Trust People, Not Addresses

Don’t trust unsolicited files or embedded links, under any circumstances.   It’s easy to spoof e-mail addresses, so that an e-mail seems to come from someone other than the real sender (who may in any case be a spam tool rather than a human being). Basic SMTP does not validate the sender’s address in the…

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Good Password Practices

Use different passwords for your computer and online services. And it is good to segment your online service passwords, or keep them altogether different.  I have seen a number of systems for doing this; some bad, some mediocre, and some extremely sophisticated.  My favorite involves a root password that varies depending on the year, and…

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Do you need administrative privileges?

Use an account on your computer that doesn’t have administrative privileges to reduce the likelihood of installing malware; and to reduce the likelihood of making severe and catastrophic changes to your system.  Password protect the “administrator” account, and create a “limited” user account for daily use.   Most system administrators adhere to the principle of…

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Catch The Patch Batch

Keep your OS and applications up to date with automated updates and patches and by regularly reviewing the vendors’ product update sections on their websites. Sometimes it seems that the whole world assumes that the only vendor that suffers from vulnerabilities is Microsoft. To see how misleading claims like this can be, check out the…

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Don’t Let Autorun Be Autoinfect

AutoRun has presented such a problem in recent years. There is a wide range of malware families that install or modify autorun.inf files in order to infect systems. In recent years, Microsoft has taken steps to address this loophole: First, by turning off AutoRun by default in Windows 7, then by making patches available for…

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Does my file server need antivirus?

A good question that gets a lot of lively discussion in network administration circles. If your server is exposed to the internet in any way except through the connected workstations, it needs to be protected with some sort of anti-virus solution.  There is a serious misconception borne out of the belief that if the computers…

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Virus Removal

You have a virus on your computer.  You are not an IT professional, but you know just enough to be considered "dangerous".  Do you dare go it alone? Removing viruses can be a dangerous ordeal for the end user.  Depending on how sophisticated the virus you are dealing with actually is, you may wind up…

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Office 365 Migration Planning

Choosing to leverage the cloud and move to Office 365 Exchange for small businesses can be one of the best decisions your organization ever makes.  Office 365 is so much more than email.  It is freedom.  It is reliability of service.  It is the freedom to move between platforms.  And most of all it is…

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Gearing Up For CompTIA Breakaway

What a month it has been!  We are tying up a lot of loose ends these last two weeks of July in preparation for our first tech conference of the year – CompTIA Breakaway, Las Vegas.  Last year we managed to make it to HDI and Breakaway.  This year has been so busy, that there has been…

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The Right IT Person For The Job

If you are like the average SMB, you may be wondering whether you are going about IT the right way: Whether you are getting a good return on your investment Whether you are prepared for the future of IT Whether you are leveraging technology to manage information efficiently According to the CNET blog article, "IT…

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Network Security For The SMB

I want to take some time to discuss the importance and affordability of securing your company's network and data.  Most SMBs I come accross are not doing enough to protect themselves against the myriad dangers threatening their organization.  Criminals are casting an ever-widening net on electronic targets; and now, more than ever, it is becoming…

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Can My Organization Afford In-House IT?

If your company is just struggling to get off the ground, probably not.  As valuable as a well-trained staff of IT professionals can be for an SMB, an in-house IT shop may not be in the cards – or the budget. Let's explore the development of an IT infrastructure as it relates to the maturation…

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