Apple iPhone

Smartphones: Whether it is an Android, iPhone or even a Windows based phone, you cannot survive without one. These devices provide instant communication with your clients through email, text message and phone, along with the ability to browse the web and select from tens of thousands of applications to assist in your business. Your clients will not wait for you to get to your office to respond to an email. Even a quick, “I’m driving, will respond as soon as it is safe” auto-response is better than no response. The cost of a typical phone can range from 100 to 300 dollars per phone depending on features and term of contract from the carrier of your choice.

Square Credit Card Reader

Credit Card Processing: If you expect to get paid, then you need to accept every form of payment possible, including plastic. Yes, you will lose a little bit on the sale, but you will gain an instant payment. If you are just getting started, without purchasing a machine or paying a monthly charge, you can accept credit cards anywhere you have a cell signal using the Square credit card application with your smart phone and the free reader device that they provide to you. No per-swipe fee, and less than 3.0% charge. Fast, secure, and in your account the next business day. Find it in your phones’s marketplace.

Reliable & Fast Internet: There are a lot of choices these days for fast internet, from DSL to cable to fiber, and the old tried and true T1 standard, but some businesses may find that a wireless broadband internet plan may be enough for them. We recommend Charter Business in most situations, but that varies depending upon what is available at the business location. One advantage to using a cellular based broadband internet connection is that you can take it with you, which is great for businesses that are not tied to one specific location. Typical 4G plans will provide over 5 meg down and up to 2 meg up. Verizon Wireless offers the MiFi devices for around 50 dollars with 5GB plans for 50 dollars per month.

IP Surveillance Cameras

IP surveillance: Sure it sounds like the CIA, but IP security cameras at your business will decrease loss of inventory, increase productivity, and may provide an insurance savings. You can even keep tabs on your employees using a smartphone or any web browser to view these camera. Recordings can be reviewed after events occur, and most systems can email you when there is movement in a particular location. Prices range from $150 for a single entry level camera into the $2000 range to cover an entire business. You can install yourself, or get an IT provider to handle this for you for the most professional results.

Email: This is a no-brainer, but many small businesses will cut corners here. A Hotmail account will work for sure, but who wants AcmeWidgetCo@hotmail.com on their business cards. At the very least, your business should use a service that allows for linking a domain to your mail, such as Google Apps (Gmail) or Microsoft Office 365. This gives you a professional appearance, and provides for important features such as linking of your smartphones, sharing of calendars between users and so much more. Microsoft Office 365 costs about 5 dollars per person per month and gives you up to 20GB of storage.

Anti-Virus & Security: Far too often this is overlooked, or taken for granted. A business that is vulnerable to viruses or malware is a business that could experience costly downtime and repairs, not to mention, open yourself up for compliance violations and potential fines or legal issues depending upon the field you are in. The components of a secure network are as simple as a quality firewall like those offered from Cisco, Watchguard or SonicWall, an anti-virus software package from Trend Micro or Symantec, and taking the time to apply updates to the Operating System (Windows, Mac, etc) and support software (Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, JAVA).

Backup: When disaster strikes, you need to be prepared for it. Having backups of your important files will insure you are not out of business when a computer or server fails. Backups technology can be as simple as an external USB drive or remote backup solution, or on the other end of the spectrum, as complicated as auto-loader tape drives. One thing is for sure, ANY attempt to backup your data is better than none. For automated cloud backup solutions, consider Servosity or Mozy Pro.

Here at Homeland Secure IT, we utilize a vast array of technology and we also help many small and medium businesses and even home offices stay up to date. If we can help you with decisions regarding your Greenville or Upstate technology infrastructure, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We offer sales, service, repair and consultation of everything from computers to VoIP.

What is your “must have” business technology? I would love to hear about it.  VoIP phone systems? iPad, Android or Windows based tablet computers? A favorite app (We love TiKL & Waze)?

This article pretty much says it all…

There is even a work-around, but not an official fix for the security vulnerability from HTC as of this date.

The authors of the above article also state that you should be careful as to which apps you load, as you never know which one could actually exploit the vulnerability and expose your information to the world.

Our office has moved to Androids, and in particular Samsung Epic 4G (original and the new Galaxy S II Touch) and absolutely love them.

I’d love you input….

Only one problem…  Nobody that I called in the Greenville area has one!  One person told me only 200 of the top stores got them today and those 200 stores only received 2 each.

So I will wait a while, or I could buy it online at sprint.com.

Why do I want it? Last year about this time, we replaced our aging Blackberry phones with Samsung Galaxy S Epic 4G phones and have loved them! BUT, that was this, this is now. The new phone does not have a keyboard built-in, so it is much thinner, and it also has a much larger display. The battery life is improved to boot.

As far as speed, the new phone has a 1.2Ghz DUAL CORE processor, compared to the 1Ghz single core we currently have.

The OS is upgraded, the camera is 8 megapixels.  What’s not to like?

Apparently the size. Some people don’t like that bigger 4.5″ screen, compared to the 4.3″ screen in our current phones.

We’ll see… Maybe by next week I can find one?

Thoughts?     OH, and don’t make it about carriers.  Sprint has done a great job of keeping us happy.  Verizon would be our 1st choice, but we’re locked in for a little while longer with 3 of our phones.

Have a great weekend!

During this time, you can save 6% state sales tax on purchases in many categories, including the one we are most interested in, electronics.

