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Backup your data now, or you’re a sitting duck in a cyber attack

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Companies across the globe are reporting a major ransomware cyber-attack today. It all started at 12am in Ukraine, but now Spain, France, UK, and more spreading FAST across Europe. People can’t access their money because banks are down, other things that are down are: government PCs, airports, and cell providers.

Upon boot-up, computers are displaying a cryptic message demanding payment of $300 paid out in Bitcoin per computer to decrypt and access their files.

The attack is the latest in a series of global cyber-attacks, including the WannaCry ransomware attack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers last month.

How to Set Up a Secure, Automated Backup

Despite their best efforts, people get hacked.

Here’s how to set up an automatic, secure cloud backup—today—that can save your critical files and data in the event of a future attack.

1. Save All Files in a Secure Cloud Storage Service

Do not exclusively store files locally on your hard drive. Doing so risks their loss or destruction in hacking events (like today’s) or events like fires or other natural disasters.

Instead, ensure all your files are stored in a cloud environment such as Dropbox, Sharepoint, or Google Drive. That way, if your desktop or laptop is attacked by a hacker or destroyed in a fire, your files won’t be destroyed.

This is your first layer of security.

2. Create a Backup on a Completely Separate Service

Second, using cloudHQ’s backup service, create an automated, one-way backup of all your files.

This will create an always-up-to-date, impossible-to-modify backup of your files, including all the latest changes and revisions.

Store the backup in a **separate** cloud storage service. If you use the same cloud storage service, it’s a negligible choice. If Google Drive gets hacked, have a copy on Microsoft OneDrive (or Sharepoint), Amazon S3, Dropbox or Box.

Only you (or your IT director or other senior employees) should have access to your backup files. Once the backup is in place, there’s nothing more you have to do.

Unlike manual backups or batch processes, cloudHQ’s backup service runs automatically in the background, keeping all your files protected, all the time.

This is your second layer of protection.

Get Started Immediately

The price to set up an automated backup of your files is minimal compared to the cost of losing everything to a cyber-attack.

If you don’t have a secure backup in place, the time to get one was yesterday.

Setup a Secure Backup Now

How To Backup Your Email in Seconds

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We sometimes act like our email is a permanent resource for us to keep some of our most valuable information.

The problem?

There are SO many ways you could potentially lose access to your account.

Perhaps you work in sales, and your history and contacts are extremely important to you. But if you change companies tomorrow, you could lose everything.

Hackers are everywhere too, and they often target Google accounts, as we’ve been reminded again recently.

This is why you should consider creating a backup for your emails in case something ever happens. Once you set it up, you’ll feel a whole lot better.

Here’s what to do in 3 simple steps:

1. Download “Save and Backup My Emails”

Go the Chrome Store and download cloudHQ’s Chrome extension Save and Backup My Emails.

2. Click on “Backup all emails”

After you installed “Save and Backup My Emails”, a button should appear on the top of your inbox main home page called “Backup all emails”.

Click on it.

3. Download your Emails

cloudHQ will start saving all of your emails in PDF format to make it easy for you to search through them when you need to. This also includes any attachments or conversation threads, too- so it’s a really thorough solution.

You’ll get an email from cloudHQ when we’re done saving all of your emails to PDF (usually a few minutes to a few hours depending on how many emails you have) , where you can download them to your USB key or your computer’s hard drive, and actually have the satisfaction of knowing that your information is literally in your hands.

Having an Email Backup Keeps You in Control

I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to keep your emails in a separate location than your inbox.

Creating a backup of your emails will keep you in control if:

  1. You leave your job
  2. Your name changes (through marriage, divorce, etc.)
  3. You switch email hosting services and need a new account
  4. You upgrade to a hosted email address instead of using a free “@gmail.com” email
  5. You get hacked and need to delete your old account

All of this can be done in just 2 clicks using the Save and Backup my Emails extension and completing the instructions above.

 
Save and Backup My Emails

Do You Want a Personal Copy of Your Emails?

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When you have emails in your inbox that you need to save together as a personal copy like:

  1. Emails from the IRS
  2. Changing jobs
  3. Emails from a customer for archiving

Whatever it is, here’s how to safely save your emails with just one click.

