Cyber Threats are Real – Prepare Yourself

Global Tensions Present Cyber Threats Across The Internet

The White House has recently released a statement warning US citizens of the threat of ‘malicious cyber activity’ in response the the war in Ukraine. Many of the recommendations are consistent with SPARKS!’ messaging over the years:

Protect your accounts with secure passwords and multi-factor authentication. We recommend using a password manager for security and ease of use.
Avoid phishing and do not open any suspicious emails! Here are a few email safety tips.
Update your anti-virus, anti-malware and security software as well as your operating system, apps and other systems. View a list of known exploits at CISA.gov
Backup, backup, backup! Take advantage of offsite options and cloud providers such as Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive.

You can view the view the entire White House Fact Sheet online.

Social Media Hacks Escalating

Email isn’t the only platform vulnerable to hacking. The security platform Malwarebytes reports an increase in phishing attempts targeting Facebook and other social media users. Remember, don’t open any suspicious email links and go to the actual website to login and verify any communications or changes.

Stay safe out there…please!

What is SMiShing?

If you’ve never heard of SMS phishing, or SMiShing, you’re not alone. Most people aren’t aware of how at risk they are of becoming a victim of the criminal activity, but it’s becoming increasingly prevalent in this day and age.

What is SMiShing?

A type of phishing, SMiShing occurs when someone is tricked into giving out private information through a text or SMS message. This is especially dangerous because while most people know not to open suspicious links in emails, many are still trusting of texts regardless of how unfamiliar the number is. In today’s ever-changing online world, it can be hard to know how to effectively guard against it.

Someone looking to steal your information, or a “SMSiSher”, could be looking to gain access to anything from your online passwords, your Social Security Number, or your credit card information. The scammers use a variety of tactics to manipulate the victim and get the information they want, such as warning the recipient of the message that they’ll be charged if they don’t click on a link and provide their personal information.

How do you know you’re being SMiShed?

Typically, you should be cautious when you receive a text message from someone that you don’t know. If the text isn’t from a saved number, or if it doesn’t look like a phone number at all, proceed with caution. For instance, if the text comes from a phone number like “5000”, it’s almost definitely fraudulent. If someone sends you a link, take a minute to make sure it’s legitimate and not a scam.

Usually, texts that urge you to take action on something extremely urgent right away are a sign that it’s not to be trusted and could be someone trying to SMiSh you.

Protecting yourself against SMiShing

Adding a VPN to your phone is a great way to stay staff and secure your text message conversations. Don’t download any apps from anywhere other than the app store. Never store your credit card or banking information anywhere on your smart phone. If someone does try to SMiSh you, report it so that it doesn’t happen to you or others in the future.

The most effective way to guard against SMiShing is to simply not respond to the text message. As long as you’re cautious and use common sense, you’ll be able to keep your information safe.

Want to learn more?

The digital world is always changing, and SPARKS! is here to help. Contact us today or give us a call at 410-244-5111 and let us help you with all of your website needs.

CRM For Beginners

Have you been searching for an efficient way to stay connected to your customers? Customer relationship management software (CRM) could be perfect for you.

Let’s face it, you’ve never been busier and keeping in touch with all of your clients can sometimes be a challenge. A CRM system will help to keep your business relationships strong, simplify your workload, and improve profits.

Put simply, a CRM system is a tool that assists with contact management, sales management, and productivity. By allowing you to solidify those individual relationships that may have been losing traction due to your hectic day-to-day schedule, CRM software can do wonders for your business.

Types of CRM Software

Even if you’ve made the decision to utilize CRM tools, it can be overwhelming trying to learn about them and decide which ones are right for your company. To start, there are four main types of CRM software. Conversation CRM apps focus on simplifying emails and phone calls with customers, Leads and Deals CRM helps you to keep track of and close your promising leads with future clients, Contract CRM keeps track of contract details, and Marketing CRM helps you to automate workflow.

