The New Normal
The New Normal Target, Kmart, Staples and Home Depot. What do these four retailers have in common (besides their killer Black Friday deals)? The answer is: they have all been hacked in the past 12 months. Staples is the last major retailer that has reported a data breach in their systems, in which potentially millions of customers’ credit card information might have been illegally accessed. This breach happened fairly recent, so the extent of the information stolen is not yet known. There is one thing for certain, I will not do my Christmas shopping there. If I do, I will only pay cash. There have been many data breaches recently in the news, creating what some security experts call “breach fatigue”. Target was one of the first big data breach victims of the year. The corporate giant showed a 46% drop in profits the quarter following the breach became public. Recently, a survey revealed that 45% of consumers will “probably not’ do their Holiday shopping at a store that has suffered a data breach. One of the latest giant chain stores that has suffered a data breach is Home Depot. Unlike target, Home Depot did not see much of a loss in profit following the news of the data breach. In fact, their stock value went slightly up. Similarly with JP Morgan Chase. This is the phenomenon of ‘breach fatigue” As more and more data breaches occur, the more consumers become numb to it. Especially if they themselves don’t end up becoming a victim of identity fraud. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That well know saying is as true in everyday life as in network security. There are many ways to protect your computers and network, but do you know the right way? At TRA Consulting, we specialize in, among other things, network security. Small and medium size businesses are just as vulnerable as big corporations. Sure, they don’t have such a big target on their back, but since they are less likely to have a robust security as multi-million and multi-billion dollar corporation, they are easier to penetrate. Recently, the details of the Home Depot breach have come out and they are very similar to the ones from Target. Customers are not punishing Home Depot the same way as the punished Target. Seeing as the trend of more and more breaches are coming to light, it will not be surprising to see consumers still shop at retailers known to have been hacked, and just keep their metaphorical fingers crossed that their credit card info will stay safe. TRA focuses on Medium size and SOHO(Small Office/Home Office) security. Our goal is to provide full IT support to growing small businesses who are too small to have a full time IT staff, yet big enough that they need one on a semi-daily basis. We have many highly satisfied customers in the Long Beach, Orange County, Southbay, and Los Angeles area. Contact us today, and let us take care of all of your computer and network security needs. Our prices are reasonable and our services are top notch.
Time Is Money
~~As if keeping your computer secure from viruses is not hard enough, finding the tools to do so can be just as hard. For someone with little or no knowledge of computers, keeping a computer safe from viruses and malware, or cleaning a computer of viruses and malware, can be a daunting task. There are many different types of software to keep your computer clean and safe, some of them free, and some of them are paid. I’ve found out that the free software can be as good as or even better than some of the paid programs. TRA Consulting is more than a place like Geek squad or a corner computer store that will clean your computer of viruses and fix your laptop. We focus on taking different types of measures that will prevent your computers from getting infected or breaking. Nowadays Offices rely on having connectivity to the internet as well as to internal resources, such as shared drives and printers. Having unplanned downtime can be costly to a business, so having more than a backup plan is necessary for keeping things running smoothly. Our Philosophy is to provide you with more than a backup plan, but to actually work on preventing issues that will cause downtime in the future. Being security minded, planning for future growth, and making sure you upgrade to newer technology when needed are some of the things we do to keep your business running smoothly 24/7. Home users have less to worry about than office and enterprise users. Their network and layout are simpler, but their security is just as important. In fact, it might be even more important since they might be more vulnerable than enterprise computers. That is why it’s so important that they have the proper security software at all times. That is why a website such as ninite.com are very useful and time savers for home users. Ninite is a website that allows you to download different types of free software, including antivirus and malware cleaning programs, all at once and package them into a single installed file. All you have to do is run it and it will install the programs you chose to your computer without prompting you for anything. After it’s done, you’ll see the icons in your desktop or in the taskbar. Some of the security programs that you can get from there are Avira, Avast, Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes, Spybot, and Super Anti Spyware. But those are just a few of the overall programs that you can bundle in a ninite installer. Other programs it includes are messaging programs like Skype, Google talk, and Aim; Media programs like iTunes, VLC, Audacity; Imaging programs like Picasa and GIMP; Document readers like Open Office and Adobe reader; assortment of other things ranging from online storage software like dropbox and Google drive, to Web browsers like Firefox, to miscellaneous ones like Evernote, Google Earth, and Steam. TRA Consulting services the Long Beach area, as well as the Orange County Area, Southbay Area, and the Greater Los Angeles Area. Call us today
Sharing Is Caring!
