Swine Flu (H1N1): Prepare workers to work from home

It's in the papers every day. Updates and instructions are being sent home from school. This will be a BAD flu season! During the week of September 13-19, indicators show that flu activity is increasing. Check out the CDC web site for detailed information: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

Wash your hands frequently, cough and sneeze into your arm or a tissue (not your hand), and get prepared NOW to be able to work from home with remote network access in case you need to. The CDC is advising everyone who gets sick to STAY home. Maybe it won't be you, but your children may be sent home for a week.

There are MANY great options to work remotely, so just pick one and don't make it a last minute panic. LogMeIn, Remote Desktop, GoToMyPC, VPN (Virtual Private Network) -- all are great options that don't cost a lot. A small effort today to configure remote access will mean less down time when/if schools are closed or you get sick. Pick a solution, get it configured, and you will have one less thing to worry about.

MA Data Protection Law Extended AGAIN (Really!)

Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick announced yesterday that the Massachusetts Data Protection Law deadline has been extended once again to March 1, 2010 - http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocatopic&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Identity+Theft&sid=Eoca

One of the big considerations in the latest extension is to take into account the need to balance consumer protection and business expenses, especially for small businesses who don't have the resources for an extensive network overhaul (in the midst of a bad recession).

The guidelines in the new law - firewall protection, antivirus protection, anti-spyware protection, and encryption all make business sense right now. Getting a new law into effect is a complicated process, but this should NOT be a signal to businesses to be lax about security measures. The budgetary estimates on the Mass web site are WAY over-stated. A few simple measures right now could vastly improve small business data security, and it doesn't need to be complicated! We are continuing to urge all clients to evaluate their security loopholes NOW and take the simple strategic actions that don't need to cost a lot.

Alt+F4 – First Line of Defense Against a Virus

Do you have a computer virus? Big trend these days is that a pop-up appears that looks like a real Windows dialog box, but it's actually just a disguised web pop-up trying to trick you into clicking on some message like "update my AntiVirus now". Sometimes, even if you hit the "x" to close the window you get into trouble (becuase its NOT a real Windows dialog box).

What can you do? Use the keyboard short-cut "Alt+F4"– to close windows without touching them – the first line of virus defense once it has hit the desktop

HP Notebook Battery Recall

HP is voluntarily recalling about 70,000 Lithium-Ion notebook batteries which pose a fire and burn risk for consumers.

The affected models include:

HP Pavilion: dv2000, dv2500, dv2700, dv6000, dv6500, dv6700, dv9000, dv9500, dv9700
Compaq Presario: A900, C700, F700, V3000, V3500, V3700, V6000, V6500, V6700
HP: G6000, G7000
HP Compaq: 6720s

Visit the Consumer Product and Safety website for more details:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09221.html

Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications - Installation Wizard

Many users have asked us about this, and perhaps it's happened to you... Have you turned on your computer recently to find a pop-up from Microsoft on your screen for Windows Genuine Advange Notifications - Installation Wizard?

We advise all clients to be VERY cautious when they see something they don't recognize on their system. This recent deployment by Microsoft is unfortunate, because the window that pops up looks just like all the bogus AntiVirus 2009 and other malware threats that have circulated around recently. Many users have been alarmed by it.

The Window Genuine Advantage program is Microsoft's Anti-Piracy program. The sofware detects if you have a legal license, and will warn you if you don't. If your software is not legal, then you won't be eligible for automatic updates (except for Critical updates). The problem is that if you are an honest customer, you've already paid and this is a real nuisance. If your system is set to get Automatic Updates with Automatic Installation, then this would have been automatically installed. Typically, we recommend selectively installing updates to avoid things like this.

Microsoft is getting some angry feedback from customers, so I would hope they'd change this in the future.

An Easy Way to Send Photos to Non-Techies

As much as I love technology, I haven't been able to get my parents to fully embrace the digital age. A while back, I was talking to my parents about some pictures I had emailed them.... I was disappointed to hear that they hadn't seen them yet! My parents just aren't on their computer all the time. Then my mom complained that the pictures are hard to print and they never come out right.... too big, no ink...

I figured I could go back to the old-fashioned way of mailing pictures of the grandkids, but that doesn't have the immediate gratification effect (for me, anyway). I searched on line and found a really great solution. At www.walgreens.com, you can upload digital photos and submit them for 1 hour processing to be picked up anywhere (over 6,000 locations). For a stack of pictures, you may expect to pay just a few dollars. The prints are excellent, and my parents actually enjoy the trip out to get the photos. It doesn't cost any more than printing them locally (because its all electronic anyway!). Now I just upload the photos, order prints to be picked up in Florida, and then my Dad gets them in an hour!

Major Wave of Computer Viruses

Be aware! Over the past few weeks we have seen a big increase in viruses. We're seeing rootkits that are doing a lot of damage. A rootkit is a collection of programs that enable administrative access to a computer. A rootkit can consist of spyware that monitors keystrokes or web traffic, and it can also create a "backdoor" for altering log files, and altering existing system tools to escape detection.

If you are running a free version of Antivirus protection on your system, be aware that you may not have rootkit protection.

Things to watch for:

1. Check your antivirus program. Make sure it has rootkit protection. Also make sure that its up to date - some viruses disable Antivirus software and you may not even notice it.
2. Take care when you take your work laptop home. Are all the systems on your home network up to date with with patches and Antivirus protection? Typically, people take good care of their "work" systems, but you may be risking your system when you put it on your home network.
3. Watch for a slow system, or things like web site re-directs. These are signs that you may be infected.

Here are a few tools we've found useful for viruses that aren’t removed by the installed AV software:

Root Kit Revealer – Shows you what is starting up (Saves a lot of time of checking the registry, also scans the hard drive).
HiJackThis – More in depth than rootkit revealer (BHOs). I’ve found it missed rootkits most of the time I’ve encountered them.
ComboFix – Good tool to use after running HiJackThis. Also has some built in rootkit removers for common rootkits. I typically use it just for the rootkit removal.

Another helpful thing for badly damaged systems is to remove the hard drive from the system and then run the tools.

I actually had a virus on my own system for the first time ever a few weeks ago, so I know this problem is bad. I am extremely careful with my systems - up to date patches and regular AV system scans, so don't think you're system is safe! The good news is I noticed a problem immediately and was able to remove the malware in "safe mode". Don't panic, take action immediately to solve the problem. If you catch the problem before a re-boot, you may avoid over-writing system files which would cause a lot of damage.