A few examples from the www.sctax.org website of exempt products:

• Computer hardware service contracts sold in conjunction with computers
• Computer software (This includes Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows)
• Computer software service contracts sold in conjunction with computer software
• Computer software service contracts when the true object of the contract is to obtain computer software updates during the contract period
• Computers (computer parts, such as computer monitors, keyboards and scanners, when not sold in conjunction with a central processing unit (CPU) and accessories are taxable) (Think notebook, desktop & tablet computers here)
• Personal Digital Assistants or PDAs (PDAs are hand-held computers used as daily planners. Please note that the exemption does not apply to cell phones with a PDA, computer applications or similar components.) (The rules are sketchy here, an Android tablet computer is a PDA OR a computer, not primarily a cell phone)
• Printer supplies (replaceable ink cartridges used in printers are exempt from tax as “printer supplies”)
• Printers (replacement parts are taxable)

You need to read the information at THIS SITE before making these purchases…

There are a number of exclusions and something VERY important for businesses to understand is that you cannot use the sales tax holiday for making purchases of items that will be used in your business or trade.

Homeland Secure IT will be honoring the sales tax holiday on purchases made tomorrow (Friday). It’s a great time to buy your college-bound child a new notebook computer!

We offer HP, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Nexlink and more… We can custom spec a computer today, place the order tomorrow and in most cases have it in your hands on Monday or Tuesday!

Call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com

Watch out for these on your Android smartphone

Here’s an ugly one… A piece of malware could be installed on your Android that records your phone conversations and saves it to your memory card.

A blog post over on the CA community site states that you could have a trojan spying on your conversations. While the author goes into detail about the functionality of the trojan, little is said about the distribution method.

We’re left to believe it came from the marketplace, distributed with a supposedly legitimate application, but who’s to say you could not be brought to the app by your browser or an email link.

I think the bottom line here is to be careful when installing any apps on your Android phone, pay attention to which Android resources applications may be requesting access to. Why would a game need access to phone calls for instance?  A little common sense can go a long way.

The author does correctly state that this is the year of mobile malware….   Be careful out there!

Here’s a look at our site for July 1st until August 1st broken down by browser and platform:

Homeland Secure IT Browser Stats

Other than the super-high bounce rate, we see some important information…

Internet Explorer running Microsoft Windows is just darn popular! Followed by Firefox and then Chrome, also on Windows…   In fact, they account for about 80 percent of all traffic…

Up next is Safari & Firefox on the Mac…  And then down a bit is Chrome on the Mac.  Mac is the apparent source of 9.38% of traffic to our site (And less than 5% of our business).

The iPad viewers and the Android viewers accounted for 2% and 1.2% respectively… So a number of people were sitting on the toilet while surfing our site.

Here’s a further break down of mobile user specs:

Homeland Secure IT mobile browser info

iPad, iPhone & iPod dominates this category for sure, with Android 2nd, and Blackberry 3rd…   Windows made a horrible showing… And what’s up with Palm? Someone is using that? hehe

I compared these stats to July 2010 and found Android usage has come up considerably, but iPad maintained a steady lead even then.

Looking at the percentage of Windows versus other platforms, Windows has lost only a two percentage points in a year, and those were taken up by mobile devices.

It will be interesting to see what this looks like in another year. I’m guessing mobile device usage will continue to grow, maybe even at an accelerated rate due to the large numbers of new tablets being introduced, and smartphones replacing older cell phones…

What are your experiences with your own website/s?

Toshiba Thrive Android Tablet

If you are one of the many looking for an alternative to the iPad and can’t bring yourself to like Windows based tablets, Toshiba may have the device for you.

The Toshiba Thrive 16GB tablet is a brand new product featuring:

• Android 3.1 Honeycomb (Yes, it has Flash!)
• 16GB storage, 1GB DDR2 memory
• 10.1″ Display with 1080p resolution (1280×800)
• NVidia ULP GeForce graphics for fast graphics
• Stereo speakers w/Toshiba sound enhancements SRS Premium Voice Suite
• Dual cameras – 5megapixel on the back (720p capture) and 2megapixel front facing with microphone
• Expansion ports! HDMI to allow connection to your big screen or a projector for presentations,  full size SD card slot, USB 2.0 (Both full sized and mini!), docking connector and a stereo headphone jack
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 + HS

It also has a rubberized finish that helps you keep your grip and a replaceable battery!

There are a growing number of Android based tablets, but this one could very well be the best of the bunch (so far)…

To purchase this tablet, call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com – We are a Toshiba partner here in Greenville / Upstate, SC.

If you would like to discuss how this product or any other tablet may work within your business, please call us…

i'm watch in Black & Gold

Father’s day is this weekend, however, one of the things I would like is simply not available yet.

That thing is the “i’m Watch”, a connected watch that works with your Android phone, which is not available to purchase, but you CAN preorder on the www.imwatch.it website.

You get a wrist-watch type device that runs the Android operating system and interconnects to your Android smartphone. It enables you to keep your phone in your pocket, while receiving text messages, email and notifications from popular social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare.

You are not limited to those applications, there will be more available and you can develop your own!

Basically, this thing puts the information you need most right on your wrist.  You can get it in a variety of colors and styles it would appear.

Oh yeah, it’s a watch too… =)

Should I get my hands on one, I will let you know more about it, until then, visit the i’m Watch site for more info.  Now if you ARE with “i’m Watch”, feel free to send me one for father’s day.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is shipping on the 17th of June, and pre-orders are being accepted at major retailers now, so dads, be sure to let your family know!

