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How to Improve Your Cyber Security

July 5, 2019 by

Cybersecurity is concerned with protecting information and users against the criminals who seek to steal and abuse confidential information. In this wide use of internet era and electronic devices, cybersecurity has been a great challenge over the years. In order to protect valuable data, it is very much necessary to maintain effective cybersecurity.

Information Technology consulting involves providing expert advice, guidance, and solutions to businesses and organizations seeking to optimize their technology infrastructure, processes, and operations. IT consultants assess the client’s needs, identify areas for improvement, and propose tailored strategies to enhance efficiency, productivity, and overall performance in the digital landscape. Their services may include system integration, software development, cybersecurity, project management, and training, ultimately helping organizations stay competitive and adapt to the rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Below are some of the easy ways to improve your Cyber Security:

1. Enforce a strong password

strong password

Strong passwords are one of the first lines of defense against breaches, and changing them occasionally might be helpful from the hackers. Including special symbols and numbers, along with various characters, will be very effective.

2. Turn on the two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) applies a second layer of security to your online accounts. It usually involves having to enter something you know (such as your password) along with something you have, such as a code which is sent to you by a text message or generated by a token.

Using 2FA means that the hacker will not be able to access your account, even if they steal your password.

3. Restrict apps’ permissions

Nearly everyone has a smartphone now, and on most people’s smartphone, there are apps allowing people to share their day-to-day lifestyle with the world. However, when downloading and installing such apps on your phone, you should always check what permissions these apps are looking for, and should only give the app permissions that allow it to run properly, and no more.

There are apps which can have access to the user’s contact lists, SMS messages, access to camera and microphone, ability to track locations, and many more. Ensure you know the permissions of all your apps, and ensure they are as restricted as possible.

4. Implement VPNs for all connections

Those networks are more vulnerable to an attack which are protected by generic security measures. One should learn to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to protect their privacy.

For instance, implement VPN connections between office locations and make their use easy and mandatory for mobile employees who may connect through public Wi-Fi services.

5. Check your social media settings

Social media setting

Social engineering scams are seen more often nowadays. Social media has made it easier for the cybercriminals to carry out such scams by knowing the information people put out there about themselves online.

To make life a bit harder for the scammers, keep your social media account set to private, and don’t give out too much of personal information (like your phone number, how many family members you have, etc.) to strangers on the internet. The less cyber scammers know about you, the harder it will be for them to know about you.

6. Protect your devices

All your electronic devices (including your smartphone, tablet, computer, etc.) should be protected with good security to detect malware and other cyber threats and keep your data safe. Keep all your devices, software, operating system, and applications up to date.

While downloading any application, make a note that you are downloading it from a secure source. This is where hiring IT consulting services can be especially useful, as they’ll know the best software for each situation and will know how to correctly implement them to keep things secure. Ultimately, keeping software and systems updated with the latest patches will protect you from vulnerable cyber attacks.

In conclusion:

Being aware of the devices and apps you use and being cautious of the networks you connect with is important along with knowing what to share with the world and what not to.




Assessing What You Need for Your Career Path

June 5, 2019 by

As you find yourself leaving school, often you find yourself bombarded with information and advice about what to do next. For many, their path is obvious, either wanting to go into a specific role straight out of school/college, perhaps an apprenticeship or just a straight-forward job. Or, the answer for many is to go to university to specialise in a particular subject/vocation. This article isn’t going to be another lecture of what you should do disguised as advice. Instead, I’m going to try and show the tools you need to help assess for yourself what you need to do next.

FIrstly, spend time to work out what truly motivates you.  If it’s money, then a vocational degree might be your best bet. With these sorts of degrees opening the world of work to you at graduate entry-level, with good chances of promotion. If your motivations stem more from helping people, or wanting to make a difference, it might be worth looking at the specific careers that offer this. For example, from school you can find social work jobs or apprenticeships. You could also choose a degree such as medicine, nursing, or midwifery. These may still be considered vocational degrees, but in a very different sense, that is removed from the world of business.

It’s also important to be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses. This can be a tricky process, as it’s never nice to admit what you’re not good at. Doing this though will only ever help you; finding a job can be a hard process, so knowing that you’re playing to your strengths is a good mental coping mechanism during this process. Overall, theoretically speaking speaking, this should also make your job hunt as short in duration as possible. This doesn’t mean, on a practical level, that you should always expect this. You should also make sure you’re assessing your strengths and weaknesses constantly throughout your life, as you cannot expect them to always stay the same as time passes.

