News

We already know that ransomware has become a growing threat to users around the world. Just last week, Mac users saw their first such attack on Apple's operating system. By encrypting a user’s local files and holding them ransom for payment in the hundreds of dollars, the perpetrators have become increasingly sophisticated in their methods to extract money. The software is so difficult to deal with that the FBI advises people and businesses to just pay up to unlock their files.

Now, according to Trend Micro, the past 24 hours have seen a rash of new crypto-ransomware spreading through popular websites. The attack, dubbed Angler Exploit Kit, is taking advantage of vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, among others, to feed the malware through compromised ad networks.

Malwarebytes is reporting that the “malvertising” is hitting the BBC, MSN, nfl.com, The New York Times, my.xfinity.com and many others in the form of clickable banners. The anti-malware company provided lots of detail around the exploit, reporting a number of suspicious domains through which the ads are apparently served.

Google’s ad network was compromised in this attack, according to MalwareBytes. Last year, Google reported to have made progress in filtering ad injectors and malicious sources across the ad networks it manages. However, it would appear that the ad network still has work to do.

Up until recently one of the major security firms have seen 101 fake websites and the list is still growing.
These sites ask you to enter a code, supposedly to prove you are not a robot.
Their advice is:
Do not to enter Captcha codes to any penalty or police related websites.
Be especially careful about anything purporting to be a traffic infringement or the AFP (use you telephone to confirm any such email).

CAPTCHA stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart".

"Locky" feels like quite a cheery-sounding name, but it's also the nickname of a new strain of ransomware, so-called because it renames all your important files so that they have the extension .locky.

Of course, it doesn’t just rename your files, it scrambles them first, and – as you may already know about ransomware – only the bad guys have the decryption key and will happily sell it to you.

The most common way that Locky arrives is as follows:
You receive an email containing an attached document such as Troj/DocDl-BCF. 
When you open the document it looks like gobbledegook. 
At the top of the document it advises you to enable macros “if the data encoding is incorrect.”

DO NOT Enable Macros!  Use SHIFT + DELETE to send the email into oblivion.

Windows 10 Mobile has now been released after months of waiting. The OS is available to selected Windows Phone 8.1 devices, including the Lumia 1520, 930, 640, 640XL, 730, 735, 830, 532, 535, 540, 635 1GB, 636 1GB, 638 1GB, 430, 435, BLU Win HD w510u, BLU Win HD LTE x150q, and the MCJ Madosma Q501.

Here is the procedure to upgrade your phone if your device supports the Windows 10 Mobile upgrade.  If you are not confident about carrying out the upgrade yourself, or would like some advice please call our helpdesk.

1) Get Update Advisor

To check if the Windows 10 Mobile upgrade is available for your phone, you firstly need to install an app called Update Advisor app from the Windows Store on your Windows Phone 8.1 device, which you can download from here

2) Enable Windows 10 upgrade
Once you have downloaded and installed the Update Advisor, you need to open it by heading over to the All Apps list on your Windows Phone 8.1 device. After opening up the app, click on “Next” and let the app check for updates. If the app says that the Windows 10 upgrade is available, tick the Enable Windows 10 upgrade checkbox and tap on “Next”. Once the app tells you that your phone is “Ready to upgrade”, tap on “Done”

3) Get the update
After following the above two steps, you should now be able to get the Windows 10 Mobile update. To get it, open up the Settings app on your Windows Phone, scroll down and open “Phone Update” and check for updates to download the OS. Once the OS is ready to install, you will get a simple notification and be able to install the OS.

Is it really that simple? Drop a token in the slot and your new car comes out? In Nashville, Carvana have created the world’s first automatic car vending machine. It’s a five-storey glass tower that can store up to 20 cars. All you have to do is pick up your purchased token at reception and put it in the slot to begin delivery. The cars are actually sold below their rated value and it can be a money saver, but good luck shaking the machine to get a free car out.

Check out a video of it in action here.

Intel’s reinvention of the Hard Drive could give laptops to super computers a major speed boost as early as next year. Intel Optane drives, as they will be called, are based on a new way to store digital data that can operate as much as 1,000 times as fast as the flash memory technology inside hard drives, memory sticks, and mobile devices today.

The sluggish speed of data storage compared to the pace at which processors can work on data has become a significant bottleneck on the capabilities of computers. Several large computing and chip companies have invested heavily in promising new data storage technologies, but none has yet borne fruit. Intel’s Optane drives are based on a technology called 3D Xpoint, developed in collaboration with the memory chip company Micron.

Intel says the technology is affordable enough that Optane drives will be made available next year for uses ranging from large corporate data centres to lightweight laptops. Rob Crooke, a general manager on Intel’s memory project, predicted that they would improve gaming, supercomputers, and data analysis. “We expect to see breakthroughs in personalized medicine, in business analytics to allow companies, cities, and maybe countries to run more efficiently,” he said.

The flash memory chips that are the fastest way to store data today use a grid of clumps of electrons trapped on silicon to represent the 0s and 1s of digital data. A 3D Xpoint chip instead has a grid formed from metal wires layered over one another; data is stored by using electricity to change the arrangement of atoms inside material trapped at each junction of the grid. Just like flash, 3D Xpoint chips hold onto data even when powered down. They can’t currently store data as densely, but Intel says the Xpoint grids can be stacked vertically, providing a route to storing more data on one chip.

