4it news / blog

Google's Chrome browser has continued to gain market share, but unusually, instead of eating into Microsoft's IE market share, it seems to be at the expense of Mozilla's Firefox which has slipped back roughly 4 percentage points.

IE is still by far the most popular browser.

My interpretation of these latest figures is that there seems to be a small core of users who sit in the "anything but IE" camp. These are the users that, in the past, jumped on to Firefox as the best viable alternative, but are now defecting over to Chrome.

Chrome has had a mixed reception in the industry. Some reports suggest that it has better performance than IE in certain circumstances, however other reports suggest it does not adhere to the latest HTML standards as well as IE8.

Either way, competition is a good thing. If Chrome's gain in market share forces Microsoft to think more about performance with its next browser then ultimately we are all winners.

Latest market share stats are here.

Scammers using an old trick are peddling fake anti virus software with a similar name to a legitimate Microsoft Product.

The legitimate product from Microsoft is called Microsoft Security Essentials, It's free and can be downloaded directly from the Microsoft website here.

The fake product is called Security Essentials 2010.

More details at the windowsclub.com.

If you believe you have been fooled into installing this or any other fake security software, and are unable to remove it, please let us know.

Unless you've been living under a rock it would have hard to miss the usual hype around Apple's latest "magical, incredible, awesome, extraordinary" slate-style computer, the iPad. At least, those were the words that Steve Jobs used to describe the device in his keynote at the January 27th Apple event in San Francisco.

Whoa there Steve, it's just a tablet PC and tablet PCs have been around for a decade. Microsoft brought out Windows XP Tablet Edition in 2001. A Linux-based tablet device called the ProGear WebPad was around even before that.

There was a plethora of Windows based Tablet PCs shown at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January. At that show, Steve Ballmer unveiled HP's slate device, which runs Windows 7, the Archos 7 is an Android-based tablet, whereas the Archos 9 is a Windows 7 tablet that's already available now. Dell's Mini 5 and Notion Ink's Adam are also Android-based tablets.
(As a side note, Apple refused to use CES to launch their iPad as they would not have been the centre of attention, hence the Apple only launch event 2 weeks later)

However if you compare the specs on these new tablets, you will quickly wonder exactly what's supposed to be so special about the iPad. Many of its competitors run full-fledged Windows or Linux operating systems with which you can do anything you would do on a Windows or Linux notebook computer, whereas the iPad runs the iPhone OS. You could say the iPad isn't really a tablet computer at all; it's a very large iPod Touch. And of course that also means that you are locked into the iTunes store for apps.

But the most glaring shortfall in the iPad is the lack of multitasking. The Windows, Linux and Android tablets all support multi-tasking (something we all expect out of our computers). Apple's choice of using the iPhone OS excludes this capability

So where does this leave us?
As with all Apple "proclamations" you have to look beyond the hype and 'cool' factor and examine the underlying specs, and as with the original iPhone, the iPad is long on looks but short on capabilities especially when compared with its market rivals.

However, tablet PCs have been slow to take off, perhaps the hype Apple is bringing to the sector will be just the kick in the pants it needs.

Due to the increasing number of intrusive and disruptive unsolicited sales calls, we have taken the decision to divert all incoming calls from withheld numbers directly to answer phone.

We're are confident that this will have no effect on our customers, however if your telephone systems are set up to withhold your number, please override this when calling us or contact us for alternative arrangements.

There's an interesting article over at cNet which has a number of interviews from independent security professionals regarding the Mac vs Pc security debate. (Click on the cNet link for the full article)

Whilst there some obvious answers like "Windows has the bigger market share and so is the most favoured target" there are also some very interesting quotes, such as..

"Far more relevant to me are the browser and e-mail clients a consumer is using, irrespective of the operating system or hardware platform. Even more critical from a safety standpoint is the level of security awareness exhibited by that consumer. If you haphazardly visit every link and download every file sent to you in e-mail or posted to your social-networking pages, sooner or later you're going to get nailed. Period. Platforms are passe. Apps are where it's at."

So to Paraphrase...
It's not the Operating System, it's the user and the applications they run that are the main problems now.

It's a bit brutal but a fair and accurate point.

This is our yearly reminder warning to all our customers who own .com domains to be on the lookout for a fake invoice / renewal notice from a company calling itself Domain Registry of America or Domain Renewal Group.

This "invoice" for your .com renewal is actual a disguised transfer request to transfer your domain to them.
The look of the "invoice" is intended to deceive, and as such demonstrates the disgraceful marketing tactics this company uses in trying to trick you into using their services.

If you receive one of these letters please bin it.

Remember, if you have registered your domain THROUGH US, you will receive your renewal notice/invoice FROM US and no one else!

We are receiving e-mails offering free downloads of "Adobe PDF 2010".
The e-mail contains a link which will take you to a download location that is NOT the official Adobe site.

PDF 2010 is not a legitimate Adobe product. This e-mail is fake and users should NOT follow the link it contains. It will almost certainly lead to a malware or scam site.

If you wish to update your adobe software, visit the adobe site directly by typing www.adobe.com into your browser address bar.

Microsoft has responded quickly to plug the security hole in it's IE browser hightlighted by the recent Chinese state sponsored hacking attack on Google's G-Mail service.

Users should have received the update via Automatic Updates. If you have not yet received this update, please launch windows update/microsoft update found in your program menu.

We're issuing a warning to all of our customers / domain holders to be extra vigilant of a phishing e-mail that both we and some of our customers have received.

The e-mail is obviously not from us as it is both impersonal and lacking our cooperate colours which we use on all e-mails.

If you receive such an e-mail please delete it.

A copy of the phishing e-mail we received is below.


Dear user of the 4-it.co.uk mailing service!

We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (sales@4-it.co.uk) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:

http://4-it.co.uk/owa/service_directory/settings.php?..... [link removed for security reasons]

Best regards, 4-it.co.uk Technical Support.

Message ID#222BN23OCB4EZO805UQI0L8PS99W088

Germany and France have taken the unusual steps of issuing a warning to it's users to stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and to find an alternative.

This is a result of the recent Chinese state sponsored hack of Google's G-Mail system using a flaw the sophisticated hackers found in IE 6, 7 & 8.

There are problems with this approach however. IE is a popular target because it's a popular browser. These discovered flaws to not equate to the browser being any less secure than it's rivals. (Apple's Safari is notoriously poor when it comes to security) And by simply asking large populations to swap browsers you are increasing the popularity of rival browsers and therefore making them a more tempting target.

Since every browser has security issues, what you end up doing is swapping one set of risks for another whilst lulling yourself into a false sense of security.

That's hardly progress!

Microsoft are working on a fix for this and it looks like they may not wait until Feb's patch tuesday to issue it but may do it sooner.

Due to an increasing amount of spam we are receiving on this account, plus the fact we rarely use it, we have decided to close the info@ account from today.
The sales@ account and personal named e-mail accounts remain open as usual.

This issue have been partially resolved and we now have working land line phones, however the fax service is still unavailable and may not be up for some time.

Due to a line fault we currently have no land line phone or fax service.
If you need to contact us please use either e-mail or mobile number if you have it.

I will post an update when this is resolved.

Regards

Mark

Due to an unnoticed encoding error, all external links in the news blog web pages were broken. This has now been resolved and all links now work as expected.

This encoding error did not affect the RSS feed.