~~In this day and age of Social Media, where people share things everyday with people they barely know, what about sharing with the people closest to you; the people in your private home network. There are multiple ways for the average home user to share files with other people in their home network The easiest and fastest way to share file with people in your home network is to use Windows 7 newest built in Homegroup feature. The Homegroup feature allows for files in your computers public folders to be shared with other people in your private network. Starting a Homegroup is fairly easy. In the network section in control panel, you’ll be given the option to create one (if you’re not already a member of another homegroup or a Domain). Next, you’ll be asked what public folders you want to share, and lastly you’ll be given a password that you need to give to other members who you want to join your homegroup. Every windows 7 (and windows 8) computer has both a private and public folders. The private folders you can see in the start menu and in the Libraries links. However, when you click on those links, it’ll open the public version of those folders. All you have to do now is to drop any file you want to share in the public folders and Presto!, you’re sharing with your Homegroup members. The drawback of Homegroups is that the computer has to be on to access the shared files. The workaround that is to instead have a dedicated device that is connected to the network and holds all the shared file; that device is called a Network Attached Storage (aka. NAS). NAS are relatively inexpensive and come with many different storage sizes and features. NAS are basically small computers that come with software to allow it to be seen by the network and to customize sharing permissions. This is something that the average home user might have some trouble configuring, but that is something TRA Consulting can help you with. We not only specialize on PC and Network security, but also in customizing your home and work network to meet your needs. Having proper setup, security, and sharing between your devices makes your network both secure and efficient. If you were lucky enough to have bought a Windows Home Server Device, or even just the Operating System, that means you have an easy way to share all your files with everyone in your network with minimal work. Unfortunately, Microsoft has shelved that Operating system since 2012, so you cannot longer get it, and no computer company makes those home servers anymore. More than just file sharing, the Windows Home Server could also be a centralized backup for all the computers in your network, it could do media streaming, printer sharing, track the health of the PC’s in the network, and be a gateway to have remote access to your home computer from anywhere on the internet. At TRA Consulting we have many years’ experience dealing with network and PC security. We service the Long Beach area, as well as the OC, SouthBay, and the Los Angeles Area. Contact us today!
Et Tu SSL?
~~Et tu SSL? Last month the tech world was filled with stories about the Heartbleed bug. The Heartleed bug was called one of the more serious breaches in security in recent times. What makes is scarier is that the breadth of its impact won’t be exactly known since it went undetected for such a long time and it was in a form of encryption that was thought to be safe and unbreakable: SSL and TLS At TRA Consulting, we stay on top of the latest Technology trends and security news to help and serve our customers the best we can. Whether you have a big or small office, or are just a home user, we help all our customers achieve peace of mind knowing that their computer and private data is safe from prying eyes. At TRA Consulting we server the Long Beach area, as well as the Southbay, Orange County, and the Greater Los Angeles Area. SSL Stands for Secure Socket Layer. TLS stands for Transport Layer Security. Most people might not be familiar with this, but if you’ve ever bought something online, you’ve used SSL/TLS. SSL/TLS is used to encrypt websites, such as online stores, email accounts, online banking sites, and government websites. The way that you know if you are in an encrypted website using SSL would be to look at the address bar and notice that the URL (Usually starts with an http://) will now start with an https://. Seeing that was a subconscious sigh of relief in a world full of cyber hacking data breaches. The Heartbleed bug was not a problem in SSL, but in fact, it was in the implementation of it in the OpenSSL Project. With a bug like this that it completely out of your hands, you might think that there is no way to prevent your computer from being vulnerable, and you might be mostly right. However, there are a few things you can do to neutralize the damage wrought by the heartbleed bug. First of all, change all of your passwords. If your passwords were compromised, the first thing you should do is to replace them and get new ones. This will neutralize most of the damage the bug could have caused you. Even though the bug has been known for some time, there are still websites out there that haven’t patched it and if you are using them, you are exposing yourself to a security risk. One thing you can do to prevent that is to use the Chrome extension called Chromebleed. It lets you know if the site that you are visiting is still being afflicted by the heartbleed bug. There are many security risks out there, many that you can prevent, others that are out of your hands. The best way to keep your private data private is to never connect to the internet. But in this day and age that is nearly impossible. Next to that, the best way is taking preventative measures to bolster your computer and network security. At TRA Consulting we pride ourselves in doing just that, helping you keep your data secure. Contact us today.
