Dan’s Tech and Help Desk Services

03/04/2022

Cyber Security is no joke, it needs to be taken seriously, and you need to be aware of what you click on and agree too. This video shows what people can do if they had malicious intent, but lucky, and hopefully they use this knowledge for good and to help others.

Watch what happens when journalist Kevin Roose challenges hackers to hack him.CREDIT: FUSION MEDIA NETWORK 2015

02/23/2022

I now have the Google IT Support Professional Certificate

Those who earn the Google IT Support Certificate have completed five-courses, developed by Google, that include hands-on, practice-based assessments and are designed to prepare them for entry-level roles in IT support. They are competent in foundational skills, including troubleshooting and customer...

02/08/2022

Replacing a HDD and RAM in a MacBook Pro

02/01/2022

Welcome to DR's note, your weekly dose of knowledge from Dan's Tech and Help Desk Services

This week, we talk about Ransomware

Let us first understand what ransomware is, then we can discuss how to avoid it. So what is ransomware, the FBI defines it like this, malicious software, or malware, that prevents you from accessing your computer files, systems, or networks and demands you to pay a ransom for their return. Basically your computer gets infected and locks you out of your stuff, you have to pay the person that did this, and they then unlock your files, hopefully. This could be devastating if this happens to you, but remember, NEVER PAY THE RANSOM. Even if you pay them the money, you do not have any guarantee that you will get your content unlocked or back at all. Also, you are essentially funding them to keep doing this to you and other people.

So what are you to do when it comes to ransomware, how can you avoid it. The absolute best thing you can do to protect yourself is to BACK UP YOUR DATA. If you get hit with ransomware, you can use that back up to restore your computer to a time without that virus on it. You also want to keep up to date on current scams going around, and educate loved ones that are not that tech-savvy to help them from falling into these traps. The best way to keep up to date on the newest scams is to search it online, I will provide a couple of places you can check out at the bottom of this email. Remember, you do not know who is on the other line of that phone call you are talking to, or even on the other side of the screen if you are talking to someone online. In upcoming DR's notes, I will be discussing different scams and how they work to help keep you educated on what's going on in this increasingly online world.

Ok now that we know how to avoid these scams, what can we do to report them when we see them or if someone we know has fallen victim to ransomware. The FBI has a submit a tip online, or you could file a report. Here is the link https://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes/ransomware. It is best to get the authorities involved in these matters, at least with the FBI they have cyber crimes teams that are able to help you.

So I hope this has been helpful and as always if you have any questions please call or email me. Thank you and have a great week.

https://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/current_top_10_scam_list.php

https://scambusters.org/scamlines.html

Read about the latest way con artist are scamming people out of their money, and how you can avoid being a victim.

01/17/2022

Welcome to DR's note, your weekly dose of knowledge from Dan's Tech and HelpDesk

This week we talk about rebooting.

Rebooting or restarting your PC is one of the easiest things you can do to your computer to fix many problems. Let's talk about some of the issues that can be resolved just by turning your computer off and then on again. First off if your PC seems slow or sluggish by rebooting it, it could reset the RAM cache. What this means is that the cache (the part of the RAM that stores temporary data) gets used up and so it has to get rid of the older stuff on the cache before putting the new stuff on for you to use. This will slow down the process a little bit which in turn will make you say "why is this so slow today". Another issue that could be fixed with a reboot is application errors. If you are using an app, let us say Chrome, and it doesn't seem to be running quite right? Rebooting your computer could help fix any errors that were caused by it not loading up properly. Some other reasons you would need to restart your computer would be because you installed a new piece of software, you updated your OS (operating system) or software, or memory leaks(when a program doesn't close properly and it makes your computer slow down).

So how often should you reboot your computer and how do you reboot it? Let's address the first question, you should reboot your computer at least once a week. If you are shutting down your computer at the end of the week that would work for your reboot. Now let us discuss how to reboot your computer. For windows users, you want to click the Windows logo at the bottom left corner of the screen. Then click the power icon, once you have clicked it then a small menu will pop up with sleep, shutdown, and restart. Click restart and your set. Also, you could just press Ctrl+Alt+Del, you will have a screen pop up and at the bottom right you will see the power icon. Click on it and then you will have the three choices again, just click restart and your set. For Mac users click the apple logo at the top right of the screen, then you'll see a drop-down menu, you will see the restart prompt towards the bottom of the menu. And that's how you reboot your computer, I hope this helps to understand why you need to reboot your computer. If you have questions or concerns please email or message me. Thank you and have a great day.

01/08/2022

All done boots right up. Building a PC. More pictures to come.

01/08/2022

Building a PC. More pictures to come.

01/08/2022

Building a PC. More pictures to come.

12/27/2021

Welcome to DR's note, your weekly dose of knowledge from the IT department.

In today's note we learn to lock it up!

Do you leave you computer unlocked when you walk away from it? If so you are not only one, but should you? The correct and only answer is no. When others have access to your machine then they can get not only your companies information but can get into anything personal you might have on that computer. In 2017, data breaches cost companies an average of $3.6 million globally, according to a report from the Ponemon Institute. That is a lot of money!! The easiest solution is when you have to walk away from your computer press this key combo, Windows key +L. This will lock the machine so you need to put the password in to get back into you machine. It only takes 2 seconds and can save you a world of headaches. Just think when in doubt Lock it out.