Tech Hygiene - Why Cybersecurity?

How do we have the best hygiene? Well, we have the scrubber now in the password manager app, but how about the soap to clean out the nasties, viruses, and malware? Having a scrubbing brush is all well and good, but how well does it clean without soap? This is where cybersecurity comes in. It’ll go in and clean out the nasty things that can be put on your computer and see every file to check for issues.

Safely Surfing:

Cybersecurity will do the first step, attempt to protect you while you’re surfing the web. A good one should warn you not to go to the sites that pose a risk, sites that carry malware and viruses, and even links that could contain them. Having ‘Safe Browsing’ working will be your guardian angel looking over your shoulder on your tech, making sure you aren’t straying too far off the safer site path. (Safe browsing is usually a browser plugin.) Now, I did say attempt to protect as it will just attempt because some things will slip through the cracks and scare you into clicking something that wants to do not-so-nice things to you and your device, so you need to be aware of tactics and strategies that scammers use. Coming in the next ‘Social Engineering’ tech hygiene blog.

Virus/Malware Scans

Deep cleaning with the cybersecurity soap is the next step for cybersecurity. A competent cybersecurity should be doing the occasional scan in the background to ensure it keeps checking possible threats, and all of them should have a full scan function. Both can be scheduled based on times that work for you. Quick scans should be at least once a week or even daily, and full scans take a while and should be about once a month or a fortnight, depending on your preferences. You can do it in the background and keep on working away too. Scans help with the next element of performance too.

Performance Enhancement:

Computer running slow? Struggling with a sluggish and hard-to-use computer? Cybersecurity may help. While it’s clearing out the nasties, it will be finding things that shouldn’t be on your computer, which is slowing it down. Running scans improves performance, especially on those slower computers that are getting long in the tooth. Sometimes there are occasional things that are clogging up the computer, like older software updates or system updates, cache, cookies, and anything else that might be slowing that poor computer of yours down.

Data Encryption:

Data encryption is also available. This is usually in the form of a folder that can hold sensitive items like bank statements, health info, and anything else you might treat as sacred, like your mum’s secret biscuit recipe. Don’t need those mass-produced in some foreign country! All jokes aside, this is a great way to keep important things private and secure even if someone is able to get your data from the computer.

VPN:

Why does my antivirus have a VPN? What is a VPN? Well, it’s some fancy tech thing! Oh, okay, I’ll explain it and give you the pros and cons. A VPN is a virtual private network; it essentially keeps your browsing and internet data safe from hackers and your provider. It’s like a tunnel that protects you from peeping eyes, or like you’re sending a piece of mail in a safe instead of a paper letter, and the receiver gets it magically unlocked because they have the key at their address. I’ll write a whole blog about this one because there are heaps of pros and cons, but the short and sweet version is: it’s great for open networks and hiding things from peeping eyes and can be great for geo-locking you to a new location but placing that virtual network wherever you like in the world. Like when you’re overseas, your Australian websites will work like normal because the internet thinks you’re in Australia. Cons: it can be or really protective about incoming and ongoing internet traffic, and I have seen it break the use of the internet on your device, especially from cybersecurity software. It’s kinda like an overly protective dad: “That website is fine, Dad!” And he replies, “You’re grounded!”

“Okay, enough, my brain hurts,” I hear you saying. The last question is, what cybersecurity do I think is the best? Well, it depends on your own preference and what has been used before or what you need protection on. Do some research on the best cybersecurity and if you’re still stuck, I’m a phone call or email away. If your brain is still hurting and you need some proper help on plans and setting up the computer, you can contact us today!

Tech Hygiene - Passwords Made Easy

Passwords, not surprisingly, are one of the biggest forms of weakness for people’s tech hygiene. When I say ‘passwords’, you are probably thinking “silly passwords, I can’t remember them, I have a book that has them but five are scribbled out and I have no idea which is correct for that one site”. Passwords being a big frustration for people is not surprising to me. I have an easier and more effective way to manage them and it’s available on your device and almost everyone I have helped in the past has never used the options available to them and are completely annoyed when I ask what’s your password when I do that phone or computer set up.

On average, a very basic user has about 30 passwords and I am talking about someone who doesn’t really want to use technology much. The younger generation has about 200-300 passwords, me personally 466 and counting. I have zero chance of remembering that many passwords and honestly, you don’t have a chance of remembering 30 passwords.

You might be thinking “uh-ah, I do remember that many, checkmate Enlighten tech”. Sure, you might, but what is your password? Is it something that relates to you in any way so you can remember? This scenario is very common in tech and most people can relate to this. One day you go to sign into a website you haven’t in a while and you see “Enter username and password.” Uh-oh. “It’s my grandson’s name and his birth year… or maybe with a # sign? Or a !?” Nope, wrong. You grab your password book—there it is: his name, birth year, two # signs, and a ?. Still wrong. You click “forgot password.” A “I’m not a robot” box pops up. Five tries later, you’re like, “Am I a robot?!” Finally, you get a reset link. You type the old password—oops, it says “No repeats!” You give up.

