Helpdesk Upgrade Alert – Your Mailbox is almost full scam emails still going around

Helpdesk Upgrade Alert - Your mailbox is almost full scam

Your mailbox is almost full emails still going around… Don’t fall for it…

An email arrives in your inbox with the subject of “Helpdesk Upgrade Alert”, tells you that your mailbox is almost full, and it includes a handy indicator saying that of your 244 MB quota, you have used 241MB.

The text reads, “The Helpdesk is upgrading and maintaining database Server from the old Microsoft Server (No420134x) to the new Microsoft Server (No520193x) CLICK HERE” (With a link) and a nice “Thank You” from the “Helpdesk Upgrade Team”.

That’s just fantastic! *FINALLY* they are getting around to upgrading your database server.    Trouble is, that’s not the case at all.  Instead, this is an ongoing scam, and apparently it works well or we likely would not be seeing as many of them as we do.

This phishing attempt is not all that sophisticated, just a very basic social engineering email offering that link, with text prompts you for anything in the email itself, so this type of message slips past many anti-spam / anti-malware packages, including the Barracuda email appliance.

How do you know this type of message is a scam? For one thing, you probably don’t have a “Helpdesk Upgrade Team” working on the upgrade of your old Microsoft server, however, even if you do, the name of the sender is likely not familiar to you.   The “To:” field may be blank.

Another giveaway is that it doesn’t make sense. IE:  244MB of storage? Come on.   The average mailbox is over a gig now.  Gmail gives you what, 8 to start out?

Hover your mouse over the “CLICK HERE” and you will see the goes outside your company to a Google docs site.  If you visit the site (if your anti-malware / anti-phishing software will let you browse there), you will see a form that asks for your username, password and email address.  Here’s what it looks like:

Helpdesk Upgrade Alert Scam - IT HELPDESK SERVICE form example

Helpdesk Upgrade Alert Scam – IT HELPDESK SERVICE form example

If you are not exhausted from a 7 day work week of 12 hour days, you probably will catch on the very moment that you see this site and understand that no IT department in the world would ask for this information in plain text, on a Google docs site.

Then again.  You might just be a trusting soul and enter your username, password and email address, allowing whoever monitors that data to freely access your account.

Should you that be you, and you just realized you have been had at some point, then it is time to change your information.   If your username is JoeBlow and your email address is JoeBlow@somecompany.com, then you might even consider changing to something else.  jblow or JoeCBlow, and change your password while you are at it.  How long ago did this happen?  Has your email been monitored and harvested for a long period of time? If banking information, a credit card or social security numbers were sent in email, ever, then you might have bigger things to worry about.

Alerting your IT department or computer service provider is a great idea at this stage in the game. You want them to know, no matter how embarrassed you might be about it, as they have seen this before, and they will be more than happy to help secure your account and assess the potential damage.

Are you in the financial, legal, government or medical field or work with sensitive or proprietary data of any nature? You may have compliance issues, and those will need to be addressed, quickly. Your IT provider can assist with contacting the proper authorities.

Homeland Secure IT helps Greenville / Upstate SC businesses and individuals with these and other computer and network security issues. We can help you recover, assess the impact and protect you from it in the future. If this has never happened to you, but you are concerned it could occur at your company, to a desk worker, your CEO or yourself, please call us at 864-990-4748 and we will be happy to discuss the matter. Don’t risk identity theft!

 

Microsoft Windows 7 Malware Infection Rate on the Rise

Microsoft Windows 7 Malware Infecton Rate on the Rise in 2012

Help – I need somebody….

Microsoft’s Security Intelligence Report, Volume 13 is full of information that will cause your eyes to bleed, but one tidbit that is important to take note of is that Windows 7 malware infection rates are on the rise.

Computer World has a great article on the subject at this link, and a spiffy graph that looks like this:

Malware infection rates

From the graph, you will notice that Windows 7  has experienced a sharp increase (as high as 182%) in malware infection rate in 2012.

What the graph doesn’t show is that in that same time period, Windows 7 has taken over as the leading Microsoft Operating System, nor does it show that Apple and Linux related malware has increased at the same rates or higher in the same time period.

An important take away from the Computer World article is that “Even with that drastic increase, Windows 7 remained two to three times less likely to fall to hacker attack than the aged Windows XP”.

It still comes down to this one thing: KEEP YOUR SYSTEMS UPDATED!  This action alone will not entirely protect you, but when combined with some common sense, and the use of quality anti-virus / anti-malware, such as Trend Micro Titanium, your chances of being exploited are reduced dramatically over those who don’t follow suit. Oh, and if you are running Windows XP, please upgrade!

