Virus That Wont Go Away

Got an infection that just wont go away?

Has your computer got a virus that just wont go away? You've tried disinfecting it, scanning it with different anti-virus scanners and had a friend (or us!) look over it and for a little while it seemed okay, but then it all went bad again?

In this blog post we talk about 3 other possible problem sources that you might need to check.

Other Computers

If you have other computers on your home network then they are a potential source of the infection. It's a bit like having nits in the house - to eliminate the virus completely you will need to isolate all the computers and individually disinfect them before reconnecting them to the home network.

Don't forget to pay particular attention to computers that connect wirelessly. In these cases it is easiest to either turn off the wireless access point, or disable the wireless adapters on the affected computers.

As a general rule if one computer on your home network is infected it is fair to assume they will all need some attention (if they are all Windows computers).

Infected Router

It's possible that the problem isn't your computer at all, it's your Internet router instead.

Some older Internet routers have security flaws that allow hackers to break into them over the Internet. In these cases a hacker may have broken into your router and reprogrammed it to direct your computer to sites were it gets infected. Needless to say this affects all computers on the network.

If you have an older router (normally anything less than 3 years old is unaffected) and virus infections keep on coming back it is probably worth replacing your router, or at least reloading the firmware and changing the default passwords (for many people buying a new router will be much simpler).

Pretend Anti-Virus Software

Sometimes people find themselves being tricked into installing anti-virus software which really isn't anti-virus software. As a general rule of thumb if a site pops up a message saying "your computer is at risk" or something similar, it is selling "junk" anti-virus software. Rather than stopping viruses this software often does the opposite and loads software you don't want on your computer.

If you don't have any anti-virus software, and you use your computer just for home use we strongly recommend AVG Free Edition. Even if your computer is used for work the commercial version is good value.

And if none of that helps we can always have a look at your computer for you. Our fixed price service includes a deep-scan anti-virus check which eliminates viruses that onboard AV scanners can't get rid of.

Managing Passwords

Everyone seems to want you to remember a new "secret" so that they can identify you don't they? Whether it's a PIN for a credit card, a password for a social networking site, someone wanting you to create a login to read their news content or eCommerce the proliferation of "passwords" that the average person needs to remember continues to grow.

To come straight to the point there are now too many for all, except those with a photographic memory, to remember them all, and for the moment it is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Here are some tips on how to manage your multiple passwords to stop yourself from going insane.

Break your passwords down by importance

The first thing to do is understand that some passwords are more important than others - an easy example is that your online banking password is much more important than your online forum password. This probably seems obvious enough, but it is important later on as we discuss some of the strategies.

Passwords can be thought of as three broad categories:

Low Risk - passwords to accounts which if compromised are unlikely to cause you any significant harm - like a password you use for an online forum where you use a handle (a non de plume, or made up identity if you will).

Medium Risk - accounts where you might be embarrassed if they were disclosed - e.g. an account for an online community where you are known by your true name e.g. facebook, myspace, etc.

High Risk - accounts which could harm you or your finances if disclosed, and which a criminal would likely target such as ebay, paypal and online banking. It is also appropriate to consider passwords which protect other people's information at this level - i.e. your workplace passwords.

Using the Same Password in Certain Situations

The first strategy for managing online passwords is to, in certain circumstances, use the same password for different sites. This is normally pretty safe for low risk passwords. You might, depending on your appetite for risk, want to use one password across all your "medium" risk accounts as well (but a different one to your low risk accounts). You should never use the same password across high risk accounts.

Write some passwords down

In the office you may well have been told to "never write down your password". There's some wisdom in that position, and for a password you use almost every single day like a login to your work it really shouldn't be necessary. However, the problem is that many of your personal passwords aren't used every day - you might only use them once a month or less.

Writing down some passwords is okay under certain circumstances. Firstly - the bit of paper you record them on needs to be secure, and non obvious to others (not a post it note next to your computer, not a list in the first draw of your desk next to your computer, etc). Secondly, you should be really careful about writing down high risk passwords - in general it isn't a good idea. Thirdly - you must comply with the rules of anyone that controls the system the password controls access to - so don't write down your office password and then blame us when you get in trouble with the boss.

Use Your Web Browser Auto Login for Low Risk Passwords

Most web browsers are able to remember login details for you. For low risk, and medium risk accounts, depending on your appetite for risk you can let your web browser remember the login details for you. While this can create problems when you change computers that is a fairly infrequent event and will save you a lot of trouble in the short term.

Make Up Temporary Accounts for Sites Requiring Registration

Sometimes sites will require "registration" before they allow you to access information. Several online newspapers have moved to this model, and there are others. However many of these sites also allow logins to persist between browser sessions so you only need to "log in" the once.

So make up your registration details, login, and then forget the details. If you ever get locked out you can use their password reset process, or just register another account.

So there's a few thoughts on strategies for how to manage lots of passwords. Watch this space for advice on how to choose a good password.

Programs You Should Run To Keep Your PC Safe

*** Note - this is advice for Home Computers ***

Customers frequently ask us what tools we recommend to keep their PC safe. Here's our recommended list for home computers - all the tools have free versions (at least for home use) and in our opinion are better than other offerings in the space, which pretty much removes any good argument not to use them:

Anti-Virus

Yes you need an anti-virus tool - our first pick for home use is AVG Free Edition which is free for non-commercial home use - you can download version 9 here.

AVG Free is effective, but light weight so your computer still has some capacity to do the stuff you ask it to.