Even after you’ve decided on the kind of CRM tools you want your business to use, it can be tricky to figure out which specific software is best for you. Make sure to do some research on the best CRM software available and try to pinpoint what would most enhance your own unique business.

Don’t Fall Behind

Not taking advance of CRM means more time dedicated to doing tasks that could otherwise be simple and streamlined, which leads to less productivity and a loss of profits. CRM software will help you have more time for everything, so your business can grow and you don’t get bogged down in the details. Let your CRM tools collect and make sense of the data, so you can get to using it in the most effective ways possible.

What Does CRM Do, Exactly?

CRM systems automatically pull in vital customer information, such as their website, email, phone number, and social media data across multiple sources and channels. But they take it a step further, generating reports on the company’s recent activity, and even storing a client’s personal communication preferences. Automated administrative tasks are another feature of typical CRM tools. Simply put, CRM makes life easier for both you and your customer.

Sounds Great, But How Much Will It Cost?

The price of CRM apps varies, which is another reason it’s important to do thorough research before you make a final decision on which to use. There’s a great deal of free CRM software available, while others typically cost somewhere between $5-$75 per user per month. Marketing Automation CRM apps will cost you the most, as those can go for $100/month per user.

As the decade comes to a close, keeping your business ahead of the curve might feel more challenging than ever. Technology and the ways that it impacts business is changing at a breakneck speed and it can be hard to keep up. At SPARKS!, we have the tools to help you grow and successfully reach your audience. Give us a call today at (410) 244-5111 to discuss your digital marketing needs!

**We’re not endorsing any particular platform (they ain’t paying us for that!). Just passing along the info so do your own homework for the solution that is right for you.

The Importance of Data Privacy

January 28^th is Data Privacy Day! Data privacy is an issue that impacts just about everyone, whether you’re the CEO of a large company or simply someone who uses their phone and the internet like the average person.

We all want to protect our data, but it’s easy to become a victim of the dark web even when you think you’re doing everything right. Here are some tips on how to ensure no one is using your data for their own personal gain.

Use Strong Passwords

Those same two passwords that you’ve been using for the last 10 years aren’t going to cut it. You need to create truly unique passwords that will be difficult for a hacker to figure out and exploit. Tools like Lastpass are an efficient and secure way to store all your passwords in one place. That way, you can create complicated and hard to figure out passwords for all of your accounts and not have to worry about writing them down somewhere to remember them.

Update Your Social Media Settings

We’re all guilty of oversharing on social media. Sites like Facebook and Instagram have a lot of information about us, and there are a lot of people who would love to get their hands on that data. Check the privacy settings on all of your social media accounts and make sure you aren’t sharing information with anyone that you don’t want to.

Avoid Being Tracked

Simply going to a website provides potential hackers with information about you and your web history. Using incognito mode isn’t going to do much to keep your web history private, so it’s important to use tools that can actually protect your privacy. A VPN connection is one way that you could prevent websites from tracking your location. Learn more about anti-tracking tools for your web browser here.

Backup Your Data

Have you ever been in a situation where you lose your phone or your laptop and you forgot to back it up so you lose tons of valuable information? Backing up your devices can also help you if one of them is stolen or compromised. 68% of small businesses don’t have a disaster recovery plan. No one wants to imagine their business is vulnerable to something like this, but it’s better to plan ahead and be ready.

Utilize Anti-Malware Protection

It’s essential for you or your business to utilize anti-malware protection. No matter how diligent you are about protecting your data, your device is likely to be infected at some point. A strong anti-virus protection program will go a long way towards avoiding a potential disaster.

Use Encrypted Email

A few email programs, like Gmail and Outlook, use encrypted email. But most others don’t. If you’re sending a confidential email that contains sensitive information, make sure you send it using an email provider that will keep your data secure and protected you from any unauthorized users.

