Eset Early 2020 false positive

In order to log a case, I posted this image so that you said engineers can identify a message on windows 10 that Windows 7 is no longer in support.

Microsoft Office 365 / Office 2013 Activation Problems

While Office 2013 has a cloud storage component (today called Skydrive), there are times that subscription payers may receive an error that says
"Sorry, we are having temporary server issues."
Additionally, using a trial version again, on a machine that has experienced this issue, COULD give you a warning that you need to ACTIVATE, but you still cannot activate.

This problem is associated with subscription users of the Office 2013 Home Premium or Office 365 Home Premium.

This product has very poor error messages and informational messages that do not represent the true problem.  Yet, solution to this problem is simple and time consuming.

You need to make sure the computer is connected to a FAST internet connection. With a FAST Internet connection, the removal and installation of this product is time consuming. Expect 30 minutes to remove, and over 45 minutes to install.
You will also need to make sure you are connected to a power line, and that your control panel power saving status (sleep or hybernate) is basically off for non-battery settings.

1. Access your subscription account webpage.

2. Close the current instance of all Office 2013, or Office 365 programs, and make sure the computer is not running any processes in the process tab of the task manager.

3. Go back to the webpage, which should still be logged in to the subscription account information, and go to the ACTIVATION section. DEACTIVATE the particular device that is allocated to the problematic machine.

4. From the control panel - choose the upper left pull-down and change to the option "Small Icons",  the select "Programs and Features", once the entire list displays, click ONCE on the item "Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium" and then choose the button at the top of this list "Uninstall" This will take a while.

5. Once the uninstallation is complete, you can go back to the Office 365 Subscription page, and download the installer using the green Install button. Avoid using the Trial installation download, as well as older downloads from previous attempts. The file that starts the download is very small, but the actual 'streaming' installation process will take a long time. A very long time.

Once installed, you should no longer experience the error, nor that Activation issue.
For more help on technology problems, or security concerns, review our main blog at http://menlotechnical.com/blog.

Security - More than 700,000 APPs in the Android Market Place (High Risk)

Android Devices Remain Dangerous to the Enterprise and Small Business. Image complements of visnetwork

There is a concept in business IT to stop being "structured" and "uptight" about allowing wireless devices to be a part of a corporate campus. While a Blackberry Server and Blackberry devices were a standard for a long time, newer devices to compete with this network model have brought critics forward to claim the older Blackberry model is pointless and pre-historic.  Yet the design of Blackberry - and its security - has allowed it permission to be a standard in the enterprise. Pundits of this architecture typically have no response to the security aspect of adopting new wireless devices to a business network.  This concept is also known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and continues to be a hot topic in business. While people want the easy approach of simply buying something at the store and connecting it to a corporate network, the security problems this causes are too vast and dangerous to ignore.
This is reviewed and discussed in this great post at CIO.gov.

A recent Trend-Micro report states that over 700,000 apps are likely to steal your personal information.  This is up from 509,000 last QUARTER.

According to the people at Neowin, they highlight findings of the TrendMicro report:

The majority of these malicious apps are disguised as popular apps, but contain malware that could see victims subscribe to costly services. FAKEBANK is a common and prominent malware that does just this. By spoofing "legitimate apps", it creates shortcuts to mobile banking programs. Johnathan Leopando, of Trend Micro, says infected users may then be at risk of entering their banking details into a malicious app.

Additionally, on July 23, 2013, trade magazine Infoworld printed Report: Android Spyware on the Rise discussing a recent Malware investigation report by Kindsight. The report findings review the most popular recent infections, vectors and behaviors:

The malware threat most commonly seen on Android devices was an adware Trojan program called Uapush.A that sends SMS messages and steals information, Kindsight said. Uapush.A was responsible for around 53 percent of the total number of infections detected on Android devices.
The second-most-common Android threat was a Trojan program called QdPlugin, whose primary purpose is to install and control other adware programs. This malware is distributed as repackaged versions of legitimate games and connects to a control server located in the U.S.
A particularly worrying trend is the increase in the number of spyware threats that appear in the top 20, according to Kindsight. Spyware programs can typically record phone calls and text messages; track the phone's location; monitor email, social media and browsing activity; access photos and contact information, and more.
"Until now mobile spyware has been aimed at the consumer market, with the promise of being able to track your loved one's every move through their phone," said Kevin McNamee, security architect and director of Alcatel-Lucent's Kindsight Security Labs, in a blog post Tuesday. "But locating teenagers and a straying spouse are only one part of the story."
"Mobile spyware in the 'Bring Your Own Device' context poses a threat to enterprises because it can be installed surreptitiously on an employee's phone and used for industrial or corporate espionage," McNamee said.

