West Coast IT Solutions - Company Blog

13 Ways Your Restaurant May Be Using Technology to Woo You

2010-07-14T00:50:00.000-07:00

Is your favorite restaurant wired for your convenience? Check out the following ways your local establishment is keeping in contact with you.

1. Now more than ever, restaurants need to be aware of their web footprint when it comes to reviews and ratings on sites likezagat, gayot, dine, tripadvisor, yelp, urbanspoon and others. Most have their own iPhone app, too. When reading a testimonial, remember that many restaurants plan accordingly to boost their reviews.

2. With the Open Table app, you can find the nearest restaurants and openings wherever you are. Upscale restaurants are intricately connected to Open Table through their online registration system. This enables them to scan free tables and time slots and automatically populate it with reservations.

3. We bet your favorite watering hole knows more about you than your doctor. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations—they're keeping tabs and putting it all into the Open Table scheduling system.

4. Your restaurant wants you to tell your friends where you are with apps like Foursquare and Meetup. The apps allow users to “check in” at restaurants so friends can meet up with them. Think of it as real-time recommendations.

5. Imagine perusing a wine list on an iPad? Check out how this San Francisco restaurant is showing off its extensive collection on the iPad. Sound expensive? Some restaurants are constantly updating 100-page wine lists. The savings in paper per year would pay for a couple of iPads, one maitre d' said.

6. Most restaurants have their complete wine lists online. If you plan ahead, you can avoid having to quickly navigate a weighty wine list. You may even find a low-cost steal or rare vintage. Get reviews from Wine Spectator (members only), Wine Enthusiast, cellartracker or do a Google search for private wine bloggers to avoid making a pricey fumble.

7. If you haven’t reviewed the wine list ahead of time, try using an app that offers wine recommendations. Hello Vino suggests a wine for your meal. More waiters are using wine apps to help them offer the best recommendations.

8. Fast food chains may one day allow you to order on an iPad. Why not remove the middle man when ordering? This could work well at bars or pool halls, too, just as long as the iPad is bolted down and protected from hands covered in BBQ wing sauce.

9. Smart restaurant owners realize the importance of being on Facebook and Twitter. Next time you try a new place, see if you can find a Facebook page for it first. You’ll get a preview of daily specials and see just how popular it is. Plus, Facebook and Twitter can help foodies stay on top of "pop-up" restaurant spots and hot-ticket chef events

10. High end establishments may be posting pictures of the chef's most recent creations along with recipes. Sometimes, the quality of culinary photos may help determine the success of a restaurant. WD-50 is an example of one restaurant that gets the power of online presentation.

11. Chefs are beginning to share their best cooking tips on video. Check out your favorite restaurant’s site and you may find cooking videos like these from Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a top choice for sustainable, farm-fresh cuisine in New York.

12. WiFi is a given for most top tier restaurants. If that's not the case, check with the restaurant to see if you can hook up to their local wireless.

13. Planning a wedding or special event at your favorite restaurant? Some restaurants project past special events on flat screens and using electronic picture frames. Next time you visit, take a look. You'll get great ideas and see how good the staff is at executing special events. Why take chances?

How to fix your McAfee-crippled computer

2010-04-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

McAfee pushed out a malformed security patch early on Wednesday that wound up crippling computers running Windows XP, but there is a fix available. Users should note that it's labor-intensive and must be applied manually to each computer. If you're running Windows Vista or Windows 7, your computer shouldn't be affected by the bad update.

