Lower your risk of spyware infection

The vast majority of viruses in the workplace come from non-work related sites. Well established business websites are rarely the cause of a virus infection. The following are some examples of websites to avoid while on a corporate network.

• Social Networking Sites
  1. MySpace
  2. Facebook
  3. Twitter

Social networking sites are targets for people promoting the spread of malware and viruses. These types of sites are targeted because of their large user base. Once an account has been infected, it will attempt to spread to everyone in that user’s friends list by sending links or files that would tempt the user to click or open these links and files to further spread the malware.

• Webmail Sites
  1. Hotmail
  2. Yahoo Mail
  3. Gmail
  4. Live.com Mail

Webmail has long been a target and tool that virus writers use to spread their code. It provides anonymity by offering free accounts with little or no proof of identification. Webmail is not as thoroughly filtered by virus scanning software than most corporate mail servers, this leads to employees infecting their work computers because they are checking personal email that does not get scanned by your servers.

• Suspicious Emails
  1. UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS shipping manager in the subject line.
  2. Unknown senders
  3. Known senders with suspicious content or attachments.

If in doubt, do not open the email or attachment. Many people get virus infections from their friends, family and coworkers because these people have been infected and the virus is now sending out emails to everyone on their contact list. If your aunt Betty doesn’t know how to send a picture attachment then there is good reason to believe that something may be amiss. If you’ve never seen the name before, use caution, it may be spam with links to virus infected webpages.

• Non work related websites
  1. Obscure blogs
  2. Pornography
  3. Torrents, illegal downloads
  4. Entertainment: Music, Movies, Gossip, Shopping
  5. FREE offerings (IE: screensavers, wallpaper backgrounds…)

There are many sites that at best are deemed questionable. The less known a site is, the less likely it is to be secure. For example, Amazon.com vs. shopping123.com. Small, insecure sites are targets for the placement of viruses and malware, once these sites are infected, anyone visiting the site will be infected. If you stick to large, well-known, work related websites, you greatly reduce the risk of infection.

If you do happen to get a virus, the best thing to do at that point is to shut the PC down. Most viruses have been known to retrieve additional code or other viruses from the internet making the problem worse over time. Infected PC’s that have been left on and used for days have been found with dozens to several hundred infected files and different variations of viruses. Others that have been shut down quickly were  much more easy to remove, saving you time and money in the long run. 

Did you know that a normal human being blinks 20 times in a minute, whereas a computer user blinks only 7 times a minute!

Have you ever had eyestrain, blurred vision, delayed focusing, headaches, back and neck aches, dry and burning eyes, light sensitivity, distorted color vision, forehead heaviness, or sore eyes after using a computer for long periods at a time?

Quick fixes for common eye strain

1. Blurred vision; red eyes: Get a full glass of water and drink the entire glass, then blink and rub your eyes gently, blink and rub, blink and rub. (Also see recommendations below)
2. Migraine or bad headache: Massage your temples on both sides of your face. Dim or lower the environmental lighting around you if you can. If that still does not help, then chug 2 bottles of Gatorade.

Recommendation(s)
It has been suggested that after 20 minutes of computer use, you should take a 20 second eye focus break and look at objects that are 20 feet away from you.

Be sure to adjust your monitor refresh rate to the highest available setting as it is easier on your eyes.

Helpful tools such as Eye Defender http://www.eterlab.com/eyedefender/ is a freeware download from Eterlab that will automatically interrupt your work and make you take a short eye break.

3 for 1 special: Get off your butt and take a water break.

1. This will remove the computer from your vision and help relax your eyes
2. Help hydrate your eyes and overall body as we all need a large source of water in our daily diet.
3. Exercise your body by going to the water cooler or getting a refill of water.

This article is not intended to inform your employer that you need more breaks or that your computer is causing any permanent damage to your health, however this article is trying to help you be aware of your personal health and ways to prevent temporary strain on your eyes. So who is winning, your eyes or the computer screen? You be the judge as you can control this for yourself. Delay no further and take control to knock your monitor out by doing the recommendations listed above.

Good luck and we wish you all many more years of safe computer use.

Eye Strain related illnesses for further research:
Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS)
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)

On Tuesday, July 10th, 2012, Microsoft released a security advisory regarding sidebar gadgets in Windows Vista and Windows 7. All gadgets, old and new, now pose a security threat to your computer. They can be compromised to allow a hacker to have access to your PC and all of your data. Microsoft’s current solution is to disable gadgets completely. Follow this link for the “fix” and to read more about it – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2719662

Here is Microsoft’s official recommendation: “Customers who are concerned about vulnerable or malicious Gadgets should apply the automated Fix It solution as soon as possible. For more information, see the Suggested Actions section of this advisory.”

