• Did You Install Your Updates This Month?

Did you know that Microsoft offers monetary rewards to people who find exploits in their software and report them back to Microsoft instead of releasing them to the hacker community?  Here’s a Reuters article about a security expert who received over $100,000 from Microsoft after identifying “new exploitation techniques” in Windows.

Microsoft unveiled the reward programs four months ago to bolster efforts to prevent sophisticated attackers from subverting new security technologies in its software, which runs on the vast majority of the world’s personal computers. – Reuters.com

Read more about it on ZDNEt as well:  Microsoft awards $100,000 to researcher for attack technique

This is why it’s so important to download the updates when you’re notified to do so.  Don’t just keep clicking that ‘postpone’ button; there could be real security issues that the patches can fix.  Read more information about the patches that Microsoft released on this past Tuesday, also known as Patch Tuesday (always the second Tuesday of the month).  These fix vulnerabilities in MS Word, Internet Explorer, Silverlight, and more.  It’s not just your Windows updates that are important.  Adobe also released an update on Tuesday that patches a critical flaw in Reader and Acrobat.

Adobe is not giving specific information about the vulnerability other than that it is related to JavaScript security controls. – ZDNet.com

So keep an eye on your taskbar to see when your update alerts pop up.  And of course, if you have questions about them or want to make sure you’re up-to-date, call us at 570-408-9888!

• New Features of Excel 2013 And Some Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

With all the updates and new products coming out in the technological world, sometimes it’s hard to take full advantage of the broad range of shortcuts and features they provide.  You don’t want to be missing out on a great way to utilize a program just because you had no idea it was there.  Here is a link to an article about the best new features of Excel 2013.  Although Excel can be confusing at first, once you get the hang of the different features and formulas, it’s simple to get the data you need.  And here’s a link to some interesting Windows 7 (and Windows 8) keyboard shortcuts.  Are you using any of them already?

• A Vicious Little Bit of Malware

We recently sent out an email to all of our clients to make them aware of a very destructive piece of malware/virus that is currently making the rounds on the Internet.   Here’s the gist of it:

The name of this program is called “CRYPTOLOCKER” and it is considered a high security threat that does not yet have a resolution at this point in time.  Therefore, making sure to maintain good backups of server and PC files is of the utmost importance, and prevention is the key to protecting the integrity of your data.

What It Does:

Once installed on your computer, CryptoLocker encrypts your files, rendering them impossible to open unless you purchase a decryption key from the hijackers. The fee to unlock this private key can range into the thousands, and there is no guarantee that paying this fee to the hijackers will restore the integrity of your files. This particular form of ransomware is more egregious than others because even after it is eradicated from a workstation, the user’s files are still encrypted and cannot be unlocked. Once the ransomware is removed, clients lose the ability to pay the hijackers the fee to unlock the files. The way CryptoLocker spreads from one user’s workstation to a company’s entire network is also dangerous and a very real risk.

Prevention:

This malware is contracted by clicking on email attachments or through social engineering methods.

Please adhere to the following rules:

• Do not click on attachments in emails from someone you don’t know or companies from which you haven’t expressed interest in receiving product information.
• Do not click on links, advertisements or pictures that pop up on your screen when visiting other websites.
• Do not respond to unsolicited emails.
• Do not engage in social media games or click on links that appear on social media platforms.
• Do not disable security settings, such as antivirus, firewall, filtering, and site monitoring programs

Again, having a current and complete backup is very important, as if your computer gets infected it could also affect shared server files.

Here at Synergistic Networks, we’ve seen it all before.  We know that there is a real problem with people browsing the Internet at work, whether they’re checking the weather, or wasting time watching sports clips. If you’re interested in web-filtering options for your company, contact us.  We are a Barracuda Networks partner and can work with you to get a web-filter in place that allows you to give your employees access to the sites they need, and blocks the sites they waste time on.  If you’re looking for a simpler way to stop spam and malware, we can also set you up with Trend Micro anti-virus/McAfee hosted spam filtering.  Stop receiving those random email attachments, or emails that sound like gibberish.  Are you thinking you might have malware on your computer already?  Give us a call at 570-408-9888 because we’re here to help you and your employees get back to work with as little downtime as possible.