As of 3 p.m. PDT, McAfee had yet to link on its front door to a fix for a false positive update with disastrous consequences that went out Wednesday morning.(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)
If your computer is shutting down automatically, you must address that before you can fix anything else.
Step 1: Open a command prompt: Start menu, Run, then type cmd and hit Enter
Step 2: Type shutdown -a, which will prevent the shutdown from occurring
McAfee has revealed two fixes for the problem. Each one requires multiple steps, and can be confusing. If you're not comfortable with advanced computer fixes, you should get help with this.
For the first fix, go to the McAfee interface through the Start menu, and disable Access Protection and On-Access Scanner.
Step 1: Click Start, Programs, McAfee, and then VirusScan Console
Step 2: Right-click "Access Protection"
Step 3: Select "Disable"
If you have Internet access, download the EXTRA.ZIP file provided by McAfee and unzip the EXTRA.DAT within. (Note that Nai.com is a safe site maintained by McAfee, for those who were wondering.) Once EXTRA.DAT has been extracted:
Step 1: Click Start, Run, then type services.msc and click "OK"
Step 2: Right-click the McAfee McShield service and select "Stop"
Step 3: Copy EXTRA.DAT to "\Program Files\Common Files\McAfee\Engine"
Step 4: Then restart the McAfee McShield service by right-clicking on it and choosing "Start" from the context menu
Step 5: Re-enable access protection by going back to the VirusScan Console
Step 6: Right-click "Access Protection"
Step 7: Select "Enable"
Step 8: In the VirusScan Console, go to the Quarantine Manager Policy
Step 9: Click the Manager tab
Step 10: Right-click on each file in the Quarantine and choose "Restore"
There is, of course, one massive hang-up with this McAfee-recommended solution: More likely than not, you don't have Internet access on your McAfee-borked computer. In fact, it's highly unlikely that you have access to much of anything, since deleting SVCHOST.EXE prevents key Windows 32-bit sub-system processes from functioning at all. To get the EXTRA.DAT on your computer, you'll probably have to download it on an unaffected computer, then copy it to either a USB drive or a CD-ROM and use the command prompt to copy it over to your C: drive.
The second workaround requires that you apply the EXTRA.DAT fix as detailed above before beginning and that you have access to a second, unaffected Windows XP computer. On that computer, go to C:\WINDOWS\system32 and copy SVCHOST.EXE to a network location or a removable media device such as a USB stick. Then copy the SVCHOST.EXE from the unaffected computer to the affected computer, and restart the McAfee-afflicted computer. There are details on applying the EXTRA.DAT via ePolicy Orchestrator at McAfee's fix on Nai.com.
Severe problems caused by buggy or false positive security updates are rare, but not unheard of. Recent instances include an update from Avast that marked hundreds of legitimate files as threats in December 2009, Computer Associates flagging a Windows system file as a virus in July 2009, and AVG marking ZoneAlarm as malware in October 2008.

Anti-fraud tips and tools for tax season

2010-04-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

This screenshot shows a tax season phishing e-mail that looks like it comes from the IRS but which leads to a site with data-stealing malware.(Credit: Proofpoint)
As April 15 approaches, U.S. citizens preparing to file their taxes are susceptible to online scams designed to steal their personal information and, ultimately, their money. Here is a roundup of tips for how people can protect themselves.
First off, the Internal Revenue Service does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail, and the agency does not request details on personal information via e-mail. The IRS has detailed information on how to report and identify phishing and e-mail scams and bogus IRS Web sites here. More information about specific tax fraud schemes is here.
Microsoft's Security Tips & Talk blog recommends that people filing taxes online should learn to recognize the official IRS Web site. In addition, people should make sure that the Web address of the site they are filing on is secure and begins with "https," the secure version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and that there is a locked padlock icon at the bottom of the screen, the blog post says.
Tax-related phishing attacks have been going on for a few weeks, at least, according to Proofpoint. One particularly pernicious one arrives in e-mail in-boxes with a subject line of "Notice of Underreported Income" and asks recipients to review their tax information with a link to a site that is represented as an IRS site. Instead, according to this Proofpoint blog item, the link leads to a fake IRS page with an executable that installs the data-stealing Zeus Trojan.
Proofpoint's tips: Be suspicious of any e-mail requests for personal IDs, financial information, user names or passwords; don't fill out forms in an e-mail; don't click on links in e-mails that are unsolicited or suspicious; and type the legitimate URL for the organization in a new browser window or call the company directly.
SonicWall predicts that more than 100 million IRS-related phishing e-mails will be sent to tax payers in the days leading up to and after the April 15 tax-filing deadline. But not all tax-related e-mails will be scams, the company said.
"Myriad legitimate online filing services, online consultants who answer tax-related questions, and online tax calculators currently exist," SonicWall said in a statement.
"For example, if you file your taxes with an online tax preparation service, you are likely to get legitimate e-mail from them and the bank, which acts as the transfer agent for the transaction for the IRS," the company said. "Phishers use this opportunity to prey on taxpayers who are filing their tax refund--asking them for bank card information to deposit the refund and a Social Security number so they can verify a taxpayer's identity. Be wary of these types of inquiries."
SonicWall's tips include visiting the tax preparer's Web site or calling the company to check up on the status of the filing and being wary of offers that allow people to get loans on their income tax refund, many of which are scams.
Meanwhile, AVG Technologies has partnered with CyberTaxDay.com to offer AVG's free security software along with tax-filing tips for people preparing to file taxes electronically. The AVG software can be used to scan Web sites to make sure they are safe and to check for malware on the taxpayer's computer.

Koobface malware makes a comeback

2010-04-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

It's baa-aaack. Koobface, that is.

