YubiKey 5 Series for Better Security: How YubiKey Can Prevent User Accounts from Being Taken Over

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yubikey 5 series itpros 1

In the wake of several high-profile data breaches, many businesses are scrambling to find ways to improve their security. One solution that is becoming increasingly popular is the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). 2FA requires users to provide two different pieces of information in order to gain access to their account. The most common form of 2FA is a code that is sent to the user’s phone. However, this method is not foolproof; if a hacker has access to the user’s phone, they can simply intercept the code and gain access to the account. Hackings have also been using things like sim cloning, social engineering, and other attacks making the text message for 2FA not as sure as we once thought it was.

 

What is Yubikey

What is Yubikey?

YubiKey 5 is a hardware-based 2FA solution that offers superior security. A YubiKey is a small device that plugs into a USB port. In order to log into an account, the user must have both the YubiKey and their password. Even if a hacker has the user’s password, they will not be able to log into the account without the YubiKey. YubiKeys are also incredibly difficult to counterfeit, so you can be confident that only authorized users will be able to access your account.

yubikey 5

How Does YubiKey Work?

YubiKey 5 uses public key cryptography for 2FA. When you set up your account, you will generate a pair of cryptographic keys—a private key and a public key. The private key is stored on your YubiKey and is never shared with anyone. The public key is stored on the server. When you go to log into your account, the server will send a challenge to your YubiKey. The YubiKey will then use your private key to sign the challenge and send it back to the server. The server will verify the signature using your public key and, if everything checks out, grant you access to your account.

 

The Benefits of Using YubiKey 5

In addition to being much more secure than traditional 2FA methods, YubiKeys have other advantages as well. They are easy to use—once you have set up your account, all you need to do is plug in your YubiKey and enter your password—and they are portable, so you can take them with you wherever you go. And because they do not require batteries or any other power source, they will always be ready when you need them.

 

5Serie yubikey

What are some of the models and features of yubikey?

 

Some of the different models of YubiKey 5 include the following:

-YubiKey 5 NFC: This model has a built-in NFC chip that allows you to use it with smartphones and other devices that support NFC.

-YubiKey 5C: This model is designed for use with Chromebooks and other web-based applications.

-YubiKey 5 Nano: This model is the smallest and most portable YubiKey 5. It is perfect for carrying with you on the go.

Yubikey has a wide range of support application is works with

Yubikey is supported by many popular platforms and applications. Below are just a few of the everyday application that are support:

– Google

– Facebook

– Twitter

– LinkedIn

– DropBox

– Salesforce

For a complete list of applications and websites supported by yubikey visit https://www.yubico.com/works-with-yubikey/catalog/

If you are looking for a way to improve your security, YubiKey 5 is an excellent solution. With its advanced cryptographic technology, it provides superior protection against hackers and other threats. It is also easy to use and portable, making it a convenient solution for protecting your work, business, and personal accounts. In todays threat climate its not really a matter of if your accounts will get hacked or taken over but a question of when. If you found this article useful and you would like to get a yubikey 5 for yourself you can visit this link and order directly from yubico.

This webpage contains affiliate links for the products and services talked about in the above article. If you client the link and purchase the product or service talked about the owner of this website will receive a commission payment for the purchase that was made.

5 Benefits of Hiring Outsourced Help Desk Services

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IT Pros Help Desk Services5 benefits of hiring outsourced help desk services

Most businesses, especially small businesses, don’t have the manpower or resources to keep a full-time help desk on staff. This can be a major problem when it comes to maintaining customer satisfaction and keeping your business running smoothly. Thankfully, there are outsourced help desk services available that can take the load off of your shoulders. Here are five benefits of hiring an outsourced help desk:

Increased efficiency

Hiring an outsourced help desk service can help increase efficiency by taking some of the burden off of your internal staff. An outsourced service can provide support for a range of issues, freeing up your team to focus on other tasks. Additionally, an outsourced service can often respond more quickly to requests than an internal team, ensuring that issues get resolved in a more timely manner.

Improved customer service

Outsourcing your help desk services can also improve customer service. An outsourced service typically has more experience and training than an internal team, and can provide faster and better support to internal staff allowing them to spend more time focusing on your customer’s needs . This can lead to happier customers and improved loyalty.

