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Google Pop or IMAP Options

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Google POP or IMAP Options – How to Recover Your Gmail Messages

In this edition of How to, we will discuss how to import Gmail messages into a local email application. While Gmail allows you to import other email services into your Gmail inbox, it is not as simple to work in the opposite direction. However, with the adjustment of a few settings, you can push your Gmail messages to a third-party email service.

Businesses using G Suite automatically have access to Gmail for their users. However, many companies still use email software loaded locally on each employee’s computer hard drive. Because of this, Google has POP or IMAP options to load Gmail messages into these software titles.Google Pop or IMAP Options

POP Settings

For Gmail to work correctly with a third-party email software such as Thunderbird or Outlook, each user must first turn on either the POP or IMAP features in their Gmail settings. To do this, start by logging into your Gmail account and selecting the settings icon in the top right-hand portion of your inbox.

  • Choose settings from the drop-down list.
  • On the configuration screen, select the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.

If you plan on only using one third-party external email, you may wish to use the POP settings. However, if you want to use multiple computers with external email programs, the IMAP settings are what you need to focus.

To configure Gmail for POP service, you will need to set the POP download section of the screen.

  • If this status for pop shows as disabled, select Enable POP for all mail (even mail that has already been downloaded) or enable POP for all mail that arrives from now on.
  • Under When Messages Are Accessed with POP, choose an option from the drop-down box. You can decide to keep Gmail’s copy, Mark Gmail’s copy as read, archive Gmail’s copy, or delete Gmail’s copy. Choose the option that works best for you.
  • At the bottom of the screen, click save changes.

In your local email service, you may need to configure the Gmail account. Start by adding a new account and entering your username and password. If you receive an error message, go into the advanced settings to ensure that you correctly set the incoming and outgoing servers. You may also need to adjust the port numbers to match Gmail’s configuration.

  • Incoming server: pop.gmail.com
  • Require SSL: yes
  • Port: 995.

Outgoing settings by default are:

  • Outgoing server: gmail.com
  • Require SSL: Yes
  • Require TLS: Yes,
  • Require Authentication: Yes
  • SSL port: 465
  • TLS port: 587

Check with G Suite administrator to verify outgoing port and server settings are correct.

IMAP Settings

To configure Gmail for IMAP service, scroll down to the IMAP settings found beneath the POP settings.

  • If this status for IMAP is disabled, choose the enable IMAP option.
  • For the setting when I mark a message in IMAP as deleted, decide between auto-expunge on which immediately updates the server or auto-expunge off which allows the user to update through the web browser.
  • Under the when a message is marked as deleted and expunged from the last visible IMAP folder option, choose between archive the message (which is the default and the only alternative for auto-expunge on), move the message to the trash folder, or immediately delete message forever.
  • Finally, choose the folder size limits to meet your needs. You can decide not to restrict the number of messages in an IMAP folder, or you can set it to 1000, 2000, 5000, or 10,000.
  • At the bottom of the screen, click save changes.

As with the POP service, to add your Gmail account to your local email software, choose to add account and follow the prompts on the screen. If you receive a message indicating that you need to configure your account settings, use the following information:

  • incoming server:Gmail.com.
  • Require SSL: Yes.
  • Port number: 993.

For outgoing settings,

  • Outgoing server: gmail.com
  • Require SSL: Yes
  • Require TLS: Yes,
  • Require Authentication: Yes
  • SSL port: 465
  • TLS port: 587

Recovery

Recovery of Gmail messages may be involved. Deleted emails go to the trash folder. Restoration from the trash is easy. However, once you empty the trash bin, recovery of email is harder. Administrators may be able to restore the file. However, if it has been longer than 30 days, or the employee’s account is purged, recovery is impossible.

The use of an additional online backup does prevent email loss due to accidental deletion or employee account removal. Unlike some competitors, CloudAlly makes it very easy to restore Gmail messages to third-party email platforms. When restoring missing messages from user accounts, administrators can choose to download the files in Outlook compatible format. The user quickly integrates the downloaded data into their desktop application.

