The Kuala Lumpur Bar Blog

Strong passwords are an important protection to help you protect your data. Keys to password strength: length and complexity An ideal password is long and has letters, punctuation, symbols, and numbers. • Whenever possible, use at least 8 characters or more. • The greater the variety of characters in your password, the better. • Use the entire keyboard, not just the letters and characters you use or see most often. Create a strong password you can remember  There are many ways to create a long, complex password. Here is one way that may make remembering it easier: Start with a sentence or two (about 10 words total). Think of something meaningful to you. For example take he following sentence: "Long and complex passwords are safest. I keep mine secret." (10 words) Turn this sentences into a row of letters. Use the first letter of each word. = lacpasikms (10 characters) Add complexity. Make only the letters in the first half of the alphabet uppercase. ...

The iPad is the single best gadget you could purchase to improve your productivity and effectiveness as a lawyer. This is from a litigation point of view. This aim of this article is to give you a summary of what can be done as well as to provide some guideposts should you take the plunge and join the digital revolution. First question: Which iPad should I get? Get the latest one with the Retina display. Your eyes will love you for it. The price difference between it and the iPad2 is negligible. Next, the case / cover: You should get a good case that can double as a stand. I use the Targus Versavu which allows the iPad to stand in both landscape and portrait mode. This versatility is useful. A stylus, that also contains a pen, should be added also because you’ll still need to write on hardcopy documents, and the stylus is absolutely necessary when you’re highlighting or underlining texts – this is especially true if you have large fingers. An importan...

(iOS devices like iPad and iPhone) Step 1 – Create An iCloud Account First of all, you need an iCloud Account. If you do not have one (or if you are not sure whether you have one) you can check your smart devices by going to SETTING > iCloud. Then go to “Account”, your account details will appear if you have an account. If you do not have an account, you can create one there. An account under your firm’s name is preferable. Step 2 – Create & Share A Calendar To share your calendar, sign in to your iCloud account at https://www.icloud.com/ through your desktop. Go to calendar and click the ‘Share’ button to the right of the ‘Work’ calendar. Choose ‘Public Calendar’ and to add your colleagues to view the calendar, click Email Link. Type your colleagues email address in the ‘To’ column, then click Send. Your colleague will automatically receive an invitation email that includes the calendar’s URL. Your colleague doesn’t need to be an iCloud user to accept an invit...

Keeping information safe online and in the cloud Wired writer Mat Honan was subject to an epic hacking attack that took over his Google account, compromised his Twitter account and led to his AppleID account being accessed and used to remotely wipe both his iPhone and his iPad. On August 5, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak expressed his own wariness of the cloud. In light of this, Relaxnews asked security expert Christopher Boyd, senior threat researcher at GFI Software, for tips on keeping information safe online and in the cloud. The effects of a hack of the nature Mat Honan suffered can have far-reaching consequences. “The biggest impact here is the loss of invaluable personal data,” says Christopher Boyd. “Money can often be recovered, fraudulent purchases can be addressed but the loss of photographs and work related material can be devastating.” How to ensure you don’t lose data To safeguard against the loss of invaluable data, Boyd recommends individuals back up their...

Keep Calm and Keep E-grouping! If there is one common e-group most lawyers are a part of, it would be the Lawyerstalk. If you are involved in a sub-committee of a State Bar/Bar Council, chances are you are part of an e-group. Such  e-groups ensure that everyone is kept in the know of any updates/progress of matters of common interest, etc.  Yet, as anyone who is part of an e-group knows, any e-group can easily clog up your inbox with emails very quickly and thus it is more of a disabler than an enabler. Do not fear, these three tips will help you: 1. Managing your E-Groups Here are three simple steps to manage the barrage of incoming emails in any e-group that you may have joined: i) Visit groups.google.com (assuming it's a google group and you have a google account). ii) Click "My groups" and select "Edit Memberships". iii) Select the box "all email" and switch it to "Abridged Email" (a summary of daily emails), "Diges...

Well, this article is not only about the iPad but about other tablets in the market in general. Other tablets such as Samsung Galaxy Tab or Blackberry Playbook are instructive examples, too, but that is not my focus here. For me, my iPad is probably one of the most useful tools in my practice. It helps me with the following:- Research An internet enabled Tablet is very useful for quick research. Imagine you’re in Court and you suddenly remember a case which would help your case. You can easily access legal publishing websites such as CLJ, LexisNexis and even British and Irish Legal Information Institute (Baili). On a different note, LexisNexis now has its own iPhone App . I understand that an iPad App for that will be out soon. You can also store your basic cases and statutes in your iPad. Since my practice is only limited to intellectual property matters, I keep a folder of relevant statutes such as the Trade Marks Act 1976, Patents Act 1983, Copyright Act 1987, Industrial ...

Backing up is easy to do If there are three things you can be sure of in life, they are Death, Taxes and Computer Failures. Sure, a lawyer and an accountant would help in the former two but you do not need to be an IT 'pro' to address computer failures. It could be as simple as using a USB flash drive or an external hard-drive to backup all your work documents securely on a daily or at the very least weekly basis. Then, it's a simple case of reformatting or buying a new computer and putting all the files back in. Another method is to save it on a cloud based provider (saved on a far, far away server online but can be accessed wherever and on any device as long as you have your username and password) like Dropbox , Box or Google Drive. One concern here would be the very advantage of this method is its downfall; what happens if your mobile device/tablet goes missing which would give access to those very files. Some action would need to be taken to 'detach' su...

Dropbox  Stop emailing documents to yourself, share large files and collaborate on work on the go! With Malaysia’s high internet penetration and improving bandwidth speeds, every citizen should be able to work away from home with the right tools at their fingertips. For better or worse, being stuck in a meeting, being out-station or waiting in court is now no excuse for not being able to handle any incoming matters. This article will serve up a taster of three loose categories of “freemium”* applications which enables you to access your files from any computer, share them with other devices/computers and collaborate easily with colleagues at little or no cost. Now, anybody can work away from the office. 1. Auto-Sync Folders First-off, there’s Dropbox. Imagine a folder which can be accessed by any device you have, be it your work to home computer (PC or Mac) or even your tablets/smartphones. You can even assign folders to be shared among your family or, in t...