MSPNetworks Blog

Bookmarks are an essential part of being productive with your Internet browser, but what happens when you switch to a different one, like Google Chrome? Do you have to manually add all of your bookmarks back to the browser? Nope! Let’s go over how you can import your bookmarks directly to Google Chrome and save some time.

Add Bookmarks from Other Web Browsers

Before proceeding, know that you need to have your previous browser installed on the device if you want to import bookmarks from it.

Chrome gives you the capability to directly import bookmarks from other web browsers. You can do so by clicking on the three-dot icon in the top-right corner of the web browser. From here, select Bookmarks > Import Bookmarks and Settings. From here, click on Import and select the browser you want to import from, as well as the Favorites/Bookmarks option from the checklist. After you see the blue checkmark on the screen, click on Done.

Add Bookmarks from an Exported HTML File

If you have exported your bookmarks as a HTML file, you can import them through the same process as outlined above. Instead of selecting the browser you want to import from, simply select Bookmarks HTML file. From here, just select the file that you want to import and you should be all set.

Sync Bookmarks Across Devices

The previously mentioned methods only work for your desktop version of Google Chrome, so you’ll have to sync your bookmarks if you want them on your mobile device. To do this, make sure you are logged into the same Google account on both devices, then click on the three-dot icon in the top-right corner of Chrome. From here, select Settings. If you want to sync only bookmarks, disable the slider and check the box for Bookmarks.

We hope you found this tip helpful; be sure to subscribe to our blog for even more great tips.

Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, online privacy has been highlighted significantly in recent years—in no small part due to the sale of our profiles by the tech giants that provide today’s most (in)famous websites… including and especially Google. Having said this, it is also important to acknowledge that some of Google’s recent policy changes could suggest that this may change at some point.

Let’s dive in and see what we can piece together.

How Google Makes Its Money

In fairness, there are a lot of answers to this question. For our purposes, we’ll focus on just one.

The short answer is simple: by selling advertisements.

Make no mistake about it: whenever you use the Internet, you are being watched. Giant platforms, including and especially Google, monitor your activities while using their services and use it to create a knowledge base of user behavior.

For instance, by using a combination of Google Search, Google Analytics, and Google Maps, Google could likely deduce that a user in Anytown, USA looking up “best pizza in anytown” would be interested in the most popular pizzeria. By analyzing which websites, phone numbers, and navigational directions got the most positive reaction after coming up as a search result, Google’s algorithms can figure out that this user would be happy to get the result for “Mario Rossi’s Fine Italian Ristorante and Pizzeria” and continue through the link to the establishment’s website.

This is that website’s goal—for more users to click into it, where they’ll be more encouraged to do whatever that website is trying to get them to do. As it stands, Google’s search results are organized based on an extensive list of factors far too numerous to go into depth with here… basically, it depends on how much Google likes how your website is put together, how other users have behaved after clicking the link to your website, and again, so much more. 

As a result, Google has some leverage here, effectively serving as the gatekeeper for a staggering amount of Internet traffic. This puts them in the position to profit from these other websites.

One way that they do so: selling advertisement space in key positions on their search results pages. Another way: selling ads that are personalized to your web browsing history.

Google’s Recent Announcement, and What it Means

Google’s revelation that they will no longer create or support trackers that can follow an individual’s behavior and activity across the Internet has some significant ramifications regarding privacy and the Internet as a whole.

This is a sizable shock, as it seems to say that Google plans to hamstring one of its profit centers. However, it is important to clarify that this isn’t the entire truth.

Rather than eliminating tracking altogether, Google is simply shifting its approach to doing so. Instead of using cookies to compose in-depth profiles for each user, Google is shifting over to evaluating trends amongst groups of similar users and phasing out the comprehensive data collection that their past efforts were based in.

This “privacy sandbox,” as it is called, will allow users to be anonymously bundled together by browsing behaviors and other interests, with the data these groups generate being sold to advertisers. The idea is that this way, an advertiser can still target their most likely prospects, without that prospect’s information changing hands more than they may anticipate.