These aren’t the only areas of self-assessment to consider. The point though is to make sure you take the adequate time needed to check in with yourself about the next steps in your career, no matter what stage it’s at. Advice and knowledge from others is of course of paramount value, but don’t allow it to be your only guiding principles, make sure they come from within as well as outside of yourself.




How Stock Screeners Can Improve Your Trading Strategy

February 27, 2019 by

If you’re thinking of getting involved with investment trading, then the first thing you’ll need to do is learn as much as you can about the market. The more you understand things like stocks, and the businesses or “securities” that list them online, the less likely you are to waste your money on a stock strategy that isn’t right for your needs.

As you begin to learn more about the stock trading market, you’ll discover that there are tools available online to help beginners make more informed trading decisions. For instance, a stock screener is a trading tool that investors can use to filter a large selection of stocks into a more manageable list of potential investments. Here are just some of the ways that stock screeners like the Finviz can improve your trading strategy.

Stock Screeners Save Valuable Time

There are thousands of stocks available on the market at any given time, and stock screening databases will help you to browse through a subset of them, based on the specific filters and choices that make you more or less likely to choose a stock. For instance, you might decide that you only want to invest in a stock that sells for a specific price or has a specific history of growth. Once you determine which metrics you’re going to use in your stock screening strategy, the screener will simply filter out any options that don’t match with your criteria. This means that you can save a lot of time that you would have spent filtering through stocks that aren’t relevant to you.

Stock Screeners Remove Bias

When you’re first getting started with stock selecting, you may not realize that certain biases are playing into your decisions. Over time, you begin to notice these behavioral biases and attempt to filter them out of your choices. However, while you’re watching the latest stock market news, your stock screeners will make it easier to detect your bad investing decisions.

Stock screeners force you to look at potential stocks from a highly logical and numerical perspective. There’s no background knowledge on a company available when you’re using a stock screener. Instead all you have are numbers with which to make your decision about which stocks you should purchase. Once you’ve narrowed down your choices logically, you can always do additional research into your chosen stocks to ensure that you’re making the right decisions.

Stock Screeners Unveil New Investment Opportunities

Finally, one major benefit of using a stock screener is that they allow you to unearth potential opportunities for investment that you might not have seen or considered otherwise. If you’re browsing through thousands of stocks on any given day, the chances are that you’ll ignore a few that you might have been better off looking at in closer detail. Stock screeners will eliminate the stocks that are wasting your time, so you have more chance to focus on the stocks that matter. Additionally, a stock screener will also ensure that you don’t forget to consider some of the smaller and less familiar stocks that often get overlooked in the trading market. These stocks can sometimes be the best investments.




Increase your readership through email marketing: Check out 5 simple tips. Learn more about how you can earn more readers through proper email marketing strategies.

December 13, 2018 by
Email marketing

Increasing your readership through email marketing is easy, but you need to work consistently and follow a proper formula. Keep reading, and learn more about 5 simple tips that will certainly help you get it right from day one!

1 Optimize the content of your email

One of the most important things you should do is to optimize the content of your emails. This means that you should start with a killer headline. This is the first most important thing to consider when creating emails. Headlines should be attractive because they are the first things people will read! To create a headline worthy of your brand, you should aim for something between 5to 15 words, going for a catchy, casual and intuitive approach. After you came up with the perfect headline, it’s time to think about the body of the email! A text should never be too long. Generally, anything from 20 to 200 words would be ideal, really depending on the particular context of your situation. Make sure that the content is well written and optimized properly. This way, you can ensure better content readability and much higher chances to appeal to your readers! Once you got the bulk of the text out of the way, it’s time to think about a catchy conclusion, something that is going to make people visit your website or click on your links. A “call to action” is perfect in this case. Whether you are going for something personal, such as an invitation, or something more understated, such as highlighting a website link, it’s really important to finalize this step to optimize the content of your email. This 3-step formula is a sure-fire was o maximize every email you send, and it works every time due to its universal appeal.

2 Include perks for your readers

Make your readers feel like they’re not just being sold to! If you offer them something unique with your email, they will certainly appreciate what you have to offer!