The good folks over at TechRepublic like publishing their top 10 lists.. so here's a sample from this year (2009)

(All lists are in PDF format, click link to open in browser or right click and 'save as' to save to your machine. Free PDF reader can be downloaded from Adobe)

10 free Microsoft programs worth checking out
10+ IT pros share the utilities and tools they can't live without
10+ Microsoft Office add-ins to simplify your work
10 seriously annoying default configurations
10 common issues you can fix with a registry hack
10 reasons Vista haters will love Windows 7
10 ways to detect computer malware
10 cool tools in Windows 7

Some of these lists are for beginners, some for more advanced users. If you are unsure about any of the tips in these lists don't undertake them.

Techrepublic have a great article detailing 10 e-mail scams to watch out.
The summary is as follows..

1: Fake Facebook "friend" messages
2: Fake admin messages
3: Fear-mongering messages
4: Account cancellation scams
5: Bogus holiday cards
6: Phantom packages
7: Threats from the government
8: Census survey says...
9: In Microsoft (or Apple or Dell or HP) we trust
10: You're a winner!

For more details on each scam read the full article @ Techrepublic

Please note the office will be closing at 1pm Wednesday 23rd December and will reopen on Monday 4th Jan 2010.
For those customers opening over the Christmas / New Year week, a skeleton support service will be available if needed.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our customers and friends a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

In the latest comparatives testing by the world's premier AV lab 'Virus Bulletin', VIPRE received the VB100 award in its first time entering, tested on Windows 7! It does not happen very often that a product that enters the VB100 gets awarded on its first try.

VIPRE now having this certification shows again the quality of this next-generation architecture.

Malicious hackers are using fake alerts around H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccines to trick end users into installing malware on Windows computers, according to warnings issued by computer security firms.

The latest malware campaign begins with e-mail messages offering information regarding the H1N1 vaccination. The e-mail messages contain a link to a bogus Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site with prompts to create a user profile. During this process, a malware file gets planted on the user's machine.

More details @ ZDNet

Once again we suggest all users be cautious with e-mail and not to open unexpected e-mails from unknown sources.

A month after its release, Windows 7 passed ALL versions of Mac OS X in market share, up to 5.07% as compared to Mac's 5.00% for the week of November 15-21. Of course, if you compared it to Apple's latest version only (Snow Leopard), Windows 7 would be way out ahead.
Windows 7 sales have been good, even in a bad economy, and its share has steadily increased since its release. According to Steve Ballmer, Windows 7 has sold twice as many copies as any other Microsoft OS in the same time span.

Full article @ PCWorld.com

Microsoft have confirmed that the so called "Black screen of death" issue some users are experiencing is NOT due to it's latest security update.

In a blog posting on its security site, Microsoft said that it had investigated the claims and "found that our November Security Updates are not making changes to the system that these reports say are responsible for these issues".

The firm said that the behaviour was associated with malware, such as Daonol, and that this was probably the root cause.

Full details @ BBC News Site

Software firm Prevx who first pointed the finger of blame at Microsoft over this have had to issue an apology to Microsoft on their website.

Reports are coming in about a possible issue with one of the Microsoft security updates issued around Nov 10th.
However the internet rumour mill is reaching hysterical fever pitch including a feature on BBC Radio 1 news so here's the facts as we know them!
Unfortunately called the 'Black Screen Of Death', this issue seems to revolve around a change Microsoft made to some Access Control Lists (ACL's) which, when you restart your machine, prevents your desktop from being drawn correctly. Windows XP, Vista & 7 are all reportedly equally affected however Microsoft have NOT yet confirmed this as a real issue and are currently 'investigating'.

This does NOT compare with a Blue Screen of Death which is a true system crash.

We, at 4IT have NOT experienced this issue nor do we have ANY reports that this has affected any of our customers.

For more details including a work around and possible fix check out PCWorld.com

We have uploaded new case studies here.

These case studies demonstrate real world examples of our competencies.

Exploit code for a critical (remotely exploitable) vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 browser has been released on the Internet, prompting a new round "upgrade now!" warnings from computer security experts.

Article @ ZDNet

We strongly recommend that all our customers upgrade their browser to IE8

You can download IE8 for free from Microsoft here

A second worm to hit the iPhone has been unearthed by security company F-Secure.

It is specifically targeting people in the Netherlands who are using their iPhones for internet banking with Dutch online bank ING.

It redirects the bank's customers to a lookalike site with a log-in screen.

Full article @ BBC News

According to reports from Net Applications, which tracks which operating systems are being used by Internet users, Windows 7 already has a market share that took five months for Vista to attain. It seems most of the new Windows 7 users are coming from Windows XP, although Vista's share is also on a downward path. Interestingly, Mac OS X's share dropped, too, while Linux was up by a fraction of a percentage point.
More details @ Computerworld

Security researchers have detected a massive blackhat SEO campaign consisting of over 200,000 compromised web sites, all redirecting to fake security software commonly referred to as scareware.

More details over @

Once again we recommend that users DO NOT download anything from the internet unless it's from a trusted source. Be especially wary of "security" software as this is often bogus.

Web security firm Websense is reporting that the servers of web advertiser media-servers.net have been compromised and are serving visitors malicious code that exploits Microsoft and Adobe vulnerabilities. Thousands of sites have been compromised over several months with the result that visitors get served an auto-loading script.
Under websense testing, out of 40 AV suites only 2 detected the malicious file, one of those being our reccomended product "Vipre" by Sunbelt Software.
More details @ Computer Weekly

There is a Twitter phishing campaign going on but we know many others have found some more nefarious tricks in the Twitter sector. We have been getting some strange direct messages that when you click on the link go to a malware site. Per Twitter, "We've seen a few phishing attempts today; if you've received a strange (direct message), and it takes you to a Twitter log-in page, don't do it!"
What you should do it use the "Block and report as Spam" facility on twitter to report the user.

...and finally, if you think your friends with Apple Macs don't have security problems, you would be wrong. Recently Apple dropped a mega-patch to cover whopping 58 documented vulnerabilities affecting the Mac OS X ecosystem.
More details @ ZDNet

Here's a brief update of all the current security threats we think you should be aware of.

Threat level remains at Elevated.
All is rather peaceful in cyberland comparatively speaking. That means it is a good time to make sure your computer is up to date with all its necessary patches, definitions, etc. Today (November 10) is Microsoft patch Tuesday and we are told there will be six updates, four for Windows (Win2K, XP, Vista as well as Server '03 and '08) and two for Office. Important note: Adobe is recommending that users upgrade their Shockwave Player to version 11.5.2.602 multiple vulnerabilities that can lead to execution of arbitrary code have been reported in 11.5.1.601 and earlier.

SPAM.
A couple of spam campaigns to watch out for include a fake tool for automatically generating invitations for Google Wave and it is trojanized. There is a Twitter phishing campaign where users get "change your password" message and on the "What me worry" front a fake FDIC alert that your bank has failed. So look out for those.

This Week's Top 10 Spyware Threats.
1. Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT: Trojan
2. Trojan.Win32.Generic!SB.0: Trojan
3. Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen: Trojan
4. Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen (v): Exploit
5. Trojan.Win32.Vundo.Gen.2 (v): Trojan
6. Trojan.Win32.Malware: Trojan
7. Trojan.ASF.Wimad (v): Trojan
8. VirTool.Win32.Obfuscator.XZ (v): Trojan
9. INF.Autorun (v): Trojan
10. Packed.Win32.Tdss.Gen (v): Backdoor


More details @ Sunbelt

Facebook is warning it's users to beware of 2 virus e-mails doing the rounds purporting to be from Facebook and asking you to "reset" your account using the attachment.