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes in two flavors, a $499.99 version which sports 16GB and a $599.99 version which has 32GB.

Anyone want to buy a slightly used, and personalized Apple iPad 2 64GB w/Verizon 3G?  I would gladly let it go for slightly less than I have in it in order to get the Android Honeycomb 3.1 operating system, Adobe Flash, dual core processor, yada yada yada…  But alas, Verizon has not released their 4G LTE version yet. When that happens, you may be seeing me dump an iPad 2 for just enough to replace it with the Tab 10.1!

If you plan on getting one, or maybe plan on NOT getting one, I’d love to hear what you have to say…

For as little as $39.95 a month, you can store your data online, instantly and share it between multiple devices, including iPhones, iPads and Androids. You can even share with friends and family with complete permissions!

You can get more information directly from Trend Micro, and even try it out for free!

http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/personal/safe-sync/

As your Upstate / Greenville, SC Trend Micro partner, we can offer this all of the Trend Micro product line, including installation, support and consultation. Call us at 864.990-4748 for more information or email info@homelandsecureit.com

Motion CL90 Windows 7 Tablet

Effective today, the Motion CL900, the latest addition to Motion’s suite of enterprise-built tablet PCs, is now available for shipping with the standard  4 week lead time from Authorized Motion Reseller Partners.

The CL900 is a rugged, lightweight and powerfully equipped tablet PC purposefully designed, developed and built for business. At a starting price of only $899, the latest Tablet PC from Motion packs performance, power and integrated features into an ultra-mobile and lightweight design.

The Motion CL900 comes standard with:

• Bluetooth
• WLAN
• Integrated Front and Rear-Facing Cameras
• Corning Gorilla Glass Display Protection

Additional options include:

• Up to 2GB of RAM
• Up to 62GB Solid State Drive (SSD)
• Gobi Connectivity (WWAN)

There are also some supporting accessories available, including a unique desktop docking station and protective display film, as well as extended warranties.

Homeland Secure is happy to be able to offer these tablets to our Greenville / Upstate business clients! For more information, please contact us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com

Verizon thought you didn’t need the Google browser by default, so they sent you to Bing, and Sprint, they thought navigation would be better handled elsewhere, etc. So you really don’t get a Google Android phone the way Google intended it to be, and in turn, phones run slower, lack the ability to perform certain functions, and it sure makes it difficult to compare a Samsung Galaxy phone on Verizon to one on Sprint or another carrier because they don’t have the same exact install. Most consider them crippled.

You will find a growing number of people have opted to “root” their phones and bypass the garbage, or install a pure Google Android OS on it. Creating phones that run much faster than their stock counterparts.

What about computers? For years, manufacturers of computers have been bundling software with computers. This preinstalled software could add a specific function, allowing you to access features of a notebook that are not supported by the stock Microsoft Windows Operating System, or they could just be junk.

The “junk” ranges from demos of games and applications, to browser search bars and other tools.

It’s easy to see why a manufacturer would bundle a trial of Norton Anti-Virus, because if you register it, they likely get a kickback from Symantec, but, could manufacturers be loading something malicious?

In one article, a man has claimed that Samsung has loaded a keystroke logger on new notebooks… Samsung is denying this, and it is possibly that VIPRE is producing a false positive, but, none-the-less, a cause for concern. Time will tell in this matter.

All these things taken into consideration, it is easy to see why some people buy a new computer and immediately wipe and reload a pure Microsoft Windows operating system.

One reason we love offering computers from Seneca Data, such as the Nexlink series that we offer businesses, is that they do NOT come loaded down with junk. Though, they have in recent years begun to install a tool to allow for easy restore disk creation, a trial of Norton and a pre-load of the Microsoft Office trial, we believe these to actually be tools a new computer needs.  We CAN order them with NO operating system, and we can provide them with our own build of the OS to preimage.

Should you be interested in computer for your business that you are SURE do not come pre-loaded with unwanted software, you might want to give our Seneca Data Nexlink computers a serious look!  Call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for more information. We offer computer & server sales, service and support to Greenville / Upstate businesses and individuals.

What can you do to help protect yourself, your computer and your private data? Use a little common sense and don’t just randomly click on every link you see.

Sometimes, a link can come to you through email, a Facebook message, or a wall post on Facebook, and it will appear to be from your best friend, or a trusted co-worker, but it was really sent from a malicious source.

Here’s an example of a link posted on Facebook recently:

Typical social engineering attempt to lure you to a bad site...

This is a typical “social engineering” attempt to get you to visit a malicious site.

It works like this: The mark will see the link on their best friend’s wall and because it looks appealing and came from Bob, it has to be good, so they click on it.  The link loads a site that LOOKS like YouTube or some other video site. When they try to play the video, what happens next is sheer genius. They are told that a codec or other piece of software needs to be updated. Of course, they have gone this far, so they will almost always agree to install the software.

And THAT is where the magic takes place. Even if you are running anti-virus, many times, this malicious software is allowed to install because the A/V sees it as a “user initiated action” and simply gets out of the way and lets you perform the install. After all, you know what you are doing, right?

Now there is malicious software running which may do many things, from disabling the anti-virus, to loading key loggers that send every key typed on that computer to some site in Tracrapistan, or full access to the machine may be granted to a remote user, allowing them to use the exploited machine to send spam, distribute more bad software etc.  Whatever takes place is surely not good. They are not defragging the hard drive and doing your taxes.

