TechBytes

Quickbooks offers users at every level, an enterprise-grade accounting program to track income and expenses. This software package was designed to enable businesses to track financial expenditures and income with the level of detail necessary for complete control of company finances. It is somewhat like a soft copy of accounting book. Some people may find it a bit hard to navigate using the mouse or the navigation pad of a computer while working on a given document. The good news is that there are alternatives to achieving the same results by using the keyboard.

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You may find that your mouse gets lost under a heap of paperwork. Wireless mice are great for today’s busy professionals but they often fall off a table and land in the floor. You may have urgent financial reports due and need a quick fix for these issues. You don’t need to worry because there’s a way to get your accounting work done using some keyboard shortcuts.

Below are a few Control key combinations to make your work not only easier but more efficient while working in QuickBooks Online:

To do this in QuickBooks:	Press these keys together:
View a list of Shortcuts	CTRL + ALT +?
Create an Invoice	CTRL+ ALT + I
Create a check	CTRL + ALT + W
Enter an expense	CTRL + ALT + X
Open the Customer list	CTRL + ALT + C
Open the Vendor list	CTRL + ALT + V
Open the Help window	CTRL + ALT + H
Find transactions	CTRL+ ALT + F
Save and go to a new transaction	CTRL+ ALT + S
To close any window	Click Esc
Create an Invoice	CTRL+ I
Create a check	CTRL + W
Display Help in context	F1
Open the Customer list	CTRL + J
Find the History of any transaction	CTRL +H (with transaction open)
Open the Memorized transaction list	CTRL+T
Find Transactions	CTRL+F
Delete Transactions or list Items	CTRL+D
Create new list item	CTRL+N (with list open)

Some of these shortcuts will work differently when using various browsers as explained below.

To open the second window in:

Internet Express: Press Ctrl + N (You will be logged into existing company on both windows.)

Firefox: Press Ctrl + N (You won’t be logged into the second window, but will remain logged into the first one. The second window will allow you to log into the existing company so that you may work using both screens.)

Chrome: Press Ctrl + N (If you go to QBO in that window, you will be logged into the existing company.)

Split Your Screen

There is a way to split your screen by using shortcut keys on your keyboard. This allows you to have all your information on one page for easy reference while working. Just press the windows key and the left arrow for the screen you want on the left, plus the windows key and the right arrow for the screen you want to appear on the right side. If you want to resume normal screen view, simply press the windows key and the up arrow.

Duplicate Your Screen Tabs

Press the Alt+D to copy the address then press Alt+Enter to open a new tab with the URL. All you need to remember is to keep your thumb on the Alt key. Press Alt key down and then hit D and Enter almost simultaneously in order to duplicate the current tab. This works almost like magic! You get to open your tab twice instead of going back to the browser.

Sending Reminders

You can send invoices reminding clients to pay their bills using your QuickBooks Online and the Navigation Bar. Select Overdue Invoices to view and then finally click on the Send Reminders. You can even track the sent invoices and learn whether the client has viewed them. This also allows you to see how many times the customer has viewed them and whether they have ever viewed your email. If not, you may want to check to make sure you have the right email address for this customer.

Choose items in drop-down lists:

• Press Tab until you reach the field.
• Press Alt + down arrow to open the list.
• Press up arrow or down arrow to move through the items in the list.
• Press Tab to select the item you want and move to the next field.

If you don’t want to open the whole list, but just want to scroll through the items in the text box, press Ctrl + down arrow or Ctrl + up arrow.

Wrap up

Using Shortcuts in QuickBooks Online can be less time consuming because navigating through your accounting books is much easier when you use simple clicks on your keyboard. Plus, you never have to search around under a table for your mouse again. Shortcuts are a quick, easy method of accomplishing any task. That can help you shave valuable time off your workday so you can get home a bit faster and who doesn’t like the sound of that?