The persistent malware that plagues Facebook users has reared its ugly head yet again.
A new round of e-mails aimed at launching the worm onto the PCs of unsuspecting users has been discovered by researchers for the security vendor ESET, according to the company's Wednesday blog.
Uncovered by ESET researchers in Latin America, this latest Koobface campaign is sending Facebook users messages with a link that claims to direct them to videos of sexual encounters. The link included in the e-mails tells the user to download a video codec to view the X-rated content. But instead of delivering the goods, the link calls up a download that launches the Koobface malware, thus infecting its intended victim.
And like most malware, by infecting one computer, the worm then triggers the malicious message to all of the contacts of that PC's owner.
The creators of Koobface have even added a twist to thwart security experts trying to combat the worm. The dangerous download occurs only the first time someone clicks on the link. Subsequent efforts bring up a "Page not found" error. This type of attack makes it more difficult for researchers to analyze different versions of the malicious code, according to ESET.
Since its first appearance in 2008, Koobface has continued to pop up from time to time with new variants, typically aimed at infecting Facebook users. The worm uses a similar strategy by sending messages to your Facebook contacts trying to get them to click on a link to a video or other file. But instead, it launches the executable that infects their computers.
To protect yourself from Koobface, ESET offers the usual advice. Don't trust this new message or any like it sent to you via social networks like Facebook. And of course, make sure your antivirus software is always up-to-date.

Federal IT pros say U.S. at high risk for cyberattack

2010-04-09T07:04:00.000-07:00

Almost three-quarters of the government IT administrators polled in a new survey believe the U.S. is likely to face a cyberattack from a foreign country in the next year.
Key IT decision makers who work in national defense and security were questioned in a new Clarus Research Group survey commissioned by Lumension and released Tuesday. Among those polled for the "Federal Cyber Security Outlook for 2010 Survey," 74 percent expect a cyberattack from foreign shores in the next year.
(Credit: Lumension)
What types of threats and security risks do federal IT professionals fear the most? Among the respondents, 64 percent said they're worried about the growth and sophistication of cyberattacks, while 49 percent expressed concern over negligent or purposely malicious employees or insiders creating trouble.
These risks are also heightened by a lack of sufficient resources and coordination: 42 percent said they don't have the budget or staff to properly address security risks, 25 percent noted a lack of integration between security and overall IT operations, and 22 percent said there's no coordination between security and their IT operations.
The holes in IT security within the government have already left the door open for attacks. Over the past year, 59 percent of those polled said their agency or department was hit by viruses or malware, 53 percent said that internal notebooks, desktops, and other devices have been stolen, and 50 percent reported the loss of sensitive information due to a negligent employee.
The White House, under both President Bush and President Obama, has struggled to try to clean up the nation's weaknesses in cybersecurity. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security established the National Cyber Security Initiative as an attempt to coordinate national security with the private sector and within the government itself. This past December, the White House appointed a new cybersecurity chief.
Despite these and other efforts by the government, more than half of the IT pros questioned by Clarus Research expect only minor changes as a result. Of those polled, 41 percent said they've spent less than 10 percent of their time in the past year working on the National Cyber Security Initiative.
Overall, only 6 percent of those surveyed rated the government's ability to stop or deal with cyberattacks on critical U.S. operations as "excellent," while 42 percent rated it as "only fair" or "poor." Most did express more confidence in their level of IT security today versus a year ago, but mainly due to improvements in technology, better collaboration between IT security and operations, and internal audit requirements.
(Credit: Lumension)
"Unfortunately, when it comes to our infrastructure, we are already under attack and are faced with the reality of a growing and advanced persistent threat from foreign entities that are targeting our critical U.S. infrastructure," Lumension CEO Pat Clawson said in a statement. "The traditional government responses we've seen so far, such as naming a security coordinator, announcing a cyber security initiative, and focusing on compliance initiatives will not alone successfully address this problem."
What does the future hold? Those polled expect that the next few years will see growing threats to U.S critical infrastructure from foreign countries and terrorist groups. In response, Clawson, who has a background in security, offered a few suggestions in a recent blog posting and laid out some specific steps:
We must do three things if we are to truly empower and implement a robust national cybersecurity plan. One--we need to have an empowered cyber security czar, with budget and policy authority, reporting directly to the president.
Next--given that 90 percent of our critical infrastructure is owned or managed by private entities, we need a collaborative government and private sector partnership to better understand the risks at hand and to better define IT security standards, practices, and contingency plans in the event of a major attack.
And finally--we need to shift from an absolute focus on being compliant with ad-hoc audits for verification, to one of being secure and continuously monitoring our IT environment to ensure that the proper controls are always in effect.
Almost three-quarters of the government IT administrators polled in a new survey believe the U.S. is likely to face a cyberattack from a foreign country in the next year.
Key IT decision makers who work in national defense and security were questioned in a new Clarus Research Group survey commissioned by Lumension and released Tuesday. Among those polled for the "Federal Cyber Security Outlook for 2010 Survey," 74 percent expect a cyberattack from foreign shores in the next year.
(Credit: Lumension)
What types of threats and security risks do federal IT professionals fear the most? Among the respondents, 64 percent said they're worried about the growth and sophistication of cyberattacks, while 49 percent expressed concern over negligent or purposely malicious employees or insiders creating trouble.
These risks are also heightened by a lack of sufficient resources and coordination: 42 percent said they don't have the budget or staff to properly address security risks, 25 percent noted a lack of integration between security and overall IT operations, and 22 percent said there's no coordination between security and their IT operations.
The holes in IT security within the government have already left the door open for attacks. Over the past year, 59 percent of those polled said their agency or department was hit by viruses or malware, 53 percent said that internal notebooks, desktops, and other devices have been stolen, and 50 percent reported the loss of sensitive information due to a negligent employee.
The White House, under both President Bush and President Obama, has struggled to try to clean up the nation's weaknesses in cybersecurity. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security established the National Cyber Security Initiative as an attempt to coordinate national security with the private sector and within the government itself. This past December, the White House appointed a new cybersecurity chief.
Despite these and other efforts by the government, more than half of the IT pros questioned by Clarus Research expect only minor changes as a result. Of those polled, 41 percent said they've spent less than 10 percent of their time in the past year working on the National Cyber Security Initiative.
Overall, only 6 percent of those surveyed rated the government's ability to stop or deal with cyberattacks on critical U.S. operations as "excellent," while 42 percent rated it as "only fair" or "poor." Most did express more confidence in their level of IT security today versus a year ago, but mainly due to improvements in technology, better collaboration between IT security and operations, and internal audit requirements.
(Credit: Lumension)
"Unfortunately, when it comes to our infrastructure, we are already under attack and are faced with the reality of a growing and advanced persistent threat from foreign entities that are targeting our critical U.S. infrastructure," Lumension CEO Pat Clawson said in a statement. "The traditional government responses we've seen so far, such as naming a security coordinator, announcing a cyber security initiative, and focusing on compliance initiatives will not alone successfully address this problem."
What does the future hold? Those polled expect that the next few years will see growing threats to U.S critical infrastructure from foreign countries and terrorist groups. In response, Clawson, who has a background in security, offered a few suggestions in a recent blog posting and laid out some specific steps:
We must do three things if we are to truly empower and implement a robust national cybersecurity plan. One--we need to have an empowered cyber security czar, with budget and policy authority, reporting directly to the president.
Next--given that 90 percent of our critical infrastructure is owned or managed by private entities, we need a collaborative government and private sector partnership to better understand the risks at hand and to better define IT security standards, practices, and contingency plans in the event of a major attack.
And finally--we need to shift from an absolute focus on being compliant with ad-hoc audits for verification, to one of being secure and continuously monitoring our IT environment to ensure that the proper controls are always in effect.