Caveats and Conditions

Of course, Google has left themselves a few loopholes in their new strategy. First, if a user signs into a website using their Google account, that information can still be tracked and used to shape advertising. Plus, this change only applies to the websites—mobile apps are still fair game as well.

This new sandboxing approach has already inspired scrutiny from regulatory bodies, with officials in the United Kingdom investigating these tools to catch any anticompetitive features. This comes as Google is also facing numerous antitrust lawsuits stateside, suggesting that this change in tack could be construed as an effort to show how important customer data security is to the corporation.

So Really, What Does This All Mean?

In terms of Google, these tactics seem to telegraph that the company is preparing for a future where data collection is much more controlled than it is now—and that Google is in a place where the downsides of such tracking have overtaken the value that these activities once net them.

In terms of the Internet as a whole, a player as large as Google might inspire other large providers who have not yet addressed how they balance data collection and data privacy. Having said this, Facebook’s current battle against Apple’s privacy-boosting features show that this approach will certainly not be universally accepted, either.

One way or another, this move will likely create some shifts to the Internet as a whole—and should reinforce how you need to be careful about your own organization’s data collection and storage practices.

MSPNetworks can help you out in that regard. To find out how our solutions and services can make your company more secure, efficient, and compliant, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Google’s Android operating system has about a 71.9 percent global market share, making it the most used smartphone operating system in the world. It’s well-trusted, and although the experience differs since phone manufacturers customize Android to fit their device, generally the operating system is pretty stable. This wasn’t the case for a massive number of users around March 22nd, 2021.

Around the 22nd of March, many Android users started to notice their apps crashing.

Not a particular app either. Instead, numerous apps that seemed to not be connected with each other were crashing persistently.

For instance, most users were reporting that Gmail was crashing, others noticed that doing a Google search crashed their browser app. Popular password management app Lastpass would crash for some users every time they tried opening it.

Not all apps were having an issue though. It wasn’t like all of the applications were made by Google, or some other developer. It seemed to affect a wide range of applications from communication apps to games.

Why Are My Android Apps Crashing?

This was such a sudden, immensely frustrating issue for some users. Fortunately the Internet prevailed, and a few users on Twitter figured out the culprit.

Android WebView, a system application that is powered by the Chrome browser and allows applications to view and access web-related content, had a bug in its latest update. This bug was causing your other applications to crash. The temporary fix was to uninstall the latest version of Android WebView by going into the Google Play store.

We’re not going to walk you through that process though, because Google fixed the bug in an update less than 12 hours later. Depending on when your phone searched for its updates, you may have missed the issue altogether.

It goes to show you that, while updates are generally important, an update isn’t inherently going to always go smoothly. Sometimes, updates have their own flaws that the developer doesn’t realize or didn’t experience in the testing process.

It’s important to consider when applying updates—not just to your smartphone, but to any software or hardware you use for your business. That’s why we test updates out in a test environment before deploying them, especially if they are for mission-critical applications. Google solved the Android issue in 12 hours, but that was a massive wide-spread issue. If you are running into a unique, uncommon issue due to an update, it could take days, weeks, or months for an official patch to come out. It’s better to test first, and if the test fails, determine how critical the update was, and go from there.

It’s always important to keep your hardware and software up to date, but always be prepared for something to go wrong.

If you need help keeping your IT maintained and updated, and want to reduce your overall risks for downtime and expensive problems, give MSPNetworks a call at (516) 403-9001 and ask how we can take over your technology and treat it as well as we treat our own.

Going through your passwords and updating them every so often is a very wise habit to get into, particularly when they are used to protect a lot of data—as the password to your Google account often is. Considering this, let’s go over how to update your Google password and otherwise lock down your account.

How Much is Tied to a Google Account?

