New Swine Flu Outbreak: This Time the Virus may be in Your Computer

As if the scare from the Swine Flu virus were not enough, some opportunistic and malicious hackers have started spreading a computer virus with emails of the same name. Otherwise also known as the Navia.a virus, it seems to have surfaced during the height of the Avian Flu scare. However, the computer virus may have started spreading again. Initial reports from Japan say that the country’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) posted on its website that a suspicious Japanese-language email message purportedly coming from them has been circulating with an attached file called “information on swine flu”. The email, originating from senders in the “@yahoo.co.jp” domain, seemed to be sent to random Internet users, the institute said. Users, as always, are advised to avoid opening attachments from suspicious-looking emails to prevent infecting their PCs with malware.While we can’t protect you from the real swine flu virus, we can help you protect your PCs from its new malicious online cousin. Contact us today to find out how. Related articles: Internet flooded with swine flu spam As If Swine Flu Virus Is Not Enough – We Now Have Swine Flu Computer Virus

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Survey Shows Insider Snooping on the Rise

Cyber-Ark Software, a security solutions company, recently released a survey showing that as much as 35 percent of people within an organization (that’s one out of three) admit to accessing corporate information without authorization. Furthermore, an alarming 74 percent claim they could circumvent the controls currently in place to prevent that access. The study polled over 400 IT administrators at the Infosecurity Europe 2009 and RSA USA 2009 conferences. While certainly a cause for concern, this is not surprising. Because of their technical knowledge and access to sensitive corporate information, internal IT staff are capable of circumventing internal policies and controls. If this is a cause for concern within your organization, don’t delay in giving us a call. We can help you secure your information and computing assets today. Related articles: Infosec 2009: Security must be built in from the start Securing business Slump prompts workplace snooping

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Big IT Lessons Small Businesses Can Learn

What are the key technology lessons that small and mid-sized businesses can learn from large enterprises? Be proactive. Be prepared. Take security concerns seriously. Always watch for ways to cut costs. That just might sum up the advice that enterprise-grade IT shops would give smaller businesses about how to avoid costly IT mistakes. But what are some specific technology lessons that smaller fry can learn from the big fish? We asked the experts, and here’s a partial list: Read more at Inc Technology…

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Is Microsoft Office Coming to the iPhone?

Rumors abound that we may soon see Microsoft’s Office suite on mobile devices. Some people are speculating that it may even be made available to the (gasp!) Apple iPhone . What is sure is the ubiquitous office productivity suite is making its way online , onto to the Internet cloud, and one day may even be provided free with an advertising supported model .

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Are you Safeguarding your Data?

With the continuous proliferation of data and its increasing importance to business, it has become critical to implement measures to safeguard it. One such measure is to make sure you have a data protection, backup, and recovery system in place. The threat of data loss from hardware failure, malware , or disaster is very real. A little proactive effort will go a long way in ensuring the integrity and continuous availability of your critical company data. Talk to your IT consultant to find out more.

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Good News for Small Businesses in the Bailout Act

Small businesses will get a helping hand with some key expenses under President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan, signed into law on February 17. Around $282 billion of the bill is devoted to tax cuts, including breaks for small businesses. Some of the highlights include: Small businesses will be able to more quickly deduct the cost of investments in plants and equipment from their taxable income. Small businesses will be allowed to recover alternative minimum tax (AMT) and research and development (R&D) credits faster. Small businesses will be allowed to write off up to $250,000 of capital expenditures in the year of acquisition. As a result, 2009 might be a good time to consider upgrading your technology. Your financial advisor can help you determine if any of these tax cuts apply to you. More information; A Breakdown of the stimulus package: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/STIMULUS_FINAL_0217.html Small Business Association information on stimulus bill: http://www.sba.gov/recovery/index.html Regularly updated stimulus page at Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/public/page/stimulus-package.html

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