Fake "fan pages" claiming to offer Whole Foods gift cards actually lead to a form that steals personal information, the grocery chain is warning consu

2010-04-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

Upscale grocery conglomerate Whole Foods Market said Friday that it is continuing to clamp down on a series of Facebook-based scams that entice users with a purported $500 gift card from the Austin, Texas-based supermarket chain.
The scam has been spreading virally through Facebook via "fan pages" with names like "Whole Foods Market Free $500 Gift Card Limited - first 12,000 fans only" and "Whole Foods FREE $500 Gift Card! Only Available for 36 hours!" The fan page asks Facebook users to add it as a fan, thus pushing awareness of the page through those users' Facebook networks, and then asks them to fill out a credit assessment and other forms that request personal information. The scam then uses a form of malware to crash users' computers and the information they have entered is left vulnerable.
The scams first emerged on Thursday, Whole Foods spokeswoman Libba Letton said, and though they have been working with Facebook to pull them down, new scams "keep popping up" as they're removed. "Throughout yesterday and this morning, we've been alerting them each time we see new ones, and we take them down," Letton told CNET. She said that if Whole Foods runs contests and gift card giveaways, they will only be orchestrated from the company's own Web site.
Whole Foods has also been using its Twitter account to reply to people who have tweeted about the scam or expressed concerns with it, providing answers like, "It's a scam, unaffiliated and unauthorized by us! Please help us report these pages so Facebook can shut them down." A warning announcement on its Facebook fan page is planned as well.
It's not yet clear who is operating the scams or whether any user information has been compromised.
"Groups and pages that attempt to trick people into taking a certain action or spamming their friends with invites violate our policies, and we have a large team of professional investigators who quickly remove these when we detect them or they're reported to us by our users," a Facebook representative told CNET. "We're working on ways to automate the flagging of these scam groups and pages so we can take action on them even more quickly."
The company recommends that users follow the Facebook Security fan page and report suspected scams when they see them.