To be safe, CompuType IT Solutions recommends that you follow Microsoft’s suggestion and disable your gadgets. You can use the “Fix It” application found at the Microsoft link above, or disable the gadgets manually. Hopefully MS will provide a solution to this issue, to keep all the gadget users happy. If you are not comfortable making these changes and repairs yourself, just give us a call and we’ll be glad to assist.

CompuType would also like to remind you to keep your Windows Updates current, as well as your Anti-Virus, Java, Flash or any other application that constantly nags you to update it. Most of the updates these companies push out are to fix security vulnerabilities, so it is good practice to keep up with them. If you’d like to have CompuType help you keep up with these issues, just give us a call. We can set you up with remote support, using GoToCompu, or one of our skilled technicians can stop by and take care of your issues.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Monday is not “Internet Doomsday”. There will be no cataclysmic shutdown, no Al Gore pulling the plug with a demonic laugh, no sudden termination like the TomKat split. July 9, 2012 on the Mayan calendar does not say “Adios Internet”. What is happening is described in detail here.

Essentially, the FBI is shutting down some servers on Monday that have been allowing PCs infected with the DNSChanger virus to use the internet as if nothing is wrong. Once these servers are shutdown, PCs with the virus will not be able to access the web.

Yes, that sounds horrible, but it is easily avoided. Before Monday, July 9, please visit http://www.dns-ok.us from every PC you own to see if you have the virus. If you see green, do a happy dance because your machine is clean. If you see red, then don a hazmat suit – you need to start cleanup procedures immediately.

If your antivirus program isn’t correcting the problem, then be sure to contact professional help, or even that 29-year-old “kid” that lives in your neighbor’s basement. If you don’t get it cleaned up this weekend, you won’t be able to check fantasy baseball stats and upcoming summer sales access important work related websites.

Experts currently estimate the number of infected PCs is down to 250,000 or less, so you’ve got a .02% chance of being infected. Much better chances than winning a lottery jackpot though so be sure to get your PC checked out soon!

LinkedIn has verified that almost 6 million of their user account passwords have been compromised as of June 6, 2012.

The file containing nearly 6 million of the SHA-1 unsalted password hashes was posted on the internet, and hackers began to successfully crack the passwords almost immediately.

A class action lawsuit has been filed with the U.S. District Court inNorthern California against LinkedIn for “failing to properly safeguard its users” digitally stored personally identifiable information. Had the password file been “salted”, the decryption needed to crack the passwords would have been much more complicated and time consuming.

In response, LinkedIn has salted their password hash file and disabled all of the known affected passwords. These users have been contacted via email with instructions on changing their passwords. The notification email from LinkedIn does not include any links to their site. If you receive an email instructing you to click a link to reset your password, do not respond to it. To change your password, you should go directly to the site in question. CompuType IT Solutions recommends this for all emails that you may receive regarding password changes.

As a general precaution, CompuType recommends that you use secure passwords, using a combination of characters, numbers and upper and lower-case letters. Your passwords should be a minimum or eight characters long. You should not use the same password on multiple sites or accounts. To be safe we also recommend that you change your LinkedIn password at this time.

CompuType encourages you to share this information with anyone you know that may be affected.

Click here for source information. LinkedIn

Document Management Solution is an industry buzz term for any combination of hardware and software that makes your work more accessible. Despite forecasts to the contrary, purchases for cut sheet paper (that stuff you keep loading into your copiers and printers) continues to climb year after year. Unless you are fortunate enough that you never have to retrieve those documents, chances are you spend some time looking through file cabinets, document boxes and other assorted piles of paperwork.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a digital filing system, electronically search for keywords in any document or group of documents, and compile all your results in seconds? Internet search engines can do this for online documents, so why can’t you search your own documents in the same way? The answer is that you can, but it does take some effort to ensure you scan documents in the correct manner. Blindly searching through thousands of files with little or no search capability can be an exercise in futility, so doing your homework now will help you to navigate safely and avoid potential pitfalls. There are three key areas to implementing a successful Document Management Solution – let’s investigate each of them.

OCR – Optical Character Recognition
Whether you are scanning from a desktop scan system, a larger multifunction device, or a full-sized copier with network scan, chances are it will output files of the same type. Scanned images in PDF or TIF format are just that, an image or picture of the document. All of the text in that image can be read by human eyes, but can also be processed to allow a computer to read and index that text. An efficient OCR process can identify all machine generated text to create a fully searchable document. If your process relies on searching for handwritten information, there are other options available.