* A word of warning - computers run really badly with two anti-virus products installed, so if you are going to use AVG make sure you uninstall whatever you are currently running first.

Anti-Spyware

Having a dedicated piece of Anti-spyware is a good choice. Anti-virus and anti-spyware are different jobs, and combined tools don't do the job as effectively as dedicated pieces of software.

In our opinon the best tool in the space is malware bytes. There is a version you can pay for, but the free one is perfectly adequate. You can get both versions at the malware bytes web site.

A Better Browser

Your choice of web browser can make a substantial difference to the security of your PC. If you go with the mainstream choice (like Internet Explorer) you will be using the most widely targeted piece of software around. However, if you go too far from the mainstream (for example Chrome) you may find that websites don't work properly.

In our opinion the stand out product in the space is Mozilla Firefox. Needless to say it is free. It's also the second most widely used browser after Internet Explorer, so you aren't wandering too far from the mainstream.

You can download Firefox from the Mozilla website.

Internet Filtering

We think the best product in the space isn't actually a product - it's a service - Open DNS. The Open DNS project is designed to use the power of collaboration to identify potentially dangerous and offensive content on the Internet.

By configuring your PC to use the Open DNS servers you can then use their categorisation system to help keep your PC safe, and better, keep young eyes away from inappropriate content. Our blog post on Open DNS explains how it works in a little more detail and how to configure your system.

There is one other thing you should do to keep your PC safe. Backups - no one likes to hear it, but they are really important.

Backups can be approached in two ways - files only, or complete system backup. We will talk some more about these in the near future.

Green Light IT scores 100% Customer Satisfaction Again

For quarter 4 2009 Green Light IT has once again achieved a 100% Satisfaction rating with our home service customers.

Between the first of October and the thirty first of December 2009 home service customers once again gave us a 100% satisfaction rating through our after service survey process.

Here's what some of our customers had to say about Green Light IT Home Services between October and December:

"The service and follow up contact and explanation was excellent. I would have no hesitation in going back to Green Light IT and recommending the business to others based on my experience" - Heather, Weston.

"Helpful service, prompt and clear. Will certainly recommend to others." - Luca, Richardson.

"Pickup up and drop off feature is a real plus." - William, Greenway.

"It's about time somebody provided this service." - Norman, Evatt.

"The time for pick ups in the early evening is really convenient and the next day turnaround is brilliant." - Justine, Bonython.

"I was very pleasantly surprised at the friendly and professional service and that everything was explained to me simply and clearly." - Kaye, Scullin.

Needless to say we are always pleased to hear that we are keeping our customers happy.

Green Light IT Home Services Surveys are sent to every Home Services customer. Customers are able to comment anonymously (if they wish) on our services. Our return rate is approximately 50%. Names and addresses have been changed to protect privacy but comments are faithful reproductions of customer comments.

Christmas Trading Hours

Over Christmas Green Light IT will be taking a break will be closing on the 23rd of December, and re-opening on the 4th of January.

Feel free to leave us a message on the phone or drop us an email over this time. All the best for Christmas and we look forward to talking to you in 2010.

100% Satisfaction for Home Services Customers

As part of ensuring customer service we have been asking all home service customers to fill out a survey after every home service. And today, I am happy to announce the results for the first three months of Green Light IT's Home Services.

We have achieved a 100% customer satisfaction rating. Further, 100% of the customers that responded to the survey also advised that they would recommend us to family and friends.

Here a sample of some of the things our customers had to say:

"Excellent, Prompt and Efficient Service - it doesn't get better than that!" - Cathy, Isabella Plains

"Excellent Service thank you. Will definitely use you again and have recommended you to others." - Matthew, Amaroo

"Thanks for your prompt and efficient service. The computer's performance is much improved." - Lee, Mawson

"Very happy with the service. Would definitely use again in future." - Tracey, Hughes

"Greatly appreciated the pickup and drop off service. [...] The staff were very courteous and polite. We are very happy with the service. Happy to recommend to friends and family." - Peter, Fadden

"Very friendly and professional." - Warrick, Pearce

Thanks for your support folks. We are glad to know that we are meeting your needs.

Internet Explorer Freezing

We've noticed in the last few days that customers that are using Internet Explorer, and have their default home page set to "ninemsn", seem to be having some issues with Internet Explorer freezing, and not letting them type anything in.

By the looks of it "ninemsn" is giving some information to IE which is causing it to lock out for a while.

If you are affected you have three options:

1. Update Internet Explorer (new versions don't seem to be affected). You can get Internet Explorer 7 here (we aren't recommend IE8 at this stage).
2. Use Firefox instead (it is a better, more secure browser all round). Firefox Download Site.
3. Change your home page away from Ninemsn - instructions below.

Changing your home page is the quickest fix to the problem, but to some extent only a temporary one. Never the less, here is how you can do it on Windows XP, without having to re-open Internet Explorer. If you have Windows Vista you already have IE7 - if your browser is running slowly chances are it is because of viruses and spyware. You should probably book it in for a service.

To change your home page without having to open Internet Explorer (because it will freeze again) open your control panel

and choose Internet Options.

Once you have Internet Options open then choose the general tab. Your home page setting is right at the top of the window. You can either type in a new home page, or choose "Use Blank" which will just give you a blank screen. Using either a blank screen, or a minimalist home page like Google are both pretty good choices.

Here we are using a blank page:

Note your window may not look exactly like this. This is actually the IE7 dialogue. IE6 (the browser that is having trouble) is quite old - we couldn't even quickly find one to get screen shots from, so change your home page in the short term, and plan to either update to IE7, or install Firefox in the near future using one of the links above.

