Mobility and the future of tablets in the workforce
Dell is developing some nice tablets! http://www.techpageone.com/technology/infographic-empowering-mobile-workforce/#.Ulz7Y6Pn-Uk Is your organization set up to fully empower your mobile workforce? As tablets and other mobile devices continue to change the way people work, you need to make sure to keep up with your end users’ needs. If you haven’t given much thought to tablet adoption and desktop replacement, the time to do so is now. If you have, you know there’s more to learn. Recent research on mobility in the workplace points to some important trends: Tablet usage is rapidly emerging as the front-runner in bring your own device (BYOD) uses and purchases — especially in education, healthcare, federal government and the enterprise — because tablets meet so many computing requirements across all industries and fields. The majority of IT executives believe that their organizations will be at a competitive disadvantage without the necessary mobile computing solutions in place. Most companies around the world believe that employee satisfaction and productivity improve with the right mobility solutions in place. Security is still a primary concern for tablets and other mobile devices, but technology is advancing to meet the ever-evolving threats. Contact TRA Consulting, Inc. to serve all of your mobility needs. We are in the business of empowering our customers to work more efficiently. We shoulder the burden of desktop support, managed IT services, and IT consulting needs so you don't have to. TRA
Planning For Productivity In The Office
Workstations are as unique as the people that use them. Their is no good cookie cutter solution to this. Typically what I have found is dual displays is always a good thing. Running duals always increases productivity. Studies have shown at least a 30% improvement. The other thing is a good chair. The more adjustable the better. The desk, however, can be anything. From door to the most expensive. A desk really is a desk unless you have some special requirements. TRA Consulting, Inc
HP Versus The World
Reposted from Tom's Hardware: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/hp-intel-microsoft-meg-whitman-android,24616.html Meg Whitman says, "HP's traditional highly profitable markets face significant disruption. Wintel devices are being challenged by ARM-based devices," she said. "The disruptive forces are very tough and very real, and they are accelerating. We are seeing profound changes in the competitive landscape. Our competitors are expanding across the IT stack. Current partners like Intel and Microsoft are turning from partners to outright competitors." I say good! Change is good! Disruptive forces can be the best forces to hit the market. HP is one of the stalwart status quo players in the game. Much in the same way Kia and Hyundai follow the Japanese in car design, HP has a reputation for following trends. Their corporate structure is a monstrosity and moves like a blind sloth with the discerning tastes of an amoeba. Dell crushed them in the 90's. I am looking forward to the next disruptive change in the landscape taking down the behemoth for good. Hp is to the computer industry what Jabba the Hut was to Star Wars. TRA Consulting
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 “From” field, though well-secured mail services do often include such functionality. It is also possible for mail to be sent from your account without your knowledge, by malware, though malware that works in this way is far rarer than it used to be. It’s far more effective for a spammer to hire the services of a bot-herder nowadays, and malware that manages to infect your system doesn’t have to use your mail account or client software to send spam, scams and malware on to other victims. There are many ways to disguise a harmful link so that it looks like something quite different, whether it’s in e-mail, chat or whatever. The disguising of malicious links in phishing e-mails so that they appear to go to a legitimate site has obligated developers to reengineer browsers to make it easier to spot such spoofing. However, too many people forget to make use of elementary precautions such as passing the mouse cursor over the link so that the real link shows up. In any case, it’s not always easy to distinguish a genuine site from a fake site just from the URL, even if the URL is rendered correctly.. TRA Consulting 375 Redondo Avenue #153 Long Beach, CA 90814 562-225-4222
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 whether the online account is email, social media, banking, low security, etc. It is good practice to change passwords on a regular basis and to avoid simple passwords; especially those that are easily guessed. It’s debatable whether enforced, frequent changes of complicated passwords are always constructive (making you trade a security vulnerability for a social engineering vulnerability if you have a tendency to write your passwords down and hide them under the keyboard). If a criminal guesses or cracks one of your passwords, using different passwords for other services and for your system passwords considerably limits the damage that he or she can do. If, on the other hand, you use the same password for all of your accounts, you run the risk that one lucky guess will give the criminal the keys to the kingdom. One of the reasons that trivial accounts are sometimes phished is that they give a cracker a head start on guessing the password for other, more profitable accounts. You may find this SANS newsletter on keeping your passwords safe, interesting, and useful: http://www.securingthehuman.org/newsletters/ouch/issues/OUCH-201105_en.pdf. TRA Consulting, Inc. 375 Redondo Avenue #153 Long Beach, CA 90814 info@traconsulting.us 562-225-4222 TRA
