Intelligent Designs

E-mail signatures are a helpful tool to let customers know your contact info. But, you should have your contact info on all signatures, not just new messages, it should be on replies too. Ex. A client emails you requesting info and you respond. That's a reply, if your signature is only on new messages they may still not have all of your contact info. It may also mean your prospective customer looking through dozens of emails to find one where you initiated the conversation... just to find your contact info. Make it easy... Put contact info on the signature for all messages. TMYK :)

Looks Legit right? It's not! Do not fall for the Password Reset Scam. Hover over links before clicking them. Scrutinize them, make sure it's for the company you expect. If you have any doubt, DO NOT CLICK them. Be Safe. :) FYI: Our filtering service blocked this message. It never hit my mailbox. If you want this type of protection contact IDEZ, Inc. We can help.

Can't always believe what you see on video. There will be a time when you won't be able to trust video at all. Audio is at almost the same level and can be trained with few phrases to mimic the speaker.

Mac/Linux Malware, yup... It's out there.

I'm sometimes amazed at the number of scam calls I get a week. Most I can instantly identify just from the phone number. They like to look like they are the same area code and prefix. But then say they are from the IRS or Apple or Microsoft or that they can lower my interest rate on my credit cards, etc. I say this for all my friends and clients... DO NOT TRUST ANY INBOUND CALL!!! Do not give them even the most basic information. Microsoft and Apple will not call you to... tell you you have a virus, SS will not call you to tell you they are going to arrest you, you cannot pay anyone with walmart or itunes gift cards. PLEASE stop listening to them. If ever in doubt, ask them for a call back number. Most will just hang up at that point. Don't confirm who you are or give them your number or any personal information. NEVER give any unknown entity access to your computer. Don't verify by giving your last 4 of your social. This is an easy scam to get user info to verify the scammer is you to another entity. If you get any call and are concerned it might be real, get a call back number and a direct extension. DO NOT CALL IT BACK. Look up a number on your statement or on the companies Publically available website and call using That information. If you cannot verify the caller this way, it's a scam. Be Safe, be smart, do not trust inbound calls. It's not worth whatever they are promising you or threatening you with. If in doubt, check BBB, IRS.gov or FBI.gov or do a Google search or again, contact your friendly neighborhood IT guy. ;)

If you are a business owner or employee using a Free e-mail service like g-mail or yahoo, etc. You should seriously thing about getting your own domain. A Free e-mail address for business use sends the wrong message, is MUCH less secure and give no way for companies to identify the sender. Ex: [email protected] vs. [email protected] vs. ... [email protected]... It's all guess work as to which one is the actual company's e-mail address. The others may be phishing schemes to get your info or money. But something like [email protected] is much more professional, the domain can be looked up and verified, etc. It is not expensive to do this. About $20/Year for the Domain and about $5 a month per user for an inexpensive Office 365 Plan that includes e-mail, SharePoint, OneDrive (cloud storage), Teams and more... Need help, just ask.

It should be no surprise that some companies don't operate honestly. Below is an example of not only a technology fail but of corporate dishonesty. Some popular "No Log" VPN services actually are keeping logs of your traffic, maybe worse they placed that data on a public-facing server with little to no security. So, the reason people use a No Log VPN provider was the exact opposite of what they did. Read more in the article below.

In case no one mentioned it to you before.... Don't trust e-mails, tweets, FB Posts, Phone Calls, or any social media that ask you to send them money. Don't trust the source as most can be spoofed(appear to be someone else), It can look like someone you know, or someone important, so can most social media. Even phone numbers. If someone contacts you asking for ANY information check their e-mail address, use info, etc. if it's a phone call ask them for a call back number, ...then Don't use it... Lookup the companies main number on a trusted site (statement, back of your credit card, etc.) use that to call the company and verify the person before hand. Don't return calls to numbers on caller ID you don't know. When in doubt, do an Google search for what you're being asked and see if it's like one of the existing scams out there. Even if it's not, realize that it's really unlikely anyone is going to give you anything for free. Stay safe, stay healthy.

https://act.eff.org//stop-the-earn-it-bill-before-it-break

Beware of Scam calls telling you about charges to your credit cards. Don't provide any info EVER to an inbound phone call. If you think it could be real ask the caller for a call back number, most won't give one and will curse and hang up. Even IF they give a number do not use it. Use the 800 number from the back of your card or your credit card statement. NO CREDIT CARD, Utility or any other company (other than your VERIFIED IT company) should ever ask you to run commands on your local computer or ask you to do anything on it. This is a giant read flag. Stay safe.

Thinking about a shiny new smart appliance? You may want to do your research. Many appliances last 10 or more years. The smart ones... Maybe not so much. Remember there is also a computer behind that screen and companies don't like to support those older devices. Read some more Below.

Long existing Zero-Day exploit may get a fix soon.

People seldom think about the information they willingly provide to strangers. Especially when it’s the same information you use to secure your most critical data.

One of our favorite clients (a Doctors office) had this on their Page.