Why You Should Back Up Your Hard Drive (and a really simple procedure for home computers)

Hard drives are the part of your computer that stores all the information (including music, documents, spreadsheets, photos, videos and everything else) that you put onto your computer. All the information that makes it your computer. They are also, for a variety of reasons, one of the parts of your computer most prone to failure.

When they fail the results can range from a busted computer which someone needs to carefully pick the data off, through to all of your information being permanently and irretrievably lost. However, usually some, if not all information (photos, music, documents, spreadsheets etc) is lost when a hard drive fails.

Now we can talk about the odds of a computer hard drive failing after so many hours, or this percentage failing etc, but that may not necessarily give you a particularly good sense of what that means. So here's something that might seem a little more concrete. Over your lifetime of owning home computers chances are you will have at least one hard drive failure.

Think about what you keep on your computer. Do you have a copy of it? If not it's about time your got some backups started.

For home these don't need to be complicated. Something as simple as an external hard disk, or even a USB memory stick (although if you have lots of photos you will probably find they are a bit too small, but heh its something) can do the job. For a really simple backup attach your external hard drive and then copy your "My Documents" folder onto it using the procedure below. Hopefully the pictures below will make some sense out of it (Sorry for those that know this bit - not everyone does so you will just have to be patient). The "My Documents" folder will contain most of the stuff you have put onto, or created on, your computer, but there can be exceptions.

So to backup your "My Documents" folder open an explorer window grab my documents with the left mouse button:

Once "My Documents" is highlighted go to "Edit" and choose "Select All":

Once this is done all the files on the right will be highlighted. Now using your left mouse button grab the group of files on the right, and drag it to your removable disk.

Once you let go of the left mouse button the files will start copying to the new location.

If the files dissapear from their original location, or anything else seems to go wrong then you can use the undo command to reverse the last action:

Using an external hard drive for backups is a perfectly good solution (for home), provided you are disciplined about it. That "discipline" bit is often where people get into trouble. if you are worried about forgetting then the good news is that technology can help. There is software available that can make backups even easier to do (automatic in many cases).

If you think you want an automated software solution then let us know. There are some good solutions in the space that will help with making backups routine.

Why We Use NAS Rather Than Tapes

If you took a look at our last blog entry you might wondering what we use for backups if we don't use tape.

That's easy - we use Network Attached Storage (NAS for short).

Compared to tapes NAS have three major advantages:

1. They can keep up. Tapes are so slow that many in the industry now do what is called "Disk to Disk to Tape", where the backup is first done to another set of high speed disks, which can then slowly and ponderously stream that data to a tape drive. Getting rid of the "to Tape" bit is the next logical step.
2. Less External Dependencies. A NAS unit is a complete system that you can attach to your network and start pulling files off. A tape needs a tape drive, a semi functioning computer, driver software, backup software, and they all need to be accessible before you can start pulling off files.
3. Unlike tapes, which are a bit of an out sider from a mainstream technology perspective, NAS units use normal everday Hard Drives. So as the capacity of normal every day hard drives increase, the capacity of NAS units keeps pace. Tapes on the other hand are always playing catchup, and are usually around an order of magnitude behind in terms of cost effective storage.

Now if you are seeking a long term archive then tape is still your best bet, but that is not what most businesses are after in our experience, particularly once retention of data in programs like MYOB/QuickBooks etc is explained. Even then, NAS, which is powered up once every couple of years is probably just as good. Tape has the benefit that it can be just left to sit on the shelf for 10 years. Now, where did I leave that tape driver software...

Filtering Your Internet Connection with Open DNS

As we mentioned in our recent newsletter there is now a really quick and simple way to filter your Internet connection to:

1. Stop kids from seeing content they shouldn't.
2. Keep people away from sites they shouldn't be accessing.
3. Protect you from phishing sites and other Internet nasties.

That method is "OpenDNS.com".

Setting up OpenDNS is really easy, and will take only a few minutes. To do it for your home network or computer read on.

First - do you have just one computer or a number of computers using your Internet connection at home?

If you have just one computer then you can follow the instructions for setting up your computer. If you have a number of computers you are probably best of configuring your router so that the setting will apply to all of your computers without having to change each computer individually.

Once you have done that you are now being protected by OpenDNS at a minimal level (which just protects against phishing). However, to get the best out of OpenDNS you should now go and create an account.

After you have created an account you can adjust what sort of websites you would like to be filtered. By default you will find the category level is set to minimal which just stops known phising attacks.

There are some really easy options to choose here. For example "Low" will also filter out pornography, while moderate will filter out other adult related content. So for home, you might set this to low or moderate. You can also "customise" and choose exactly which categories you want people to be able to see, and which ones you don't.

Go and take a look - this is a really neat tool and compared to what you used to have to do to solve these sorts of problems is very simple.

If you would like to try setting it up for the office network just let us know. We can also give you a hand at home if you need some assistance.

Upgrade to Windows7

Have you heard about Windows7? It is entirely likely that the new Microsoft Operating System (OS) has flown in under your radar, as its release has been kept pretty low key compared to its predecessors. Windows Vista, which was the previous instalment of Windows, was not widely used (or liked) by the IT profession. It had several flaws, quite a few security holes and massive performance issues. It seems that Windows7 is following Microsoft’s long established trend of releasing an OS that is not quite right and then a few years later releasing a “new” OS, that is a remake or upgrade of the previous one with the bugs ironed out. Windows7 is looking to be an OS that “works”.