For many, their Google account is linked to quite a few frequently-used utilities and applications. Going far beyond the search engine functionality it began as, Google’s services now involve multiple programs and solutions. As such, the potential danger of a cybercriminal accessing your Google account is increased greatly.

For instance, a Google account is now linked to:

• Google.com (for custom tailored search results)
• Gmail
• Google Drive
• Google Docs/Sheets
• Google Maps
• Android
• Google Workspace
• Google Chrome
• YouTube

 … with many, many other accounts and services also tied to Google. A good rule of thumb: anything with “Android,” “Chrome,” or of course “Google” in the name is likely tied to your Google account.

Updating Your Google Password

Fortunately, Google makes it exceptionally simple to update the password to your account:

1. Visit https://accounts.google.com/. If you aren’t signed in already, log in with your email/phone number and password.
2. Click Security on the left-hand side.
3. Look for Signing in to Google. Click Password.
4. Google will usually prompt you to provide your current password, and then have you input a new password.

A WORD OF WARNING: Naturally, with so much tied to a single password, you need to make sure it is as secure as you can possibly make it. Use a totally unique password—not one that provides you with access to any other account. Don’t include any personally identifiable information that others might associate with you, like your birth date, maiden name, social security number, phone number, or the like.

To help accomplish this, it will help to use a password manager to keep track of them all, along with any built-in password creation features it has built in, as this will help you to generate a secure, randomized password with sufficient complexity. You could also string a few random and unrelated words together to make a passphrase, sprinkling in numbers and symbols as you see fit to help make a memorable but significantly more secure option.

Once you make these changes, you’ll probably need to re-log into your Google account on a few devices.

But Wait, There’s More!

To really protect your Google account, let’s go a little further and set up 2-Step Verification (also commonly known as Two-Factor Authentication) if you have not yet done so. 2-Step Verification is a great insurance policy against the possibility that your password is breached.

Once your password is changed, from your Google Account page:

1. Click the Security option on the left-hand side of the page.
2. Click 2-Step Verification.
3. Google may prompt you to enter in your password again, just to make sure it’s you.
4. Depending on what Google already knows about you, this might go a few different ways—you’ll either be prompted to set up a phone number to get a text message or phone call, or Google might walk you through setting this up on your smartphone. Either way, follow the on-screen instructions. 

Your various authentication options come at varying levels of simplicity and efficacy. Most convenient is the use of a Google prompt, which sends a notification to your Android device whenever a new device is attempting to log into your account that allows you to permit or disallow permission to do so. Receiving a text message with a code is undoubtedly convenient, but less secure as these text messages can potentially be intercepted. The most secure option is to utilize Google’s Authenticator app, which is also simple to set up.

If your business uses Google’s solutions to power your business, MSPNetworks recommends that you implement these changes. Need help? Give our team a call at (516) 403-9001.

While Google Search has become eponymous for “online search”, the company has not stopped innovating upon the capabilities of the service. Most recently (as of this writing, of course) one improvement that the company is making is to give more content a bit more context before a user clicks through to a potential threat.

Let’s go into what this new update will look like on your Search results pages.

The Google Page Widget

With its rollout beginning on February 2nd, your Google Searches via a desktop, mobile device, and the Android mobile app probably now offer a small widget that provides a look at the website each result directs to.

Here’s how it will purportedly work:

You will soon notice (if they haven’t already caught your attention) small three-dot menus appearing next to your search results. These menus, if clicked, will give you more information into the website the result has pulled up.

This information will include things like a blurb about the website the link directs to—if available, coming from Wikipedia, and if not, based on Google’s own analysis when the site was indexed—as well as whether the website offers a secure HTTPS protocol connection and if a link is an ad.

Here, for example, is what appears when you check the link for Facebook:

From this, we can see that Google has confirmed that the connection to the website is secured, helping to protect our data, and that the link the user has inquired about was the result of their search, not placed there as an advertisement.

