-Tim

The giveaway that this is just not right is the next list of products that can ‘fix’ this non-existent infection. Surprisingly, only some unknown software can ‘fix’ your computer. Do not fall for this.

If you are infected run a legitimate anti-malware program such as the free Malwarebytes.

-Tim

Licenses

Did your company grow or shrink last year? How many computers are being used? Do any employees work from a home office? Did your organization stop using a specific product? These are some general questions you should ask to determine the status of your software and support licenses. Make sure you only pay for what you are using (and ensure you’re compliant as well).

Desktops / Laptops

In this economy, many businesses are holding off on computer upgrades (‘if it ain’t broke, don’t replace it’). However, the cost of owning a PC rises dramatically after three years. Look at your inventory and count how many computers you have over four years old. Multiple that by $600 for a ballpark estimate on the  cost to replace them for your budget. Identify your most productive employees and pick them for an upgrade first. Productivity increases (and happy employees) make for a more profitable business.

Support

What is your IT budget? How much of that goes towards payroll? Depending on your situation you may be able to lower your costs for support by up to 40% by outsourcing. Wireguided would be more than happy to provide you with a evaluation of your current situation.

Servers

When is the last time you examined the back end of your infrastructure? Your servers keep everything running so it is always good to budget for upgrades (software and/or hardware). Ask your IT staff if there will be a need for more memory or disk space. Are any of your service warranty’s expiring? Are there new versions of software that can make your business run smoother? If your servers are more than five years old, it may also be time to think about upgrading them.

Networking

Is accessing your files or the internet slow? Is your wireless network upgraded for the new wireless standard (802.11n)? Speak with your IT department to see what upgrades are needed. Also, review your contracts with your Internet provider to make sure their are not any better deals out there.

Security

Was 2010 full of spam and virus/spyware outbreaks? If so, you may want to budget for some more effective software. When was the last time you had a security audit? Is your business compliant with 201 CMR 17 (MA only)? Budgeting for audits and compliance may save you downtime and legal headaches down the road.

Phone Systems

If your phone system is showing its age a new one might be worth considering. Recent technology will make this cost much less than just a few years ago. Hosted or local VoIP systems are now the preferred way to do this. There are many vendors out there so first evaluate your requirements and your existing IT infrastructure. Then get quotes from multiple sources.

Mobility / Remote Access

Can your employees work from home or receive email on their phone? Mobility can not only improve productivity it can also lower your long terms costs (no need to get more office space if your employees can work remotely). Now is the time to speak with your employees and your management team to see if your current solution (if any) is cutting it and to then budget for what is needed. Do not forget the cost of smart phones and their associated data plans.

Green IT

Save the planet and your bottom line. Green IT can be the answer. By implementing some upgrades in 2011, your 2012 will look much better. Some examples of items to budget for are server virtualization (less physical space needed, less electrical usage), desktop power management software, environmental monitoring, and more efficient designs for data centers.
Misc

Some other items to consider for your budget are upgrades to Windows 7, migrating to hosted services (offsite backups, email, etc.), desktop upgrades (memory and software), and an emergency fund for when bad things happen.
Every business is different and the above list is not all encompassing. If your organization needs a little guidance on preparing their IT budgets for next year, please contact Wireguided.

-Tim

Instead of trying to fix it we are tossing it out the window and installing a brand new, cutting edge, voice response system. The following are the biggest changes coming in about 4 weeks:

• Single number for everything – Our existing office number, (781) 679-0660, will not be changing. Instead, we will be eliminating all other numbers.
• Better connectivity -  Dialing an engineer’s extension will now be forwarded to where they can best be reached (mobile, home, etc.). In addition, voice mail messages will now be within the system (instead of on the mobile phone) . This allows other support members access to messages if the person is out of the office.
• Enhanced emergency response – When dialing the emergency response extension all support engineers’ phones are rung. In the instance where nobody is available to pick up the call, voice mail messages are now sent as email to all technical support staff. Engineers receive a text message as well.
• Streamlined menu options – We have flattened out our menu to be just one level. No more pressing 1, then 2, then 3.
• Dial by name directory – Simple (and now working) dial by name option.
• Improved audio – You will now be much better able to hear the menu options.

We will be sending out more notifications as we get closer to the cut over date. We hope these changes will improve our response times and make it easier for our clients to reach us.

UPDATE (11/29/2010): Cutover is scheduled for Dec 7th.

Threat #1: Worms and Spyware

Games on social networking sites, such as Farmville, are  great way to have a little fun. What most people do not realize is that anyone can create an application and send it to their ‘Friends’. This application may say it is a game, travel application, or anything else. However, if the program is a trojan horse then you could be in trouble. This will be the future of attacks and there are already examples of this in the wild. Be very careful what you open. On a business network, it is not only  your computer that might be affected.

Threat #2: Redirection to Malicious sites

You see a link on your friends Facebook page and click on it. You might just have been attacked. Hackers are targeting accounts and then submitting safe looking links to status pages. The links may go to a site that downloads spyware or that redirects you to fake versions of common web pages such as banks, ebay, or social sites. Once you enter your login information on these fake sites, your data it sent to the hackers.