One thing that really surprised us is that Windows7 actually has lower hardware requirements than its predecessor. This if the first time this has ever happened with Microsoft Operating System. So it is possible to use the software on lower specification machines.

As per MS’s normal mode of operation once Windows7 is released the end of life for Windows XP support will probably be quickly announced. It has not been possible to purchase any version of Windows XP retail for quite some time now and the general consensus of the IT community has been to avoid using Vista in business environments. This means that Windows7 is where we will have to go for future system upgrades.

So far the outlook is good for upgrading to Windows7. There have been relatively few complaints about the OS. It uses much less resources and therefore runs faster on the same hardware (sorry to labour the point – but this is remarkable). The UAC, or user access control (the annoying fade to black windows) that Vista used has been toned down so that it is much less obtrusive. The networking support, while still not as good as it could be, is no longer painful to use.

The biggest test will be when it comes to using the OS in a business environment. How it behaves with other machines on a large network, not the mention how it interacts with servers is yet to be seen, but currently several GLIT members are trialling the OS with some of our work machines to test it in a work environment. We realise that it is inevitable that Windows7 will have to be rolled out to business clients, so we will be testing the new OS as much as possible before we have to roll it out to a working environment. But so far, things are looking promising.

Protecting Your Private Information Online

Protecting your information online is tricky, and worst of all, is not only dependent on you. But there are a few things you can do to prevent running afoul of this phenomenon.

Firstly lets talk about why you need to protect your information online. Apart from the obvious discomfort at information you consider private being learned by others there are a number of ways that this information is used by criminals that will eventually cause you some distress. The first of these is credit card fraud. If unscrupulous people learn your credit card details (and we will talk about how this, and other identity theft can happen below) then they will use it to try and buy goods and services, which the credit card company will try and bill you for. Depending on the card agreement, the merchant usually takes the risk and so eventually you will probably not have to pay these fraudulent charges. But you may spend a long time on the telephone getting the matter sorted, and it may take months to resolve. During that time you may not be able to use your credit card either.

Another way the crooks might try and use this information is for "Identity Fraud", where they pretend to be you in order to enter into some sorts of agreements/contracts, typically to obtain credit of some sort or another, usually for a highly mobile asset which they can quickly sell. So it is unlikely they would buy a house using your identity - the goods would be too easy to recover when the fraud came to light, but they might try and get a 50,000 overdraft in your name, secured against your house. Usually the amounts of money involved are substantially higher, and the creditors (bank or whoever) are far more tenacious at chasing up the bad debts. In the end chances are you wont be held to account for the fraudulent transactions, but it isn't unusual for people to have to spend a substantial amount on solicitors to prove they aren't the guilty party.

And of course there are the minor irritations such as increases in addressed junk mail that turns up in your letter box.

So, how do you protect yourself? Apart from making sure your computer is reasonably secure (and there are other articles here on the blog about this) the other thing to do is to make sure you don't inadvertently give your private information to the bad guys...

Be Careful Who You Are Giving Your Information To

A snazzy looking website is not that hard or expensive to set up. Running a secure website, that protects people's information is very difficult, and is something that a lot of organisations get wrong. So it isn't that the people asking for your information are dodgy - most of them are honest enough. The problem is they normally don't have the time or the resources to protect your information properly.

The Padlock Doesn't Mean What You Think It Does

You may have been told to look for the padlock on browser windows as a way of checking the security of a web site. While the padlock is better than nothing it perhaps doesn't mean exactly what you think it does. The padlock means that data can't be stolen while it is travelling between you and the website, but it is no guarantee the information can't be stolen from the website once it gets there, or that the website itself can be trusted. That's why sometimes it is better not be to be completely honest with websites and to...

Make Up Another Identity

Make up another identity for yourself, and use it when a website requires registration. Now there are times you mustn't do this - like for an Australian Government website, an airline booking, the electric or phone company, but if this is just an online forum, or a newspaper that requires registration before it will let you read the paper then make up an identity apart from your own and use that.

You might even like to have a "standard" made up identity that you use, with a birthday you can easily recall etc.

Some of you may say that marketers need some of this information to understand who they are selling to better. Perhaps, but they only need to understand general demographics, not your exact details. If you are worried about this make the alternate identity similar to your own (born the same year, same gender etc).

Others may question the ethics of not being completely honest with websites. It's a reasonable point but consider this - if some people you didn't know came up to you in the street and asked you where you lived, and what times you were home you would probably, quite rightly, refuse to tell them.

Give as Little Information as Necessary

Most of the time when you register for an account on the website you will see that some of the fields are marked with an asterix "*" while others are not. You don't need to complete those without an asterix - you can just leave them blank.

Have a Gmail or other Temporary Email Account for Registrations

A lot of websites insist on getting your email address as part of the registration process. Don't give your real email address to these websites.

Instead, set up an email address with google mail, or some similar free email provider. In this way you will keep your real email account free of spam, and after a couple of years you can simply move onto another temporary email account if necessary.

Don't Let Websites Store Your Credit Card Details

Some websites, if you are buying things using a credit card, give you the option of storing your credit card details for your next purchase. Unless you are back there every day it is best to not store your credit card, and to simply enter it every time you need to buy goods using that site.

If a hacker breaks into that website, and steals their database, then if you have saved your credit card number they now have all the details they need to start buying goods and services using your card.

