Testing your Internet. Are you getting what you pay for and is it enough?

Internet connectivity, now and in the near future.

We are constantly being pitched sales ads about entertainment and internet connectivity options.  Dish versus cable, WiFi, Fiber, and streaming.  Your bandwidth is a constant and with the increasing demands being placed on it by more and more connected devices you may be seeing some performance degradation in your online experience.

Although the theoretical peak bandwidth of a network connection is fixed according to the technology used, the actual amount of data that flows over it (called "throughput") varies over time and is affected by higher and lower latencies.

If you only Facebook, email or surf the internet, you can probably get by with a low-end plan from your internet service provider (ISP).  However, if you have multiple TVs streaming Netflix, Prime, Hulu, and other entertainment services and more than 1 computer, you need all the bandwidth you can get.  Don't forget the smartphones, Alexa(s), Google Home, and Ring doorbells live streaming video to your phones, Alexa devices, and computers.

Bandwidth is analogous to the plumbing in your house.  Just like larger plumbing pipes have the ability to increase the flow of water in your house, increased bandwidth allows for a larger flow of data to and from your connected devices.  Too little bandwidth can cause slow performance, choppiness even stoppage on your TVs, computers, and devices.

How to test your Internet Speed.  The following link is to a site that will accurately measure your internet speed and give you an idea of your present bandwidth.  It also measures latency.

https://speedof.me/

Excessive latency creates bottlenecks that prevent data from filling the network pipe, thus decreasing throughput and limiting the maximum effective bandwidth of a connection. The impact of latency on network throughput can be temporary (lasting a few seconds) or persistent (constant), depending on the source of the delays.

https://www.lifewire.com/latency-on-computer-networks-818119

Georgia County pays $400,000 to hackers, why you shouldn't buy a new Apple Mac now

Georgia county pays a whopping $400,000 to get rid of a ransomware infection

Are you still complaining about the cost of anti-virus and firewall protection for your computer systems?  Still got the free version of AVG, Avast, Malwarebytes as your main protection?  You have no backup software or disaster plan in place?  I know firms that do not take backup seriously, don't have time.

It used to be the crooks robbed the banks because that's where the money was.  Today, most firms and people conduct some if not all their financial activity on the internet.   Criminals know this too and engage in less risky but no less lucrative activities by trying to steal your credentials and financial information.

There is another segment of cyber-crime that affects businesses, data hijacking.  If your firm is the victim of a ransomware attack, the malicious payload is the encryption of all your data files and it turns your data into useless files halting the ability to continue ongoing operations.

It happened recently to Jackson County Georgia and cost the county $400,000.  On March 1st the local government's computer systems were hit by the ransomware that forced local law enforcement and government to work the way they did prior to computers, by paper.   The Sheriff said they continued to function, it was just more difficult.

The county consulted with the FBI and a cyber-security expert.  After negotiations with the ransomware hackers, $400,000 was paid to get the decryption key to free the county's data.

It was just under a year ago that the city of Atlanta paid $3 million in contracts to recover from a ransomware attack on its systems.

Click on the link below to read the entire story.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/georgia-county-pays-a-whopping-400000-to-get-rid-of-a-ransomware-infection/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&bhid=27630927001468733386426006914379

The downsides of buying a new Mac

The hefty price tag is only the beginning of the pain that comes as a result of buying a new Mac.

Mac users, what to say.  You would think that anyone who pays that kind of money must do a lot of transaction crunching or have a need for computational power not found outside Cray computers.  Not true.  Until 2005 Apple used the Power PC manufactured by Motorolla/IBM and we were told how superior these were to Intel processors, but then they switched to Intel???

Most Apple users surf the internet, open e-mail and use Microsoft Office.  A complaint I hear from current and former PC users, it is not as efficient or intuitive to manage multiple instances of Office Apps at the same time.

And the choices are?

How insane is the purchase of optional items when buying a Mac?  Look at the prices on these options;

Core i7 to Core i9 processor, $300

a bump in RAM from 16 GB to 32 GB, an extra $400

need more storage, upgrading from the base 1 TB drive to a 4 TB drive for $3200.  Yes, you can add a 4 TB option to your base $2,799 model for an extra $3200.

My gamer clients and friends in the PC world laugh at this because Apples use the same components that are found and offered for PCs.  The difference is PC users don't need the Apple store to work on their computers (notebooks are an exception since they are not as accessible as desktops but RAM and hard drives can be accessed and upgraded on many Windows notebooks).

One can purchase a 4 TB Samsung EVO 860 on Amazon for $549, this is an SSD, solid state Top of the line in performance.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-860-Inch-SATA-Internal/dp/B07L3CLM2B?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B07L3CLM2B

It's incredulous, Ridiculoussness and more!  Read the entire article and if you upgrade every year, buy that Apple Mac.

Read more at;

https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-downsides-of-buying-a-new-mac/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&bhid=27630927001468733386426006914379

Password Security, why 'ji32k7au4a83' is a common and terrible password

The last defense of your business and personal financial information against compromise is your online and/or computer passwords.  Choosing a good password is essential to prevent your confidential information from being stolen, sold and exploited on the internet.

More often than not, people don't put a lot of thought into their passwords.  They use some combination of birthdays, child or pet name and street address to cobble up a password.  In doing so, they haven't thought that a lot of this information is unprotected and readily available on the internet.

When you are online, you are shoulder to shoulder with people from all over the world.  This thought segues perfectly into the title of today's post and the accompanying article behind it,

"why 'ji32k7au4a83' is a common and terrible password"

It is not a long article but gives insight into the need for complex passwords and that people in the U.S. are not the only ones with password security issues.

Remember people have used the following examples for their passwords;  password, abc123, 1999 and variations of the word "password" such as P@$$w0rd.  A large client of mine used this regularly or some variation until recently, and they had a full time IT department, several hacks as well as I recall.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-reason-why-ji32k7au4a83-is-a-common-password/?ftag=TRE49e8aa0&bhid=27630927001468733386426006914379

No one said online security is easy but at the very least please apply these basic rules when it comes to safeguarding your information and ensuring a pleasant online experience;

1.  When choosing your password, use unrelated complex random sequences of letters/numbers and special characters (if they are allowed).

2.  Do not use the same password for different accounts.

3.  Change your password annually if not more frequently.

If you are typical of most people, this can be a lot of passwords.  The use of a password manager is one option for you.  Password managers such as Dashlane and LastPass are good solutions but you must make sure that your computer is free of malware before installing a password manager and that you protect and keep it clean afterward.  A password manager cannot provide security on a machine that is compromised.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!!!