Jacobs and Company B.I.T.S.

It’s been all over the news. It’s been called the largest security threat on the Internet ever, and it’s called The Heartbleed Bug. The Heartbleed Bug is certainly a serious vulnerability affecting web sites and services across the Internet. This bug is found in a specific version of a software called OpenSSL that is used to secure communications over the Internet like email, web sites, and some VPNs. The affected version of OpenSSL exploits a flaw in a part of the secure communication called the heartbeat. When an attacker exploits this flaw, information stored in the memory of the server leaks or bleeds back to the attacker’s computer. Since the bug was made public, fixes have been being applied all over the web by users of this OpenSSL service. What makes this different from a lot of other security bugs is the fact that it was introduced into the software in 2011 and use of this exploit leaves no trace on the system that was attacked. This means nearly every user on the internet has likely used a service that relies on OpenSSL and there is no way of telling who has been compromised.

After the bug was made public, major IT companies around the world launched into testing their products to determine if they were affected. Companies like Microsoft who do not use OpenSSL directly informed their customers via blogs and social media that their products are unaffected. Cisco for example did have some products affected and posted lists within 48 hours of what products are affected and what products are not. Cisco also began to release information about how to mitigate the risk until they had a fix available. Most technology companies took this risk very seriously and responded very promptly to the potential threat in a way that only the internet could allow. Many SSL Certificate Authorities are affected by Heartbleed and have instructions on their websites about how to ensure that the SSL encryption keys you purchased are safe and secure.

Most online service providers that make use of SSL for securing their content have recommended that users change their passwords immediately and also again once the service provider has finished the process of patching their systems. For those of us who have purchased our own SSL certificates, most Certificate Authorities have all patched their systems. These Certificate Authorities recommend that you log in to their servers and go through a process called re-keying your certificates. Each one has its own set of instructions but in general the steps are the same.

After following the news around this bug development I recommend that you log on to your banks, email providers, and any other online site you use a password for and change your password. Yes, even your Facebook password! If you have a website or have any secure content of your own on the web you should contact the service providers you work with to see if they were affected and follow any instructions they have to ensure your data stays safe. If you are unsure, call us and we will be happy to help you determine if you or any of the services you use was affected by The Heartbleed Bug.

“Time is the fire in which we burn.” – Delmore Schwartz, Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day

This is one of my favorite quotes. To me it aptly describes that all things with the passage of time are used up and changed by the process into something new. This is especially true of technology. On April 8^th Microsoft Windows XP will be no longer supported and should be migrated from all systems that use it. Windows XP isn’t the only Microsoft software that will be losing support. Microsoft Office 2003 will also be reaching end of life along with Exchange Server 2003. It is the end of an age — an entire line of Microsoft products that businesses have come to trust and rely on that will soon pose a risk to day to day business operations.

Windows XP found its way onto new computers as recently as 3 years ago using downgrade rights. Depending on the system, there might not be a need to completely replace the hardware. If you get a few more years out of the hardware with some fairly inexpensive upgraders, I believe it is worth taking the time to evaluate the hardware’s ability to support a Windows 8.1 installation. At this point, if you can find a copy of Windows 7 Pro to install on your machine you are in luck, but Microsoft is not creating any new licenses for Windows 7 so whatever is out in the world is all that is available. Windows 8.1 is going to be your go-to operating system for upgrading these machines. If the existing machines cannot support running Windows 8.1 and you have decided to replace your computers, you have until about October when Microsoft plans to stop providing new Windows 7 licenses to computer manufacturers like Dell and HP. I still stand behind Windows 8.1 as the best option for migrating. Windows 8.1 has run every application I have tried to install, and I can access all of my data on my file servers. The only pain point is getting used to the new start screen. Rumor is though that the next release may make this a little easier with which to deal.