Privacy Statements are No Guarantee of Security

If you are dealing with an Australian business or organisation then they are obligated by law to comply with their privacy statement. However, if they say in their privacy statement "we will sell your information to the highest bidder" then they can sell your information to the highest bidder, and dodge the Privacy Act because they "informed" you what they were going to do. So unless you've read the privacy statement you really can't rely on it. And even if the company has the highest standards in its privacy statement, there is no guarantee their information will not be stolen.

As for overseas companies well - they might comply with their privacy statements. There might be legislation in that country that requires them to comply. But it might only require them to comply for citizens of that country, or any other of a dozen ways that they might be able to dodge their responsibility to you.

Now - it isn't our intention to unfairly characterise all businesses and organisations in this way. Many (the majority in fact) will try and look after your information. But not all of them. Even those that do try to handle it ethically are usually not well resourced enough to make sure the information is really secure. So take some of the steps recommended here to protect yourself.

In the end avoiding identity fraud is a bit like road safety - you can just be unlucky, but if you only give your real information to people who need to know it you can go a long way towards preventing this from happening to you.

Other Resources

• Stay Smart Online - Australian Commonwealth Governent - there is some useful stuff here including the Budd:e learning package for primary and secondary students.
• Get Net Wise - Site with plenty of practical help on how to keep your private information private.
• Protecting Your Information On FaceBook - If you use social networking sites you need to check (and possibly restrict) who can see the information on your facebook (and other pages).

Home Services

Green Light IT is pleased to announce the launch of its Home Services. From the 6th of July we can help you with all your Home IT problems. We are open from 8am until 9pm Monday to Friday, and we have a number of services to make the inconvience of getting your computer sorted out as convenient as possible, including:

• Free telephone consultation to determine the best course of action for your computer.
• Free pick up and return to your door by our delivery driver if your system needs to come to the workshop (conveniently between 6pm and 9pm weeknights).
• The ability to fix minor problems over the telephone using our remote support tools.
• An in-home service if required to fix a problem.
• The confidence of knowing that you will be consulted before any additional charges are incurred.

Think we can help - call Green Light IT on 1300 GO GLIT (1300 46 4548).

Welcome

We know, we know - blogs are so 2006. Nevertheless, with the success of our newsletters, and the fact that we often found ourselves wanting to say more, but feeling pressed for space it has become obvious that we need a place to keep you up to date with what is happening at Green Light IT that is a little more immediate than the newsletter.

It will also give us an opportunity to treat some issues in a little more detail, as well as convenient stuff like being able to easily hyperlink other information etc.

The categories list at the side might give some hints at the sorts of things we will be using this space for, so welcome, and please don't hesitate to drop us a line if you would like to give us some feedback, or even see some particular issues considered and written up on the blog.

The Team at Green Light IT.

Don't Be The Catch of The Day - Avoiding Phishing Scams

(Note: This is an extended version of our article from the June 2009 Newsletter)

Phishing (pronounced “fishing”) emails and websites are created in order to trick you into divulging confidential information, like passwords, bank account information or credit card numbers.

The most common type of phishing scam is an email with a link to a website which looks like the genuine article, but is just pretending to be the real thing to trick you into entering your real username and password. This is how much of credit card and bank account information is stolen online.

The most recent phishing scam, which started targeting the Commonwealth Bank and then moved onto other banks was a step up from what we have seen in the past, with vastly improved English, and a number of clever psychological tricks to make a person feel compelled to act quickly. Some of the most effective messages even claimed to be a “Security Alert” or claimed that your account had been compromised. Other emails included topics such as “There has been an error in an online transaction. Please log into your account via this link to verify the transaction.”

The whole purpose of a phishing attack is to get you to click the link.

From here, one, or possibly both of the following will occur:

1. This link will take you to a webpage that looks quite similar or even identical to the login page for whatever banking site you use and there will be a field for your username and password. After you have typed in your information, the information gets sent off and recorded so that they may use it to log into the real account and steal your money.
2. The fake website will install malicious software on your computer.

Because of this, as a general rule, banks and financial institutions will never send you emails with direct links to a login page (and if they ever do perhaps you should move your money to another bank).

You need to always be vigilant about links in emails simply because it is so easy to make fake emails that look like the genuine article. If you receive an email from a site you signed up to, or you went to a site and asked to have your password reset then those links are probably okay. If an unexpected email arrives asking you to log in to a system then you should treat it with a great deal of suspicion.

So if you ever receive an email claiming to be from the bank asking you to “Click this link,” or “Click here to enter your financial details,” or “Login here to verify your account” then treat them with a great deal of suspicion. If you are still not sure, call the organisation that claims to have sent the email. Alternatively, if you know how to login to the page then use your browser and navigate yourself there. Don’t click the link in the email

National Broadband Initiative

(Note: This is a reprint from our May 2009 Newsletter)

So, private industry cannot deliver the broadband network, and thus the Government has decided to go it alone and build a fibre to the home/business network by 2018. Putting aside the question of whether or not this is a good idea, what is fibre to the home/business likely to mean?

Fibre to the home/business, with its substantial increase in bandwidth, is probably going to give us “convergence”, which is a term to describe the process where once distinct streams of media and communications collapse into one single delivery mechanism. Huh? Things you once saw as separate, like the television and the telephone are going to start converging into the same delivery mechanism – the Internet.