If you would like to discuss computer or network security issues concerning your Greenville, Spartanburg or Anderson area business, please call Homeland Secure IT at 864-990-4748 or use our handy contact link.

Hackers can turn your computer into a bomb!

A little humor for your Friday… Thanks to Adrian Lamo for reminding me about this jewel from World Net News…

Apparently, hackers can turn your computer into a bomb and blow your family to smithereens.

Hackers can turn your home computer Into a bomb!

If they can do this to your HOME computer, imagine what they can do with your more powerful work computer!  You better get updates on there, right now!

Seriously, if you need assistance with computer or network security for your Greenville or Upstate SC business or home office, let us know, we will be happy to evaluate your needs and take action that would keep you and your family from harm.

Mozilla Firefox 16 browser released and then pulled due to security concerns

Mozilla Firefox Logo

Mozilla Firefox 16 Whoopsie

Did you download the new release of the popular Mozilla Firefox 16 browser? Undownload it.

If you are like a number of our clients who use Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers because you believe them to be safer than Microsoft Internet Explorer, then you are likely to be disappointed in the version of Mozilla Firefox released recently as it is anything but safe. The version 16 update was released yesterday (10-10-2012)  and then pulled from their website a day later.

Mozilla Firefox 16 originally was meant to correct 14 security advisories, of which a 11 were considered critical. The new version introduced a much larger issue you can read about on the Mozilla Security Blog.

Anyone who downloaded and installed version 16 should consider a downgrade to version 15.0.1 which can be found on the Mozilla.org website.

Obviously, Mozilla is not the only company trying to keep up with security concerns. Google Chrome has made multiple security updates this month, and Microsoft has been busily updating their browser as well.

Not to beat a dead horse, but, please keep your computer operating system (Apple Mac, Windows, Linux) up to date, with current and robust anti-virus / anti-malware which supports web monitoring, update all your helper apps like Adobe Reader, Flash, Air, Acrobat and Java, main applications, and browse using a little common sense. That may go a long way towards protecting you regardless of which browser you opt to utilize.

Should you have questions or need assistance with computer support or network security in the Greenville / Upstate area, please call us at 864-990-4748 or use our contact page….

 

 

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5 Reasons The Guy Fixing Your Computer Hates You #Cracked

Cracked.com put this video up which might give you a chuckle, “5 Reasons The Guy Fixing Your Computer Hates You”.

Be warned, this is not safe for work, there is profanity, so if that sort of thing bothers you, avoid this video. Oh, and there’s a lengthy ad at the beginning too.

The views expressed in this video are not necessarily the views of the author of this post, I’m just snickering over them.

 

 

Wiped means wiped… everything… Gone… Yep….

Those Adobe Flash updates you are being prompted to install – should be installed!

Adobe Flash Player

Adobe Flash Player Updates for October 8, 2012

Adobe Security Bulletin APSB12-22 for October 8th, 2012 details vulnerabilities that exist in versions of the Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Air that run on:

  • Microsoft Windows
  • Apple Macintosh
  • Linux
  • Android 2.x – 4.x

These updates address CRITICAL vulnerabilities and installation should not be delayed in order to protect your computer, tablet or smart phone.

Should you have questions about how these updates might affect you or your business, please call us at 864-990-4748.

Octoberfest? No, it’s just time for a bunch of Microsoft Office Updates! Get ’em installed!

October Microsoft Patches

Not a pumpkin patch, but a Microsoft Patch!

Here we are, another Patch Tuesday, where Microsoft makes updates available to their products.

The Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for October 2012 indicates there are seven bulletins that will be addressed today.  They include:

  1. Critical – Remote code execution – Affecting Microsoft Office and Microsoft Server
  2. Important – Remote code execution – Affecting Microsoft Office
  3. Important – Elevation of privilege – Affecting Microsoft Office, Microsoft Server Software, Microsoft Lync
  4. Important – Remote code execution – Affecting Microsoft Office, Microsoft Server Software
  5. Important – Elevation of privilege – Affecting Microsoft Windows
  6. Important – Denial of Service – Affecting Microsoft Windows
  7. Important – Elevation of privilege – Affecting Microsoft SQL Server

As always, we highly recommend these and *every* Microsoft related update be applied to your servers and workstations, without delay.

Please remember that failure to do so, leaves unpatched “holes” that can be leveraged to gain control of or access to your desktops and servers.

A network security evaluation should be performed frequently on your business network, and Homeland Secure IT will be happy to undertake this duty in the Greenville / Upstate SC area. Please give us a call at 864-990-4748 or use our contact form. We are Microsoft Small Business Specialists!

