Tag Archives: smartphone

Juice Jacking

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Photo by ThisIsEngineering on Pexels.com

While traveling is not as prevalent as it was before COVID-19, we remain mobile. That means you can still run out of juice while away from the office.

Did you know that using a charging port, borrowing a cable, or relying on someone else’s external battery can put your smartphone, tablet, or laptop at risk?

The problem is malware, in which hackers take advantage of USB connections to hide and deliver secret data payloads that a user might think was only transferring electrical power. This is called “juice jacking.” Its visual counterpart, known as “video jacking,” occurs when a hacker records and mirrors the screen of a device that was plugged in for a charge.  

Protect Yourself from Data Theft

The FBI recommends:

DoDon’t
Use AC power outlets to charge devicesUse USB charging stations in public places
Buy only from trusted suppliersAvoid cheap deals and free giveaways
Bring your own car chargerDon’t borrow car chargers
Bring your own USB cablesDon’t use someone else’s
Bring your own AC or battery backupNo borrowing!
FBI TECH TUESDAY

Best Practices

  • Consider buying a charging-only cable, which prevents data from sending or receiving while charging. 
  • Discard any free USB cables, chargers, adapters, or similar accessories that you received as a promotional item. They are too risky, warns the FBI. Microcontrollers and electronic parts have become so small these days that criminals can hide mini-computers and malware inside a USB cable itself.  
  • As we move into the holiday season, you may be tempted to buy cheap electronic accessories as stocking stuffers or gifts. Please think twice. Consider the source and the manufacturer when making your purchases. Proprietary cables, chargers, adapters, docks, or battery backups often feel like they cost more than they should. (Pssst … Are you listening Apple?) But imagine what you’d spend trying to recover from data theft and fraud if a hacker gained access to your device? It isn’t worth it.

There’s another good reason to buy genuine electronic accessories from the manufacturer. They prolong the life of your device by charging it properly and completely.

As an example, the charging cables for your iPhone and iPad are not identical. The same is true of Samsung devices. I’m not saying that switching out proprietary chargers among your devices won’t work. I am saying that doing so is not optimal. And that’s within the same device manufacturer ….

Before we had to worry about juice jacking, I fell down the path of cheapie chargers. I learned quickly that I was wasting my money. If you don’t believe me, just Google “why cheap charging accessories don’t work,” to see pages of posts and warnings.

Better safe than sorry.

All Rights Reserved 2020 Beverly Michaelis

Using Google Voice in Your Law Practice

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The February issue of Multnomah Lawyer, the official publication of the Multnomah Bar Association, has an excellent article by Charley Gee about using Google Voice.

As Charley describes:

Google Voice is a service from Google that provides a user with a telephone number, voicemail, conference calling, and text messaging service. It is accessible from any computer with access to the Internet, or from a cellphone or tablet.

The best feature of Google Voice is its price: free. Using your Google account, just sign up, select the number you want from a list of available numbers, and verify and connect your cell phone to the account.

Google Voice supports call routing, text message archiving, and voicemail to e-mail transcription.  (But not emergency service calls.)  If traveling, you can access voicemails and make calls without cell service:

Google Voice users can make and receive calls and text messages, as well as fetch their voicemail, over the internet instead of a cell tower signal. I’ve accessed my voicemail and text messages from remote locations around the state just by finding a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Great tip Charley!  My only caveat is to keep security risks in mind when using Wi-Fi.

If you are evaluating Google Voice vs. Skype, read this post.  For more thoughts on the benefits of using Google Voice in your law practice, check out what Go Matters has to say.

If you’ve committed to Google Voice and want to know about using it on your Android Phone or iPad, see:

How to Use Google Voice for Your Primary Android Phone Number and Messages or App Review: Google Voice for iPad.

Final Thoughts

I blogged earlier this month about how to cope with Gmail outages.  Google Voice is tied to your Gmail account.  If Gmail goes down, Google Voice may also experience an outage.  Without a doubt, you will lose WiFi functionality, voicemail to e-mail transcription, and perhaps other features.  A cursory search did not return an answer to the question: How many times has Google Voice experienced an outage?  However, searching for “Google Voice outage” returns numerous results dating back the last few years.  Whether Google’s uptime stats are better or worse than the competition is hard to gauge.

Finally, I can’t write a post about Google Voice without expressing how much I like Ruby Receptionists, our very own home-grown virtual reception service based in Oregon.  Ruby Receptionists goes far above and beyond Google Voice, with the advantage of personalized, live reception services.  Read about this awesome service for lawyers here.  For another take, see this post.

All Rights Reserved [2014] Beverly Michaelis

Mobile Security Tips from the ABA

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Great tips at Law Technology Today on mobile security. Don’t take confidential client data outside the office without taking these precautionary steps:

Encrypt devices
Password protect all technology (phones, tablets, laptops)
Enable remote wiping capability
Limit what you carry when outside the office
Mark your property and don’t leave it unattended
Consider computer locks for laptops
Use less conspicuous carrying cases

Read the full post.