If it were to happen as the futurists would see it, by say 2020 a lot of people aren't going to have a fixed line phone service anymore (that trend is actually already starting with “unbundled local loop” services available for those that want an ADSL service, but not a traditional copper phone line). We will still probably have something in our house that looks and acts like a phone, but it will work purely with the Internet. Likewise for television, we may see “cable” channels distributed over the Internet using a subscription model (no doubt with the obligatory amount of piracy going on as well).

In terms of business, high quality point to point video conferencing will become a reality that everyone can take advantage of, and this ability to video conference combined with redirecting office calls using your Voice Over IP (VOIP) phone, and get high speed access to the office network from just about anywhere is likely to hasten the adoption of telecommuting. Many more businesses, particularly in knowledge industries, will probably move to the model of having a larger proportion of their work force offsite, as a way of providing a better work/home balance, reducing the carbon impact of businesses (by removing employee commutes, and power hungry building environmentals) and reducing the substantial costs of commercial premises. Finally, customers having access to such large amounts of bandwidth will also make new types of services, for example video consults, a viable reality.

Many of these ideas aren't new – VOIP has been with us for some time, Skype has brought video conferencing to the masses, and larger enterprises (like the big 5 accounting firms and others) have been doing hot desking (where employees don't have a permanent desk – they log into a desk for the day) for many years with mixed results. However, the commodity-like nature and accessibility of these new services will likely have some substantial impacts on the way we work.

Before some of these benefits can be realised there are a number of technical, and even a few human issues that need to be resolved.

In terms of the technical issues the shift can perhaps be summed up by considering two areas: reliability and security.

Many Small Medium Enterprises (SME) do not have infrastructure that is sufficiently well engineered to provide the sort of reliability required for these new services. Issues such as Quality-of-Service (essential for good VOIP and Video Conferencing) capable networking equipment, communications systems that can survive mundane issues like power outages without dropping service (how do you dial triple 0 if all your phones fail when the power goes out), well provisioned equipment capable of dealing with increased load, adequate disaster recovery processes to get the business back in action in the event of a failure, and access to the necessary skills in a timely manner.

In terms of security SMEs are even less well prepared. While most understand the need for anti-virus software, and a few understand the importance of devices such as firewalls, in a more connected world most have little or no experience in the important discipline of risk management (at least as it pertains to IT Security). This will leave the overly cautious unable to capitalise on opportunities, while the overly optimistic lay their organisations open to damage, and their customers' information, open to disclosure.

Another interesting challenge is coming to terms with how to ensure that staff have the necessary amount of human contact to keep them happy and working efficiently. While some of the new technologies replace face to face contact (like video conferencing) all technologies tend to contextualise communications, with most interactions becoming more formal – that is you have a conference to discuss a proposal, find a way past an issue, but those informal water cooler chats might disappear. Depending on an organisation's culture, the boss may not think this is a bad thing..., but in all seriousness, it is often these informal discussions that provide the greatest insights, innovations and changes for organisations.

There is one final issue to touch on – the cost of downloads. As you may know, most ISPs provide a “free” allowance of data, and when that volume is exceeded they either throttle the connection, or charge an additional fee for extra data used. The genesis of this is in the old model of how Australia paid for the under sea cable that connected Australia to the Internet via the United States. The owner of this infrastructure levied a tariff on data coming to Australia crossing this infrastructure, which ISPs passed onto customers.

While some ISPs have “unmetered sites”, where your bandwidth does not count against your allowance (such as Internode with the ABC website), many have fairly course-grained models where they just charge for anything that doesn't originate on their own network.

For the National Broadband Initiative to provide the best economic benefit all ISPs will need to change these billing arrangements so that domestic traffic is free, or at least substantially cheaper than overseas data – otherwise things like high quality video conferencing will come with monthly Internet bills that will probably rival 1980s style STD phone call charges pretty quickly.

It is often said, when talking about how technology will impact society that “we always over estimate the impact in the short term, and under estimate the impact in the long term”. Nevertheless, we hope you find these thoughts useful in considering how the National Broadband Initiative might affect your organisation.

Keeping Your PC Clean of Malicious Software

(Note: This is a reprint from our April 2009 newsletter)

Following on from the newsletter article last month, we will recommend some tools that we use to keep our machines clean and explain their use.

Anti-Virus Tools

There are several out there, some of them good and a lot of them bad. The main ones that you may have heard of are:

• AVG Anti Virus
• Norton Security
• McAfee Anti Virus
• Avast AV
• PC-Cillin
• Kaspersky

Out of all these programs, we generally recommend AVG. The rest will do an adequate job, but they all suffer from the problem of slowing down computers.

This has a lot to do with the way that these programs have been designed and added to over the years. Generally, instead of starting from scratch for a new release of the software, they add more and more to an older version, which makes them bloated and can cause severe slow down on machines. McAfee and Norton are serious offenders when it comes to this, installing several processes on your machine that, in our opinion, in many cases are completely unnecessary.

AVG has been around for about 4 years, thus making it relatively new on the market and we have not had any issues with their software to date.

Malware Removal Tools

Malware removal programs are more offensive in nature than Anti Virus programs, which is to say that malware removal programs seek out and destroy malware, while Anti Virus Programs defend your computer from attack. When you do manage to get an infection, sometimes the Anti Virus program is unable to remove it, or it has become infected itself, making it blind to the infection. In this case, there are some tools that you can download that have a good chance of removing the malicious software.