New Tool: Save My Emails

Save My Emails is the latest addition to our growing library of free and low-cost Chrome productivity tools.

Installing it only takes a moment, and with one click, you can backup any email in your Gmail account.  All you need is a USB keychain or your computer’s hard drive to download them to.

Using Save My Emails

Here’s how to install and use the Save My Emails extension:

Step 1: Install the Extension

Install the Save My Emails Chrome extension, which is free from the Chrome web store. It only takes a moment to install.

Step 2: Select the emails you want to save

Go to your Gmail and select the emails you want to save.

Step 3: Click the “Save My Emails” button

Click the “Save My Emails” button. That’s all there is to it.

You’ll get an email when we’ve done copying them all for you in PDF, CSV or MS Excel format. Then you can download them onto your USB drive, or your computer’s hard drive. Here’s a 60-second video of Save My Emails in action:

Experts estimate that 1 in 5 businesses will be hacked at some point this year.  Among hackers, email is one of the top targets. In March, for example, a hacker was asking $450 for a file that contained credentials for over 20 million Gmail and Yahoo! accounts.

Though less common, network outages and server failures can also wipe out your email storage.

For all those reasons, it’s vital that you have important emails backed up somewhere safe. Now you can do that with just a single click.

 
Save My Emails

New: Full Basecamp 3 Backup Support

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We’re proud to announce cloudHQ as the only company to fully support 37Signals’ newest project management platform, Basecamp 3, with an automated, real-time cloud backup.

 

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Automatic Basecamp 3 Backup

Basecamp is used to organize your most important projects, and to go without backing it up is a huge deficit. With cloudHQ, you can now back it up in real-time to your cloud storage provider like: Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3 or any of our supported cloud storage systems.

If you ever leave Basecamp, you’ll have a full record of every task, every document, and every conversation.

What You’ll Need

How to Set Up Your Basecamp 3 Backup in 3 Easy Steps

Setting up a backup for Basecamp 3 is easy. Just follow these steps:

  1. Add Basecamp 3 and authorize your account
  2. Select where you want to backup your Basecamp 3 (Google Drive, Amazon S3, Box…)
  3. Process your payment and your backup will start immediately.

What You Can Expect

    • You’ll have a real-time copy of Basecamp 3 in your cloud storage, and
    • Archive folders reflecting previous copies of Basecamp 3.

This is done so that you can retrieve and restore your Basecamp 3 information very quickly.

 

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Backup Basecamp 3 Now
 

How to Manage Your Digital Receipts

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How do you store and organize the receipts you receive by email?

We often hear people say: “print to PDF.”

If that’s what you’ve been doing, we’ve got 2 better, faster, easier ways for you to try.

Both these methods will help you organize your digital receipts with a single click from your email—making both you and your accountant happy in the process.

Save to PDF with One Click

By using our free Save emails to PDF Chrome Extension, you can instantly download any receipt as a PDF.

It gives you the same result as printing your email to a PDF, except it only takes one click from your Gmail.

Just install the extension, then open an email and click the “Save to PDF button.”

 

 

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It’s as easy as that. From there, you can move the PDF copy of your receipt to any folder on your computer.

Save to Cloud Storage with One Click

Saving a PDF to your computer with one click is great.

But you can also bypass your hard drive completely using a similar process.

By using the appropriate Chrome extension, you can click a single button to save an email receipt as a PDF in the cloud storage service of your choice.

The cloud service does not need to be synced your desktop for this to work, and it can be done with any of our Chrome extensions.

There’s also a wizard you can use to automatically send emails to cloud storage when they meet certain criteria (from a certain email address, contains attachments, etc.):

 

 


 

 

Using Google Drive as an example, you would:

  1. Download and install the Save emails to Google Drive Chrome extension (see below for Chrome extensions designed for the other cloud services).
  2. Open an email and click the “Save to Drive” button.
  3. Click “Save to Drive”
  4. Click on wizard to define your automation rules.

