Month: November 2020

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Creating and Managing Strong Passwords

The following information is provided by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency:

NCCIC/US-CERT reminds users of the importance of creating and managing strong passwords. Passwords are often the only barrier between you and your personal information. There are several programs attackers can use to help guess or “crack” passwords. However, choosing strong passwords and keeping them confidential can make it more difficult for others to access your information.

NCCIC/US-CERT recommends users take the following actions:

  • Use multi-factor authentication when available.
  • Use different passwords on different systems and accounts.
  • Don’t use passwords that are based on personal information that can be easily accessed or guessed.
  • Use the longest password or passphrase permissible by each password system.
  • Don’t use words that can be found in any dictionary of any language.
  • Refer to Tips on Choosing and Protecting Passwords and Supplementing Passwords for best practices and additional information.

    And an additional suggestion from Bee Hive Support, it is better to use a program to store your passwords – and not a piece of paper with all your passwords!

    If you would like to discuss a password vault program for you, please feel free to reach out to Bee Hive Support.
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I received a popup saying my computer is infected

If you see something similar to this:

This is a pretty common occurrence and nothing to be worried about.  This is just a pop-up and your computer is not infected.  The message is a scam that is trying to scare you into calling the displayed phone number so the scammers can get access to your computer and try to sell you some software you don’t need.

The pop up can be difficult to close.  You can just restart your computer or close your web browser through Task Manager. 

To close this through Task Manager, right-click the time in the bottom right of your screen, then click Task Manager.

Find your web browser on the list and right-click it then click End Task. 

Sometimes when you reopen your browser the pop-up will display again if your browser is set to go back to the page it was last on when the browser closed.  If this is the case, just close the web browser again through Task Manager.  Now hit the Windows key + R on your keyboard.

This should bring up a Run window.  Type www.google.com in the space provided then click OK. 

This should open your browser on this website instead of going back to the previous one that displayed the pop-up.