Security Job

2010-03-31T09:33:00.001-07:00

Installing Video Surveillance @ a residential home today. Hurry up and get your house protected! Lowest prices in town GUARRANTEED

Microsoft defends IE8 following hacking contest

2010-03-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

Though Internet Explorer 8 was only one of several products hacked in a recent contest, Microsoft is standing up for its browser.
Microsoft's official Windows Security blog on Friday discussed the specific features that were hacked to win the contest, explaining that IE's security techniques aren't designed to thwart every attack forever, but more to slow down the bad buys and make it harder for them to exploit vulnerabilities.
Last Wednesday's annual Pwn2Own hacking contest at the CanSecWest security show in Vancouver, B.C., pitted security experts and researchers against each other to see who was the top hacker. The contestants managed to hack not just IE8 on Windows 7 but also a non-jailbroken iPhone, Safari running on Snow Leopard, and Firefox on Windows 7.
Peter Vreugdenhil, an independent security researcher who won $10,000 for bypassing the security in IE8, said he exploited IE8 by sneaking past two of its key defenses--ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) and DEP (Data Execution Prevention).
The Microsoft blog posted for Pete LePage, a product manager from the Internet Explorer team, mentioned the security researchers and addressed ASLR and DEP. ASLR is designed to stop hackers from getting memory addresses they can use to compromise code. DEP tries to prevent malicious code from running in memory where executable files are not supposed to run.
In describing the way these security defenses work, the blog compared a computer to a fire-proof safe. Without these defenses in place, "a fire-proof safe may only protect its contents for an hour or two. A stronger fire-proof safe with several 'defense in depth' features still won't guarantee the valuables forever, but adds significant time and protection to how long the contents will last." The blog said that both ASLR and DEP continued to be "highly effective protection mechanisms."
In hacking IE8, Vreugdenhil explained that the computer running the browser was compromised by visiting a Web site that launched the malicious code. He was then able to steal user rights on the PC, giving him the capability to run applications, such as the Windows calculator. The security researcher who hacked into Firefox said he also bypassed ASLR and DEP to gain control of the computer.

Cisco warns of 'highly critical' SIP flaw

2010-03-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

Cisco Systems has issued a range of security advisories giving details of 11 vulnerabilities in IOS, the operating system on which many of its products run.
One of the vulnerabilities, described as "highly critical," could lead to a hacker compromising the affected system or launching a denial-of-service attack against it. The advisories, issued Wednesday, are part of Cisco's twice-yearly schedule of security updates for IOS.
The highly critical vulnerability affects IOS version 12 devices running SIP, a protocol used by many businesses to set up and tear down voice and video calls. IOS version 12 is widely deployed.

2010-03-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

Washingon's new U.S. Cyber Command is prepped and ready but is still waiting for Senate approval of its new commander before it can open for business.

The new command would unify and administer the U.S. Department of Defense's vast computer networks to better defend against cyberattacks. In June, Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the creation of Cyber Command as a unified, sub-division of U.S. Strategic Command to operate the Defense Department's information resources of 15,000 computer networks across 4,000 military bases in 88 countries.
Cyber Command is seen within the Defense Department as a vital reorganization needed to integrate its vast network of computing resources, which are currently operated separately. Appearing last week before the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on strategic forces, Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, stressed the need to move away from the current segregation of resources.
"This segregation detracts from natural synergies and ignores our experience in organizing to operate in the air, land, sea, and space domains," said. "The establishment of U.S. CyberCom will remedy this problem in the cyber domain."
Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, currently the director of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Md., has been nominated to run U.S. CyberCom. If confirmed, Alexander would be charged with commanding both the NSA and CyberCom and be promoted to a full general.
Since CyberCom is an internal reorganization, the Defense Department does not need approval from Congress to establish it. The defense secretary has the authority to do this on his own. However, the Defense Department has taken the effort to brief the appropriate congressional committees on its plans for CyberCom, according to a representative from the House Armed Services Committee.
But the nomination of Alexander to be promoted to a 4-star general and assigned the role of commander does need Senate confirmation, a process that's ongoing.
Further, most concerns over the initial operating capability of CyberCom have been addressed, according to the spokesperson. But questions remain about its future role and makeup. How will someone balance the dual roles of CyberCom commander and NSA director? And though the House Armed Services Committee may feel Alexander is up to the task of juggling both jobs, will the Defense Department have a source of future 4-star generals qualified to take on this challenge?
The Senate Armed Services Committee has posed a variety of questions to the Defense Department concerning its plans for CyberCom, according to a statement from Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh, a spokesman for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. In particular, the committee has asked about its pending relationship with the NSA and has requested answers to all its questions before it can consider Alexander's nomination.
In response, Defense Department officials have met with staff from the committee, said Butterbaugh, and remains committed to answering any future questions. On its end, the Defense Department is hoping for a quick confirmation.
"The DOD looks forward to establishing this critical command as soon as the Senate confirms Lt. Gen. Alexander as its first commander," said Butterbaugh. "Improving the protection of military information networks in the 21st century is an urgent priority for the DOD."

