What’s New

Cyber Tech Cafe – We announced in April that we have partnered with Domain.com for all of our website and email hosting and that we would begin migrating all of our current website and email hosting customers to Domain.com in the coming months.  We are excited to announce that this has been going well and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  As you’re reading this, most of you have already been migrated and some are still on the schedule.  If your migration is not complete and you are not working with us already, please contact us right away.  If you missed the original announcement, it is still available on our website here.  If you have any questions about the transition or would like to discuss other options, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 770.386.8900.

Tech News – Of course, there are still lots of threats out there for those who do not keep their computer systems up to date.  Be sure to check out our facebook page for posts on the latest threats and malware that we have found as well as other items of interest.  The rest of this article is about the most recent updates from Microsoft, Adobe and Java.

We are still seeing some people with the FBI / DHS / etc. Money Pak virus.  Basically, your screen goes white and you get a logo for some imposing federal entity (FBI, DHS, etc.) warning you that you’re being monitored (if you have a webcam, it will often display the view of the webcam on the screen) and that you have to pay some sum of money or you will go to jail or some other punishment and the only method of paying is a Money Pak.  It has slowed quite a bit, but please keep your software updated and current.

Updates

Microsoft – There are a total of 7 updates from Microsoft this month with 6 of them listed as critical and the remaining one listed as important.  The critical vulnerabilities affect several Microsoft products on all versions of Windows and allows an attacker to install viruses, malware, etc. or completely take over the computer simply by getting the victim to view an infected web page.  Microsoft will release more details tomorrow, but for now, we know that the following products are included: Windows (all versions), Internet Explorer (all versions), Visual Studio (.net 3), Microsoft Office (2003, 2007, and 2010), and Silverlight.  There are also important updates for Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus program.

Microsoft releases regular updates the second Tuesday of each month, often referred to as ‘Patch Tuesday’.  These updates are categorized as Low, Moderate, Important or Critical.  Details on the categories is available here.  The updates can include any *supported* Microsoft product from Windows (Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows 8, Windows Server, etc.) to Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, OneNote, and even MS Office for Mac) to Internet Explorer to server products like Exchange, SQL Server and more.  If you have one of these products installed, especially if the update is listed as Important or Critical, it’s important that the update be installed. 

Additional details are available from Microsoft here.  

 

Adobe – Adobe has not yet released updates for July 2013, but you can be sure they will.  Current versions of the top Adobe products are: Reader (11.0.03) and Flash (11.7.700.224).  You can find other products listed at the link below.

Like Microsoft, Adobe now releases updates to their products on the second Tuesday of each month.  Adobe will also release ‘out of band’ updates if necessary to address critical vulnerabilities in their products.  Adobe products include Adobe Reader (for viewing PDF files), Adobe Flash Player (often used to watch videos like YouTube and in interactive web content like games) and Adobe Shockwave.  

Additional details and downloads are available from Adobe here. 

 

 

Java – Java is still a major player in the world of software attacks.  The current version of Java is version 7 update 25, which was released June 18.  Here is the official Oracle statement on version numbers.  And here are the current version releases for Java as posted by Oracle.   Although there are no *new* updates for Java yet this month, you still need to make sure that you have the latest version (or just remove it altogether). 

Java is a tool that’s widely used by Banks, online service providers and even security companies for VPN connections.  Java’s ‘official’ release cycle is approximately quarterly but Java updates have been ‘fast and furious’ for the past several months.  It’s worth noting again that, if you don’t absolutely need Java on your computer, it’s worth removing it altogether (this can be done from Add / Remove programs). 

Additional details and downloads are available from Oracle here.     
 

 

 

Monthly Update Clients
* If you are not currently taking advantage of our monthly update service and would like more information or to sign up, additional information is available here. 
 
For our Monthly Update clients, if a date and time hasn’t already been scheduled to install your updates, we will be contacting you shortly to schedule.   

If you aren’t already taking advantage of our monthly update service, there’s no time like the present to get started.  We offer a monthly update service to keep all of your computers up-to-date for a low monthly fixed price with no long-term commitment.  Additional information is available on our website.