It's somewhat sad that Facebook needs to remind it's users in this fashion. These types of phishing e-mails all use the same Modus operandi and should therefore be instantly spottable to the informed end user.

Alas these scams continue to trap the less-than-careful user so yet another warning has to go out.

When will all users realise that there is a minimum skill set required before using the internet. Being able to spot such obvious scams is lesson #1!

More details @ Mashable.com

As the postage strike bites, we would encourage all of our customers who are already not doing so, to use BACS when settling their invoices.
Please remember, if you have a renewal coming up it is important that we receive your cleared payment before the renewal date to avoid disruption of service.

I am a fan of occasionally wiping a machine, reformatting and reinstalling the OS. Especially with XP. After a few years of heavy use including installing and removing lots of beta applications, the operating system would often be in a less than perfect state with lots of little "faults" that were seemingly insolvable.
As we use our servers for data & e-mail storage, wiping the OS and starting again with a fresh install was the simplest and quickest option.
One of the pains with this was reinstalling all of our old applications which could take a good few hours.
Well, here's at least a partial solution to that problem: it's called Ninite and it contains a catalog of popular free software programs. You simply check the boxes for the ones you want and it will automatically install them all without any help from you (choosing default settings and refusing add-ons).
You can even suggest any applications they have missed off.
More @ Ninite Website

..well not just Twitter but social networking sites in particular.
The basics of this report is the amount of time employees are wasting online whilst at work. It's not a new thing, before social networking site, employees found many other site to waste their time on.
Full report @

Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, has said that it is suing its US rival Apple for infringing patents on mobile phone technology for the iPhone.
Nokia said it had not been compensated for its technology, and accused Apple of "trying to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation".
The ten alleged patent infringements involve wireless data, speech coding, security, and encryption.

Apologies for any late replies to e-mails sent to us today. During some routine server maintenance our e-mail retrieval service managed to switch off and this wasn't noticed until around 5pm. The situation was rectified and mail is now flowing as usual.

The official release day for Windows 7 has finally arrived. Windows 7 is now available to buy retail or pre-installed on a new PC.
I'm not going to harp on even more about Win 7 as I know I've already posted quite a few of my "musings" about it already.
Needless to say, I'm a big fan!
If you have any questions about Windows 7, get in touch!

Today's computers are orders of magnitude more powerful that the computers that put man on the moon in 1969. Yet most users barely use all this processing power at their fingertips.
Everyday tasks like internet browsing and e-mailing use only a tiny fraction of the processing power at your fingertips, so why not consider donating the spare capacity of your machine to a worthy cause via the BOINC project?
The most popular and well known cause is the SETI@Home project, which uses donated computer cycles to search through astronomical data looking for signs of ET. But there are many more..

Check out the article "12 Worthy Causes Seek Your Spare PC Cycles" over @ PCWorld.com

Seems like a serious bug has hit Apple users.
Reports are surfacing about users experiencing serious and massive data losses when logging on to the guest account with their machines recently upgraded to Snow Leopard.

Users have in some cases lost their entire main profile, including sites, pictures, videos and documents.

More details @ BBC Website

I'm sure Microsoft, who are often at the raw end of Apple's rather mean sprirted attacks, are chuckling away at this one!

Adobe Systems Inc. late Thursday issued an alert saying that hackers are exploiting a newly-discovered vulnerability in its free PDF Reader and Acrobat products to break into Microsoft Windows systems.

Adobe said it plans to release a patch to fix this vulnerability next Tuesday, in keeping with its recent shift to push out security updates in tandem with Microsoft's regular monthly patch cycle, which occurs on the second Tuesday of each month (a.k.a. "Patch Tuesday").

According to the Adobe advisory, the company is planning to release an update for Adobe Reader 9.1.3 and Acrobat 9.1.3, Adobe Reader 8.1.6 and Acrobat 8.1.6 for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX, and Adobe Reader 7.1.3 and Acrobat 7.1.3 for Windows and Macintosh to resolve critical security issues.

More details @ Washington Post

In one of the largest seen phishing attacks, thousands of stolen webmail account details (usernames/passwords) have been posted online. The details cover both Hotmail, Yahoo & G-Mail.
We strongly recommend that ALL users of these services change their password immediately.
More @ NetworkWorld

Microsoft has 13 security updates for you for October.
They said they will deliver their largest-ever number of patches to fix flaws in all Windows flavors (server & clients), as well as IE, Office, SQL Server, important developer tools and Forefront. Among the updates will be the first for the RTM code of Windows 7.

More details @ Microsoft

We have received multiple reports that a new, convincing and dangerous worm and phishing scam is making the rounds on Twitter. Hacked accounts are sending DMs to users containing links and asking then to click on it. The link leads to a virus and steals their login information.

More @ Mashable.com

The Threat Level remains at Elevated.

1. Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT: Trojan
2. Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen: Trojan
3. Trojan.Win32.Malware: Trojan
4. Trojan.ASF.Wimad (v): Trojan
5. Trojan.Dowiex: Trojan
6. GameVance: Adware (General)
7. Trojan.DNSChanger.Gen: Trojan
8. MyWebSearch Toolbar: Potentially Unwanted Program
9. Trojan.Malware: Trojan
10. INF.Autorun (v): Trojan

More details over @ Sunbelt

In a sign that cyber-criminals are investing more time and resources into attacks against Apple's Mac users, a new malware affiliate program has been discovered offering $0.43 for every infected Mac machine.

Will Apple's smugness on security finally be coming back to haunt them?

More details over @ ZDNet

The Chinese domain name scam is back.
You receive an unsolicited e-mail claiming to be from a Chinese domain name registrar, informing you that someone is trying to register your domain names in China, eg www.4-it.com.cn, www.4-it.cn. They then helpfully offer the domains to you so you can 'protect your brand in China'!
In actuality they have just got a list of .co.uk and .com domain name owners and are bulk mailing them in order to flog them the Chinese variants.

It's a scam because the whole precept of the letter/e-mail is a lie.

If you receive one of these, bin/delete it.

NB
Don't forget other scams that are still popular include..
Fake lottery .. "You have won" scams
Money Laundering Scams
Update your e-bay/paypal/bank details or you account will be suspended scams
Inheritance scams

So be safe and sensible!

A critical security flaw has been found in Apple's iTunes v9.0 that puts Mac and Windows users at risk of computer takeover attacks.
Apple has shipped iTunes 9.0.1 to fix the critical security hole. It is recomended that all iTunes users make sure their iTunes is updated to this latest version.
Full Details @ ZDNet

We're big fans of the upcoming Windows 7, but as a balance here are 5 reasons XP users may not want to immediately upgrade to Windows 7.

1) XP is supported until 2014
2) Just a web user? XP is enough!
3) Newer tech like IE8, Windows defender etc is downloadable for XP
4) Your pc is set up as you like it. Why change!
5) Your replacement PC will have it on anyway.

Full article @ PC World

Microsoft have today announced that extended support for Windows 2000 Server will end on July 13, 2010.