2010-03-22T10:53:00.001-07:00

A number of BitDefender users, whose 64-bit Windows systems stopped working or were unable to be rebooted after security program updates, vented their frustration by flooding the antivirus vendor's forum pages over the weekend.
According to an IDG report, users on forum boards started signaling the problem on Saturday evening. The complainants said several Windows files, as well as the security vendor's own program files, were identified as "Trojan.FakeAlert.5" malware after they performed an update for their BitDefender antivirus programs.
In an e-mail update Monday to ZDNet Asia, Vitor Souza, BitDefender's global communications director, explained that "multiple" BitDefender and Windows files which comprise .exe, .dll and other binary files, were incorrectly detected as malware and "moved to quarantine."

Trouble with Themes in Windows 7

2009-12-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

"I was playing with Windows 7 today, and built a lot of themes. I can't figure out how to get rid of them now, can you help?" I had a customer come to me today with that exact question. So I found this article that might be able to assist someone in need. Please follow the link, http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/280-theme-change-save.html

Recapping the last few weeks.

2009-06-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

Things over here have been hectic for the last week or so, and unfortunately the blog got the short end of the stick. With a little more free time, I can now provide it the attention it deserves. For now.

For starters, it's been a BIG couple of weeks in technology, both on the consumer level, and on the business level. Let's start with the consumers.

E3 just wrapped up, and Microsoft seems to have taken the collective award this year. Between their NATAL project, the announcement of another Halo game and Metal Gear for the 360, they've definitely piqued the interest of myself, and numerous others. Also on the Microsoft level, they're now giving away $10,000 to a user of IE8, if they stumble across the 'buried page'. Apparently, you can only find this page if you're an IE8 user, and if you do find it first, Microsoft is going to dish out $10,000. I'm pretty sure that other browsers have not ever had to do this to attract users, but Microsoft is great at throwing money at everything. Also, Bing has launched, Microsoft's new search engine. While it has not taken the throne from Google in any sense of the word, it has managed to pass Yahoo already, and seems to have regular, small growth in its user base every week. Finally, Windows 7 has been slated for an October 22nd release date here in the US.

and

Next up is Apple. Their WWDC is over, and wrapped up. Of course, the pinnacle announcement is the iPhone 3G S, with its 16GB and 32GB variations. Sidelining that beautifully, in Apple fashion, is the new OS 3.0 update, toting such critical features as copy'n'paste, horizontal texting, MMS, and tethering. As far as the last two go, AT&T has been trecherously slow in implementing the features across the network, but as always, the user community has found their ways around that. Their new operating system, named 'Snow Leopard', is also making waves as well in comparison to Windows 7.

((Post to be continued....))

Conficker.... Still at IT!

2009-05-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

Conficker. Conficker, all day long with this. Apparently, it's not. This ittle bugger is still infecting machines daily, at a rate of about 50,000 or so in a 24 hour block, according to Guy Bunker, a computer security expert at Symantec. Bunker posted a heatmap which has tracked the virus spread since February. It's here. The United States, followed by Brazil and India are the most infected, according to Bunker. Mexico, Italy, and China also logged at least 89,000 infected PCs.

This little bug is a malicious piece of software that was expected to wreak havoc on April 1st of ths year. However, it did not take off quite the way as anticipated, but it has picked up its pace over the last month and a half. Initally, government, corporations, and educational system users were the once most affected.

If you think you might be infected with Conficker, or any other piece of malware, don't hesitate to contact us immediately at (209)233-9046 or send us an email at contact@westcoastitsolutions.net . One of our technicians will gladly help you get your machine running the way its supposed to be!

Home User Price List

2009-05-18T02:24:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that we've updated our price list for our home & home office clients. It now has up-to-date descriptions of all the services we offer, plus a very informative price list. Stop by and check it, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

http://www.westcoastitsolutions.net

A quick poll!

