MSPNetworks Blog

Smartphone applications are in high demand from both a consumer and a business perspective, so it stands to reason that these ecosystems are large in scope, encompassing millions of apps on both the Google Play and Apple App stores. Have you ever wondered how these companies ensure that the apps found on their stores are secure and legitimate?

The Current State of App Store Security

You’ll be happy to know that Google and Apple take measures to protect their users from malware, but it is admittedly not a perfect system, as there is a very real chance that malicious apps can find homes on the storefronts. This is dangerous because most people tend to trust the apps they find on the app stores, and criminals will use these presumptions to steal data, deploy malware, or spy on individuals.

Google Play has a system which effectively limits the amount of dangerous apps on the platform, but despite this, it still has the highest record for troublesome software available for download. The Apple App store does have fewer issues here, but note the word “fewer,” as this doesn’t mean that there are no problems to be found at all.

That said, even if most apps are safe to download from app stores, there will always be outliers that skirt the system to do evil.

App Stores Don’t Guarantee Safety or Security, Unfortunately

App stores generally have very strict guidelines for what they allow on their storefronts, preventing most malicious apps from finding their new homes on their distribution platforms. Unfortunately, there are always cases—even unlikely ones—where malicious entities are able to distribute their malware to unsuspecting users.

What Are the Potential Problems?

If you think you might have downloaded a malicious application, then you could see issues related to these problems:

• Ad fraud: Ads are nothing new—after all, developers need to make money somehow—but fraudulent ads could run in the background and reroute your clicks to various websites, thus eating up your battery and using your phone’s resources.
• Browser hacking: Malicious apps can also take over your web browser and make it open websites that could leave you vulnerable to data theft or fraudulent promotions.
• Data theft: Some apps are installed for the sole purpose of stealing your data, and if you’re not careful with the permissions you grant, you could wind up having a serious problem on your hands.

What Do You Do?

There are ways you can fight back against malicious apps. Here are just a few of them:

• Don’t jailbreak or sideload apps onto your phone: Downloading apps from other parts of the Internet and not from your app store (a term known as sideloading) on a jailbroken device gives malicious apps more control over what they can do with your device. Just avoid doing this at all costs.
• Update your operating system: Like all other software you might use, for work or otherwise, you’ll want to keep your operating systems updated to ensure you have potential vulnerabilities shored up.
• Do your research: Reading up on the reviews for any applications you are potentially planning to download could save you a lot of trouble. Furthermore, only download from trusted sources if you can help it.

MSPNetworks can help your business maximize security on all fronts, mobile included. To learn more, call us today at (516) 403-9001.

Computers are great tools to get work done in the office, but only if they are used effectively. Employees looking to get more out of their Windows workstations can utilize the taskbar to get around faster. We’ll discuss some of the ways your business can take better advantage of the taskbar, as well as what it’s capable of.

Quick Access to Apps

As you may have already seen, you can access several applications just by clicking their icons in the taskbar. You can pin an application to the taskbar by searching for it in the Search bar, then right-clicking it in the results. From here, all you have to do is select Pin to Taskbar. The process is the same for unpinning the app from the taskbar.

Customizing the Taskbar

Users have a lot of control over their taskbar and here are some of the ways:

Change the Color

To change the color of your taskbar, you’ll need to take a couple of steps. First, right-click on the taskbar and select the option for Taskbar Settings. From here, click on Colors in the right-hand side of the screen. Select the color you want, then check the box that says Show accent color on the following surfaces: Start, Taskbar, and Action Center.

Change the Taskbar’s Location

Did you know that the taskbar at the bottom of the screen doesn’t have to stay there? For example, you can move it to the left, right, or even the top of the screen--whichever one makes you happiest. Under the Taskbar Settings, select your preferred option from the dropdown menu.

Customize the Icons That Appear on the Taskbar

There are multiple options to customize which applications you have on your taskbar by default. You can either drag and drop an app to the taskbar, or you can pin any open app to the taskbar by right-clicking the icon while it is in the task bar and selecting Pin to taskbar.

Alternatively, when drag a file, like a PDF or Word document down to the taskbar, it will add the application that opens that file by default, and when you right-click that, it will give you quick access to that particular file. This is handy when you have a few common documents that you need to open every day.

Rearrange Taskbar Icons

By clicking and dragging the icons on the taskbar, you can change which order they appear in. This can be helpful for grouping icons together.

The Notifications Area

There’s no doubt that you noticed the plethora of icons in the corner of your taskbar by the clock. There are several things you can do here, including pinning contacts to your taskbar, checking your battery life and its settings, your current wired or wireless Internet connection, volume controls, and your device’s clock. To access settings for each of these, just click on the icon and toggle the options shown as needed.

This is just a small sample of what you can do with your taskbar. To learn more about how you can make the most of your devices, subscribe to MSPNetworks’s blog.

Are you a person that has traditionally written down things in notebooks? If you are, you probably have dozens of notebooks that are half filled with information, most of which you’ll look at sometime in the future and you’ll be reminded just how helpful that note would have been if you had it when you needed it. Today, digital notebooks offer the same helpfulness, with a few added features that make them (dare we say it) a little better than the traditional notepad.

Here, we’ll go over a few tips to using digital notebooks so that you can improve the quality of the notes you keep.

Selecting Your Tools
Your first concern, when you set out to take your notes, is having something to take these notes on, and with. For many, this has typically been a sheet of paper and a pen, but what kind of technology blog would this be if we stopped there?

Naturally, technology offers us other options, offering wider functionality. Laptops, tablets, and smartphones now allow us to take notes in different ways. Instead of chicken-scratched scrawls of shorthand, notes can be typed and recorded much more efficiently and neatly on these devices, depending on the preference of the user. Plus, many of these devices feature a variety of note-taking options that your pen just doesn’t, like linking to relevant online content or other notes, access to cloud storage, and the ever-critical spellcheck.

Furthermore, when using these devices, you have a selection of apps to choose from. Microsoft’s OneNote and Evernote are two prominent examples of such, each with their own advantages and capabilities, plus many lesser-known ones to leverage as well.

Explore Format Options
Of course, with many of these applications, your options don’t stop there. Just as with a free-form scratchpad, the right tools can allow your notes to take on a different voice than just row after row of bullet points.

For instance, you could incorporate graphs, images, and other visual elements into your notes to add confidence and context to them. This enables you to better associate meaning to your words; and, as a result, make your notes more meaningful.

Keeping Your Notes Organized
The other benefit of using a digital note-taking tool is the fact that organization becomes that much simpler to maintain. Most solutions out there today enable their users to adjust their notes to keep them concise, cohesive, and comprehensible. Making your notes searchable, organizing them by date or topic, and other qualifications can all help keep you on track.

MSPNetworks can assist you in implementing business tools to help with all of your organization’s particular needs. Learn more by reaching out to us at (516) 403-9001.