While this is nothing new to discuss and blog about (see titles below), it remains a significant security concern for the businesses we help at Menlo Technical Consulting.

Malware Infections Soar on Android Devices Over Recent Past   3/20/2012  
Android Mobile Devices are Targets for Malware   12/26/2011  
eWeek periodical says more advanced trends for breaches 2012   12/20/2011  
Why Android is Still a Problem in the Enterprise   10/22/2011
Android – Marketplace Apps 400% Spyware Increase   5/13/2011


Interesting Infographics on the topic:
Kaspersky Labs Infographic 1

Kaspersky Labs Infographic 2

Universities Warned to Protect Their Computer Networks from China

In a July 16, 2013 article, a New York Times article Universities Face a Rising Barrage of Cyberattacks, Stanford University computer networks were attacked by China sources according to the article.  In another article about the same incident, Stanford Probes Breach, As Attacks on Universities Soar.

The attacks have been increasing in sophistication as well as in frequency, often going undetected, which is prompting university officials to reconsider the open nature of their networks.

“A university environment is very different from a corporation or a government agency, because of the kind of openness and free flow of information you’re trying to promote,” David J. Shaw, the chief information security officer at Purdue University, told the Times. “The researchers want to collaborate with others, inside and outside the university, and to share their discoveries.”

Some research universities work with government agencies on classified projects, but even those that don’t, like Stanford, still work on projects that produce patents and other intellectual property used in commercial, medical and academic fields. And intellectual property has become the prime target of many cyberattacks, officials say.

 

A threat map showing trace lines of where some attacks to the USA originate.

 

University attacks are gaining momentum and are very insipid.  According to Bill Mellon of the University of Wisconsin:

“We get 90,000 to 100,000 attempts per day, from China alone, to penetrate our system,” said Mr. Mellon, the associate dean for research policy. “There are also a lot from Russia, and recently a lot from Vietnam, but it’s primarily China.”

China and Russian Federation are two most frequent countries where unsolicited attacks come from, as a consensus of many computer security researchers. In today's cyberthreat landscape, universities, small to large businesses  - of all types, as well as non-profits should be most concerned about blocking these Internet traffic sources as much as possible. Today a simple subscription to an annual firewall protection service may be all that is needed to avoid these attacks.  Most institutions do not need to allow Internet traffic from China nor the Russian Federation.

One source of this problem are network capable printers. Another article in GCN.com How Hackers can Turn the Internet of Things into a Weapon explains, printers can allow easy access to any hacker who has found his or her way past the security of a private computer network.  Such devices have insecure webpages to help maintain things like drum life, toner quantity, number of printed pages, etc. Until businesses who produce these devices improve the security of them, it is very important to immediately alter the security on these devices to prevent the harboring of infections on private computer networks.

To view the daily reporting of attacks over the Internet, stop by ShawdowServer.org dedicated webpage to view statistics of these attacks.  Or consider visiting the threat portal at ArborNetworks.com for their interpretation of current Internet attack trends.

DDoS Attacks Stopping Websites from Working Summer 2013

There used to be a misconception that if everyone flushed their toilet at the same time, the water supply demand would break. The same idea was behind a strike of buying gas when the prices go up - stop buying gas to protest the price increase. We hope that democratic societies allow for voting to get a certain politician into office works the same way.
That same concept - for many members of a group to cause a strong effect on a few, is used in the computer / Internet world. Specifically the 'bad guys' who are trying to get notoriety for respect, or earn money for doing bad things on behalf of others, have devised a similar idea in the Internet world.

The Internet is a lot like automobile roads and traffic. It was designed to handle a huge amount of traffic and do so through routes that are shortest path to their destination.  Hackers have figured out that they can take control of many computers and use them to attack a few machines at specific locations - like Visa, Bank of America, Macy's, government web sites, or even Internet providers like Comcast and website hosting places like GoDaddy.

