Stuart Crawford – Page 68 – Ulistic Projects Blog

February 4, 2019February 5, 2019

How Can I Apply Styles With Microsoft Excel?

Excel’s ready-made formatting styles bring life and color to your spreadsheet. It lets you give printed versions a polished, professional look. Color coding makes it easier for audiences to interpret your data. Use this neat feature to take your worksheets up a notch.

What is a Preset Excel Style?

A cell style puts together font size and style, number formatting, borders and shading into pre-fab-style packaging you can apply with the click of a button. The software comes with built-in options in a variety of palettes to suit almost any taste. Once you become more familiar with them, you can customize cell styles and make them available in all your workbooks.

Keep in mind that cell styles are affiliated with the theme of your document and applied to the whole workbook. If a document’s theme is changed, the cell styles change as well. Also, you can use the lock cells feature to prevent other users from modifying the styles used in your workbooks.

How Can You Apply Cell Styles?

It’s relatively easy to apply cell styles to jazz up workbooks and impress your internal and external clients. Just follow the steps below:

Select a range of cells to format.
On the Home tab, click on Cell Styles to view a gallery of style choices.
Click on the cell style that fits your spreadsheet or personal preferences.

How Can You Create Your Own Cell Styles?

You can also create customized styles that reflect your company or personal branding by taking the following actions:

Select a single cell in your worksheet.
Apply your favorite formatting options to the cell. A built-in style may be the easiest starting point. Then, you can tweak it to add your own flair.
Click the Home tab on the ribbon and choose Cell Styles to access the Cell Styles Gallery.
Now, choose the New Cell Styles option (It’s near the bottom.)
Enter the name for your new style in the Style name box.
Excel lists the formatting options applied to the selected cell for your reference.

How Can You Modify an Existing Cell Style?

To preserve the built-in styles, it’s safest to duplicate them and then make your modifications to a saved style. However, you can make changes to pre-set and custom styles, as follows:

On the Home tab, select the Cell Styles icon.
In the Cell Styles gallery, right-click on any cell style, then choose Modify to access the Style dialog box.
Click the Format button to reach the Format Cells dialog box.
Use the various tabs to apply your changes and click OK to get back to the Style dialog box.
In the Style dialog box, under Style Includes, clear the check boxes of formatting elements you no longer want.
Click OK to exit the dialog box.

Microsoft Excel

This takes you back to your worksheet and the modified cell style should now reflect the changes.

February 3, 2019February 2, 2019

Hacked: The Australian Emergency Warning System — Is Your Business Next?

In Australia, citizens fear a terrorist attack or another national emergency just as much as the next country. For this reason, Australia has what’s called the Early Warning Network or EWN for short. Recently, a hacker was able to breach this system and took it over. The result was terrible in that it caused widespread panic. But it was also catastrophic in that it lessened the confidence Australian citizens have in their Early Warning Network system.

A Breach of Australian National Security

The breach of the EWN occurred on January 5, a Saturday evening. Hackers had somehow breached the EWN system and sent out an unauthorized alert to thousands of Australian citizens. Today, experts at the EWN have confirmed that their system was hacked. They say that an unauthorized individual somehow obtained login credentials for the system. Some of the EWM’s customers received a spam notification. The notification went throughout the entire country of Australia.

The notification read:

“EWN has been hacked. Your personal data is not safe. Trying to fix the security issues.”

Also in the message was an email address. The email address was alongside a prompt that users could unsubscribe to the EWN service. In addition to being posted on the website, the message was also sent through landlines, via text, and over email. Throughout Australia, tens of thousands of individual citizens use this service to get information from the government. All levels of the Australian government use EWN.

Right away after the attack, EWN understood that there was a breach in their security. They sent out a message and posted it on their Facebook page. It read:

“At around 930pm [A]EDT 5th January, the EWN Alerting system was illegally accessed with a nuisance message sent to a part of EWN’s database. EWN staff at the time were able to quickly identify the attack and shut off the system limiting the number of messages sent out. Unfortunately, a small proportion of our database received this alert.”

