Message from the President                            
    by Steve Brooks

This is hopefully the first of many newsletters from Penn Systems Group providing helpful information and tips regarding your IT Network Infrastructure. You have a sizeable investment in equipment, software, and processes and we recognize the unique requirements that need to be met to keep these assets working efficiently.

While our national economy struggles to find balance and stability, technology can serve as an equalizer in many cases. Individual worker output can be enhanced by high-performance workstations or workstations that are maintained and optimized properly, resulting in increased productivity and reduced stress and distraction. Appropriate Internet edge defense strategies and layers of protection can minimize intrusions from the outside including hackers, viruses, malware, and spyware.

Our strength as an organization is in the analysis, testing, and deployment of best-of-breed systems that address business problems, enhance productivity, and augment security. Ongoing review and analysis of current networks and upcoming requirements is the best way to stay in front of the challenges facing us all in the future. We remain committed to your success!

 Security Brief                                                    
    by Rob Wilkinson

Attaching a computer to the Internet without adequate protection is like leaving a front door unlocked in a bad neighborhood. Unfortunately, when it comes to IT Security in business, the majority of users are unaware of the risks, let alone methods to mitigate them.

Even if prying competitors are not a threat, even if you're not processing credit cards, social security numbers, phone numbers, or personal data of any kind, you are still at risk. Viruses and malware are actively scanning the web, looking for ways to get access to machines. Once in, they consume your resources, corrupt your data, blast spam email from your workstation, and ultimately cost you a lot of time and money.  

Exploits like this take advantage of known vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system or in the web browser being used. A recent example of this type of malware is “XP Antivirus 2009.” This simple infection installs itself on PCs, pretends to run a scan of the machine, and then asks you to pay a fee of about $25 to ‘clean the files’ - when in fact it put the files there in the first place. While this is just one example, viruses and malware can take many different forms. Software manufacturers are constantly releasing patches to combat and defend against intrusions, but it is solely up to the end-user or network administrator to download, install them, and reboot.

There are many steps to protecting our machines and information, and first on the list is to keep our software up-to-date. Microsoft releases patches for Windows on the second Tuesday of every month. Paying attention to the update notification and allowing it to run is integral to maintaining the health and performance of a web-ready computer - a couple of mouse clicks can go a long way in starting to protect your workstation, information, and overall network.

Malware is a generic term that describes any software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system. Viruses, Worms , Trojan horses, spyware, bots, Rootkits, Backdoors and HTTP exploits top the list. In law, malware is sometimes known as a computer contaminant in the legal codes of several American states. Each malware instance is defined by its behavior. 

The most well known types of Malware are viruses, worms and Trojans. A virus is any software that can infect files with the goal of replicating itself to infect more files; a worm transmits itself over a network to infect other computers; and Trojan horses are programs that conceal harmful or malicious payloads. Rootkits can prevent a malicious process from being visible in the system's list of processes, or keep its active files from being read. Originally, a Rootkit was a set of tools installed by an attacker on a UNIX system where the attacker had gained administrator (root) access. Today the term is used more generally for concealment routines in a malicious program. 

Backdoor malware gives the attacker a way around password authentication usually providing remote access to the infected system. BHOs, or browser helper objects, are add-in programs that users install into web browsers. They are the Active-X controls that are becoming more prevalent as the Internet progresses into the Cloud computing paradigm that is Web 2.0. Browser objects can become damaged, corrupted or maliciously implanted code called HTTP exploits. If a web browser is slow and there are frequent pop-ups, chances are high that there is infected code in the browser. 

In 2000 Steve Gibson - legendary computer programmer - created one of the first adware removal programs: OptOut. At the time of OptOut’s release there were many companies with real time virus scanners. Norton (soon to be Symantec), McAfee and TrendMicro were the three big antivirus software companies. The problem was they only search for and cleaned viruses, Trojans and worms. OptOut was able to find many smaller problems and became so popular that a new scope of malware was defined: Grayware. 

Grayware (or greyware) is a general term used as a classification for applications that behave in a manner that is annoying or undesirable, and yet less serious or troublesome than malware. Grayware encompasses spyware, adware, dialers, joke programs, remote access tools, and any other unwelcome files and programs apart from viruses that are designed to harm the performance of computers on your network. 

‘Spybot Search and Destroy’ was an early spyware removal tool spun off from the OptOut engine. In 2001 the Spybot engine had around 5,000 entries in its Greyware removal definition list and today the list has grown to over 140,000. As Internet usage has increased, so has the number of different types of Malware. The need to stay current with security patches and up-to-date removal tools is necessary in order to have functional networks and clean computer systems.