2009-05-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

Facebook Phishing Scam

2009-05-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, hackers used a phishing technique to attempt to steal passwords and compromise accounts on Facebook. A phishing technique, basically, is where the hacker obtains access to 1 account, and sends emails to friends, asking them to click on malicious webpages. Since both MySpace and Facebook require that users register their account, people who are signed up tend to be less suspicious overall of the messages they recieve, because of this signup process.

Facebook spokesperson Barry Schnitt said they were in the process of cleaning up after the attack, and he would not specify how many accounts had been compromised, but he did say that compromised accounts were being blocked.

Phishing scams represent another tool out of the hackers' arsenal. Last year a virus was spread around, called Koobface (in reference to Facebook) which made its way onto users' PC's by way of an email that appeared as though it was sent by a friend on Facebook.

If you think your account might have been compromised, or if you think you might be infected with some kind of virus or malware, do not hesitate to contact us immediately. The experienced technicians here at West Coast IT Solutions will diagnose and repair your computer, at a price that won't break the bank. Stop by our website, at http://www.westcoastitsolutions.net , give us a call at (209) 233-9046 , or send us an email to contact@westcoastitsolutions.net . Of course, you can also find us MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Today, An Excerpt

2009-05-07T01:15:00.000-07:00

As I surf the tech websites for news that's pertinent to us here at West Coast, and to you, the reader, I come across a blurb that reinforces an idea that I've had for a long time: "You cannot rely on one source of protection. The best protection is information."

Read this. I found this on Slashdot.

An anonymous reader notes that this weekend, ReadWriteWeb discovered a security hole on several McAfee sites, which lets any attacker piggyback on the company's reputation and brand in order to distribute malware, Trojans, or anything else. The submitter adds an ironic coda to McAfee's epic fail: "In the 'how to HTML Injection' section, the author provided the four steps needed to execute a simple, no-brainer injection, but unfortunately, exposed a hole in NY Times website when they republished the article. While the author changed the offending text to an image, the Times is still using the original story which redirects directly to ReadWriteWeb [via XSS]." From the RWW post: "During tests this weekend, we discovered the company who claims to 'keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud...' has several cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and provides the bad guys with a brilliant — albeit ironic — launching pad from which to unleash their attacks."

I think this says enough, but just in case, let me get to the point of this. No system is perfect. It would not be a system if it were. In that, flaws are inherent, and constantly being found, and fixed. Keep your anti-virus up-to-date. Keep your Windows patches up-to-date, and if you run OSX, make sure you keep up with the system updates. They're released for a reason, and each of these operating systems has features that will issue these updates automatically. For some businesses, this is not the best policy, and should be determined by your System Admin. For you home users, however, in most cases it is in your best interest to allow patches to be applied automatically. The quicker the patch is applied, the better.

If you're not sure that your system is up-to-date, or if you'd just like to have someone make sure, stop by our website @ www.westcoastitsolutions.net . You can also drop us a line at contact@westcoastitsolutions.net , or you can reach us through any of the social sites listed at the top-right corner of this blog. Stay safe, world.

Infected?

2009-05-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

Off the top, there's a very strong possibility that you are, in fact, infected by some kind of virus/spyware/malware. This is especially true if you're running a Windows machine. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking Windows, I use it. It's just true. In most cases the infections come out faster than the cures, not unlike most things in our world, hmm? While I don't have the slightest clue what to do about the swine flu, I do have a few great ideas on how to help you figure out if your PC is infected, and if so, what can you do to clean it up.

First off, do you get popups? Of any kind? Since most browsers have built-in pop-up blockers, if you're getting popups... you're probably infected. Secondly, if the machine is sluggish. What I mean is that if you haven't installed anything new, you haven't changed the way you use your PC, and yet it is still running slower, and sometimes making you click a program 2 or 3 times before it will actually run. If this is happening, you're probably infected.

Other more obvious signs that you're infected :
1. Some programs just stop working, specifically security-related software.
2. Your antivirus stops updating itself.
3. Windows Security Center gets turned off.

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Before I continue, I want everyone to understand that if you are seriously infected, or if you do not feel comfortable being responsible for whether your computer continues to run or not, stop right this minute, and go to our website, www.westcoastitsolutions.net . We'll get you in touch with a certified professional, who will help you remove these infections.
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Okay, if you're still reading this, you've decided to take matters (wisely or not) into your own hands. I admire your spunk.

So, first off, you need to figure out how badly you're infected. I recommend downloading a program called SuperAntiSpyware, and installing it, and scanning with it. Clean out any infections this program finds. It most likely will want to restart at the end of the scan as well, this is acceptable, as some files need to be deleted before Windows takes control.

