So what does this have to do with IT?

Well as it the name suggests, this is the time when a huge surge in online purchases take place which also means that there will be an up-surge in malware, spyware, virues etc as criminal try their best to harvest credit card and banking details for their shopping spree. So here are some tips to help keep safe during the upcoming holiday period.

• Install updates – your computer may have been telling you for sometime to install update, DO IT NOW. Many of these updates contain security patches to stop hackers from getting inside your computer.
• Install a good anti-virus – you would be surprise how many computers still exist without anti-virus installed. For home users there are a number of free anti-virus products from AVG, avast, Avira which will give basic protection and help to keep you safe online. However, we would always suggest that you purchase a full product rather than the free one’s as they provide greater protection for your computer and it’s data.
• Always shop safe – when shopping online ensure that you go to a reputable website, one which you have heard of from a number of sources. Once you are asked to put in card details, ensure that you see the padlock on the toolbar which looks like this in Internet Explorer.
     
• Always check a sites privacy policy – if a site does not have a privacy policy then it should bee seen as a ‘red flag’ for buying as you will have no idea how they will use your data.
• If it sounds too good, it probably is – at some point you will come across a site with offers ‘too good to be true’ then chances are it probably is and should be avoided.

The golden rule really is to behave online as you would offline, if someone walks up to you in the street and asks for your bank details you wouldn’t give them out because you don’t know them so why do it online.

So what’s the difference? The core difference between the two products is that Microsoft Forefront Security is a centrally managed product which had updates and definitions distributed from a central source which is traditionally the office server. In contrast Microsoft Security Essentials is ideally suited to Small businesses that may not have a server in place, for example when they are using cloud services, or that do not require central management. Either way it is a compelling and interesting move by Microsoft in to a market space which they currently do not have a significant market share in.

Either way this is great news for Small Businesses everywhere!

Firstly to be with you should ensure that you have these instructions written down as you will be require to restart your computer into safe mode at which time you will not have internet access from that computer to see these instructions.

Before we begin you will need to download “SDFix” from AndyManchesta.com.  Once you have downloaded “SDFix.exe” then double click the application and in the destination folder leave as default then click on “Install”.  When the files have uncompressed you will need to reboot the computer into “Safe Mode”, if your computer is a network computer then ensure the you know the local administrator password before attempting to boot into “Safe Mode”.  In order to get into “Safe Mode” as the computer first begins to power on press the “F8″ key repeatedly until you get the following menu screen:

From this screen press the up arrow until you reach the “Safe mode” option and then press enter.  Once you are in Windows XP then navigate to the folder “C:\SDFix” and run the file “RunThis.cmd” by double clicking it.  You will then see a screen as below, press the Y key to continue.

Once you select “Y” you simply wait, this process may take up to 20 minutes so please be patient.  Once it has completed then you will be asked to reboot.  After the PC has rebooted the fix tool will run once again to ensure that all traces have been removed from the PC.  Once completed a summary report will be displayed to show the outcome of the scan.  At this point it would be advisable to ensure that you run a full virus scan using one of the online scanners as your installed anti-virus package could have been damaged.  Click here for a list of available online scanners.

Alternatively if you do not feel comfortable with any of the steps outlined above then please contact our support desk.

Subject: UPS Tracking Number XXXXXXXX

Unfortunately we were not able to deliver postal package you sent on July the 1st in time because the recipient’s address is not correct.

Please print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our office

Your UPS

Attached to the email is a file such as “UPS_INVOICE_XXXXX.zip” and within this file is an executable application of the same name.  Do not run that attachement as it contains a virus and it also install additional software called “XP AntiVirus 2008″ or “Vista AntiVirus 2008″.  Needless to say that neither of these applications are actually virus applications.  If you receive this email then please just delete this message as UPS would NEVER send an invoice in the form of an executable application.

If you have been unfortunate enough to have already run the application then please contact our support desk for information regarding how to remove this virus.  We will post up instructions on removing this virus shortly.