HOW DDoS WORKS
Simply explained - the attack is easy to understand; an individual has control over a bunch of 'drone' or 'zombie' computers (which have previously been infected with a Botnet, allow hackers to control them from anywhere in the world, whenever they want) to attempt to go to a website.
Typically websites are designed to handle 30 to 75 people looking at a website at once. Bigger companies can handle much more simultaneous traffic.  When the amount of people looking at the same time goes up to 10,000, it may be difficult to 'serve' those 'webpage requests' all at once. Hackers will employ tens of thousands of machines to view a website, at the same time, which in effect with cripple the website from displaying.  This effect is called a Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDoS) attack.  Other attacks are based around attacking the machines which help route a PC to the particular page they are trying to visit. This second explanation is what has just happened over the past several months. (BIND 9 has been patched for a vulnerability.)

Recently layman's tools to command and control these kinds of Botnet infected PC's have become readily available. As recently as mid-June 2013 through August 2013, many many websites are made unavailable because of DDoS attacks, or intercepting an unpatched website look up machine.  The effect of which is over 700,000 websites stopped working in July 2013.

MOTIVATION OF HACKERS
In some cases, their motivation is political - to free a political prisoner, or to represent ideologies.  But the DDoS tools are so common today that many attacks are now done because 'it can be done,' and it will provide credibility to various hackers for respect of other, more powerful hackers. I do not want to get into the childish psychology of these 'younger' hackers, but in general it is no longer just for a specific political purpose. It is for personal gain and an individual's ranking in a type of hacker social stratum. 

Neustar has created a helpful infographic showing the 2012 DDoS statistics, as compared to 2011 DDoS data. Kaspersky Labs has created this infographic to help understand how Botnet's effect your computer as well as the Internet at large.

For more detailed information on DDoS attacks, here are a few websites explaining the types, trends, technologies and effect on the world:

ArborNetworks.com Live Threat Portal
NetworkComputing.com DDoS Attacks Getting Bigger, Report Finds
ComputerWeekly.com  New Threat Portal pegs DDoS Attacks at 2570 per Day
Rivalhost.com 12 Types of DDoS Attacks Used by Hackers
Akamai.com The Challenge: Safeguarding Against DDoS Attacks
Verizon Enterprise 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report
Rivalhost.com Understanding Web Threats: Denial of Service Attacks
eWeek.com How Do Booters Work? Inside a DDoS Attack for Hire
Circleid.com 5 Steps to Prepare for a DDoS Attack
Bankinfosecurity.com Who's Really Behind DDoS?

Snall Business Is Still a Hacker's Main Target

Recent reports still show that the hacking community is still targeting small business for their lack of regularly updated security practices in IT. So if you are operating a small business and have not taken your computer security seriously, you should.

Rackspace Hosted Exchange SMTP Changes

Rackspace has decided to improve their email security for their clients and resellers. This means SOME people who have been using their SMTP servers (secure.emailsrvr.com) as CRAM-MD5, will have to reconfigure their email clients to new outgoing email server settings.

This update will only effect users of the following email clients:
 - Mozilla Thunderbird
 - Apple Mail Client (Apple Mail app on iMac's)
 - Older Apple iPad's, iPhones and iPod's that have not upgraded to iOS 6.x


Here is the official announcement and details:

On June 26, 2013, Rackspace will be performing a maintenance on the Rackspace Email and Microsoft Hosted Exchange environments which will remove the ability for mail clients to send mail using the legacy authentication protocol, CRAM-MD5. Once removed, a very small portion of our customers may lose the ability to send mail until their mail client's SMTP authentication method is changed.

Why is Rackspace making this change? Rackspace is continually striving to improve the quality, usability, and security of our mail offering. While CRAM-MD5 is a secure authentication protocol, the industry as a whole has been migrating away from using this mechanism. The recommended method for sending mail today is to use PLAIN/PASSWORD authentication over an SSL or TLS connection.