Hiring a help desk service can reduce support costs

Hiring a help desk service can be an extremely cost-effective way to manage your company’s technology needs. By outsourcing your help desk, you can reduce the amount of money spent on salaries, benefits, and other associated costs. In addition, a help desk service can provide your company with access to knowledgeable and experienced technicians who can help resolve technical issues quickly and efficiently.

When choosing help desk services, it is important to select a provider that offers a robust set of features and services. Be sure to consider the following:

  • The provider’s reputation and experience in the industry
  • The provider’s customer service record
  • The provider’s ability to scale their services to meet your company’s needs
  • The provider’s pricing structure

By taking the time to carefully select a help desk service, you can ensure that your company has access to the technical support it needs to run smoothly and efficiently.

More time to focus on other tasks 

When it comes to running a business, there are a lot of different tasks that need to be completed in order for it to be successful. One of these tasks is having a help desk that can provide support to employees so they can focus on your customers and not on technology-related issues.

Many businesses choose to have an in-house help desk, but this can be costly and time-consuming. Another option is to outsource your help desk services to a company that specializes in this type of service.

When you outsource your help desk, you can expect to receive a number of benefits, including:

  • Improved customer satisfaction: When you have a help desk that is always available to assist your staff so they can focus on assisting your customers.
  • Increased efficiency: Having a help desk can help to streamline your processes and make them more efficient.
  • Cost savings: When you outsource your help desk, you can save money on staffing and training costs.

If you are considering outsourcing your help desk, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Easy Access To IT Support When You Need IT

When it comes to getting help with your IT needs, using outsourced help desk services can provide easier access to support when you need it. By having an external company that specializes in IT support, you can get the help you need without having to wait for someone on your staff to become available. This can be especially helpful if you have a limited IT staff or if your company is growing quickly and you need more support than you can provide internally.

When using outsourced help desk services, you also have the benefit of being able to choose a company that specializes in the specific type of support you need. This way, you can be sure that you are getting the best possible service for your needs. In addition, you can often get a lower rate by using an outsourced help desk company since they are able to pass on their economies of scale to you.

Overall, using outsourced help desk services can save you time and money while still providing the support you need to keep your business running smoothly. If you are looking for IT Help Desk Services or IT Support in or around the Columbus Ohio area we would love the opportunity to come out an give you a free estimate and meet your staff. To book a free estimate visit please email support@itprosohio.com or Call 740-219-2001

The Benefits of Hosted VOIP over Traditional Phone Systems

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IT Pros Ohio Hosted VOIP

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       The Benefits of Hosted VOIP over Traditional Phone Systems

What is Voice over IP, or VOIP?

Voice over Internet Protocol, known as VoIP, is an internet-based transmission system that allows you to make calls over the internet instead of through a traditional phone system. Sometimes known as internet telephony, this technology changes voice vibrations to digital signals that then translate to Internet Protocol (IP) packets which are changed over to a typical telephone signal (if you use a normal telephone).

Hosted VoIP services basically allow you to make a telephone call from a computer instead of an average telephone system. There are hosted VoIP services and installed systems, but the former option allows you to use the service without installing anything on your systems. All you need is a computer and a VoIP phone and you’ll be able to experience a wide range of benefits that the traditional telephone system can’t offer.

Check out this Video From Nextiva one of our VOIP Hosting Partners

How Hard is Hosted VOIP to Setup and Maintain?

Hosted VoIP services are incredibly easy to install, setup, and maintain. There is no hardware to install and no wires to run in your office. You don’t even need any extreme technical know-how to do this. If you have a computer system, all you have to pick up are IP phones. When you purchase your hosted VoIP services, the host company maintains everything for you and you can always add new configurations or move your configuration thanks to convenient web portals. With hosted VoIP services, there is nothing to install, either. All data is combined on one network for easy access and manageability.

How hard is it to scale up or down the size of the system?

Once your system is ready to go you can add more lines or take away useless ones. If you were using a traditional telephone system, it would be a waste of money to have extra phone lines that weren’t being used or to add more lines if it turns out you didn’t have enough to begin with. With hosted VoIP services, you can add and subtract lines as you need so expanding or downsizing your business won’t cost you extra money.

Save Money with Telecommuting

With hosted VoIP services, you can also feel free to move your office without any additional expenses or hassles. You’ll have access to a web portal that will allow you to change your system when necessary. You can also divert calls to different phones if you have employees that work out in the field or travel consistently. Since the hosted service is cloud-based, you can do this no matter the location of the user in question.

What about Features?