Subscribe to our blog for info, updates, and contests too… Thanks FeedBlitz for coming through…

Goodbye FeedBurner - Hello FeedBlitz

Receive this blog – in your inbox – thanks to FeedBlitz

We did it, we got hooked up with FeedBlitz!

Here’s the general plan…

Step One – Cut a hole in the box… No wait, that’s another project….   Step One: Ditch our newsletter…  It’s boring and random anyway.

Step Two – Attempt to get our mailing list subscribers to subscribe to switch over to our blog, either in email or RSS.

Step Three – Profit.  Okay, maybe not, but at least have a better interaction with our customers, friends and the general public.

Why the blog? I post SOMETHING there every day.  Something good, sometimes.  Something timely.  Reviews of gadgets, announcements of security vulnerabilities and patches for those things, information about some new computer toy that is coming out, general IT news, and on the other end of the spectrum, I might post an article about my band, or our children.

Contests are not out of the question either. We have given away some cool things, from an X-Box, to a tablet computer! In the future, we may only give these away via our blog, I’m not sure yet.

If you are reading this, you are either already subscribed and reading it in your inbox, or maybe through an RSS feed reader, however, if you followed a Twitter or Facebook post over, would you might subscribing? It’s free. It might even save you some money. Tell your friends.

And please, for the love of all that is holy, interact here! I would love to see your responses, and love to have a discussion about why I am wrong, or how whatever I was talking about saved your life, or your business.

Thanks for the support!

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Bye bye FeedBurner, we will miss you… Well, maybe not, we replaced you with FeedBlitz

Goodbye FeedBurner - Hello FeedBlitz

Goodbye FeedBurner – Hello FeedBlitz

We’re setting up FeedBlitz on our blogs and waving goodbye to Google’s FeedBurner.

FeedBurner was great back in the day, allowing us to have the reach we wanted, and our group of subscribers to get our blog in their inbox. However, Google has made it clear that FeedBurner is not a product they want to support, and just like several of their past projects, it appears it is destined to go away at some point.

Wanting to provide the best service to the readership, we’ve settled on FeedBlitz, which offers everything we had before, but at a cost. Actually, that’s not true, it offers more. Better RSS feeds, ability to share content easier.

I spent a few minutes today moving the subscribers over and doing a quick configuration it, so I guess we will see in the morning if it works properly.

To those of you who might get our email TWICE, I apologize in advance and will have this corrected quickly, so no need to unsubscribe, I promise.

On another note, we are probably going to replace our sporadic newsletter with ONLY the blog posts. We will likely be running our giveaways only from the blog too.

Thanks for your patience, support and understanding!!!!

Constant wireless network connection dropping got you down?

Wireless woes got you down? Tired of Wi-Fi connection issues?

Here are a couple of common complains we hear, maybe one of these applies to you:

You have a wireless tablet (iPad, Android, Windows, etc), notebook / laptop, point of sale system, Voice over IP phone system, etc, and as you move around your business, you lose your wireless connection, momentarily bringing whatever you were doing to a complete stop until you connect again. Even the notifications about the loss of connection and connecting status drives you bonkers.

Your business is in a large complex, and has a number of wireless access points throughout the facility, but as you roam through the building or campus, your connection is momentarily lost and your device has to reconnect. During this reconnection or reassociation time, your phone call on a wireless VoIP phone is lost, or your connection from your iPad back to a hosted application is severed.

There is great coverage in certain areas of your building, but very poor in others, causing you to have to stand in just the right spot to keep your connection active. You might even have mental notes telling you not to walk into the break room while on the phone or you will lose your call.

The wireless network at your company is comprised of several access points, potentially from different manufacturers, each with different SSIDs and encryption keys, maybe one for each area of a campus, causing you to have several configurations in your wireless device and switch between them when you are in different areas.

Sometimes the problems are not as severe as outlined above, and sometimes there are not even considered a “problem”, because you are used to working around them, but if this sounds like something that affects you, causing you frustration in addition to lost productivity, then you will be happy to know, we can help with that situation!

We can put an end to lost and dropped wireless connections. No more delays as your device is handed off between one access point to the other.

We can consolidate your wireless network into one easy to manage unit, where configurations between access points are instantly updated (no need to log into 2, 3, or a dozen individual access points just to change a password).

We can increase your security by segmenting your work network from a GUEST network, allowing your visitors to have access to the internet, but not to your company files, keeping your data isolated, and you in compliance!

Wide area coverage? NO problem, we have a system  that is perfect for your business, larger corporation, hospital or health care facility and even school / college / university campus solutions!

We are partners with the biggest wireless equipment manufacturers in the business, including Aruba & Cisco!

Call us today at 864.990.4748 and put an end to your wireless troubles!