Contrary to what the original message from the hacker said, no one’s personal information was compromised. Only white page information could have been accessed, such as basic address information. Representatives from EWN also stated that some local, state, and federal government agencies were affected by the hack, but not all clients who subscribe with EWN were affected.

EWN was able to regain control of their services directly after the attack and are investigating the issue to prevent further breaches.

The Importance of Fortified IT Security in an Age of Rampant Cyber Hacking

It is common knowledge that the majority of businesses — no matter whether they are private, publicly funded, government related, or otherwise — are at risk of being hacked. Furthermore, hackers from around the globe are improving their techniques for accessing your private data and information.

This often begins with breaching the system by obtaining login credentials from individuals who already work or subscribe to a specific company, business, organization, or government agency. Naturally, this information is not given up willingly. Instead, it is obtained in a conniving and sneaky way so that the person giving up the login information doesn’t realize what they’re doing. Email phishing and phone call phishing are the top two ways that hackers obtain login information.

Chances are, your business organization is not completely safe from cyber hacks like the one that happened to EWN. Consider hiring an outsourced IT service provider who can improve your company’s security and prevent breaches from occurring.

February 1, 2019

DNS Infrastructure Tampering

On January 22, 2019, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, DHS, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, issued an emergency directive. This emergency directive was put into place to address ongoing problems and issues associated with global Domain Name System, or DNS, infrastructure tampering. As a business owner or executive in charge of a business, you may have many questions about this and how it can affect your business. Here is what you need to know about DNS infrastructure tampering.

What is DNS Infrastructure Tampering?

DNS infrastructure tampering involves techniques that allows an attacker access to your DNS. They are able to compromise a users’ credentials, allowing them to make changes to DNS records. Once the records are changed and altered, it allows an attacker the ability to access and intercept many things related to the network, including but not limited to your web address, your mail traffic and web traffic. An attacker can take that information and redirect incoming traffic to an unsafe website that may contain viruses or may collect information about your customer or business. When the attacker accesses your DNS, they also have access to encryption certificates, which allows certain information to be decrypted. And unfortunately, since the certificate is valid, your users will receive no error warnings that the certificate is outdated, so they may feel safe putting in personal information.

How Can DNS Infrastructure Tampering Affect Your Business?

When an attacker tampers with your DNS infrastructure, they basically hi-jack your website. They can control incoming traffic, control where that traffic goes, and see personal information, such as names and credit card numbers. Unfortunately, if your page is hijacked, you have to tell your customers that their personal information may have been compromised, which reflects poorly on you. Your customers and clients expect you to keep your page safe for them, and if you fail to do so, it can be detrimental to your business.

How Can You Protect Your Business From DNS Infrastructure Tampering?

It can be difficult to determine if your DNS infrastructure has been tampered with unless you take the time to carefully review your DNS certificates. It is recommended that you take the time to audit your DNS records, change your DNS account passwords to more complex passwords and add multi-factor authentication to all of your DNS accounts. This should be done within 10 days, as the threat level for DNS infrastructure tampering is so high. This should also routinely be done in the future to ensure your DNS certificates have not been tampered with.

DNS infrastructure tampering can create a security threat to your business. It can negatively affect your business website, and any websites that those within your business frequently visit and interact with. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to help decrease the risk of DNS infrastructure tampering and protect your business. Having the right IT team in place and learning about security threats is imperative to keeping your business safe from threats at all times.

January 31, 2019February 5, 2019

How To Add A Contact In Microsoft Outlook

Adding a new name and email address to your list of Microsoft Outlook contacts is pretty simple. There are two different ways you can do it depending on whether you want to add the contact information from an email or just want to create a brand new contact.

How to Add a Contact From an Email

1. Right-click the name of the sender in the heading of the email from whom you want to add as a contact.

2. Select “Add to Outlook Contacts” from the drop-down menu.

3. After clicking, you will see a form which is partially filled in with information such as the person’s name, email address, phone number, job title, etc. Fill in any missing information or make any other changes you want.