If you’re worried about losing out on specific call features that traditional phone systems offer, fear not! With VoIP services, you will still be able to use normal telephone features including call transfers, hold options, conference calling, phone menus, call hunting, and even older features like fax machine support through virtual faxing (no more paper or toner!).

Save Money and Boost Productivity

If you’re running a business, money is always the bottom line. With VoIP service, you will save money and boost your business’s productivity. Physical systems are expensive to procure, setup, and maintain. You’d always have to pay a third-party for that setup and maintenance. VoIP services take most of that cost away since all you’ll need to do is purchase the service through the host company and get your VoIP phones. Everything else you need, you’ll already have to run other aspects of your business (internet service, computers). In addition, the calls are less expensive than traditional phone calls especially when you’re dealing with international phone calls which can cost you extra money through a traditional phone system.

In terms of productivity, a VoIP system can allow you and your employees to do other things besides make calls. While on the call, you and your employees will be able to speak to people on the line, send documents through the system, attend virtual meetings, and share data through conferencing. You’ll even be able to surf the web while on a VoIP call. If it’s easier to get work done, everyone will be able to do more in a given day.

Integrate with Other Systems

Another nice feature of hosted VOIP is systems integration. Most hosted phone systems now have the ability to integrate with cloud based application, Help Desk Application, CRM sofftware and more allowing your employees to get information faster and do more while on the phone.

So interested and want to know more?

If your interested in getting a quote or learning more about how Hosted VOIP can work for your business give us a call at 740-219-2001 or  go to http://www.itprosohio.com/hosted-voip-solutions  We would enjoy the opportunity to work with you and discover the benefits these services can provide for your business.

Why Social Media Management and Marketing is Important for Business

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Social media marketing

If you have a business and haven’t started a social media marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a lot. Creating a Facebook fan page or starting and maintaining a Twitter and Instagram page will benefit your business in ways that you might not think it could. From keeping up with your competition to increasing your sales and interacting with your target market, social media accounts allow you to expand your brand and create a loyal customer base that will carry you through. Check out this video below from Digital Resource showing how people are consuming information on social media and how its affecting business that are engaged.

Using Social Media to Boost Your Sales

As a business, your main goal is to make a consistent profit that grows over the years. You might think that it can’t really help you boost your sales or that it’s a waste of time and resources that could better be used for different marketing strategies.

For one thing, your competition is probably already using social media to gain customers and increase their sales. By starting a successful social media marketing campaign, you can gain your own followers and catch up to your competition and hopefully overtake them. If you’re just starting your business, having an online presence will be easy, but if you’re an established business that is already competing with other businesses, you might have a bit of an uphill battle.

social media

Another reason you can boost your sales through social media is by reaching customers you didn’t know existed. You might have an idea of what your customer base looks like, it will allow you to reach a wider range of people who you didn’t know would take to your business. Similarly, customers that don’t know about your business will be able to get an introduction to it through your pages. Current customers can spread the word about your business to their friends and family to increase your reach as well. All you need to do is set up your pages, keep them current, and interact with your fans. You can continue to grow your presence by joining groups related to your industry in order to reach even more potential customers. Creating content and posting it on your various pages can help you do this, too.

By keeping up with your target market through social media, you can stay ahead of the game and make sure that your business grows with the market. You might notice that your customers are looking for specific products or services by what they’re discussing on social media. By paying attention to those discussions, you can alter your business in a way that shifts to meet their needs. Similarly, you can announce new products or services immediately through your social media pages in order to drum up business from the start of your new marketing campaign. When you stay ahead of your customers, you will be more likely to get the sales you’re looking for.

On your page, you can create incentives for customers to buy from you, too. You can create and offer coupon codes for products, create special sales that can only be accessed through links on social media, or run contests for discounts or prizes for people who share links for your business.

The beauty of all of this is that social media marketing is free. If you’re a little computer savvy, you don’t have to hire a third-party to run your pages unless you want to. You can start the pages yourself and maintain them in-house. If you have the means, you can hire a management team or a public relations agency to do this for you. It’s a bit pricey but it has the potential to offer a good return on investment. If you feel you don’t have the know-how to do this yourself, hiring an outside party to handle it for you might be the best thing, but you don’t have to pay a penny for it if you don’t want to.

Interact with Your Customers

While boosting sales is the main thing you want to do, social media can allow you to interact with your customers on a more personal level. Back in the days, the only way that you could interact with your customers was through individual emails, phone calls, or face-to-face meetings. Nowadays, you’re able to interact with more customers in a more timely fashion. Customers can comment on your posts and you can respond quickly and individually.