The Best of TECHSHOW – Tablet and Smartphone Apps

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This is another post from my “best of” ABA TECHSHOW series.  Today  – supercool apps for tablets and smartphones.

Build a Visual Timeline

BeeDocs  – This app turns a dull timeline into an engaging 3D/multimedia presentation.  Chart dates, times, amounts, distances, prices, quantities – just about anything – in a visually appealing format to help clients (or jurors) better understand historical events.  Publish to the Web, create presentations, or add a visual timeline to a PDF.

Settlement Apps

Picture It Settled – Helps parties evaluate cases with probabilistic scenarios.  Draws on historically successful negotiating rounds to help users plot successful negotiation moves.  Uses the Settlement Prophet™ application to project when the parties are likely to settle and the amount of the settlement.

Scanning on the Go

Genius Scan, Scanner Pro, Text Grabber – Scan, crop, straighten, organize, and share images or documents quickly and easily by e-mail or through cloud services like Dropbox and Evernote.

158_iPhone_img3World Card – Capture business cards and sort them automatically by name, company, position, address, phone number, e-mail address and other fields.  Exports to address book – no more entering information manually.

Office Suite Productivity

OfficeSuite Pro 7 (Android only) and QuickOfficePro (Android and iOS) – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF for mobile users.

CloudOn – The full power of applications like Microsoft Office®, the convenience of cloud storage and more—all in your very own workspace in the cloud. Best mobile app for redlining/tracked changes.

iPadObjectTimekeeping

iTimeKeep – Enter time from anywhere, securely access matters back at the office, apply billing codes to time entries, run spell check.  Free trial version available from the App store.

Presentation Apps

Haiku Deck and SlideShark – Solid choices for presentation apps. Haiku Deck impresses with amazing images.  SlideShark is ideal for conversion of PowerPoint slides created on your desktop.

PDF and File Management Appsgr-icon-96

PDF Expert – Simple PDF conversion and markup. Integrates with Dropbox.  Easy to use signature feature, compatible with fillable forms.  Goodreader – The “Swiss Army Knife” of PDF readers with the ability to replicate desktop file management and structures.

Notetaking on the Fly

OneNote Mobile (free for up to 500 notes), Notability (syncs with Dropbox), Penultimate (syncs with Evernote), and Noteshelf (file notes into different books, download templates and themes including planners, grid paper, stationery, and more.)

Security Apps

1PasswordPro – 1Password will securely store your important information and automatically log you in to Web sites with a single tap.  No need to remember your username, password, or even the Web site address.

Lookout – Virus protection, backup, and location of your missing device.

Thanks to

Tom Mighell, James Province, Jeffrey Taylor, Ben Schorr, Dan Pinnington, and
Mark I. Unger for all the great apps!

All Rights Reserved – Beverly Michaelis – 2013

Smartphone Email Signatures

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Does your standard e-mail signature include a disclaimer?  Perhaps the IRS Circular 230 Disclosure:

To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.

Or maybe yours seeks to protect confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege:

This message may contain sensitive and private privileged information.  If you are not the intended recipient, or if you believe you have received this message in error, please notify me immediately by reply e-mail.  Please keep the contents confidential and delete the message and any attachments from your system.

Whether such disclaimers work is a debate for another day.  For the purpose of today’s post, let’s assume they do and you want to include a disclaimer in your e-mail signature.  Easy enough – when you are working on your desktop or laptop – but long e-mail signatures are not supported by mobile devices like the iPhone.  What can users do?

One option is to post the e-mail communication policy/disclaimer on your firm’s Web site.  If your device will support a signature that contains an outside link, problem solved.  Here is an example:

This can be done on the iPhone using an app like the Signature Creator Tool that supports HTML signatures with URLs.

If that sounds like too much work, another choice would be to include appropriate disclaimers in the client’s initial fee agreement so the client understands up front that all communication by e-mail is subject to the conditions contained in the initial disclaimer.  In that case, if an attorney preferred, his or her mobile e-mail signature could look like this:

 

If you are beyond the initial fee agreement stage and don’t want to hassle with special apps that support HTML signatures with URLs, then do a mass paper mailing or mass e-mail to all clients including a copy of the firm’s disclaimer and e-mail communication policy.  Explain to clients that your policies and disclaimer apply to all messages, whether sent by tablet, smartphone, desktop, laptop, or some future means yet to be invented.  If you are particularly concerned, ask clients to acknowledge and consent to your terms.  This can be done by signing and returning the policy/disclaimer or by replying to your e-mail blast.  (If you send a group or broadcast e-mail to all clients, be sure to put addresses in the bcc: field).

Copyright 2012 Beverly Michaelis