Windows 7 vs Windows 8(.1)
~~Ever since Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP, there has been some confusion as to which is the better operating system to upgrade to: Windows 7 or Windows 8. The consensus is that Windows 7 is the most robust operating system Microsoft has released since Windows XP. It’s more aesthetically pleasing due to its simplicity and the Aero look glass-like transparency of windows and task bar; more secure due to the bugs fixed since Windows Vista and the more user-friendly User Account Control; simpler to use since it still has the Windows Start Menu and everything is pretty much where they were in previous iterations of Windows. At TRA Consulting, we pride ourselves in not only helping you fix your computer and network problems, but also in helping you make the transition to newer technologies. If you need help upgrading your Home or Office computer or network, contact us and we’ll swiftly and gladly help you. We service the Long Beach area, as well as the Southbay, Orange, and Greater Los Angeles area. The biggest gripe the masses have with Windows 8 is the lack of a Start Button and Menu. I do agree that the lack of a Start Button takes some getting used to, almost like you are learning to use a new operating system. The fact of the matter is, that if you take away the desktop from Windows 8, what you have left is Windows RT, the operating system for Windows tablets like Surface and Surface 2 (and the upcoming Surface 3). Side note, the Pro version of these tablets come with full Windows 8, which include a desktop, so it feels like a regular laptop. What Microsoft took away with the legacy Start Button, they instead added access to their new operating system as well as the windows store and their apps. Microsoft listened to the people who said they missed the legacy start button by including it with the release of their 8.1 update, although it did not bring back the legacy start menu. I believe that was a smart move by Microsoft since the legacy start menu would be redundant and clunky, especially on touchscreen devices. Last, but not least, is the relative faster speed at which windows 8 runs on a computer compared to Windows 7. There have been benchmark tests done comparing the two and windows 8 comes ahead by a slight margin. Some of the reasons why Windows 8 is slightly faster is because windows 8 was made with tablets in mind. Tablets are smaller and mobile, so they cannot have the same horsepower as desktops or laptops, and they need to be energy efficient to not drain battery life. Windows 8 also doesn’t have the gpu resource-hog of Aero glass. This gives Windows 8 a more flat look, but at the same time helps to make switching from the regular desktop to Windows apps very fast and smooth. Each version of Windows has their advantages and drawbacks, and choosing one is a matter of preference. Despite what you choose, at TRA Consulting we can help you maintain your computer safe from viruses and your data protected from hackers. We service the Long Beach, Orange, Southbay, and Greater Los Angeles Area. Give us a call today!
Double Whammy
~~Microsoft is not having a good month security wise. First of all, their stopping support for their very popular Windows XP OS created a security nightmare for a lot of people who have yet to upgrade their windows XP machines. Secondly, there has been a new flaw in Internet Explorer that has yet to be patched. This new bug has been called the scariest in recent times. If a hacker is able to exploit that weakness, they are able to take over your computer and see everything you are doing. The scary thing is that a lot of bank computers, including ATM’s, that use Windows and rely on internet explorer to go to the internet. This means that there are a lot of computers out there that can be hacked by a cyber attacker. The scariest scenario is the intersection of those two problems; Windows XP computers with Internet Explorer. The reason is that not only Windows XP is vulnerable because it has not received windows updates since the beginning of April, but compounding it with the internet explorer flaw and the fact that since XP is not going to get the patch for this internet explorer bug, this makes XP users with Internet explorer primed to be hacked at almost any moment. If you are one of these people who have not yet upgraded to Windows 7, please give TRA Consulting a call. We can help you figure out the best option for you to upgrade to a more secure operating system at a price that fits your budget. At TRA Consulting we service the Long Beach, Orange County, Southbay, and greater Los Angeles area. TRA Consulting specializes in small business and home users pc and network security. Call us today. Though it is imperative that you migrate out of XP into an operating system that is more secure, there are a few things that can be done as a band-aid solution to mitigate this massive security vulnerability. First, make sure that you have an antivirus program installed and that it had the definitions updated. Make sure to also run a full scan at least once a week Secondly, use a browser other than Internet Explorer to browse the internet. There are many options out there, like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, Dolphin Browser, etc. Many of these are much safer than Internet Explorer, and some like Google Chrome have java and flash already installed when you download them. Thirdly, be careful when opening emails, especially if they have attachments. The most popular way for hackers to infect and take over your computer is to send you and email with either an infected attachment that will help them take over your computer when you open it, or it will contain a link that when you click on it, it will send you to a fake website that will ask you for your personal information (phishing). This is more common with elderly and less experienced computer users. If you need help strengthening your computer and network security, TRA Consulting is here for you.