Repeating, names, streets, and things relating to you or even something connected to your past are all risky passwords and can be leaked or obtained by people with ill intentions. We will explore some of these in the social engineering blog coming up soon. Oh man, you’re probably annoyed at this point because how else are you going to remember these passwords, and how the heck are we going to stop all these frustrating experiences with passwords?

Password managers are your friend, and what if I said you just need to remember one really strong password to get into your passwords? Remembering one password instead of 30 is so much easier, right?  Password managers are great as they’ll do the rest of the heavy lifting; they will autofill the passwords for you, and most of them now can do those annoying 6-digit codes without having to text it and have you go digging for it. It will also make very strong passwords for you so you don’t need to have anything related to you and something that can be obtained easily.

A question I hear all the time is this: but what if I can’t remember all these passwords with a string of random characters and numbers? My answer is you don’t need to, since the password managers have your back and they are always easily findable inside the manager if you need them on another device.

Now, this all sounds like a lot of work and effort to just manage your passwords, whether it’s moving your passwords into the password managers from your book or resetting passwords to enter into the password manager or setting up the codes for your 2-factor authentication. I won’t lie to you and say it’s easy because it’s not; it takes time and might be a little bit of homework to get it sorted, but the safety and control online it will give you is important for your new and tidy life in the tech world.

You’re probably thinking “I don’t know what password manager I have or what to do when I have the password manager.” I get it, so that’s where I came in. I can get you started on the process of changing things over and sometimes get it all changed over for you. Contact us today to get started and get your tech hygiene top-notch.

Tech Hygiene

You see the word hygiene and you most likely think of washing hands, taking showers, cleaning the kitchen, and all the things that come with good or bad hygiene. I think most people would think if you have bad hygiene, you’re more likely to get sick. I see the same in the world of tech. The worse the hygiene, the more at risk you are for scams and fraudsters to take advantage of you and your information. And in the tech world, information is king. I want to introduce the soap, scrubber, and sanitiser to your tech world to keep you safe from the virtual nasties.

Now, through a series of blog posts over the coming weeks, months, and years, we will explore each aspect of your tech hygiene. Don’t worry, the basics will be covered quickly.

So, our main pillars of the tech hygiene will be passwords, cyber security, and social engineering avoidance.

Passwords:

We are all guilty of mismanaging our passwords, and in this post, we will explore ways to help ourselves manage them easier and how we can get safer about our existing passwords. We get to throw away the password book and let our tech manage it for us! Don’t worry, I’m here to help along the way.

Cyber security:

Having the right cyber security for our needs is really important to catch threats before they arise. This option isn’t a fix-all for everything. It does, however, send us in the right direction to keep us protected. Sometimes the challenge is finding the one that protects you and your household without slowing you down. Contact us.

Social engineering avoidance:

This blog coming up is usually the most important of them all. This is where scammers can get you to hand over information ‘willingly’ using all the tactics in the playbook of fear, intimidation, manipulation, and panic. The smartest of people get caught out by social engineering because it taps into the emotional centres of your brain, and logic goes out the window.

Stay tuned for the coming blog posts to begin to give you insights into what we can do to help and maybe even giving the access to help yourself have a little more tech hygiene. Feel free to contact us for any questions or advice on how we can best assist you.

Welcome!

This is where we will keep you updated with the latest news, tips, and insights from the world of tech. First, I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself. I’m Julian, and I’m based on the north side of Brisbane. I am the one-man army behind Enlighten Tech! I created this business after working for some of the biggest tech companies in Australia and around the world, where I saw firsthand how they operate. Frankly, I was never happy with how these companies supported their customers. I feel like customer service and genuinely helping people were often put aside in favor of profit and cost-cutting. That’s why I wanted to make Enlighten Tech all about helping people and providing real service, ensuring my clients are satisfied, informed, and more confident in their tech world.

My experience with tech is incredibly broad; I can handle almost any piece of technology you can get your hands on. For the few things I’m not familiar with, I have a talent for quickly picking them up and understanding the ins and outs—usually in a matter of minutes—and I can translate that into teaching others even faster. My goal is to make you the most knowledgeable person in the room when it comes to tech, so you can use it freely without feeling overwhelmed. How do I do this? It’s all about making tech fun and showing how it can make your life easier, not harder or more complicated. Tech should be an accessory that makes life more enjoyable and manageable, taking care of tasks so you can focus on what truly matters, like spending time with friends and family.

Come on this journey with me to discover what life can look like when tech becomes the easiest part of your day, allowing you to focus on the more important things. Get in contact today and let's discuss how we can help you simplify technology.