When it comes to Microsoft Office, you may wonder why it would be important to upgrade when it goes out of support. Well, Office just like Windows can become a target for hackers. Frequently, viruses are spread through Office documents infected with viruses that target specific security flaws in a particular version of Word or Excel for example. Once Office 2003 goes into End of Life it will be just as big a target as Windows XP. Exchange Server 2003 is the same story as with Windows and Office just different software. If you are hosting your own email server and still running Office 2003, then Office 365 is an option I would strongly recommend. You get the latest version of Office for all of your users and get to offload the cost and headache of maintaining your own email environment to Microsoft. You no longer have to worry about your Exchange server crashing or making sure your backup is working on all your mailboxes or how much backup space those mailboxes take up. It is all included in the Office 365 service. If you have compliance requirements for email retention and legal hold, Office 365 has a solution for that as well.

It is important to have a plan or be developing a plan for migrating from these old software applications, servers, and operating systems. Let us help you develop that plan and implement it across your business. I will be holding a free seminar in the second half of April where I will introduce Windows 8.1 and talk about migrating from Windows XP and some of the issues that might arise. These seminars are small round table events open to questions and discussion so everyone attending can get the most out of the session. There will be a card sent out in the mail in the next few days with all of the information, once the date has been settled upon.

In business, if productivity is king then mobility is certainly queen. If mobility has become so important then why can’t we do all of our work on all of our devices from anywhere at any time? Well we can, but there is a catch, there’s always a catch, something we have to sacrifice. For a long time, those of us who have been entrenched in the Microsoft world of Office applications have had to leave behind the familiar applications we were comfortable using and dive into an uncertain world of apps with varying degrees of support for Office features on devices like smart phones and tablets. Today, those murky waters have cleared a bit. Microsoft has released Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for the iPad. To date, these Microsoft developed apps are now available on Windows tablets like the Surface 2 in the form of Office RT, Windows phones, iPhones, Android based phones, and now the iPad…finally. This latest iPad release brings Microsoft one step closer to providing a way for its customers to do more, on more devices, in more places.

According to Microsoft, all the content in your Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents will show up correctly in the new iPad apps. Before the release of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad, other apps that claimed to be compatible with Office documents were prone to displaying some document content in a jumbled mess, especially when using advanced formatting like columns and text boxes in a Word document. Even Microsoft’s own native viewer built into the OneDrive app had trouble properly displaying some content. It is important to note that with this first release not every feature of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is available when creating or editing a document in the new iPad apps; however, Microsoft says the most common tools are available. The new apps are compatible with both the Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage service and OneDrive Pro. This integration allows for multiple people to edit a document at the same time, providing a way for people to collaborate in real time on a document.

The new Office iPad apps are available for download for free in the app store. The free apps by themselves will only allow you to view and present documents on the iPad. When linked with an Office 365 account the editing features are unlocked. Office for iPad works with most Office 365 subscriptions and will work with the new Office 365 Personal subscription when it becomes available later this spring. You may recall Office 365 allows you to install Office on up to 5 devices. Using these apps with your Office 365 account will count as one of those installation instances. When I began writing this article, Microsoft had only just announced the release of Office for iPad so I have not yet had a chance to work with the apps. I will be attempting to write next month’s entire newsletter with these new apps to try and put them through their paces. Keep an eye on our Facebook page fb/ JacobsCompanyBITS for updates on how I like working with the new apps.

This spring seems to be a season of changes, not the least of which is the end of life of Windows XP. LogMeIn Free, another tool that has undergone some recent changes, a tool that I have used for many years and recommended to my clients, is no more. The free version of LogMeIn allowed people to easily access their computer remotely from anywhere they had access to a web browser for free. The company LogMeIn ended the free product at the beginning of March and now has only paid subscriptions to their service. LogMeIn Pro is the name of their pay product that takes the place of the Free LogMeIn product. I love this product, and if you need to have simple remote access I would recommend it to anyone. The base Pro package runs $99/year and allows you to access up to 2 computers remotely. Not a bad deal if you are willing to pay the subscription and use it frequently.