Download the Chrome Extension for Your Cloud Storage

To download the Chrome extension for your cloud storage service, click one of these links:

The next time you try to reconcile your books, you won’t have to dig through your inbox to find your receipts.

Instead, you’ll have everything nicely organized in one place.

This will make it much easier to find your records when you do your books every month. Plus, if you’re unlucky enough to face an audit, you (and your accountant) will know exactly where to look to find all those receipts.

 

Free Gmail Tools
 

 

Automatically Save Gmail to Cloud Storage

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We’re pleased to announce a new advanced wizard for our Save Emails to Cloud Storage extensions.

The new wizard lets you automatically store PDF copies of your emails (plus any attachments) to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and other cloud storage services.

It also lets you create advanced rules for what emails to save (and which to skip). Options include:

  • From a sender
  • Subject title
  • Has attachment

Creating Rules to Automatically Save Your Emails

 

 

Here’s how to install and use our free “save to” Chrome extensions.

1. Install a Free “Save to” Chrome Extension

Visit our Chrome extensions page to see all our available extensions.

Choose the one designed to work with your preferred cloud service (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, etc.). Several popular ones are:

Each extension will let you easily save PDF copies of your email (including attachments) directly to your cloud storage account.

You can save emails with a single click from within your Gmail, or you can use the new wizard to set rules for what you’d like to save.

2. Click the “Save to” Button in Your Gmail

Once you’ve installed a “save to” extension, you’ll have a “Save to” button in your Gmail.

To save emails to cloud storage and access the new backup wizard, open a message in Gmail, then click the button:

 

 

 

 

cloudHQ_wizard_2_clickhere

 

 

When you do, you’ll be asked if you want to use the new wizard to set up rules for automatic backup of all or selected emails from your Gmail account:

 

 

 

 

Why Save Your Emails to Cloud Storage?

There are many reasons you might want to back up emails and attachments from your Gmail. For example:

  • To protect against accidental data loss
  • To protect against intentional destruction of data by disgruntled employees
  • For a convenient record of all communications with a client or an individual
  • For a legal record of communications
  • To organize business records such as receipts or invoices

Whatever your reason, the wizard will make it much easier to create and organize a complete record of your emails—stored and backed up safely in your cloud storage service of choice.

If you prefer to bypass installing any of the Chrome extensions listed in #1, here’s a direct link to save a copy of your Gmail emails:

 

Save A Copy of Your Emails Now
 

 

Backup Evernote to Google Drive And Keep It Safe

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Are you worried about having a backup of your Evernote in a safe place? We can understand that. Here’s a way to keep a copy of all your Evernote notes continuously backed up to your Google Drive.

All your notes will be converted to read/write, fully-searchable Google Docs, making them easily available and backed up.

If you stay under Google’s 15GB limit, you can do this without a premium plan. And there is no two-device limit (as there will be for Evernote’s new free plan).

The process takes about three minutes.

If you stay with the free versions of Evernote and Google Drive, there is no cost to migrate your data or use the service.

It is the easiest way to keep all your notes in another service like Google Drive while maintaining full access to all the data you have in Evernote today.

Here’s how to do it:

First, Drop to 2 Devices in Evernote

Before you do anything, if you’re keeping a free Evernote plan, you’ll need to de-authorize all but two of your devices.

In Evernote, go to your account settings page, then click “Devices” in the upper left corner.

Then revoke access for your devices until you have two left:

 

 

cloudhq_1_Evernote_revokeaccess

 

 

Next, Sync Evernote to Google Drive in Under 1 Minute

Here’s how to sync Evernote to Google Drive.

  1. Go to the cloudHQ page and sign up if you don’t already have an account. It’s free.

 

 

Evernote_Google_Drive_-_Backup_and_Consolidate_-_cloudHQ

 

 

  1. Follow the wizard to create a free cloudHQ account.

 

Synchronization_Wizard_-_cloudHQ

 

 

  1. Click on “Add Evernote”

 

  1. Authorize your Evernote account, and then click Evernote, and then “Select” on the bottom:

 

 

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  1. Click on “Add Google Drive” and authorize cloudHQ by allowing us to copy your Evernote account to your Google Drive.

