The Connection, Inc Blog

The Connection, Inc has been serving the New Jersey area since 1992, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Want to Learn How to Steal a Password? It’s Easier Than You Think

Want to Learn How to Steal a Password? It’s Easier Than You Think

Passwords are one of the most important parts of keeping any account secure, and if you were to gain access to these accounts, you’d have access to personal data, subscriptions, money, and even the victim’s identity. Today, we want to show you just how easy it is to steal a password and gain access to an account.

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Tomorrow is World Password Day (But Passwords Are Just Half the Battle)

Tomorrow is World Password Day (But Passwords Are Just Half the Battle)

Did you know that tomorrow is World Password Day, 2023? As the result of a campaign to spread awareness of the importance of sufficiently secure passwords, it has become an annual reminder of how critical sufficient passwords are to proper cybersecurity…despite passwords not being sufficient protection on their own. In light of tomorrow’s observance, let’s take some time to review why passwords are important to get right, and what else you need to have in place.

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How to Get Back Into Your Multi-Factor Authentication Account

How to Get Back Into Your Multi-Factor Authentication Account

Multi-factor authentication is great when it works, but when it doesn’t, it can leave you in a pretty difficult situation. After all, what happens when all of a sudden, you cannot access your secondary authentication methods? We’re here to help you bypass this particularly challenging and frustrating scenario.

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4 Simple Rules for Good Passwords

4 Simple Rules for Good Passwords

Simple passwords are just not an effective security practice, so if you’re still using credentials like Password, 123456, Guest, or Qwerty, listen up. You need better password hygiene practices before you suffer from a data breach. Here are some ways you can make a better password to protect your business from threats.

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I Changed All My Passwords and It Was a Nightmare (But Totally Worth It)

I Changed All My Passwords and It Was a Nightmare (But Totally Worth It)

Nobody wants to spend their weekend doing paperwork. Nobody wants to spend several evenings in a row sitting over a laptop and slowly digging through every online account they have, resetting every password and carefully documenting everything in a secure password manager. I know this better than anyone, because I forced myself to do it.

Here’s the thing though, EVERYBODY should do it. As soon as possible.

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Tip of the Week: Building Strong Password Practices

Tip of the Week: Building Strong Password Practices

Passwords are just one part of a comprehensive security strategy, but they are a crucial one. You must make sure that you are investing adequate time and effort into making sure your passwords are secure. This is easier said than done, but by the end of today’s short blog article, you’ll have all the information you need to craft excellent passwords for your accounts.

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Tip of the Week: 3 Things You Can Do to Keep Your Business’ IT More Secure

Tip of the Week: 3 Things You Can Do to Keep Your Business’ IT More Secure

With many businesses’ increased reliance on their information systems and other IT, they need to do everything they can to keep those systems up and running and secure. This not only includes rolling out security systems that support that goal, it also demands they take the action necessary to keep these systems secure. Let’s look at four things you need to do to keep your business’ IT as secure as possible. 

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Outlining the Usefulness of the Password Manager App

Outlining the Usefulness of the Password Manager App

Businesses sure use a lot of online accounts, and if they don’t keep track of the passwords associated with these accounts, things can get messy fast. To help with this effort, password managers, or applications that store passwords in an encrypted vault, have really taken off. Here are some of the reasons why businesses invest in password management solutions.

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How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication for Your Google, Apple, and Microsoft Accounts

How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication for Your Google, Apple, and Microsoft Accounts

Two-factor authentication is commonplace in the office environment, but it’s not commonplace enough, if you ask us. Too many organizations pass on it, placing their security at risk for no good reason. While the methods might vary, the benefits of two-factor authentication are too good to ignore. We’ll walk you through how to set up two-factor authentication for three of the most common accounts in the business environment: Microsoft, Google, and Apple.

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Using a Password Manager Can Keep Your Accounts Secure

Using a Password Manager Can Keep Your Accounts Secure

It’s true that if they are created to be secure, passwords are hard to remember. There is also no denying, however, how important it is to use different ones for each account, all sufficiently complex. If you are doing things right, you probably have too many passwords to remember, which is why a password management system is a solid tool. This month, let’s take a look at the password management system.

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How’s Your Password Hygiene?

How’s Your Password Hygiene?

I’m not sure we need to tell you how important passwords are: they are the front-line defense to most of the accounts you create. What is often overlooked is the strategy of how to use a password to successfully protect accounts and data. Today, we will discuss best practices   when creating and managing your passwords and how you are likely approaching your password strategy improperly. 

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Tip of the Week: The Guide to Optimal Password Efficacy

Tip of the Week: The Guide to Optimal Password Efficacy

Your business’ security largely depends on how secure the passwords are that keep your resources from being accessed without authorization. Despite this, many users—perhaps even you—frequently sacrifice sufficient security measures in favor of the simple and convenient route, cutting corners when coming up with their passwords. Let’s try and remedy this by reviewing a few practices that can help make a password more effective.

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Be Sure to Update Your Microsoft Passwords

Be Sure to Update Your Microsoft Passwords

The new year is upon us and after the debacle that 2020 was, it is extremely welcome. If you are like us, you have a new set of goals that you’ve created for yourself and are probably looking to improve your professional and personal well-being. One way to do that is to ensure that your accounts are secure. Today, we will be going through how to update your password with Microsoft.

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How to Make Your Google Account More Secure

How to Make Your Google Account More Secure

Going through your passwords and updating them every so often is a very wise habit to get into, particularly when they are used to protect a lot of data—as the password to your Google account often is. Considering this, let’s go over how to update your Google password and otherwise lock down your account.

