Symantec just released an urgent message to anyone using pcAnywhere:

Source code from this program has been hacked by the hacker group Anonymous and posted online. If you currently use pcAnywhere, please immediately disable your account.

Security recommendations include:

• Symantec recommends disabling pcAnywhere until they release software updates that resolve “currently known vulnerability risks.”
• As far as the other source code exposure related to the 2006 versions of the Norton products as detailed in their statement above, Symantec says that the “code in question represents a small percentage of the pre-release source for the Symantec AntiVirus 10.2 product, accounting for less than 5% of the product.” They recommend only that customers update their AV definitions and follow general best practices, so even if you don’t have pcAnywhere, you could still be at risk.

Here are the Claims by Anonymous about the Symantec Source Code including what products were impacted: http://www.symantec.com/theme.jsp?themeid=anonymous-code-claims

Please spread the word! Thanks!

Keeping it real it the IT World,

I found this great compilation of a few awesome ideas for presents. They are all technology or science related, but can be appreciated by almost everyone.

Check them out here: http://www.zdnet.com/photos/tech-stocking-fillers-and-unusual-gifts-for-2011/6332959?tag=photo-frame;get-photo-roto

My personal favs are the Isotoner gloves you can wear while using a touch screen smart phone (FINALLY!!!!) and Ecosphere self contained ecosystem (WAAAAAY COOL!).

Check it out and then check some hard to buy for people off your list!

Peace Out Techno World,

http://www.onsip.com/blog/sukanya/2011/11/11/agent-feature-intech-solutions-loves-onsip

One referral = one name in the hat. The more referrals, the more chances to win.

Yesterday we drew one name out of the hat. Of all the people in the hat, this is the one that came out!

Sophos Labs, a company with a fun-loving IT attitude, challenges you to Kill A Zombie today. No, not an actual flesh-eating zombie, but the ‘computer zombie’ your computer may have turned into when you inadvertently got malware on your computer. Sophos explains it well:

Millions of computers around the world, in homes and business premises, are – without the knowledge of their owners – under the control of cybercriminals who commandeer the PCs to send spam, distribute malware, and commit identity theft.

Billions of spam messages are sent every day, with over 99% determined to be relayed from innocent users’ computers that have been hijacked and turned into a “zombie”.

Hackers control networks of zombie computers, known as a botnet, in order to silently send out adverts that peddle sexual enhancement drugs or questionable financial deals, distribute scareware attacks to trick users out of their credit card details, access your social networking accounts, and spread further malicious attacks.

We are right on board with our Sophos friends!

So how can you KILL YOUR ZOMBIE?

Easy: download and update a good malware program like Malwarebytes (www.malwarebytes.org) and run it. Then update and run your antivirus software. Clean whatever it finds.

Then for some smiles and giggles, check out the videos Sophos made for “International Kill a Zombie Day!”

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/kill-zombie-day/

Keeping it real in the IT World,

“We wanted our kids to be able to take advantage of the learning resources on the internet and be able to use learning software, but we just didn’t have the resources to buy computers,” explains Director Wright.

Leia saw an opportunity, “We have awesome clients. I told them I’d get them a PC for basically our cost if they donated their old PC for the Y’s children’s program. We had several clients step up to the plate.”

Through this effort, InTech was able to deliver five free computers with LCD monitors to the YMCA on Thursday for use in 3 of their classrooms. “This is exactly what we needed as we just entered into a partnership with the school district for our children to use the Everday Mathematics program, but we need computers to be able to access the entire curriculum. We are so excited and the children are thrilled!”

Shilobod continues, “I can’t even start to tell you how excited we are to deliver these PC’s to the Y. We put quite a bit of time into the collecting, re-installing and free-ware sourcing to get these PCs ready, but it was all worth it. We didn’t collect enough mice so I bought some really cute red ones that light up. The kids loved them!”

“But I also want to thank our clients who bought a computer from me to give up their computer for the Ligonier Y: Westmoreland Injury Lawyers and Chapel Hill Investment Analysts. Their generosity enabled our generosity!”

……and it was awesome.

