Ransomware: Prevention is the only solution. I don't pretend to be an expert at this, but I have found a few things that are useful. I hope that sharing them here will help others, so they will not have to face some rather hard choices. Since I felt this to be a topic of enough importance and, as I said, I am not an expert in the cryptography field, I asked other experts on Experts Exchange to allow me to include some of their thoughts on the matter. Thanks to btan and McKnife for all their input (I edited some out for readability, left some out for technical reasons, and included some in various places in the article). Let me preface this by saying the best prevention when it comes to any malware is up to date AV/AM software, good tested backups (yes you must test them), and safe computer usage habits. I have also incorporated some suggestions specific to ransomware prevention and a more general suggestions on enhancing your computer security.
Prevention Like location in the real estate market, prevention is everything. A. B. C. Budget Justification for purchasing AntiMalware product: Review, software, antimalware, budget justification. Originally, I wrote this up as an internal Budget justification in order to get my boss to get a different kind of malware protection than the college offers for free (Symantec). It is specifically aimed at promoting the CES (Comodo Endpoint Solution/Security) software, but it can be modified to use with any software. Feel free to use as you wish. I have attached the original word document as well as included it here. Please note that portions (the bullet points) are from a Techtarget techguide (also attached).
Budget Justification for purchase of new Endpoint Protection For a variety of reasons the solution offered for free by the school, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP), is not a viable option if the aim is to protect our computers from intrusive malicious attacks. SEP primarily provides with virus definitions that update approximately once every day. Additionally, SEP uses a significant amount of system resources thereby slowing down any computer on which it is running. Windows 8 Professional and Touchscreens - A Review: Windows XP Mode, Touchscreens, Windows 8, Review, Compatibility. I have been very hesitant about purchasing any windows 8 computers. There are several reasons, which I am sure many of you have gone over ad infinitum. Let me delineate my own reasons first for not adopting windows 8, and then for purchasing a Windows 8 laptop. Why I didn't, and mostly still don't, want windows 8 computers in the workplace: (You can also see this article I wrote about Windows 8 and the corporate Environment) Primarily, it is the expense.
Next there is the learning curve on the part of the user and the support personnel. Another issue is the driver problem. This of course leads me to what I believe is the best way to upgrade to windows 8, buy a new computer. We also purchased a new all in one system for our director. The important point here is that both systems are new with touchscreens. What Now? First I still tend toward the Windows 7 Pro systems: They are easier to upgrade to As I said there is a lot less of a learning curve - in turn less training. An Ultra Small Form Factor machine (USFF) - a hardware review: Review, Hardware, Windows, Displays, USFF, Case.
Recently I had the dubious luck to have a nearly new computer system, which my boss had upgraded from, placed into my hands. The computer is a fairly good system and even had an SSD as a boot device. I thought this would be a great system until the problems started. The first thing that happened is that intermittently the computer would hang or it would lose connection to the Internet. This could only be remedied by rebooting. Previously, I had been able to solve this problem on other computers by removing the computer from the domain at the console and then logging in locally and rejoining the domain. This was disturbing to say the least! Installing the new drive: This seemed rather easy to me until I tried it. The technician that replaced the power supply had had to take out the drive bay also and had had great difficulty putting it back in, even though this is what he did all day. The next day I tried again a few times without much luck. Listening to media on your phone with BlueTooth - a workaround: bluetooth, media, android.
Windows 8/Touchscreens in the corporate environment: Windows8, Windows 8, Touchscreen. There have been a lot of blogs and articles written about windows 8 and its' pros and cons (although it didn't make it to procon.org). The biggest problems and longest discussions we have about Windows 8/8.1, when it comes to computers in the workplace, concerns the use of touchscreens. The first problem is that now one needs to buy a new monitor to fully exploit Windows 8.x. Touchscreens are not inexpensive and there is not a good way to financially explain their necessity. Windows 8.x seems to be Windows 7 on steroids. 8 has a new interface (metro) that works best with a touchscreen and enhanced security. 8 also makes it significantly more difficult to get to the various nuts and bolts of the windows operating system that we, as the "technical goto" people are used to using.