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 “least privilege”. That is, users should only be given the least amount of access and privilege necessary to perform their duties. The more privilege you have, the more damage a user can do; intentionally or unwittingly. If you happen to run a small business with a file server or a workstation acting as a file server and you have not limited access to critical data from your users, you have a ticking time-bomb waiting to go off. Run through a scenario of what would happen if all of your data was wiped out. Is your data backed up? Do you have redundancy? In this scenario, some organization would cease to operate; in other cases an organization’s operations would be severely crippled. Don’t be that organization. Contact TRA for a free consultation and analysis. TRA Consulting, Inc. 375 Redondo Avenue #153 Long Beach, CA 90814 TRA
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 weekly “Consensus Security Vulnerability Alert” published by SANS (see http://portal.sans.org). In recent years, vulnerabilities in applications have become a serious threat (arguably more so than OS vulnerabilities). Unfortunately, users are far less savvy about patching third-party applications than they are about patching the operating system. However, this vector will also decline in impact as application vendors learn to tighten their quality control and patching methodologies. Ericka Chickowski goes into some more detail on the vulnerabilities of 5 third-party vendor applications and equipment and the urgent need to patch these applications and devices – namely, Java-enabled devices, Printers, Routers, ERP Software, and Databases; all of which suffer from neglect when it comes to patch management – in her article, “5 Systems You’re Forgetting To Patch”, http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability-management/167901026/security/news/240005971/5-systems-you-re-forgetting-to-patch.html?cid=nl_DR_daily_2012-08-22_html&elq=f3f56ae21c164ea09473836b2a6c4394. This reading is highly recommended. TRA Consulting, Inc. 375 Redondo Avenue #153 Long Beach, CA 90814 TRA
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 XP, Vista and Windows Server, and finally by pushing the changes out through Windows Update so that many more systems would then be updated automatically. Better late than never, some would say. Still, that change has greatly reduced the volume of malware infections exploiting the AutoRun facility, though it hasn’t (and can’t) make the problem disappear completely. Microsoft tells us that it saw infections on XP and Vista reduced by 1.3 million in the first few months after the changes to Windows update, but there are still high volumes of AutoRun infection attempts, indicating that there are other factors at play. Consider, for instance, the fact that XP SP2 is out of support, so that the figures for machines that aren’t updated beyond that show only a small drop. But that doesn’t, of course, mean that they aren’t a channel for infection attempts. Don’t assume, either, that this single precaution will save you from every example of this type of threat. Most malware uses more than one technique to infect targeted systems. Removable devices are useful and very popular. Of course, malware authors are well aware of this, as INF/AutoRun’s frequent return to the number one spot clearly indicates. Here’s why it’s a problem. The default AutoRun setting in an unpatched version of Windows (apart from Windows 7) will automatically run a program listed in the autorun.inf file when you access many kinds of removable media. There are many types of malware that copy themselves to removable storage devices. While this isn’t always the program’s primary distribution mechanism, malware authors are always ready to build in a little extra “value” by including an additional infection technique. As always, if you are unfortunate enough to be running an infected PC, contact your local virus removal experts, TRA Consulting: info@traconsulting.us or 562-225-4222 TRA
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 connected to a file server are all running some sort of endpoint protection, the server cannot get infected; yet how many times does a new virus, worm or malware package slip through the application meant to protect it and infect the workstation? We see it too often. And if the workstation does get infected, what is the status of the files contained on that workstation? Furthermore, how many SMBs use their file servers for more than just file sharing? How many have insecure file-transfer programs like Dropbox? How many are hosting an FTP server? How many are opening up port 3389 for remote access without the use of a VPN or firewall? Even more reason to get protected. We have been using different file server antivirus solutions over the years. Everything from Symantec and McAfee to Avast and Avira. And whatever your personal preference, one thing is certain, your file server needs it, and it needs it now. Please make sure that the type of antivirus you install has an engine capable of running on a file server with the least amount of drag. Contact your local VAR for an assessment of your particular needs – TRA Consulting, Inc., 562-225-4222 TRA
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 doing more damage than the virus has already caused. In the early stages of an attack there is an opportunity for the end user to identify the infection, save and close out all programs, and turn off the computer. All too often, however, a user will begin to tamper with the attacker, edit the registry, and cause further damage; which can result in data loss, corrupted file systems, and bulk spam being generated unknowingly. Choosing to live with an attacker on the host machine can cause severe damage to critical system files, destroy the reputation of an IP address as perceived by external spam blacklists, compromise bank accounts and passwords, and open the machine up to keystroke loggers, and the list goes on. The best advice I can give the end user is this: when you think your computer has been affected by a virus infection, save what you are doing, turn off your computer, and call the professionals – TRA Consulting, Inc., serving all of Los Angeles and Orange Counties. We have seen it all – malware, viruses, corrupted data, spam blacklists, compromised email accounts. Let us get your computer back on track and give you back your piece of mind! TRA