Your Business

There is a huge risk facing your business (and it’s data) out there and it’s probably more familiar than you realize. Data loss can be a huge blow to any business whether its account information, billing history, or client files. Any kind of data loss can be critical to a business and it’s the ability to operate and in today’s world that data is susceptible to numerous risks.

To find out the greatest risk facing your business follow these steps:

1. Turn on your smartphone.

2. Go to your camera app.

3. Switch to the the Front Camera

4. Hold the phone up and look into the camera and what you will see is the greatest risk to your business data.

The greatest risk to your business data is YOU.

Since the beginning of time, we’ve been plagued with our own mistakes. Though never intentional they have the propensity to bring about disastrous results. In 1922, an American Chemist, Thomas Midgley, discovered that the compound tetraethyl lead helped fuel to burn at a slower rate. This helped decrease cost but it also resulted in several workers dying from lead poisoning in US factories during the early ’20s. In England, an elderly man accidentally threw away his Euromillions lottery ticket losing his chance to take home over $180 million. In 2005, a Japanese trader “fat-fingered” a trade in which he sold 610,000 shares for 1 yen instead of 1 share for 610,000 yen.

The fact is we’ve all made mistakes and and some of those mistakes have a price to pay with them. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try we’ll always make mistakes and science and statistics say you’ll never be able to avoid them (here’s why). When it comes to a company’s mistakes with data it can have a devastating effect. It can hinder the ability to accomplish day-to-day tasks, lead to hours of repetitive work, and even result in fines or lawsuits. The scary part is that 44% of data loss is caused by an unintentional human action, which means it was an accident. So that ‘fat fingered’ keystroke can affect more than trades on the stock market they could wipe out your critical business data in less than a second.

In the world of technology, we are no less susceptible to mistakes, however, technology has the ability to adapt and statistically lessen the impact of a mistake or remediate the mistakes almost entirely. At DataYard, we believe that mistakes are mistakes and they shouldn’t destroy or hurt someone’s business and that’s why we believe in providing READY Backups to our clients. READY backup provides a solution where we can protect data from mistakes and other threats.

Thomas Midgley, (Photo Credit: Wikimedia)

We can protect your data from yourself.

USER ERROR

Is the source for the majority of data loss. Our backups provide a safety net from little mistakes becoming major catastrophes.

COST OVER COST

The cost of backups is minimal in comparison to what a business could face in fines or data recovery fees.

PEACE OF MIND

Live and work without the worry of little mistakes and threats or malicious activity because we have your back (ups).

GET YOUR BACKUPS HERE


Quick Tips to Greater Password Security

Globally people are taking the time today to bring awareness to the importance of password security. For both individuals and organizations alike password security is of the upmost significance when it comes to protecting ones personal information, finances, documents and many other forms of information. Passwords are one of the most critical layers of security in any situation.

Why should you care about having strong passwords?

  • Because your information is important.
  • Because your privacy is something you can’t ever get back.
  • Because you don’t want to be taken advantage of over something you can control
  • And for businesses it might be part of the policy and you’re risking more than you realize.
  • Because identity theft is not a joke.

Here are a few quick tips that you should understand when it comes to creating and managing your password security.

  1. Include numbers, symbols, and uppercase and lowercase letters.
    We recommend a random assortment of different characters all jumbled up like a good box of Ester-Price candy. The more the merrier.
  2. Do not reuse the same password(s).
    When you use the same password for multiple accounts it puts all those accounts at risk with one breach. When you have different passwords for every login you can limit the extent of a breach to that single account.
  3. Make your password long.
    Passwords that are three characters long take less than one second to crack.
  4. Use a nonsense phrase instead of common words or phrases.
    If it’s never been said or heard before you’re in the clear. Common sayings or even words in the dictionary can be easier to crack so be creative.
  5. Avoid using your personal information, especially things that can be found on social platforms.
    Your name and birthday together is not fooling anyone, Karen.
  6. Don’t give your passwords away to other people.
    This should be a given, but you’d be surprised.
  7. Use a password manager.
    Here are a few we recommend – Keypass, LastPass, Dashlane, 1Password. There are many others as well just find what suits you and see how it goes.
  8. Change your passwords regularly.
    It’s a pain but it can save you a great deal of challenge if done properly.
  9. Use dual-factor authentication
    When this is an option we high recommend that you use it. There are a few different forms of duel authentication and they are all great such as single-use codes, fingerprint ID, and USB Tokens.
  10. If you own or manage an organization YOU NEED A PASSWORD POLICY.
    There is no reason that all of the above shouldn’t be in your corporate handbook or policy for employees to be implementing into all their work passwords. If you do not currently have a password policy in your workplace we highly recommend putting one in place.