 

 

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  1. Choose to save your Evernote account to new Google Drive folder or an existing one. For this example, I’ll create a new one and name it “how to backup evernote to google drive“, and then I’ll click on “Create”:

 

 

Synchronization_Wizard_-_cloudHQ

 

 

  1. Go through your synchronization options, and select “Start Sync” at the bottom.

  • *Note: If you’re not sure what to select, our algorithm automatically offers you the most popular choices when people backup Evernote to Google Drive, so don’t worry about choices if you’re unsure what to select- and you can always change them later. 🙂

 

 

Synchronization_Options_-_cloudHQ

 

 

  1. Done!

 

 

 

 

With this set up, cloudHQ will backup all your past Evernote notes, but will also automatically backup any future Evernote notes to your Google Drive account without you having to do anything else.

 

Backup Evernote to Google Drive
 

 

16 Free Chrome Extensions to Boost Your Productivity

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We’ve recently released a host of free Chrome productivity extensions for Gmail.

They are all free.

If you have Gmail or host your company’s email through Google Apps, you can use any of all of them.

Each one is designed to help you do more, faster, and better.

Here’s the complete list:

1. Gmail Label Sharing

This is our most popular Chrome extension. You can use it to:

  1. Share a bunch of emails all at once with an unlimited amount of people who have an email address.
    • How? Just create and share a Gmail label. You can put as many emails into your labels as you like. Anyone you’ve invited to share your label will have instant access to see it as a Gmail label in their Gmail too (or if they don’t use Gmail, in their email folder regardless of what email provider they use). This eliminates the need to send or forward any emails one at a time, which usually just gets confusing.
  2. Chat about specific emails in your Gmail label with anyone that you’ve shared your Gmail Label with.
    • Small caveat: Sorry non-Gmail users, to use this feature, you need to be using Gmail.

Install Gmail Label Sharing.

 

2. Slick Email Templates

Create beautiful emails using free, pre-designed templates. Great for:

  • Private announcements
  • Party invitations
  • Congratulations
  • Newsletters

Once you’ve chosen a template and personalized your message, you’ll be able to send it just like any other email you send with Gmail. New templates are added all the time.

Install Gmail Email Templates.

 

3. Gmail Shared Todo

Create a shared to-do list for you and whoever you’re writing an email to. Keep track of accountability and watch your productivity rise!

Install Gmail Shared Todo.

 

4. Edit Emails in Google Docs

Save a Gmail message to Google Docs with one click.

This is great for creating an email collaboratively with your team. Before sending off that important email, you can save it to Google Docs and collaboratively work on it with your assistant, boss, or your entire team.

When it’s really important, team feedback is a good idea.

Install Edit Emails in Google Docs.

 

5. Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts

This is kind of like a continuation of #4 above, but it works the other way around: convert a Google Doc into a Gmail draft with one click.

All the formatting from your Google Doc will automatically carry through to your Gmail draft. Just don’t forget to take advantage of Google Drawings, Google doc templates, charts, tables, and images! Really, the possibilities are quite endless.

Install Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts and keep your perfect formatting.

 

6. Save Emails to PDF

Easily save Gmail messages as PDF documents to your computer. Simply click the “Save to PDF” button. Your email will be converted to a PDF and immediately downloaded to your computer.

Install Save Emails to PDF.

 

7. Save Emails to Google Drive

Save your Gmail message (and attachments) to Google Drive with a single click. SO helpful.

Install Save Emails to Google Drive.

 

8. Save Emails to Dropbox

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Dropbox with one click.

Install Save Emails to Dropbox.

 

9. Save Emails to Slack

Save any Gmail message to Slack with one click. This gives you one complete record of a conversation around a topic, instead of having to search between Gmail and Slack to find who said what about a project.

Install Save Emails to Slack.

 

10. Save Emails to OneDrive

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to OneDrive with one click.

Install Save Emails to OneDrive.

 

11. Save Emails to OneDrive Business

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to OneDrive Business with one click.

Install Save Emails to OneDrive Business.

 

12. Save Emails to Box

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Box with one click.

Install Save Emails to Box.

 

13. Save Emails to Salesforce

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Salesforce with one click.