Paths To Upgrade
~~Incredibly there are still many people who have yet to migrate away from the outdated and no longer secure Windows XP. It is no surprise that I have been receiving more spam and phishing emails coming to my personal inbox from people in my contact list. You’ve probably seen them; it’s the one where the email subject says “NEWS!!” and the body of the email contains a shady looking link. I know better than to open that email, much less to click on that link. It seems like a coincidence that the increase of these spam and phishing emails happened just the week after Microsoft no longer supports Windows XP. The more time passes, the more of a security risk XP becomes. There are different paths to upgrading your XP Computer. At TRA Consulting we can help you figure out the best solutions for your needs and budget. The most common path I’ve seen people go is to upgrade their windows XP machine to Windows 7, since Windows 7 is a more polished and refined operating system from Microsoft than Windows 8 or Vista. In fact, I recommend to NOT upgrade to Vista if you have XP. Even if you already have Vista in your computer, I recommend to upgrade out of it, possibly to windows 7. Upgrading to a newer operating system is not as easy as point and click. It is a very destructive process that should only be done after a complete and thorough data backup. Also, you need to make sure that your computer’s hardware can run a newer operating system. The System specifications for Windows XP and Windows 7 are very different. A computer running XP might not be able to run Windows 7, or if it does, it might do so at a reduced capacity. In that case, a hardware upgrade might be necessary. Most of the time, upgrading the memory (RAM) or the hard drive will solve that problem. If that is not enough, then it would be wiser to upgrade the motherboard, or simply just buy a new computer. At TRA Consulting, we have many years’ experience upgrading computers hardware and Operating systems. We can help you figure out and implement the fastest, easiest, and economical solutions for your much needed upgrade. Another option is upgrading to Windows 8. Windows 8 is the newest operating system by Microsoft, and includes some major changes from previous Operating Systems. First of all, it includes the Metro interface. This replaced the typical Start menu in Windows, and it is composed of a tiled screen where you can see all your desktop applications as well as Windows Store apps. Microsoft made Windows 8 to be more Touchscreen friendly than keyboard friendly. However, with the past couple of major updates, windows 8.1 has now become more of a regular pc friendly Operating system. We know that there are a lot of options out there when it comes to computers. Let TRA Consulting help you decide what the best option for you is. Whether you are upgrading your operating system, your computer, or even your network, we can help make that transition easier for you.
Time to switch
~~If you are reading this in a windows XP computer (hopefully not), then the time has ran out. Today Microsoft officially ends support for the 13 year old operating system, making this once popular operating system a security risk. There are many people who don’t know about this or are choosing to ignore it, but this is a real threat to the security of your pc and your data. There are many reasons why people are unwilling to move to a newer operating system than Windows XP. Some of them are Time, Money, and Knowledge. Upgrading your computer to a newer operating system takes time to do. People are busy to do it for themselves. Offices don’t have the manpower to do it themselves, so they fall behind in keeping up with Security. This leads me to the second reason why some people still have not upgraded from Windows XP, knowledge. Some people are not aware of Windows XP no longer receiving support starting today. They have no idea what it means. If their computer works and they can still use it, why fix it if it’s not broke? Honestly, they are right in some sense, but having an outdated Operating System with no support is like a ticking time bomb; it is bound to hurt you if you do not do something about it soon. If you are still running windows XP and you don’t have the time to upgrade to Windows 7 or 8, give us a call and we can take care of that for you. We server the Long Beach, Southbay, Orange County, and the Greater Los Angeles Area. In my IT career, I’ve seen numerous home users ignore Windows Updates, thinking that they are a nuisance. I’ve had to explain to them how important they are and that a computer that does not stay up to date is more likely to and be infected with malware and viruses. A computer with Malware and Viruses is a slow computer, and that it something everyone wants to avoid. It seems that for home users, speed is more of a concern than security. It is a more measurable quality of a computer than security, so that angle hits home with home users (pun intended). Businesses need the most secure network as possible since they are bigger targets for hackers and cyber attackers. Just like a chain, a network is just as strong as its weakest link. Having Windows XP in any computer in an office is not only weakening your network security, but it is almost like inviting a cyber-attacker to exploit such vulnerability. Having and keeping secure multiple computers in an office is hard work to maintain. Upgrading them out of Windows XP can get expensive. Fortunately, TRA Consulting is here to help you make that transition as fast, seamless and economical as possible. We have many years of not only upgrading computers, but also repairing and maintaining them. We serve the Long Beach, Orange County, South Bay and Los Angeles Area. Contact us today!
