What’s New

Cyber Tech Cafe – We announced last month that we would had partnered with Domain.com for all of our website and email hosting and that we would begin migrating all of our current website and email hosting customers to Domain.com in the coming months.  I’m excited to announce that this has been going well and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  As you’re reading this, some of you have already been migrated and some are already on the schedule.  We will be contacting each of our hosting customers directly to schedule the migration and expect to have everyone migrated by July of this year.  If you missed the original announcement, it is still available on our website here.  If you have any questions about the transition or would like to discus other options, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 770.386.8900.

    

Tech News – We are still seeing a LOT of people with the FBI / DHS / etc. Money Pak virus.  Basically, your screen goes white and you get a logo for some imposing federal entity (FBI, DHS, etc.) warning you that you’re being monitored (if you have a wecam, it will often display the view of the webcam on the screen) and that you have to pay some sum of money or you will go to jail or some other punishment and the only method of paying is a Money Pak.  

Updates

Microsoft – There are a total of 9 updates from Microsoft this month with 2 of them listed as critical and the remaining 7 listed as important.  The first critical vulnerability affects all version of Internet Explorer and allows an attacker to install viruses, malware, etc. or completely take over the computer simply by getting the victim to view an infected web page.  The second critical vulnerability affects MS Windows XP, MS Windows Vista and MS Windows 7 (this reportedly does not affect Windows 8 or Windows RT) and can allow an attacker to assume administrative rights from a standard user account.
Microsoft releases regular updates the second Tuesday of each month, often referred to as ‘Patch Tuesday’.  These updates are categorized as Low, Moderate, Important or Critical.  Details on the categories is available here.  The updates can include any *supported* Microsoft product from Windows (Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows 8, Windows Server, etc.) to Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, OneNote, and even MS Office for Mac) to Internet Explorer to server products like Exchange, SQL Server and more.  If you have one of these products installed, especially if the update is listed as Important or Critical, it’s important that the update be installed.
Additional details are available from Microsoft here.  

 

Adobe – Adobe has released updates this month for Flash, Shockwave and Cold Fusion.  

Like Microsoft, Adobe now releases updates to their products on the second Tuesday of each month.  Adobe will also release ‘out of band’ updates if necessary to address critical vulnerabilities in their products.  Adobe products include Adobe Reader (for viewing PDF files), Adobe Flash Player (often used to watch videos like YouTube and in interactive web content like games) and Adobe Shockwave. 
Additional details and downloads are available from Adobe here. 

 

 

Java – Java is still, unfortunately, in the news.  The latest version of Java (download below) is version 7 update 17 but there are still a LOT of folks running older versions.  We are seeing computers daily that have been compromised due to outdated installs of Java.  Although there are no *new* updates for Java, you still need to make sure that you have the latest version (or just remove it altogether).

Java is a tool that’s widely used by Banks, online service providers and even security companies for VPN connections.  Java’s ‘official’ release cycle is approximately quarterly but Java updates have been ‘fast and furious’ for the past several months.  It’s worth noting again that, if you don’t absolutely need Java on your computer, it’s worth removing it altogether (this can be done from Add / Remove programs).
Additional details and downloads are available from Oracle here.    
 

 

 

Monthly Update Clients
* If you are not currently taking advantage of our monthly update service and would like more information or to sign up, additional information is available here 
 
For our Monthly Update clients, if a date and time hasn’t already been scheduled to install your updates, we will be contacting you shortly to schedule.   

If you aren’t already taking advantage of our monthly update service, there’s no time like the present to get started.  We offer a monthly update service to keep all of your computers up-to-date for a low monthly fixed price with no long-term committment.  Additional information is available on our website.