Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at 8:15AM If you have subscribed to Office 365 with either Microsoft’s Small Business Essentials, Premium or any of their Enterprise Level products then you have SharePoint available to you. The following video gives you some insight into some of the things that you can use SharePoint for and make it another useful tool for your organization.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at 1:34PM When putting together all of the pieces that you need to be able to recover from a security attack have you left anything out? It might be Cyber insurance.
When we are designing a system to mitigate the harm from a Cyber Attack we look at multiple factors. First you need a solid firewall that is being updated to keep its security functions as current as possible. Secondly you need protection on your workstations with malware/antivirus protection (endpoint protection). If you choose the right vendor and the right products from the right vendor you can have these two security points synchronizing their support. This provides an extra layer of protection that you don’t find in other vendor’s products. Sophos is the only company out their that has this kind of synchronized security and the integration of all the products providing this is just on the horizon.
Second, you need a backup solution that provides a full image of your network. This allows you to dial back time to be able to restore to a point that dates prior to your attack/infection. If you don’t have this some of the attacks can cause you to do a full restore of the system and to then have to recreate your data if you don’t have it backed up.
So how do you pay for all of this labor to get you back to normal after an attack. Along comes Cyber Insurance. What is Cyber Insurance? I was reading an article from TechCrunch that defined it as follows:
Cyber insurance is a sub-category within the general insurance industry, offering products and services designed to protect businesses from internet-based risks. Although forms of cyber insurance policies have been around for the past 10 years, market awareness has recently increased exponentially, in part because of the headline-grabbing cyber breaches that have hit almost every industry.
Asking your Insurance Company about Cyber Insurance may cause you to look into increasing you front line defenses before they will cover you. You will need to comply with their basic security requirements before they write the policy. This will be an additional expense to you to become compliant. So it is important to choose the right products and be doing the right procedures to ensure that you are providing yourself the best security that you can.
This is why security has become one of our main focal points. It is really getting scary out there.
For more information on Sophos Synchronized Security down these papers:
Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 9:25AM While the article that I would appoint you to is actually “How to keep up productivity when freelancing, with cloud computing", I think we can all take bits and pieces of this and apply them to our daily work life as well. You don't have to be a freelance worker to see some of the benefits that you would have from leveraging cloud computing components. I think this is a great article to take note of to see how many of the new millennial members of our society probably be working in the future. They are more attuned to using the devices to be connected to each other and it is not a far reach make as part of their work life as well. This is a great lesson on how to be able to be working from anywhere, anytime that suits you. Something as I get older is part of my wish list. I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this.
Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 11:51AM It is in the news all the time it seems that someone is bullied or some tragedy has occurred because of online bullying and abuse.
With a significant number of young people using the internet compared to their adult counterparts, and over 80% of teens regularly using a cell phone, chances are your children are vulnerable to online dangers.
Whether it’s your child joining the more than 50% that have experienced cyber bullying, or falling victim to malware attacks, being online can be a risky place for children.
Take a look at their article.
Friday, June 10, 2016 at 11:36AM Our own Matt Shafer just posted to us that Sophos has just pushed out a new maintenance release for the XG firewall, including a number of fixes for open issues.
Please direct your customers to the Sophos Community Blog for XG Firewall to review the release notes and share their feedback.
As a reminder, our communications plan for all maintenance releases like this is to publish notifications and release notes on the Sophos Community Blog, so we encourage everyone, such as yourselves and customers, to subscribe to the blog – you'll get immediate notifications via email whenever an XG Firewall or UTM firmware update is available. Complete instructions on how to subscribe are located in this blog article.
Download full release notes: Sophos XG Firewall V15.0.1.0 MR3 Release Notes.pdf
If you’re wondering how to do firmware updates or roll-backs on your XG Firewall, we’ve got a new video for you, covering everything you need to know to keep your firewall up to date.
Friday, June 10, 2016 at 11:29AM Our own Michael Hunter posted two links about the new Lenovo Phone products offerings:
Friday, June 10, 2016 at 11:27AM Windows Store is a "disaster?" That's what one source close to Microsoft says, dishing out a number of troubling comments about Microsoft's cross-platform play ambitions.
Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 12:46PM I had read an earlier article about how to prevent Snoops from stalking you in Waze with “ghost” drivers on Naked security that discussed an paper published by a team of researchers from the University of California at Santa Barbara claiming they can track a Waze driver’s exact route using thousands of simulated “ghost” vehicles in the app.