There are other free options available for remote access to your PC. Doing some research over the last several weeks I have settled on using a product called TeamViewer. It is free for private use and can be used to not only connect remotely to your own computer but can also be used to remotely control someone else’s computer if you need to share their screen to help them with a project you are collaborating on or just provide some technical support. I started using TeamViewer about 2 weeks ago and have found the product to be easy to use and set up.

If you have been using LogMeIn and like the product, I encourage you to consider staying with them and paying the $99/year. You get some great features like remote printing, file sharing, and file transfer. If you are looking for a remote desktop solution you can check out their website here, http://www.logmein.com. If you are still looking for something free because you just don’t use a remote desktop solution enough to justify paying for it, I would certainly recommend you take a look at TeamViewer. TeamViewer has some great features like being able to host a meeting and share your screen with multiple viewers over the internet. If you really like TeamViewer and want to use it for business you can purchase a license which gives you even more features. To download TeamViewer visit their web site at http://www.teamviewer.com.

Recently, I have had a number of people ask me how they can recover their Windows password on their computer. They either have not logged into their computer for a long time, or recently changed the password and forgot it, or in some cases purchased a used computer that was password protected and didn’t get the password. No matter the reason, they are locked out.

I get this request quite frequently, so I have a favorite tool I like to use, the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. I have been using this application to crack open locked Windows machines since Windows 98. It works in every version of Windows I have tried it on. It works like this. You boot to a CD that gets created using a file you download from their site(http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/). There are a few selections you have to make when the computer boots up and these may be different from machine to machine. The entire process is done in a text mode that looks like DOS from the 80s. Don’t be afraid, it isn’t nearly as hard as it looks. When you finish, the tool basically blanks out the password for your computer so when you log in there is no password to enter. Here is a link to a short tutorial video that shows you the steps, http://youtu.be/Dkks4iuPqNQ. It takes longer to download the tool than it does to actually use it to clear your password. I should warn you that this type of tool should be used at your own risk. It may not work or it may damage your operating system and force you to reinstall everything on the machine. To date, I have never had this happen to me when using this tool.

If you want to avoid having to use a tool like this and you plan ahead, Microsoft provides a method in Windows 7 and 8 for creating a password reset disk on a USB flash drive. To create your Windows password, reset disk BEFORE you lock yourself out of your computer and go to the Control Panel then click on User Accounts. Once there, in the left hand column you will see a link “Create a password reset disk.” If you follow the instructions given to you by the wizard you will soon have a Windows password reset disk you can use to reset your password. Put the disk some place safe, and the next time you forget your password all you have to do is put in the disk and click the password reset link located just below the password field. Follow the onscreen instructions and you will be logged into your machine in no time.

Any good consultant working with small and medium sized businesses strives to become an integral part of the way that business operates. For IT consultants, it is a long road that usually begins with fixing problems and maintaining the status quo. Good IT consultants look for ways to add value by recommending solutions to improve processes and help reduce the time it takes employees to complete a task. Eventually, a great consultant can prove not only the value of their services but also the value of IT to the business. The process of building that relationship and trust is long and hard fought, but in the end provides a great benefit to both the business and the consultant.

The stages an IT consultant goes through in a relationship with its client is not unlike the path one might take to become the CIO or Chief Information Officer of a large company. So if a consultant is like a CIO why doesn’t every small and medium business have a CIO? Well, because it’s not cost effective for most smaller businesses to have one. The amount and complexity of work a CIO would do for most smaller businesses would not be sufficient to keep them busy full time.

A part time CIO or virtual CIO, as they might be called, could be just the solution. A virtual CIO takes a cue from virtual machines, which allows a single server to do the job of many servers. A virtual CIO is a person or a group of persons who divide their time performing the duties of a CIO for more than one business. Isn’t that just a consultant, you might ask? Yes, but a virtual CIO is also much more. A virtual CIO works closely with management on a regular basis to determine ways to improve productivity. A virtual CIO helps management develop strategic plans for using IT in the future to support business growth. A virtual CIO helps build a budget for maintaining and upgrading systems as they age and need to be replaced. This kind of strategic planning helps business manage cost and mitigate the potential loss of time and money that occurs when employees use outdated computers that are slow and are also more prone to failure as they age.

