Tag: productivity

  • What to Look for in a Work from Home Job – and Scams to Avoid

    What to Look for in a Work from Home Job – and Scams to Avoid

    As a service provider we normally tailor our content towards businesses, but as an IT company I feel it’s important to touch on public safety issues and advice from time to time. Now more than ever people are working from home, and jobs of that nature may become more prevalent in our society as a result of the current pandemic.

    Why does allowing employees to work from home make sense for an employer? The first reason is reduced overhead, office buildings and all the expenses associated with them can really add up. The second reason is flexibility, as has been recently highlighted, the more mobile your workforce the more successful you can be given any kind of situation. Third is employee satisfaction, many people are just happier working from home and that can translate to increased motivation towards their job duties.

    What types of jobs can typically be performed from home? Here are our top 10.

    1. Virtual Assistant
    2. Medical Transcriptionist
    3. Translator
    4. Web Developer
    5. Travel Agent
    6. Freelance Writer
    7. Social Media Manager
    8. Data Entry
    9. Call Center Representative
    10. Blogger

    This is by no means an exhaustive list but hopefully provides a jumping off point for those looking to work from home. However, there is one pitfall to looking for a work from home job, and that is scams. Historically work from jobs have been plagued by scams and now more than ever you must be careful. What can you do to avoid a scam when looking for a work from home job?

    • Research – You must do a lot of research into the position, and if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
    • Ask for References – Ask to speak to others who already work from the company and can share their experience.
    • Finally, really be careful if they ask you to shell out any money to start, a lot of scams in this sector really begin with a high “startup” cost being the gateway to working.

    Working from home can be a life changing event for many people, just do your due diligence and get your resume out there!

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

  • Tips for Using Zoom Safely

    Tips for Using Zoom Safely

    Dogs on ZoomMost of us are finding ourselves working from home either altogether or at least part of the time, and with that change also comes conducting work meetings from home. While we all probably had at least an awareness of video client tools such as Microsoft Teams and Skype, a new contender came through and became the working from home meeting tool du jour – I’m talking of course about Zoom.

    Zoom has added 2.22 million users so far in 2020 (the previous year they gained 1.99 million for the entire year). Unfortunately, with such unprecedent growth also comes growing pains in the form of unauthorized users jumping onto calls and even cyber security issues. So how can you use Zoom safely, and what led to it becoming such a popular option in the first place?

    Unlike many of its competitors Zoom allows you to see multiple participants at once, rather than one at a time while they’re talking. It also has the unique functionality of allowing users to join from a browser which lets participants avoid downloading the client if they don’t wish to or are unable to.

    You can also host an unlimited number of meetings with up to 100 participants with only the free client (up to 500 participants and concurrent meetings being paid features). Screensharing is also possible and a nice feature.

    With that said there have been some draw backs, call quality may be somewhat unpredictable compared to more seasoned products in this arena (although I think it would suffice to say they’ve all had some troubles in these heretofore unheard-of times). Users have also reported issues with scheduling and adding meetings to their calendars. The biggest issues though, have been in the avenue of security.

    Starting with so called “Zoom Bombers” – which have been one of the most publicized issues – it is described as having uninvited users join your private video call and start spamming unsavory materials either in the chat or via voice and/or video.

    Many of these intruders gained access via businesses posting the video chat link to their public social media accounts. The best method of protection against this by far is adding a password to your Zoom chats and not posting them publicly.

    It’s also come to light that there are some critical cyber security issues with Zoom, especially regarding user data.  500,000 Zoom user accounts and passwords were recently found for sale on the dark web due to a data breach by a cyber security firm.

    This serves as a good reminder to keep your passwords varied, change them periodically and use a password manager. You can check the whimsically named site https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to see if you’ve been a victim to this breach or any others.

    Suffice to say despite its faults Zoom is probably here to stay for the foreseeable future, especially as the country’s workforce continues to work from home. Taking some necessary steps will keep your work meetings intruder free and safe.

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on X at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

  • 10 Tips for Staying Safe Online When Working from Home

    Woman working at desk

    In light of the ongoing health crisis many of us are placed in the unusual position of working from home. While you may have concerns about keeping up your usual level of productivity and being able to communicate effectively with your coworkers while working in separate places there may be one issue flying under the radar, how do you stay safe online while working from home?

    It’s unfortunately not a given, in many work places you have an IT team that maintains (or should!) a high level of security for your office computers and network. These same measures are not in place on your home network or on your home computer.

    With so many of us working from home hackers may be seeing this as an opportunity to access your company’s private data via unsecured personal computers and home networks. These 10 tips will prevent this from happening.

    1. Don’t reuse passwords. If you’re able to choose your own work passwords it’s important they’re varied, if hackers get access to one of your accounts and you use the same password for everything then they have access to all of them.
    2. Practice good password safety. It’s imperative that passwords for your work accounts follow good password safety practices. Hackers may be able to use your work accounts to access the rest of your company’s data. If you set your own password make sure it follows the rules of 16 characters in length, mixing characters and avoiding dictionary words if possible.
      Also destroy any written copies of your password, real life phishing exists! Use a password manager like LastPass instead.
    3. Secure your home network. It’s shocking how many home networks don’t have a password at all, or if they do it’s a single word with no mixed characters or even your router’s default password.
      This is not a good idea! Hackers can use your network to access your home machine, and from there it may be game over. Like the tip above practice good password safety when it comes to your router’s password.
    4. Enable 2-factor authentication if it’s available to you. Many laptops these days feature security measures such as facial recognition or fingerprint readers that will help keep your device safe. Don’t forget to enable the same feature on your phone!
    5. Speaking of 2-factor authentication. You may find that your workplace uses 2-factor authentication to secure the applications you use on a daily basis to do your job, if they don’t bring it up! This will further prevent people from accessing your company data.
    6. Install updates. At work your IT team is probably installing updates for you, on your home device you’re responsible for doing so. In general, you shouldn’t be ignoring updates but while accessing your company accounts it’s even more important.
    7. Practice good online safety. The security measures enabled on your company network may prevent a total takeover in the case of someone accidentally downloading malware, this is not so at home.
      Don’t open attachments from senders you don’t know. Be careful which websites you visit, and always have your firewall enabled!
    8. Be careful with public networks. During this time, it might be tempting to get out and at least work outside at a café or somewhere with public Wi-Fi. However, this public Wi-Fi may leave your machine vulnerable, especially if you’re not practicing some of the safety measures above.
    9. Make sure your work is backed up. You’ll probably need some help from your IT team for this one but ensure the work you’re doing is backed up to your office servers or saved in some way. Recovering lost data from your home machine alone may be more difficult.
    10. Last but not least, use an anti-virus software. Find out which anti-virus software your company IT team recommends, or if you need a recommendation reach out to us. It’s extremely important for staying safe online.

    We hope these tips help. For those not working remotely or for tips on staying safe while in public right now, we recommend referring to the CDC Website for the most up to date information: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/valleytechlogic.