Will I be impacted? Our extensive testing in preparation for this maintenance has proven that the vast majority of mail clients do not use CRAM-MD5 by default. It is very difficult to pinpoint each and every mail client, version, device, etc that could be impacted, although we do know that if you are running one of the following configurations you could be impacted by this change:

- Thunderbird
- Apple Mail (Mac Mail)
- Apple devices still running legacy iOS versions (prior to IOS 6.x)

* NOTE: Customers using iPhones with Mobile Sync enabled will NOT be impacted.

I'm impacted / will be impacted... How do I fix this? If you feel you may be impacted, or after the maintenance is complete you are no longer able to send mail from your client, you can resolve this issue using one of the following means:

1) Re-configure your mail client so it does not use CRAM-MD5 authentication for SMTP (sending). We also suggest connecting to our system via SSL or TLS when sending mail. Instructions for setting up your mail client can be found at https://help.emailsrvr.com. Please refer to this article http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/end-of-support-for-smtp-authentication-using-cram-md5 for instructions on changing the SMTP authentication method.

2) Of course, Fanatical Support is always an option! You can call or chat with a member of our support team and we can walk you through the process.

Is there a workaround while I'm trying to set this up properly? Absolutely! You can always login to webmail to access and send email like normal should you experience issues and need to send something quickly. The webmail login can be accessed here: https://apps.rackspace.com/. You may also read the frequently asked questions below.

...

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can you tell if I’m affected?
A: Unfortunately, we have no way of identifying which users specifically are connecting with CRAM-MD5 authentication.

As long as your users are connected with PLAIN/PASSWORD authentication over an SSL or TLS connection, they will not see an impact.  It's always best to double check on the mail clients in question.

Q: Why are only certain clients affected?
A: While we do not know for sure every email client and/or version that could be affected, email clients will be affected if configured using CRAM-MD5.  We have put together instructions for the most common clients and devices that we are aware of that could be configured using CRAM-MD5. As far as we can tell, outlook users will not have any issues. Please refer to this article http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/end-of-support-for-smtp-authentication-using-cram-md5 for instructions on changing the SMTP authentication method.

Q: What will happen if I do nothing and I’m affected?
A: Your incoming emails will still be delivered as normal.  You will receive an error, however, when attempting to send emails using SMTP.  As a work-around, you can always use webmail to send/receive at apps.rackspace.com

Apple Online Help - Apple Discussions

Here is the link for Apple product users who experience problems with their devices. It is helpful to undersand a few things before clicking on this link.

- There is probably no unique situation you are dealing with that hasn't been answered before in these online forums.
- There are people who are helpful and know what they are talking about and there are more people who do not. Make sure the people who seem to have advice or answers have been well rated under their user names. This is determined by their "Level" So a Level 1 person often doesn't have the clout or understanding that a Level 7 person would have. In other words, consider the source.
- Also consider advice and answers based on how follow up comments or entries. When you see things like "You are the BEST!" and "You ARE a Genius!" this means often that it could be very helpful advice.
- When you search for issues, try to remove as many extraneous words from the search as possible. For instance: a problem where your imac is not starting and gives you an error on the screen "no system volume found", you will want to search for "no system volume found"; a problem where you can not turn on TimeMachine you can search for 'timemachine not working' or 'timemachine will not start'  Both of these will give you different results.

Here is the link:
Apple Discussions

NBC Special Report - Identity Theft On The Rise

Identity Theft on the Rise

More lucrative than selling cocaine, identity thieves can easily file taxes and make money from other's returns without the stress and complications of a drug deal.

NBC Correspondent: "It has happend almost 1 million times this past year."

Tampa, FL Police Investigator: "I had a drug trafficking offender tell me that he could make $5,000 to $10,000 for a kilo or two of cocaine. He can submit ten tax returns a day and make between $40,000 and $50,000 and watch cartoons."

Beth Tucker, IRS: "Last tax filing season we stopped $20 Billion in fake returns."

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here is the US Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft

The Value of Social Media Campaigns - ROI

Many businesses consider replacing their marketing department with social media experts.  But as with anything, social media is not 'a pill to fix' marketing. Social media has value if configured properly and maintained in exacting ways for any business.
Since there are sites that sell Facebook Likes, this represents that less ethical social media marketing houses may subject their clients to these likes for the sake of performance auditing.
For instance, if you have been hired to run a social media campaign for a business, it may be a significant measure of work to see how well that campaign is going by the amount of Like that have been generated. Your company may be ethical, but competition that is trying to 'win your accounts' is actually secretly buying Likes to apply to their campaigns, in order to show how well their campaign approach is for a particular client.
Additional benefit may be had through these purchases through search engine optimization, Facebook popularity inside of Facebook and potentially vendors like Apple who are trying to integrate with social media in their hardware products.

