The Illinois Supreme Court announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on May 19, 2017. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.
Our final challenge this week is to uncover some best practices for creating better passwords and learn how to properly store them.
'The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.' –Aristotle
Faster hardware and new tech used by password crackers have made passwords less secure than in years past. Your best bet for creating a password that is more difficult for online predators to crack is to employ multiple methods. Our favorites are outlined below. Alone, each is better than doing nothing, but together our 1-2-3-punch makes for a stronger deterrent.
Randomizing. By definition, to randomize is to make unpredictable. Humans are notorious for creating predictable passwords. If you Google 'random password,' a number of online random password generators will turn up in your results. Great, right? Wrong. According to our IT guru Tim, 'If it's online, it's not recommended. Sacrifice convenience for security.' Your results and IP address can potentially be discovered by the wrong people. With that in mind, go old school. Find a favorite book or pick up a dictionary, close your eyes, point to a word...you know the drill. In fact, you'll want to do that a few times because our next tip is to use...
Phrases/Multiple Words. Another best practice is to use a string of words instead of a single word. Here, more is better; use as many words/characters as you are comfortable using, and again, try to randomize and make sure they have no relationship to one another.
Leading appellate attorneys review the Illinois Supreme Court opinions handed down Thursday, May 18. The cases are Better Government Ass'n v. Illinois High School Ass'n, In re Estate of Shelton, Ferris, Thompson & Zweig, Ltd v. Esposito, Chultem v. Ticor Title Insurance Co., and People v. Veach.
Marilyn Longwell with Marilyn Longwell & Associates P.C. discusses how to use your client's story to direct and control litigation.
We're back today with Tim and Brandt to get more information about how to protect your hardware and data, this time looking at your mobile devices.
5 Best Practices for Keeping Your Mobile Devices Secure
1. Install protection software such as AVG (Android) or Avast (Android | iPhone+iPad).
2. Not to sound like a broken record, but back up your device. Make regular backups of your iPhone and iPad using iTunes/iCloud. Make regular backups of your Android device using the built in 'Backup and Reset' feature for contacts and passwords, and Dropbox, Google+, and Microsoft OneDrive for photos. You can also backup your entire Android device with Helium, MyBackup Pro, or manually by connecting to your computer. Mac users will need the Android File Transfer Tool.
An oil portrait of Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier was unveiled on Tuesday, May 16, at the historic Illinois Supreme Court building in Springfield. The painting hangs in the second floor hallway with the portraits of nine other chief justices, with additional portraits hanging in Chicago's Bilandic Building. The painting was done by artist Greg McNair of St. Louis. Chief Justices in Illinois are selected by their colleagues on the Supreme Court bench in a rotational pattern and serve for three years as the administrative head of the judicial branch. Chief Justice Karmeier's granddaughter, Emily Schnitker, performed the unveiling. She was on a Springfield visit with her 7th and 8th grade class from Trinity Lutheran School in Hoyleton. The class also heard the day's third oral argument, People v. Byron Boykins
Among those attending from Washington County were Circuit Judge Daniel Emge, Circuit Clerk Cynthia Barczewski and Court Reporter Brenda Engele along with Chief Justice Karmeier's wife, Mary, daughter, Karianne Schnitker and office staff.
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. I am the managing partner of a 16-attorney insurance defense firm in Kansas City. Several of our insurance company clients have advised us that they are willing to send us cases in Texas. We have decided that we would like to establish an office in Texas. Our plan is to hire three lateral attorneys with seven to 12 years of experience with Texas-based insurance defense firms. We are not certain as to the best city to establish this office. We are thinking it should be a central location. We would appreciate your thoughts.
A. Unlike many states that have one or two major cities, Texas has several, including Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Ft. Worth, El Paso, Corpus Christi, and others. Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston are all desirable locations for branch offices. Austin is more centrally located if your goal is to service the entire state.
Need tips for marketing your practice or building a firm website on a limited budget? Want how-to’s for embracing the latest technology to boost your practice? Join us in Naperville for these take-aways and more, including: how to advertise cheaply; how to take advantage of keyword searches in Google; how to produce documents economically and securely without incurring liability or risking client confidentiality; knowing your billing software options; how to use Microsoft Outlook to its fullest potential; cybersecurity issues; using social media in your practice; and much more!
The program takes place on Friday, June 2, 2017 in Naperville, Illinois. It qualifies for 6.25 hours MCLE credit, including 6.25 hours Professional Responsibility MCLE credit (subject to approval).
In light of the WannaCry ransomware attack over the weekend — which affected more than 200K computers in 150 countries — today's challenge is especially timely. (Read this if you were attacked by WannaCry and need help knowing what to do next.)
Today Tim and Brandt, ISBA's tech gurus, talk about how to protect your computer and data as best as you can from malware, ransomeware, and other cyber attacks.
13 Best Practices for Keeping Your Windows PC and Mac Secure
(In Italy, 13 is good luck!)
1. Backup your data. Back it up again somewhere else. If everything else fails, you'll be really glad you have all your data saved elsewhere. Check out this previous D4S post that was all about redundant backup.
2. Disable the remote desktop in Windows and only use secure remote software (like TeamViewer). See this document for instructions.
We're providing you with five more free tech resources today — all part of our Timesaving Tech Tips week. If you've found any other great free (or cheap) tech resources that have helped you at work, we're eager to hear from you. Share your tips with us and others by commenting below.