Then there’s email “Phishing”…  Here’s what that looks like…   Can you spot what is wrong?

There are a number of things wrong with the above email example… Most banks do not send you email warnings that you have been locked out of your account, and in my case, I don’t even have a Chase bank account…. But those are not the one tell-tale sign that will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt it is a phishing message or an attempt to coax you to a malicious website…

To see that, you need only hover over the link itself:

When you place your mouse over the link, without even clicking on it, your email client will generally display the actual link.  This one points to http://ciamedia.be…. not even close to a Chase server.  The perpetrator of this attempted phishing attempt didn’t even try. Sometimes they will register a domain that LOOKS like the source, such as http://www.chasesecuresite.com.

Again, if you are using current mainstream anti-virus software, such as Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security or Trend Micro Titanium, every URL that you visit will be checked before allowing you to continue… Attempting to visit a malicious site will result in a dire warning displayed in your browser….

Above is the warning you will see in your browser upon visiting a fraudulent site if you are using Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security …

Then you will also see this warning pop up from your task bar:

Obviously, relying solely on your anti-virus software is not the wisest thing in the world…   Safely browsing the web requires some common sense.

BUT, reliable and up to date anti-virus gives you an advantage that your unprotected brethren do not have. Especially for you Apple Mac OS X owners.

If you are looking for quality anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spam software for your business or personal computer, we highly recommend Trend Micro… We are a Trend Micro partner and would love the opportunity to offer their fantastic products to you, whether you need only one install for yourself, or 1000 seats for your company.  We not only sell it, but we support it, along with full computer, server & network service / repair in Greenville & Upstate SC!

Please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748 for more information.

Homeland Secure IT Alert

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Adobe has released out-of-cycle updates earlier this week that affect Flash Player, Reader and Acrobat across many platforms such as Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Android and Chrome… Here is the summary from the WatchGuard Security Center:

Severity: High

21 March, 2011

Summary:

• These vulnerabilities affects: Recent versions of Adobe Reader, Acrobat,  and Flash Player
• How an attacker exploits it: In various ways, but most commonly by enticing your users into visiting a website containing malicious Flash or Reader content
• Impact: In the worst case, an attacker can execute code on your computer, potentially gaining control of it
• What to do: If you use these popular Adobe products, you should download and install their various updates as soon as possible.

Exposure:

Typically, Adobe’s quarterly Patch Day falls on the same Tuesday as Microsoft Patch Day (the second Tuesday of the month). However, a recent zero day Flash exploit circulating in the wild has encouraged Adobe to release a few out-of-cycle patches early. Today, Adobe released two security bulletins that fix a  zero day Flash vulnerability in Reader, Acrobat, and Flash Player, running on all platforms (including Android).

Though the two bulletins affect different software, they both fix the same core Flash related vulnerability that we described in our earlier WatchGuard Security Center post. As usual, Adobe doesn’t describe this zero day flaw in any technical detail. However, they do mention that the flaw lies within the authplay.dll component, which all three vulnerable products use. By enticing one of your users to visit a web site or download a PDF file containing malicious flash content, an attacker could leverage this flaw to execute code with that users privileges. If your users have administrative or root privileges on the victim platform, the attacker would gain complete control.

As was the case during our first post, attackers have been exploiting this flaw in the wild (even before Adobe knew it existed). If you use the affected software (as most users do), we highly recommend you install Adobe’s updates immediately.

For more details about these update, see Adobe’s bulletins below:

• APSB11-05: March 2011 Flash Player Update
• APSB11-06 : March 2011 Reader and Acrobat Update

Solution Path:

Adobe has released Reader, Acrobat, and Flash Player updates to fix this flaw. If you use any of the software below, we recommend you download and deploy the corresponding updates as soon as possible, or let Adobe’s automatic updater do it for you. Note: Adobe has not yet released a Reader X update for this vulnerability, since Reader X’s default sand-boxing technology should protect you from this flaw by default.That said, we do expect a Reader X update at a later date.

• APSB11-05:
  • Flash Player 10.2.153.1
  • Flash Player 10.2.156.12 for Android <= (link only works from Android phone)
  • Google Chrome (w/Flash 10.2.154.25)
  • AIR 2.6
• APSB11-06:
  • Adobe Reader
  • For Windows
  • For Mac
    • Adobe Acrobat
    • Standard and Pro for Windows
    • Pro Extended for Windows
    • Pro for Mac

For All WatchGuard Users:

Some of WatchGuard’s Firebox models allow you to prevent your users from downloading certain types of files via the web (HTTP) or email (SMTP, POP3). If you like, you can temporarily mitigate the risk of some of these vulnerabilities by blocking various Adobe-related files using your Firebox’s proxy services. Such files include, .PDF, .SWF, .DIR, .DCR, and .FLV. That said, many websites rely on these files to display interactive content. Blocking them could prevent some sites from working properly. Furthermore, many businesses rely on PDF files to share documents. Blocking them would affect legitimate files as well. For that reason, we recommend the updates above instead.