Since Likes can now be purchased en mass, through numerous websites, it may be wise to evaluate social media companies to explain HOW they justify success in social media campaigns. Using return on investment (ROI) modeling that truly represents revenue.

Money is better spent, more times than not, discovering your current market and your future markets.

Great Examples of Phishing - At Cornell University

Cornell University Information Technologies Website has a great resource of documented Phishing examples. Please consider clicking on the link and seeing the kinds of exploits that are used to get people to click on or reply to bogus email events.

To view any of these examples in detail, please visit the Cornell University link at the beginning of this post.

These are some examples of phishing emails seen on campus. Do NOT assume a suspect email is safe, just because it is not listed here. There are many variants of each, and new ones are being sent out each day. When in doubt, consult with your IT support staff or the IT Service Desk.

    FW: Chase Bank - Online System Upgrade (9/7/2012)
    Pay your Fedex invoice online (9/6/2012)
    WEBMAIL ADMIN*Quota Limit Exceeded (9/5/2012)
    Your account has been temporarily limited. ID K5008204 (9/1/2012)
    New e-card for you. (8/31/2012)
    for {your_name} (8/29/2012)
    Intuit/Quickbooks (8/28/2012)
    ACCOUNT ADMINISTRATOR (8/25/2012)
    Your Apple ID password has been reset (8/22/2012)
    PHISHING ALERT (8/22/2012)
    RE: Case# 7924236 (8/21/2012)
    Rejected Federal Tax transfer (8/21/2012)
    Your receipt #162013403684048 (8/15/2012)
    Wire Transfer Confirmation (FED REFERENCE 26963QE679) (8/14/2012)
    Bank of America Alert: Your Online Statement Is Ready (8/14/2012)
    Your friend sent you an e-card. (8/13/2012)
    Photos (8/13/2012)
    Your Citi Credit Card Statement (8/13/2012)
    Bank of America Alert: Online Banking Account Suspended? (8/10/2012)
    Microsoft Security Update (8/10/2012)
    You package has been delivered (8/10/2012)
    Schwab Report (8/8/2012)
    LinkedIn Reminder (8/7/2012)
    Welcome to Paypal - Choose your way to pay (8/6/2012)
    ADP Security Management Update (8/2/2012)
    Fwd: Wire Transfer Confirmation (... (8/1/2012)
    Re-Validation of Webmail Account (7/31/2012)
    Message From Micorosoft Helpdesk: Do This Now (7/30/2012)
    password expiration warning (7/26/2012)
    ADP Security Management Update (7/25/2012)
    Order N64950 (7/25/2012)
    ADP Generated Message: First Notice - Digital Certificate Expiration (7/25/2012)
    Fwd: Your Photos (7/25/2012)
    American Express Alert - Personal Security Key Reset (7/23/2012)
    Properties for Sale. (7/23/2012)
    Your Ebay confirmation of your transaction through Paypal. (7/23/2012)
    Your Sprint bill is now available online (7/16/2012)
    Message From I.T Helpdesk Expert (7/16/2012)
    We have received your payroll processing request. (7/16/2012)
    New incoming Intuit payments. (7/16/2012)
    An Issue of Billing... (7/13/2012)
    You have new UPS invoices (7/11/2012)
    You have received a new payment through the Intuit network. (7/10/2012)
    ADP Generated Message: First Notice - Digital Certificate Expiration (7/9/2012)
    USPS postage labels order confirmation. (7/6/2012)
    Your Receipt and Itinerary (7/6/2012)

ChromeBook Series - How To Try Chrome Apps

Here is a quick beginner review video on how to check out Apps in the Google Chrome store.

