SECURE IT ALERT: Using RDP / Remote Desktop Protocol on your Microsoft Windows desktop or server? Patch it – NOW!

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Tuesday, March 13, 2012 Welcome to another exciting edition of Microsoft Patch Tuesday! This one is so exciting, it gets two posts dedicated to it. This bunch of patches contains one very important fix for a flaw so serious, according to some security experts, you can’t patch it fast enough (read here). Critical update MS12-020. Of course, …

Dell to acquire SonicWALL

I received this email from SonicWALL today: Dear John, Today Dell® announced its intention to acquire SonicWALL®. The transaction is anticipated to close during Dell’s second quarter of its fiscal year. We are very excited about the opportunity this offers both SonicWALL and our partners. All of us at SonicWALL greatly value our partners. After all, our channel partners have …

Symantec Backup Exec and Endpoint Protection .cloud trials available

We’re asked by clients all the time about offerings from different vendors, but one of them has just made it easy to offer free 30 day trails of their products! We can provide your business with Symantec Backup Exec.cloud and Symantec Endpoint Protection.cloud demos so you can get the feel for the product before actually committing to a purchase. If …

March 2012 updates from Microsoft… In like a Lion? hah, I crack me up!

New, from Microsoft!   Updates! Just in time for Patch Tuesday… Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for March 2012, released today, March 8, 2012, states that there is a little something for everyone. If you are running XP, Server 2003, Server 2008, Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, or Vista in 32bit or x64, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 or 2010, Microsoft …

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What do you say if someone wants to plug something into your network?

Let’s assume you are a business owner and a man walks in wearing a jumpsuit with an official looking badge, and tells you that he is from the power company, sent there to plug a device into your outlet that will monitor and potentially save you money. What do you do?  Let’s assume they say they are from DHEC and …

No, you won’t lose access to the internet on March 8, 2012… #DNSChanger

The top email question for me the last couple weeks has been, “What’s this about the internet going down on March 8th?”. This is related to the DNS Changer malware which has permitted hackers to hijack web traffic and send it to their bogus sites and in the process, get millions of dollars from fraudulent advertisement revenue. The people responsible …

News Flash! Flash Player Update Released to Correct Two Critical Vulnerabilities

Adobe has released an unexpected update to Adobe Flash Player 11.1.102.62 and earlier, running across all platforms (Mac & Android included) which addresses two critical flaws. This is covered in this security bulletin. It is recommended that you download and install the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player (11.1.102.63 for computers and 11.1.11x.x for Android)). Failure to update could …

Think twice before buying discounted Microsoft Office or other computer software

You know the old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” – It’s just as true today as it was the first time I heard it many years ago. Reading an article on WYFF 4 site entitled “Top 10 Most Counterfeited Items” has computer software lumped in with other optical media, which is ranked #5 in …