• MalwareBytes
• Spybot Search and Destroy
• AdAware
• HiJackThis

Now these programs are less well known by the standard user, but are quite effective at removing nasty programs. MalwareBytes is designed to eliminate any infection, be it spyware, malware, viruses, phishing software, tracking cookies. Spybot S&D and AdAware are more aimed at the spyware and phishing programs, which are the most common form of infection. Spyware and Phishing programs track your internet usage to see what websites you go to and can open popups to infected sites. Phishing is particularly dangerous as it can track your credit card and pin numbers if you do online banking. HiJackThis is a more complex tool and is generally only recommended for the advanced users. It allows you to view running processes (much like task manager) and remove the programs associated with these processes. This can you do not know what you are looking for, so please use with caution.

Hopefully this advice will help keep your machine safe.

Should I Turn Off My Computer To Save The Planet?

(Note: This is a reprint from our March 2008 Newsletter - Home Customers - This advice was mainly aimed at Corporate Customers but you may still find it interesting)

In the past we have always advised customers that it is best to leave PCs on, for a number of reasons:

• Hardware (particularly hard drives and power supplies) are less likely to fail,
• It allows computers to download their updates overnight without slowing down the Internet link during the day,
• Virus scanners and security software will be kept up to date over night, so it is up to date and ready to protect the organisation when staff start work,
• Having the PCs powered on means staff don't have to wait for the machine to boot before they login – this probably saves you about 3 minutes per station per day.

With many more customers being conscious of green house gas emissions and energy usage, it is time to re-examine this advice.

Let us start by considering the energy usage of the PC. A normal PC consumes around 140 watts when it is fully loaded, 60 watts when it is idle, and 35 watts when it is in full power saving mode. More powerful computers consume more power, but that's about right for an office PC.

Monitors are also part of the story. We are going to assume a 17” flat screen monitor, which will draw about 60 watts, although it needs to be noted that power consumption for flat screens tends to go up quickly as the size does. When they are in power save mode the power consumption of most monitors barely registers – probably less than a watt. Close enough to call it zero.

So during a 9 hour work day, assuming 50% idle and 50% full load a PC will consume 900 watt hours, with a 17” monitor contributing another 540 watt hours, for a total of 1.44 kilowatt hours. If we accept (and there are a few figures around) 600 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour then 864 grams of CO2 is produced each work day. If the PC is left on the rest of the day (so another 15 hours) then another 525 watt hours, or 0.53 kilowatt hours, is used, producing another 318 grams of CO2 Looking at it over a week, allowing two days for the weekend we produce 4.3 kgs of CO2 if we turn off at the end of each day, versus 6.9 kgs of CO2 if left on all the time.

So, there is certainly more pollution being caused by leaving the machines on. However, all the reasons we like the machines to stay on are all still valid as well. For example, if you have 10 staff waiting for computers to power up and boot each morning you probably spend $30 or more while staff wait.

What to do?

As we see it there are three options:

1. Do Nothing: Continue the current practice - not exactly environmentally friendly.
2. Turn the Computers Off Every Night: You have an increased risk of hardware failure and you will spend more money on labour as staff wait for PCs to boot. However you will get a small (very very modest)saving on your power bill and a slight reduction in green house emissions. A lighter version of this is just turning the PCs off over the weekend.
3. Purchase Green Power To Run Your PCs: If you believe CO2 emissions are an issue, then we think this last option, buying green power, is the best choice.

While it might seem a little counterintuitive we think this approach has a lot of benefits:

• It is inexpensive (about 10c a day per day per computer). This is less than the cost of having your staff wait for computers to start every day
• Means you can leave your PCs on with all the benefits that come from that.
• Is more effective at combating green house emissions than simply turning off computers – it eliminates rather than just reducing the contribution of your computers
• Encourages investment in green energy, leading to cheaper green energy in the future

Do you want to know more about buying green power? You can visit ACTEWAGL's green choice site as a starter.

Browsing the Internet Safely

(Note: This is a reprint from our March 2009 Newsletter)

One of the questions we are most frequently asked is how to browse the internet safely and not come in to contact with any nasty or malicious programs. Most people these days have heard of a Computer Virus, some have heard of Spyware and Malware and everyone knows that having an up to date Anti Virus program on their machine is vital in this day and age. The problem is that having an Anti Virus program does not completely stop you from accessing malicious software. It does lessen the risk, either through straight up blocking the program, or warning you of the possibility of a program being malicious and then requesting permission to continue. The problem you may ask yourself is, how do you stay safe? Those of us who are aware of these problems know a few ways of minimizing these risks and we hopefully can pass some of this knowledge on to you.

Assuming you have a virus scanner, probably the most important rule online is “know what websites you are looking at and what you are downloading”. If you are on a website that looks a bit dodgy (good indications can be several advertisements trying to sell emoticons, Viagra or the like), you need to make sure you know exactly what it is that you are looking for on the particular website. I will use an analogy to try and explain this one a bit better. Say you are walking down Kings Cross, shopping for a particular item. On the way you walk past an alley. Now it's possible the item you want is at the end of the alley, but there are some obviously undesirable looking people lurking down there as well. Now we instinctually know to NOT go down that alley as something unpleasant may be waiting down there. The Internet is very similar. It is massive city full of Giant Shopping malls and Theme Parks, but there are also dodgy alleys. The only difference is that in the real world we can all recognize these dangerous places. Not all of us are able to recognize the dodgy alleys that you will come across online.