Lock Down Your Data

The new decade is sure to make users even more vulnerable to potential data hacks, which is why it’s more important than ever to stay ahead of the curve. SPARKS! is here to help with all of your website needs. Contact us today or give us a call at 410-244-5111.

Prevent Hacking and Frustration with a Password Manager

Chances are you have more logins and accounts to keep track of than ever, and with that comes the inevitable irritation of not being able to remember a password you swore you’d remember.

Or worse, you’re still using the same password you used in middle school, leaving yourself or your business vulnerable to getting hacked. That’s where password managers come in.

Password managers store all of your login information so you don’t have to keep track of them. That way, you can make the passwords as complicated and difficult to hack as possible without worrying about whether or not you’ll be able to remember them. As we continue to live more and more of our lives online, they’re becoming an essential part of the daily routine.

So, which one should you use?

There are a ton of password managers available, so it can be difficult to narrow your choices down and make the best decision. The premium version of LastPass is available for just $3 a month and is a simple and secure way to store all of your login information, especially if you’re running a business and your goal is to keep you and your employees on the same page. It also generates strong passwords for you, so you don’t have to worry about thinking them up yourself. Once you save a password through LastPass, it’s available on all of your devices, so you can take it everywhere you go.

That’s far from the only option, though. 1Password, Enpass, and Dashlane are just a few of the trusted password managers currently available. Research your options and find the one that you think will work the best for you.

Are they always safe?

Unfortunately, as is the case with all technology, password managers aren’t perfect and do come with their security flaws. Research has found that they can be vulnerable to targeted malware attacks, and there’s reason to be concerned about the idea of putting all of your passwords in the same space.

This past February, Independent Security Evaluators did an audit of five of the top password managers and found that the Windows 10 apps for those programs left some passwords exposed in the computer’s memory when the apps were in “locked” mode. Some master passwords, used to unlock all the passwords, were even left exposed. The response of the companies differed, but LastPass performed an update that will help prevent exposed passwords going forward.

Let Us Handle the Passwords

Still feeling overwhelmed by all the options? Give us a call at 866-500-8088 and let us handle all of your digital marketing needs.

The Battle for User Privacy

People are more cynical than ever about how their privacy is being protected when they’re online these days, and with good reason.

It’s impossible not to leave a digital footprint in 2019, and search engines can end up mining your data even when you use features like incognito browsing. Keeping your browsing history private has never been more important, so here are a few tools you can utilize to make sure your information stays truly hidden.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a browser extension that protects your data and then gives you information on what they’re blocking. It’s also extremely easy to use. All you have to do is install the extension and you’re ready to go. As they would tell you, it’s privacy, simplified. By enforcing encrypted HTTPS connections, DuckDuckGo can give the page you visit a grade based on how badly they want to steal your data. Then, they block tracing cookies from being able to identify you and rank the privacy polices of all the sites that you visit.

Use a VPN

A VPN cloaks and encrypts your signal, thus making your search history and online activity untraceable. It also makes it appear as though your IP address is coming from a different device, location, or country. Using a VPN is particularly helpful when you’re logging onto public wi-fi or an unsecured network. This will hide your data from anyone looking to snatch it up and mine it for themselves. So, the next time you’re at a coffee shop and want to browse freely, you won’t have to worry about a thing!

Safari Safety

Apple continues to take steps to make browsing on Safari a safe and private experience. Recently, they announced new software that will alert you to a website trying to access your cookies or other data and give you the option of deciding whether or not you want to allow it. The company also plans to make the Mac devices people use to browse the web indistinguishable from one another by muting the fingerprint effect.

Firefox

If you’re a regular Firefox user, third-party cookies are blocked by default. The browser also gives you detailed information on the trackers and cookies that the sites you’re visiting have attempted to leave. If you’re looking for tracker and ad blocking protection that takes things a step further, Firefox Focus is available for iOS and Android. It’s not quite as detailed as the full Firefox, but it’s worth a try if you’re looking for a simple experience that prioritizes privacy.

