• WSJ: Fake Anti-Virus is Back and Harder to Spot¹
• HelpNetSecuirty: Cutwail botnet’s various spam campaigns²
• TECHSPOT: HP laser printer hack raises concern, millions vulnerable³
• V3.co.uk: Facebook users under attack from Zeus malware again⁴
• ReadWriteWeb Cloud: Malware-as-a-Service Blooms⁵
• AppleInsider: Security Researcher finds code signing flaw that opens door for iOS malware⁶

All kidding aside, there are a lot of individuals out there looking to use your computer or network to steal your identity or attack a corporation or government entity or just give you a bad case of heartburn. We all-too-often advise clients to purchase a new system instead of cleaning an infected one because of the productivity they would lose in the time that it would take us to completely remove every trace of the malware.

Luckily, technology to protect your interests is also advancing by leaps and bounds.

There are several solutions on the market today, each with a different price point, features, configurability and level of protection. We suggest that everyone enables some type of protection enabled on their computer, and here are our top two picks.

Best Free Antivirus/Antimalware Program — Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft released a free tool in September of 2009 that provides real-time protection; system scanning; system cleaning; Windows Firewall integration; dynamic signature service; rootkit protection; protection against real threats, not good software; and a network inspection system.

This program works well with Windows Vista and Windows 7 (no support for other operating systems), is not a memory hog, and catches a good amount of threats. It works as well or better than all the other free options, plus it’s very easy to install on your system. If you have no budget, go with Microsoft Security Essentials.

Best Paid Antivirus/Antimalware Program — ESET NOD32

If you do have a budget*, we suggest using ESET’s flagship security product. Why? It WORKS!

*Our average virus cleanup is roughly double the cost of installing ESET.

What do I mean? In our experience of upgrading clients from another security program to ESET, the first system scan found enough bad stuff to make us feel sorry for the previous antivirus manufacturer. In addition to catching bad stuff when you run a manual scan, NOD32 is also proactive in fighting threats.

Plus, it’s so lightweight that you barely know it’s there, unlike other antivirus applications that significantly slow your system’s performance.

ESET NOD32 features:

• Antivirus (ThreatSense® technology) eliminates Windows, Mac and Linux viruses, worms, trojans, rootkits and other malware.
• Antispyware protects your online privacy and identity.
• Host-Based Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) blocks unauthorized changes to programs.
• Cloud-Enhanced Whitelisting (Cloud-Powered Reputation) enables faster, more accurate malware detection.
• Removable Media Control prevents malware infection from USB flash drives, CDs and DVDs; enables blocking by device ID.
• Antirootkit detects and removes malware that hides from the operating system.
• Internet Security Training teaches you tips and techniques to make your online experience even safer.
• Proactive Protection – ESET’s smart ThreatSense® technology offers multiple layers of protection with precise identification of even never-seen-before forms of malware.
• Built for Speed – ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 is lightning fast and operates smoothly in the background, so you won’t even notice it’s there.
• Easy on You – From its compact and intuitive user interface to its minimal use of alerts, you’ll be up and running in a snap without undue interruptions.
• Seamless Updates – Security updates are discreetly sent to your computer, ensuring your defenses are always at their strongest.

The business edition offers:

• Security compliance from server to endpoint.
• Single console management.

Our official suggestion

Whether you choose the options listed previously or another option, use some type of antivirus/antimalware program to protect your computer and your network. You can find Microsoft Security Essentials on the Microsoft website.

You can purchase ESET NOD32 through Interweave — contact Joni Miles Grounds or Ravi Kolli to learn more.

1 http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/12/01/fake-anti-virus-is-back-and-harder-to-spot/?mod=google_news_blog
2 http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=1923
3 http://www.techspot.com/news/46462-hp-laser-printer-hack-raises-concern-millions-vulnerable-updated.html
4 http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2128810/zeus-malware-takes-facebook-victims
5 http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2011/11/malware-as-a-service-blooms.php
6 http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/11/07/newly_found_code_signing_flaw_allows_for_ios_malware.html

As an Autho­rized Dealer for Star2Star Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Interweave delivers state-of-the-art communications at an affordable price. Star2Star pro­vides a business-grade phone solu­tion via a unique blended archi­tec­ture which inte­grates hosted VoIP and local PBX seamlessly.