4. When you are satisfied, click on “Save & Close” on the menu bar at the top of the screen.

How to Add a Completely New Contact

1. Find and select the person icon on the verticle menu bar on the left side of the window.

2. Click on the “New Contact” button on the top menu bar.

3. This will bring you to a completely blank form which will allow you to add the person’s name, email address, and other personal information including a photograph.

4. When you finish adding information, select “Save & Close” on the menu bar at the top of the screen.

That is it!

Now whenever you want to email the person you just added, you will only need to type in the first few letters and Microsoft Outlook will automatically suggest the contact. Remember that you can always change or add to the personal information for each of your contacts by selecting the person from your contact list.

January 31, 2019

Important Update: North Carolina Data Breach Laws

What are the Proposed Changes to NC’s Data Breach Laws?

North Carolina’s lawmakers will consider legislation first introduced by the Attorney General Josh Stein and Representative Jason Saine. The proposed law would redefine the term “data breach” and give companies 30 days to report breaches to consumers.

For healthcare providers, this reduces the HIPAA timeframe, which states that breach notifications must go out within 60 days. According to the proposal, this gives consumers additional time to freeze their credit and take steps to prevent identity theft.

The law extends the definition of a breach to include ransomware attacks – a big change for healthcare providers, who have been targeted by recent hackers.

How Do the Proposed Changes Give Consumers Greater Control?

Consumers gain a number of protections, including the following.

Quicker notification. Receiving notification within 30 days, instead of 60, gives consumers a heads up so that they can take action to protect their credit and identity.
Credit freeze. Consumers can place a temporary freeze on their credit reports to prevent hackers and thieves from opening unauthorized credit cards in their name.
Credit monitoring. If a credit reporting company, such as Equifax, is breached, they have to provide four years of free credit reporting to impacted consumers. Other organizations that are breached have to provide two years of free credit reporting.
Clarifies penalties. Businesses that fail to report breaches within 30 days will be in violation of the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

What Does This Mean for Consumers?

The bill expands consumers’ right to information about the breached data, as follows.

Consent. A company seeking access to a person’s credit information would need that person to express their permission. The reason for the request has to be provided in writing.
Right to request information. North Carolinians can ask the consumer reporting agency to give them a list of credit-related and non-credit information, its source, and the entity or person that received it.

Why is the State Considering the New Rules?

North Carolina hosts the headquarters of many credit card companies and financial institutions and the legislation follows a dramatic rise in breaches throughout the state. According to Health IT Security, 1.9 million North Carolina residents were compromised in 1,047 breaches in 2018. This was a 3.4 percent increase over 2017.

This is the second attempt to tighten privacy laws in the state. If this bill passes, North Carolina would join several other states that have passed similar laws to combat digital thieves. For example, Colorado passed legislation to shorten their breach notification to 30 days in 2017, and Iowa is proposing a 45-day deadline to notify consumers.

Is This Just Happening in North Carolina?

On the national front, lobbyists and some Congress members are also calling for more protection for consumers whose data has been compromised. For instance, the Information Technology and Innovation Fund has suggested scrapping the hodge-podge of privacy regulations, such as HIPAA, in favor of more unified federal privacy laws.

January 31, 2019February 11, 2019

How To Set Up Your Microsoft Office 365 Email On Your Smartphone

Do you want to have the ability to stay on top of your emails from anywhere without the need to learn a new email system? Then enjoy the convenience of using your Microsoft Office 365 email and calendar directly on your smartphone. The Microsoft Outlook app is available for both iPhone and Android devices, it is free to use, and only takes a few minutes to get it up and running.

A Quick Guide to Installing the Outlook Office 365 Mobile App on an iPhone

The first step is to download Microsoft Outlook from the App Store. Be sure to search for and download the latest version of the “Microsoft Outlook – Email and Calendar” available from Microsoft Corporation.
Once the Microsoft Outlook app finishes downloading, open the app and select “Get Started” from the menu. Choose “Get Notifications” if you want to receive email alerts. Remember, you can always adjust your notification setting in the future.
To connect with your Microsoft Office 365 account, input your email address and click “Add Account.”
This will take you to a login screen with the email portion of the form already filled. Enter your email’s password and select “Sign in.”
If you want to add additional work or personal accounts, you now have the option. If you don’t want to add more accounts at this time, click on “Maybe Later.”
Go through the tutorial to learn how to use the app to write, read, and respond to emails or access your calendar. Now, whether you access your Microsoft Office 365 account using your phone or computer, everything will remain perfectly synched.