Zero-Day Attack
~~Recently, there’s been news that Microsoft has found out that there have been zero-day attacks focused on a vulnerability on Microsoft Word 2010. It was originally spotted in Word 2010, but it also affects other versions, like Word 2003, 2007, 2013, 2013RT, Office for Mac, and Web apps. This happens when an attacker uses a malicious RTF file (or email in Outlook) configured to open with Microsoft Word as the email viewer. Because Word is set to be the default email viewer in Office 2007 through 2013, these are the most likely vulnerable to this threat. Microsoft has not released a path addressing this issue yet, but it has plans to do so by April 8th, which happens to coincide with the last day that they will be supporting Windows XP and Office 2003. Until then, there is a fix-it in their knowledge base, which they recommend people use until the patch is released. What the fix says is to disable opening RTF files with Word. Wikipedia defines the term Zero-day attack as an “attack or threat…that exploits a previously unknown vulnerability in a computer application, one that developers have had no time to address and patch.” In this case, Microsoft found out that this vulnerability was being exploited when it was reported by Office users, which means that Microsoft had no idea of this vulnerability until it was brought to their attention by users who had been already hacked. This exploit allows the hacker to have the same rights as the current user, meaning that if the user is logged in as an administrator, they hacker will have administrator’s rights as well. The attacker can then do as he/she pleases, delete data, uninstall programs, and even create other user accounts, without you knowing until it’s too late. Although there is no patch for this exploit yet, it is important to keep up with news regarding computer security and to apply any fixes regarding this vulnerability and to keep checking updates for all your computer software. If you don’t want to be vulnerable to such attacks, please contact us right away. TRA consulting is an IT Consulting company that supports Long Beach, OC, and the Greater LA Area. We can help you keep your computer and network safe from intrusion. With our many years of experience in computer repair and pc security, you can be sure that your personal data is secure and that your computer will run optimally. TRA consulting not only focuses on Home Personal security, but also in SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) security. Our goal is to provide full IT support to growing small businesses who are too small to have a full time IT staff, yet big enough that they need one. We have many highly satisfied customers in the Long Beach, Orange County, Southbay, and Los Angeles area. Contact us today, and let us take care of all of your computer security needs. Our prices are reasonable and our services are top notch.
Security, Security, Security
~~When was the last time that someone said “I hope my network gets attacked by a hacker today”? Unless you have a honeypot, no one is looking forward for that to happen. Unfortunately, there are many people and businesses who not only are not equipped to prevent an intrusion in their systems, but worse yet, they also have no way to detect if their network’s been breached or if their systems have been hacked until it is too late. Taking initiative in your pc and network security is an underrated method to prevent not only loss and compromise of your data, but also saves you the time and headache to try to get yourself back to where you were before. At TRA consulting, our philosophy is to get your network and systems secured so that you don’t have to experience this situation. If you’ve unfortunately have been a victim of hacking, we can help you get peace of mind by securing your network, computers, and data. TRA Consulting has been servicing the Long Beach area, Southbay, Orange County, and the Greater Los Angeles area for years, and we won’t rest until you can fall asleep at night knowing that your data is safe and secure Cyber-threats come in different shapes and sizes. For example, the stealing of sensitive data from Target servers, in which millions of customer’s credit card information was compromised, was the biggest cyber hacking event in recent memory. The reason why this hit home for a lot of people was because, well, everyone shops at Target. Hearing that hackers made out with millions of people’s sensitive credit card information from the place you did your X-mas shopping, makes you feel vulnerable as when you first found out that that a Russian hacker got your PayPal password and they used it to send themselves $400 worth of clothing. Yes, that happened to me. Thankfully Paypal refunded me the money this hacker took from my account within a few days. However, dealing with credit card companies and banks regarding money stolen from your credit card and bank account is a much bigger headache. In an age where online banking is ubiquitous, taking care of your sensitive financial information is of the utmost importance. The target breach taught us that there is some things that are out of our control, but at the same time showed us that sometimes its human lack of foresight that puts data in jeopardy. Taking initiative in securing your personal computer can reap many benefits in the long run. Hindsight may be 20/20, but foresight, especially regarding your computer security, can be a big money saver. Contact us today, and let us take care of your home/office security. Our years of experience and competitive prices makes us one of the best IT consulting companies based in the Long Beach area. We also serve the Orange County, Southbay, and Greater Los Angeles Area. Our years of computer experience can help you fix almost an problem you have at a reasonable price. Contact us today. v