Threat #3: Social Engineering

LinkedIn is a site to keep in touch with your business associates. Hackers are now using this trust to set up fake employees and asking you to be their friend. Once you friend someone who you think you worked with they use information from your profile to gain access to your systems. For example, by knowing your name, business phone #, job title, etc. they call up your IT provider and say you forgot your password.What makes this even more damaging, is that they may know from your status updates if you are traveling, on vacation, or working on a specific project to craft a more effective attack.

-Tim

A recent survey showed that over 80% of business PCs are still running XP. That means your employees are use to the ‘look and feel’ of XP. It also means all your applications work on Windows XP. Windows 7 is a new in both look and operation. This means that you will need to prepare your employees (training) and make sure all your software will still work with the new operating system.

Issue 1: Licensing

Up until Oct 22nd, 2010, companies can buy computers with XP preinstalled, but with a Windows 7 license. This is called the ‘downgrade option’. Any new computer purchased after June 26th, 2009 with Windows XP, should have an available Windows 7 license. Before purchasing any Windows 7 upgrades, inventory your systems and find out how many Windows 7 licenses you may already have. You can then contact your hardware vendor for Windows 7 upgrade information if you already do not have it.

Issue 2: Software Compatibility

Applications that work in Windows XP should mostly work in Windows 7 (if it runs in Vista, it is almost guaranteed to work). However, older software or industry specific applications may have problems. Contact your software vendor and find the compatibility status of your current applications to make sure they will work in Windows 7. Upgraded versions may be needed so prepare your budget for new software expenses. If your business critical software will not work in Windows 7 you may still be able to run it if you have Windows 7 Pro. Windows 7 Pro has something called XP mode. It is a virtual machine which runs a full XP operating system on top of Windows 7 (XP desktop and all). You will need to test this however and your mileage may vary.

Issue 3: Training

Windows 7 has many performance and usage improvements. However, there will be a learning curve that your employees will need to be prepared for. Depending on the size of your business you should either set aside training classes, prepare some documentation on the new features and usage, find some training videos (Hint: Click here), or a combination of the above.

Issue 4: Rollout

After doing the above steps, you will need to determine how to roll it out. The options usually are all at once (make sure you have great training and support ready) or in drips and drabs. Depending on the size of your business you will need to see what works best. If your business is large enough I recommend a small beta group of users to work out the bugs before switching everyone over.

If your business has any questions or needs help with the transition to Windows 7, please contact Wireguided.

-Tim

Google Apps Education Edition – Cost: FREE (almost)

Google Apps for Education is a great set of tools that is free for K-12 institutions to use. All programs are web based so their is no internal infrastructure to maintain. The main applications included are (from Google’s web site):

• Gmail: Email storage and search tools that help your students find information fast and instant messaging from right inside their accounts.
• Google Calendar: Students can organize their schedules and share events and calendars with others.
• Google Docs: Share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Collaborate in real-time with your team or with your whole school.

The main catch is that if you need archiving, content filtering, and virus protection you will need to pay extra. These may be a requirement due to local and state laws so do your research. Prices vary depending on how many licenses you need. The other issue is support. Google does not offer 7×24 coverage and phone support is only for ‘server down’ issues and not common questions. If these are not of concern then price is great and the applications are good for most users and students.

Hosted Exchange Services (aka Cloud service)- Cost: ~$9-$10 per user (educational discounts may lower this cost)

If your institution needs a more thorough set of email/calendar/ contact tools then a hosted Exchange server may be what your looking for. The big difference between this and Google apps is that there is usually built in spam and content filtering. You also get free Microsoft Outlook licenses for each computer (as well as their web based interface). Like Google apps, you will pay extra for archiving. However, unlike Google’s offerings, you get 7×24 phone support, 99.999% uptime SLA, and certifications such as SAS 70 and HIPAA compliance.

As a whole it is a much more mature product that is familiar to most staff and faculty so their is little to no learning curve. However, you will need to pay a bit more for it.

Hosted Sharepoint (aka Cloud service) – Cost: $20/month+ (depending on size)

What happens when you combine a web site,  file server, blog, Facebook, collaboration tools, and easy database access? You get Microsoft Sharepoint.

One of the most common issues with K-12 schools is unifying data access and communication. Each teacher may be communicating differently with their students and parents. Some may use email, others Facebook. Some may have personal blogs which they post curriculum others may not even go near the Internet. Districts and individual schools may each have their own website with their own look and feel. Not only does this present a disjointed appearance to students and families, it also hurts productivity (where is that information? What does this teacher use to provide information?) and costs money to maintain.

Sharepoint is a web based collaboration portal that allows organizations to have an easy to use, highly customizable,  and centralized location for all their information. Within the Sharepoint portal each teacher, department, and school can have its own web page to post documents, calendars, and general information (think blog or Facebook). A school district can maintain a certain ‘look and feel’ across all schools and provide a single point of access for everyone. Sharepoint can act as a web based interface for databases used for grading, finances, etc. It it highly customizable and has a great amount of flexibility.

