Tales From The Keep - August 2021 View online
Tales From The Keep Title
Your Monthly Dose of Tech & Business News

FROM THE MAIN HALL

Is it time you took a break from technology? 

Taking a step back from our devices can bring so many benefits; closer relationships, less stress, more motivation… I could go on. But it’s not easy when you run a business, is it? 

Fortunately, there are loads of tools available that can give you that time away from the things that are most distracting. Take social media, for example. Wow, it can suck you down a hole and steal literally hours from your week. What else could you be doing with that time? 

Try Cold Turkey, an app for Microsoft 365 that allows you to block social media (and any other distractions) for an amount of time dictated by you. And there are alternatives for your smart phones - Screen Time on iOS allows you to block apps or give yourself time limits on each one.

There’s also evidence to suggest that switching your phone’s display to a grayscale can help you cut down on time spent on distracting apps.

Use that saved time doing something productive. Or something to help you unwind and see what a difference it can make.

Have you tried any of these ideas already? How did they work for you? We’d love to hear the tricks you use to cut down on your tech time, and the ways it has improved your life or business. 

You can reach me at cdavis@keepitdefended.com or 519.489.0646.

Until next time, stay safe,

CEO
You MATTER, Unless you multiply as the speed of light.  Then you ENERGY

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DID YOU KNOW?

In 2010 fewer than 2 billion people in the world used the internet. As of January this year, 4.57 billion people around the world are online. That’s 59% of the world’s population.

 

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WHEN WAS YOUR LAST REVIEW?

Relax. We’re not going into HR mode.

What we want to talk about is reviewing who in  your business has access to which documents. 

Do you know who has access to your documents? 

Or can everyone access everything? 

You may need to make some changes. You see, the more people that have access to your business  documents, the less secure they are. 

Let’s imagine for a moment, that one of your people opens a very convincing email, supposedly from a supplier. The email contains a document to  download, which they do, because it’s from a supplier, right? They can trust it. 

What your employee didn’t notice was that the email signature was missing, or that the email address wasn’t the same as it usually is. And the document they downloaded has now installed malware on their device. 

They don’t notice the malware because it all looked legit and nothing obvious has happened. They continue their working day unaware.

While they’re working, the malware is working too, in the background. It’s accessing and copying all of the data that your employee has access to. 

You might get lucky and stop this malware before it enters your network and takes everything, but if your employee already has access to everything, well, it’s gone. Although this isn’t a malicious act on behalf of the employee, they’ve essentially caused a huge data breach that could kill your business. 

And this scenario doesn’t even need the malware to become a reality. One day a member of your team might decide they’d like to make a little money by stealing your valuable data. By giving everyone  access to everything, you’re making it too easy for them.

So, if you haven’t already done this, I suggest that this week you make it a priority to sit down and work out who needs access to which files and documents and restrict access to absolutely everything. 

Keep your own document detailing who has access to what. And update it  whenever anyone joins the business or changes roles. This is also a great way of protecting your data when somebody leaves, because you can see exactly what you need to revoke access to. 

If you already restrict access, when was the last time you reviewed it? Are people able to access files they no longer need? And are there people who could benefit from access to more documents to complete their role? 

Yes, that’s a lot to think about. But once you have a detailed document to work from, regular reviews are pretty simple and definitely worth your time.

Until next time, have an awesome month!

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