Nonetheless, if you choose to block some Adobe files, follow the links below for video instructions on using your Firebox proxy’s content blocking features to block files by their file extensions:

• Firebox X Edge running 10.x
  • How do I block files with the FTP proxy?
  • How do I block files with the HTTP proxy?
  • How do I block files with the POP3 proxy?
  • How do I block files with the SMTP proxy
• Firebox X Core and X Peak running Fireware 10.x
  • How do I block files with the FTP proxy?
  • How do I block files with the HTTP proxy?
  • How do I block files with the POP3 proxy?
  • How do I block files with the SMTP proxy?

Status:

Adobe has released updates to fix these vulnerabilities.

References:

• Adobe Flash Player Security Bulletin
• Adobe Reader Security Bulletin

This alert was researched and written by Corey Nachreiner, CISSP. (@SecAdept)

—

If you require assistance with these or any other computer service related issues in Greenville or Upstate SC, please call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com – We are WatchGuard partners and offer sales and support of their fine line of security appliances to help protect your network!

Homeland Secure IT Alert

In spite of what I said about safe browsing from public wi-fi hotspots using a VPN a while back, it sounds like a “proof of concept” is about to be published which states that the mere action of connecting to a public WiFi hotspot, then establishing the VPN can potentially give away the VPN credentials. This could potentially happen whether it is an open (unsecured) access point, or a rogue (man-in-the-middle) AP.

If this is true, which we should know in a few weeks, then it sounds to me like ditching WiFi all together is not a bad idea if your data is valuable. 3g and 4g connectivity through your wireless provider may well be the best bet.

Obviously, this is not platform specific (Mac would be just as vulnerable as a Windows PC), and it is not a bug in the operating systems or VPN software.

I will be posting more information should it be proven to be a legitimate threat. Until then, stay safe….

Motion CL900 Windows 7 Tablet

I can hardly contain myself! One of our favorite vendors, Seneca Data, just announced a new line of ruggedized tablet computers that they will be offering in the coming months!

The Android and iPad tablet wars are going full strength, but it looks like Microsoft’s Windows 7 isn’t out of the running just yet.

Oh I already hear what you are saying, “Why Windows!??!?!”  The Samsung Galaxy S tablet running Google’s Android OS, the well established Apple iPad and coming 2nd generation iPad are all fun machines, but fall flat when it comes to business applications. Don’t get me wrong, there ARE people using them for business, and there are a growing number of applications for both platforms. However, Microsoft Windows 7 is the cock of the walk when it comes to business use. Over 90% of the applications our clients use are written specifically for Windows, with no support for Apple Mac OS X or mobile / tablet operating systems at all. Most of these Windows applications do not even have comparable or competing applications on other platforms.

That brings us to just why I am excited about the Seneca Data Motion CL900. ALL these Windows applications will run on it because it is running a full Windows 7 Professional OS. That means, our clients who have legal, medical or other proprietary software will no longer have to use a remote desktop application to run the program on a server, they can run it directly on their tablet.

While you would not want to use this type of device for AV editing (I would say Photoshop is out for sure…) it should offer plenty of power to run typical suites of applications, from Microsoft Office, to Prevail, and certainly all cloud computing / SaaS solutions.

Possibly of more importance to many people, this tablet, unlike the current Android and iPad devices, is a ruggedized! It can survive a 4 foot drop as well as being water, dust and splash resistant!

The CL900 allows the use of optional external devices. Currently, the list of devices includes a magnetic stripe readers and a biometric / finger print reader that mount securely to the side of the unit to expand the capabilities.

There is also an optional docking station that permits easy docking for charging, and more comfortable desktop usage…

Some specifications of the CL900 are:

• Intel Atom 1.2Ghz processor designed for tablet computers
• Connectivity via Mobile Broadband, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS
• Ruggedized case. Display features Corning Gorilla Glass
• 10.1” screen featuring HD 1366 X 768 resolution
• Multitouch & active stylus capable
• 10.9″ x 7.06″ x 0.61″
• 2.1 lbs
• Up to 8 hours battery life
• Expandable
• Quick charging

We should have one in our hot little hands to test as soon as it is available and will report back here our thoughts. Until then, we will hang back and wait.

If you would like more information or would like to be notified when the Motion CL900 becomes available, you can reply to this post, or email info@homelandsecureit.com

Stranger lurks behind our office

I was reminded just how useful cameras can be after watching a segment on the news this morning where a young lady was using an inexpensive app on her iPhone that allowed her to check in on her dog by viewing the camera on her PC. She just happened to catch a burglar in the process! More on that HERE.

That story had a pretty happy ending. Through the use of the video captured, the police were able to apprehend the suspect, though I didn’t hear whether her iPod and chargers were recovered. If they have the right guy, thanks to a 5 dollar iPhone app, she helped get one more bad guy off the street.

Over the weekend here at our office, I received emails from our digital network video recorder (DVR / NVR) which alerted me to motion taking place around our building. Police cruisers driving behind the building are not uncommon, but the fella to the right who changed clothes, washed stuff off his boots and hands and left his clothing behind was pretty sketchy.

Thanks to the full motion recordings, we are able to offer law enforcement high quality photo stills and video, complete with time stamps, from several angles and cameras. (We have about 13 cameras around our office).

This type of protection is available for your home and office for an amazingly small investment. We have CCTV and network camera systems to fit every possible scenario and budget. From a single camera at your home, to 4, 8 or 16 at a small business, or even dozens of cameras with pan, tilt and zoom capability at your corporate office. We have cameras available that see in complete darkness, and even cameras that are so small you can’t see them (or may be disguised as a smoke detector, sprinkler head, exit sign, etc).