Moving forward, this utility may be able to help your users make more secure choices when browsing their search results. If you have access to it, we encourage you to explore it a little more yourself—and, if you’re ever concerned about how secure your business’ IT choices have been, to reach out to MSPNetworks at (516) 403-9001 for an assessment.

Data and cybersecurity is hard enough without vulnerabilities coming from one of your most utilized applications. That’s the scenario after a bug was found in some of today’s most popular Internet browsers putting billions of people’s data security at risk. Let’s take a brief look at the vulnerability and how you can ensure that it won’t be a problem for you or your company.

Chromium Bug Explained

Internet browsers such as Opera, Edge, and Chrome are built on top of Google’s open-source Chromium platform and therefore share a lot of the same code. Unfortunately, researchers found an exploitable vulnerability in the Chromium code that would allow hackers to bypass the Content Security Policy on websites, leaving them able to steal data or run malicious code. 

What is the Content Security Policy?

The Content Security Policy (CSP) is an Internet standard that was designed to eliminate certain types of cyberattacks. The policy provides access to website administrators to set the domains that an Internet browser sees as legitimate. An Internet browser with a CSP will block scripts that aren’t loaded into the policy’s parameters. Most websites on the Internet use CSP.

How Does the Hack Work?

In order to use the CSP vulnerability in the Chromium-based browser, the hacker first needs to gain access to a web server. There are several ways this can happen, but most commonly, they can use a brute-force attack--that is an attack where so many different iterations of login credentials are used that eventually the password is discovered--is used. Then the attacker alters the JavaScript to allow the nefarious cofe to work, bypassing the CSP completely.  So while it actually takes a successful hack to exploit the vulnerability, it is still extremely dangerous due to the amount of trust people have in, what claim to be, secure websites.

What You Can Do to Ensure Your Browser is Secure

This is a great example of how even the most trusted software could have long-standing security vulnerabilities. The Chrome browser, which reached 5 billion downloads in 2019, carried this vulnerability for over a year. Since being discovered, however, the issue has been patched. As a result, users of Chrome, Microsoft’s Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi will definitely want to update to developers’ newest versions to ensure your browser doesn’t carry this very dangerous vulnerability. 

Staying safe online requires your browser to be updated and patched. If you need help ensuring your business is running patched and up-to-date software, contact the security professionals at MSPNetworks today at (516) 403-9001.

Everyone knows how to do a Google Search, right? Go to the site, type whatever it is you’re looking for into the search bar, and you’re off to the races. Fewer people are aware, however, of the ways that you can help Google narrow its search a bit. Let’s go over a few handy Google cheat codes that can make your search results more precise.

Basic Searches

There are many simple ways that you can adjust your Google search queries.

-

Adding a hyphen (representative of a subtraction mark in this case) allows you to preemptively omit any search results that include a term. For instance, if you wanted to learn about computer hardware for your business, and didn’t want to see tons of gaming hardware, you could search for computer hardware -gaming.

|

The pipe icon enables you to effectively run two searches at once. By separating your queries with the pipe, it effectively serves as a stand-in for or as Google considers your results. So, if you were to search for tortilla | jazzercise, your results page would become an entertaining mix of recipes and locations to take a class.

()

Parentheses can help you add some context to your search. By emphasizing it separately from the rest of your search query, the parentheses tell Google that their contents should impact the rest of the search. Let’s say that you needed to plan a bowling-themed birthday party. Searching for (bowling) birthday party ideas could provide you with a smorgasbord of resources and party supplies vendors, all dedicated to birthday parties with a bowling theme.

Search Operators

site:

Sometimes, you know that you’ve seen something on a specific website, but when you go back later, you can’t seem to find it. Adding this tag into your Google search allows you to tell Google the specific website you want to search. For instance, let’s say you were looking for a specific blog that we posted about data backup. On Google, you could search for data backup site: www.mspnetworks.com.

filetype:

Google even enables its users to define their searches down to the filetype. Adding filetype:pdf will only return results for the defined search that come in PDF form.

intext:

We’ve all had those moments where we can remember something that we read, word-for-word, but we just can’t remember where we read it. Google can help. By typing in the remembered phrase after intext:, Google will scan the on-page text for that phrase and kick it back to you.