A Quick Guide to Installing the Outlook Office 365 Mobile App on an Android Phone

First, go to the Play Store and search for the latest version of Microsoft Outlook. Once you find it, click on “Install.”
When Microsoft Outlook finishes downloading, open it and choose “Get Started.”
Type in your Microsoft Office 365 email, and select “CONTINUE.”
Now you need to log in using your Microsoft Office 365 credentials. The email portion of the form is already complete, so just enter your password and select “Sign in.”
At this point, you can either add additional accounts by clicking on “CONTINUE,” or skip this step for now by tapping “SKIP.” You can easily add additional accounts in the future.
Learn how to use the app to write, read, and respond to emails or access your calendar by going through the short online tutorial. Now your Microsoft Office 365 account will remain synched whether you access it through your computer or smartphone.

Once you have on-the-go access to your Microsoft Office 365 email and calendar, you will find yourself being more productive no matter if you are in or out of the office.

January 30, 2019

Urgent Tech Tip: Disable Facetime On Your iPhone

A major FaceTime bug discovered recently has left Apple device users skittish about yet another privacy concern and forced the tech giant to scramble for a fix for the issue.

For users of Macs or iPhones, understanding the FaceTime flaw and knowing how to disable the function are important steps until the issue is fully resolved.

What is the FaceTime Flaw?

The FaceTime flaw affects iPhone users running iOS 12.1 or later. Here’s how it works. Someone calls your number using the FaceTime feature. Before you pick up, the caller swipes up and adds their own number (or any number), creating a Group FaceTime interface.

At that point, the caller can hear all audio coming through your microphone — even if you never answered the call.

News of the glitch spread like wildfire over social media. Others discovered that taking further simple actions could give the caller access to video, too.

What Is Apple Doing About the Issue?

Within hours of broad disclosure of the issue, Apple disabled the servers controlling the Group FaceTime function. As of January 29, Apple’s system status page states that “Group FaceTime is temporarily unavailable.” The company has stated that a fix is likely in a few days.

The company had first introduced Group FaceTime in late 2018 for both Macs and iPhones.

What Should I Do About FaceTime on My Device?

Users may want to disable FaceTime on their iPhones or Mac computers. It’s a simple process for either device type.

For iPhones

1. Go to Settings .

2. Scroll to FaceTime. This feature is in the fifth section of settings along with other built-in apps like Phone, Messages and Maps. If you’re having trouble finding it, go to the top of the Settings screen and type FaceTime in the search bar.

3. Click on the FaceTime bar.

4. At the very top of the FaceTime settings, there’s a label marked FaceTime with a slider. If the green light is lit, FaceTime is activated on your phone. Slide the slider to the left to turn FaceTime off.

Note: When Apple releases an iOS update, install the update, go back to the FaceTime settings and slide the slider to the right to reactivate the feature.

For Macs

1. Launch the FaceTime App.

2. Select the FaceTime menu bar from the top-of-the-screen navigation.

3. Select Turn FaceTime Off. Command-K also turns the feature off.

Note: Once Apple releases a fix, turn the feature back on by launching the app and clicking the Turn On feature.

How Did This Happen?

It’s unclear how this flaw was included in the Group FaceTime release. However, the New York Times reported that a 14-year-old Arizona boy discovered the glitch on January 19, 2019, 9 days before it became widespread on January 28.

On January 20, the boy’s mother sent a video of the flaw to Apple, warning of a “major security flaw.” She heard nothing from Apple Support and began using other channels to try to get the company’s attention. She emailed and faxed information to the Apple security team. She posted alerts to both Twitter and Facebook. Five days later, on January 25, Apple’s product security team suggested she create a developer account and submit a formal bug report.