The sys­tem has many fea­tures and ben­e­fits including a 99.6% cus­tomer reten­tion rate, which means that they have some really happy customers.

Speak­ing of fea­tures, the ben­e­fits of going to this solu­tion include:

• It can cut the phone bill of some customers in half.
• 99.9% uptime guarantee.
• The Blended Architecture of both PBX and VoIP systems.
• The ability to easily integrate/schedule alternate phones (cell, home, etc.) into the system.
• 24/7/365 call quality monitoring.

Below is a complete feature comparison chart between Star2Star, traditional phone service/third-party PBX, VoIP service/third-party PBX, and VoIP service/hosted PBX.

If you have any questions about Star2Star or how it can benefit your business, organization or agency, contact Joni Miles Grounds or Ravi Kolli to learn more.

Google announced Monday that they are opening up Google+ to businesses and organizations with Google+ Pages.

From The Official Google Blog: “So far Google+ has focused on connecting people with other people. But we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands—so today we’re rolling out Google+ Pages worldwide.”

So what’s this Google+ you speak of?

Google+ (a.k.a. Google Plus) is a Google project that aims to be the next big thing in social networking. It has been around for only a few months, but it is growing.

As usual, the engineers at Google have packaged some really neat functionality into Google+, so people are beginning to join.

Should I create a Google+ page for my business?

Maybe. It’s a great platform that is still young, but to cultivate the relationships that you’re looking for will take time.

If you are already on Google+, please stop by here and add us to one of your circles. We love to keep up with our friends.

(To read more about Google+ pages, check out Official Google Blog: Google+ Pages: connect with all the things you care about.)

If you would like to learn more about Google+, social media or ROI for websites, contact me (Kyle) via email or at 256.837.2300.

We can see how this approval is deserved. ESET is unobtrusive and easy to use, but we have found that it’s one of the best programs on the market today to keep your machines clean. It is also a great way to keep an entire network safe from threats.

MarketWatch quotes ESET CEO Andrew Lee as saying, “Receiving the PTPA Seal of Approval is a further testament of ESET’s commitment to providing consumers with a security solution that combines proactive software protection with an interactive education component. By integrating state-of-the-art internet security with effective and easy to use training, we are helping ESET customers become their own best-defense.”

Interweave Technologies is an official reseller of ESET. Contact Ravi Kolli or Joni Miles Grounds to discuss corporate and nonprofit discounts.

The cover up started early in his career at HealthSouth as a small thing (in comparison to what it became). Only a few thousand dollars were lost in a quarter, and he was asked to “fix it.” He made no excuses about his responsibility in the situation, but he was asked that first quarter and every quarter thereafter. Each quarter, the requests got stronger and stronger.

How Interweave handles missing client expecations

I contrasted his experience with mine at Interweave. Instead of being asked to cover up our errors, we are told to let each other and clients know about our mistakes (however small or large) as soon as possible. And then we work twice as hard at fixing problem.

From the owner of the company down, open, honest communication is valued at Interweave.

The content was good for what it was — potentially incendiary linkbait (any content or feature, within a website, designed specifically to gain attention or encourage others to link to the website) and basic business strategy for designers.

My takeaway from it was something completely different — website owners should be following the upside of their website as much as the downsides, the cost of design and the time it takes to keep it current.

Measure the upside

How do you measure the upside of your website? It depends. What is important to you and your organization? Is it revenue? Cost savings? Saving your employees time? Something else entirely?

Find out what that important thing is and figure out a way to measure it using online tools like Google Analytics or offline tools like spreadsheets or pencil and paper.

Examples of measuring the upside

Revenue. This is an easy one to track. If you know when you launched your website or redesigned website or functionality, just compare the per-day/week/month/year revenues of before and after.

For instance, we just realized that one of our clients has currently more than tripled annual revenue in one area of their business after the redesign of their website. Granted, those figures compare all of 2010 to January-September 2011, so that number might be even higher, especially with the holidays approaching. We are producing a case study on it that we will be publishing soon.

Cost savings. When you compare the cost to you of someone viewing your website to the cost of giving them a printed marketing piece, there is no real comparison. According to one of the more economical online printers Vistaprint, they will print 10,000 full-color brochures for $999.99, which is a great deal at $.10/brochure.

