Joseph Nice

Productivity: Employees Gaming at Work?

Posted on by Joseph Nice

We got a call from a client. He told us that productivity in his warehouse had significantly decreased. Deadlines weren’t being met. He knew something was going on but didn’t know what. Their warehouse was in a separate building from their office. Four or five employees managed it.

Increasing your Productivity: Your MSP is omniscient when it comes to your network

As their managed services provider, we remotely logged in to their computers to search for clues. It wasn’t long before we found that World of Warcraft, a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, was installed on every computer. We scanned our logs and found that they were spending most of the workday playing it. They were basically having a daily LAN party on their company’s time.

Your MSP is omnipotent when it comes to your network

We told the owner what was going on and he was angry. He had us remotely log in and delete the gaming software. We re-configured the firewall with stricter rules. He reprimanded the warehouse employees and warned them that if it ever happened again, they could find another job.

Block the “myths, magic, and endless adventures” on company time

Increase productivity by blocking the “myths, magic, and endless adventures” of role-playing games and other time-wasting websites on company time. If you have problems with your employees wasting company time on video games, social media, gambling websites, or porn websites you have the power to block these sites through your firewall. If productivity is down or not what you hope for, your managed services provider can evaluate your computer logs to see if the problem resides here.

Schedule a free consultation with Joe or Fred if you don’t have a firewall or you need yours uniquely configured.

Read more about this productivity problem: Employee Internet Management: Now an HR Issue

Why Enable Multifactor Authentication (MFA)?

Posted on by Joseph Nice

I admit it. I hate passwords. I had been using the same variant of one password since 2002. If you’re like me, you find passwords annoying. You might not like Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) either, also called 2 factor authentication (2FA). I hate using it, as it adds precious seconds to complete logging into my daily work applications. 

But something happened recently that caused me to change my tune and banished my beloved go-to p@ssw0rD. I had my personal email hacked and multiple accounts compromised. It was a Nightmare Scenario. After dozens of calls and wasted hours on the phone with banks, merchant services, and other financial institutions, I can almost laugh about it now.

Here’s my confession: I spend my working life preaching about Security, Firewalls, AV, Ransomware etc., but I don’t practice what I preach. I’m hoping to pass on to you the reality of my personal experience: hackers are out there and waiting to take advantage of your business and personal accounts. I encourage you change your passwords and enable MFA. Using MFA Blocks 99.9% of account hacks. And by the way, it won’t cost you a cent to do it, just your time.

Microsoft Article: Using MFA Blocks 99.9% of account hacks

How Multifactor Authentication Keeps your SMB’s Valuable Data 99.9% Secure