3 Create share-worthy emails

The best emails are the ones that jump off the inbox. In the best case scenario, your reader won’t just be reading your email and move on to something else. He will be so galvanized by the content, that he will be willing to share it with his friends via email, or social media. Make it easy for people to share your content. Isn’t just about creating great emails, but also present easy ways for people to share the content. Keep social share links handy, if possible, and make sure to do so in a subtle way. Often times, requesting your readers to spread the word won’t be effective. They are going to need to do soon their own. This is the only way you can appeal to them and truly make a difference!

4 Include appropriate links and media.

Adding media (such as pictures and videos) as well as links, can maximize the full reach of your emails, as well as helping you drive more traffic to your website. However, it’s important not go overboard, and avoid using too many links and media!

5 Improve the consistency of your emails with dedicated email marketing software.

Marketing tools such as EMMA can do wonders for your productivity. It’s one of the best ways to process large loads of emails, using a specific all-in-one platform that can assist you in many ways.




Best Apps to Work From Everywhere

August 8, 2018 by
Work apps


Working from home is a dream come true for most of us. We are not stuck at the office from 9 to 5, there’s no driving and no stressing out about the traffic in the morning. However, while it is very convenient, you still need to get things done and in order to do so, you need to be well organized. Fortunately, there are apps designed to simplify things for us and help us manage our virtual businesses in a much better way.

In this article, we will review some of the most valuable apps for running a home-based business while focusing on their advantages and why they are needed in every home office. They are absolutely essential for stay at home moms and all the digital nomads in general. With these apps, you can work literally from anywhere: your home, your favorite coffee shop or your new travel destination. You name it!

1. Trello

Managing your home-based business is much easier with Trello. This management tool enables you to organize your tasks by using different columns. When you are done with a project, simply move the card to “done” and start the next one by moving it to the “in progress” column.

One of the greatest advantages of this app is that it enables you to work both individually and with other team members if needed. It’s so much easier to focus when everything looks so neat! You also get to use the app for free.

2. Google Assistant

Google Assistant is like having a personal assistant except it’s free! You can ask questions or have your thoughts transcribed in seconds. How? Very simply. Let’s say you want to get out of the house and grab a cup of coffee while working, the app will inform you of the nearby places and coffee shops where you can get free Wi-Fi. Pretty convenient, isn’t it?

Other advantages of this app include the ability to set reminders for important errands, make quick phone calls or even send text messages.

3. FaxBurner

Believe it or not, faxes are still relevant in many fields despite what we may have previously thought. Sending and receiving faxes is super easy with FaxBurner.

How does it work? You sign up online or download the app and yo get a free fax number that you may use for a day or even forever if you choose to upgrade to the paid plan. You can send, receive, sign, and archive your faxes no matter where you are.

4. Slack

We can agree that communication is a very important ( if not the most important) aspect of any home-based job. Since we never meet our clients or team members face-to-face, we need proper ways to communicate with them online. Slack allows you to keep in touch with your team.

The app makes collaborating on a project much easier. You can create different channels for different groups or projects and access your messages at any time. You can try it out for free and later subscribe to a paid plan if you find it useful.

5. Evernote

Every once in a while, a thought occurs to you while you’re in the middle of something but you forget all about it later. You can prevent this from happening if you use Evernote.

Not only does the app allow you to remember everything and capture all of your thoughts, but you can also share them with others. You can even include links in your notes as well as attachments and audio recordings. You can organize all your thoughts in one place which is invaluable. And the best part is that you can start with the basic free plan and only upgrade later if you like it.

6. Dropbox

Losing your files is extremely frustrating, we all know that. One of the best yet simplest ways to prevent that is to back up everything you don’t want to lose on Dropbox. As simple as that!

When you save files on Dropbox, they are synced with all your devices which means you can access them from anywhere. You can also share files with anyone which makes the app great for teams and for individuals alike. You can use it for free (something every freelancer appreciates) or upgrade to a paid plan should you require more space.

7. Todo.vu

As all home-based employees know, time tracking may be boring but necessary when you bill your clients on an hourly basis. Todo.vu allows freelancers and entire teams to track their time accurately.

One of the greatest advantages of this app is that unlike so many other time-tracking tools, it allows you to track time on multiple tasks instead of only one project. It really makes a lot of things easier such as setting billing rates for employees and keeping track of all customers. There is a solo free plan that is perfect for all freelancers and stays at home moms, whereas small teams can upgrade to a paid plan.