Go Incognito

As mentioned above, using “Incognito Mode” when you’re on Google Chrome is always an option. This allows you to browse the web privately while still being able to bookmark sites and download files.

Keeping your browser history private is just the first step in making sure that you’re secure online. Check back soon for our blog on how password managers can keep you safe from hackers. Until then, get in touch with us if you want to discuss anything in the wide world of web, media, or marketing!

Fighting Back Against Domain Hijacking

Has your company gotten a letter in the mail recently informing you that your domain name is expiring and asking you to switch to the domain name service that they’re providing? If so, you’re likely the target of an attempted domain hijacking.

This is serious business, so it’s important that you be able to successfully identify the characteristics of a hijacking and take the proper steps to avoid falling for their trap.

Be on the Lookout

“Domain hijacking” is basically a fancy way of saying that someone stole your domain registration, which is never good. If an unauthorized source has the rights to your domain name, that means they have access to your domain registrar account details and can alter the personal, technical, and administrative details of your domain.

One of the worst offenders of this practice is iDNS, or Internet Domain Name Services. If you receive a letter from them asking you to renew your registrar with them, you’re the target of a scam and should act accordingly. Throw the letter away and move on.

Hijackers have several ways of snatching your domain name from you. Phishing pages, data breaches, calls to you claiming to be your domain registrar, and local keyloggers installed in your computer all present hijacking threats.

What Should You Do?

If someone is able to infiltrate your domain, the next step you should take is to immediately contact your domain registrar, or the company you registered your domain with. Let them know that your domain has been stolen out from under you, and if you’re able to prove that the transfer was fraudulent, your domain can be transferred back to its original registrar. If your domain found its way to a new registrar after getting hijacked, that registrar will work with your previous one to return the domain to you.

Hacking Prevention

Of course, you should avoid letting your domain get hijacked at all if possible. Make sure the domain you registrar with is trustworthy. SPARKS! can help with that. If you don’t fully trust the registrar that you’re with right now, transfer it as soon as possible. Ensure that your passwords and login information are air tight and not easy for anyone to hack, and be diligent about not letting your domain registration expire, which would result in a hacker not even needing to hijack the site.

Some domain registers are now providing domain locking services that prevent domain transfer without heightened security checks and authentication.

Searching for a company that you can trust your domain with? SPARKS! Marketing Communications has you covered. For more details about how we can keep your website safe and secure, please contact us at 866-500-8088 or visit https://www.onsparks.com/.

What Can Google Analytics Do for You? Part 2

This is part 2 of our series on Google Analytics. Click here for part 1.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what Google Analytics can do for you, it’s important to know what to look for when you’re going over your data. It can be difficult to make sense of all the information that you now have at your fingertips, so consider this a guide to navigating all that Google Analytics has to offer.

User Location

This lets you know where the users who are visiting your site are coming from and gives you a better idea of who you should be targeting. Google Analytics can help you identify where the user is located, so you can better focus your strategy, understand where you should be running ads, and get a better ROI.

Keywords

Keywords are an essential tool to ensure that you’re targeting the correct users and bringing them to your website effectively. They’re also vital for an effective SEO strategy. It’s important to understand the difference between organic keywords and paid keywords. Organic keywords are words that people have typed into Google and found you with, while paid keywords are words that you purposely utilize to increase website traffic.

Pageviews

Pageviews help you get a sense of how many people are visiting your page during a given period of time. To see how many views your page has, just go to Audience > Overview. This allows you to see if your site is gaining momentum, stagnate, or losing visitors.

It’s important to note the difference between pageviews, visits, and unique visitors. Whenever your website is viewed or refreshed, that counts as a “pageview”. A single browsing session is a “visit”, and “unique visitors” are the number of people who have visited your site over a select period of time.