Google Apps Backup and Restore

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Backup services for G Suite: A quick guide for application managers

Guide – Google Apps Backup and Restore

If you’re responsible for management of your company’s G Suite application, (previously/otherwise known as Google Apps for Business), you’ll appreciate its ease of use, reliability and mobile friendly features. Yet even though G Suite is a comprehensive, intuitive set of productivity apps, there may be times where a file is deleted or moved off to a device and lost due to accidental or malicious activity. CloudAlly’s Google Apps backup and restore service is your best defense against data loss, whether you have a large G Suite deployment or even a single user.

Beware the security threat from within!

According to many sources including CSO Online, the biggest threat to company data isn’t from external hackers – it is from internal employees. Strong data ownership policies are vital, and mitigating your risk with an automated file backup and recovery service is equally as important.

If you are G Suite Enterprise, Business or Education client, you may say, “Hold on, I subscribed to Google Vault, it’s a backup service, right?”. As we explained in recent blog post, Vault is an archive system for G Suite that enables legal holds, archiving and audit compliance, and there are limitations you should consider.

CloudAlly’s backup service complements Google Vault, and mitigates data loss by providing point-in-time recovery for an entire mailbox, folders, or individual items, unlike Vault’s item level functionality. You can discover more about strengths and weaknesses of Google Vault (and the opportunities of running both services) by clicking the link above. Our AWS storage sites in the US, Australia and the EU ensure business and personal users around the world can quickly backup and recover their G Suite data with minimal business interruption.

Have concerns about security or compliance?

Data in our AWS storage infrastructure is protected with AES-256-bit encryption, which meets compliance requirements like ISO 27001 and HIPAA. Our website and application have been reviewed and authorized by GoDaddy, Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS). CloudAlly participates in the Cloud Security Alliance. Data in motion is secured using SSL (HTTPS) encrypted servers.

For businesses that aren’t prepared to make the financial and time investment required to set up Google Vault, or don’t foresee needing to set up retention schedules on electronic files, or needing to submit user activity reports to an auditor, CloudAlly is a powerful stand-alone backup service for file and content preservation.

Backups for more than file storage and sharing

Working with a Google service like G Suite, it’s easy to be complacent with the idea that you can simply set up a set of folders and permissions in Drive, and the files will be stored there as long as your employees need access to them.

As users become accustomed to how Docs, Slides and Sheets automatically save their files – they may also take it for granted that files can be easily moved between folders, and it’s easy to get to them from their computer or mobile device. Until they are deleted on a laptop by accident, and the desktop sync app runs, and files are put into the Trash bin and stored there for a limited time (typically 30 days).

Backup services are important for other G Suite Apps as well. Think about when your employees change their Android phone, or if they delete someone from their Contacts by accident then need it again. Gmail and Calendar backup services can be extremely helpful should an employee leave the business, and you need to access their messages for the new hire that takes their place. Other Google Apps backup and restore functions we provide include Tasks, Chats and Classic Sites.

Easy activation, setup and configuration

It only takes a few minutes to setup a CloudAlly account and activate backups for your entire organization. No technical programming expertise required.

Step 1 – Click on the “Sign Up” link to start your Free Trial for 15 days. Confirm your trial account by clicking the URL we send you via email.

Step 2 –Sign into your CloudAlly account and click on activate a new backup. In a separate tab, sign into your G Suite account with administrative privileges and then from the CloudAlly backup screen click on “Integrate with Google”

Step 3 – The system will auto-discover all of your G Suite users and you can either activate all or selective backups as needed. You can also specify your backup time in the preferences section.

