Ransomware is malware that either freezes your computer or locks it so you cannot access data and programs that your company normally uses. The criminal that is holding your system hostage, demands a ransom that is usually paid in Bitcoin.

Imagine opening your business one morning, turning your computer on and reading a message that says something like: Attention – Your System is Locked. If you want your data and programs unlocked, you must pay a fee of $800. If you are a new business or a small one, $800 can be a lot of money. It is in effect a ransom payment and is the harbinger that your computer is a victim of ransomware.

What is Ransomware/Malware?

Ransomware is malware that either freezes your computer or locks it so you cannot access data and programs that your company typically uses. The criminal that is holding your system hostage, demands a ransom that is usually paid in Bitcoin. One thing about this kind of criminal is they believe in excellent customer service. Instructions are sent you about how to pay in Bitcoin. Also, the thief or gang of thieves usually do return your computer back over to you – otherwise, most people would not bother to pay the ransom.

However, the ransom is only the beginning of your expenses relating to a ransomware incident involving your business.

What Are the Other Costs of Ransomware?

In 2016, the average cost of paying a ransom demand involving accessing a business’ computer programs and data was $679. It is expected to rise in 2017 to nearly $800. But, that is not the only, nor necessarily, the greatest expense. The other costs attendant to ransomware include:

Regulatory Fines

It is the duty of every business to safeguard the Personal Financial Information (PFI) and Personal Identifying Information (PII) of clients and customers. Regulatory authorities such as the US Department of Health and Human Services (HIPAA compliance) or the Federal Trade Commission for letting PII fall victim to a ransomware attack. Fines can be high (millions of dollars) but are usually not levied if there had been no other prior issues regarding confidentiality. For those firms who had previous breaches, fines can quickly add up to millions of dollars.

A Lack of Productivity

When a computer system is unreachable, your employees are undergoing downtime. Without your business data and programs, they are unable to work and are simply nothing more than another expense due to ransomware. Depending on the size of your workforce is how much this costs. A research study by the firm Vanson Bourne for SentinelOne reveals that it takes 38 man hours to recover from a ransomware attack.

Loss of Customers/Lack of New Customers

When a company is victimized by a ransomware attack, most states require that anyone whose data may have been breached must be advised of the possible breach. Doing so may lead to customers leaving you for another company. Likewise, it is harder to find new clients or customers.

Loss of Employees/Inability to Hire Top Applicants

The situation is similar when it comes to employee retention and new hires – employees want to know their employer has an excellent reputation that is unsullied by a successful ransomware attack.

{company} in {city} is the trusted choice when it comes to staying ahead of the latest information technology tips, tricks, and news. Contact us at {phone} or send us an email at {email} for more details.

Mozilla Firefox users, the HoeflerText malware is back and this time, it’s targeting you.

Several months ago, Google Chrome users were the target of a vicious malware scam. When visiting a targeted website, an official looking Chrome message popped up indicating:

“The ‘HoeflerText’ font wasn’t found. The web page you are trying to load is displayed incorrectly, as it uses the ‘HoeflerText’ font. To fix the error and display the text, you have to update the ‘Chrome Font Pack’”.

Unaware this wasn’t an official message, users clicked the update button and received additional information regarding how to update their Chrome fonts. Malware developers determined this error message was being used by cyber criminals to spread Spora ransomware, which comes with active infection channels, sophisticated ransom payment service, and advanced crypto. The virus was discovered and a “fix” was defined, but not before thousands of Internet users were infected. Well, the malware attack is back again, only this time, it’s targeting Mozilla Firefox users.

What Mozilla Firefox Users Need to Know

The latest malware campaign, as discovered by Kafeine, a Proofpoint exploit expert, especially targets Mozilla Firefox users who have the banking trojan Zeus Panda. Fortunately, the cyber attackers left some easily recognized evidence behind; they kept the HoeflerText font name the same.

Here’s a little bit about how this attack works:

• These attacks only target users visiting websites that have already been compromised.
• The user is then scanned to see if they meet certain specifications. If they do, the web page is rewritten, and the screen looks distorted.
• The “‘HoeflerText’ font wasn’t found” message looks convincingly like an official Mozilla message. Users are persuaded to download and install the latest “Font Pack” version. Once the “Update” button has been clicked, the attack has been launched.

Once the user’s system has been infected, Zeus Panda is set to automatically launch when the user signs in. The command and control center is then notified to forward information regarding the infected device’s firewall and antivirus information. Panda, the online banking trojan, has targeted banks in North America, Europe, and Brazil. Its target is bitcoin exchanges, online betting accounts, bankers, airline loyalty programs, and online payment providers. If these recent attacks have proven anything, however, it’s that virtually everyone is at risk.

To safeguard yourself against this type of cyber attack, it’s critical that you’re careful about what you download from the Internet. If a window pops up indicating a new version of anything is required, go directly to the developer’s site to ensure authenticity. If no updates are found, contact the developer immediately. Additionally, keep your computer’s antivirus software updated at all times. Cyber criminals are becoming increasingly more advanced in their methods of delivery; it’s up to us to exercise caution and protect ourselves.