You’ll be able to see what they have to say regarding your business (good and bad) and respond to those comments. This interaction will make your customers feel important which can help build customer loyalty that will lead to more sales. This interaction leads to sales because it will give you insight on your customers’ wants and needs.

Customer Interaction Social media

If you see that there are some negative comments regarding problems with your business, you can respond to them and remedy the problems in order to keep your customers happy. Maybe your main website has crashed and you didn’t know about it. Your customers can reach out and alert you of the problem so that you can fix it. Or maybe there is a defect with a product that needs to be addressed. The instant feedback from your customers can help you remedy any problem faster since you’ll know about it sooner. Your response to the customer complaints will also show your customers that you care about them and their experience with your business which will help you retain customers and will show new customers that you’re devoted to your customer base.

Social media marketing provides businesses with an even playing field. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the same budget as your competitors or if you’re not as large a company as them, it puts you on the same track as they are. The only thing you need to succeed is clever marketing strategies that will grab people’s attention. You can make up for a low budget by outwitting your competition with clever content or better promotions. This will all help you grow your business in every way.  If you would like to learn more about how Social Media Marketing or Social Media Management can help your business we encourage you to visit our page site at www.itprosohio.com. Thank you for your time and we hope you enjoyed this article.

Why Your Business Needs Managed IT Services

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Businesses of all sizes are increasingly reliant on technology. From desktop computers to the internet, from point-of-sale systems to cloud-based storage, technology has become an essential part of doing business. As a business owner, you need to be sure that your technology is reliable and running smoothly. That’s where managed IT services come in.

Managed IT services are a comprehensive approach to IT support, maintenance, and management. Rather than relying on in-house IT staff or break/fix IT providers managed IT services can give you access to a team of experienced IT professionals who proactively monitor and manage your IT systems. This proactive approach can help you avoid many common IT problems, such as data loss, hardware failures and malware infections.

In addition to preventing problems, managed IT services can also help improve your business’s overall performance. By optimizing your IT infrastructure and keeping everything running smoothly, this can help boost productivity, improve customer service and even increase sales.

If you’re still not convinced that your business needs managed IT services, consider the following benefits:

1. Reduced IT costs

IT services

Managed IT services can help you save money on your IT costs. By proactively monitoring and managing your IT systems, managed IT service providers can help you avoid many common IT problems, such as data loss, hardware failures and malware infections. In addition, managed IT service providers can often offer discounts on software and hardware, as well as bulk licensing discounts.

2. Increased productivity

Managed IT services can help boost your business’s overall productivity. By keeping your IT systems running smoothly and efficiently, managed IT services can free up your employees to focus on their core tasks and responsibilities. In addition, by proactively resolving IT issues before they become major problems, managed IT services can help reduce downtime and keep your business running smoothly.

3. Improved customer service

By keeping your IT systems up and running, you can help improve your business’s customer service. By minimizing downtime and resolving IT issues quickly, managed IT services can help ensure that your customers always have a positive experience with your business. In addition, by providing you with access to a team of experienced IT professionals, managed IT services can also help you improve your internal communication and collaboration, making it easier for you to resolve customer issues.

4. Increased sales

These services can also help increase your business’s sales. By improving your business’s overall productivity and efficiency, having a team manage your IT infrastructure can help you free up time and resources that you can reinvest in your marketing and sales efforts. In addition, by providing you with access to a team of experienced IT professionals they can also help you optimize your website and online presence, making it easier for customers to find business. For more information about this check out our SEO Services page.

5. Peace of mind

Perhaps the most important benefit of managed IT services is the peace of mind that they can provide. When you outsource your IT needs to a IT service provider, you can rest assured knowing that your companies data is safe, you have fail over and redundant systems, and in the event something goes wrong they will have a plan to help you and your business get back up and running quickly.

Looking for a Managed IT Services Provider?

If your looking for a company that provides managed IT Services IT Pros Ohio is a managed IT services provider located in the Columbus Ohio area that can help your business reduce its IT costs, boost productivity and improve customer service. We have over 7 plus years of experience in the IT industry, we understand the importance of reliable and efficient IT systems. Our experienced professionals can help you proactively manage and optimize your IT infrastructure, ensuring that your business runs smoothly and efficiently. Contact us today to learn more about our IT Services!