May 2018

630.850.9039 Continued pg.2 We love this stuff! We are committed to helping businesses use technology to run their organization successfully and profitably. Your Image Here What’s New This monthly publication provided courtesy of Catherine Wendt, President of Syscon Inc. May 2018 Trees are in bloom, the first flowers of the season are visible and we’re getting ready to celebrate Memorial Day. The answer to last month’s riddle is Mayflowers! The techs have rolled out enforcement of ‘stale’ sessions. Essentially, if there’s no activity in four (4) hours for your user log on, you will be logged off. This is important for security and patches. We upgraded Office Standard in the multi-tenant environment; it’s been on our list for a while. As with any update, there are work interruptions, which we try to keep to a minimum. Thanks to all! - Catherine Wendt The Shocking Truth Behind Cybercrime Threats And What You Can Do About Them Now Today’s technological innovations have empowered small businesses to do things that would have been utterly unimaginable even 15 years ago. To remain competitive in a constantly shifting landscape, we’ve become more dependent on software and hardware to house even the most basic structures of the companies we run. Meanwhile, these technologies are evolving at breakneck speed. Every day, there’s a slew of new devices to consider, a pile of new updates to install and a new feature to wrap our heads around. Every morning, we wake up and the digital world is thrillingly new. But all over the world, there’s an insidious network of criminals keeping up with this insanely rapid pace of progress. With every new security measure designed to protect our digital assets, there are thousands of hackers working around the clock to determine a new way to break through. An estimated 978,000 fresh new malware threats are released into the world each day. The term “up to date” doesn’t mean much anymore in the wake of new developments arriving minute by minute. There’s a price to pay for the increased efficiency and reach enabled by the digital age. We’ve all heard the story before. A massive, multinational corporation neglects some aspect of their security and falls victim to a crippling large-scale cyberattack, with criminals lifting millions of dollars in customer data and digital assets. Equifax, J.P. Morgan, Home Depot, Yahoo!, Verizon, Uber, and Target – these narratives are so commonplace -- 1 of 4 - All Things Tech May 2018 (continued from page 1) that they barely raise an eyebrow when we read about them in the news. Most business owners wrongly assume that these incidents have no bearing on their own companies, but these high-profile incidents account for less than half of data breaches. In fact, according to Verizon’s 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report, 61% of attacks are directed at small businesses, with half of the 28 million small and medium -sized businesses (SMBs) in America coming under fire within the last year. It’s hard to imagine how you can possibly protect yourself from these innumerable threats. Statistically, you can be all but certain that hackers will come for your data, and there’s no way to know what new tool they’ll be equipped with when they do. You may not be able to foresee the future, but you can certainly prepare for it. With research, education, and resources, you can implement a robust security solution into the fabric of your business. That way, you can send hackers packing before they get their hooks into the organization you’ve spent years building from the ground up. One huge leap you can make right now for the security of your business is to simply realize that cyber security isn’t something you can install and leave alone for years, months, or even days. It requires regular updates and the attention of professionals to ensure there’s no gap in your protection. There are new shady tactics being used by criminals every day, but there are also fresh protocols you can use to stave them off. Small business owners assume that since they don’t have the resources of a Fortune 500 company, they don’t have the means to invest in anything but the barest of security. Obviously, hackers know this and target SMBs in droves. The bad news is that most businesses’ paper -thin barriers won’t save them in the event of a crisis. The good news is that it doesn’t take thousands upon thousands of dollars to implement a security system that will send the hackers packing. We can take a look at what you have, and what you might need. Cathy and Larry Sightings Snow in IL in April; 35 degrees in Nashville. Great Industry event! Kevin Mitnick, Chris Voss, Gino Wickman; great speakers! Larry and some friends grilled BBQ for the whole church; LOTS of leftovers, lots of fun. ‘Making a living is not the same thing as making a life’ - Unknown 630.850.9039 OK gentlemen, this is a little more ‘touchy-feely’ than you might like, but it has some great insights into your bride. Check out my Book Review blog if you don’t want to read the whole book, then get reconnected with your wife! Technology “has become an imposter for connection, making us believe we’re connected when we’re not.” Check in with your kids, too. For the rest of us, this is a great read. We’re supposed to be ‘perfect’ and when we’re not, it drains all the joy out of our life; we never measure up. What if you could live a ‘Wholehearted Life’? That’s what Ms. Brown shares. Here are a few take-a-ways (the rest is in my full book review). Heroics is putting our life on the line; Courage is putting our vulnerability on the line. “Shame needs three things to grow out of control in our lives: secrecy, silence, judgement.” Strongly Recommended! - CMW The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brené Brown “We’ve all heard the story before. A massive, multinational corporation neglects some aspect of their security and falls victim to a large-scale, crippling cyber-attack...” -- 2 of 4 - Shiny New Gadget Of The Month: Way back in 1946, technology gave us the capability to pop some leftovers into the microwave and heat them up within minutes. But if we had a warm beer in our hands or needed a tray of ice quick, we were out of luck. Enter Frigondas’s line of new kitchen technologies, which enable users to flash-freeze dishes, rapidly