Message from the President
Goobye, XP. Hello, Windows 7
by Steve
Brooks
|
|
With the end of the decade coming, it offers us some time for reflection, and anticipation of better economic times to come in 2010, hopefully! While saying good bye to the Oughts, we also should consider saying good bye to an old friend - Windows XP.
Windows XP has been a very good operating system for a long time, with reasonable stability and very good application and driver support. But it is time to move on. While Windows Vista came in two years ago with much marketing hype an anticipated promise, it fell short of expectation by a wide margin. Fortunately, Windows 7 is a different ball game. As an IT company, we have had the opportunity to work with Windows 7 since its beta release and have found it to be the real deal. It boasts outstanding graphics, stability, navigation controls, and to this point existing application and driver compatibility. By all of our accounts - and from input that we have collected throughout the industry - Windows 7 is a very good product.
Coincidentally, with Win 7’s release, Intel is coming to the market with a new array of desktop and laptop processors, that are truly game changers! Based on a new architecture and internal design, these processors combined with Win 7 offer a different computing experience than most users are accustomed to. Speed, navigation, screen snap allowing applications to share the same screen, and better underlying security, make this power house combination worthy of a serious look.
Windows 7 was named the Product of the Year 2009 by CRN Magazine. |
| The Password Fiasco
by Mike Collins
|
|
Your birthday. Your anniversary. Your kids’ birthday. “password”. "123456".
Unnaceptable.
I bet your computer password, or some variation of it, is also your PIN to your bank card, unlocks your garage, gives access to your bank account online and is, coincidentally, your Facebook password, your Quickbooks password and the password you use to access your work network remotely, too. See, there it is, taped right to your computer monitor.
How many people see this password every day? Think about that for a minute. There are the cleaning people, the maintenance guy changing the light bulbs, your co-workers, visitors, everyone inclusive. I bet you can see where I’m going with this.
According to PC Magazine, the following are the top ten most common passwords in use today:
9. (favorite music group name)
10 (your first name)
The need for strong, complex passwords for your network is stronger than ever. I can’t tell you how many times I sit at a workstation and I don’t know the user’s password, but I look around their workspace and find it, or type in “password” and suddenly, like magic, I’m sitting on their desktop with access to all their files. It happens a lot.
There are dozens of hacking programs out there that simply generate number and letter sequences in an attempt to get into your computer. Factor into that keystroke logging programs, Trojan viruses, etc…and suddenly you begin to realize how easily someone got a hold of your password, leaving you very vulnerable. Most decent hacking programs can easily check thousands of possibilities per second.
Please change your password immediately. On ALL of your accounts. Ask us about instituting a lock-out and a complex password policy on your network to help thwart guesses.
True Life Security Failure
by Nick Benanti
|
Network security is a big deal to us at Penn Systems Group. In these days of online e-mail schemes, Internet hackers, and identify theft we feel that making sure that only authorized parties have access to your network and information is one of the most important aspects of running your business. In past newsletters we've discussed important parts of network security such as firewall protection, avoiding Malware, laptop security, and talked about FortiOS 4.0, a security program used by Fortinet, a company lauded in the community for its outstanding security appliances.
All that information is incredibly useful, but still it can be difficult to grasp what it all means because the |
|
Message from the President
Password Problems
Understanding Security:
Winter '09 Product Specials
|
Product
of the Month:
Xerox 6128MFP Color Multifunction Printer
Office- and earth-friendly, this compact multifunction printer delivers all your documents in rich, full color. Reliable, affordable and network-ready, you'll find it's the perfect office partner. Whether you're printing colorful reports, faxing expense reports to corporate offices or scanning invoices, the Phaser 6128MFP does it all for just $629.00
Prints, scans to email, and faxes all in full color
Fast 12 ppm color/16ppm black-and-white output
Environmental solid ink technology generates up to 90% less waste than comparable laser color printers
Space-saving size makes it easy to add to a desktop or convenient shared location
Connects to your network with a built-in Ethernet interface
For more information please contact us at 610-353-3800 or email
us at info@pennsys.com
|
|
Penn MSP is our Managed Services program. It allows
for the automation of patches, updates, and
Malware cleaning on your workstations and other
hardware. These actions can be performed
at night while you sleep, without the need for
an onsite visit by a technician or an interruption
to users.
Call today for more details:
610-353-3800
|
|
Product Special:
Lenovo ThinkPad
T400 Notebook
|
The Lenovo ThinkPad Series of notebook computers are built for small business. The T400 is smaller and lightweight (4.6 lbs.), making it perfect for someone on the go:
backlight 14.1" screen
1280 x 800 max resolution
Intel Centrino Core 2 duo Windows XP OS
160 GB hard drive
2 GB memory -upgrade to 8GB
160 GB capacity hard drive
DVD-Writer drive
4.5 hour battery life
Gigabit Ethernet
Wi-Fi Networking
Special Price: $965.0
|
|
|
consequences are a little abstract. So someone gets past your firewall and finds a list of your currentcustomers; if they're not a direct competitor, what could they do with that list? Additionally, you know not to click on any suspicious looking links or emails, so that should keep most viruses off of your PC, right? And the term "identity theft" is used so much that the definition has lost a lot of meaning, becoming so broad as to include anything from someone obtaining access to your email and sending out spam with it, to getting all of your pertinent information and opening up a dozen credit cards under your name while simultaneously draining your bank accounts; it's hard to understand just how serious identity theft may actually be.
Well as it turns out, in the real world a security threat can end up doing much more than you think. Mike Collins, one of our Senior Field Engineers, is a member of online musician forum Harmony-Central.com, a site visited by over 70,000 musicians every day. He brought to our attention an example of what a real life security threat can do earlier this month when Harmony-Central.com experienced a "security incident" that knocked out their site for a full week. In an open letter to their users, Harmony-Central.com stated this:
"Someone without authorization temporarily gained access to the Harmony Central site. That person or persons also gained access to our stored member information, which includes e-mail addresses. If you have provided us with other information, like your date of birth, we have also stored that information." To read the full letter, click here.
While it's bad enough that an unauthorized person gained access to thousands of members' information, what the letter does not mention is that the site was down for a full week. Here is a company whose business is completely based on eCommerce, whose website attracts over 1 million unique visitors every month with a number of industry giants - such as Gibson and Fender - paying for advertising space, and not one of its members could access the website for a full seven days.
Imagine not being able to conduct any business for a full week. Your customers are unable to contact you. You have no way of reaching them because your entire network is down. How large of an affect would that have on your bottom line? Note that this invasion seems to have been just a play to get some member information, and quickly turned into Harmony-Central.com being unable to operate for a full week.
In the real world, things can spin out of control rapidly, and the aftermath of a seemingly small security threat can end up having huge and unexpected ramifications. That is why security is so important, and why Penn Systems Group works hard to keep outsiders out of your network. |
|
|