Indexing
Let’s say you would like to scan all of your purchase orders, which have handwritten PO numbers on them. Your OCR software does a great job reading 12 point Times New Roman, but does not understand your writing, omitting that vital PO number from the search. To continue inputting the existing document into your database, some human intervention is required. When scanning, the document may be indexed to reference the PO number. Depending on your solution, this may require manually keying the information at the scanner, or tagging various attributes of the document in a review process to index each image (or set of images) when they are added to the database. Either way, indexing common types of information like effective dates, customer numbers, client names or document types helps to quickly narrow your search results.

Data Structure
So you have started scanning every document that crosses your desk, which you can now search by looking for text strings, or by index keys like a Due Date or Group Name. Finding the document you need should be a no brainer, right? Perhaps not. As time passes, and you begin to amass hundreds, perhaps thousands of images, simple searches may return dozens of hits, leaving you to find your document amongst several. Finding a familiar means to organize the data will help your organization to transition from the old paper trail into the information age of scanned documents. Wherever possible, it is best to incorporate the same structure your staff has become accustomed to in electronic format. If you always had an Accounting file cabinet, with drawers containing folders for Agreements, Bank Statements, Contracts, Invoices, Ledgers, etc., then hopefully your solution would also contain these attributes to speed your search. A solution which requires the users to abandon what they know and start over with a completely new format may work in theory, but might leave a lot to be desired for those who must use the solution on a daily basis. Drawing parallels from the familiar help to ensure accurate data entry and easier retrieval for everyone.

A well thought out Document Management Solution will require a little effort at first, but once it becomes familiar, will pay dividends for those who must file the documents away or gather them from their respective hiding places. Less time spent on those tasks means more time to focus on tasks that earn revenue for your company. An added bonus “when you gain confidence in the solution you are using and maintain valid backups of the data, the space those old file cabinets occupied could make way for additional work areas, new hardware to help with day to day tasks, or new staff to handle the challenges you never had time to address in the past.

To schedule a free Document Management Solution consultation and technology assessment, please call 877-233-8500, we’ll be happy to send a technician to your business to go over your options with you.

Courtesy of Dynamism.com

The use of USB memory sticks and other removable media has become a mainstay in today’s business world. With the increased popularity, prices for these devices have fallen to the point that they are given away at many conventions, and used in devices that are plugged into our computers every day. The combination of low prices and consumer ignorance has sparked a not so new trend of infecting these devices with viruses, Trojans, and other forms of malware to wreak havoc or gain access to sensitive data. I say “not so new”, because in the past other forms of removable media such as floppy disks and CD’s where subject to the same types of attacks. In this article you will learn the risks of using removable media in the work place as well as at home. Keep in mind we will focus on USB memory sticks, but many of these tactics can be used with external hard drives, CD’s and any other form of removable media.

I assume most readers have used a USB drive to move files from one PC to another, maybe to take some work home one night? So what is the worst case scenario you ask? Well, unless you own a nuclear reactor you don’t have to worry much about the Stuxnet worm that put Iran’s nuclear ambitions on hold for a few months; but if you want to know what can happen this is a good example. Why would I bring up such an elaborate plot as an example for a small business? This is why; many of you have spent thousands of dollars on a quality firewall, anti-virus and anti-malware software, as well as spam filtering and employee education. Well, all of this can go down the tubes because of a USB thumb drive that your employee found in the parking lot lying next to their car. Sometimes what seems like an elaborate scheme is the simplest, a five dollar thumb drive from Wal-Mart, a free download off the web, toss a few of these USB memory sticks into the parking lot of a few competitors and you have lost all your client data. Why pick the lock on the front door when you can go through the open window? Not a likely scenario? Do a quick Google search and you will see how often it happens.

Don’t think your employees would put a memory stick they found in the parking lot into their work PC? Give me a call and we can test out that theory. Lucky for the bad guys they don’t even have to spend the five dollars on a memory stick. How many of you or your employees have opened an email that was infected with a virus don’t lie. I likely removed it! Yeah I’m talking to you! Lucky for you those viruses were just there to make your day miserable. If you are truly unlucky, you will get a virus that will not pop-up anything on your screen, but just wait for you to insert any type of removable media and then copy its self onto that media. Next it will wait to be inserted into another PC and copy its self to that PC. Now you are in the same situation as the previous example. You don’t have to be computer illiterate or uninformed to fall for this one.