Which of these do you see being the most useful to you? Let us know in the comments how they work out for you! For more IT tips, best practices, and support services, MSPNetworks is always here. Reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Google Chrome is rolling out a neat little update for everyone over the next week (it may already be out for some users by the time this posts). It’s a feature that I know I’m personally going to love, and I didn’t even realize how badly I needed it until now.

Let’s take a look!

Organize Your Browser Tabs in Google Chrome

If you are like me, there are probably times when you have way too many tabs open in your browser. I know when I’m doing research or shopping around for something, I tend to have dozens of tabs open while I’m looking around and trying to make a decision.

Google Chrome is finally offering some sweet sweet salvation for tab-hoarders (Google’s official term is more generous, calling us tab-collectors instead). In an upcoming update, Chrome will allow you to group tabs together and color-code them.

The update should be rolling out this week, but it will hit everyone at different times (Google deploys their updates out slowly).

Once the update has been installed, which by default, Chrome will do automatically, you’ll be able to right-click on tabs and group them together. You’ll be able to apply a color to tabs to keep the top of your browser organized.

Let’s have some fun in the comments - how many browser tabs (counting this site too) do you have open in your browser right now? Are you a tab-hoarder, or a tab-minimalist?

It is apparent that Google is deeply invested in the G Suite, as they recently added an assortment of features to make basic processes much simpler and more convenient for their users. Here, we’ll go over a few of these updates, and how they can positively influence your operations.

Search Chips in Gmail

All G Suite subscribers will soon see improved search capabilities within Gmail, as Google’s developers have added an extra feature to help narrow down search results. Once a search is performed within Gmail, contextual options will appear below the search field.

For instance, let’s say you were looking for a specific email from your colleague Brian. Simply searching for “Brian” would bring up a mess of messages, chats, updates, and invites. Search Chips allows you to narrow your search by various filters without manually typing them. So, if you knew that the message from Brian you were looking for had a PDF attached, you can search for emails from Brian with PDFs attached.

Again, while this feature is currently exclusive to the G Suite, all Gmail accounts will soon have this capability built in.

Expanded Out of Office Notifications

Are you planning on being out of the office for an extended amount of time? Google is adding a feature that allows you to present this information in more context to your contacts who have access to your Google calendar. Suppose you have a vacation scheduled in your Google calendar. If Brian wanted to get in touch with you during that time, he would see that you were gone and when to expect you back.

Google Docs Autocorrect and Smart Compose

Google Docs (at least, the online version) is being augmented with the ability to automatically correct a user’s errors as they type – something many users will likely find to be a welcome addition. This feature is slated to be released to select G Suite subscription types. Likewise, select G Suite subscriptions may have noticed Smart Compose predictions appearing in their Google Docs as of late.

Admin Console Improvements

Administrators should be happy to see the assorted improvements that have been made to their Admin consoles, and we’re talking about more than the aesthetic changes. The entire interface’s integration has been improved, with more context provided in the options.

Context Aware Access in G Suite

There are just some things that different levels in an organization need and don’t need, respectively, which means that certain users shouldn’t be able to access certain things.  While admins were once only able to differentiate access control through organizational units, you can now control access via a user’s identity and the context that is inferred by a request. This means more granular control over your data, and by extension, more secure data. However, to use this feature, you have to be a G Suite user of Enterprise, Enterprise for Education, Cloud Identity Premium, or Drive Enterprise.

Which of these additions do you find the most promising? Do you wish any were more widely available? Let us know in the comments!

Augmented reality has been one of the most cited emerging technologies for the past few years. It was the technology that was supposed to fuel Google Glass, the failed attempt at creating a pair of revolutionary smart glasses. Since then, there hasn’t been much press about AR in the mainstream media and not much is known about major tech companies’ attempts to improve AR technology. 

