October is NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS MONTH

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October is an excellent reminder to maintain and protect your hardware and software.

Serious threats to personal data are at an all-time high. Everyone, including individuals and businesses of all sizes, needs to remain diligent in their protecting themselves from hackers and privacy breaches. Scammers of all sorts bombard us through pop-ups, viruses, e-mails, phone calls, and even the businesses we visit every day. Take steps to protect yourself.

• Create secure passwords and don’t share them.

• Avoid common words, phrases, and personal information when creating passwords.

• Keep your anti-virus, software, and operating system up to date.

• These updates keep your computer as current as possible with the latest viruses and patches to protect your computer.

• Never give personal information over the phone or in e-mail. Scammers love to call and claim to be someone they are not. Verify their authenticity by contacting the company directly.

• Don’t click on links in e-mails. Links are an excellent way to get a virus. The same goes for pop-ups.

• Turn on the pop-up blocker on your anti-virus. If you still receive a pop-up, do not click on it.

• Never visit unfamiliar websites and beware of look-a-like links. These links will have a similar spelling or will end in .net versus .com will be an infected link attacking your computer.

• Laptop owners should install software to ensure the laptop can be tracked if stolen or remotely accessed to erase files or transfer files securely.

• When using social networks, use the privacy settings to protect your personal information.

• As with e-mail, clicking unknown links within social networks places your devices at risk. This includes strange friend requests, messages, and even innocent-looking videos.

Apple Education's "Opportunities to Accelerate Learning” Instructional summit will take place this week on Wednesday and Thursday beginning at 4 p.m. There is no fee to register. Click here for more information

Help Desk FAQs:

How do I set up Parallels for the first time?

Setting up Parallels for the first time

How do I set up Virtual Time Clock (VTC) for the first time?

Setting up VTC for the first time

Connecting to the projector wirelessly using EasyMP for the first time

Wirelessly connecting to the projector for the first time

When I use wireless to connect to the projector, I only see my background image. What do I have to do to make my desktop show up on the projector screen?

Fixing blank desktop via EasyMP

How do I mirror my desktop when connected using HDMI?

How to mirror desktop using HDMI

Reminders:

A. Don't update to Big Sur 11.5.2 until further notice. The update has not been fully tested.

You will be notified when you can update to Big Sur 11.5.2

B. Need a refresher using Zoom, Seesaw, Pear Deck, Google Classroom, etc. Visit our Remote Learning Technology Resource Site.

C. Email Tech Tip: Reply vs Reply All and Sender using the Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) feature.

Reply only sends the new message to the original sender. Attachments are not included. Reply all sends the new message to the original sender and all other recipients on the To and Cc lines.

Do not reply-all when:

• Only the original sender needs to know your reply. The sender should include a note - "Please reply directly to me, don't reply all. "

• Your comments will be crucial to know for the original sender but only a few other recipients. Reply to the sender and then add the select other recipients manually. Copy their addresses from the original email if that helps.

• Your message is simple acknowledgment like "Thanks!" or "Me too."

Reply-all responses should be reserved for special cases only.

A Tip for a sender using Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) feature.

Benefits of Using BCC:

Using the BCC field to send an email message to a large group of people has a number of benefits, including:

• The privacy of email addresses is protected in the original message. Recipients will receive the message, but won't be able to see the addresses listed in the BCC field.

• When an email is forwarded, the addresses of everyone in the To and CC fields are also forwarded along with the message. Addresses that have been placed in the BCC field are not forwarded.

• If you have placed a large list of recipients in the To or CC field, all of them will receive the reply. By placing recipients in the BCC field, you can help protect them against receiving unnecessary replies from anyone using the Reply All feature. (This is an important benefit).

• Many viruses and spam programs are now able to sift through mail files and address books for email addresses. Using the BCC field acts as an anti-spam precaution. It reduces the likelihood that recipients will receive a spam message or a virus from another recipient’s infected computer.