You can view the cameras in real-time from your iPhone, Android or even Blackberry smartphone, or any web browser, from anywhere in the world! You can be alerted when motion occurs in a particular area via an email. Recordings can be accessed days, weeks or even months after an event occurs.

For a free consultation about how security cameras can help protect your Greenville / Upstate SC property, loved ones, and even reduce your insurance costs, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com.

These predictions are based upon industry news, social media and blog rambling as well as some personal wishes.

Will any of it come to fruition? I guess at the end of 2011 you can remind me how wrong I was.

A few IT Predictions for 2011:

• Google Android based devices will continue to dominate the market in smartphones, pads, and everything else from alarm clocks and personal weather stations to set top boxes.

• Wireless carriers will discover that loading their own “value added” bundled software on top of the phones they sell is really a turn off and that keeping the smartphone just as the manufacturer and OS provider intended it to be will enable a faster rollout of updates and make for happier customers.

• Dish, DirecTV & cable TV providers have a fight on their hands… Services like Netflix and a whole slew of streaming providers will fight to bring first run movies, and streaming of networks via the internet. We will see many new set top boxes, TVs with built-in streaming capability. The most exciting thing will be an the legal battles around this, not really the technology itself.

• Tablet and pad wars will continue. Apple’s iPad II will provide some stiff competition for the Android pads, but be prepared for Android based pads to spring up everywhere as more are cleared for import to the USA.

• Internet Tax? Yep, 2011 is the year. So much revenue is being lost that I predict we will see taxes placed on our online purchases. I believe it will be both good and bad. Some online retailers may no longer be able to beat out the local brick and mortar prices, so that could be good for us smaller guys, but it may slow down the injection of money into the economy. Either way, it’s coming.

• Cloud Computing: Over half of all businesses will look into using cloud based services, whether it is online storage, online backup, online applications like Microsoft BPOS or Google Apps, hosted anti-virus, hosted anti-spam or even hosted VoIP solutions. Of these, 10% will actually make the switch, and half who do make the switch will be totally happy, with the other dissatisfied due to bandwidth or network reliabilty. The number of fully satisfied people will go up as the technology matures.

• Malicious software will affect more Macs and Linux based machines in 2011. We’ve already seen a sharp increase in the number of exploited machines, expect this trend to continue. Add to this smartphones as a target.

• Network Connectivity: Charter Business has just come out with a 75×5 meg Pro75 package. This is great, but I expect this to reach 100×10 by the end of 2011, possibly as a free upgrade like they upgraded the 20meg to 30meg…

What do you think the very near future has in store for us? More solid state storage devices? Hard Drives reaching 5TB?

Either way, we hope you have a very Happy New Year!

I’ve done it myself, installed some game, which states clearly that it will have access to totally unrelated areas of the phone, like the camera, or the GPS.

Well, an article in the Wall Street Journal the other day highlights how the information gathered by these apps is being used. It appears that this behavior is more rampant on the iPhone than on Androids, but the study is not as indepth as it could be for sure.

All I have to say is, whether you are using an Android or an iPhone, be careful out there. You don’t want your phone watching your every move…

What do these terms mean? To over-simplify the definition, it means that something is not stored at your location. It is stored “in the cloud”, or on a remote server, and accessed via the internet. The “it” could be data, as in your databases, email, files, or it could be programs / applications, such as web based suites of software like Microsoft Office suite, including Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word or custom applications.

All this talk about moving to “the cloud”, a term which is generically used for the internet, has people thinking about how it can be used for their business. Let’s take our own small business and use it as an example.

Currently, we use a large server which has Microsoft Server 2008 loaded on it and functions as our domain controller, DNS, DHCP, and other standard server tasks… It also serves as our file server, and it hosts Microsoft Exchange for our in-house email. Other tasks this one piece of hardware is responsible for are: TFTPd for management of our VoIP phone system’s configuration files, backup of data (Using multiple backup systems such as Servosity Online Backup Solution, an “in the cloud” product, and MozyPro) and Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security Advanced for anti-virus and anti-spam.

We have a second server which hosts additional files, Blackberry Enterprise Server (not currently in use due to the switch to Android phones), and is a test bed for us. Then we have two other servers, a Voice over IP server based on Linux OS which is in control of our phone system & voice mail, and a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) for storage of video from our CCTV cameras.

In order to reduce some overhead, we could potentially maintain a smaller main server with only Windows 2008 R2 running on it as a domain controller, then utilize Microsoft Aurora, or even Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), allowing mail storage and transport to take place outside our building.

We could then switch from Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security Advanced to the Trend Hosted solution, relieving our server from those duties.

Since we are already using a remote backup solution, we would not have to worry about that, and our backup requirements would actually drop since we would no longer need to backup the Microsoft Exchange Store (Microsoft would handle that for us with the BPOS solution).

As you can see, eliminating the main server entirely from the equation here is not going to be possible, however a considerable amount of storage, backup, and resources could be moved elsewhere.

One thing to take into consideration before moving to these hosted solutions is, what if our internet is down? That is a good question which still has many people concerned about these technologies. In the case of online file storage, if you do not have cached storage at your location, you simply have no access to it. In the case of mail, if you are caching the information locally, you CAN see your old/existing email, but you cannot send or receive new mail until the connection is reestablished. It is important to note that cloud based email will still RECEIVE email when your business is without an internet connection and you will get it as soon as the connection is reestablished, something that doesn’t happen now if you use an onsite Exchange Server, unless you are using a mail hold & forward (spool) system at your ISP or other provider.

