BusinessWare

01/05/2022

Google Chrome is not your friend.
Many clients complaining about their new computers running Windows-10 Pro slowing down a LOT during normal operations.
Examining the processes lists, we find Google Chrome has spawned many copies of itself in RAM, consuming all available memory.
Quick fix is a reboot, that solves the problem in the short term, but it comes right back in an hour or so.
Converting to Edge or FireFox seems to work better.

Our experience is to stay as far away from Google products and services as you can. Their nefarious business practices are not good for anybody but the big guys at Google.

01/05/2022

Important. New year has started, and I cannot be sure of this, but it seems the "DO NOT CALL" registry has expired somewhere, at least for us. Hundreds of calls since the first of the month. I have no interest in renewing a non-existent car service contract, or in buying a Russian wife, or obtaining another cell phone.
I re-applied at https://www.donotcall.gov/
They will take up to a month to get our numbers in to their service, maybe it will work, maybe it won't. We'll see.
It does not cost anything to try.

09/26/2020

We've been asked for a VPN we could trust and recommend. Finally, this might be the suggestion:
https://vpn.mozilla.org/

Many others are out there, many have had their security compromised, so it is questionable if they are to be trusted.
Mozilla will protect conversations for $5/month for up to five computers. They do not log anything, and keep no records of where your browser has been.

Use the Mozilla VPN for full-device protection for all apps. With servers in 30+ countries, you can connect to anywhere, from anywhere.

01/15/2019

Hello Folks,

Part of what I do is security. I am naturally careful with what I look at on the Internet, and realize that part of what we do exposes us (FaceBook). Don’t publish content on social media that you do not want in court or for your mother to hear.

I realize that we have some control over what we do, and I work on letting my family of computer users know what they might do to improve their personal and business privacy and security.

Google is my biggest gripe – if you are concerned about security, you should not have any Google product on your PC, router, or tablet. If you have an Android phone, you have no choice in the matter, just know that you are exposed. Google sells information that they parse out of everything that touches them. By installing Chrome on your PC, you are giving them permission to snoop you.
Here is a website that discusses this: https://www.thecreepyline.com/programs/google-v2
There is a LOT of information on that site – take a look around, watch the video, read the material.

Please consider not using any Google sites, like their “Docs” or “Suite” products. All of that traffic is snooped, no matter what they say – even the Gmail stuff.

After Google, here is one that you might not consider – your TV. New Smart TVs have microphones that can listen to all you do, 24/7/365. These things do not take a day off. Do you have a TV in your bedroom?
Here is an article that exposes some of this facet: https://www.businessinsider.com/smart-tv-data-collection-advertising-2019-1
How do you think the ratings people know the number of sheep that watch all of that worthless trash on the network stream? The TV reports back the number of hours it is on, what channel you are watching, what cable/satellite provider you use, and what channel you watch. And, turning it off does not necessarily shut the microphone off.

After you consider your TV and browser – do you have an Amazon Echo of Dot? That technology is like the TV, but worse. Think about that – you actually purchased something that is designed to spy on you, and pay them subscription fee to watch you. Have you considered flushing it down the sewer yet? Remember to quit the subscription before you use it as target practice so you do not continue to pay for someone to spy on you and everyone in your home or business. Maybe give it to someone you do not like?

If you use a notebook, it probably has a “Web-Cam” and at least one microphone. Bad actors can activate these features remotely, without your knowledge.

There are age brackets that are more at risk than others. The elderly are the #1 target for scammers using phishing attacks. Millennials do not seem to care, I guess they figure their life is exposed and they have no hope. Some of us in the middle are fighting back. I do not like being a sheep, and will try to help all I can to avoid that fate.

Call to action:
So, unplug the TV when you are not using it. Unload all Google software from your PC or notebook, and take that convenient Google DNS number out of your router (use the DNS provided by your Internet Service Provider). Be informed, read the articles from the experts in the fields of security. NEVER open phishing or bogus e-mail traffic – just delete it. Call us and get a great anti-virus with DNS filtering installed. Make complete BACKUPS regularly, and store them off-site, not plugged into anything. If that is too much trouble, we can help you with an online backup if necessary. Our backup solution is very effective, and can even restore your system to different hardware in case of a disaster like a fire.

Don’t be a sheep.

You can't hide from Google. The Creepy Line is a documentary that exposes what Google knows about you and what you can do to prevent it.

12/11/2018

Good Morning, Pro Support Family,

There are a LOT of phishing e-mail messages flying around now, I've received almost 200 of them in the last week. Some of them are designed to get you to open a file or a link that will then encrypt all your files.

Always, the message is from a name that might have sent you a message in the past (or even someone you may not know), but the email address it is from is wrong. Common anti-virus programs and firewalls can't stop these infections.

DO NOT OPEN or save any of these messages. Delete the mail message immediately, and clean out your deleted messages file. All of these messages have a small MS Word file or MS Excel file (doc/docx/xls/xlsx) attached. They contain a macro that downloads a ransomware infection that will encrypt your computer or your entire network.

The only course of action if infected is to:
1) Pay the ransom and hope they send you the decrypt instructions (no guarantee this will work), or
2) Re-format all of the computers on your network and restore from a full backup (if you have one).

The bug seems to gets through firewalls and anti-virus programs by operating in the background from a macro, and assembling the actual infection in the computer that opened the file, then triggering after some period of time. If think you have opened one of these things, we need to get you backed up immediately, before the encryption happens.

The only inline defense against this is the Sophos XG Firewall Security Appliance with the Sophos Intercept-X anti-virus system. If you do not have these measures in place, backup is your only solution, if you take the bait.

Call us to hear about this solution. Educate your employees to not open any Word or Excel files that are attached to incoming e-mail messages.

If we already have an automated backup program in place for you, then we have this covered, all but the education part. Let's test your restore plan, to be sure we can recover from infection.

Call us for help getting an ongoing backup structure setup as your best insurance policy.

09/09/2018

You are your best defense dealing with cyber-security. Yes, we can install an excellent managed AV solution, but that will not stop everything. Educate yourself, stay aware of what phishing and spoofed messages look like. There are many articles out there to help you to spot these things. Best if you can see the traffic before you open it, and delete the questionable traffic. There is no message so important that you should pay for it with your entire system. Oh, and talk to us about managed backup, as your next layer of protection.

02/26/2018

Telephone Users: Coming soon to your phone!
We just learned that soon (we cannot nail down a date) the phone exchanges/companies will require all of us to dial the whole 10-digit telephone number to make a call, even if it is to the building next door, or to your home.
I guess we should have seen this coming, with all of the out-of-exchange cell phones that are floating around.
Just to let you know...more inconvenience coming to your more convenient world.

01/12/2018

Notice today that "FireFox Quantum" has released. I unloaded the old and installed the new on my test machine, it looks like the standard FireFox v57.0.4 - this browser has been getting faster, and we really appreciate teh ability to add the uBlock Origin ad-blocker.
We suggest our clients and friends use FireFox with Ad Blocking installed to avoid unnecessary Internet traffic and fight back infections.
Browse in good health, and call us when you have issues - we can help. 223-3333

12/07/2017

Question from a dear friend: How to cut back on your data usage when on a cell hot spot? I found this article, sounds like it makes sense:
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/manage-windows-10-data-usage/

11/17/2017

There are four pillars of business continuity that you must know about. These components, if installed and done right, will keep you running through all kinds of infections and failures.
Call us, we have clear plans for making sure your business data is safe, so you can stay in business. Our number is 223-3333, and we are always helpful and friendly.