TWO BLOKES AND A MIC!

From butt shaped robots to frogs that hold their pee for 8 months...  Welcome the first ever: FUN FACTS FRIDAY!  

These are going to happen every week just so that we can all have a laugh. 

Join us and let us know about fun and obscure trivia you know!  

Thanks for watching and as always, LIKE and SUBSCRIBE!  

Thanks! 

Ramin and Dan 

Two Blokes and a Mic!

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tbaam/support

Why should I use a VPN? 

Traceability.  You may not be doing anything nefarious but it's not just big government that is collecting data on you.  

Geo blocking  

Some websites won't work in your country.  

Security 

If you are using an open/public wifi then with the right tools your traffic can be monitored and in some cases passwords nabbed.  HTTPS has been a great boon for security but it only goes so far.  A VPN will add to your security by encrypting your internet traffic (all of it, not just web surfing) and you will have less concerns about anyone sniffing traffic or intercepting or even redirecting traffic.  

Leading players are: 

Express VPN  https://www.expressvpn.com/ 

Nord VPN  https://nordvpn.com/ 

Tunnel Bear  https://www.tunnelbear.com/ 

Surf Shark  https://surfshark.com/ 

IP Vanish  https://www.ipvanish.com/ 

Cyber Ghost https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/ 

Private Internet Access https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/  

Password managers  

Now for a moment let's not state the obvious, that it's more secure than a PostIt note stuck to your screen or under your keyboard.  Let's also not even go to the "using the same password everywhere".  One thing. All the password managers have multi-factor authentication.  That means, not only your password to get in but also a rotating code that changes frequently and/or biometric access.  Oh and many of them are free for home use!  They make money by selling security packages to companies who want to make sure their staff are protected.  

Links;  

LastPass https://www.lastpass.com/ 

Dashlane https://www.dashlane.com/ 

1password https://1password.com/ 

Keeper https://www.keepersecurity.com/  

There are plenty of others but these in our opinion are the leading contenders.  

Thanks for your time! 

Dan and Ramin 

Two Blokes and a Mic!

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tbaam/support

What can we do to protect ourselves?  

These are the top things you need; 

AntiVirus - Make sure it's EDR at a minimum  

Backup - Make sure it's backing up offsite.  

Updates for OS and Apps - If you need to automate this there are tools.  

Password Manager - Keep your passwords in a secure location that is encrypted and has MFA to protect it. Not only that but it can generate very complex passwords for you without the need for you to remember them or heaven forbid, write them on a post it note stuck to your monitor... you know who you are...  

DNS Filter - OpenDNS is still free.  Configure your router so it points to this service and you'll have another layer of protection for really not much work.  

Education, Education, Education - Forget location, that's passé!  

Get suspicious! - A little paranoia goes a long way.  Don't click on links in emails. Instead open a browser and type in the address (assuming you trust that email in the first place) When in doubt, ask!  Some one asking you to send money that you weren't expecting? Or your boss asking you to buy gift cards? ASK! Start a NEW email or pick up the phone.  A website from CIA, Microsoft, IRS, etc is asking you to call a number?   NO!   They just aren't going to ask that. Now if you are convinced that it's legit, go independently to their website and find their phone number and call that. Does the number match to their website? What's the email domain name that your email came from? Are there spelling mistakes?  

Finally one that we have seen SOOOOOO many times.  Here's the format; 

 "I have hacked you computer. I have been monitoring you.  I will tell everyone what you have been doing. etc etc."  

They might have one of your old (or possibly even current) passwords and your email to make it seem more legit! Argh you might be thinking...  What has happened is that one of the big data pools that was stolen from some of the companies that were breached has been sold to an extortioner.   

Example: The Yahoo breach a few years back resulted in ALL of Yahoo's clients information being stolen.  That's 3 BILLION accounts.  

Yes that's Billion with a B!  

What did they steal? You email address and your password for the most part.  So that database that was stolen can be used to try and scare people into thinking that they HAVE hacked your computer.  After all that password WAS legit (maybe it still is?!?).  Best solution here is to delete the email. Make sure that the password referenced in the email is not used in any of your accounts.   

See your password manager that you should have setup by now.  

Stay safe out there!

Thanks for listening! 

Ramin and Dan 

Two Blokes and a Mic!

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tbaam/support

Hi There,  

We recorded this just before the long Memorial Day Weekend.  The discussion in this episode is about Anti Virus, a bit of its history and the latest developments and why you should make sure you are protecting your data. Dan and I go into some depth about the history and progression of the industry and where we are today and what you can do to protect yourself these days.  

Thanks a bunch!  

Ramin and Dan  

Two Blokes and a Mic!

====  LINKS TO THE PRODUCTS WE MENTIONED:  

The New guys: 

Carbon Black https://www.carbonblack.com/  

SentinelOne https://www.sentinelone.com/  

Cylance https://www.cylance.com/  

Deep Instinct https://www.deepinstinct.com/   

The Old Guys:  Sophos https://www.sophos.com/  

Malwarebytes https://www.malwarebytes.com/  

BitDefender https://www.bitdefender.com/

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tbaam/support

A great episode regarding the use of data backups to protect your end users and your company's vital data. Most companies that lose their most important data due to hardware for services failure of some kind will struggle rebuild that data store of internal and customer facing content, which will very negatively impact the health and future of the company.

We make several suggestions below of currently available technologies and service providers to choose from. Please take a look and let us know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Dan and Ramin

Two Blokes and a Mic!

=========

Datto 

IMO the best backup option out there.  Provides actual DR.  Virtual machines created as part of the backup process.  Failure? Spin up the that last backup which is just the same as turning on a VM! Amazing. There is now a direct to cloud option for Windows workstations.   We are waiting for them to offer this for Servers and Mac but as of now without thew on premise hardware (which is considerably more expensive) the only options for Mac and Servers is File only backup. https://www.datto.com  

Acronis 

One of the oldest and most trusted backup companies for imaged based backups.  Cloud offerings are a bit expensive. Otherwise golden. https://www.acronis.com  

Carbonite 

Again one of the oldest direct to cloud offerings.  Many offerings including HIPAA. Reporting needs more work. Can be inexpensive.  https://partners.carbonite.com/siliconvalleysystems  

iDrive Backup 

Solution based on size of your backups.  Right now giving a lot of space for a very low price. They even offer image based backups.  https://www.idrive.com/p=svsys  

iBackup  

Cloud based backup solution for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android devices. HIPAA, SOX, FINRA/SEC compliant. NOTE: We have not tried this one ourselves. We will do so and provide a review in another video shortly. https://www.ibackup.com/    

Crashplan 

File only backup option. No frills and decent price. Has a "Pro-E" Enterprise version for businesses. https://www.crashplan.com  

MozyPro File only backup option. No frills and decent price. https://www.mozypro.com  

Windows backup - new and improved! Traditionally was used as an on premise image based backup. Some of the new iterations now offer cloud based storage, typically to "One Drive". To be honest most people completely ignore this now as there are a huge number of options for backup and if it is used then it's in a secondary capacity.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tbaam/support

We welcome you to our podcast and its matching YouTube channel.

Please join us as we help business owners navigate all of the things they need to know to grow their companies.

We welcome your input and your comments.

Let's have some fun together!

Cheers,

Dan and Ramin

Two Blokes and a Mic!

--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tbaam/support

We welcome you to our podcast and its matching YouTube channel.

Please join us as we help business owners navigate all of the things they need to know to grow their companies.

We welcome your input and your comments.

Let's have some fun together!

Cheers,

Dan and Ramin

Two Blokes and a Mic!

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tbaam/support