The Greater Seattle Area IT Experts

Unpin from Start
Let’s face it - there really isn’t much need for your users to have an Xbox app on their work devices… or Candy Crush Soda Saga, or even Solitaire, for that matter. Fortunately, many of them can be removed from the Start Menu, and many uninstalled completely.

Try right-clicking on those Live Tiles that you have no need for. In the menu that appears, you may see two possible options, Uninstall and Unpin from Start. Some apps may not be able to be fully uninstalled, but all should be able to be removed (or unpinned) from the menu. As a result, there’s that much less left to distract you and your staff, leaving you with a better chance of productivity.

Dictation
If you tend to be a talker, sometimes typing may not be your cup of tea. Windows allows you to dictate your text, rather than type it, in many applications. To enable this feature, access your Settings, and from there, Time & Language > Speech > Related settings. There, you’ll find Speech, inking and typing privacy settings. From there, you can enable your speech services.

Once that is done, you can activate Cortana’s listening feature by pressing Windows Key + H whenever your cursor is in a text box.

Focus Assist
Staying focused can sometimes be difficult, especially when there’s a notification popping up each time you get back in the groove. However, in Settings > System > Focus Assist, you can turn notifications on and off based on their priority. You can even set automatic rules based on time, location, and activity, and have a summary pop up once Focus Assist is turned off.

Cortana, Decision-Maker
This one’s a little sillier, but you can utilize Cortana to help you make split-second decisions. Activate Cortana, and input (through either voice or text) “Flip the Coin.” Cortana will provide you with the result, making your decision-making process that much easier - just make sure you have your options in mind!

Clearly, there’s a lot to Windows 10 that can assist with everything from productivity to simple decision-making. What other hidden features do you know about? Share them in the comments!

As a Consumer
Let’s face it, the Internet is a fantastic resource for the savvy shopper to use as a means of identifying where the best deals are, be it online or in-store. However, when browsing openly in such a way, you need to ensure that you are doing so as securely as possible.

There are, of course, the more basic steps: making sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date and activated, practicing good password hygiene and strength. In addition to these precautions, there are other measures you can take to help keep the holidays merry and bright, free of a cyberattack.

While you’re browsing, you want to make sure that you are as defended as possible, and that you are browsing intelligently as well. The bar where the website’s URL appears should have a locked padlock somewhere in it, indicating that the website is secure and any data you input (like credit card information, for example) is protected behind encryption. Furthermore, as convenient as a free Wi-Fi connection may seem, it isn’t going to be worth your data being infected as a result.

As a Business’ Representative
Of course, the focus on consumerism that permeates this time of year doesn’t for a moment mean that businesses get a pass when it comes to potential cyberattacks. The holiday season means nothing to attackers, and will not prevent them from leveraging everything they’ve got against your business’ interests. This effectively makes it a requirement for any business to have policies to counteract some of a cybercriminal’s efforts.

These policies should address a couple things, the first of which ensuring that all of your business’ defenses are updated and activated.

Whether it’s your antivirus, your remote access solution, or anything in between, your entire network needs to be maintained and kept up-to-date. This means that any patches that have been released for your solutions should also be applied in addition to regular updates as they are made available.

Your users also need to play a role in your cybersecurity. With the holidays so close, there is likely to be an increase in holiday-themed scams and phishing attempts. A few simple lessons in best practices will help to keep your users aware of these efforts and how to prevent them. Anyone with network access should also be required to authenticate their identity a few times through various means.

Of course, it can also be challenging for a business to keep all this up while simultaneously attending to their regular operations. That’s why we do what we do at Digital Seattle. Give us a call at (206) 709-9556, and have a happy and healthy holiday this year.

A Great Way to Give a Gift
Many of us have utilized the gift card to extend our appreciation for friends, co-workers, and loved ones, and they are typically a pretty well-received gift. The problem is that a lot of money is being diverted from the gift giver, not to the recipient, but to third-party scammers. The IRS has been forthcoming on this issue, stating that gift cards “are the currency of criminals”.

What Is the Scam?
Unfortunately, there are several. The first one we’ll go into briefly (just because you should know about it) requires hackers to go to the store, get all the information off of the card, physically scrape off the little foil sheet to expose the security code, replace the foil sheet, and wait. Eventually the card will get filled, and if the hacker hadn’t triggered the security measures by repeatedly checking the account associated with the card, they would have access to whatever funds were put on the card by the provider.

Another scam we are seeing a lot of is effectively laundering money with cards. The FTC’s website itself identifies one of the big problems: “Gift cards are for gifts, not payments.” How this works is that a scammer will call a potential victim up and give them horrible, or incredible, news to get the victim out of a pragmatic mindset and then take advantage of his/her distraction by making them pay using a loadable gift card. If anyone wants you to pay with a gift card, STOP immediately, it’s a scam. Gift cards are the number one payment method imposters demand. Much like the phishing scams that extort sensitive information from users via email, these gift card scammers take untraceable money via fraud.

The last scam, and the one we are most concerned about as faithful gift card supporters is one where a host will turn computers and Internet of things devices on the websites where consumers access their gift card balances. This botnet attack continually tests the system with millions of combinations of gift card account numbers and stolen PINs or passwords. The machines on the botnet are spread out enough, and mimic human behaviors well enough, to allow these hackers to get the money they want before they are detected. It is estimated by industry professionals that nearly 90 percent of login activity for online accounts that are set up to manage gift cards comes from botnet attackers.

Protection
There are actions you can take to protect yourself. You can buy your gift cards online. While it makes an already impersonal gift a little bit less personal, it could go a long way toward ensuring the recipient gets a gift. If you are going to buy gift cards at a store, make sure the packaging isn’t disturbed and that the foil hasn’t been removed from the security code. Finally, if you can, change the PIN on a card you have received as soon as possible after receiving it (and before using it).

Digital Seattle’s IT professionals make a living keeping our clients from all manners of threats. If you want more information about how our managed IT services can work to keep your business safe, contact us today at (206) 709-9556.