Northcentral Technical College (NTC) in Wisconsin has experienced a crippling cyber attack that shut down most of its classes from Monday through Wednesday. The cyber attack triggered system outages all over the school causing school officials to issue a public notice on the homepage of the college website that read:

“We apologize for the inconvenience but we are continuing to experience IT system outages. NTC’s Information Technology team is working diligently to bring information systems back online. We will continue to post updates to this page as they are available.”

Cyber forensics investigation underway

The college would not release any specific information about the data that was lost, but they did reassure their students and faculty that no one’s personal data was stolen. They have since hired a cyber forensics team who will perform a thorough investigation of the cyber intrusion. School officials want to know what type of information was targeted and whether any data was lost or compromised.

Marketing and public relations director, Kelsi Seubert, commented saying, “NTC’s Information Technology team is working extremely hard to bring information systems back online and we will communicate additional updates to students and staff as they are available.”

Seubert also sent an email out to students and faculty that reassured everyone that an investigation was underway but would require some time to complete. She also mentioned that the initial attempted hack occurred on June 4th.

The school has stated that all classes will be resumed on Thursday and that campus life would soon return to normal. A few classes that were not impacted by the breach were carried out as usual.

Summer school

The summer class schedule had just begun on Monday with students showing up to take advantage of Northcentral’s summer learning programs. The school offers a unique array of subjects ranging from technical diplomas to Information Technology training. Students can take summer courses to get additional credits so they can graduate sooner, or they can catch up on classes they may have missed.

The school has a flexible curriculum that includes virtual educational opportunities, online classes, late-start classes, winter enrollments, and many others. They offer associate’s degrees, certifications, and technical diplomas. In the accelerated credits program, students can get three credits in three weeks by taking augmented versions of the class.

Cyber breaches on the rise

Security breaches and cyber-attacks have become common in the news. Though it seems like everyone should know by now what it takes to prevent them, cyber thieves are escalating their tactics with each new attack.

In over 90 percent of these events, human error is to blame. A school official or teacher may have inadvertently clicked on a suspicious link. The latest phishing attacks include emails that look almost identical to what you might get from a bank or credit card company. Often, the email will say that something is wrong with your account. Cybercriminals use fear to gain access to your personal log-in information. An email might say something like:

“Alert! You have been locked out of your ABC Credit Card account due to suspicious activity. Click the link below to sign in and change your password.”

Once you click that link, you may be redirected to a phony website where the hackers will steal your password and username. Now they have legitimate access to your credit card account. They can go online and buy the merchandise having it shipped to an address overseas.

In this situation, never click on the link that’s embedded in the email. Instead, open a fresh page in your browser and navigate to your credit card account the way you normally would. Log in and check your messages. In most cases, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the account; it was just a ruse to get you, the consumer, to give away your password and username to cyber thieves on the other side of the world.

Third party vendors

Colleges and schools do business with a wide number of third-party vendors. If these vendors have access to any of your important data, then they should be thoroughly vetted in advance. Though a school or business cannot control the activities of third-party vendors, it’s important to make every effort to ensure that they are observing stringent security regulations.

Faculty training

All school faculty should attend regular security meetings to learn about the latest cyber threats and how to avoid them. Training employees and teachers have proven to reduce the number of cyber breaches. Training should include facts about how security breaches occur and what to do to stop them. Faculty should understand the difference between ransomware and malware. They should be familiar with the many types of phishing and spear phishing attacks. These are just a few of the many ways an organization can protect itself against cyber- attacks.

Northcentral Technical College life returning to normal

Though school administrators have reassured everyone that no financial, personal, or confidential information was stolen, the investigation into what happened is only just beginning. It often takes months for an organization to realize the full extent of a cyber-breach. It can be years before the true cost of the security breach is fully understood.

Northcentral Technical College located in Wausau, Wisconsin, is a community college and member of 16 schools in the Wisconsin Technical College System.

