Every year, we seem to become more dependent on our smart phones for work. More importantly, more confidential client data, in the form of emails, documents, access to cloud storage, and other means of access are left on our phones. As a result, securing that data is increasingly important. I have addressed this issue in my blog once before but thought it worth addressing the issue once again.
The first thing you can do, if you have not already, is to secure your phone with a password. This is the easiest and most obvious form of protection. All modern iPhones and most Androids, including the Samsung Galaxy line, also have fingerprint scans for opening your phone. I recommend setting up both. With the fingerprint, you can access your phone almost as easily as a screen swipe. The password provides a backup entry if the fingerprint does not work for some reason.
Beyond the hassle of accessing your phone, I can think of two reasons people avoid it. One is that if a phone is lost, an honest person who finds it cannot return it. In my earlier post, I explained how you could set up identifying information on your start screen, which a user can see without opening the phone. Another concern is forgetting one's password and getting locked out. The IT Department already stores many of your work passwords. We are also happy to store this password as well. But to be clear, if you set or change a phone's password and do not tell us what it is, and then forget the password yourself, we have no way of accessing the phone. You cannot even reset it. You might as well throw it away and buy a new one at that point.
Beyond a password, make sure your device is encrypted. Without encryption a professional may be able to access your phone's data drive even without a password. By default, iPhones are encrypted as soon as you add a password. Android users must go through another step in settings to encrypt data.
Typically, our phones are not stolen. More commonly, we lose them. One of the best things to do is ensure there is a way to locate your phone if you lose it. By default, Android devices are set up so that you can use a locator online, as long as you have a valid Gmail account configured on the device. Your work email will suffice for this purpose.. Here is a good article on locating and wiping your lost device. The firm uses device management. If your phone has been set up properly, we will have the ability to wipe email off your phone, or wipe the device entirely.
If you use an iPhone, you must set up an iCloud account prior to losing the phone. Without this, we cannot locate the device for you. We can, however, wipe the phone's contents even with out an iCloud account. With the account, you have the ability to search for your device and locate it on a map. It greatly increases your chances of recovering your lost device. If you do not already have an iCloud account set up for your iPhone, I strongly recommend that you do so. I also recommend providing the iCloud password to the IT Department for safe keeping. Otherwise, if you forget it, having the account will be useless to you.
An iCloud account also does more than simply locate your phone. It serves as a backup device so that your pictures, files, and settings can be stored in the cloud. If a phone is list, stolen, or damaged, your iCloud can be used to restore those files and settings on a new device. It also comes in handy when upgrading your phone. An iCloud account is free for up to 5 GB. If you decide you need more space, you are on your own to pay for it. Typically, iCloud accounts get filled by pictures. You can download the pictures and store them elsewhere to save space (I recommend using Google Photos, which works with both iPhones and Androids, and offers free unlimited cloud storage of your photos).
Margolis Edelstein Tech Blog
Monday, July 18, 2016
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Using Microsoft Outlook with Gmail
When the firm switched to Gmail several years ago, many lamented the loss of an actual mail client on your computer. Gmail offers the ability to access mail via a web interface through most Internet Browsers (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.). No software is needed. That remains the recommended way to access your mail.
People using Apple or Android phones or tablets can access mail through those browsers, although the preferred method is to use the Gmail App, or the app that comes with the device.
There are some benefits to using an actual mail program on your Windows computer. It reduces problems clicking on "mailto" links or opening certain types of files, such as EML, MSG, or PST. These are all various formats used to store emails from other systems. Having a program like Outlook on your computer also means your mail is available offline. It also give you the option to organize, filter, and sort your mail in different ways.
Personally, I am not a big fan of mail clients. It creates an extra point of failure. Many find the clients more frustrating, cluttered, and confusing than the simple web interface. If you frequently check mail away from your computer, you will end up being frustrated by a feature that exists in Outlook but not on the web, or one that is available on the web but not Outlook. Sometimes, mail programs might also not sync properly, which could mean you thought you sent an email, only to find it sitting in your outbox days later having never been sent. That can never happen with a web interface.
That said, many still prefer to use a program like Outlook. Perhaps you use Outlook at home, or have used it with a previous employer. While I am not recommending or encouraging its use, we will accommodate its use for those who wish to use it.
If you already have MS Office on your computer, you probably have Outlook already installed. On some very old computers, we may not have installed Outlook because it interfered with the GroupWise client. But since we got rid of GroupWise we have been installing all of MS Office, which includes Outlook.
To sync your Gmail account with Outlook, Google has created a simple sync file, which is a free download from here:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync
If you download and run this program, you will be asked to enter your email address and password. You will also be asked to authorize Gmail to grant permission to Oulook to access your mail and other online data. Once complete, the first time you open Outlook, it will sync with your online data. If you have many gigabytes of data in Gmail, this process may take hours to complete. You can work while it is syncing. Subsequent use will result in a much shorter update sync.
Google Apps sync will only work with business accounts. If you want to use this with your personal free Gmail account, you are out of luck. There are ways to manually sync an email client to Gmail, but the easy sync program is a feature for business users only.
People using Apple or Android phones or tablets can access mail through those browsers, although the preferred method is to use the Gmail App, or the app that comes with the device.
There are some benefits to using an actual mail program on your Windows computer. It reduces problems clicking on "mailto" links or opening certain types of files, such as EML, MSG, or PST. These are all various formats used to store emails from other systems. Having a program like Outlook on your computer also means your mail is available offline. It also give you the option to organize, filter, and sort your mail in different ways.
Personally, I am not a big fan of mail clients. It creates an extra point of failure. Many find the clients more frustrating, cluttered, and confusing than the simple web interface. If you frequently check mail away from your computer, you will end up being frustrated by a feature that exists in Outlook but not on the web, or one that is available on the web but not Outlook. Sometimes, mail programs might also not sync properly, which could mean you thought you sent an email, only to find it sitting in your outbox days later having never been sent. That can never happen with a web interface.
That said, many still prefer to use a program like Outlook. Perhaps you use Outlook at home, or have used it with a previous employer. While I am not recommending or encouraging its use, we will accommodate its use for those who wish to use it.
If you already have MS Office on your computer, you probably have Outlook already installed. On some very old computers, we may not have installed Outlook because it interfered with the GroupWise client. But since we got rid of GroupWise we have been installing all of MS Office, which includes Outlook.
To sync your Gmail account with Outlook, Google has created a simple sync file, which is a free download from here:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync
If you download and run this program, you will be asked to enter your email address and password. You will also be asked to authorize Gmail to grant permission to Oulook to access your mail and other online data. Once complete, the first time you open Outlook, it will sync with your online data. If you have many gigabytes of data in Gmail, this process may take hours to complete. You can work while it is syncing. Subsequent use will result in a much shorter update sync.
Google Apps sync will only work with business accounts. If you want to use this with your personal free Gmail account, you are out of luck. There are ways to manually sync an email client to Gmail, but the easy sync program is a feature for business users only.
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