If you’re not familiar with Waze, it’s a Google-owned app that relies on crowdsourcing as people report accidents, traffic jams, and speed and police traps, while its online map editor gives drivers updates on roads, landmarks, house numbers, and the cheapest nearby fuel.
Naked Security has a take on another problem that has been reported with this Google Application. It appears a quiet neighborhood in Takoma Park, Maryland has been invaded by drivers trying to find a shortcut around a construction area. One of the residents then tried to turn the tide by posting bogus traffic data to trick the app into sending motorists away from his area.
He lasted about two weeks before Waze kicked him out for reporting bogus data. Take a look at the article it has a lot if interesting detail.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016 at 9:19AM Our own Carnegie Mellon’s Security and Privacy Institute tested a group of people to determine their understanding of what makes a strong password. Naked Security’s ArticleNaked Security’s Article posted yesterday discusses this and the main thing that I took from the article is the following:
CyLab’s respondents knew passwords are more secure when you:
- Capitalize the middle of words rather than the beginning
- Place digits and symbols in the middle rather than the end
- Use random digit sequences instead of obvious ones, like years
- Choose words other than common first names
- Avoid words that are personal to you, like your child’s name
- Avoid words that are obviously related to the site or account you’re trying to protect
So when you are creating a new password to secure a site you may want to take direction from above.
Here is a video from Naked Security on how to pick a proper password:
Wednesday, June 8, 2016 at 8:59AM There is been a lot of discussion here at the office lately about whether or not TeamViewer has been hacked, so I have been keeping my eye out for any confirmation from some of the sources that I trust as to whether or not this actually has happened. One of the sources I trust is Sophos’s Naked Security Blog has finally come out with a an article discussing this.
The article discusses what TeamViewer does and how it's being compromised will affect you if you are using this application. Click on the link above to see the full article.
ArsTechnica three days ago posted a report that confirms there was a number of abused user accounts and that the number is significant as reported by TeamViewer themselves.
On Sunday, TeamViewer spokesman Axel Schmidt ack he nowledged to Ars that the number of takeovers was "significant," but he continued to maintain that the compromises are the result of user passwords that were compromised through a cluster of recently exposed megabreaches involving more than 642 million passwords belonging to users of LinkedIn, MySpace, and other services.
TeamViewer thinks that the compromise that they use another applications comes from individuals reusing passwords that have been compromised.They are suggesting that you use the two factor authentication to control any type of issue with the accounts that are using this program. This is a smart thing to do in any case with almost any application that you are using.Take a look at the ArsTechnica article to get the more in depth view conversation that they had with the people at TeamViewer.
Friday, June 3, 2016 at 6:35PM Specifically, the NAA says in its complaint, adblocker companies mislead consumers by positioning their products as a way to block “bad ads” based on opaque rules for acceptable ads, when in fact adblocker companies like Adblock Plus allow some advertisements to be displayed if the advertiser pays Adblock Plus a fee.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016 at 7:57AM There are quite a few questions that you will have to ask yourself before you should pull the trigger. With the deadline coming up the end of July, 2016, You have just a short time to make your decision before it costs you money to do the upgrade instead of being free.
With all of these things in mind and you want to make the leap, this is the time to do it. Make sure you have good backups before starting the process and follow the instructions exactly. Microsoft has a booklet that will help you through the process located right here.
Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 1:39PM If you were using Adobe’s Revel to save documents to the service is going to be gone after June 24th, 2016. Adobe just sent out notification that you will lose any pictures that are still stored on the service after this date. So you will want to be sure that you download what you have there before it goes away. Click on the Download to my computer link here.
Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 12:05PM Important notice
We're ending support for our older security products
You are under attack from increasingly sophisticated malware and ransomware. AVG strives to offer the best protection. We're ending support for our older desktop security products and updating customers to our 2016 version for FREE for the remainder of their license term to provide them with our latest protection.
With baked-in AI Detection and Real-Time Outbreak Detection technology, our 2016 antivirus products earned a 6/6 Protection score from AV-Test.org and offer improved malware, spyware, and ransomware protection. They're also fully compatible with the newest version of Windows®.