Instead of having every teacher or every school do something different, a school district can use one tool to unify communication between everyone.  No matter what the grade, students and parents would know where to get information. All staff could be trained with the same manual. Teachers would be able to put course information online. On top of all this, everything is searchable from top to bottom.

Outsource your IT Department – Savings: 20-50% over current IT  employee budget

Admittedly this section is a bit self serving, but here me out. One of the largest costs of any department are the employees. In many K-12 schools the IT departments are either understaffed, staffed by employees that do not have a wide range of experience (e.g., desktop support staff are also managing the servers, network, and security), or staffed by employees who do not have access to modern technologies or methodologies (or just don’t care).

When most of the time your IT staff is putting out desktop support issues, instead of improving the infrastructure, you will eventually get to the point where the costs to maintain a crumbling infrastructure starts to add up. By using an experienced managed service provider schools can drastically lower their costs while using people who have a wide range of experience and are also indifferent to internal politics.

THE BOTTOM LINE

If you are involved in a school system (or any other organization that has lowering budgets and rising costs) there are a few things you can do to save money and improve performance.

• Move services (email, portals, backups)  from on-site servers to the ‘cloud’ – This will lower maintenance and energy costs while  improving reliability and technology.
• Unify Communications - By having a unified and streamlined way to share information, your organization can improve services while lower maintenance and training costs.
• Outsource IT – Greatly decrease IT personnel costs while improving service.

Part two of this article will include information on Open Source replacements for Microsoft Office, server virtualization, and Green IT.

If your organization would like to learn more please contact Wireguided for a no-cost review of your IT infrastructure.

-Tim

Let’s look at the most common types starting with recent versions of this attack.

Booby-trapped Attachments

These emails contain an attachment that once opened will do all sorts of bad things on your computer (or network). The attachment is usually a zip file or PDF document. Some of the more recent phishing attacks pretend to come from the following sources:

• iTunes Store – Fake $50 gift certificate attachment
• UPS/FedeX/DHL – Fake attachment that supposedly contains tracking info

Here is an example of the new iTunes scam email:

Links to Malicious Web Sites

The most common version of phishing scams looks like an email from a legitimate organization that is requesting you click on a link to either verify some sort of information (e.g., account settings, address, bank balance, email address, etc.) or to ‘activate’ an account. Once you click on the link you will either be brought to a web page that looks real or the link itself will launch the attack. Some of the most common examples pretend to be from the following sources:

• Banks and investment companies (Sun Bank, Citizens Bank, Fidelity, Bank of America, etc.)
• Paypal, eBay, Amazon.com
• Government Agencies  (IRS, Dept of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Admin)
• Software companies ( Apple, Microsoft, etc.)

Here is an example of a fake email:

How to protect yourself and your business

The  best way to protect yourself from these sorts of attacks is to use some common sense. First, if it is too good to be true, it is. Second, nothing is for free. Third, ask yourself if you ever provided your email address to the organization. Lastly,  would the information that they are requesting allow someone access to my information.

You should educate yourself and your employees to never open unknown attachments or click on links in email. Also, if you have even the slightest question, call up your bank or online vendor and ask them if they sent it.

There are also technical solutions to these types of attacks. If you would like more information please email contact us. Wireguided can help you decide what solutions can best protect you and your business.

What is VoIP?

Voice over IP is the technology that uses your computer network infrastructure to deliver phone service. No more separate phone cords and network cables. You just plug your VoIP phone into your computer network jack.

Why is it important to my business?

VoIP’s major advantages over the old phone systems (PBXs) are the following:

• Services - With your phones going over your computer network, you now have the ability to integrate the two. Voicemail sent to email, clicking on numbers in web pages and having your phone ring, seeing if someone is on the phone/out of office via Outlook, using your phone as a time card system, even monitoring security cameras from your phone are all possibilities.
• Connectivity - With certain VoIP phones, you can bring them home or take them on vacation. They will connect to your business network automatically. When someone dials your business number or extension, your phone will ring. No matter where you are.
• Manageability - Your IT department can now easily manage your phones. Modern interfaces allow quick adds/changes which can also be performed by remote support staff.
• Cost - There are many ways  VoIP saves your business money. If you have new construction, there is no need to install a separate phone network. A new VoIP system costs many thousands less than tradition PBX systems, which start in the five figure range. 30-40% lower phone bills are also a great plus when using a SIP provider for phone service (phones service via the Internet).

Why now?

VoiP technology has finally matured. It is now a proven technology which is used in many fortune 500 businesses (side note: If you watch ‘The Office’, those are Cisco VoIP phones). The price has dropped dramatically to make it not only affordable, but the preferred phone solution for businesses of all sizes. If your phone system is starting to show its age or your business is moving, now would be a good time to give VoIP a look.

If you would like more information on VoIP or SIP please contact Wireguided.

Email: info@wireguided.com

Phone: 781-679-0660