The new features in Outlook are designed to help users save time and be more productive. Since we spend so much time writing and answering emails, this is one area where most of us would love to be able to get done faster. Microsoft designed Outlook with lots of thought and effort. In addition, they add exciting features every year or so. They do plenty of solid research when designing all their products because they believe in finding out what users are asking for and providing that.

Intuitive design

You can see the planning that went into developing this version of Outlook. Most people will pick up how the new features are used pretty quickly though since this version is similar-looking to older ones. All Office 365 products share a similar look and feel in their design. The Ribbon contains many of the same features whether you’re using Word, Powerpoint, or Outlook.

Outlook’s new design is so streamlined that the new features transform the way you connect to your people and technology. It will infuse power into every productivity task. It comes with better security to ward off hackers. Keeping your email safe and secure is an important job. Today’s software programs and apps must contain higher level security features in order to address the growing number of data breaches going on all over the world. Microsoft does a good job of incorporating better security measures than many other companies.

There are a lot more new things to see and do in the new Outlook 2018. It can be configured to give users the convenience they’re looking for in an email program. Once you learn the ins and outs of the program, you can fly through otherwise boring tasks.

Below, we check out 5 of the coolest new features in Outlook. They should help you get your work done each day with time to spare.

• Multiple time zones

Traveling around the world? Trying to sync appointments with people on various continents? Whether you’re just flying to Chicago or going to Tanzania, you can configure Outlook to set up meetings based on whatever time zone you choose. Appointment times will sync up depending on where everyone is. Each person is given the meeting time in their own time zone so no one will be late for the meeting. This is a super convenient feature that everyone will appreciate since the business world is now a global affair.

It’s easy to set this feature up. Open the Windows version of Outlook, then add an event by selecting File > Options > Calendar Time Zones. Now choose the option, “Show a second-time-zone.” If you’re using Outlook on the web, you should click on the drop-down arrow called “Time Zone.” This item can be found in your Calendar. If using a Mac, you can add extra time zones by navigating to Outlook > Preferences > Calendar Time Zones. With a little practice, you can become a pro at setting up various meetings with customers and team members around the world.

• RSVP

Invite the whole crew to a picnic at the lake. After all, fun outdoor events are a good way to build camaraderie. Outlook makes it easy to send invitations, whether it’s a party, picnic, big meeting with the boss or just a lunch date. RSVP keeps track of who is coming (Tracking Option) and whether RSVP’s have been replied to. You’ll get reminders about the event based on how you set it up. You can get daily or weekly reminders. This feature is offered for both the meeting organizer and attendees.

• Office Lens for Android

This is a really simple but helpful feature that lets you integrate the Microsoft Office Lens into your Outlook email program. It only works for Android though. It’s easy to use but very useful. Simply open an email that you want to send to someone. Next, tap the photo icon while creating your message. Now you can take a pic of anything and embed it in the document. You might want to include a photo of a colleague sitting across from you. You could snap a photo of a whiteboard or even a document. Outlook optimizes the photo, then embeds it into your email. There are countless uses for this handy feature.

• BCC warning

We’ve all accidentally sent emails to the wrong person. Sometimes, it can be quite embarrassing. This is often the case if you get “BCC’d” on an email and decide to reply. Often people use BCC because they do not want the other people included in the email to know that a specific person got a copy of it. In the new Outlook, if you should hit “Reply All” to an email where you were BCC’d, you will get a warning message. It may say something like, “You were bcc’d on this email. Are you sure you want to reply to all?” We all need someone around to double check our actions from time to time and this feature might save you some embarrassment one day.

• Bill-pay reminders

What if an email program could remind you when bills are due? Wouldn’t that be convenient? Outlook has the ability to identify the bills in your inbox, then put together a summary of them each day. This will appear at the top of your email when you first turn it on. Two days before the due date for each bill, you’ll get a reminder. The email program automatically adds an event to your calendar for the actual day the bill is due. Now there’s no excuse for forgetting to pay the light bill.

