SECURE IT ALERT: Using RDP / Remote Desktop Protocol on your Microsoft Windows desktop or server? Patch it – NOW!

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Tuesday, March 13, 2012 Welcome to another exciting edition of Microsoft Patch Tuesday! This one is so exciting, it gets two posts dedicated to it. This bunch of patches contains one very important fix for a flaw so serious, according to some security experts, you can’t patch it fast enough (read here). Critical update MS12-020. Of course, …

Symantec Backup Exec and Endpoint Protection .cloud trials available

We’re asked by clients all the time about offerings from different vendors, but one of them has just made it easy to offer free 30 day trails of their products! We can provide your business with Symantec Backup Exec.cloud and Symantec Endpoint Protection.cloud demos so you can get the feel for the product before actually committing to a purchase. If …

1

What do you say if someone wants to plug something into your network?

Let’s assume you are a business owner and a man walks in wearing a jumpsuit with an official looking badge, and tells you that he is from the power company, sent there to plug a device into your outlet that will monitor and potentially save you money. What do you do?  Let’s assume they say they are from DHEC and …

No, you won’t lose access to the internet on March 8, 2012… #DNSChanger

The top email question for me the last couple weeks has been, “What’s this about the internet going down on March 8th?”. This is related to the DNS Changer malware which has permitted hackers to hijack web traffic and send it to their bogus sites and in the process, get millions of dollars from fraudulent advertisement revenue. The people responsible …

Please post a review of our computer services on our thumbtack listing

If you have a moment to spare, could you pop over to our listing on Thumbtack.com and make a few comments about us? Greenville & Upstate Computer Service and Sales We are trying to increase awareness of what Homeland Secure IT does, and Thumbtack offers another resource that will do just that. Our listing there shows that we do your typical …

SECURE IT ALERT: Update your Adobe Shockwave – Mac users, this means you too…

Adobe released a security bulletin this week warning of nine critical vulnerabilities that affect Adobe Shockwave Player 11.6.3.633 and earlier for Windows and Macintosh. That bulletin can be found here: http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb12-02.html Basically, it is the same old and busted story…  If you are running an unpatched, and therefore vulnerable version of Shockwave Player, and you happen to visit a website …

2

Yesterday went by faster than normal thanks to the BMW Performance Driving School

We took off towards the “Rat Race” track first, which was a mostly flat surface, partially wet from the rains the previous evening and from sprinklers that run continuously. The car was the ever popular 3 series sedan with all the options. One thing different about from how you normally drive it on the street was that the traction control …

Happy Valentine’s Day from Microsoft!

Yeah yeah, it’s just patches… This is from our friends over on the WatchGuard Security Center: Most people get flowers, chocolates, and cards for Valentine’s Day, but next Tuesday Microsoft IT professionals can expect a big box of patches. According to their advanced notification post for February, Microsoft will release nine security bulletins next Tuesday, February 14th. The bulletins deliver updates …

Western Digital WD Sentinel DX4000 Small Office Storage Server Offers a Lot of Bang for your Buck!

Looking for an affordable way to backup your files or even entire computer? How about allowing access to those files via the web? Then check this out… WD Sentinel™ Small Office Storage Server – Connect. Protect. Collaborate. WD Sentinel is easy to install and provides secure centralized storage, complete data protection, and remote file access for your employees while in …