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented reality is an interactive experience where the resources of the smartphone coupled with AR software produce objects over the display of a device. Examples include the first down line they superimpose on a football broadcast, the filters that many messaging apps have integrated, and the immensely popular mobile game Pokemon Go.

Of course, these mostly are novelty uses, but businesses have made big efforts to incorporate AR technology into their marketing efforts over the past few years. IKEA famously uses AR technology in their IKEA Place app. It allows people to forecast what a room in their house would look like if they purchased a piece of furniture.

Google, understanding the extraordinarily useful applications of AR, launched their ARCore platform in March 2018. ARCore features three innovative technologies that provide mobile application developers the tools they need to build AR apps. They are:

• Six degrees of freedom - makes device movement in any three-dimensional space possible.
• Environmental understanding - allows the AR app on the device to detect the size and location of horizontal structures. 
• Light estimation - provides current environment’s lighting condition. 

This platform is allowing more developers than ever to integrate real time information into their applications for the user’s benefit. This has resulted in record growth for the technology in 2019, and that is only scratching the surface. 

Google is not the only company that is all in on AR. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook are also making serious commitments to the technology. This is leading to a major boost in application development.

In the future, AR-fueled applications will be used in dozens of industries for hundreds of purposes. In fact, more than 100 million users have already used AR-enabled shopping applications. You will have to expect that as 5G wireless technology gets rolled out that number will be dwarfed by the number that will over the next few years. 

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Late in the summer this past year there were several articles written about how Google would continue to track the location of a person’s smartphone after they had chosen to turn their location settings off. A Princeton researcher corroborated those claims for the Associated Press, traveling through New York and New Jersey with locations services off only to be tracked the entire way. Today, we will discuss this issue, and tell you what you need to know to keep Google from tracking you wherever you go.

Google’s 99 Problems
The perception of Google might be as of a benevolent force in a world full of malevolence to a majority of its users, but over the past few years the problems have been mounting up at the doors of the Googleplex. There has been a laundry list of ongoing legal problems, there has been an employee walkout to protest sexual assault allegations by top executives, and for its continued work as a military contractor. CEO Sundar Pichai appeared before Congress in December to answer lawmakers’ questions about data privacy and company censorship. There has also been a recent dust up with Apple over a violation of Apple App Store policy.

With all these problems on the surface, it would be difficult to assume that Google, or its parent company, Alphabet, Inc. would be raking in dough. That is exactly what has happened. Google took in an astounding $39.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018. With every dollar they take in, they take in so much more data. In fact, over the past week, the scrutiny over privacy problems led Google to make the claim that changing their privacy policies--something they will most likely be expected to do--could hurt their company earnings and hinder their ability to create revenue.

So Google Tracks User Data?
Like many of the most utilized services, Google, which owns the Android mobile operating system that powers over 81 percent of all smartphones in the world, tracks data down to an individual level. They contend that they do this to be able to improve their services. The more they know about an individual, the more they know about demographics, and about society as a whole. This gives them the best opportunity to develop, build, and bring to market products and services in line with what people want.

Google has its hands in lots of pies, but its most lucrative, by far, is advertising. In fact, in 2017 Google made $110 billion in profits, $95.4 billion of which came from advertising. In order to be the best they can be at advertising, they need information about consumers (and would-be advertisers).

Google’s tracking tools are numerous.

They have the number one mobile operating system (Android), the number one Internet browser (Chrome), the number one hosted email provider (Gmail), the number one video site (YouTube), the number one search engine (Google Search), and the number one mapping application (Google Maps). This is just a small list of all of Google-owned services as hundreds of millions of people and organizations also use their cloud storage systems, their productivity applications, their virtual assistant, and their news aggregate.