More details @ Microsoft Technet

The net was buzzing last week over a newly found security flaw found in the Microsoft SMB subsystem that was supposed to affect Vista, Windows 7 and Server 2008.
An attacker sending a malformed SMB packet to an affected machine would cause a BSOD.
However the truth is somewhat different..
Upon investigation, Microsoft have confirmed this to be problem affecting Vista (x86/x64), Server 2008 (x86/x64/ia64)
It DOES NOT affect Windows 2000, XP (x86/x64), Server 2003 (x86/x64/ia64), Windows 7 (x86/x64), Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64/ia64).
Furthermore, a malformed packet would usually be blocked by the Vista/Server 2008 firewall in it's default settings. Chances of an attack across the internet using this flaw are very slim.

Please note the office will be closed on Monday 21st Sept.

As usual with office closures, please use e-mail primarily to report any support issues.
If you are unable to use e-mail, please contact me on my mobile.

Mark

We all love a bit of free stuff so PCWorld New Zealand have posted a roundup of 101 free software downloads.

Go check out the list here

A NOTE :
Free applications are sometimes sponsored by adware or may have other bundled software included (such as toolbars etc).
When installing any free software, pay attention to the installation options you are presented and deselect any unwanted options such as additional toolbars etc.

Independent security evaluators are less than impressed with the poor security features in Apple's latest Mac OSX incarnation 'Snow Leopard'. They state that although it is an improvement on the previous 'Leopard', it's still lacking many of the advanced features as seen in Windows Vista & Windows 7.

More details @ The Windows Club

My Commentary...

Apple has so far been able to ignore security as historically Macs have not been the target of malware writers due to their tiny market share. They are a small target in a big shooting gallery.
However as the Mac gains market share it is starting to become an increasingly larger & tempting target. Eventually once the market share hits a key point, Macs will be hit and hit hard due to their rather poor level of security and their users' current blissful ignorance of malware.

Judging by Apple's sales figures, that day may come sooner than you think..

It's no surprise Vista and Windows 7 fare better. Microsoft OS's have been under serious attack since XP (2002) and MS have had a 7 year head start over Apple in tackling this issue.

We have a number of interesting (and free) subscribed newsletters that drop into our e-mail box on a weekly basis. One of the newer ones is Win7News which covers news and events of all things Window 7 & Vista.
There are also some useful tips and tricks which can be very helpful.
The newsletter is published by the good folks over at Sunbelt, and if you're interested in this kind of stuff I heartily recommend you take a look.
They also publish newsletters for XP & Windows Servers.

More details @ Win7News

One of the major features in Apple's new OSX version (Snow Leopard) - Native Microsoft Exchange integration, has failed to have the impact on business Mac adoption that was hoped (unlike the iPhone).
A survey from Techrepublic has returned an overwhelming 'No' when IT enterprise customers were asked if this new OS could temp them in to rolling out Mac clients.

More details @ Techrepublic

CCleaner is one of the most recommended freeware File & Registry Cleaners available for Windows.
However we've received reports that shows use of CCleaner's registry cleaning function will break the Windows 7 right click context menu for the Bitlocker application.
More details @
The Windows Club
The CCleaner boys are always updating their s/ware and regularly bring out new versions so I have no doubt that this shortfall will be address soon.
But as ever, you should be extremely cautious with registry cleaners as they can often do more harm than good.

We've successfully rolled out our first Windows 7 RTM install.
It was a clean install to a Netbook that was previously running Windows 7 RC.
Installation was painless and unlike the earlier versions, it successfully recognised the WiFi card and installed the appropriate drivers.
(Previous installations did not have a compatable WiFi driver for the card in the netbook, resulting in us having to manually search for and install a vista compatable one from the internet.)
We would be very hard pressed to fault the RC build anyway, so it's going to be difficult finding where they could have possibly improved Windows 7 RTM.
Watch this space...

We've just received our retail release versions of Windows 7 Business & Ultimate. (Sorry they are for internal use only!)
To say we're excited is a little bit of an understatement.
Time to get upgrading!

We'll blog more on this after the event!

Important information regarding Service Packs

As you may already know, Microsoft releases product updates on a monthly basis. These updates are delivered to your desktop and the windows update icon appears in your task bar. You are then invited to install said updates.

Our usual policy is to recommend to all clients that they install these updates in a timely manner, as they are usually fixes to reported security flaws and bugs.

Infrequently (approx. every 12-18 months) Microsoft will release a major large update called a Service Pack (SP). These SP's contain every update since the previous service pack (or original software release) plus other updates such as new features, performance fixes etc.

Although we still recommend all users install these SP's when available, you must bear in mind that due to the sheer size of the update and the time it can take to apply, it is NOT advisable to install these during the working day.

These large updates, depending on machine performance, can take MANY hours to install, during which time you may not be able to continue to use your machine.

We strongly suggest, to minimise disruption, that you only commence installation of these SP's at the end of the day when the machine is no longer in use, and allow the update to apply overnight.

Current service pack versions are XP - SP3, Vista - SP2

I came across an interesting article suggesting that without Microsoft founder Bill Gates, it seems that Apple probably wouldn't exist.

In 1997, Bill Gates invested $150m in a struggling Apple to help breathe new life into the company! Such sweet irony!

Check out the Apple FanBoys booing Steve Jobs as he announces the Microsoft partnerships.

Full article @ The Windows Club

Symantec has release a list of the Dirtiest Web Sites of Summer 2009 - the top 100 infected sites based on number of threats detected by Norton Safe Web as of August 2009.
It comes as no surprise that 48% of the Dirtiest Web Sites are, well, dirty - sites that feature adult content. However, other Dirtiest sites run the gamut of subject matter, including sites dedicated to deer hunting, catering, figure skating, legal services, and buying electronics.

Viruses are the most common threat represented on the Dirtiest list, followed by security risks and browser exploits.

Simply clicking through to a site with these threats could put you at risk of exposing your computer to infection, and worse, put your identity, personal and financial information into the hands of cybercriminals.

Stay away from these websites !

Details @ Symantec

Windows 7 hits the store on October 22nd but already those with access to preview copies are giving it rave reviews.
Check out this article from the Boston Globe

We've said before on this blog that we think Windows 7 will be a huge success. We have used in it both Beta and RC form for most of 2009 and are mightily impressed, the early versions were both stable and quick.

We'll say more on this subject after the official retail release date of 22/10/09.

We are currently doing some website maintenance to being the web code up to W3C standard.
During this time the formatting of some pages may be affected causing them to display incorrectly.
Please bear with us whilst we undertake this maintenance work.

Also as part of this work, we have archived off some of the older news articles (pre 2008) making the new news list and rss feed much shorter, and quicker to download.

If you do happen to use the Safari browser (and we don't recommend it), be sure you've got the latest update from Apple, which patches six critical security vulnerabilities, including a buffer overflow vulnerability and three problems in the browser's Webkit engine.

More details over at eWeek.com

It's bound to make a lot of Microsoft bashers unhappy, but recent testing by an independent security company shows IE8 to be better than Firefox, Safari, Opera or Chrome when it comes to blocking phishing sites.
Safari ended up at the bottom of the list. Opps
Full story over at eWeek.com

Ever wondered why the battery life of that new laptop you have just bought doesn't seem to match the sales blurb?
Seems like the "test" they use to determine the advertised battery life is errm shall we say "less-than-fair?"
More details over at Newsweek

There's a good article over at ZDNet highlighting some of Apple's recent extremely bad behaviour.
I'll admit I've never been an Apple fan, I noticed this type of anti-competitive monopolistic behaviour years ago while most people chose to ignore it, as Apple were such small players. However with Apple's growth (thanks solely to the iPod) and it's increasingly dominant position in specific markets (iTunes) its continuing bad behaviour is finally starting to be noticed by a wider audience.
Recent decisions to ban competitive products from the iPhone App Store only serving to prove this point.
Microsoft got hauled over the coals for anti-competitive practices simply for including a browser with their Windows operating systems (while still allowing other browser to be installed). Compare this to Apple who, with the iPhone, are not only bundling their own browser, but are then actively BLOCKING other browsers from being installed. How can they get away with this?
Due to its recent decision to block Google's iVoice app, Apple is now finally under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for anti-competitive practices.

