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Thursday, 21 July 2011 09:02

Welcome to Our Blog

TSG began with the idea that superior support for businesses is not an impossible feat. Possibilities are actually rather limitless in the new ways we can find to help your company manage its IT support and computer services to provide the best solutions for clients.  With this in mind, we've launched our corporate blog to further help you get the most from your services and enhance your online presence. 

Our blog will stay posted on our latest features and updates, useful tech news, as well as tips and best practices for running your business more effectively.

For another way to get support fast, log in to our website and check out our support page to enter a quick ticket or schedule remote or live support. We are always looking for new ways to provide better services as well, if you would like to submit a comment or question please use our contact page to get in touch with us. 


What makes a password strong is the combination of different alphanumeric, special characters, and capitalization that you use, and of course the length of the password.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to remember and type an epistle when I fill out a password field. And, ideally, I don't want to use the same password on many sites, because if one is compromised then my entire life is unlocked.

I want to show you here how to choose very strong passwords for every website that you use, that are different for each website, and are each only 9 characters in length max.

A study found that an 8-character password that's constructed in the manner I'm going to show you has 7.2 quadrillion different combinations, and will take 83.5 days to crack if the hacker can try 1 billion different passwords per second.

Cloud computing is one of the largest growing areas in the IT industry. The concept of “Cloud Computing” refers to the hosting of a server or an application by a third party in an offsite location accessed via the Internet. The premise is that the vendor will not only provide the client with a reliable experience, but one that will be resistant to downtime and data loss.

Personally, I know that the Insurance industry has been enjoying the benefits of cloud computing for many years. But what are the caveats and recent concerns garnered by those enrolled in these online services?

Monday, 25 July 2011 13:39

Quick Tech Productivity Pointers

Multitasking has become one of the buzzwords of the twenty-first century. Did you know that your browser lets you multitask, too? Most modern browsers (IE8, Firefox, and Safari) provide the user with a rich interface that allows for multiple windows to be open in the same browser at once. “How is this miracle performed?” you may ask. If you look at the tab shown in the image above, you will see on its right side is a smaller tab. If you place your mouse over it, you will see the option to open a new tab. Click on this tab and a new window will open within the current browser. By clicking on the tabs or pressing the TAB key while depressing the CTRL key, you may cycle through the existing opened windows in your browser. Do you want even more tricks? Once you have multiple windows opened in the browser, you may then notice a new icon to the left of the tabs with a down arrow. This button’s down arrow allows you to open any one window that you want without using the “cycle-thru” method. Click on the button itself and you will see your tabbed windows displayed all together on one screen. In that screen, you may close or activate any of the windows using your mouse. If you prefer to see your tabs in a particular order, you may drag them in order to rearrange them. Having multiple tabs may enhance your day. You can do the same with multiple Home Pages, but that may slow down the initial response of your browser.

Remember the vignette performed by Monty Python’s Flying Circus in which two diners float down into a dive filled with Vikings for a breakfast that doesn’t have much SPAM® in it? Back in the 1970’s, the word “spam” had a much different meaning than it does today

Your computer has been terrific—it opens files fast, connects to the Internet quickly, and gets onto the network lickety-split. But now, your machine will not connect to the Internet when you tell it to, it opens up porno websites and gives you pop-ups telling you that your machine has been infected. You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to see that something has infected your system. Now, what?

Monday, 25 July 2011 13:39

Your Company's Social Media Policy

The time to implement a social media policy is now.

Your social media policy outlines for employees your companies guidelines or principles for communicating in the online world.  Your company should have a communications policy in place that spell out your expectations for phone and email, it’s important that you add social media and online site usage to this policy.

Monday, 25 July 2011 13:39

Protect Yourself with Secure Passwords

Despite the increasingly vast trust we put into the Internet to keep our personal and business information safe and secure, many users take their passwords very lightly. In an analysis studying over 32 million passwords from RockYou, a company that develops software for social networks, it's been discovered just how little effort is put in to keep things secure. The results are shocking.


Most Common Passwords used on RockYou:

  1. 123456
  2. 12345
  3. 123456789
  4. password
  5. iloveyou
  6. princess
  7. rockyou
  8. 1234567
  9. 12345678
  10. abc123
  11. nicole
  12. daniel
  13. babygirl
  14. monkey
  15. jessica
  16. lovely
  17. michael
  18. ashley
  19. 654321
  20. qwerty
  21. iloveu
  22. michelle
  23. 111111
  24. 0
  25. tigger
  26. password1
  27. sunshine
  28. chocolate
  29. anthony
  30. angel
  31. FRIENDS
  32. soccer
Source: Imperva

RockYou has been criticized in the past for having poor privacy practices. An unknown hacker managed to get in and steal millions of user accounts and passwords, and then posted them on the Internet publicly (This goes to show you that website security is extremely important, especially if you allow your visitors and clients to access your site). Imperva, a company that develops software for preventing hackers and has been running studies like this for over a decade, took the list and put together the top 32 most used passwords. Imperva states that the data set from RockYou is pretty similar to the rest of the Internet.

123456

If anyone remembers that infamous scene in the film 'Space Balls' where Mel Brooks recites the password (12345) that gives him access to an entire planet, he shrugs off the fact that it's also the same password as his luggage. The joke isn't very far off, since the study shows that '123456' represents 1% of passwords used. Of course, right up there on the list is '12345,' the creative adaptation '654321,' and of course the nefarious 'password.' In fact, 20% of the 32 million people used a tiny pool consisting of 5,000 passwords. A hacker could easily fire off thousands of password guesses in a matter of minutes, meaning these users might as well not have a password in the first place.


The problem branches out much further, however. RockYou, as mentioned, had insufficient privacy restrictions and security. Email addresses and some other information came bundled with each password that the hacker posted. How many times do you use the same password? It's not a complete shot in the dark to assume that the user has the same password for their email, their online bank accounts, their paypal account, and so forth.

Best Practice

If it isn't obvious, having a secure password matters. Use a combination of letters and numbers, and if the site gives you the option to enter 6-18 characters, don't be compelled to stop on the sixth. Don't use common words, names, or sequential numbers, and always combine numbers with letters (and symbols if possible). Some sites won't allow you to pick common passwords, and others may take action to block an account if too many incorrect guesses are made, but the real line of defense is having a strong password for each account. At least have two or three so your email, bank accounts, and social networking sites are all using separate passwords, although it's best to have a different password for each account, just in case.

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