Microsoft will be allowing Surface Pro users who bought earlier models of the company's tablet to exchange power cables for free due to possible overheating issues.

This recall affects the following models: Microsoft Surface Pro, Microsoft Surface Pro 2, and Microsoft Surface Pro 3 devices sold before 15 July 2015.
Over an extended period of time, damage could result if the AC power cords is wound too tightly, twisted or pinched.

Microsoft will provide one AC power cord replacement free of charge for each eligible Surface Pro device that you own. No proof of damage is required to receive a replacement AC power cord.

Click here to get your free replacement.

In all likelihood you will know someone who has been a victim of a malicious piece of malware or had valuable data stolen through a well-orchestrated hack. Many organisations that suffer these and other attacks fail to take the proper precautions to prevent themselves from becoming victims.  Here are some of the precautions you can take.

Patching - Most attacks, whether they be malware or hacking attempts exploit weakness or vulnerabilities in Operating Systems and 3rd party applications. Normally, when an exploit is discovered, a publisher will release a fix to block it as soon as possible. If your system is maintained by our Managed Services, these patches will be applied automatically.

Mail Filtering - No small number of threats find their way into a network as an email attachment or link. Having a robust system to scan, scrub and quarantine these threats is essential. If you are not using Office 365 for your mail, we recommend Roaring Penguin for anti-spam protection.

Web Filtering - Blocking malicious websites from being accessed can go a long way to reducing the number of threats introduced to a network. 

Backups - A good backup and disaster recovery strategy should be in place to make sure that essential and business critical data is safe should the worst happen. Ideally, it should be located offsite. If you don’t already have an offsite backup solution, please call our sales team who will help you find a solution that meets your requirements.

Antivirus – We recommend our managed AV Defender to provide a strong defense against viruses.

Here are some important things to check for when purchasing a power bank.

1. Ensure the power bank is of a higher capacity than your phone's battery. Most smartphones have batteries that range from 1500 to 2500mAh. If your phone has a battery of 1800mAh and you purchase a power bank with a capacity of 5400mAh, you should get at least two charge of the phone. It is recommended that you do not to discharge the power bank completely.
   
   
2. Ensure that the power bank has USB connections in for both charging and discharging.  Also check that the unit has the correct cable to fit your device.
   
   
3. Check pricing and the quality of the unit by looking for reviews on Google
   
   
4. Make sure it has short circuit and overcharge protection.
   
   
5. Check the weight and dimensions of the unit as this may restrict the ability to carry these with you.

Batteries are a critical part of our mobile devices, and as such they need to be cared for properly. There is still a lot of inaccurate information circulating since nickel-based batteries were replaced by lithium-based batteries. We have provided some handy tips to help you keep your batteries healthy.

1. Battery Memory/Topping Off
You may have heard something about batteries and the “memory effect.” How if you don’t “teach” your batteries their full potential by going from completely full to empty, then they will “forget” some of their capacity. This only applies to nickel-based batteries, most modern devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops come with the lithium-based batteries. These should instead be “topped off” whenever you have the chance.
To get the most out of lithium batteries, you should always try to keep it above 50%, without charging it constantly to 100% either. If you go from 100% to 0% too often, it’s more likely to shorten the lifespan than improve it. So to summarise, to optimise the battery life, try going from around 40% to 80% between charges.

2. Hot and Cold
Heat can greatly reduce the capacity of your battery. When under load, batteries can heat up to high temperatures.
The main factor to watch out for is leaving or storing your devices in areas they can heat up externally – say in a hot car left in the sun – which will cause the battery to run down faster. Keep your device cool and avoid storing them in hot places.
On the other hand, extreme cold temperatures can also affect your battery lifespan. Don’t expose any battery to freezing temperatures if you live in a cold climate, and don’t put spare batteries in the freezer! This is a myth from the nickel based batteries era.

3. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth & GPS
There’s a common misconception that turning off these services will prolong your battery life. In most cases this isn’t true, the only time they’ll actually drain your battery is if they are being used. In other words, having Bluetooth turned on, when you aren’t connected to and using a Bluetooth device, won’t drain your battery any more than having Wi-Fi on when you’re not accessing the network.
Though they may use an immeasurable amount of energy from your battery they will not drain it over the course of a day. Dimming your screen will do more good than switching off these services.

4. 0% Batteries
Do you have a habit of infrequent charging? If possible don’t leave your batteries in a fully discharged state for a long time. If it does get to 0% then you should recharge it ASAP. If you let the battery discharge all the way and leave your device more than a week before charging, it may become incapable of holding a charge at all, dying completely.

5. Batteries will always wear out
Even by following these tips, your lithium-ion batteries will eventually wear out over time, holding less and less charge. After these have reached the maximum number of full discharge cycles rated by the manufacturer, you’ll find that the battery will only power your device for shorter periods of time. The more you use them, the more capacity they’ll lose. Even though you can make your batteries hold a long charge for longer, there’s no stopping entropy. By the time your battery has worn out it will be time to consider a device upgrade!