Good!
It's about bloody time!

The following is a brief roundup of the latest security assessment.

1) "You have received a (Hallmark) greetings card" malware AND hoax doing the rounds.
Remember people, ignore these. Don't click any links, don't pass on any hoax warnings either! They waste everyone's time. More info here.

2) We have reports of disreputable PC repair shops snooping around and harvesting financial data from their customers PC's brought in for repair. Only take your PC's to a reputable place and keep an eye on your bank statements! This came to light as the result of a Sky news undercover operation. More info here.

3) Adobe Flash player vunerability. Yet ANOTHER security flaw has been found in the ever popular Adobe Flash player. They have issued an updated version to plug the hole. If you use the Flash player, go direct to the Adobe site and download the latest version. More info here

Current Threatnet threat level is High, including attacks on Firefox and Mozilla browsers.
Top 10 threats can be found here.

Microsoft have finally release the Windows 7 code to manufacturing. (RTM)
This means that this is the final release version and has now gone off for CD manufacturing in preparation for the official retail shipping date of Oct 22nd.
Microsoft partners should have the final version by mid-August.
This comes at a busy and exciting time for Microsoft and its partners as it prepares to launch several major new products such as Microsoft® Office 2010, Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 and of course Windows® 7 amongst others.
Windows 7 however remains the current star of the line-up in our opinion. We have been playing around with Windows 7 since one of the very early versions (Beta1). By the time the beta 2 version came out we were relatively comfortable enough to install it on one of our production netbooks. Considering the low power/resource nature of the netbook we were amazed at the result, a useable installation with all bells whistles and eye candy!
By the time RC1 was release we were so confident with it, we installed it on to one of our primary production machines, and in fact have been running with it on a daily basis ever since (6 months?). The RC1 version showed itself to be a solid, reliable & even polished product. Hard to believe that Microsoft were actually still classifying this as an unfinished development version!
Win7 goes a long way in silencing the somewhat unfair Vista detractors. It's slimmed down, has a freshened and updated interface, and as it will pretty much make use of the already established Vista driver base, hardware compatibility for this OS release should not be the issue that we saw with the Vista release.
Summing up, I believe Win7 will be a major success for Microsoft, and we whole heartily recommend it.
Unless you have old legacy XP bound applications (that will not work in the new Windows 7 XP Mode virtual machine), you really do have no reason not to have Windows 7 in your environment.


There's a good technical breakdown of Windows 7 capabilities plus some Vista backgroud info here

Support for Microsoft Office 2000 finally ended on Tuesday, 10 years after the productivity suite was launched. Click here for the full story.

If you are still using Office 2000, there have been many improvements since and you may wish to consider upgrading to Office 2007.

Twitter had reported that the Koobface virus was sending fake tweets when the user logs into Twitter due to them being infected.
It sends a tweet with a link to a home video or a site, and when a user runs the video they are infected. Koobface then sends similar tweets to all of the users friends to try and infect them.
Twitter said: "We are currently suspending all accounts that we detect sending such bogus tweets. If we suspend your account, we will send you an email notifying you of the suspension. This email also includes tips for removing the malware from your PC."
More details can be read here

Microsoft was originally offering a six month period in which those who bought new systems that come with Windows 7 could "downgrade" to XP for free. Now, after criticism from consumers and those in the industry over the short time frame, Microsoft has extended that "window of opportunity" by twelve additional months, making the XP downgrade available until the spring of 2011.

Find out more here

Microsoft has announced that the official launch date of Windows 7 will be October 22 2009.

We're happy to announce that all systems have been restored and fully tested. We are now back to 100%.
(We were actually back up and running a few days ago but preferred to wait until things were thoroughly tested before announcing it)

This has been a busy 10 days!

We have completed testing our Windows 2008 Server & Exchange Servers and are happy to announce that they are now fully up and running.

Mail flow tests have been successfully completed and our Exchange mail server is now back on line accepting mail.

Unfortunately we had a 2nd failure on Monday which pushed back our estimated resolution time. The 2nd failure was unrelated to the server failure and has just added to the workload. I think we must have upset the IT gods recently :-)

The good news is that currently our Windows 2008 Server is now back up, although mail flow has yet to be configured and tested. We expect to be able to finish the Exchange configuration today and have mail restored.

We have resolved the second failure and now that machine is also back up and running although that too probably needs 3 - 4 hours worth of configuring to restore all the functionality it had in its previous life.

For those of you interested in the technical detail..

We had a multi drive failure in a Matrix Raid array, (Raid 5 / Raid 0). The failure seemed to be in the controller config rather than an actual drive failure. On Tuesday night the controller reported a drive error on drive 3, this was reset and the controller started to rebuild the Raid5 array (which held the OS partition and data partitions (company data, customer data & exchange)). The server was rebooted but during the POST the controller "lost track" of a second drive on the array (drive 0) and downgraded it to "Non raid disk". This constituted the 2nd drive failure marking both arrays as failed and making a rebuild impossible.

To compound our problems a recent backup was not available. Backup solutions in Windows Server 2008 are not as simple and clear cut as the excellent NTBackup in previous versions of windows server (2003, 2000 NT4 etc). The problem is that the 2K8 Server NTBackup replacement "Windows Backup" does not cover Exchange. Microsoft expects you to use a commercial backup solution if you are running Exchange on 2k8 server. We were currently evaluating a number of backup solutions ie. MS DPM, CA ArcServe, but had not yet settled with one. We had DPM running however in our test environment, this was running in a virtual machine on the 2k8 server. When the server went down, so did the virtual machine! It also looks like CA ArcServe had interfered with the scheduled Windows Backup making a restore using that impossible.

Core data was backed up onto a removable hard drive, unfortunately due to the system changes we were doing this backup was 2 months old. Luckily the bulk of that core data is fairly static.

Friday & Saturday were spent running data recovery routines on the server to see what could be recovered. We then spent Sunday reloading the OS & Exchange.

However on Monday, before we were able to complete the server configuration, we had a similar problem with the main development machine (also configured in a similar way, a matrix raid array - raid 5 / raid 0), which required us to move all the data off it before scrapping the matrix raid and replacing it with raid 1 & raid 0 (mirror & stripe). Tuesday was then spent rebuilding this and reinstalling the OS's (XP/Vista & Win7!)

Lessons learnt

Our experience of Raid 5 in a Matrix raid array is not a good one. In our opinion mirroring (Raid 1) provides a safer (although lower performance) option. Both server and main development machines have abandoned Matrix arrays and Raid 5 and returned to Mirroring.

During the testing of backup solutions we took our eye off the ball with regard to what backups were actually running and what / how we could recover using them. As well as keeping on top of regular backups, we have also ordered an external NAS device and will be doing daily backups to that using a variety of methods.
Ironically the level of backup and redundancy we insist out clients have, we did not have ourselves at this time. Our wrists are duly smacked.

We have completed the data recovery steps on the server and are now in the process of rebuilding it.
We expect to have all systems restored by Monday evening at the earliest.
E-mail will not be restored until Monday evening (earliest)

Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience

Our server failure has been fairly catastrophic.
We will be working over the weekend to restore our systems but expect to be down until early next week.