Privacy with Google
With all the services you use tracking every piece of data they can, keeping yourself private with Google around might be harder than you think...or is it? You’d think that you should just be able to go into your Android OS and switch off location settings and they will keep from tracking your whereabouts or your activity. This, of course, is not the case, but there is a relatively simple way to keep your location a secret...even from Google. Throw your phone in a large body of water. If you don’t have a large body of water near you, just run it under the faucet for a couple hours (or long enough for those with that pesky IP68 certification to be proven foolhardy).

We’re just kidding of course. If you want Google to stop tracking you, you will need to find, and toggle off the “Web and App Activity” setting. With this setting turned off, Google will no longer be able to store a snapshot of where you’ve been and won’t have access to browser search metrics either.

This may be annoying to some Google users, as to their understanding once Location History is toggled off, the phone should not be able to track his/her location. Google, defending the miscommunication, stated, “Location History is a Google product that is entirely opt in, and users have the controls to edit, delete, or turn off at any time...we continue to use location to improve the Google experience when they (users) do things like perform a Google search or use Google for driving directions.”

Google’s justifications could make sense, until you consider that a feature called “Web and App Activity” needs to be disengaged in order for Google to stop tracking location, even after you tell the OS to stop tracking location. While the company has a laundry list of valuable services, they continue to try and obtain as much data as they can to drive their ad program’s effectiveness, thus profiting off of consumers’ trust.

Do you think that these major Internet companies reliance on advertising revenue is good for consumers or investors? Who really is profiting? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Chances are you have a Google account, whether it’s for business or personal use. It’s more accessible today than ever before and provides a solid way to gain access to several important features and accounts. Considering how much can be done with a Google account, users forget that they can put their security and personal data at risk. Here are some ways that your Google account is at risk, as well as what you can do to fix it.

Why Is Your Google Account so Valuable?
The Internet has always been a tool to keep those who use it connected, and data stored on it shared and accessible. However, like any tool that evolves and changes over time, its purposes and uses change with it. The idea for what would become the Internet came from J.C.R. Licklider of MIT in 1962, who intended it to be a system of interconnected computers used to share information and programs across the entire world. This idea would become the World Wide Web with the help of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who had this to say:

“Had the technology been proprietary, and in my total control, it would probably not have taken off. You can’t propose that something be a universal space and at the same time keep control of it.”

These ideals are still retained by today’s Internet; if anything, you might say it’s reached its peak. Social media use and network collaboration is at an all-time high, generally free of control by any central entity. These ideals have led to a demand for the preservation of net neutrality and open-access information, and while these are largely upheld, there are always exceptions to the rule.

While the Internet grew in capability, it also grew in utility. These utilities depend on security and privacy. Since so many people began to use the Internet to deal with confidential information, this increased the importance of security from both the perspective of an everyday user and a business. One of the companies that has helped shape this perspective is Google, a company that offers a plethora of services on both a user level and a business level.

You can’t discredit the importance of Google services for business, such as its G Suite applications and Gmail. Even on a general consumer level, many users find Google services helpful and important to their daily routine, to say the least. With Google security so important, take a moment to ask yourself how many online accounts have access to your Google account. What are you risking if your Google password is stolen by hackers looking to make a quick buck?

What You Risk
You can use your Google account to create other accounts, either by using your associated Gmail address or linking it directly, but what does that mean for security standards? It’s important to remember that this convenience comes at a price; linking an account to your Google account inevitably ties that account’s security to your Google account. This means that if your Google account is compromised, any accounts associated with it could also be at risk.

How Devastating Can It Be?
If you’re reading this on your desktop, you can click here to access your Google account. Under the Security section, you can review all devices that your Google account has been active on, as well as all third-party applications that access your account. You can even see all the websites that are using Google Smart Lock. Take a moment to review this list. Does it contain anything particularly sensitive? How about your bank account? If this is the case, it’s easy for anyone who has access to your Google account to access any accounts associated with your Google account from the simple virtue of being able to recover passwords and usernames for the account.