Now secondly, never just scan once. Scan it again, and see if any scragglers are left. Also, watch the 'severity' rating of the infection. If you see a lot of 'high' severity infections, you may have to go into Safe Mode and perform a scan. I'm not going to tell you how to get into Safe Mode; if you're reading this particular part of this post, you should already know. If after you scan it comes up clean, then make sure your antivirus software is up to date, and scan with it as well.

Please understand that there is not one software that is a fix-all, cure-all. I recommend starting with SuperAntiSpyware based only on my own experience and preferences. Use what is best for your situation, and PLEASE, when in doubt, contact a professional. Your data is important, no? I thought so, and wouldn't you feel terrible if you had to blame yourself for it being gone? I thought so. Drop by our website, www.westcoastitsolutions.net, and visit the contact us page. Get ahold of us, we'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Cloud Computing

2009-04-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

Now, wait... computers in the clouds? Something to that effect? No, nothing like that. Actually, cloud computing is another coming wave of technology that consumers and businesses alike are being submersed in, either by choice, or nearly by force. A quick rhetorical before I continue:

How many of you have multiple services through one online provider(i.e. - Google)? I know I do. I use the search, I have GMail, I've used the Docs, I check my Reader, etc etc. Now, not but a few years ago, unless I was with a business on the forefront of technologies, I would probably have to use a different program, and possibly a different provider for each of these services.

Now, with the idea of 'cloud computing' very quickly gaining traction, most of us, even on the home-user level, are beginning to use it. I suppose before I go any further... I should explain the basics of cloud computing.

Essentially, cloud computing is the idea that instead of operating under the traditional server/workstation, software, download principle of passing information back and forth, cloud computing effectively keeps EVERYTHING on the server. That is, the information itself, your profile, the programs you'll use to access this information, everything. This presents organizations a brand new way to present you with any of your information, and that is... in full context, wherever on the Earth you might be (as long as you have internet access, of course.)

Don't get me wrong, I think the ideas in place here are phenomenal, and present everyone with brand new, and exciting technologies, my only issue here is personal privacy. Ultimately, every time you sign up for one of these services, you also agree to a Terms of Service agreement, and so forth. The little check box that says you Agree, the Agree button, etc.

I'd be willing to bet that most of us do not take the time to read through these heavy worded contracts (that they were/are, in effect, binding contracts) that we're agreeing to. That's problem #1. Problem #2 is the sheer location of your personal information and data, and that is, not in your control. Someone else is storing it, hosting it for you, making it available to you wherever and however you need to access it. I'm not implying none of these organizations are worth their grains in salt as far as our privacy goes, I just always ask that people think twice before willingly giving their personal information away. Safety first.

If you have any questions about today's post, or any other questions or comments, please feel free to check out our site at www.westcoastitsolutions.net , or send us an email at contact@westcoastitsolutions.net . We'll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have. You can also find us on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Check the social badge to the right of this post to find those respective sites.

A Strange, New World

2009-04-25T04:20:00.001-07:00

Advertising and Marketing seem to be changing faster than any of us can follow. Now more than ever, there are cheap (and sometimes free!) ways to get your organization's name out into the world, quicker than ever before. With social networking sites truly still only in their infancy, and Web 2.0 becoming the name of the game, the ability to connect with millions of people instantaneously is changing how businesses of every size are communicating with their respective markets.

I've just recently begun to persue these social networking mediums as a means by which to advertise and market with. Most of them allow you to create profiles or pages, free of charge. The level of customization that can be achieved on sites such as MySpace and Facebook are phenomenal, meaning that it appears as though we're in a world where just having your own, single web page is just not going to be enough anymore. Staying connected, and staying involved, and keeping your name out there, in as many places as possible... that's the staying trend that I've noticed.

Furthermore, there are numerous classifieds-type websites in operation all over the Internet, predominently, of course, is CraigsList. In alot of cases, CraigsList will allow you to post your service for free, or for cheap. On top of CraigsList, you can also search for 'free classifieds' on Google, and post your info and a link there as well.

There seem to be an endless array of options and opportunities in which to get your organization's name out into the eyes(and fingers) of the public at very little cost. In fact, with the right arrangements (making use of AdSense and related programs) it could be entirely possible to sustain a respectable Internet Marketing campaign, while actually generating revenue!

Is your organization making the best use possible of these mediums? West Coast IT Solutions can help make sure that your organization is reaching out into this strange, new world in all the best ways for your company. Visit us @ www.westcoastitsolutions.net to learn more about the services that we offer, take a peek at any of our social networking sites (cleverly listed off to the side, for your convenience) or just drop us a line via email, contact@westcoastitsolutions.net