Hopefully everyone is becoming more familiar with MS Office. The firm's plan to transition from Word Perfect to Word by the end of the summer remains on track.
Today, I wanted to mention a helpful add-on form MS Office from Google Drive.
Last year, the firm switched to unlimited storage on Google Drive. This makes it an extremely convenient place to store working documents. From Google Drive, you can access your documents from anywhere you have Internet access, without the need for VPN. It also makes it much easier to share documents with others.
If you install the Google Drive for MS Office add-on, you can save documents created in MS Word directly to your Google Drive. You can also open previously saved documents directly from Google Drive. The Add-on also works with Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentation. This can be a great time saver for MS Office documents you need to access from multiple locations.
If you would like to download and install Google Drive for MS Office, you can get it here:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/driveforoffice
Once installed, it shows up as an option on your ribbon.
Keep in mind, of course, that copies of all client related documents should still be stored in the Matter Directory (i.e. MDIR or M: Drive). If you have working documents related to clients on your Google Drive, just be sure to save a copy to the Matter Directory.
Margolis Edelstein Tech Blog
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Research Home Page
For many years, the firm maintained an internal Research Home Page on a server based in Philadelphia. This is the page we typcially set as the home page to open whenever you open Internet Explorer. It contained all the research links and links to key firm documents that many of you use every day.
Over a year ago, we retired that old home page, replacing it with a new one located on Google Sites. Among several reasons for the change was to allow you access to the site while outside the office and without using VPN. You need only login with your Gmail password to access it.
I announced the change in this blog post from March 2016.
For about a year, we maintained both the old and new page as we worked out the kinks. However, about three months ago, we officially retired the old page and simply forwarded you to the new one.
I announced this change in this blog post from Februrary 2017.
Recently, the aged server that has been hosting the old page began to fail. We had to take it out of commission. This has created some confusion. If you still had a link to the old page and were being forwarded to the new one, the forwarding would no longer work. Instead, you now simply get a "page not found" error.
If you are trying to get the old page, through an address such as:
10.0.0.251/research/home.html
or
192.6.120.251/research/home.html
you will get an error message. This is never going to be fixed and is not coming back. Instead, you should update your link or home page setting to take you directly to the new site:
The new site is located at:
https://sites.google.com/a/margolisedelstein.com/home
You can also access it from http://research.margolisedelstein.com
If you need any assistance updating these links the help desk can assist.
Over a year ago, we retired that old home page, replacing it with a new one located on Google Sites. Among several reasons for the change was to allow you access to the site while outside the office and without using VPN. You need only login with your Gmail password to access it.
I announced the change in this blog post from March 2016.
For about a year, we maintained both the old and new page as we worked out the kinks. However, about three months ago, we officially retired the old page and simply forwarded you to the new one.
I announced this change in this blog post from Februrary 2017.
Recently, the aged server that has been hosting the old page began to fail. We had to take it out of commission. This has created some confusion. If you still had a link to the old page and were being forwarded to the new one, the forwarding would no longer work. Instead, you now simply get a "page not found" error.
If you are trying to get the old page, through an address such as:
10.0.0.251/research/home.html
or
192.6.120.251/research/home.html
you will get an error message. This is never going to be fixed and is not coming back. Instead, you should update your link or home page setting to take you directly to the new site:
The new site is located at:
https://sites.google.com/a/margolisedelstein.com/home
You can also access it from http://research.margolisedelstein.com
If you need any assistance updating these links the help desk can assist.
Monday, May 15, 2017
Ransomware
Over the weekend you may have seen various news reports of a worldwide ransomware attack hitting thousands of networks.
Ransomware is a form of malware (bad software designed from some harmful or illegal purpose). It encrypts all of the files on your computer then notifies you that if you want the description key, you must send the author money in exchange for the key. Without that key, you will never be able to open any of the encrypted files again.