A Solution
This creates a conflict between two of any technology user’s priorities: convenience and security. Some might even be willing to sacrifice security if it means a little convenience (think using the same password for multiple accounts), but in the professional world, this can be dangerous if mishandled. There isn’t a magical button that will make your Google account secure, so you’ll have to use a collection of best practices and preventative measures to make sure your credentials are properly secured. Be sure to keep an eye out for data breaches and change passwords accordingly, as well as taking into account the following practices:

Passwords and Account Security
The Google account is basically a container of credentials for any account connected to it. This means that you need a strong password or passphrase to protect it. Make sure that your password is long, complex, and doesn’t include any identifiable words that might give it away to someone just guessing at it. Also, be sure to only access your Google account on personal devices rather than public ones, as you could be putting your account at risk this way. Public Wi-Fi is in a similar risk category; only access your account through a private or secured connection.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
One of the better ways you can keep your Google account secure is by making it more difficult to access. A secondary code sent to your mobile device in the form of a text message, generated via Google Authenticator, or a call made to your mobile device, make it so that anyone with your password needs to work a little harder to access your account. Enabling this kind of 2FA decreases the chances that you’ll have problems with a cybercriminal taking over your account, since it’s highly unlikely that they will also have access to your mobile device, too. Google Authenticator is by far the most secure of the options presented for 2FA for your Google account.

Your Google account can be used to access one-time authentication codes that can be printed out and kept on your person, giving you immediate access to your account on the off-chance you don’t have your phone on you at that moment. If you run out of codes or lose the list, you can generate new ones easily enough.

To set up these features, log in to your Google account.

Overall, Google offers great ways to keep your account secure, as long as you take advantage of them. To learn more about how you can keep your accounts secure, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

If your business was breached, would it be better to keep it a secret, or should you disclose it to your clients? Uber has proven that trying to hide it is a mistake, and a costly one at that.

In November of 2016, Uber was made aware that they had been breached, personal information from 57 million users and 600,000 United States-based drivers having been stolen by hackers. Uber quickly tried to hide the data breach, paying $100,000 to the hackers in exchange for the stolen data to be deleted and for their silence.

However, when Dara Khosrowshahi stepped in as CEO and learned about the breach, he quickly decided that the company had to come clean. As a result, Uber has now reached a settlement with the attorneys general of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Under this settlement, Uber has to pay $148 million, as well as hire a third-party representative to routinely go over its data security measures and suggest improvements that Uber will have to adopt. Furthermore, Uber will also have to implement a “corporate integrity program.” This program will allow (or, more accurately, require) any ethical issues that employees raise to be addressed fully.

Uber is far from the only company who has kept data breaches under wraps for as long as they could. Google is finally pulling the plug on Google+, the search giant's failed attempt at social media, as the result of a security breach that potentially exposed 500,000 users… three years ago.

We would also be amiss if we didn’t mention Equifax, which not only had the data of over 146 million Americans exposed on its watch, but also waited over a month to report it. Not only that, but some employees have even been charged with insider trading after offloading all of their Equifax stock between learning of the breach and it being officially announced.

So, what does this have to do with you and your business?

Consider, for a moment, the data that your business has collected. Chances are, there is quite a bit of overlap in the data you have stored on your clients and customers as Uber or even Equifax has. Uber, Equifax, and certainly Google can all absorb this kind of event - perhaps not without some consequences, but these companies are big enough that they will be able to bounce back from them. Could you say with 100 percent certainty that the same could be said of your business?

In short, if you are to suffer a data breach, you need to be open about it and come clean. Chances are, your clients will still be upset with you, but there’s a big difference between “my data was breached” and “my data was breached and you didn’t tell me.”

However, if you do everything possible to make sure that your data isn’t breached in the first place, you may not have to worry about disclosing one to your patrons. MSPNetworks can help with our cybersecurity solutions and best practice training. For more information, reach out at (516) 403-9001.