QuickBooks Online Will Require Browser Upgrades

Blog post from Intuit, for all Quick Books Online subscribers:

Small heads up for Firefox or Chrome users As we roll out changes to QuickBooks Online in the future, we may use some new HTML5 features like IndexedDB, History, AppCache, WebStorage, GeoLocation etc. We may also look at copy/paste from outside applications into QBO. Few of them will make browsers like Firefox or Chrome ask for extra permissions. It’s your choice to accept or ignore them and in either case your regular usage of QuickBooks Online will be unaffected. However accepting / allowing such features may just help enhance your browsing experience. Such notifications only come up once, till you eventually clear your browser’s cache / cookies / site preferences, which causes a reset. So you can always reset your browser preferences any time in case you want to change your choice. One such page using couple of the above mentioned technologies is our new Sales Receipt page (http://blog.qbo.intuit.com/2012/03/04/new-transaction-page-design-part-2/)

In Firefox 10 on the mac you will see the permission request notification as shown in the image below. Other versions on other platforms might look a bit different visually.

For Chrome users, you can just grab the Chrome Web Store app if you haven’t already done so. This will automatically add the necessary permissions (without the app, the notifications may come as a yellow bar on top). After installing that app, in the future you may notice the QuickBooks Online app shortcut greyed out on your Chrome’s New Tab page as shown below and Chrome should prompt for you to accept some permissions. Click re-enable to get it working again.

ChromeBook Series - Getting Started with Chrome App Store

While this video discusses advantages to BUILDING Chrome Browser Apps, it also reviews what Apps are, how to access them and their advantages. Even for the basic user, this is a helpful review of what this is all about. Thanks to Arne Roomann-Kurrik  for explaining this in detail.

Chromebook - How to Physically Care for Your New Chromebook

ChromeBook Series - Important Apps NexusFree

This ChromeBook series is presented to help users who are trying to move to the Google cloud as a means of computing.

The Google Drive product is essentially the total Google offering of their cloud services. Previously Google was offering Google Docs, Google Music, Picasa for the Web, etc. Today they are combining all of this into something called Google Drive.  Google Docs are their own formats, but you can import Microsoft Word and Excel documents into it, and you can spit them out as a file or email them as an attachment in GMail in the Microsoft Word, PDF Rich Text Format (RTF) formats.

The Google Developers posted the YouTube channel reviewed NexusFree which is a means for editing Microsoft Office, over using OpenOffice, or to help people who use Google Drive


Chromebooks are excellent, secure and lower cost machines that can be used as alternatives to legacy, traditional workstation PCs within the Microsoft Small Business Server Active Directory environments, especially those within small business environments.

Menlo Technology has been promoting the advantages and value for cloud computing in the Enterprise, to reduce IT costs, security concerns and overall business operations.

Firefox 15 PDF Viewing or Why Adobe and Mozilla Update so much...

Mozilla just released Firefox 15. Your machines may update themselves to this the next time you start your computer or browser.  The initial v15 release has turned off viewing PDF's inside the browser. A well respected blogger over at Groovy Post wrote up an illustrated guide to help fix this.

Groovy Post recently explained how to enable this feature.

Many machines will request updates for Adobe Reader and Foxit Reader, but if you haven't seen these requests on your machine for a while, run these updates now.

Update Adobe
When you do so you will have to close Firefox and Internet explorer as well as all instances of the PDF software.
The best update option is to open the reader and pull down Help from the top, and choose Update. In this case, it will ask you to close Firefox as well as the Main Adobe Reader window.  Adobe it will automatically reach out and look for the proper update.

Update Foxit Reader
In Firefox, go to this website and at the bottom of the page in yellow, download the latest version of their software. NOTE: BE SURE to UNCHECK the Chrome Browser / Ask Toolbar update.


The reasoning for this flurry of Firefox updates - as well as the constant Adobe Flash and Reader update requests - is  the entire hacking cyber-crime world has figured out ways to take advantage of machines that are not updated. These criminals attempt to get into your machine before you update them. This doesn't happen in a matter of months or weeks, but minutes.  As soon as the hacking community discovers a way to break an older version of these software, they distribute these infections through any way possible. SPAM emails, Facebook photos viewing, Google search results, email attachments from people that we know. 

