If you’re thinking it’s time for a computer upgrade, you’ll enjoy the options presented in this episode. If you’re concerned about getting hacked, we’ve got you covered on what to do to protect your computer and your business.

In this episode, we geek out a bit with Kevin Clemons, CEO at Au Technology Solutions.

It should be noted, in this episode when Kevin mentions services offered by Microsoft, that those similar services are also available with Google’s suite of products. I wanted to say this because well… I’m Google-centric. Is that a word? My spell-checker thinks not.

I also wanted to apologize for the clicky sounds you hear from Kevin’s side of the conversation. I’ve done what I can to remove them, but many still exist.

We start the conversation talking about John’s pending computer upgrade options:

• AMD Ryzen computers.
• Kevin’s recommended laptop, the Lenovo Flex 14, 12Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD hard drive, a touch screen on Amazon about $600.

What can you do to protect yourself with your home computer now that you’re working at home? Here are Kevin’s recommendations:

• Use BitDefender to protect yourself from CryptoLocker.
• Stick with using the anti-virus that comes with Windows 10. It’s better than any free software you can get, for the most part. Or use BitDefender if you want to go further then Windows 10 can do.
• Malwarebytes as a fantastic mediation tool.
• HitmanPro is another great 2nd opinion scanner as well.
• Add ADW Cleaner to your list as well to clean up what your browser picks up along the way.

Regarding CryptoLocker, don’t put your trust in only one company to protect yourself. There’s only one way to protect yourself: a backup that is not permanently attached to your device. Kevin recommends using BackBlaze. It’s about $60 per year.

We go on and talk about email attachments carry malware payloads and how best to protect yourself from them:

• Use chat applications like Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Google’s Meet to verify unexpected email attachments that may be carrying payloads.

With convenience comes a sacrifice of security. Use two-factor authentication (2FA) also called multi-factor authentication (MFA). Google Authenticator is one such app you can use on your phone to authenticate entry to a website or service.

Next, we talk about passwords and using a password manager like LastPass. Kevin has another idea about keeping passwords. Kevin describes his simple process of how he creates good passwords. Here’s Kevin’s algorithmic password generator steps.

• Check Have I Been Pwned? ONLY to see if you’ve been compromised as an investigative step. Just enter your email address and it will be checked and show you what websites, etc. are known to have been hacked and which your email address is associated with. Here’s an example of how to create a secure password:
• Use any word you’d like to use for your passwords with the following changes:
• 1. Anytime we create a password, the 2nd letter should be capitalized.
  2. The 3rd letter should be a special character like a !, %, $, etc.
  3. Then add the year you created the password as a reminder to change it the next year.
  4. After the year, add the version like “1.” So if you changed the password within the same year, you would change this number to “2.”
  5. At the end of the password, add 2 letters representing the name of the service or program e.g. “gm” for Gmail.

What are other ways to stay secure while working from home?

• Virtual Private Network. A VPN is one of the smartest ways to protect your online privacy and maintain your data security. ~ Wikipedia
• Kevin talks about using Linux. Linux is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution. ~ Wikipedia
• Spam scammer calls have not stopped: Do not let someone on your computer if you don’t know who that person is. 

So we wrapped up talking about Microsoft, Google, their products, overall usage, and privacy/security features and John asks Kevin how he defines what a brand is: “I’d say it’s your public-facing image.”

Contact Kevin Clemons

CALL (760) 299-4104 or email [email protected] 

"Branded" Podcast Contact Info

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Intro/Outtro music credit

Dances With Koalas by coruscate (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/Coruscate/61129 Ft: Calyman & Psubhashish