Our office has considered many things when contemplating upgrading to windows 8.x. My users are still not completely comfortable with Windows 7. Touchscreens have many drawbacks. Sharing reference libraries: tutorial, howto, how to, endnote, referencemanager, reference manager, zotero, thompson reuters, share a library, share a reference library. Let me first state that I am no expert when it comes to reference manager software. I have used several different ones and have come to certain conclusions. Further, I am in NO way associated with the company(s) that produce this software or the project that keeps up the public domain software. I am a user and technical support person for all these applications.
I work in a research institution and it often comes up that people want to share their reference libraries with their colleagues or other persons. The problem is that the actual sharing of said library/database is not always simplistic or straightforward. So I wrote a step by step guide to how to share any program's given library/database and the probable drawbacks. So if you want to know how to share your reference library/database with others follow the steps that coincide with the software you are using, but always backup and take into account any cons stated. How do I share a reference Library using Reference Manager? 1. 2. Evernote is Everly Awesome. I know that I must be starting to sound like a shill for Evernote. This is the seventh time I am mentioning this app in my blog and the third blog posting devoted exclusively to it. I promise you I am no way connected to anyone in Evernote- although I wish I was.
Because this swiss-army-knife of apps is so awesome, I find a new use for it on an almost daily basis. Today I found two. Here they are. 1. Dynamically Updated Shared Notebooks Today, I received a call for assistance from our learning center. Today, I was called to her office because, a month into our one-to-one 9th grade iPad program, the administrative assistant had her first student submitting notes to her using the go-to note-taking iPad app, Evernote. The student and I started brainstorming.
If we can get all of our 9th grade notetakers to take their notes using Evernote, which many of them already do, then all we have to do is have each one create a shared folder for their class. 2. HP Color Laserjet 5550 Image Transfer Kit replacement problem. When I recently replaced my image transfer kit on my office HP color laserjet 5550dn printer, I had a slight problem. The left bracket that holds the transfer kit got stuck in the upright locked position instead of being at a 45 degree angle facing out (as the instructions say it is supposed to be). You can see this easily in figure 7 on this page: above is a copy of the instructions that come with the Image Transfer Kit.
Note the small circle on the left.) I ended up calling technical support (luckily I had a service agreement, otherwise the call - productive or not - would have cost $39) and the technician there was very helpful. Warning: This worked fine for me with a delicate touch and patience. Get a flatheaded screwdriver with a relatively long handle and not too wide a head. This information should be in the instructions. Creating tutorials in place of FAQs. I have found that much of my time doing support ends up being a constant repetition of the same steps to different people.
Early on I stated using web pages with Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to alleviate most of the burden. Sometimes this just wasn't enough. I've played with various different ways of augmenting this over the years and a couple of years back found one solution that topped the rest. I've tried apps like AviScreenPortable (files were way too large), screencastr (limited time) and screenr (limited time). The best so far has been Wink by Debugmode.
In order to make a wink project you first need to download and install wink from the link above. Make sure "Hide Wink Window" is checked then if you wish to only capture the window in which you are working, select window in the drop down box and then click choose. This window explains how wink will work during the capture. NOTE that your project has not started until you hold down the Shift key and press the Pause button. Downgrading IE9 to IE8 on a Windows 7 x64 box: IE9, IE8, downgrading, windows 7, windows, 64 bit. Flaws Exposed, Security Could Gain From Hacking. Hackers Attack Electronic Arts Site. Newtab: (Reuters) - Cyber hackers have breached an Electronic Arts Inc website and may have taken user information such as birth dates, phone numbers and mailing addresses, the company said on its website on Friday. Electronic Arts is the latest victim in a spate of global cyber attacks waged against video game companies.
Last week, Sega Sammy Holdings Inc reported that user information had been stolen from 1.3 million customers, while Sony Corp is still grappling with the massive breach that compromised the data of more than 100 million of its video game users in April. Electronic Arts was not immediately available for comment on Friday. No hacker group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The video game publisher posted a set of questions and answers on its website addressing the attack, which hit a server for EA's Bioware studio in Edmonton, Canada. The hacked website was associated with the fantasy game "Neverwinter Nights.