Back in June we asked our best clients if they would donate their computers and monitors to us for children’s programs, and in return, they could purchase a PC & monitor from us at cost. Some of our best clients stepped up to the plate and gave us their equipment.

We purged the hard drives, reformatted the computers, and installed some great free-ware so that the machines would be fit for some fantastic little kids to start learning computer skills.

It took a while, but today we delivered our first batch: 3 laptops with docking stations and monitors to our friends at Little Mozart’s Preschool and Daycare in Greensburg, PA.

We were greeted by Director, Mary McCormack and some little friends.

If you aren’t familiar with Little Mozart’s, read more about them here: http://www.littlemozartspreschool.com/

And in the spirit of Halloween, may I say, it was so much fun it was almost ‘scary!’

We can’t wait to deliver our next batch of PCs next week. Keep tuned people!

Rocking the Technology World,

As part of InTech’s Fall Referral Contest, we are giving away a pair of Steelers Tickets PLUS Valet Parking Pass to the 12/4 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Its so easy to enter! All you have to do is:

1. Think of companies you know in Western PA with 5-75 PCs
2. Write down the name of the company, contact, email address and phone number
3. Contact the company and let them know that the IT Princess of Power (Leia Shilobod) will be contacting them to set up their FREE “37-Point Network Security Audit”
4. Send the contact info and verification they are expecting our call to Leia@intechit.net
5. You are entered!

For every referral, your name is entered again. The more referrals, the more chances you have to win!

And your referrals are NOT obligated to buy ANYTHING from us! They can even take the info from the the Security Audit back to their IT guys and DEMAND they fix the security holes! A total WIN-WIN.

What are you waiting for? Enter today!

PS – unsure of what to say to your clients, friends and vendors when you let them know we’ll be calling? Just email Leia at Leia@intechit.net and she will forward you some easy things to say.

Ads for the first smartphones showed young, hip adults using the phones for a variety of purposes, and becoming more “connected” with the world around them. The benefits of these new gadgets seemed endless. Not only was there now a faster, more advanced phone available, but it came with all of the capabilities of the web.

This soon led to the other discussion associated with these devices: their young owners’ “addiction” to them. Many adults had the feeling that these new devices did more harm than good based on the behavior of their owners.

But there appears to be a new target generation on the horizon. The study unveiled that 37% of adults in the UK admit to being highly addicted to their smartphones.

While this is still significantly less than the 60% of teenagers who fall into this category, it does represent a larger percent than past statistics. The very same adults who protested and criticized their children’s fixation with smart phones are not only the device’s newest group of customers, but some of its most enthusiastic users yet!

In the last year alone, 60% of all smartphones were purchased. This increase caused many providers to abandon their unlimited data plans in favor of “capped plans,” in which users pay for specific amounts of data.

The majority of these new customers came from this new, older demographic. This increase may be related to the 48% of adults who now have their own social networking profile.

So what exactly are users doing on these smartphones? Among the most popular activities are social networking, such as updating Facebook, checking their tweets, and responding to text messages. However, there are also many who use them for other purposes, such as finding nearby restaurants and attractions, checking email, and finding directions.

A more frivolous but equally popular use is for games. Whether it’s the oh-so-addicting Angry Birds, Words with Friends, or countless others, the study found that teenagers are more likely to play games on their phones than to download music applications. Adults, on the other hand, are more likely to actually download the games onto their phones.

One more interesting statistic from the study discovered that 38% of teenagers will buy apps from the application for their phones whereas only 25% of adults purchase these.  This may be the result of app creators being slow to shift their Marketing endeavors to these new users.

Although adults still have a long way to go before they match their teenagers in their addiction, it cannot be denied that they are well on their way to becoming much more attached to these compelling gadgets.

For more on this article visit: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/report-teenagers-addicted-to-smartphones-parents-almost-as-bad/12006?tag=nl.e539.

