TECH TIP! Top 25 Worst Passwords

The following tech tip is provided by Kevin McCarthy, VP of Operations at Afinety.     

 

SplashData, which makes password management applications, releases an annual "Worst Passwords" list compiled from common passwords that are posted by hackers.  The top three -- "password," "12345678," and "123456," -- have not changed since last year.  New ones include "jesus," "ninja," "mustang," "password1," and "welcome." Other passwords have moved up and down on the list, which suggests that changing people's habits isn't easy.

 

Time Tech suggests you should have different passwords for all of your accounts. To make it easier to remember them, think about passwords as "passphrases."  For instance, use a phrase like "dog eats bone" and add underscores, dashes, hyphens, and other punctuation marks to satisfy the special character requirement: "dog_eats_bone!"*

 

Ready for the list of the worst? 

 

Here it is:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. abc123
5. qwerty 
6. monkey
7. letmein
8. dragon
9. 111111
10. baseball
11. iloveyou
12. trustno1
13. 1234567
14. sunshine
15. master
16. 123123
17. welcome
18. shadow
19. ashley
20. football
21. jesus
22. michael
23. ninja
24. mustang
25. password1

Questions?  Call Afinety's great support staff at 877.423.4638. 

Outstanding Client of the Quarter: Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho

Every quarter, Afinety selects a client to name as the "Outstanding Client of the Quarter."  This quarter we would like to recognize Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho (GBDH).  The firm will receive a catered lunch delivered to their Oakland office, along with our thanks and admiration. 

All of our clients are special to us and the relationships we form with them are very much a partnership.  The Outstanding Client of the Quarter is selected for their professionalism as well as the benefits they receive from Afinety's unique standardization and planned refresh approach.  A professional firm like GBDH requires a professional computer system and this becomes part of their own clients' perception of the firm. 

 

We sat down with the firm's Controller, May Rafanan, who has been with the firm for over 4 years. 

 

May was first introduced to Angie Moskalenko of Afinety at a ProLaw Conference in Las Vegas.  The firm was utilizing ProLaw and was in need of some consultation and assistance with their network in general.

  

"The initial Network Health Assessment was scheduled and I was impressed by the detailed report and analysis of our system's current state," explained May.  The firm was experiencing some downtime and wanted a solid solution with a blueprint plan for the future. 

Did you know?

Our Network Operations Center in Pittsburgh, PA is constantly working behind the scenes to make sure that our clients are fully protected.  

 

We recently upgraded Reserve offsite backup services, including the offsite vault and ALL clients machines so that it fully supports MS Exchange 2013. 

 

We're looking at another upgrade in early 2014 to include MS Server 2012 R2.  

Office 365 - Microsoft Cloud Services

by Doug Hafford, VP of Consulting Services

 

More and more businesses are looking to the cloud for solutions to their IT needs.  The cloud offers significant features for any business, but also includes challenges - especially for law firms.  Microsoft offers a hybrid solution (both local and cloud) that can solve a number of common issues law firms face, while also eliminating many of the problems the cloud creates.

The challenge for law firms in the cloud is integration.  Most true cloud based systems do not integrate with local or other cloud based software and features.  Law firms use a wide variety of software, often specific to certain users or practice areas which means that even full cloud based firms have significant local software installs - and thus IT challenges.

TECH TIP: Email Best Practices - LinkedIn “Invitation to Connect” Malware

The following tech tip is provided by Patrick Cabral, Systems Engineer at Afinety.  Patrick is also one of our trainers.

Virus-laden attachments and links to malware infected sites have been a long standing risk for email users.  For those who use LinkedIn, fake emails can be sent with a Connect request.  When the recipient clicks on the ‘Connect’ link, they are redirected to another site and malware is installed onto the computer.

The best practice for dealing with LinkedIn requests delete the email request that you received and log into your LinkedIn account to accept the Connect requests.

For further information concerning fraudulent email and LinkedIn, please refer to the LinkedIn Help Center:

http://linkd.in/1do2Kzs

Email Attachments/Links Best Practices Reminder:

Never open attachments or click on links in emails from people that you do not know.

Be suspicious of attachments or links from people that you do know if you weren’t expecting the attachment or link.

If you are suspicious of any email, contact your administrator who can escalate your question to Afinety.

Afinety Team Member Spotlight: Tara Todd, Service Coordinator

We are pleased to introduce you to one of the new additions to the Afinety team, Tara Todd, Service Coordinator.  Tara joined the Afinety team about 6 months ago.

Tara moved to Chatsworth from Orange County and lives with her loving husband, Kaipo and puppy, Kyler.  Her relationship with computers and technology initially stemmed from her husband's expertise, as well as her desire to learn.

Prior to Afinety, Tara worked as an executive assistant for an interior design corporation.  She was drawn to Afinety's technology driven business.

In her spare time, Tara is an artist by hobby and also enjoys an ice cold Mai Thai on a hot day.   She also loves a good book, diving into the pool, studying art and working on her many projects.

Tara's role at Afinety includes providing day to day interaction with clients to help resolve issues, and answering questions in a timely fashion. Among other tasks, she also coordinates with the sales team for the purchase of hardware, software, licenses, installation, and scheduling.

Tara mentioned that her main focus is to ensure great customer service for all Afinety clients! 

Welcome Tara!  

Outstanding Client of the Quarter: Lanak & Hanna, PC

Fall, 2013

Every quarter, Afinety selects a client to name as the “Outstanding Client of the Quarter.”  This quarter we would like to recognize Lanak & Hanna.  The firm will receive a catered lunch delivered to their Orange office, along with our thanks and admiration. 

All of our clients are special to us and the relationships we form with them are very much a partnership.  The Outstanding Client of the Quarter is selected for their professionalism as well as the benefits they receive from Afinety’s unique standardization and planned refresh approach.  A professional firm like Lanak & Hanna requires a professional computer system and this becomes part of their own clients’ perception of the firm. 

We caught up with Chief Administrative Officer, Lauren Carrier, who has been with the firm for over five years.