Conclusion

Outlook has many more really helpful features designed to make your life a little easier. Once you learn all the tips and tricks, you’ll cut time off your work day and get things done more efficiently. If you’d like to learn more about the new Outlook 2018 features, please visit this article.

Excel Like A Pro Part III

This is the final of a three-part series about using Microsoft Excel 2016. It will cover some of the more advanced topics. If you aren’t great with numbers, don’t worry. Excel does the work for you. With the 2016 version of Excel, Microsoft really upped its game. Excel’s easy one-click access can be customized to provide the functionality you need.

If you haven’t read Part I and Part II of this series, it’s suggested that you do so. The webinar versions can also be found on our site or on YouTube.

This session will discuss the following:

More with Functions and Formulas

• Naming Cells and Cell Ranges
• Statistical Functions
• Lookup and Reference Functions
• Text Functions

Documenting and Auditing

• Commenting
• Auditing Features
• Protection

Using Templates

• Built-In Templates
• Creating and Managing Templates

More With Functions And Formulas

Naming Cells And Cell Ranges

How do you name a cell? You do so by the cell’s coordinates, such as A2 or B3, etc. When you write formulas using Excel’s coordinates and ranges you are “speaking” Excel’s language. However, this can be cumbersome. For example, here G12 is significant because it refers to our Team Sales.

You can teach Excel to speak your language by naming the G12 cell Team Sales. This will have more meaning to you and your teammates. The benefits of naming cells in this fashion are that they are easier to remember, reduce the likelihood of errors, and use absolute references (by default).

To name our G12 cell Team Sales, right-click on the cell, choose Define Name, and type “Team Sales” into the dialog box. You can also add any comments you want here. Then click Ok.

Another way to do this is to click on the G12 cell and go up to the Name Box next to the Formula Bar, then type your name there.

And, there’s a third option at the top of the page called “Define Cells” that you can use.

Notice that there’s an underscore between Team and Sales (Team_Sales). There are some rules around naming cells:

• You’re capped at 255 characters.
• The names must start with a letter, underscore or a backslash ().
• You can only use letters, numbers, underscores or periods.
• Strings that are the same as a cell reference, for example B1, or have any of the following single letters (C,c,R,r) cannot be used as names.

How To Name A Range

Highlight an entire range of cells and name your range (we’re doing this in the upper left-hand corner).

Then you can easily use the name to produce the sum you need:

You won’t have to go back and forth from spreadsheet to spreadsheet clicking on specific cells to calculate your formula. You simply key in the name of the cell range you want to add. Just be sure to remember the names as you build your spreadsheets over time.

If you ever make a mistake or want to change names, you can go to Name Manager to do this.

Remember that if you move the cells, the name goes with it.

Statistical Functions

The three statistical functions are:

1. Average If
2. Count If
3. Sum If

The Average If can be used to figure out the average of a range based on certain criteria. Here we’re going calculate the Average If of the ERA of 20+ Game Winners from the spreadsheet we developed in our last session.

We’ve already named some of our cell ranges (wins, era). And we want to know the average greater than 19.

Hit Enter and you have the average.

You can use this feature across a wide variety of scenarios. For example, if you wanted to know the average sales of orders above a certain quantity – or units sold by a particular region, or the average profit by a distinct quarter.

Count If is used for finding answers to questions like, “How many orders did client x place?” “How many sales reps had sales of $1,000 or more this week?” or “How many times have the pitchers of the Philadelphia Phillies won the Cy Young Award?”

As you can imagine, it’s essential that you type in the text exactly the way you named that particular cell.

Hit Enter and you get your answer

Now we’re going to use the Sum If function to calculate the number of strikeouts by the pitchers on this list who are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sum If is a good way to perform a number of real-world statistical analyses. For example, total commissions on sales above a certain price, or total bonuses due to reps who met a target goal, or total earnings in a particular quarter year-over-year.

