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Frankie’s comprehensive list of resources to help you through this Coronavirus Stay at Home time

 

Keep your data safe during Coronavirus work at home time

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, as well as other officials in the Metro, has issued a stay-at-home order, effective Monday at midnight. Even if you won’t be asked to work from home, you’re likely going to be online a lot more during this time. Whether it’s watching You Tube or Hunker Down TV, parents home schooling their kids, or engaging in online happy hours with friends, we all will be having more screen time than at any other time since the advent of the internet.

Best Practices for Remote Work at Home

During this Coronavirus Work at Home/ Stay at Home time (and for anytime really), follow these suggestions and you may decide you’ll want to work from home even after this time as passed.

  1. First and foremost, be sure to follow all the recommendations from your company’s IT department
  2. If you can, maintain a physical separation of your work space.  This will help you in balancing your home and work obligations
  3. Set and keep regular office hours for yourself. Schedule and take breaks.
  4. Keep your computing space well-lighted, clean from dust and protected from temperate extremes
  5. Stay on only known, secure (i.e., password protected) WiFi networks
  6. Update your operating system, including all security updates
  7. WINDOWS 7 is NO LONGER  secure. Contact us to migrate your PC to Windows 10!
  8. Remove spyware and malware
  9. Don’t save passwords in your browser
  10. Use strong passwords
  11. Use a password manager
  12. Password protect your user accounts (one for business, one for personal or family)
  13. Sign out of your account after every session. You have an obligation to keep your company and client information secure; don’t inadvertently allow access to these sites.

Beware of Coronavirus email “phishing” scams

In times like these, there are bad actors that will exploit our fears and try to take advantage of us. Scams aren’t always about trying to get your money, but have moved on to trying to access the personal information that lives in your computer or online life.  Stay informed, stay wary and stay safe.  You first crucial step is to verify the sender’s email address. If it looks suspicious, delete it.

Resources to get you through this ‘Stay at Home’ time

Frankie OnCall is an essential business, per the City’s Covid-19 guidelines. Read how we are keeping you and our team healthy as we provide these services to the community.

Watch Frankie’s interview below with Cat Reid from 41 Action News regarding cybersecurity while working at home.

Being mindful of your online security is more important than ever

We provide and access our personal information online through hundreds of websites for financial institutions, healthcare, social media and more. If that information falls into the wrong hands, it can lead to serious consequences such as fraudulent credit card activity and identity theft. Here are a few tips to help keep you safe:

  1. Know where links you click on are going to take you; if you’re not sure about the validity of a link, do not click on it.
  2. Scan the subheadings of User Agreements for pertinent details about fees, charges, and security – particularly on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
  3. Protect your credit card information by using a third-party service like PayPal to pay for online purchases when possible.
  4. Keep your software up to date and run virus scans and security software regularly.
  5. Keep your internet browser up to date, and close it when it’s not in use.
  6. Don’t access websites with sensitive information on public computers, and be careful about what apps you open on your phone over public Wi-Fi.