Unfortunately we've had a major server failure.
Our ability to read and respond to e-mails will be sporadic at best over the next few days. If you need to reach us please call the office number

I will post further updates once we have investigated the problem and will hopefully be able to give a better estimate on resolution / rebuild time

Zango is back in our top 10. As you may know Zango makes and distributes adware applications such as toolbars and search assistants. These adware programs display pop-up ads on the desktop and frequently accompany "free" software tools, games, videos, wallpapers, and screen-savers found on the Internet. If this sounds like a good deal to you, you're mistaken. Zango's adware programs are often installed on PCs without users' knowledge and consent, the ultimate intrusion.
A piece of adware that is new to our dubious hit parade is Plus18Point. It collects information on your Internet usage and the applications running on your computer. This information is then use to display pop-up advertising. Plus18Point blocks access to certain IP addresses, blocks updates to anti-malware applications and firewalls and redirects web browsers from some bank web sites to spoofed pages in order to steal log-ins and other information.
It is a Hijacker and is spread through e-mail attachments, floppy disks and CD-ROMs as well as downloaded material from FTP downloads, P2P networks and IRC channels.
Obviously, you do not want this hanging around.

1. Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen: Trojan
   
2. Trojan-Downloader.Zlob.Media-Codec: Trojan Downloader
   
3. Trojan.1: Trojan
   
4. Virtumonde: Adware (General)
   
5. Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen (v): Exploit
   
6. Trojan-Downloader.Generic: Trojan Downloader
   
7. INF.Autorun (v): Trojan
   
8. Virtumonde.Traces (v): Trojan
   
9. Plus18Point: Hijacker
   
10. Zango: Adware (General)
    

Stay on top of all the real-time threats:
http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.com/SM2VPL/090519-Malware-Research

The first documented bug in the Windows 7 Release Candidate (build 7100) is a corker.

Yesterday, Microsoft published Knowledge Base article 970789, which provides details of a problem that affects the 32-bit (x86) English-language version of Windows 7 RC build 7100. The problem, in short, is that the installer incorrectly sets access control lists (ACLs) on the root of the system drive.

A hotfix is available as an important update that should be delivered and installed automatically by Windows Update, assuming you have set up automatic updates. On one test system that I checked just now, the update had already been installed overnight. On two other systems, the update had been downloaded but was awaiting installation.

The hotfix package fixes the security descriptor of the root of the system drive, but it does not repair applications that are already installed, nor does it affect the permissions of folders that were created after the installation.

If you installed the x64 version of Windows 7, you are apparently unaffected by this issue.

If you haven't yet installed the Windows 7 RC, it's important to install this hotfix after you set up Windows and before you install any programs or restore any backed-up data.

Microsoft have released Windows 7 Release Candidate (Build 7100) to the general public for testing.
This is, most probably, the final pre release before the RTM goes on sale (Q4 2009).
We have been testing this version of Windows since an early beta 1 version in 2008 and have been pleasently suprised. Even in beta, this has been a solidly built, stable and full featured OS.

Win7 is based on the Vista core with an updated interface and some funky new features. Migration from Vista to Win7 should be fairly painless as Vista drivers work on Win7.
Migration from XP may be more difficult and you should check that Vista/Win7 drivers are available for all of your hardware before commencing. Ensure any lagacy applications are Vista/Win7 comapible or obtain updated versions. NB Business & ultimate versions of Win7 will, depending on hardware, include a virtual XP mode allowing users to run XP applications in a virtual XP environment.

The user learning curve from Vista to Win7 is short, with the majority of the interface feeling very familiar and the new features quick to pick up. The learning curve from XP to Win7 will be steeper (as XP to Vista was).

Our recomendations for this OS are as follows:-

• If you are a technology geek.. go for it, you won't be dissapointed.
• If you are a business user currently with Vista, there is not enough in Win7 to justify the cost of upgrading. Simply wait for your next hardware refresh cycle and purchase your new machine with Win7 installed.
• If you are a business user currently with XP, you should seriously start considering deploying Win7 after it's final release. Ideally do an initial deployment with 1 or 2 machines in Q1 2010 to test your infrastructure, legacy applications compatability and to identify any issues early so that a solution can be quickly put in place.

Download your copy here

Thanks to the folks over at Sunbelt Security for the following :-

This Week's Top 10 Spyware Threats
Trojan, Trojan, Trojan, you might think we are at war with malware and you would be right. As you know, Trojan is a general term for malicious software that is installed under false or deceptive pretenses or is installed without the user's full knowledge and consent. Most Trojans exhibit some form of malicious, hostile, or harmful functionality or behavior. The most insidious Trojan.FakeAlert consists of files that cause false warnings of spyware on the computer. Usually the alerts are displayed in a balloon type pop-up from an icon in the system tray. Trojan.FakeAlert displays these false warnings when rogue security software is installed, usually by exploits, and is used to frighten the user into buying the rogue software.

1. Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen:Trojan
2. Virtumonde: Adware (General)
3. Trojan.Seocash: Trojan
4. Trojan.1: Trojan
5. Trojan-Downloader.Zlob.Media-Codec: Trojan Downloader
6. Virtumonde.Traces (v): Trojan
7. Trojan.FakeAlert: Trojan
8. Trojan.Crypt.Morphine.Gen: Trojan
9. Trojan-Spy.Win32.Banker.ovo: Trojan
10. Trojan.StartPage.HMH: Trojan

The latest version of Microsoft's Security Intelligence Report (SIR) shows that the malware infection rate for Vista with SP1 is 60.6% less than for Windows XP with SP3.
That's quite a difference, and, along with the end of mainstream support for XP which occurred earlier this month, is a good reason to stick with Vista and not exercise the "downgrade option" that some hardware vendors are offering computer buyers.

Read more details on the International Business Times site here.

Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007 was released last week, and you can download it from the Microsoft web site. You'll need to have Vista SP1 or XP SP3 installed before you install it. There are a number of performance improvements and security and stability features, as well as the added ability to open, edit and save documents in OpenDocument format and PDF (previously a separate add-on was required to save in PDF).

You can get it here.

Microsoft has released to manufacturing Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
Expect the official download to be available in early May, although if your are impatient you could always check out your favorite torrent site!
More details on the ZDNet Blog here.

According to security company Finjan.com, a huge botnet has been discovered that consists of 1.9 million infected systems controlled by cybercriminals. In all likelihood, the owners of most of those computers have no idea that they're participating in this criminal activity.

This underscores the need for effective security software to be installed on all internet conencted machines, and also all users practice safe surfing!

Read more at the Finjan bloghere

We've noticed a big increase in machines becoming infected with the fake security application XPAntiSpyware 2009.
This is classified as scareware in that it attempts to scam you out of your money using scare tactics, frightening people with false security warnings making them think they need to buy the software to clean their PC's of non-existent infections.

DO NOT FALL FOR THIS.
DO NOT INSTALL IT.
DO NOT PART WITH YOUR HARD EARNED CASH!

When surfing the internet do not install ANY software unless you KNOW and TRUST the source.
If you need advice or support with security issues, please contact us, we are happy to assist.

For more info on this scareware and removal instruction check out the Rogue Antispyware Blog here.

The latest edition of Microsoft's next operating system, Windows 7 (Release Candidiate) has been leaked online (again). This version is Win 7 RC Build 7100 (7100.0.090421-1700).
More details can be found on Long Zheng's blog here.