Today is the day to change all your passwords, it should only take you a few hours – have fun.

DataYard Tools | How to Change Your Password

DataYard is continuously striving to make IT better and today we’re launching the new and improve Connect Mail Password change module. Below you will find a link to launch this tool, but you can also find access to the Change Your Password Tool on the “My DataYard” page. Otherwise please check out the video below on how to utilize this tool.

 

 

If you still have questions feel free to reach out to our technical support team at 937-226-6896.

DataYard Tools | How To Use Alias Editor

DataYard has recently released a new Alias Editor tool with a fresh new face that gives our users a better experience.  Our email alias tool allows you to set up emails with your domain that forward to another email address. An alias email can be set up to send to either an email at the same domain or a completely different email at a different domain.

For example, if someone owned the domain, yourdomainname.com they could set up an alias email of [email protected] to send to a personal email [email protected] or [email protected].

Here is a quick click through on how to use the Alias Editor.

 

How to Login or Sign Up

Open your browser and go to: tools.datayard.us

Login with your Username and Password.

Don’t have a username/password? Click the Sign-Up button.

DataYard Alias Editor Login Screen

Understanding the Dashboard

Once logged in you will see the Alias Editor Dashboard with the domains you own listed on the left and the aliases currently in place listed on the right. On the right side of the screen, you will see columns for ‘Alias’ and ‘Destination’, which are pretty self-explanatory in that the Alias column is a list of the ‘Aliases’ in use and the ‘Destinations’ are where they are being sent.

If you have more than one domain click on the domain you would like to manage add, edit, or remove your custom aliases from on the right and then you will see the following options on the screen:

 

 

Create New Alias – this will allow you to create a new alias for your domain

Create New Catch-All – this will forward all emails that are sent to the domain that don’t already have predefined alias definitions.

Edit – this will give you the ability to edit the alias name and the recipient addresses for that alias.

Duplicate – this will allow you to duplicate the alias and all the recipients for that alias.

On/Off Switch – this will turn on or turn off the alias so that it continues to work or discontinue working but keeping the record.

Delete – this will delete the alias record altogether.

Understanding the Editing Alias Screen

Once creating or editing an alias you will see the option to create, edit or delete the alias where you can make the changes you desire.

 

If you have further questions please check out our How-To Tutorial video available below or reach out to our support team.

 

New Website Announcement

We’re sticking to our motto “make IT better” by launching this brand spanking new website. It’s a little different than before but we think you’ll like it. For some, this change may come as a surprise and you might not recognize that it’s really us and for others, it might be hard to navigate at first, but that’s what this blog is all about.

 

ACCESSING THE QUICK TOOLS

Our site previously had a top menu bar that featured links to My DataYard, My Webmail, Connect Exchange, and Remote Support. We’ve taken these links and condensed them down to one link ‘My DataYard’, just look to the top right hand of your screen, I’m sure you’ll find it. The My DataYard page will now be the home to all those same links you’re familiar with from the old website.

 

MY DATAYARD

The ‘My DataYard‘ page has been built to give you even more access to our tools, announcements, and system updates. While today it is host to all the same tools you recognize from our old site over the next few months we will be adding some new features that we’re really excited to share with you.

 

QUICK NOTES

The site is up to date on several services, specs, and information that was either out of date or inexistent on the previous site so check it all out and if you have any questions let us know. We’re particularly excited about the new IT support page for our AYS service, which has been one of our fasts growing service, but was previously unrepresented on the website.

Hope you love it and if you have any problems feel free to reach out!

Make IT better!