Install Save Emails to Salesforce.

 

14. Save Emails to SharePoint

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Sharepoint with one click.

Install Save Emails to SharePoint.

 

15. Save Emails to OneNote

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to OneNote with one click.

Install Save Emails to OneNote.

 

16. Save Emails to Egnyte

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Egnyte with one click.

Install Save Emails to Egnyte.

 

More Free Productivity Tools Coming Soon!

We’re hard at work on more free productivity tools for you and your team.

To see our full list of Chrome extensions, visit cloudHQ’s page on the Chrome Web Store.

 

See Chrome Extensions
 

Coffee Shops Hate Dropbox

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Slow WiFi is one of modern life’s great frustrations.

That’s why many coffee shops hate Dropbox, Google Drive, Skype, and Netflix.

They’re bandwidth hogs.

To provide quality WiFi, coffee shops often take steps to prevent these types of cloud applications from running on their networks, or at least slow them down drastically.

High-end routers are routinely marketed and sold for their ability to block common cloud applications and data syncing protocols.

We can’t blame coffee shops for this. Customers don’t realize what’s causing a wireless network to be slow. They just know they don’t like it—and they if they’re trying to work, they’ll usually take their business elsewhere.

Getting Around WiFi Blockers.

Hint, hint: We’ve Got a Free Chrome Extension for That.

 

We recently launched a new Chrome Extension: Save emails to Dropbox.

The new extension gives you the ability to save any email to a Dropbox archive with the click of a button. It even includes any attachments that might be in the email.

 

 

 

This is the easiest way to save messages from your email directly into a Dropbox folder.

It works anywhere Gmail does, even in coffee shops that block Dropbox and other bandwidth-hogging apps.

One click will create a PDF copy of the email and save it in a dedicated Dropbox folder called “Gmail emails.”

 

 

 

If you want to share that folder with others, simply use Dropbox’s sharing functionality. Or set up a continuous sync between the Dropbox folder and any other cloud storage service like Google Drive or OneDrive through cloudHQ.

This is perfect for anyone who wants to create a permanent record of their emails.

If you work from coffee shops or anywhere public, this is by far the easiest way to store and share messages using Dropbox.

And if you use Dropbox on a device with no hard drive, the new Chrome plugin is your only choice to archive Gmail messages to Dropbox.

 

3 Steps and You’re Done.

Here’s a step-by-step guide once you install the “Save emails to Dropbox” Chrome extension.

  1. You’ll notice a “Save to Dropbox” button on top of your Gmail emails. Click it.
  2. Your email will be converted to a PDF and stored in a Dropbox folder called “Gmail emails.”
  3. To share the file, simply use Dropbox to create a share link as you normally would.

DONE!

Not to Brag, but…

Okay, we’re bragging. But if you didn’t use our free Chrome extension,  you’d have DOUBLE the amount of steps:

  1. Open a Dropbox folder on your desktop.
  2. Download the email from Gmail, or save the Gmail as a PDF.
  3. Save the file to the Dropbox folder.
  4. Wait for Dropbox to upload the message.
  5. Use Dropbox to get a share link.
  6. Send the shared link to other people, who’d then have to download copies of the file into their own Dropbox accounts.

As we hope you can see, the extension makes this process much quicker and easier.

Save Time and Money.

(It’s Free.)

Using Save emails to Dropbox is the easiest way to save and share an email using Dropbox.

It’s especially great for anyone who regularly works from coffee shops or other public places.

The fancy new routers may block some of Dropbox’s normal file transfer protocols.

But no matter how much your local coffee shop hates Dropbox, we doubt they’ll ever block your Gmail.

 

Get Started
 

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cloudHQ
Specializing in email organization and team workflows, cloudHQ is an easy cloud app synchronization service used for backup, app integrations, and implementation of team workflows. To date, we sync over 5 million files a day, and service clients like HP, Gartner, and Uber.
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Gmail Label Share & Chat
A free tool designed to help incoming emails get answered by teams. It is the only effective way to write comments about emails before any team member replies to the email sender. This is an excellent tool for sales, customer service, or project management.
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