Most ransomware needs to be invited onto your computer. Hackers do this by tricking you into clicking on a link and agreeing to install it on your computer. This one was a little more dangerous since once it gets into a local network it can attack any computer that has not been updated with the most current Windows security updates.
All firm computers are configured to update themselves automatically. This is why you occasionally get notices from your computer that it will need to restart to install updates. It is very important that you don't disable this function, even if it is occasionally annoying.
If, at home, you are using an older XP computer, or a computer that does not have updates turned on, you are playing with fire. You are vulnerable not only to this but other attacks as well. It's a bit like leaving your front door unlocked when you leave for work each day. Nothing may happen, but do you really want to take that chance?
The firm's primary defense against ransomware is a good backup system. If our network gets hit with ransomware, we would have to delete all the current file and restore from backup. Longer term, we hope to put in place a document management system that will protect our files from such attacks, even if some computers on the network become compromised.
To read more about the latest attack, check out these articles from the BBC, NPR, and the Verge.
Ransomware is a form of malware (bad software designed from some harmful or illegal purpose). It encrypts all of the files on your computer then notifies you that if you want the description key, you must send the author money in exchange for the key. Without that key, you will never be able to open any of the encrypted files again.
Most ransomware needs to be invited onto your computer. Hackers do this by tricking you into clicking on a link and agreeing to install it on your computer. This one was a little more dangerous since once it gets into a local network it can attack any computer that has not been updated with the most current Windows security updates.
All firm computers are configured to update themselves automatically. This is why you occasionally get notices from your computer that it will need to restart to install updates. It is very important that you don't disable this function, even if it is occasionally annoying.
If, at home, you are using an older XP computer, or a computer that does not have updates turned on, you are playing with fire. You are vulnerable not only to this but other attacks as well. It's a bit like leaving your front door unlocked when you leave for work each day. Nothing may happen, but do you really want to take that chance?
The firm's primary defense against ransomware is a good backup system. If our network gets hit with ransomware, we would have to delete all the current file and restore from backup. Longer term, we hope to put in place a document management system that will protect our files from such attacks, even if some computers on the network become compromised.
To read more about the latest attack, check out these articles from the BBC, NPR, and the Verge.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
MS Office
As of today, everyone in the firm should have an Office 365 Account. You should have received an email from Office 365 allowing you to download a setup program, which will install MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and a few other Office programs on your computer.
Hopefully by this time, it is not a surprise to anyone that we are doing away with WordPerfect and moving to MS Word as the firm's supported word processor. I announced this change in a Blog post last August. In March, I published this post and this one announcing the move to Office 365, which includes the most current version of MS Word (2016).
If you did not get an email allowing you to install Office 365, or lost the one we sent you, please email me or the help desk and we will send you another one.
Cain Elliot will be offering training classes beginning soon. You should have MS Office on your computer before you take that class. I strongly recommend playing around with the program ahead of time so that if something you do is a problem, you can ask about it during the class.
There are also online training videos available here: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/topics/office2016
I am addressing this issue again, because I want to make very clear to everyone that I will not be making an Obama-like promise that if you like your word processor you can keep your word processor. You cannot. The firm is moving to MS Word and you need to make sure you are up to speed on its use.
We expect to be using MS Word exclusively for all new documents by the end of this summer. That deadline will come sooner than you think. Please act now.
Thanks.
Hopefully by this time, it is not a surprise to anyone that we are doing away with WordPerfect and moving to MS Word as the firm's supported word processor. I announced this change in a Blog post last August. In March, I published this post and this one announcing the move to Office 365, which includes the most current version of MS Word (2016).
If you did not get an email allowing you to install Office 365, or lost the one we sent you, please email me or the help desk and we will send you another one.
Cain Elliot will be offering training classes beginning soon. You should have MS Office on your computer before you take that class. I strongly recommend playing around with the program ahead of time so that if something you do is a problem, you can ask about it during the class.