Lookup and Reference Functions

These are designed to ease the finding and referencing of data, especially in large tables. Here, cells A1 and E3 relate to a variable interest rate that is paid on a bank account. For balances under $1,000, the interest rate is 3% – between $1,000 and $10,000, the interest rate is 4%, etc.

Cell A6 shows the balance of a specific account. The Lookup Function is used in B6. It looks up the interest rate and applies it to the account balance of $45,000. This is what the formula looks like in the bar at the top:

The vector form of the Excel Lookup Function can be used with any two arrays of data that have one-to-one matching values. For example, two columns of data, two rows of data, or even a column and a row would work, as long as the Lookup Vector is ordered (alphabetically or numerically), and the two data sets are the same length.

V Lookup and H Lookup are used to pull information into reports. We’re going to use Report Setup. Here, we have a worksheet that references salespeople, sales data, pricing, revenue, and the clients that they sold to. You’ll see on the top right where we set up a report with names referencing sales data.

You can access the sales reps in the drop-down menu. Pick a rep and use the V Lookup Function to find the price.

To Find Price, key in =vlookup and the corresponding cell number for Rep 16, plus the table array which is the entire table not including the header at the top.

Then you need the column index number. This is the number of columns to the right of your lookup value column, which is column A. It’s the 4^th column from column A (Price).

Enter 4,

For range lookup we’re using true or false. We are entering false here.

Hit Enter and this is what you have for your Find Price value.

Now we’ll do a similar V Lookup for the Client. Copy and Paste:

Make the necessary changes in your formula:

Client 16 goes with Rep 16.

Note: If you change the Sales Rep, all the corresponding values will change.

If you have a lot of data and long tables, V Lookup helps you find information easily. The V stands for Vertical (or by column), because columns are vertical. H Lookup is for Horizontal-like column headers.

Text Functions

Text Functions contain some very powerful tools to adjust, rearrange and even combine data. These functions are used for worksheets that contain information and function as a database such as mailing lists, product catalogs, or even Cy Young Award Winners.

The first text function we’ll show you is concatenate. It links things together in a chain or series. Here, we have our Cy Young list. But we no longer need to see our Wins and Losses in a separate column.

To do this easily rather than manually, create a new column where your data will reside.

Hit Enter

Now, just go in and hide the Wins and Losses columns. Don’t delete them or your new column will have a reference error.

If you do want to delete the Wins and Losses columns, you must first make a new column. Copy the W-L numbers and Paste Value in the new column. This way you’ve moved from a formula to the new information. If you delete your source information without taking this step you’ll be left with nothing.

Combine as many columns as you need with the concatenate function to make the data appear as you need it to.

The Left Mid and Right Functions

These are used to tell Excel that you only want part of a text string in a particular cell. Here, we have a product list and product IDs that tell us the date of manufacturer, the item number, and the factory where it was made. We’re going to pull the data out so we can put it in columns to use in different ways.

We use the Mid Function here.

This works because each of the product IDs are the same length. If they were different lengths you’d have to do something more creative.

Documenting and Auditing

You want to make your Excel files easy to understand for both yourself and others who need to use them – and this includes auditors. An organized worksheet results in clear error-free data and functions.

Commenting

The purpose of commenting is to provide notes to yourself or especially to others. Comments can include reminders, explanations or suggestions.

You’ll find the New Comment button at the top under the Review Menu. Simply click the cell where you want the comment to go and click New Comment. Then type your comment and click outside the box to close it. The comment will disappear but it’s still there. Anywhere you see a red flag, there’s a comment.

If your name doesn’t appear in the comment, go to File>Options>General and personalize your copy of Excel (in this case Microsoft Office) under the User Name. You won’t need to go back and change each comment; Excel will do this for you.

To format a comment, click inside the comment box and a drop down will come up where you can format the text.

You can change the color of the box and lines around the box. Some managers have different colors for members of their teams.

If you change the default color, it will change that for all your Microsoft products.