The internet has changed over the years, but people remain the same. See what’s different, what’s similar and how the past can define the future.

There’s a famous clip from The Today Show in 1994 where the hosts try to figure out what the internet is. Millennials watch it and giggle as the stars puzzle over seemingly simple concepts like email and web pages. The hosts weren’t silly or stupid, they were only trying to come to terms with a disruptive technology that has since taken over practically everything we do. There are articles from experts in subsequent years that promise the internet would die off soon, much like Hula Hoops or flagpole sitting. We’ll look back at the results of a survey from the early days, and what the average person was doing when they used their precious phone line to connect.

Email

The Pew Research Center took a survey in late 1995 about how Americans were making use of the internet. People check their email on average 15 times a day in 2017, and some are always getting alerts as to every new piece of mail that pops into their inbox. But back in 1995, 29% of more than 4,000 people testified that they only checked their email once a day. On average, they sent three emails a day and received only about five.

CD-Roms Vs. Internet

If Americans had to choose between CD-ROMs at the time and the internet, it seems that people would choose CD-ROMs. Around half the people surveyed had CD-ROMs, and attitudes and usage patterns suggest that the web just wasn’t cutting it for them yet.

Adult Entertainment

Most people wanted to eliminate any type of adult entertainment from the internet entirely, though the margins were somewhat slim with a 52 to 41% vote for banning it. At the time, censorship seemed perfectly reasonable, much like the movies or television.

Websites

Only 1 in every 5 users had ever signed onto the web, even though the first website was already 5 years old. Survey participants appreciated connecting with strangers via chat and skipping postage costs via email, but the days of idle surfing weren’t quite here yet.

Privacy Concerns

The concerns over privacy have waned and waxed over the years, but it’s not a new concept. Half of the users admitted to worrying about someone invading their privacy in 1995. While that concern would filter out some in 2008 and 2009, it was revived again after Edward Snowden laid out the brutal truths he’d encountered in national security. Americans are more concerned about their privacy regarding businesses and government than they ever were before.

Understanding the past is a good way to keep us moving forward — until the time another generation can ask questions that will seem obvious to the generation that follows.

{company} is the trusted choice when it comes to staying ahead of the latest developments and can provide you with tips, tricks and news. Contact us at {phone} or send us an email at {email} for more information.

Because Google always changes the algorithm that it uses to determine search engine rankings, your business’ website needs to stay on top of the current key features that can help move it to the top of Google’s search results.

Many companies approach search engine optimization as a one-time challenge; once you have set up your company’s website with an eye to maximizing your Google search ranking, they think, you’re all set. In actuality, Google regularly makes changes to its algorithm that determines its search engine rankings. Keeping your business’ website at the top of Google’s search results requires constant attention to the changes in Google’s ranking factors and continuous tweaking of your site’s content. With that in mind, here are the four key features to utilize right now to improve your business’ Google search ranking.

HTTPS

Google first announced that HTTPS would be used as a factor in its ranking system back in 2014. MozCast, an online platform dedicated to tracking the changes in Google’s algorithm, has found that Google is keeping that promise; almost 46 percent of all of Google’s top ranking websites are HTTPS sites. Google has made this push based on their belief in the need for strong Internet security. Especially if your business offers any form of online shopping or information gathering features, moving to HTTPS is critical.

Google AdWords

While pay-per-click services like Google AdWords have not traditionally been a part of search engine optimization, MozCast has found a direct relationship between the two. Almost 53 percent of websites that appear on the first page of Google’s search results feature Google AdWords on the top of their pages. In short, paying for Google AdWords yourself won’t raise your search ranking, but becoming a part of Google’s advertising network and having ads embedded on your web page might.

Reviews

Google is upfront about the fact that it utilizes customer reviews in determining website rankings, so it should come as no surprise that almost 37 percent of businesses that reach Google’s first page of search results feature customer reviews. Indeed, Google itself now displays customer ratings right below text ads in order to connect customers with quality businesses.

Knowledge Panels

As MozCast has noted, approximately 38 percent of Google’s highest ranking websites have Knowledge Panels. Knowledge Panels appear as information boxes to the right of Google’s search results and are intended to help potential customers quickly find contact and other information for businesses. Unfortunately, you cannot directly put your business in a Knowledge Panel; Google itself makes the determination based on your company’s relevance to a potential customer’s search. However, you can influence the chance that your business will be included in a Knowledge Panel by increasing your business’ general prominence and local search engine optimization.

Concerned that you’re not doing everything that you need to help get your business to the top of Google’s rankings? Contact us today at {phone} or {email} and we can introduce you to an expert from within our community of specialists.

Microsoft’s April releases include new apps and updates to old favorites

Several major updates to Office 365 were published in April. The worldwide rollout of Outlook Customer Manager and the introduction of Microsoft To-Do are particularly good news.

Outlook Customer Manager

Outlook Customer Manager was first introduced in November to Office 365 customers who take part in the early release program. Now it’s available to everyone who has a premium subscription. This nifty tool brings CRM (customer relationship management) to Office 365.