There are also online training videos available here: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/topics/office2016
I am addressing this issue again, because I want to make very clear to everyone that I will not be making an Obama-like promise that if you like your word processor you can keep your word processor. You cannot. The firm is moving to MS Word and you need to make sure you are up to speed on its use.
We expect to be using MS Word exclusively for all new documents by the end of this summer. That deadline will come sooner than you think. Please act now.
Thanks.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Security Issue
This afternoon, many in the firm received an email from someone we knew inviting you to view a shared Google Document.
This was, in fact, a sophisticated phishing attack that hit Google users worldwide. It took advantage of a security oversight in Google that allowed third parties to name a customized Google App that they created with a name that made it appear to be part of Google Docs. If you want to read more, check out this article.
If you clicked on the link to go to the document, you were sent to what looked like a login screen which then asked to go give rights to your contacts and your Gmail account. If you gave the app those rights, it would then send out a share to all of your contacts, inviting them to view a Google Doc that you were supposedly sharing with them.
The good news is that the App was pretty harmless. It did not do anything beyond sending out a share notice to your contacts. Google has also now shut down the app in question and removed any rights that you may have inadvertently given to your account.
Some people have requested password changes or that we scan your computer for malware as a result of this attack. We are happy to change your password if you like, but there is no evidence that this attack ever got access to any passwords, nor did it ever access your computer.
Going forward, if you ever see anything asking for rights to your account, that should be a big red flag that something is wrong. There are occasional apps that might require such rights. For example, if you connected MS Outlook to your Gmail, it would request such rights. But if you ever have any questions about rights being given, be sure to contact the Help Desk so we can take a closer look.
This was, in fact, a sophisticated phishing attack that hit Google users worldwide. It took advantage of a security oversight in Google that allowed third parties to name a customized Google App that they created with a name that made it appear to be part of Google Docs. If you want to read more, check out this article.
If you clicked on the link to go to the document, you were sent to what looked like a login screen which then asked to go give rights to your contacts and your Gmail account. If you gave the app those rights, it would then send out a share to all of your contacts, inviting them to view a Google Doc that you were supposedly sharing with them.
The good news is that the App was pretty harmless. It did not do anything beyond sending out a share notice to your contacts. Google has also now shut down the app in question and removed any rights that you may have inadvertently given to your account.
Some people have requested password changes or that we scan your computer for malware as a result of this attack. We are happy to change your password if you like, but there is no evidence that this attack ever got access to any passwords, nor did it ever access your computer.
Going forward, if you ever see anything asking for rights to your account, that should be a big red flag that something is wrong. There are occasional apps that might require such rights. For example, if you connected MS Outlook to your Gmail, it would request such rights. But if you ever have any questions about rights being given, be sure to contact the Help Desk so we can take a closer look.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Verizon Discount
Recently, the firm negotiated a new contract with Verizon Wireless. As part of that negotiation, we got Verizon to increase the discount provided to attorneys and staff who own their own Verizon Wireless cell phones or other devices.
Under the current terms, you can get 15% off any Verizon plan that you are on, along with an additional 3% if you choose electronic billing, for a total of 18% off the retail price.
Verizon sent a flyer on the discount, which you can view here.
Also, if you sign up for this discount, you also get a 25% discount on any accessories you purchase through the Verizon store (e.g. cases, chargers, etc.).
If you are already a Verizon Customer or are considering becoming one, the few minutes it takes to sign up is well worth the discount.
Under the current terms, you can get 15% off any Verizon plan that you are on, along with an additional 3% if you choose electronic billing, for a total of 18% off the retail price.
Verizon sent a flyer on the discount, which you can view here.
Also, if you sign up for this discount, you also get a 25% discount on any accessories you purchase through the Verizon store (e.g. cases, chargers, etc.).
If you are already a Verizon Customer or are considering becoming one, the few minutes it takes to sign up is well worth the discount.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)