When you are logged into G Suite, you can always get to your CloudAlly dashboard quickly by clicking the “9-dot” apps icon at the top right hand corner of your screen. The left-hand administrative menu offers controls and settings for:

  • Backup scheduling management (Daily, every three days or weekly)
  • Data restore and download
  • Two-factor authentication for heightened security
  • OAuth Authentication (using social media credentials for convenience and security)
  • User management
  • Convenient in-app support documentation and ticketing
  • Guides and tutorials

No Fine Print “Gotchyas”

With some backup services, the basic subscription cost is low, but you are limited to a small amount of storage space before prices increase drastically.  Others charge higher fees for performance Service Level Agreements. CloudAlly doesn’t have pricing tiers based on consumption or bandwidth, our affordable Google Apps backup service plan is priced at $30 US per user per year, with volume discounts available for more than 100 users.

Our partnership with Amazon enables us to offer a 99.9% uptime SLA, and offers you peace of mind that your backup data will be available when needed, so you can retrieve all your files from a specific backup execution, or even a single file at a time.

Cloud-to-cloud backup from CloudAlly is an affordable way to safeguard G Suite data and content. It’s easy to set up, your data can be restored to your accounts with ease, and your data is stored on AWS S3 Secure storage. Once you set up and schedule your backups, we monitor and protect your critical data so you don’t have to purchase or manage onsite storage drives or appliances.

According to the 2017 Ponemon Cost of Data Breach study, each corporate record which is lost or stolen costs businesses $141. Though this is down from $158 in 2016, how many records do you store in G Suite? Consider the cost and business interruption which could result from user error or malicious data theft, compared to the cost of Google Apps backup and recovery from CloudAlly, which is negligible and a sound insurance policy to assist you in your day of need.

As a G Suite for Business administrator, you are often called upon to solve problems like accidentally deleted files, e-mail and contacts. In other cases, a website refresh may go in the wrong direction, and a r restore to a previous iteration is often the best pivot. Don’t let complex data backups and recovery processes cause business interruption. CloudAlly is the affordable way to make scheduled and on-demand backups easy, and data recovery painless.

Ready to sign up and safeguard your data? Get started now with a FREE TRIAL

HIPAA IT compliance – G Suite

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HIPAA IT Compliance – G Suite

HIPAA IT Compliance - G SuiteFor many companies, moving to the cloud is supposed to solve many of the headaches they have with compliance and regulatory agencies. Cloud hosting offers redundancy and protection, an area where some businesses lack. However, when it comes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, best known as HIPAA, many cloud services are lacking, and are not ready for HIPAA IT compliance. Google G Suite however, has worked extremely hard to be one of the few that is not one of those providers.

Making G Suite HIPAA compliant is easy.

Google published a guide to making their G Suite service HIPAA compliant. The lengthy explanation includes share settings for Drive and calendars. They also recommend users have strong passwords with a combination of upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and special symbols. Google suggests in addition to strong passwords; all users turn on two-step sign in authentication.

To make securing G Suite accounts less confusing, here are five primary ways to ensure G Suite is HIPAA compliant.

Sign an Agreement with Google

Google strives to make their service as secure as possible. However, they cannot guarantee HIPAA compliance if there is no agreement in place dictating the account need these protections.

Google’s Business Associate Agreement only covers some of the apps G Suite employs. Apps permitted by the Personal Health Information (PHI) agreements include:

  • Gmail
  • Calendar
  • Google Hangouts (chat messaging feature only)
  • Hangouts Meet
  • Drive (including Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms)
  • Keep
  • Google Cloud Search
  • Sites
  • Vault

At this time, all business associate agreements concerning PHI’s do not cover Google Groups, Contacts, or Google+.

Monitor Access

HIPAA compliance is not something you can turn on and forget about it. The administrator console contains reports and logs allowing you to tell at a glance where potential security risks may be. Reports show you how frequently employees access and share data. These reports also measure user collaboration on a given file, who signs in, and even analyze administrative activity.