Posted by,

Courtney James

Kick-butt Marketing Intern

You’ve heard me talk to you about the dangers of hackers and malware. You’ve heard me preach to you about good security practices for your technology. Passwords, secure firewalls, web filtering technology use agreements, blah, blah, blah, ba-blah…. (‘blahed’ out due to knowing that some of you just stop listening when I spew security needs)

Many of us think, “Well, Leia, that’s not going to happen to me. That’s not going to happen to MY business.” Or perhaps, “We have antivirus software and a firewall, we’re a small company, we’re fine.”

Well, let me share a story with you:

Once upon a time there were these big companies who manufactured goods, sold insurance, defended our country, and governed our society.

These big companies had big IT departments with IT guys who thought they knew what they were doing. They thought they had everything under control. They got a bit lazy.

Then the big bag hackers got into the company’s networks. The IT people didn’t know that there were hackers in their network because they thought they were fine, so weren’t as vigilant as they should have been.

The big bad hackers stayed in the network – UNDETECTED – for FIVE YEARS stealing customer information, patent secrets, social security numbers, programming code, and other valuable information.

The corporations lost a lot of money and the IT people were surprised, “How could this happen to us?” they asked in dismay.

The big bad hackers slinked away, smirks on their faces, looking for the next corporation who thought they were “just fine.”

The End.

Boy that was a sad story…. Only problem is that its T-R-U-E.

That’s right, not only did these companies find out that data had been stolen, but that these hackers had been at work for five years, steadily removing massive amounts of information from their files while the company remained completely unaware of their presence. These hackers not only target companies in a wide variety of industries, but also governments and other organizations.

How did they do it? The main method of infiltration for these attacks was infected emails. The hackers convince employees to open these emails, and then download malware onto their PC. Once an employee with access to enough of the computer systems opens this email, they are in. But that’s just the beginning of the company’s problems.

What impact did it have? So why is this such a concern, especially for those of us not involved with any of these groups? It comes down to money. If these hackers are able to retrieve all the research, development, customer and supplier lists, all of the production processes, and other data, then they can easily produce the end-product at a fraction of the cost.

Although it has not been confirmed that this has been the use of the data, it seems highly plausible. It’s like they are receiving all the rewards without doing any of the work, and easily becoming a top competitor for the company from which they stole the information. Not to mention the huge amount of investment and potential profit lost by that company.

How many companies were affected? One single attack from these hackers affected 72 companies and organizations. Among the victims were US Federal Agencies, the United Nations, defense contractors, and multinational corporations, just to name a few. However, there does seem to be a sort of profile for a large number of the victims.

This group of hackers appeared to be targeting government organizations, manufacturers, and technology firms.

I don’t believe you. I want proof. A recent study by the Ponemon Institute examined 50 large companies in the United States for these attacks. At least one attack each week was the average for all those included. The companies also suffered from the costs to remedy these attacks, which have increased by $2.1 million from last year.

Although these attacks seem more dangerous than those of the past, they are not the first of their kind. In fact, cyber espionage has been around for some time, mostly to find information on war strategies for attacks. Even the United States has admitted to engaging in this type of “cyber war,” but has stated that their purposes have been strictly national security.

OK. I’m convinced. What should I do? As these hackers continue to improve, so must our security. They will continue to become more secretive and more difficult to detect, so we must become more cautious and vigilant in our efforts to protect our businesses.

Here are my top picks to secure your company:

1. A good, up to date antivirus & antimalware software.
2. Complex passwords that you change on a regular basis.
3. Regular maintenance of your network by a trained technology professional.
4. No password sharing – in the office or with vendors (vendors get their own log ins and passwords)
5. Restrictions on users for downloading/installing software.
6. Signed Technology Use Agreement in place for all staff.
7. AT LEAST yearly review of network security by a trained technology professional.

On a final note: I wanted to let you all know that I offered – FOR FREE – a Network Security Audit to all my customers and my customers best clients last month (that was a $350 value – for free). There was only ONE company on my client list who took me up on it. I consider this company one of the MOST secure companies we deal with. This company still had changes they needed to make to assure they were secure (and frankly, I was surprised!).

Rethinking? Give me a ring. 724.858.2814

Yours in IT,

Leia Shilobod, IT Princess of Power