But that is still much higher than the cost of keeping your website online.

Time savings. It has often been said that websites are 24/7 marketing platforms for your business. Even your best employees need to take a nap every now and then. Plus, it’s really hard for employees to give information to several people at one time, but this is where websites excel.

We have one client whose site averages 18,000 visitors a month, which roughly works out to a new visitor every 2.5 minutes for 24 hours a day. Can you imagine the time spent and labor cost incurred if those visitors had instead decided to call this company on the phone? If the calls averaged the 2.5 minutes (and not the 5 minutes visitors average on the site), that would be three full-time people who only answer the phone for their entire shift.

How would you like to measure the upside?

We are always interested in new and better ways to measure the effectiveness of our clients’ websites. Please drop us a line through the contact form or send me an email at knewman@interweavetech.net to discuss measuring the upside on your website.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) are both ways of making your internet browsing safer. They are both used for things like website security certificates and email encryption.

Basically, the attack works by a malicious individual intercepting the encrypted data that you are sending to a website before it leaves your network by using sites you are browsing (that don’t have SSL/TLS) to edit the version of those sites to include a script that will prepare the attack for when you do visit the secure site.

Most users don’t have anything to worry about.  Unless a hacker has managed to infiltrate your local network or ISP and knows that you will be going to certain secure sites (10 minutes before you go there), this attack is useless.

Tips for staying secure

It does bring up a good conversation on secure web browsing. According to web and email host LuxSci, there are a few things that you can do to help stay secure:

• Closing your browser before going to any secure sites, and then go directly there via bookmark or typing the address into the address bar.
• Have bookmarks to secure sites saved on your desktop. If you don’t have a browser open, you can go directly there by double-clicking on the icon.
• Disable Javascript on your browser (tutorials for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari).
• Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) when accessing the web from network that you don’t trust. VPNs are essentially tunnels from your computer to a network that you do trust (like your work network).
• Use SSL/TLS whenever possible. It’s not from the secure sites that the hackers can initially gain access, but the non-secure.
• Use a separate browser for secure and non-secure browsing, such as Chrome for secure and Internet Explorer for insecure or Firefox for secure and Safari for insecure.
• Keep your software, web browsers, operating system, anti-virus, and other components up to date. (emphasis mine)

The last point is one of the best pieces of advice for internet safety. Malicious individuals research every day how to crack the security of your programs and systems. Software that they have had only days or weeks to crack tend to be safer than those that they have had months or years to infiltrate.

How are you keeping your computers up to date?

My favorite (CTRL-F) is supported by many programs, including web browsers, document editors and spreadsheet programs. CTRL-F opens up a search/find box in the program, allowing you to find occurrences of a word. This is especially helpful when working with long documents or (in my case) source code for websites.

Keyboard shortcuts save users so much time because they aren’t forced to move a hand away from the keyboard and on to the mouse, find where the mouse pointer is, move the mouse pointer, click on the necessary area, move their hand back to the keyboard, and then repeat. By not needing to use the mouse to move and hover and click on a button or another field, you will save so much time.

You can find many more at the Microsoft Support article for keyboard shortcuts, as well as searching Google for “keyboard shortcuts” + the name of your favorite program.

What is your favorite keyboard shortcut?

I don’t want to play FarmVille to connect to my clients.

That’s not a bad thing. I almost deleted my Facebook account because of FarmVille and Mafia Wars requests.

There are still plenty of ways to connect to your customer base through social media without planting and harvesting virtual rutabaga.

Ideas for Social Interaction

There are several things that you can do to give your organization a more social web presence, including:

• Pushing blog posts to facebook. Various content management systems are customizable to the point to be able to directly export your blog posts or news updates or new items added to your store to facebook as wall posts.
• Adding a button for social interaction. Facebook’s like button, Google’s +1 button and Twitter’s TweetThis button all allow visitors to your site to share your content with their friends and followers.
• Facebook Connect for comments. Facebook allows websites to invite site visitors to use their facebook profiles to add comments through any commenting mechanism on the website. With this, content is added to your site and your site is promoted on facebook by real people.

What other things have you seen that help businesses/agencies/organizations to engage in social media?

Source: http://articles.cnn.com/2011–08-26/tech/women.social.networks_1_social-media-social-networking-sites-pew-report?_s=PM:TECH