Which products are affected? Support en ds for the following products on Oct. 31, 2016:
Support ends for the following products on Dec. 31, 2016:
What happens when support ends? After support has ended, the above products will no longer be available for download, and no further virus definition updates, bug fixes, maintenance, or technical support will be provided. Some security features may also stop working.
What should you do? Before support ends, we'll attempt to push a FREE UPDATE to all customers to automatically upgrade them to the newest version of their product. If you don't receive the update, or would prefer to update at your own convenience, you can also download our newest version here for free.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 2:49PM So I just was notified that I have Planner now available in my office 365 APP grouping. So what is it? From the Microsoft Office Blogs we get the following: Teamwork! It is all about teamwork and this application is hoping to be the go to APP to give that to you.
Office 365 Planner, which offers people a simple and highly visual way to organize teamwork. Planner makes it easy for your team to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, share files, chat about what you’re working on, and get updates on progress. Planner can be used to manage a marketing event, brainstorm new product ideas, track a school project, prepare for a customer visit, or just organize your team more effectively.
Q. Which Office 365 plans are eligible for Planner preview?
A. The following plans are eligible for Planner preview: Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E4, Office 365 Enterprise E5, Office 365 Education, Office 365 Education E3, Office 365 Education E4, Office 365 Business Essentials and Office 365 Business Premium. When generally available, Planner will be included in several additional Office 365 plans. Stay tuned for more details.
Q. How can customers join the preview program for Planner?
A. Starting Q4 of this calendar year, Planner will be available in preview to Office 365 First Release customers. Setup instructions will be sent to eligible Office 365 administrators once the preview is available for use within their tenant.
Q. Which Office 365 plans are eligible for Planner when generally available?
A. Planner will be included in the Office 365 Enterprise E1–E5 subscription plans (including corresponding Government and Non-Profit), Office 365 Business Essentials and Premium plans, and Office 365 Education.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 1:23PM
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Monday, May 23, 2016 at 9:42AM Announcing content viewing for Skype for Business on Android and updates to iOS
Microsoft says they have greatly enhanced content view/sharing especially on Android devices. You are now able to view the presenter’s desktop, a big benefit in most meetings and training events.
Microsoft also states that they have improved connectivity even in poor conditions. You now have the ability to switch over to a cellular connection when the WiFi connection is too weak to support the connection.
Upgrade your app today
In most cases, you should automatically be getting our app updates. If your updates are set to manual, make sure you get the latest version from the Google Play or Apple Store. If you are not yet using Skype for Business on your mobile phone or tablet, download and start using it today.
Sunday, May 22, 2016 at 11:39AM Here is an interesting junction for two of my favorite subjects, Football and Technology. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is experimenting with remote-controlled Robotic Tackling Dummies. Developed at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Technology introduced to the Steelers by former Dartmouth Quarterback Danny Rooney, scout for the Steelers and son of Steeler president Art Rooney II.
Mike Tomlin says that the players are even coming up with ideas to help in practice. They were originally developed to help decrease injuries to players during practice.
Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering came up with the idea of a mobilized tackling dummy. Mobile Virtual Player, which is in a testing phase, has the ability to cut, weave, stop and start just like a real player along and can be tackled.
Sunday, May 22, 2016 at 11:11AM This is question and I have an Anti-Virus program on my machine, WHY DID I GET INFIECTED? are questions that are brought up so often. The reality of the situation is that there is no defense that is 100%. When you realize that and if you are watchful of where you go on the internet and what you are doing when you are there, you can reduce the chance of your getting infected. There are a lot of reasons for something nasty to get past your malware protection. Many of the start with you! Don’t be “Click Happy”. Think before you take the big leap.
Take a look at this article to give you some more detailed thoughts on this but here is a brief list of issues they outline that could cause these issues:
Are you safe if:
- You aren’t regularly deploying the latest security patches?
- You disabled a security feature after a user complained Facebook was slower?
- You have unprotected mobile devices that can connect to file shares?
- Your email doesn’t get scanned for viruses and spam?
- Visitors can access your Wi-Fi, which is on the same network as your servers?
- Anyone is allowed to turn on macros in Office documents they receive via email?
- Users can read files they shouldn’t access at all and write to files they shouldn’t change?
- You don’t require users to choose suitable passwords?
- You ignore alerts from your security software that are warning you something is wrong?
- You’ve forgotten about those old XP machines still running in the basement?