We have fixed the issue with news links posted to Twitter & our News / Blog RSS feed failing to display on the 4IT site.

Sorry for the delay but this required the rewriting of our url handler module that had been written before adding the RSS & Twitter functionality to our site. Unfortunatly the original module could not handle the newer Twitter & RSS trackback url links.

Microsoft is confirming that Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 will be released on April 28.
More more info check out the ZDNet blog post here

In January Microsoft announced plans to distribute IE8 via Automatic Update/Windows Update

Last week, they released IE8 via Automatic Update to users still running pre-release versions of IE8 (Beta 2 or Release Candidate 1). The goal was to make sure users who chose to install IE8 have the latest up-to-date version.

Starting on or about the third week of April, users still running IE6 or IE7 on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Server 2008 will get a notification through Automatic Update about IE8. This rollout will start with a narrow audience and expand over time to the entire user base. On Windows XP and Server 2003, the update will be High-Priority. On Windows Vista and Server 2008 it will be Important.

IE8 will not automatically install on machines. Users must opt-in to install IE8. Users will see a Welcome screen that offers choices: Ask later, install now, or don't install.

For more information see the microsoft blog post here.

Microsoft will be releasing 8 patches during it's monthly update cycle in April. 5 of these are labelled critical. Affected components include IE, Excel, DirectX & Word.

Advance notice of all of this months updates can be found on the microsoft website here.

As always re recommend ALL our customers ensure that their machines are fully up to date by using Windows/Microsoft Update.

Anti Virus researchers monitoring Conflicker infected machines have noticed a new payload has been delivered.
The payload is highly encrypted which has prevented researchers from identifying it's true nature but experts believe it is most likely designed to steal banking / credit card information, act as an open SPAM relay and/or allow an attacker to remotely control and access the pc.
The BBC News article can be found here.
Conflicker is detected and removed by all reputable antivirus products, also fully patched and updated machines are immune from infection by Conflicker.
If you need further advice or would like to enquire about antivirus products please contact us.

A news article posted on the BBC News website here reports that at the moment more than 97% of all e-mails sent are unwanted, according to a Microsoft security report.

The e-mails are dominated by spam adverts for drugs, and general product pitches and often have malicious attachments.

All our e-mail hosting products are available with the industry leading Mailfoundry Anti Spam filter which is being continuously updated many times per day.

For more information, please contact us.

You can now follow us on Twitter. http://twitter.com/4itSystems
We will use Twitter to post regular news and secutity updates that will be of interest and use to our customers

We are continually warning our clients not to be fooled by fake security software AKA 'Scareware', that pervades the internet.
Typical behaviour is that upon visiting a less-than-reputable web site you will be warned that your machine is infected or otherwise compromised and prompted to download (and pay for) bogus (and totally useless) anti-malware software to 'fix' it.
This is a scam, plain and simple! It is using scare tactics to goad you into buying junk, don't fall for it!
The BBC news site has an interesting article on this subject here.

Microsoft have today release the final version of Internet Explorer 8.
32bit & 64bit versions are available for XP, Vista, Server 2003 & Server 2008.
Beta test versions of IE8 have been publically available for many months and have received favourable reviews. IE8 contains additional functionality and many improvements over its predecessor IE7.
You can download your copy from the Microsoft IE8 site here.

Our primary mail server will be down for maintenance between 08/03/09-09/03/09.
We will not be collecting e-mail as normal during this period and therefore request that any customers wishing to contact us do so by phone.

PLEASE NOTE
This maintenance does NOT affect any of our hosted customers mail servers.

Over 3 Years ago [scroll down to article - 18 Jul 2005] I posted a warning to all my customers about a scam letter from a company calling themselves "The Domain Registry of America". Well it seems that these guys are still around but are now calling themselves "The Domain Renewal Group". The basics of this scam is that this company send out a letter to all .com holders shortly before their domain is due for renewal. The letter however looks deceptively like an invoice for the domain renewal and unless carefully read is easily interpreted as such. (which is exactly what they are trying to achieve)
In face the letter is NOT an invioce but an invitation to transfer your domain to them as you new registration comany and start to pay your domain renewals to them.

My advice today is the same as before. If you receive one of these letters, bin it!

If you hold a .com domain with us, rest assured your domain is safe. It has also been locked to prevent accidental transfer, as would occur if you were to mistake this scam letter for an invioce and pay it.

Please note, this scam is only targeted at .com domains. If you have a .co.uk (or other) domain, you will be unaffected.

Settlement Discount Reward Scheme
Settlement Discount Trebled. Now up to 7.5%

Everyone needs a helping hand during difficult times, so we are pleased to announce an improvement to our settlement discount scheme introduced in October 2008. We are trebling the discount on offer to all account customers!
From 22nd Jan 2009, we will be introducing a tiered settlement discount reward scheme offering up to 7.5% discount on qualifying invoices to all of our account customers.
The discounts are as follows
Invoices settled within 10 days of issue : 7.5%
Invoices settled within 20 days of issue : 5.0%
Invoices settled by the due by date (30 days) : 2.5%

The terms of this scheme are the same as the previous one ie:
"settled" means we must be in receipt of cleared funds on or before the appropriate date. Your discount will then be calculated from the net value (rounded down to the nearest penny) and applied against a subsequent invoice.
In order to ensure we are in receipt of your cleared funds in time, consider the following payment guidelines:-

• BACS payments - allow 4 working days for receipt (unless your bank offers the new same day service).
• Cheque payments - we must be in receipt of your cheque no later than 5 working days prior to your appropriate date.
• Cash payments - we must be in receipt of your payment no later than 12 noon on the appropriate date.

Exclusions

The discount scheme does not apply to the following.

• Non account customers
• Invoices due upon receipt
• Any invoice with a previous non related discount already applied.
• Any invoice marked as ineligible.

A potentially damaging virus, the Downadup or Conficker worm, has now hit around 8 million unpatched windows PCs in what industry analysts say is one of the most serious infections they have ever seen.

The WORM exploits a security hole first identified in October last year and to which Microsoft quickly moved to release a patch to fix it. However the WORM is taking advantage of the many users who have failed to keep their machines up to date with Microsoft's patches. The CNN news areticle on this can be found here.

Outbreaks of this kind are ENTIRELY PREVENTABLE. All it requires is that users keep Windows up to date via regular updates from the Windows Update site, also to have an active and up to date quality antivirus solution such as Vipre.

If you would like any information about security, would like to purchase a copy of Vipre or have been affected by a virus outbreak please contact us at sales@4-it.co.uk.

The 4IT office will be closed for the Christmas holiday from 5:30pm on 23rd Dec, reopening again at 9:00am January 2nd 2009.

Emergency support will be available for some of the holiday period. If you require assistance please e-mail the usual address or call the office number and leave a message.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers a very merry Christmas and a happy & prosperous new year

A Russian company uses scare tactics to sell its fake anti-virus software to computer users. If you see popup messages warning that your computer is infected and urging you to buy the $49.95 program, beware. According to this Denver Post article, these scammers have made $5 million a year off concerned computer users.

Read the full news story here.

If your machine has been infected with this type of scareware, please call us to arrange a systems security & disinfection visit.

4IT Systems Ltd are please to announced a strategic partnership with Sunbelt Software, an award winning company and a leading provider of Windows security software, with product solutions in the areas of antispam and antivirus, antispyware, and vulnerability assessment.
Leading products include the CounterSpy product line, Sunbelt Exchange Archiver, Ninja Email Security and endpoint firewall technologies, and most recently the Vipre line of Anti Virus / Spyware products.