Should you desire to discuss your needs and how products like Microsoft Aurora, BPOS, Google Apps, Servosity and other cloud services can fit into your infrastructure, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for a free consultation!  We are partners with Microsoft, Google, Servosity, MozyPro and other cloud providers. We also offer a full line of computer, server & network service, support, sales and consultation here in Greenville & Upstate SC!

Microsoft is offering a free 30 day trial of their Business Productivity Online Suite if you would like to see it in action.

Homeland Secure IT Alert

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Friday, November 19, 2010

This week, Adobe released additional updates that cover Adobe Reader, Acrobat and Flash Player… The existing bulletin published on October 28th was updated to cover the changes…

I have attached the updated security bulletin below, but in short, if you are using Adobe products, it is important that you apply these updates. The affected platforms are Microsoft Windows & Microsoft Windows Server, Macintosh OS X, UNIX, Solaris, and as well as Android!

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Security Advisory for Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Acrobat

Release date: October 28, 2010

Last updated: November 16, 2010

Vulnerability identifier: APSA10-05

CVE number: CVE-2010-3654

Platform: All Platforms

SUMMARY

A critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Flash Player 10.1.85.3 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems; Adobe Flash Player 10.1.95.2 and earlier versions for Android; and the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX operating systems, and Adobe Acrobat 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

This vulnerability (CVE-2010-3654) could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x. Adobe is not currently aware of attacks targeting Adobe Flash Player.

Adobe recommends users of Adobe Flash Player 10.1.85.3 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris update to Adobe Flash Player 10.1.102.64. Adobe recommends users of Adobe Flash Player 10.1.95.1 for Android update to Adobe Flash Player 10.1.105.6. For More information, please refer to Security Bulletin APSB10-26.

Adobe recommends users of Adobe Reader 9.4 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh update to Adobe Reader 9.4.1, available now. Adobe recommends users of Adobe Reader 9.4 and earlier versions for UNIX update to Adobe Reader 9.4.1, expected to be available on November 30, 2010. Adobe recommends users of Adobe Acrobat 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows and Macintosh update to Adobe Acrobat 9.4.1. For more information, please refer to Security Bulletin APSB10-28.

AFFECTED SOFTWARE VERSIONS

• Adobe Flash Player 10.1.85.3 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems
• Adobe Flash Player 10.1.95.2 and earlier for Android
• Adobe Reader 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX*
• Adobe Acrobat 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows and Macintosh*

*Note: Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.x are confirmed not vulnerable. Adobe Reader for Android is not affected by this issue.

SEVERITY RATING

Adobe categorizes this as a critical issue.

DETAILS

A critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Flash Player 10.1.85.3 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems; Adobe Flash Player 10.1.95.2 and earlier versions for Android; and the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX operating systems, and Adobe Acrobat 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

This vulnerability (CVE-2010-3654) could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x. Adobe is not currently aware of attacks targeting Adobe Flash Player.

Note: Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.x are confirmed not vulnerable. Mitigation is available for Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x customers as detailed above. Adobe Reader for Android is not affected by this issue.

Adobe recommends users of Adobe Flash Player 10.1.85.3 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris update to Adobe Flash Player 10.1.102.64. Adobe recommends users of Adobe Flash Player 10.1.95.1 for Android update to Adobe Flash Player 10.1.105.6. For More information, please refer to Security Bulletin APSB10-26.

Adobe recommends users of Adobe Reader 9.4 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh update to Adobe Reader 9.4.1, available now. Adobe recommends users of Adobe Reader 9.4 and earlier versions for UNIX update to Adobe Reader 9.4.1, expected to be available on November 30, 2010. Adobe recommends users of Adobe Acrobat 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows and Macintosh update to Adobe Acrobat 9.4.1. For more information, please refer to Security Bulletin APSB10-28.

Users may monitor the latest information on the Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team blog at the following URL:http://blogs.adobe.com/psirt or by subscribing to the RSS feed here: http://blogs.adobe.com/psirt/atom.xml.

Adobe actively shares information about this and other vulnerabilities with partners in the security community to enable them to quickly develop detection and quarantine methods to protect users until a patch is available. As always, Adobe recommends that users follow security best practices by keeping their anti-malware software and definitions up to date.

DETAILS

November 16, 2010 – Updated with information on the Adobe Reader and Acrobat updates.
November 9, 2010 – Updated with information on the Flash Player for Android update.
November 4, 2010 – Updated with information on Security Bulletin APSB10-26.
November 2, 2010 – Updated information on the release schedule.
October 28, 2010 – Advisory released.

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If you require any assistance with these or any other updates, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We provide full computer and network service, support, repair and consultation to the Greenville / Upstate SC region!

Homeland Secure IT Alert

My thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy S Epic 4G after EXTENSIVE use are pretty much what I knew the day we first got them:

• Short battery life (Have increased that significantly through smarter usage of the device)
• Screen Unlock goes up/down (vertical) instead of from one side to the other like most, which is not a big deal, but takes a longer stroke to unlock
• Charging port is on TOP of the device, which pulls the phone away from your ear when using a coiled car charger and puts undo stress on the port
• When plugged in, still goes to sleep the same as when on battery (there may be a setting that I have not found)

Those are the major negatives, but overall, this phone rocks! Glad we moved all our business phones to this device.