These hackers are now motivated by gigantic profits.
Read the first paragraph of any of these articles to realize how bad this is:
Forbes Russia's Million Dollar Hacker
Blog Infosecisland Russian Cybercrime: Not Just A Localized Threat
SC Magazine's Russian Cyber Crime Market More Organized, Lucrative
Ars Technica Russian National Charged with $1.4Million Hacking Scam

It may be impossible to get a full grasp of everything that is happening in the computer security industry, but a quick glimpse explains that it is very powerful and requires careful consideration of all information maintained on your computer - from daily active security to total secure cloud system backups.  

Updates – Enterprise Style “International Technology Upgrade Week”

We posted this over at the Wordpress blog, but wanted to make sure everyone could check it out.
Server and desktop upgrades were a slow going part of the ancient past. (Ancient meaning three years ago.) Today, without the process of constant upgrading and patching, an enterprise could immediately fall prey to endless infections, which in turn leads to identification theft, intellectual property theft, and the potential for the complete demise of a business, let alone a simple deadline.
To underscore the importance of these updates, Adobe, Skype and others banded together earlier this year to express the importance of these regular updates.
Linda Summers at Skype blog posted this article explaining how infrequently people upgrade their machines. This study is just as important for enterprise environments as it is for a person use policy.

Infographic by Skype

Adobe Bloggers also wrote a specific blog post about International Technology Upgrade Week and the findings of this study. The blog post explains:

Earlier today, Skype—joined by Norton by Symantec and TomTom—kicked off “International Technology Upgrade Week,” a global initiative to encourage consumers to regularly download and install software updates. We’d like to chime in and express our support for this important initiative. Keeping software up-to-date is probably the single-most important advice we can give to users—consumers and businesses alike.
In preparation for International Technology Upgrade Week, Skype commissioned a survey of American, British and German consumers, which revealed the following findings:

• 40 percent of adults don’t always update software on their computers when initially prompted to do so.
• Approximately one quarter of those surveyed said they don’t clearly understand what software updates do, and an equal percentage don’t understand the benefits of updating.
• While 75 percent of adults receive update notifications from their software, more than half admitted that they needed to see a prompt between two and five times before downloading and installing the update.

Also wanted to mention the Norton Blog posting concerning the event as well. Marian Merritt posted in their community forums this article, and mention this warning:

Or consider Norton security software as another example; it simply can’t do its job defending you against the newest threats or latest viruses unless you allow the automatic updating feature to do its work. In fact, helping you keep your software up-to-date is such a big deal at Norton that starting this fall, our engineers have figured out how to make it all happen in the background, silently, and without having to restart your computer for new features to take effect. Keeping you safe with the latest protection is priority #1!

Messages are stuck in the Outbox

When Outlook 2010 email gets stuck in the Outbox...
by Diane Poremsky


Messages are stuck in the Outbox

Applies to Microsoft Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003 and below

There are several reasons why Microsoft Outlook won't send mail and before you can fix the problem, you need to identify the cause.
Possibly the most common cause is the message is too large to send because you added a huge attachment to a message. If this is the problem, see Delete large messages from the Outbox if you can't delete the stuck message. Instructions for Outlook 2011 for Mac are at Delete Messages Stuck in Outlook 2011 Outbox.

If you don't see a message in your outbox but Outlook is trying to send something, see Hidden Stuck Messages. It's most likely a read receipt that won't send.

If the message is not too large to send, other possible causes include:

1. An add-in that marks items read if you view the Outbox
2. Wrong password or not authenticating properly with the mail server
3. Outlook or the mail server is offline
4. No default email account is set
5. Using a program that accesses pst or ost data, such as Desktop Search, Lync, etc
6. An antispam or antivirus scanner is scanning outgoing mail

Troubleshooting

First, check the Send/Receive progress dialog for error codes. Browse to Tools, Send/Receive, Send/Receive settings, Show progress and click on the error tab. The error will resemble this, with a different error number and possibly a better explanation than "unknown error"
Task ' – Sending' reported error (0×80040119) : 'Unknown Error 0×80040119
See What does this error mean? for the reasons for some of the error codes. (If you need the text of the error code, you can select any error and use Ctrl+C to copy it.)

An add-in marks items read if you view the Outbox

Symptom: you look at the mail in the Outbox and it's not bolded.
Quick Fix: Stop looking in the Outbox.
See Outlook: After viewing the Outbox, e-mail won't send for applications that cause messages in the Outbox to be marked as read.