Their product range covers everyone from the single home user, with a groundbreaking multi machine home use license policy, to large corperate and governmental organisations.

All Sunbelt products can now be purchased directly thought 4IT Systems, for more details on available products please visit the Sunbelt website.

Additional product review guides are available to download using the following links (Adobe PDF Format)

• VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware
• CounterSpy V2
• iHateSpam V5

The security boffins at F-Secure have posted a video on YouTube detailing the alarming growth of internet malware and who is behind it.
It is fascinating stuff, very informative and somewhat worrying. It is a bit long (10m 08s), but I highly recommend everyone watches it.

F-Secure E:Volution Video

Settlement Discount Reward Scheme

From 1st October 2008, we will be introducing a settlement discount reward scheme offering a 2.5% discount to all of our account customers.
Any issued invoice settled before or on the due by date will qualify for a 2.5% discount (of the net invoice value inclusive of any discount) which will be applied against a future invoice.
"Settled" means we must be in receipt of cleared funds on or before the due by date specified on the invoice. Your discount will then be calculated as 2.5% of the net value (rounded down to the nearest penny) and applied against a subsequent invoice.
In order to ensure we are in receipt of your cleared funds in time, consider the following payment guidelines:-

BACS PAYMENTS.

BACS payments must be made no later than 4 working days before your due date. (Some banks are currently working on offering same day payments. You may wish to check with your bank to see if this facility is available to you)

CHEQUE PAYMENTS.

We must be in receipt of your cheque no later than 5 working days prior to your invoice due date.

CASH PAYMENTS.

We must be in receipt of your payment no later than 12 noon on the invoice due date.

Example
Invoice Details..

• Issue Date : Wed 1st Oct 2008
• Invoice Amount : £1000 (ex vat)
• Due Date : Fri 31st Oct 2008

Providing one of the following payments are made

• BACS Sent : by Monday 27th Oct
• Cheque Received : by Friday 24th Oct
• Cash Received : by Fri 31st Oct (by 12 noon)

You will qualify for £25 discount (ex vat) to be applied against your next invoice.

Exclusions

The discount scheme does not apply to the following.

• Non account customers, or invoices due upon receipt.
• Any invoice with a previous non related discount already applied.

Microsoft on Thursday released Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) to hardware manufacturers, with an eye toward achieving a full product launch on November 12.
The new server offering is part of the Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server 2008 product line. It's an integrated server offering that encompasses a number of Microsoft technologies, including Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007 and SharePoint Services 3.0. It also includes security and online apps.
SBS 2008 will be sold in two editions, Standard and Premium. The Premium Edition adds a second Windows Server 2008 to the mix, plus a copy of SQL Server 200

We will have more information about this new prodcut aftter we have evaluated it closer to the release date.

We have noticed a number of clients receiving unusually large amounts of spam even though they were using our Mailfoundry Spam filter.

This issue has been traced to a bug in the ensim control panel which reset the mailfoundry MX mail record for customers domains. This allowed spam mail to be delivered directly to the users mailbox, bypassing the filter.

As a proactive step, we have reviewed all of our customers hosted domains (and any aliased domains) to ensure the MX record forces mail through the filter as intended.

If you are one of the affected customers receiving large amounts of spam, the volume should significantly reduce within the next 24-48 hours.

The Olympics has become the latest ploy by cyber criminals peddling their scams.

The volume of junk e-mail messages with an Olympic theme spiked prior to the opening ceremony. The malicious messages try to trick people into visiting fake sites or opening booby-trapped e-mail attachments. Some messages falsely claim users have won an Olympic lottery and encourage them to respond to claim their prize.

As always we ask all users to be continually vigilant and never open suspicious attachments.

Amidst confirmed reports that malicious hackers are starting to use fake Flash Player downloads as lures for malware, Adobe has issued a notice for users to validate installers before downloading software updates.

1) Do not download Flash Player from a site other than adobe.com. This goes for any piece of software (Reader, Windows Media Player, QuickTime, etc.) - if you get a notice to update, it's not a bad idea to go directly to the site of the software vendor and download the update directly from the source. If the download is from an unfamiliar URL or an IP address, you should be suspicious.

2) All Adobe software for Windows is signed with a digital certificate that is validated by Windows when you install it. The Publisher will always be 'Adobe Systems, Incorporated', and you can verify this when you double-click the installer, or by right-clicking on the installer, selecting 'Properties', and going to the 'Digital Signatures' tab.

We are seeing a large number of Virus infected e-mails recently.

The subject of the e-mail varies but so far are we have seen :-
UPS Parcel Service - Invoice Attached
Customer Service - Your Parcel is at the customs office.
Continental Airlines - Online order for airplane ticket XXX
Spirit Airlines - Online order for airplane ticket XXX

The e-mail contains a zipped attachment claiming to contain some form of important document that the user is encouraged to open.
The zip attachment actually contains a virus.

If you have received one of these please delete it. Do NOT open the attachment.

In general you should not be opening any attachments that have been unexpectedly received unless you can verify the source.

This is a reminder warning to all our customers to be on the lookout for renewal notices from a company calling itself "Domain Registry of America".

If you receive one of these letters please ignore it and bin it.

I have written about these deceptive letters before in an earlier news article (scroll down to "18 Jul 2005 - 'Domain Registry of America' Scam Letter Warning."

If you have any worries or concerns about these please contact us.

Broadband modem/router maker Billion says XP SP3 has been causing its BiPAC 5200-series routers to go into a constant crash and reboot cycle.
Although Windows XP SP3 is the cause, isn't actually to blame.

The problem relate to a bug in Billion's code, not Microsoft's, specifically Billions buggy implementation of DHCP. A firmware is available that addresses this problem.

For more details check out the APC article here

Our office will be closed for 14 working days between 19th June & 10th July.
Support will be available, as previously, via e-mail, Skype VoIP, telephone and remote access (where available). The primary method of support contact, as before, should be e-mail. It is anticipated that all support e-mails will be responded to on the day of receipt, however due to time zone differences this will not be until at least 2pm BST.
Please do not leave telephone messages at the office number as these will not be picked up until the office reopens.

E-Mail Issues

If you are, however, having issues with e-mail, use your Squirrelmail web interface (4it hosting clients only) or a third party web based e-mail account such as Hotmail to report this.

Internet Issues

In the event of loss of internet service, please ensure that you familiarise yourself with your modem / router reset instructions. Make sure you have filed a copy of your ISP's username & password and are able to re-enter these into your router should that be required. Finally should the issue still persist please direct your support requests directly to your ISP's support teams via their helpdesk telephone number. (Plus Net customers use 08451 400 200).

If you need assistance with any of the above, please contact us at your earliest convenience.

Overall XP SP3 deployment seems to have gone well, however as with any major software upgrade, some issues have surfaced now that the update is publically available.

For more information please checkout the following articles:-

Windows XP SP3's Aches, Pains, and User Complaints (PC World)
Users Report More Trouble With Windows XP SP3 (PC World)
Windows XP Service Pack 3 still rocky, reboot loop (Slipperybrick)
Symantec blames Microsoft for XP SP3 registry corruption (Infoworld)

XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has now been made available to the general public for download via Windows Automatic Updates.
If you are running any legacy applications please test them first on SP3 before upgrading all of your machines.