With Outlook Customer Manager, all of your customer interactions and information are tracked and organized in a timeline that’s visible beside your inbox. The information, which includes emails, calls, notes, meetings, tasks, deals, and deadlines, is automatically collected from your Office 365 environment. You can also use associate tasks with a contact, and receive timely reminders of upcoming events and deadlines.

Some of the best features include:

• When an email arrives, it’s scanned by Outlook Customer Manager; if it contains a request for a meeting, file, or information, a reminder is automatically created on your Today page.
• You have the option to share customer information across teams; that way every team member who interacts with a customer can get the full picture of the relationship.
• Customer information can be auto-filled from Bing. When you’re setting up a new company, Outlook Customer Manager will suggest company information based on Bing information, which you can accept to auto-fill fields like address and website URL.
• You can use Cortana, Microsoft’s personal digital assistant, to manage setting up meetings with customers, taking this often time-consuming task off your hands.

There’s also a handy mobile app that provides access to the same information available on your desktop. It’s only available for iOS so far, but apps for additional platforms are in the works.

Outlook Customer Manager is integrated into Outlook and is accessible from the home tab in your Outlook inbox.

Microsoft To-Do

Just released in preview, Microsoft To-Do is an intelligent task management app that brings the satisfaction of checking things off your to-do list to your desktop and pocket. It can be accessed on Windows 10 devices, the web, and iPhone and Android.

Every day starts with a fresh, blank “My Day” list. You can add items yourself or let Microsoft To-Do give you suggestions it gleans by looking at all of your to-dos and prioritizing the most important ones. As you complete items, just click to check them off your list. To make this even more helpful, you can add reminders, due dates, and notes to to-do items.

In addition to the daily “My Day” list, you can create as many separate lists as you’d like – for work, travel, school, groceries, etc. You can personalize each list with its own colors and theme to help you quickly identify each one.

Microsoft To-Do syncs across multiple devices, so your mobile phone, desktop, and tablet all display the most current information. Plus, it’s free – so why not give it a try?

Other April Updates

As part of its April updates, Microsoft also tweaked some of its other offerings:

• The PowerPoint Designer now works on iPads. It was already available on Windows desktops, Macs, and other tablets, but now iPad users can take advantage of it too.
• Office 365 support for groups has been expanded. Now you can more easily access documents in your frequently used groups from within Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Skype for Windows 10 is fully released. The newest version, called Windows 10 Creators Update, is packed with new features like mini view and integration of a new app, Paint 3D, which allows you to create or modify 3D objects and transform 2D objects into 3D.

Along with these new apps and features, Microsoft released several security and compliance updates geared toward enterprise subscribers. Office 365 Threat Intelligence is now generally available, and Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) can be used to protect users from malicious links in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

Outlook Customer Manager and Microsoft To-Do are the best news in this batch of updates. These apps are welcome additions to the Microsoft digital toolbox. Kudos to Microsoft for keeping the new products coming.

There are viruses that can be implanted on a computer in 2017, and lie in wait until a network becomes vulnerable before attacking. Unfortunately, viruses have come a long way from 20 years ago. The term virus was coined early on in computer history, but it’s every bit as relevant today as it was then. Just like biological viruses adapt to Purell and antibiotics, so too have viruses learned to adapt to new security measures.

Brain in 1986

Brain was the first reported computer virus on DOS, and was announced in January of 1986. It spread via floppy disk, and spawned generations of hackers with its ability to move from computer to computer. Brain appeared to be little more than a prank (courtesy of two developers in Pakistan), a joke in which the hackers actually revealed their real location in the text of the virus. Because the virus did little to harm people’s data or machines, it often went entirely unnoticed by users.

The Evolution

Today we refer to viruses as a specific kind of malware, one that can self-replicate and continue its destructive path indefinitely. While Brain may be one of the famous early viruses because it came about when computers were experiencing more ubiquity, self-replicating programs date back to the 1940s. Programs in the early days might slow down processing time, taunt users with cryptic messages, or severely impact performance. Once Brain was no longer a news items, new forms started to pop up. The ones that followed famously infected files from Yale University, destroyed files in Jerusalem, and exploited computers that were known to have buffering vulnerabilities. Viruses could be the product of hackers, or sometimes of legitimate company’s software.

Viruses Today

Viruses have gotten faster and more efficient to make them a force to be feared. They can delete photos, files and entire storage libraries. They’re developed to target Word, Outlook, Windows OS, Mac OS — nothing is safe. They can be designed to affect Facebook or Twitter users, or programmed to steal credit card information straight for the source. Hackers may be out for pure destruction or chaos, or potentially for ransom. The more the average person understands them, the faster hackers create new tricks to get in. Viruses can come in the form of a pop up, an email from a coworker, or a completely undetectable program that waits until the time is right.

Protection for Everyone

The physical world will never provide total safety, and the same holds true for the virtual world. But there are preventative measures you can take to safeguard your company from viruses that go beyond anti-malware and perimeter protections. Security needs to have layers to fend off the intelligent viruses of 2017.

{company} is the trusted choice when it comes to staying ahead of the latest virus developments and can provide you with tips, tricks and news. Contact us at {phone} or send us an email at {email} for more information.

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