It appears that the company didn’t react until three days later when a developer reported the flaw and a 9to5mac.com article went viral.

Apple faced criticism for its brief and limited response, which stated the company “identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week.” In an ironic twist, the bug went viral on January 28, which is international Data Privacy Day.

January 30, 2019

Microsoft Office 365 Business vs. Microsoft 365

Two subscription-based software programs available from Microsoft are Office 365 and Microsoft 365, both developed for small to medium-sized businesses and even larger companies. There are some similarities and differences between the two to help you decide which one you need for your organization. For even larger organizations there is Microsoft Enterprise that may have some security features that smaller companies should consider.

Office 365 is a cloud service platform that offers familiar Microsoft products like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other services either online or on-premises through a subscription plan.

Microsoft 365 is an all-in-one bundle that includes the Office 365 Suite, Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise Mobility+Security for a complete, interconnected experience.

Office 365 Business: This is a subscription-based version of Microsoft Office and is designed for organizations with 300 users or less and includes, 1TB of storage, basic data and app security and device management capabilities using Microsoft Intune and the Office 365 Suite, that includes the following:

Microsoft Outlook: Outlook is Microsoft’s personal information manager used mainly for email management. The program also includes a calendar task manager, contact manager, journal, note taking and web browsing.
Microsoft Word: Word is Microsoft’s word-processing program designed for creating documents like letters and questionnaires, as well as basic desktop publishing for creating brochures, flyers, posters postcards, and more. Word includes many features that make it easy to create professional looking documents and archive them.
Microsoft Excel: Excel is Microsoft’s spreadsheet program that allows users to organize, format and calculate data using formulas. It also features graphing tools and pivot tables. Excel uses a collection of “cells” arranged into rows and columns in order to organize and analyze data that can be displayed as charts, line graphs or histograms.
Microsoft PowerPoint: PowerPoint is a presentation program where users can design multimedia slide presentations. PowerPoint allows the user to attractively arrange photos, images and other graphics.
Microsoft Access: Access is a database management system that allows users to enter, organize and run reports on a large scale. It is used by larger teams and corporations with large amounts of data. Note: Access is only available for PCs, not Apple products.
Microsoft Publisher: Publisher is an easy to use, basic desktop publishing program with extensive tools needed to produce layouts using images, typography and other graphics. Publisher is perfect for creating business cards, promotional flyers, invitations, greeting cards, calendars, and newsletters, to name a few. Note: Publisher is only available for PCs, not Apple products.
Microsoft OneNote: OneNote is a program for taking notes, whether handwritten or typed, drawings, screen clippings and audio and sharing them with other OneNote users. It is meant as a free-form, collaborative program.

There are three tiers of Office 365 Business that include: Business, Business Premium and Business Essentials. Business is the basic level that offers desktop versions of all the office applications, file storage and sharing with one TB of OneDrive Storage. Business Premium and Business Essentials offer other services to not only organize your office but to nurture relationships, connect teams, and manage all aspects of your business. The subscription ranges from $8.25 per month per user for basic to $12.50 per month per user for premium.

Now moving on to Office 365 and what makes it different. Office 365 is an upgraded version of Office 365 Business that offers even more, especially in security. The main difference is all of the security features that are not available on Office 365 Business Premium. The following are Office 365’s security features:

Provides business protection from unsafe attachments, suspicious links, attachment checking and scanning
Provides information protection policies to help control and manage how information is accessed
Provides controls to protect company data on personal mobile devices
Provides archiving capabilities, data preservation and continuous data backup that is accessible from anywhere 24/7

Device management is another upgrade that is not available on Office 365 Business Premium. Subscribers will get upgraded to Windows 10 Pro from Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 Pro. There are also simplified controls to easily manage Windows 10 Pro PCs, self-service PC deployment with Windows AutoPilot and secure management for iOS, Android, Windows and MacOS devices.

The subscription fee is $20 per user (up to 300 users) per month.