Conversions

A conversion takes place when a user visits your website and actually follows through with the action that you want them to take. You can program certain events, like form submissions, downloads, or visits to a specific page as conversions. This is a great way to get an idea of how effective your user journey is.

Average Session Duration

Another tool that can help you to build a more enjoyable site journey for the user is the average session duration function. Naturally, if a user spends a lot of time on your site it bodes well for how effective it is. If they’re leaving quickly, you may want to look into what you can do to keep them around.

Look Out for Red Flags

Now that you know a bit more about what tools you should utilize while tracking Google Analytics, it’s time to learn about what red flags you should be on the lookout for. If users are visiting your site and leaving after only viewing one page, that indicates a high bounce rate. It may be time to make sure your site is user friendly and entices visitors to hang around for a while. The more time on your page, the better.

Of course, you need site visitors to have a substantial amount of data to track at all, and that won’t be the case if you don’t have many people visiting your site. Directing people to your page is vital so that you can attract as many potential customers as possible and know that your analytics represent a large sample size. Use all of your marketing assets as calls-to-action to your website.

SPARKS! has you covered! For more information about how we can make Google Analytics work for you, please contact SPARKS! Marketing Communications at 866-500-888 or visit https://www.onsparks.com/.

Check back soon for part 3 of our series on how Google Analytics can help take your website to the next level.

What Can Google Analytics Do for You? Part 1

It seems like analytics become a bigger part of how people make decisions every day. Their use has never been more present in sports, so why should business be any different?

Companies are realizing that in order to optimize their outreach efforts, they need to be able to use reliable data that tells them how to best allocate their capital. That’s where Google Analytics comes in. But before the service can be used to your advantage, you have to understand exactly what it is and how it functions.

So, What is It?

Simply put, Google Analytics is a web analytics service that helps you track and report website traffic. This information gives you a better understanding of how visitors find and interact with your website. It can also help you manage your digital marketing decisions. It’s also free, so it won’t take up all of your budget. Google Analytics can help your website boost its performance better than any other online tool out there.

Sounds Great, How Does it Work?

Good question. Essentially, Google Analytics uses a tracking code to collect data about who’s coming to your website, where they’re coming from, how long they’re staying, what they’re looking at, and more. Setting up Google Analytics on your site is easy, and something that we can help you with.

Google Analytics uses a cookie placed in the user’s browser to track their visit to your website. This interaction is recorded, and a staggering amount of information can be gathered from it. You don’t just learn surface level information about the user, you know exactly where they accessed your site from and what device they used to get there. Once they’re there, you can track the journey they take through your site, including what pages they went to and how long they were on each one. It’s vital information that will help you better understand what users want from you.

Google Analytics allows you to compare data from previous periods, such as comparing how many visitors you had in April of 2019 versus how many you had in the same month of 2018. It also shows you what specific channels users reached you through, whether that be organic search (SEO), paid search (PPC), or social media. Want to know how many users are actually following through with what you want them to do on your site and creating a conversion? Google Analytics has you covered.

Seems Pretty Important, Huh?

Absolutely. If your business isn’t taking advantage of all that Google Analytics has to offer, you’re not only passing up an opportunity to learn more about potential customers and clients, you’re also letting your competition get ahead. Being able to use this information to your advantage maximizes the performance of your website and provides the strongest ROI. Discover how effective your online strategies are and whether or not you provide a satisfying user experience so you can build on what’s working or correct what isn’t.

What’s the Catch?

There is no catch. Google Analytics is free, but if you want to take things up a notch there is a Google Analytics 360 option. This option is recommended for larger corporations or companies that feel like they’re reaching the limit of what they can do with the standard Google Analytics service.

There’s no such thing as the perfect platform. Google Analytics relies on JavaScript code and cookies to track information. Unfortunately, not all browsers are compatible with JavaScript, and cookies can be blocked by web browsers and ad blockers.

