Category: Security

3 mobile security tips

Do you have a mobile phone or mobile device? If so, this post is for you.

We often don’t stop to think about the important role our mobile security plays in protecting our digital assets. But just think about what issues you might face if your mobile was stolen and the thief was able to access your apps/data. Would they be able to transfer money out of your bank account? Use your email to reset your email password? Could they have a sms with a verification code sent to your phone so they could reset the password to a number of other services you are subscribed to?

Here are our top 3 simple steps to secure your mobile:
  1. Have a numeric PIN of at least 6 digits set. A PIN of 4 digits is relatively easy to guess. With a day or 2 to spare a thief or hacker could easily guess your PIN, not so with a 6 digit PIN.
  2. Use TouchID or fingerprint access for any apps that support this method of login. If your device comes with a built in fingerprint reader, use it, whenever you can. This can provide an extra layer of security without the hassle of a password or PIN code when you open a banking app.
  3. Enable a “find my phone” option on your mobile device. For example see the options on iOS and Android. You need to enable these options BEFORE your phone is stolen, do it now. Once this is enabled, you can remotely wipe your phone if it is stolen.

Do you have any tips of your own? Any questions regarding the ones mentioned above? We look forward to hearing from you.

Opera – a free VPN Browser

Opera Browser (free) now includes a free VPN. Apart from the security benefits, this can also be handy when it comes to testing your own website from another location, especially when doing web development.

Read more about the VPN security features in this post discussing the release of Opera Browser 40: www.opera.com/blogs/desktop/2016/09/free-vpn-in-opera-browser-40/

How does this work?

A VPN routes all your traffic via the VPN server. Opera Browser allows you to choose the location of the VPN server. For example, you could choose a USA located server and test your own website from the USA. Currently VPN server options are: Netherlands, Germany, USA, Singapore, Canada.

There is also an ‘optimal location’ choice which in my case, uses a VPN server in Australia (closest to me).

Opera Browser is not a new player in the Web Browser space and while it’s not as well known or popular as Google Chrome for example, it is a solid product with an excellent mobile app on many platforms.

How could you use this?

You may wish to use this to browse the internet anonymously, or avoid the security policies your workplace/office or ISP has in place. As I see it, a more ‘useful’ option is to use this to test your website from various locations around the world.

You might want to do this just after updating your DNS, or after updating something on your website to check how it’s being seen by everyone else. Often time, your own ISP’s DNS server (which you probably use by default) may take up to 24hrs to update when changing your websites DNS or nameservers. Using Opera Browser might be handy for you in a situation like that.

Why not download and give it a test today. It’s a free download of course. Grab it here: www.opera.com/download

Is your email authenticated? If it’s not, will recipient’s trust you?

unauth_avatar_red_2x

When people receive an email from you, do you want to them to see this image in place of your avatar/profile picture? Do you want people to think your business hasn’t setup email correctly?

Currently, if you are sending emails and not providing SPF or DKIM records in your DNS zone, Gmail/Google users will now see the following warning image next to EVERY email of yours.

This is a recent change from Google, and it affects anyone who doesn’t use a Gmail account as their email address (Google has configured this for all Gmail accounts automatically – not to be confused with Google Apps accounts which still need this configured)

Don’t be confused with a spammer, configure this asap

If you don’t host your email with us, you should contact your current email provider to check if your email is being sent correctly authenticated with SPF or DKIM.

If we host your email, you can configure your SPF and DKIM records yourself directly from cPanel. See more here: Enable Email Authentication

Please see more on this important change from Google here.

You may also enjoy this article we wrote on Email Essentials.

Email is important, make sure you have it set up right

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