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A QR Code Could Be your New Wi-Fi Password

A QR Code Could Be your New Wi-Fi Password

There is no understating the importance of strong, reliable passwords to your organization’s network security, especially to protect its wireless connection. However, this can create some friction with your staff when they try to connect to Wi-Fi using their mobile device. To make accessing the Internet easier, scannable QR codes can be used to connect to the Internet.

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ALERT: Change Your Twitter Password, Says Twitter

ALERT: Change Your Twitter Password, Says Twitter

Twitter is recommending that all 336 million users change their passwords as soon as possible due to the discovery of an internal security flaw. While the issue has been fixed and no data breach seems to have taken place, Twitter is clearly taking this situation seriously.


On Thursday, May 3, it came to light that there was an internal log upon which an undisclosed number of account passwords were recorded without any protection. As a result, this unknown amount of passwords can no longer be considered secure, even though there is no apparent evidence that any data breach has occurred.

Twitter uses a process called hashing to protect their passwords, as many companies do. However, a bug created a log of passwords before they were hashed, leaving them fully legible. This bug has since been resolved.

In response to this situation, Twitter is being proactive and recommending that all of its users change their passwords, just in case. To do so, log in to your account in your browser, access Settings and privacy, and from there, Password. It is also a good idea to enable two-factor authentication by accessing Settings and privacy, clicking into Account. Once there, click on the “Set up login verification” button and follow the instructions. You will find yourself on a Login verification screen, where you can activate the means to generate another authentication code.

While disaster seems to be averted this time, you should not hesitate to change your password as soon as possible, and makes sure that all of your online accounts have strong passwords in place. For more information about keeping your identity safe online, call the IT professionals at The Connection, Inc at (732) 291-5938.

 

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Want to Keep Your “Personal” Browsing a Secret? Scam Says: Pay Up!

Want to Keep Your “Personal” Browsing a Secret? Scam Says: Pay Up!

A new email scam is making its rounds and it has a lot of people concerned with just how much a hacker can peer into one’s private life. How would you react if a stranger emailed you saying they had inappropriate webcam footage of you?

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Tip of the Week: Password Protecting a Word Document

Tip of the Week: Password Protecting a Word Document

The funny thing about some documents is how the data written on them can strongly influence how important they are. If, for instance, there were two pieces of paper on a table, there is objectively no difference between the two, and so they are objectively equivalent in value.

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For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Keep Looming Threats in Mind

For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Keep Looming Threats in Mind

Any business in operation today needs to keep modern realities concerning cybersecurity at top-of-mind if they are going to successfully maintain the business going forward. One major issue to be cognizant of is the increasing prevalence of phishing attacks.


Did you know that, in 2018, phishing attacks had increased by 269 percent as compared to 2017? Furthermore, phishing was involved in 32 percent of all reported data breaches that year. Businesses located in the United States also seem to have the most to be worried about, as almost 86 percent of phishing attacks were leveraged against American targets.

It’s No Wonder that Phishing is Being Addressed During NCSAM

NCSAM, or National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, is meant to encourage awareness of cybersecurity practices and behaviors in an attempt to promote them. This year’s lessons cover many basic cybersecurity practices - including how to identify and avoid phishing attempts, reinforcing the 2019 theme of “Own IT. Secure IT. Protect IT.”

Of course, we can also help you out by giving you some actionable best practices now.

  • Be wary of unsolicited or unexpected messages - One of the biggest clues that something is a phishing message is that it will likely appear out of the blue. If you suddenly get an email “from Amazon” that says suspicious purchases have been made on your account and you need to re-verify your payment credentials, think about it for a second - have you received any other emails from Amazon in regard to these purchases, as in delivery schedules or order confirmations? The same concept applies to emails that come from any sender. Before you interact with one of these emails, try reaching out to the supposed sender through some other means to confirm.

  • Avoid unanticipated links or attachments - Cybercriminals have become irritatingly clever in how they deliver their attacks and malware - not only delivering a convincing argument via phishing, but hiding executable malware inside documents that activate when the attachments are opened or delivered via a bad URL. Unless you were anticipating a link or attachment in an email, you should always be hesitant to click on them - at least until you’ve confirmed their legitimacy through another form of communication.

  • Check the details - Make sure that the email is actually coming from where it should. Cybercriminals will sometimes create fraudulent emails that, at a quick glance, look similar enough to the real McCoy that a user may not spot the difference. Is the address from “contact@gmail-dot-com,” or from “contact@grnail-dot-com”? Look at the second option closely. G-R-N-A-I-L probably isn’t the mail service your contact uses, suggesting that this email is fake.

While this month may be dedicated to improved cybersecurity awareness, it isn’t as though you don’t have to consider it for the rest of the year. The Connection, Inc is here to assist you in keeping your business and its data secure. Give us a call at (732) 291-5938 to learn more about the solutions we have to offer.

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Do and Don'ts of Managing Your Passwords

Do and Don'ts of Managing Your Passwords

Password security is a tricky part of running a business. After all, it’s not just dealing with your own password, but those of the many employees all throughout your organization. In times like this, it’s helpful to provide them with a list of how to make the best passwords possible. Here are a couple of examples for what to do, as well as what you shouldn’t do, when building a proper password.

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The Connection, Inc. Celebrates 32 Years as a Trusted Technology Provider!   Since our founding in 1992, technology and the way we operate and do business has changed a lot. Companies that have adapted and aligned themselves with ...

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The Connection, Inc
51 Village CT
Hazlet, New Jersey 07730