To help lower the risk of lost information due to unauthorized activity, Google allows for alert notifications. Whenever Google detects activity such as a suspended user, new user, or suspicious login, administrators can view the attempt. You can also set notifications for making a suspended user active and adding a new user.

Installing third-party software designed to scan for shared files with sensitive information is another way to ensure all data remains secure.

Set Restricted Settings

With a signed business associate agreement, Google helps you protect HIPAA confidential information in their core applications. You can do more by setting restrictive settings when creating user accounts. In Google Drive, turn off automatic link sharing by choosing the option Specific People, which only allows invited individuals to view the document. You can then give control of link exchange to the Drive user or can retain this control with administrators only.

Gmail allows individuals to restrict shared Drive files further. The sender can choose to limit the recipient’s ability to view only rather than edit or comment on the document. Senders can also restrict access to those with Gmail accounts.

Consider Separating Users within the Domain

Many companies using G Suite segregate their employees who work with HIPAA sensitive documents from those who do not. Creating different groups allows administrators to manage which groups have access to specific Google services.

Smaller companies may be able to get away with creating two groups, one which handles HIPAA sensitive documents and one that does not. Administration can limit those with sensitive documents, blocking them from services such as Google+ and YouTube. The other group has permissions for all G Suite services.

Companies can choose to create as many groups as they want, segregating their employees’ accounts further if they choose. While an entire HR department may have access to HIPAA sensitive files, only a small few works with those documents. You may have the HR department as one group. You can create another group with just those employees handling sensitive information. You can choose to do the same with each department.

Backup Sensitive Information

Data loss is no laughing matter. When it comes to confidential information, it is even more important. You should have an HIPAA compliant backup service assisting in the protection of all your PHI files.

CloudAlly is an HIPAA compliant backup service. After becoming ISO 27001 certified, it allowed us to begin offering backup for patient sensitive documents and information. We comply with all federal guidelines concerning how to handle this information including every aspect of data handling when backing up, accessing authorization, and encryption. Companies that require a business associate agreement, we can provide one upon request.

At CloudAlly, we backup all your files automatically, giving you peace of mind that important HIPAA controlled documents are never lost or corrupted.

Try it free for 15 days, no credit card required for signup.

 

 

The Best Cloud Storage and File-Sharing Services 2017 – Comparison

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The Best Cloud Storage and File Sharing Services: Google Drive vs Dropbox vs OneDrive

Cloud storage is almost a necessary part of digital life. It allows you to access files from anywhere if you can access your cloud account. No more having to remember to put important files on a flash drive to transport them. There are several different cloud storage companies to choose from. What are the Best Cloud Storage and File Sharing Services? Here in this guide we compare Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive.

Dropbox

When it comes to cloud storage, Dropbox is one of the most popular. For good reason, it was one of the first on the market. While Dropbox doesn’t offer the most space for their free accounts, they do offer a generous paid plan options for affordable monthly or yearly fees.

Security is on the top of everyone’s concern list. All of Dropbox’s plans have 256-bit AES and SSL/TLS encryption. Also, all plans allow for two-factor authentication. The service does offer HIPPA compliance. However, it is not available on free, pro, or standard services.

Dropbox allows you to share files stored on their service with others. To give you more security, you can set permissions such as view only or editing capabilities. You can also choose to password protect files shared and have the sharing links expire after a set time.

For standard and higher plans, you can set granular permissions for other users who may have access to the account. These plans are more for geared for business users instead of the personal user, however.

All Dropbox accounts are equipped with MS Office 365 integration and Dropbox Paper. Shared files can be commented on if permissions are set by the administrator.

Pros:

  • Easy Sharing
  • 256-bit AES Security
  • Expiring Shared Links
  • Two-Factor Authentication
  • Anytime access
  • Generous storage size, paid plans start at 1TB

Cons:

  • Free service is only 2GB
  • Pro plan only has 30-day version history and file recovery
  • Pro and Free plan only have email support
  • HIPPA support is only available for Advanced and Enterprise users

Paid Dropbox plans to start at $9.99 billed monthly or $99.99 billed annually with 1 TB storage. Larger storage sizes are available. While their Advanced and Enterprise service are geared for businesses, they do have a dedicated Dropbox for Business service for corporations.