Another good step is not using Internet Explorer, which is the default Internet Browser that comes with every Windows operating system Internet Explorer is the most commonly used Browser on the planet, which makes it a big target for people who write malicious software. A large portion of malicious software written is designed to attack loopholes and faults in Internet Explorer. Generally we recommend using Mozilla Firefox as a browser (download here), though there are other Browsers out there that do just as good a job. Firefox is free to download and is much less widely used than Internet Explorer. This does not mean that it won't function as well as Explorer. On the contrary, it has many more useful tools that can be added and downloaded to it. Useful tools like Flashblocker, which will stop any Flash images, which can have viruses or malware embedded in them, from loading on a webpage. Flash images are embedded moving images on a webpage, usually used for advertising or displaying movie files, like YouTube. What FlashBlocker does is stop Flash images from loading automatically, but allows you to run them by clicking on the Flash image that you wish to view.

One of the most common ways of having malicious software installed on your machine is for a website to have a popup window with an error that says something like “We have detected a virus on your' computer! Click yes to find out more information or to remove the virus!”. Ironically enough, this is usually a virus trying to trick you into installing itself on your machine. If this warning was not generated by the Anti Virus program that you know is installed on your' PC, then you can safely assume that this is some sort of malicious software trying to install on your' PC. You need to remember that in most cases, you have to physically install or browse to a website that has a virus attached to it. It is very rare that a virus can install itself without your active participation. Several Anti Virus programs have pop up blockers built in to them to stop exactly these kinds of attacks. Most Internet Browsers have programs built in to stop these pop ups as well, Mozilla Firefox has a particularly efficient one.

So, be mindful of where you are browsing (have you turned into a dark alley), think about using a different browser to Internet Explorer, and ignore any virus warnings on websites unless it is software you know you have installed.

Next issue we will talk about some of the free tools and techniques to help keep your machine safe from Internet nasties.

Going Wireless

(Note: This is a reprint from our June 2004 Newsletter - much of it is still relevant today)

Customers may recall that when wireless technology first started to become prevalent we cautioned against using it, largely because the security for wireless communications was inadequate. The advice was well founded. For example, 128bit WEP (Wireless Encryption Protocol) was the best protection available under the old 802.11b standard, but could be broken by a normal computer in only a few minutes. That is, an attacker could sit outside your premises, and break your security in a matter of minutes using a normal notebook and a wireless card.

The advice was well founded then, but is starting to become obsolete now. The new wireless standard, 802.11g, contains a number of new security measures that have drastically improved the security of wireless networking. In addition to this, the price of 802.11g capable equipment has come down significantly from when it was first released to the point where it is affordable and only slightly more expensive than 802.11b equipment.

So where might you think about using wireless? As always, where it makes sense for the business by either being cost effective compared to alternatives, or giving you a capability you need. For example, if you had a building that you need to setup an office in, and had no data cables in place already, you might decide that setting up a wireless network at approximately $150 a station was a better strategy than paying an electrician $200 per point to setup data points and data cabling.

This would apply double if there were reasons you couldn’t easily modify the building, such as solid concrete walls/floors/no ceiling space. Another example might be if you wanted people to be able to use their notebook computers in a conference or meeting room, but didn’t want to have to cable the room. Finally, if you had wireless devices necessary for your business process, such as using PDAs for managing stock inventories in a warehouse, wireless is a good solution.

On the other hand are some examples of places where wireless was used without good business justification. One client told us that one of their users had decided to install wireless, seemingly purely out of their own interest, and had the system setup so that the base station (that connects to the main network via a cable ), and the wireless computer were on the same desk. The radio signal traveled all of three feet. They had no real need to work away from their desk.

Net result = money wasted, no new required capability delivered, and because this was in the 802.11b days, the security of the network severely reduced.

There are some other things to keep in mind when considering wireless networks. For example, if you were thinking about using wireless for a whole office, rather than cabling, you need to consider how you are going to deliver telephone to people’s desks.

There are ways to do this over a computer network, such as VOIP (Voice Over IP), but very few of these solutions would be cost effective for smaller organizations, and the technology is still a little immature (things are a bit different in 2009).

Another thing to consider is what your actual bandwidth requirements will be. For example, 100Mb switches are now the entry level standard for cabled connections. However, the 802.11g standard is only at 54Mb shared between all computers. If you have network intensive applications you may find, with only a few computers (say 4), that 802.11g does not give you the performance you need.

None of this is to say don’t do it, only that, as always, and particularly with new technology, you should convince yourself of the benefits at a business level. Believe me, this is hard advice for a geeks (like us) to give, but it is what we consistently advise. New technology is always interesting, and for us, fun to play with. That doesn’t mean it is necessarily right for customers.

Quick Tips on Wireless Security for the Enthusiast (may not make sense to others):

• WEP under 802.11b is better than nothing, but that is about it. An attacker can break 128 bit WEP in minutes with a notebook and wireless card, sitting outside your home/office. Yes, people do wander about looking for these connections, often just to obtain a free Internet connection. Your risks of this increase if you live/work in high density areas but it could happen anywhere if you have the wrong neighbors.
• MAC address security is not really much security at all. MAC addresses seem like long random numbers, but they aren’t really. Most manufacturers publish the MAC addresses they use (they have to, so others don’t make gear with the same addresses), and there are tools on the Internet that let a person try and test all possible MAC addresses in seconds.
• WEP and MAC address security combined is not really very strong. If you choose to use just this, for convenience, just be aware in your own mind that there is some risk. Ways to control the risk include putting a personal firewall on all the machines connected to the wireless network, and keeping an eye on your broadband usage throughout the month to make sure you don’t get a nasty shock.
• If you can afford 802.11g equipment then buy it, and use rotating WEP keys and other security features. These features start to offer real levels of security.