8. Skype

We cannot leave out Skype, one of the most popular and effective apps for communication in the business world, especially for remote workers. While Slack is ideal for messaging and keeping in touch with your team, texting is simply not enough sometimes. Fortunately, Skype is perfect for unlimited calls from anywhere in the world.

The most obvious advantage, of course, is making international phone calls for free with anyone who has Wi-Fi access. Many remote workers use Skype for coaching and one way or another, it is pretty useful to have it in your home office. The app is free but if you want to be able to make phone calls to cell phones, you are required to pay a small fee per year.

Working from home can be pretty hectic and difficult to concentrate. These selected apps we mentioned above can help you improve your business and organize things more easily, and most importantly, you can do all that from anywhere you want!




Setapp – One Store to Rule Them All

May 4, 2018 by

Setapp icon

There are tons of new and unique apps individual users can download to Macs and iPads to increase productivity, accessibility, entertainment level, among so many other things. The downsides to downloading dozens of apps are the hefty monthly subscription fees that are sure to add up. This is where Setapp steps in.

Instead of paying fees to individual apps, Setapp offers a compilation of Mac apps for a single monthly subscription fee. Sounds too good to be true? Go on and read this article to find out whether Setapp could work for you:

How Setapp Works

The founders have based their idea on streaming services. With the onset of streaming platforms, movie watchers didn’t have to pay for individual DVDs. Instead, they pay one monthly fee to access tens of thousands of movies and TV shows from a single online platform.

Setapp working

Instead of movies or music tracks, Setapp makes various Mac apps available to individual users for a $9.99 monthly subscription fee. While it’s not as big as Netflix, currently there are over 100 apps Mac users can try. Imagine paying even a dollar each month to use each of these apps. The cost would be considerable. The single subscription model of Setapp is definitely a bargain in this light.

Design

The Setapp suite is very intuitive, well organized, and all around easy to use. The suite includes three columns: the finder sidebar, the app listing column, and the preview column.

The finder sidebar has all the apps neatly categorized into groups such as Lifestyle, Productivity, Creativity, Task Management, and so on. Users can get access to all the apps or other apps available on the Mac quickly from the sidebar.

Once the user clicks on a category, another column lists all the apps available under that category. Right now, Setapp makes roughly 112 apps immediately available with desktop download. New apps are still being added, about 3 new per month, according to the company.

Third column makes a preview of a selected app available with the name, a screenshot or an image, and a short description. It’s very useful when looking for a new app. All the information is available in a single suite, which is extremely convenient for busy enterprise users.

Features

The apps on Setapp are handpicked by the creators. That is to say, users can’t add or exclude apps they personally like. The suite is made available with more apps that anyone could ever really use, so this should not be a problem.

There are plenty of highly useful apps both individual and work users can benefit from. The suite includes several apps from the company behind Setapp, such as CleanMyMac. Other notable apps include Capto, Bartender, Gemini,SQLPro Studio, and even Ulysses. The collection is incredibly varied. The inclusion of popular apps like Ulysses, which can cost as much as $45 individually, is really impressive.

It’s also got a few personal finance apps like Chronicle, MoneyWiz and Home Inventory that can help you keep a track of your finances, receipts, bills etc. You can check all the apps offered by Setapp here.

It should be noted that all the apps in Setup are ad-free. There are no in-app advertisements or prompts for purchases. That distraction-free environment alone makes the subscription fee worthwhile.

Downsides

It’s hard to find downsides to this service. However, do understand that this service makes financial sense only to those who need to use multiple apps on a monthly or daily basis. If you need to use only one or two cheap apps, then the $10 price tag may be overpaying.

Conclusion

Setapp is a fascinating tool that is near limitless in application and convenience. If you are in the habit of downloading numerous apps each year, the Setapp suite can save a fortune. Users may even be able to save money on some apps made available in the suite like SQLPro Studio, which are very expensive to use individually.

Overall, Setapp offers excellent functionality and a great opportunity to save money when working on projects. The suite keeps adding new apps, so the cost effectiveness of Setapp would only increase in the future. Currently, Setapp is available for a free 7-day trial run.

Click here to start yours and take it for a spin. If you don’t like it, you can always cancel.




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