We have now obtained another Samsung Galaxy phone, and this time it is the Samsung Fascinate, on Verizon. This is my wife’s phone and she too has moved to an Android from a Blackberry.

The Fascinate is a great phone, and I like it better than the Epic 4G for many reasons, one of which is that I didn’t really need that slide out keyboard, which just makes for a bulkier phone, but also, battery life seems to be better on the Fascinate, while still being super fast and having that brilliant display that the Epic 4G does. It also does not go to sleep while plugged in like the Epic 4G does.

A few of the negatives:

• Shorter battery life than the Blackberry (duh, much larger display, more going on here folks!)
• Charging port is on the top… Only important if using the phone while plugged in.
• No dedicated camera button
• No front facing camera
• No notification light (There are some apps for a workaround)
• And the number one annoyance – Verizon forced BING on the Fascinate owners. Again, workarounds exist, but why oh why do you have to be locked into something you don’t want?

In all, the Fascinate is another amazing smartphone from Samsung.

Last but not least, let me tell you about my first impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S Tab… I love this thing! After suffering with a low-budget 7 inch Android tablet I told you about months ago, I finally got to experience the Android OS on something that can actually support it nicely.

The Sumsung Tab is a 7 inch tablet that is basically an over-grown Samsung cell phone. It has all the features, except the ability to use it as a phone that you hold up against your ear (which would look kinda silly).

It really is an impressive device! The Tab is blazing fast, changes screens instantly, changes orientation instantly, shows HD video in beautiful color and motion.

What’s not to like? Well, it is NOT a phone. You can text msg with it, but not use it with bluetooth to replace a phone. The camera is only 3 Megapixel, but it’s not meant to replace your  dSLR camera after all.  And the price is a bit on the high side, but I imagine that will drop after Christmas, or at least I hope it does.  I checked out the Verizon Tab, but it is available at Sprint as well, for 399 with a 50 dollar instant rebate, with the purchase of a 29.99/mo 2GB plan.

Without a plan, expect to pay close to 600 I hear, making it pricier than an iPad. Which is going to be the obvious question on your mind… “Should I get an iPad or a Samsung Pad?”. Well that depends. The iPad is bigger, and well established, but we are days away from a 7″ iPad release. Obviously if you are a big Apple fanatic, with a lot of iTunes music, an iPad is a no-brainer, however, if you have no ties to Apple or iTunes, the Samsung Galaxy S Tab would likely be the best bet for you.

Planning on using a tablet for work on your Microsoft Terminal Server or via Remote Desktop? Using the Wyse app, the Tab would be terrific!

I was asked via Twitter if the Tab felt odd in my hand, in particular the back of the device. I did not notice anything of that nature, it felt natural, like I needed to leave the store with it my hand, but my wifey @PamelaHoyt wouldn’t allow that after the purchase of her new phone.

I’ll keep you up to date on the Fascinate purchase…. Until then, if you need any assistance getting your Android phone setup to work with your Microsoft Exchange Server in the Greenville or Upstate area, please give us a call at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com, we service & support for computers and mobile devices.

Seidio Innocase Surface for Samsung Epic 4g

So you bought the coolest phone you could find and now you want to protect it…

That was our situation a couple weeks ago and we looked high and low for quality cases and holsters for the Samsung Epic 4g and everything we found was cheaply made.

Enter the Seidio Innocase Surface for the Epic 4g. Wow, this is a great case, and it has a matching holster that makes it a complete deal. We are in the computer service industry and constantly using our phones, so the quality of the holster is very important. In fact, having a reliable and rugged holster was one reason we stuck with the Blackberry so long, as RIM has done it right all along.

Back to the Seidio product… You can buy just the case, or you can buy the case and holster combo for a few dollars more.

The case snaps firmly to the phone and does not interfere with any of the functions, including the slide-out keyboard. It has a rubberized finish that sticks nicely in your hand, and I can assure you it is pretty robust as I have already tested it. It is available in all the normal colors one would expect; Sapphire Blue, Burgundy, Rose Pink, Amethyst (pictured to the left), Black, Ash Grey and Sage. We purchased cases in purple (That’s mine), Blue and Red and love the colors.

Seidio Innocase Holster

The holster is designed to work only if you have the Seidio Innocase Surface installed on your phone. It features a spring loaded release, and a snug fit that cradles the phone with the faceplate facing inward. The belt clip feels strong and secure. This holster rotates from vertical to horizontal layouts for wearing on your left or right sides.

For more information about Seidio’s products, visit their website at www.SeidioOnline.com. Though we have only had experience with the Innocase Surface for the Samsung Epic 4g, if the rest of their products are anything like these, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Several forums discuss workarounds that should get you going, such as having the VoIP system convert the audio file to MP3 format, but there is an easier way than that.

We found a great Android app in the Market Place that handles this perfectly! For the price of only 99 cents, you can open your emails, and if they contain WAV file attachments, play them, instead of possibly saving them, then using another media player to listen.

There are probably free apps that will do the same thing, however, this one tested well and performs as expected, so I will recommend it to you.

Search the Android Market Place for “WavPlayer”, it is by Dennis Lockshine.

Once installed, open an email with a voice mail (WAV) attachment and you can then PLAY. When prompted, select the WAV Player app…

If you are using another app, maybe a free one, or a more full featured one, I would love to hear from you… If you are in the Greenville / Upstate SC area and need help with this app or your VoIP system, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com