Box

Box is a huge competitor for Dropbox. Like Dropbox, Box offers anywhere-anytime access to files stored within your cloud account. Box, however, prizes themselves in having tight security for all their accounts no matter which level you choose.

Box understands not all their clients are located in the United States and need differing security options. That is why the company has Processor Global Binding Corporate Rules and Controller Global Binding Corporate Rules in place for their European clientele. For Asia-Pacific users, the company has Assai-Pacific Economic Cooperation Cross-Border Privacy Rules systems and adhere to ISO 27018. Box also adheres to ISO 27001, SOC1, PCI DDS, FedRAMP, and HIPPA regulations. Customers outside the US can enjoy in-region storage in either Europe, Asia, Canada, or Australia. As with Dropbox, those interested in additional security can set up two-factor authentication.

Because the cloud is more than just for storage, Box makes it easy for account owners to share files with others. Files sharing via links or straight from your Box account allows you to get important documents where they need to go, even if they would normally be too big to send via email. With file-sharing, all users can see what changes are made and have access to the latest versions.

For those concerned about downloading large files, most file types are easily opened with Box. Supported types include Word, Excel, AI, ESP, PSD, and PDF. The service also supports photo files and more. With over 120 supported file types, you should not have to download a file or have the program on your system just to view it.

Pros:

  • Generous free service at 10GB
  • Paid services start at $10 for 100GB
  • SSL and at-rest Encryption
  • File versioning
  • Paid plan offers a 5GB file upload limit

Cons:

  • 250 MB file upload limit on free plans
  • Personal plans limited to either 10 or 100 GB

Box makes it easy to keep all your files secure and accessible from anywhere. As with their competitors, they do offer business plans for corporate users. These plans carry the same security but do require a minimum number of users to enroll.

OneDrive

OneDrive is Microsoft’s answer to online storage. As with Box and Dropbox, they offer online, PC, Mac, and mobile access to files from anywhere at any time. Because it’s Microsoft, it works seamlessly with all Office products.

Microsoft cares about security just like Dropbox and Box. While their security is not as sophisticated as Box, it is just as secure as Dropbox. They use 256-bit AES security to control their accounts. The service also provides two-factor authentication for online access.

Users can share files and folders with others. You set limitations on how the files are secured. You can restrict them to read-only or editable with the ability to download to another device. Files edited by other users will show what changes were made by whom.

Files created in OneNote can be backed up directly to OneDrive. Also, other files created by any Windows Store app can also be stored directly to the cloud storage service. From your OneDrive you can post photos to Facebook.

Pros:

  • 256-bit AES Security
  • 5GB Free
  • Additional Free storage available with Automatic Camera Roll Backup
  • Seamless Integration with Office Documents
  • Create Surveys with Excel

Cons:

  • Paid limited to 50GB unless you have Office 365
  • Scanning to upload to OneDrive and Excess sharing requires Office 365

Microsoft OneDrive might not be quite as good as Box. However, for loyal Microsoft users, it is the obvious choice as it easily allows all your services to integrate into one storage location. If you have an Office 365 account, you get additional storage along. Personal users get 1TB storage while Home users have access to up to 5TB. If you want to purchase a 50GB storage service instead of Office 365, it is affordable at only $1.99 per month.

All three have their strengths and weaknesses. No matter which one you choose, it is important to consider having a backup for your cloud service. While all service providers offer redundancy to ensure their servers never lose anything, it doesn’t stop you from accidentally deleting files. CloudAlly offers affordable backup options for all your cloud storage needs.

The Best Cloud Storage and File Sharing Services:

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