Small-to-medium-sized businesses looking to transition to Office 365 need to buy Windows 10 Pro and then subscribe to a security service individually as well as making sure all of their users are properly connected and covered under the security subscription.

On the other hand, when transitioning to Microsoft 365 everything is integrated from the start. This makes it easier from a buying perspective and easier for end users to navigate. Deciding to subscribe to the entire Microsoft ecosystem from the beginning provides businesses the opportunity to have all the tools they need to successfully run their businesses.

There are many things to consider before deciding what is right for your organization. If you can answer, “yes” to the following questions, then Microsoft 365 Business may be for you:

Are you a small to medium-sized business with under 300 users?
Are the majority of your PCs not running Windows 10?
Is your business behind in security and device management?

It is important to note that some of the Microsoft Enterprise E3 security features (the price is the same as Business Premium) may be right for your business needs.

Microsoft 365 has many features to offer businesses that haven’t transitioned to Microsoft Office 365 and need to get set up quickly. Microsoft 365 Business should be especially popular among new small to medium organizations that require a collaborative environment. For more information and guidance to research, compare and decide what is best for your business by referring to the following websites:

Office 365 Business: http://products.office.com
Microsoft 365 (includes video and guided tour): https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/microsoft-365/business#pmg-cmp-desktop
Office 365 Enterprise: http://products.office.com/en-us/business/compare-more-office-365-for-business-plans
Additional Questions: Email: {email}.

January 29, 2019

11 Top Questions HIPAA Compliance Officers Need To Know

HIPAA Compliance Manager

HIPAA, an acronym of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton back in 1996. Initially, HIPAA has meant to reform the healthcare industry for two reasons. One was to ensure employees that were between jobs would still have healthcare coverage (P meaning portability). The second was to ensure the security and confidentiality of health information (the first A meaning accountability). As with any policy, HIPAA has changed throughout the years and has added many new rules that healthcare organizations must follow to protect and inform patients.

Here are some 11 of the most frequently asked questions regarding HIPAA security and compliance.

1. What does our organization need to do to become HIPAA compliant?

Although there is no concrete answer for this, our research indicates that the Office of Civil Rights will consider favorably on organizations who make a “good faith” effort to do the following:

Implemented an active ongoing risk management process
Performed recent security risk analysis
Developed policies and procedures that define how patient information and data is secured
Have signed business associate agreements
Proof that employees are trained annually
Filed HIPPA compliance program documentation evidence of all the above.

It is important to note that according to the HIPAA Journal, “ignorance of HIPAA regulations is not considered to be a justifiable defense by the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR).”

2. What Are Explicit HIPAA Requirements?

HIPAA calls these requirements, “safeguards”. There are three safeguard categories, physical, technical and administrative. Physical focus on physical access to information at any location whether it is on site, a remote data center or in the cloud. Technical focus on the technology that is used to protect private information and provide access to the data and administrative focus on the policies and procedures that tie the Privacy Rule and the Security Rule together. Risk Assessments are suggested so organizations can improve and align these safeguards.

3. Do We Need a Business Associate Agreement? A Business Associate is a vendor that needs access to electronic protected health information (ePHI) like technology providers, billing companies, etc. The Privacy Rule lists other activities and services that have access to protected health information where an official agreement is required.

4. Is Annual Employee Training Required? Training employees guarantees that everyone on your team is updated on HIPAA requirements. Training policies should be included and documented in your organization’s Risk Assessment and considered an important, ongoing process. Remember, “ignorance of HIPAA regulations is not considered to be a justifiable defense by the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR).”

5. Can Our Organization Send Emails? The majority of ePHI breaches result from unencrypted data and the transmission of unsecured ePHI over open networks. Communicating by email is acceptable only if the email is encrypted or the person signs a release giving their permission to send them emails. The best policy and practice is to communicate with a patient through encrypted email to securely records the communication trail.