chill beverages, and create crystal -clear ice within minutes. Couple this revolutionary feature with Frigondas’s host of advanced heating abilities, and you’ve got a kitchen appliance that’s set to change the microwave game for good. The only problem is that the technology isn’t yet available for purchase, with no release date in sight. Still, experts expect it to hit the market within a year or two, though it remains to be seen whether it will justify what’s sure to be a hefty price tag. You’re Only as Safe as Your Weakest Link Here’s a good one the techs found. In Vegas, hackers got into a Casino through the fish tank thermometer; really! This is a low-level device that connects back to the network for updates and to regulate the temperature. A hacker figured out that the security on this simple device was pretty weak. He got into the device and followed the cookie crumbs to the network. We’ve run some articles in recent newsletters about the growing trend of hacking into small to mediumbusinesses through the security cameras. These are often considered ‘low risk’ and sometimes the default Administrator password wasn’t even updated (available on Google, BTW). They can sit in the parking lot, connect via the wireless, and go straight to the cameras. Once in, they have a lot of access! It’s like leaving one of your car doors unlocked; or one window in the house unlocked. It’s only one thing; what’s the big deal? It only takes one... So, do you have your garage door connected to your cell phone? How about Alexis or Google? What about that door bell app or the thermostat? And on goes the list. These are great conveniences, but do you have them locked down? Interesting to note that these common home devices aren’t really the target; they are used like ’soldiers’ to flood someone’s website or email server to shut them down. Bottom line? Don’t leave the default Admin password in place for these devices and consider changing them at least annually. Replacing a Modem; New Internet Services When you replace a modem, it’s not supposed to cause any service interruptions. But, we regularly get an emergency call that this process has NOT gone as planned. Sometimes the ISP technician has plugged/unplugged something, and the connection is not coming back up. We’ve also had clients upgrading internet service but the ISP (Internet Service Provider) has changed the services, removing the static IP feature. In an effort to make the costs look lower, you’re losing very important functionality. Be sure to confirm that you will still have a static IP (some clients need the basic package of 5 static IP addresses). Before you have the ISP tech onsite to swap out a modem or perform an upgrade, give us a call so we can have a tech available for any unexpected problems. - CMW Planned Power Interruptions Let us know when ComEd says these are happening. Your network equipment needs to shut down and start back up in a specific order. When they just power back up on their own, some may not connect. All Things Tech May 2018 630.850.9039 This Reverse Microwave Can Quick-Freeze Food And Drinks From the Techs -- 3 of 4 - All Things Tech May 2018 Construction Corner What’s New in Sage 100 Contractor ? Daily Payroll Entry—After years of asking, we finally have the opportunity to have more than one person in the Daily Payroll screen entering data! This is great news for many of our clients! Payroll Trial Compute and Running the Payroll Audit In the past, you could enter records in 5-2-2 and run the audit before posting to be sure you haven’t introduced an audit error. In a recent client call, we discovered that the Audit does not look at the records until they are status 2-Final or 3-Posted. Unfortunate, but that’s the update. Union Pay Rates: Changes are Coming Many union rates and benefits update on June 1st. Some are more frequent or happen in a different month, but at a minimum, there’s an annual rate change. S100C handles these really well when things are setup correctly. There are some specific steps to follow including some up front planning. It’s important to take a look at where the rate change falls in the work week so you can report correctly and not over pay (or under pay!). We’re running our annual webinar to review all these steps, along with some tips and tricks. We’ll also review the Job Paygroup feature and how it works; a great time-saver! Sign up for our webinar to be held May 24th at 11:30am Central time. We’ll be at TUG—Booth 6 We’ll be at the TUG Expo in Orlando, Florida this May. This user-specific show is always wellattended, focusing on specific Sage software and add-ons for the Construction industry. The event is May 15-17 in Orlando. We’ll feature our Field Integrated Time (F.I.T.) System, and some of our Sage 100 Contractor-specific analytical tools such as Over/Under Billing, Indirect Cost Allocation (ICAP), and a few others. Come by, say ‘hi’ and share some stories. Look forward to seeing you in sunny Orlando! Collecting Time From the Field Just Got Exciting! We’re helping our clients collect field time from mobile devices, and we’re fully integrated (really!) with Sage 100 Contractor v20. We can collect cost code information, work order numbers, phases, client signatures, and a whole lot more. Your field can use iPhones, Androids, or Tablets. Interested? Join us for a demo on May 24th at 11:30am CT! 630.850.9039 This month’s trivia question: In a 4/4 musical time signature, what does the bottom 4 indicate? a) 4 beats in a measure b) 4 notes in a measure c) the quarter note gets the beat d) 4 instruments play the music together Congratulations to last month’s Trivia Contest winner, Susan Downey, with Ratte Construction, MA! Susan’s name was drawn from the ϐishbowl for last month’s correctly answered Question: Alexander Graham Bell, inventory of the telephone, made his ϔirst call on March 10, 1879 in Boston; what are the words he is said to have uttered? b) Mr. Watson, come here I want you Who Wants To Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card? To enter: Go to www.Syscon‐inc.com/Trivia and type in your answer. All correct answers will be put into a ϐishbowl and we’ll randomly draw the winner. The Winner will be contacted shortly after the deadline and will be announced in next month’s newsletter. Deadline: May 21, 2018 -- 4 of 4 -