" (Reporting by Liana B. Coming Soon: Google Panda Update 2.2. One of the bigger pieces of news — certainly for webmasters and SEOs — from our SMX Advanced conference this week is that Google will soon be releasing version 2.2 of the Panda algorithm update. Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed that during Tuesday’s keynote question-and-answer session with Danny Sullivan. Cutts said that the update has been approved, hasn’t been rolled out yet, but that should happen soon. Improved Scraper Detection The next update will target a common webmaster complaint related to the original Panda/Farmer update: sites that scrape and re-publish content and are out-ranking the original source of the content. “A change has been approved that should help with that issue,” Cutts said. He also reiterated some previous Panda-related information: Google will continue to tweak and update the Panda algorithm.There’s no exact date yet for when Panda will launch fully beyond English-language searches.
Recovering From Panda When is Panda run? More Information Panda Update Must-Reads. The Top 10 Things Eric Schmidt Revealed At D9. Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt just finished being interviewed at the D Conference by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, and there were a number of interesting revelations that came out. I thought a list of highlights was in order. The highlights below are roughly listed in the order they came up during the interview, rather being in order of what I think are most important. Anything quoted is the quote as best I caught it. These all come from my full live blogging of the event. See also coverage from others on Techmeme. Any typos, I’ll catch later. Right now, I need to seek out food. 1) The Gang Of Four & Platforms Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook are what Schmidt considers the “Gang Of Four” major companies that have huge “platforms” and dominance in their spaces that is difficult for others to challenge.
Amazon rules in shopping; Apple for “beautiful products.” Microsoft? 2) Renewed Deal With Apple On Search & Maps 3) Google Will Get Social Data In Alternative Ways. Dreamweaver CS 5 Runs Slow in Design View: Potential Issues and Fixes - dreamweaver, cs5, creative suite, adobe, design view, css. Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 is a WYSIWYG web page editor that has advanced HTML, CSS, and Javascript rendering functionality and is probably the most well-known HTML editor available. Much of Dreamweaver's appeal centers around the Design View interface, which does a pretty good to very good job of rendering a page's CSS and HTML into a fair approximation of what the browser will display via the WebKit framework.
Unlike a typical preview, web page authors can continue to edit the page content in this mode and, depending on settings, see placeholder icons for line breaks, positioned elements, code snippets, and much more. Some users complain that Design View reacts so slowly as to become almost unusable and report having keystrokes take between two and three seconds to reflect on the screen. This can be due to one of several factors: 1) Due to the load of having to draw and redraw the layout and CSS styles as the author types content into Design View, Dreamweaver may become a little laggy. Jason. How to add global signature/disclaimer in exchange 2010 - exchange 2010, adding signature. Many companies will often require a global signature or disclaimer for their outgoing emails, this can be done either on the client through Outlook or on the Server. In many cases one would want to implement this on the server, one of the advantages of this is that the signature remains on the server saving space in terms of duplicate signatures.
The user will not see the signature when they are composing the email this is inserted as the mail is sent out. Setting up Global Signature/Disclaimers To get this up and running an understanding is required of exchange 2010 structure, in very brief terms the following are the roles that are included in exchange. 1) Client Access Server Role - This deals with the various forms a user can access their mail, the main method would be OWA (Outlook Web Access) in 2010 this has been vastly improved and this article does not seek to delve deeper into how OWA works and operates. 2) Click New Transport Rule 3) Give the rule the name signature/disclaimer.
Redirected Printing in a Remote Desktop Environment - Redirected printing, RDP, Terminal Services, personal printers. The question has been asked on multiple occasions as to how best to do printing in a remote desktop or terminal services environment. It seems that this particular question has plagued several people and most especially as Terminal Services, as it was first known before it was changed to "Remote Desktop Protocol" came into its own right around the same time as the USB version of the personal laser printer. I don't know if this was an unintentional mishap on the part of Microsoft at the time or just foul luck, but in either case, where USB printing is concerned, and even some other types of printers were concerned, printing in a remote desktop environment such as I have witnessed on many occasions can be problematic if you don't know what you're looking for, if it's set up incorrectly or a combination of both.
So the question is often asked, "why is my redirected printing not working? " While I'd like to say that there is a one size fits all answer, unfortunately, that's not true. 1. Using Experts Exchange: An Analytical Method - Analytical Tool, resolve, issue. Dish Network, TweetDeck and other top Android Apps of the Week - iPhone app article - Kristen Nicole | Appolicious ™ iPhone & iPad App Directory. Boom! Foursquare Crosses 2 Million Users. TECHNOLOGY. Tech News. Wikupedia. Tech. Tools.