6. Should We Report Ransomware? Ransomware, or malware, is a form of cyber attack when the hacker threatens your organization, preventing you from accessing your data.” They demand a ransom (money) to restore it. First and foremost, your organization should take all precautions so this doesn’t happen. Make sure all systems are protected and train your employees to recognize phishing emails. But if a cyber attack does happen, it is possible that an investigation would be necessary.

7. What is the Difference Between a Security Incident and a Security Breach? Anytime the security officer suspects that any ePHI was disclosed by anyone who is not authorized to see the information is a security incident. The security incident must turn into an investigation before a security breach is determined.

8. How Often Should We Perform Risk Assessments? There is no “one size fits all” policy regarding performing HIPAA Risk Assessments. Risk Assessments should be done on a regular basis to ensure ongoing compliance. HIPAA regulations allow organizations to perform them as they feel necessary, but to meet HHS standards, all organizations should perform them on an annual basis.

9. Should We Perform Vulnerability Scans? Absolutely. A vulnerability assessment or scan is an examination of an organization’s technology, equipment, and software to check for weaknesses that could be used by unauthorized people (hackers) to damage the network. Identifying vulnerabilities is a requirement of HIPAA Security rules and states, ” The Security Rule requires entities to evaluate risks and vulnerabilities in their environments and to implement reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect against reasonably anticipated threats or hazards to the security or integrity of ePHI.” The time frame is not specified but is a conversation and policy to plan with your IT provider for your organization’s overall technology security.

10. Should We Encrypt Our Laptop Computers? As mentioned above, encrypting emails and other private information offers protection from hackers and it is recommended as a best practice for all organizations, not just HiPPA covered entities. If an encrypted laptop computer is lost or stolen and you have documentation stating the information was encrypted, then it is not considered a breach.

11. How Should We Train Our Team? Training is an ongoing process to keep everyone in your organization informed and aware. Short, consistent pieces of training we refer to as Micro trainings are helpful. They are short informational videos overviewing relevant topics that can be incorporated into a regular workday policy enforcing that everyone is responsible for safeguarding information. Micro trainings, combined with intentional randomly sent simulated phishing emails from the IT department will reinforce the importance of awareness and policy compliance. Ongoing training prepares everyone in the event of a data breach.

January 29, 2019

How To Create Org-Wide Groups in Microsoft Teams

As technology improves, so does the way professionals use their programming to increase productivity and efficiency. At one time, emails were the preferred communication between colleagues simply because it was the new form of a written message. Over time, people came to see email as being a bit clumsy for informal messaging, as social media and SmartPhones introduced text messages and chat rooms. You wouldn’t send your roommate a formal email to ask whether to pick up an extra coffee on your way home, likewise, it makes more sense to send a text to ask if there are any specific topics to be addressed in the upcoming meeting.

Why Create Teams

The fact is, teamwork relies on communication, and teamwork is a vital aspect of how an office functions efficiently. The definition of your team might vary over time, as it is on one level the entire office staff, but it might also reference your department, or a group of people within that department who are working together on a project. By using Microsoft Teams in conjunction with Office 365, you can quickly choose who to share information with, whether it’s a quick message or a formal document. Unlike email, you can easily choose the team to share with rather than sending the message to everybody on your contacts list who doesn’t need to know about it, or alternately, accidentally leaving someone out who does need to be informed.

Recommended Settings

Like other software, Microsoft Teams has recommended settings which have proven to work best for most offices. The most common initial setting allows only team members to post to the general discussion. This can allow people outside the team to view what’s going on without cluttering up the discussion by adding their own thoughts to a project they may not be working on. Outsiders can still message individual team members with relevant information, and then the member can decide whether it is important enough to post for further discussion. Another way to keep the conversation crisp without unnecessary clutter is to turn off the “@team” notification. Although not a setting, it is important for the team owner to remove accounts that no longer belong, as they no longer need access to your org-wide team.

Conclusion

Microsoft Teams really is a great new program which is changing the way office communication is handled. Although it is much more than social media, to an extent it uses such a concept to bring the ease of communication such sites have incorporated into a professional setting. It makes it easy to share information with the people who need it, without giving it to people who have no interest or leaving anyone out of the loop who does need to know.