To delete a comment, go to the cell that hosts it, then go up and hit delete.

If you have a lot of comments, grab the handle on the box and resize it.

Auditing

What we really mean is formula auditing. This is an advanced way to check your work.

The yellow diamond on the left of this cell indicates that there’s an error.

Or to find any errors, go to Formula Auditing in the top menu.

You have a number of helpful tools here. Trace Precedents shows where the formula looks for information. Click the formula you want and click Trace Precedents. It will display where your data came from.

Here’s a more complex formula and trace auditing:

To hide the arrows, click “Remove Arrows.”

Show Formulas

This expands all of your columns and shows all of them in a bigger way. You can go in and check your formulas on the fly very easily. Click Show Formulas again and the worksheet goes back to the way it was before.

Error Checking

This feature lets you check all formulas at once.

This makes it easy to find errors and correct them.

Evaluate Formula

This feature allows you to check a formula step-by-step. It shows the results of each individual part. It’s another great way to de-bug a formula that isn’t working for you. Click the formula you want to evaluate. Click Evaluate Formula and you’ll get a dialog box.

Click Evaluate and it will change the formula to the actual value that you can review. Each time you click Evaluate, it will take you through the steps of how you got to the final formula. You can trace your way through to see if you made any errors.

Protection

With protection you can lock in your changes in individual cells, spreadsheets, and entire workbooks. You can also protect comments from being moved or edited.

This is how to protect an entire workbook. It’s the highest level of protection.

You’ll want to do this if your workbook contains confidential information like:

• Pre-released quarterly results
• Employee salary tables
• Staff member evaluations

Click File>Info>Protect Workbook>Encrypt with Password.

Enter your password and be sure to make note of it because it can’t be recovered if you lose it. You can use password management software to keep track of your passwords.

Once complete, click OK and your Protect Workbook function turns yellow indicating that you’ve protected your workbook.

To take off protection, retrace your steps.

You can also protect a current sheet you’re working on. It will take you back to your worksheet where you’ll be presented with a variety of options.

You can also protect cells and comments from this option.

In the same way you protected the worksheet, you can protect your workbook.

Using Templates

To see the variety of templates you can use in Excel, click File>New and you’ll be presented with a collection of 25 templates you can choose from.

For example, there’s a great Loan Amortization Schedule you can use. Formulas are built in for you. All you need to do is change the numbers.

You can also go online while inside Excel to find more. You don’t want to download templates from outside Excel because they may contain macros that are contaminated with viruses.

On the right side of the page, you have a huge selection to choose from.

It even provides employee time sheets you can use that can save you so much time trying to figure out formulas.

Creating and Managing Templates

Go to File>Info>Save As and save the template to your location, then save as an Excel Template.

Before you save as a template you want to:

• Finalize the look and feel of your template
• Use review and auditing tools
• Remove unnecessary data and information
• Unprotect cells and sheets as appropriate
• Create comments as guides

Congratulations! Now you’re an Excel Pro! This completes our Excel Like a Pro Series. If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to contact our Excel 2016 experts.

Follow These 3 Easy Steps To Stay Safe

If you’ve ever been a victim of identity theft or have been affected by a cybersecurity data breach, you remember the anger and frustration you felt at a violation you had no control over. Don’t feel defeated – arm yourself with the latest in cybersecurity protection protocols!

Cybersecurity is an intense word, but do you fully understand what it means? Maybe you think it’s not important to you, so you don’t pay attention…

“I don’t shop online…”
“I don’t use social media…”
“I don’t pay my bills online; I only write checks…”

Unfortunately, even if all of the above applies to you (though we sincerely doubt that!), you can still be affected by a cybersecurity breach, and trust us when we say it does matter. We’ll tell you why, and how to protect yourself.