Wrong or bad password, or not authenticating properly with the mail server

Verify your password works by logging into your account using web access.

Check your account settings:

1. Go to Tools menu (Outlook 2007) or File tab (Outlook 2010) then Account Settings, Email.
2. Double click on the account then click More Settings.
3. Check your settings on the Outgoing server tab. Many email providers now require a password to send email. If you aren't sure, enabling authentication before sending usually doesn't cause problems, but you should verify the proper settings with your email provider.
4. Do not enable SPA unless your mail server requires it.
5. Verify the port number is correct on the More Settings, Advanced tab. Many email providers use port 587 for SMTP.

In Outlook 2003 and older, go to Tools, E-mail accounts, View or Change existing accounts. Double click on the account and click More Settings, then select the Advanced tab.

Outlook or the mail server is offline

Is Outlook online? The online status is in the Status bar.

Is the mail server online? Outlook's status bar may say 'Trying to Connect' if the mail server is down.

No default email account is set

Symptoms include being able to reply but not send new mail.
This may happen when you use a preconfigured script provided by the mail server administrator to set up your account.
In Outlook 2010, go to File, Account Settings, Email. Is an set as default?
In Outlook 007, you'll check for a default account in Tools, Account Settings, Email. In Outlook 2003 and older, go to Tools, E-mail accounts, View or Change existing accounts. Verify an account is set as default.

Using a program that accesses the .pst or .ost data

Symptom: Mail sends at first, then hangs in mailbox
Send and Receive error code is: Task ' – Sending' reported error (0×80040119) : 'Unknown Error 0×80040119.

Solutions include:

Use Scanpst to repair the pst file, or delete the ost file and let Outlook rebuild it. See Error message when you try to read or to delete email or when you click "Send/Receive" in Outlook: "An unknown error has occurred" or "Messaging interface has caused an unknown error" (MSKB) for more information.

Restarting Outlook (after verifying it closed completely in Task manager) may allow the mail to send.

Otherwise:

Reboot and disable the problem program before starting Outlook.

If it continues to cause problems (such as sending works for awhile after restarting Outlook, then stops), uninstall the software.

An antispam or antivirus scanner is scanning outgoing mail

Norton and AVG antispam plugins are known to cause problems, but there are others. Any antivirus that uses an Outlook addin can cause issues with your email.

Solution: Disable Email scanning in the software.

It may help to the timeout (in your email account's More Settings, Advanced tab.) Otherwise, check your antispam or antivirus program's website for an update or possible workarounds. Note that we do not recommend scanning email for viruses as any virus will be picked up if you try to open an infected message (which you know not to do :)).

If none of the above are the cause and the account settings look okay, turn on SMTP logging.
To turn on logging in Outlook 2010, go to File, Options, Advanced. Enable Troubleshooting logging is near the bottom, in the Other section. I n Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003, go to Tools, Options, Other, Advanced and add a check to the box beside Enable Logging (troubleshooting).
Because logging can cause Outlook to be unstable, initiate a send and receive and once you've reproduced the error, disable logging. The log files are stored in your temp folder. Type %temp% in the address bar of Windows Explorer and press Enter to open the Temp folder. The log files will have the extension .log and may be in an Outlook Logging subfolder.
How to enable transport logging in Outlook (MSKB)

Using Outlook 2010's Junk Filter with Multiple Accounts

If you use Outlook 2010, and run more than one account through it, the junk mail filter will have to learn what is junk and what is not for each individual account. This is not a Global Filter.

Slipstick - a great Outlook support resource site wrote something up about this.

Using Outlook 2010's Junk Filter with Multiple Accounts

...Outlook 2010's Junk Email filter options are individual, not global settings. Rather than applying one setting to all accounts, you can set different options for each email account in your profile. While its easier to change the settings when you deliver each account to a different data file, the settings are per account, not per data file, so you can change the settings.
When you use multiple accounts delivered to separate data files, the Junk Email options dialog shows the junk mail settings for the account whose folders you are in.

When more than one account is delivered to a data file, you'll need to open a message received by the account and click the Junk button to see the Junk Email Options.