Passwords are a part of the Internet. Every CLNC consultant has to enter a password to use any useful website on the Internet – especially legal nurse consulting research, banking, shopping and social media. Many of those websites have a way of recovering or resetting a lost password.
A few weeks back I reminded Certified Legal Nurse Consultants reading my blog to get in the habit of changing their computer passwords on a regular basis. I likened it to having someone remind you to eat your vegetables. A necessary, but not necessarily, pleasureable habit.
If there are three words all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants long to hear from their significant others (“Steaks are done!”), there are also three words that no CLNC consultant ever wants to hear (“Change your passwords!”). Whether you like it or not, changing your passwords on a regular basis is a must-do for your legal nurse consulting business or personal uses, and I do mean on all the websites where you use a password.
Unlike death and taxes, losing your smartphone or tablet isn’t inevitable, but may be likely. A CLNC consultant may put her device down at a crowded reception full of attorney-prospects or while exhibiting her legal nurse consulting business at a legal conference or it may just fall out of her purse/pocket without her knowing it. Once you survive the initial panic after realizing that it’s gone, the first thing you should do, if it’s a phone, is call it to see if you hear it ringing (or to see if someone answers). The second thing you should do is assume that it’s gone for good. If you subscribe to a service such as “Where the *#$% is my iPhone” try and locate it that way, but remember that every minute you spend searching for that device gives the miscreant who has it a better chance of hacking your life.
Certified Legal Nurse Consultants practice in a world of passwords. You use them to access your computer, the NACLNC® Community, your email, research and shopping sites, and just about every worthwhile place you go on the World Wide Web. There are three common mistakes people make with passwords. The first is that they use the same password for just about everything. The second compounds the first – they use simple passwords instead of good, safe “hardened” passwords. The final mistake is that they don’t change their passwords on a regular (or even irregular) basis.
Good question, Tech Tipper Tom! Do you need to encrypt my legal nurse consulting business data to keep it away from prying eyes? My answer is “That depends.” If you’re using a desktop system for your legal nurse consulting business and there’s no one around but your immediate family, and if you believe you can trust them, there is no reason to encrypt the hard drive on your PC. But, if you share a desktop with your spouse and children and they have a habit of getting malware infestations, you may want to encrypt the data. If you’re a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who uses a laptop computer only and who keeps the data on the local drive of that computer (versus on an external hard drive or server in your office) and who also travels with that computer or shares it – you may want to encrypt your data. The way I see it, even paranoids have real enemies, so if you feel you have the need to encrypt your data, you should. If you’re like me and are rolling your eyes at the thought, you don’t.
Legal Nurse Consultings live in a Word, Word, Word, Word world. There are other word-processing programs, there are open-source programs and there’s even Google Docs for those of you who live in the cloud (and Word for Mac for those who can’t use real computers). But for main stream, main street, main line Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, there’s Word. If it doesn’t come preloaded on our computer we rush out to buy it. Why? Not because we want it, but because we need it.
In last Tuesday’s Tech Tip I discussed the need for strong or “hardened” passwords. As I’ve said before, and will say again today, too many people use the same too simple password for too many website logins too many times. In short, a lot of legal nurse consultants are using the same password for PayPal, eBay and First Crushing Debt Bank online banking sites as you use for your gmail. It’s time for this to end – today.
Other than tech factotum and chief PITA, I play one other major role in our office. As network admin for LegalNurse.com, I can make or break passwords at will. A few clicks in Active Directory (AD) and your password is now one of my choosing.
*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
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