SPARKS! has you covered! For more information about how we can make Google Analytics work for you, please contact SPARKS! Marketing Communications at 866-500-8088 or visit https://www.onsparks.com/.

Check back soon for part 2 of our series on how Google Analytics can help take your website to the next level.

Privacy Changes Coming to Facebook

Are you one of the 1 in 4 Americans who have deleted the Facebook app from your phone? Are privacy concerns the reason you pulled the trigger? If so, the social media platform is taking steps to try and win you back.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to make the most popular social media site in the world more appealing to users who are concerned about the cavalier attitude the company has had when it comes to sharing users data and personal information. Recently, Facebook has been at the center of multiple scandals involving user privacy and breaches.

Zuckerberg’s goal is to give users more ways to communicate privately, encrypting sensitive data in a way that can’t be read by Facebook. In a post, Zuckerberg acknowledged that “people increasingly also want to connect privately in the digital equivalent of the living room”. Details are sparse, however, when it comes to laying out what changes the company actually plans to make.

“I understand that many people don’t think Facebook can or would even want to build this kind of privacy-focused platform,” wrote Zuckerberg, “But we’ve repeatedly shown that we can evolve to build the services that people really want, including in private messaging and stories.”

Despite the proclamation, most users remain skeptical of the platform’s intentions. “This does nothing to address the ad targeting and information collection about individuals,” Jen King, director of consumer privacy at Sanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, was quoted as saying. “It’s great for your relationship with other people. It doesn’t do anything for your relationship with Facebook itself.”

Some advertisers are even dropping the platform all together, citing the company’s “despicable business model”. Mozilla, Basecamp, LegalAdvice.com, and Approyo are among the companies that have stopped advertising on Facebook. Despite the withdrawal of advertisers, Facebook’s earnings continue to increase and have not been impacted.

This isn’t the first time that Facebook has made a promise that they haven’t been able to keep, and only time will tell if this go around is any different. Until Zuckerberg and company announce more concrete steps, the public can only speculate on what this will do for user privacy going forward.

866.500.8088 - 410.244.5111

Cyber Threats are Real – Prepare Yourself

Global Tensions Present Cyber Threats Across The Internet

Social Media Hacks Escalating

Stay safe out there…please!

What is SMiShing?

If you’ve never heard of SMS phishing, or SMiShing, you’re not alone. Most people aren’t aware of how at risk they are of becoming a victim of the criminal activity, but it’s becoming increasingly prevalent in this day and age.

CRM For Beginners

Have you been searching for an efficient way to stay connected to your customers? Customer relationship management software (CRM) could be perfect for you.

The Importance of Data Privacy

January 28^th is Data Privacy Day! Data privacy is an issue that impacts just about everyone, whether you’re the CEO of a large company or simply someone who uses their phone and the internet like the average person.

Prevent Hacking and Frustration with a Password Manager

Chances are you have more logins and accounts to keep track of than ever, and with that comes the inevitable irritation of not being able to remember a password you swore you’d remember.

The Battle for User Privacy

People are more cynical than ever about how their privacy is being protected when they’re online these days, and with good reason.

Fighting Back Against Domain Hijacking

Has your company gotten a letter in the mail recently informing you that your domain name is expiring and asking you to switch to the domain name service that they’re providing? If so, you’re likely the target of an attempted domain hijacking.

What Can Google Analytics Do for You? Part 2

What Can Google Analytics Do for You? Part 1

It seems like analytics become a bigger part of how people make decisions every day. Their use has never been more present in sports, so why should business be any different?

LIKE

AFFILIATIONS

CONNECT

Social Media Hacks Escalating

Stay safe out there…please!

Chances are you have more logins and accounts to keep track of than ever, and with that comes the inevitable irritation of not being able to remember a password you swore you’d remember.

People are more cynical than ever about how their privacy is being protected when they’re online these days, and with good reason.

LIKE

Sparks Marketing Communications

AFFILIATIONS

CONNECT