The average consultant or even IT administrator isn’t generally equipped to perform these duties. The average consultant is good at managing projects and finding solutions for problems already identified by a client’s management team. IT administrators tend to have their hands full managing the day to day operations of a network. The virtual CIO bridges the gap between consultants and management while still providing the technical skills and knowledge to plan the implementation of a solution, like an IT administrator. Jacobs & Company B.I.T.S. Managed Services is a first step in developing the kind of high visibility relationship needed to allow us to become your virtual CIO. Jacobs and Company B.I.T.S. has both the business acumen and IT skills to provide you, our clients, with virtual CIO services today to help your business continue to grow through the strategic use of IT in your business.

Like New Amsterdam and Constantinople, Microsoft’s cloud based storage service now has a new name. Much like these cities, Microsoft was forced to change the name after losing a battle. In June of last year, Microsoft was forced to settle a law suit regarding trademark infringement with British Sky Broadcasting Group plc. British Sky Broadcasting Group uses the word “Sky” to brand many of its products such as “Sky Store and Share.” As part of the settlement, Microsoft agreed to change the name of its consumer and Pro SkyDrive products. British Sky Broadcasting Group agreed to allow Microsoft to continue using the name during a transition period. As some of you who may use the product may have noticed, the transition period has come to an end.

SkyDrive is now being called OneDrive. It is the same service it was before, but now with a new name. Windows 7 users should already see the new name show up in their My Documents and Favorites groups in the left hand column of Windows Explorer. Users of devices like iPhones, iPads, and Android devices will also see the name change when they update the application. With the name change, Microsoft did release some new features and incentives to use the service. Android phones can now use the OneDrive app to automatically backup their pictures stored on their device to the cloud. Microsoft also claims to have made it easier to share and view videos stored on the OneDrive service.

In addition to the name change and the new features, Microsoft has added some incentives help keep existing users and add new ones. You still get 7GB of storage just for signing up for OneDrive; however, now you can earn more storage space bringing your total storage up to 15GB. One easy way to get an extra 3GB of storage is to turn the automatic camera backup on in the settings of your smart device like your iPhone or Android tablet. Additionally, Microsoft has taken a cue from Dropbox and is allowing you to earn extra storage by referring friends. For each referral, you receive an additional 500MB of storage for a total of 5GB.

SkyDrive Pro is also being renamed to OneDrive Pro. As we have discussed before, the pro version of the product is part of the Office 365 subscription and is based on Microsoft’s popular document management and collaboration platform SharePoint. More information about changes to the pro service will be released at the SharePoint 2014 Conference March 3-4, according to this blog post from Microsoft (http://blog.onedrive.com/onedrive-is-now-available-worldwide/).

If you are not using a cloud service to backup and sync all of your important data you should be. It makes sharing all your important pictures and documents easy and secure. It also gives you access to all your files anytime, from any device, anywhere in the world.

At the beginning of February I came across yet another scareware/ransomware virus of which you should be aware . Like other similar viruses, this virus downloads and installs an application on your computer from an infected website targeting browsers and java software that have not been updated. The application proceeds to turn off your real antivirus software and hold your computer ransom by pretending to be legitimate antivirus software. This particular fake antivirus calls itself Windows Paramount Protection and asks you to pay for an update in order to clean up an infection. DO NOT give them your credit card. If you see the screen below or one similar, the best course of action is to shut down your computer and call someone to remove the infection.

 

Another attack that popped up on my radar this month was one targeted at a U.S. veteran’s website – VFW.org. This attack exploited a flaw in Internet Explorer 10 and older with Adobe Flash installed to install a piece of software designed to steal files from a computer. What makes this virus interesting is that it disappears after the computer is rebooted. The stealth nature of this virus makes it hard to detect; however, upgrading your browser will prevent you from being infected.

If you are using an older browser because of specific requirements of say a web application that only supports Internet Explorer 9 or 10, I would recommend only visiting those sites with the older browser and installing another browser like Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari for your regular web browsing activities. These browsers are not immune to attacks either, so be sure you update them frequently as well.