What happens after that? Well if you are lucky you just have your run of the mill virus infection that tries to swindle you out of 50 bucks for the “full version” of the fake anti-virus program you were just infected with. Though you could still be out several hundred dollars in repairs, the more likely reason for using USB media for infection is to gain access to your data. Some malicious code is more difficult than others to transfer via email. Sky’s the limit with a USB drive, plenty of space, no spam filtering to catch onto what is happening, we can bypass that fancy firewall and get a more targeted attack rather than the spray and pray method. Don’t think your competitors would do that? I hope not, but they are not the only ones that can make use of your client data. There are plenty of people out there who would love to buy a list of people they know for a fact spend money on X business. And if you think there is a market for that, they will be climbing the walls to purchase your customers credit card information.

Are you trying to scare the crap out of us!? Of course I am! No one thinks about these things until it happens to them. Rarely does anyone call me and ask for a firewall, or to tell me their antivirus is out of date, their backups haven’t ran in months etc…etc…etc, until something bad happens. Number one method to keep this from happening to you is to be PROACTIVE. Call us for a security assessment; let us check your firewall and anti-virus program, tell us how you conduct business and what your concerns are. Most would consider a yearly security assessment inexpensive, anyone that has had to pay to clean up the aftermath of the above event would consider it necessary.

What can I do myself? I have to use my memory stick every day! Calm down, I wouldn’t deprive you of your precious files! We can thank Mindi McDowell from us-cert.gov for the following tips on protecting your computers and nuclear reactors from attack.

• Take advantage of security features – Use passwords and encryption on your USB drive to protect your data, and make sure that you have the information backed up in case your drive is lost.
• Keep personal and business USB drives separate – Do not use personal USB drives on computers owned by your organization, and do not plug USB drives containing corporate information into your personal computer.
• Use and maintain security software, and keep all software up to date – Use a firewall, anti-virus software, and anti-spyware software to make your computer less vulnerable to attacks, and make sure to keep the virus definitions up-to-date. Also, keep the software on your computer up to date by applying any necessary patches.
• Do not plug an unknown USB drive into your computer – If you find a USB drive, give it to the appropriate authorities (a location’s security personnel, your organization’s IT department, etc.). Do not plug it into your computer to view the contents or to try to identify the owner.
• Disable Autorun – The Autorun feature causes removable media such as CDs, DVDs, and USB drives to open automatically when they are inserted into a drive. By disabling Autorun, you can prevent malicious code on an infected USB drive from opening automatically. In How to disable the Autorun functionality in Windows, Microsoft has provided a wizard to disable Autorun. In the “More Information” section, look for the MicrosoftFix it icon under the heading “How to disable or enable all Autorun features in Windows 7 and other operating systems.”

Help! I am unsecure and I think someone is stealing pictures of my cat Peaches, how can we reach you? If you would like to schedule a free technology evaluation for your company, an in depth security assessment or anything in-between, just give us a call and ask for the technician who encrypts all pictures of his cat.

Its 2012 and print advertising is becoming obsolete. Look around you technology is forever changing how you used to do things. Need to order pizza? Place you order online. Looking for a new family physician? Hop online and read reviews submitted by previous patients. Need your car looked at? Pick an auto mechanic thats close to your location and provides the services you need. The more information you provide, the more prospects you may receive.

1. Legitimacy
   Its difficult for anyone to determine if youre a legitimate business. Having a website allows prospects to review your business and services at their convenience. Think of your website as a book about your business; the more information you provide, the more likely they are to inquire about your services and products.
2. Global Market Reach
   Without a website, reaching new markets will be very difficult for your business. Our world is connected and closer than its ever been before. Companies around the world are looking for other companies to partner with. Having a website is the most convenient way for them to find you.
3. Prospecting & Sales
   Your website can be your retail store thats open 24/7 365. Websites allow your business to run, even when you cant be there. According to eMarketer, More than 7 out of 10 internet users are online buyers, and the gap is slowly narrowing. Without a website, youre potentially missing out on a LOT of sales.
4. Market Share
   Business competition only gets stronger, growing by the day. Every day you wait to compete for business, your chance for a larger slice of the market share diminishes. Having a web presence allows your business to stay competitive with other companies that provide similar products and services.
5. Focused Marketing and Advertising
   Your company website is not only an inbound resource, but it can also be a powerful tool when speaking directly to your captured audience. Websites can be built as central hubs for outbound marketing such as newsletters and email blast marketing.

Do you currently have a website that is working for you? Do you wish your website could do more for your business? Contact MidAmerica Web, a division of CompuType IT Solutions, Inc., for a free web meeting and consultation at www.midamericaweb.com.