You might think you can avoid cyberattackers – “hackers” – by avoiding the Internet as much as possible, but the reality is much more complex. Your name, your personal information, and your identity are each online in some form. Even individuals that only make telephone calls to their bank are prompted with questions to verify their identity, and that information is stored in the bank’s software. Paying an electric bill in person at a local Department of Utilities won’t prevent someone from needing protection, either, and for the same reason. Cybersecurity is an issue at the heart of every aspect of life – even medical records are migrating to digital format these days, simplifying the process by which medical professionals need to access patient history to expedite care.

Consider the other side of the coin on this, too – cybersecurity is critical for organizations that store this information. Consumers need to know their information is protected, and we have a right to privacy and protection. The more PII a company stores, the greater the risk for which they assume the burden of proof of protection.

Cloud data storage of personally identifiable information (PII) leaves consumers vulnerable to a cyberattack in all aspects of life, from global enterprises with which they do business to their local machine at home or work. Got a credit card with Citibank? Over 360,000 Citibank credit cardholders had their data stolen in a cybersecurity breach in 2011. In 2013, more than 40 million consumers with Target credit and debit card accounts were affected. More than seven million small businesses had sensitive information exposed in a data breach with JP Morgan Chase in 2014. In one of the worse cybersecurity breaches of all time, in terms of volume and data sensitivity, the records of 80 million Anthem patients and employees were accessed in 2015, including social security numbers. Major data breaches make news reports more often than we like, reminding us of the dangers presented by hacking and phishing, malware, identity theft, and much more. Once a hacker has obtained your name, address, and personal information, they can then use this data to represent you online and try to infiltrate your desktop system to access even more personal data, to plant a virus or ransomware, or even mine cryptocurrency.

Does all of this sound like a foreign language? You don’t need to be a technical whiz to be able to protect yourself. A few simple measures can go a long way toward increased cybersecurity. The great news is that you can do a few things on your machine, at home or work, that can increase security. Follow these tips for improved protection:

• Use best practices for passwords.
  • Passwords should be unique
    • Create a different password for each computer and each website or web portal you access. If a hacker can determine one password and you use the same password for multiple accounts, the hacker now has access to more than one of your accounts and can cause that much more damage.
  • Passwords should be complex
    • Create passwords using a combination of capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols like ?!@#$%.
  • Change your password regularly
    • Changing your password for each computer and website or web portal you access at least twice per year is wise. Even if a hacker can figure out your password for one machine or location, changing the password in a matter of days or weeks from that time can minimize the damage the hacker can cause.

• Know your privacy settings.
  • Maintain a realistic perspective on your risk
    • Every major organization performs routine risk assessments. Why wouldn’t you have a realistic perspective on the risks you face and do whatever you can to protect yourself? Trust us when we say you can’t afford not to!
  • Verify your privacy settings
    • You can verify the privacy settings on your desktop or laptop by clicking on the “Start” menu in the lower left corner of your screen, “Settings”, and then reviewing the options shown. On the right side of this menu, you’ll also see suggestions for how to restrict privacy, and as you read this you’ll know we encourage the maximum privacy settings!

• Take advantage of built-in security tools.
  • Updates!
    • Operating systems from Microsoft will regularly release updates for applications and security, and we strongly recommend regularly checking for these updates and installing the latest security packages.
  • Windows Defender
    • Windows 10 comes with a built-in tool called Windows Defender that helps protect your user experience against pop-up screens, slow performance and threats from spyware and viruses.
    • Microsoft’s default settings have Windows Defender automatically enabled for users.

It’s important to note that in professional environments, IT departments commonly establish guidelines for security and password protocols. While the above are best practices that you can follow to protect yourself, you should always follow the policies and procedures set forth by IT security teams.

• These tips are catered for a Windows 10 system, but the basic rules apply to any operating system.

Don’t fall victim to a hacker this year – take the proper approach to cybersecurity and protect yourself from vulnerabilities. See more details by watching this short video and taking the proper steps today.

Make 2018 the year you have an ironclad cybersecurity program, for your home and your office!