The big news in Windows support is still the impending end of extended support for Windows XP which is April 8, 2014. What you might not have known is that mainstream support of Windows 7 will be ending in the near future as well. Mainstream support is a period of support during which Microsoft actively writes new code for an operating system, sometimes adding new features in addition to fixing bugs and patching security holes. When mainstream support ends for a version of Windows, so does the availability of the operating system on new computers. Due to customer demand, the previous mainstream support end date for Windows 7 has been moved from October 31, 2014 to January 13, 2015. Many of the major computer manufacturers have however already stopped building new retail and consumer systems with Windows 7 on them. Businesses and consumers can still purchase some models with Windows 7 installed from the computer manufacturer’s websites though they are being sold as downgrades. This means you only get a license key for Windows 8 so if you have to reload the computer or replace the hard drive you will be installing Windows 8 and not 7.

The concession by Microsoft to extend mainstream support might give some of you out there a little more breathing room for testing and planning for the move to Windows 8.1. Windows 7 still has some life left after the end of mainstream support date however. Existing computers with Windows 7 installed will enjoy extended support through January 14, 2020. On that day, Windows 7 will be in the same position Windows XP is now. It will become a liability. Just because Windows 7 will be supported through 2020 does not mean you shouldn’t have a plan for implementing Windows 8.1 in your environment. Like it or not, Windows 8.1 will find its way onto your network well before 2020.

If you don’t have a plan for supporting Windows 8.1 on your network you should be developing one now. You should also be planning to move from your Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 based servers. If the task seems too daunting or you just don’t have the time to devote to this kind of planning you need to bring someone like Jacobs and Company B.I.T.S. in to help you develop a migration plan not just for Windows 8.1 but to also to help prepare for whatever comes next. If you have not already read it, I recommend that you read my article “Every Business Needs a CIO” also printed in this volume of the newsletter to help you better understand how Jacobs and Company B.I.T.S. can help you maintain your IT systems and plan for the future.    

Most of us, myself included, have become very comfortable with the way we access files on our computers. We open a folder in Windows Explorer, choose a file, and it opens in the correct application. Most mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone don’t have an easy way to browse for files, much less connect to a server in your office to allow you access to your really important documents. Apps are our saving grace though. There are a number of apps that make it easy to browse that shared folder on your file server. One such app I have started using lately is called FileExplorer by Steven Zhang. There is an app for both iPhone and iPad and both a free and pay version of each. So far I have only used the free version of the app. It lets me browse and access shared folders and open documents that are saved on my file server using my iPhone which, let’s face it, is pretty much the extent of what you would want to do with a file on that tiny little screen.

FileExplorer supports opening a number of popular file types inside the app, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF to name a few. It allows you to access files on your office server over the local network and also allows you to connect to cloud services like DropBox and GoogleDocs. It is easy to connect to a new file location. You can put in the name of the server you want to connect to or let FileExplorer detect the computers on the network and select the one you want. You will need to provide your Windows username and password in order for FileExplorer to connect to your office server, but once you have done that you have access to all the files and folders you would from your desktop. Want to make this app even more productive? Set up your iPhone or iPad with a VPN connection back to the office and you can access your files while you are away!

FileExplorer does have one major shortcoming. It doesn’t allow you to edit any of the documents. You can open a document in another app for editing from the menu inside FileExplorer. The free version of the app does not allow you to upload files back to the server share. If you are looking only to be able to read and view files, then this is the perfect tool for you. For $2.99 you gain the ability to upload files back to the file server as well as the ability to connect to multiple server and cloud services.

Mobile devices really allow us to do more and in more places, but it can be hard to learn how to do things in a new way. As we make the transition to the cloud where these devices really shine, apps like FileExplorer help us to bridge the gap. I highly recommend you try an app like FileExplorer for accessing your network files. The tools are there, and although it may take some creative thinking, our mobile devices are the office of the future.