SO/SMB Solutions

25 Apr

Office Tips & Tricks: Proof Listening with Word's Read Aloud Function

by NTELogic
in SO/SMB Solutions
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Proof Listen with Word’s Read Aloud Function

Sit back and let your ears do the work

If you’re a business owner, you write daily. Emails, notes, documents, blog posts, social media, you name it. It’s your business, you’ve got to write it. Like many, you either stress over “its” versus “it’s,” or you don’t. You write what you think is correct and if it isn’t, you hope the reader can forgive you.
It seems a simple task to proofread your own work, however for most, it’s not. In fact, it’s painful. Many experts say you shouldn’t proofread your own work, and here’s why – you already know the story. Your mind will skip over typos and other errors, instead filling in the correct version. That’s why it’s usually better to have someone else proofread your work, however that’s not always possible. Why not sit back and let your ears do the proofing?
Word’s Read Aloud function is a nifty tool that can ease the pain of proofing your work. It’s been around since Office 2003, and was known as Text-to-Speech. The Read Aloud function is much improved over previous versions. It can read your document out loud like an audio book. In addition, it highlights each word simultaneously as it’s being read.
 
NTELogic.com | Word's Read Aloud function is found on the Review tab of the Ribbon

Get Started Using Word’s Read Aloud Function

To use Word’s Read Aloud function, just click Review > Read Aloud on the ribbon. Easier than that, simply press Ctrl+Alt+Space Bar and Word’s Read Aloud will start automatically from wherever the cursor is positioned.
You can adjust the reading speed and change the voice pitch from the settings. Click the Settings button on the Read Aloud menu. If you have additional language packs installed, you can use the read Aloud function in the language of your choice. (Bonus tip: you can use Word’s Read Aloud function to learn a new language!)
While Word’s Read Aloud function isn’t perfect, it’s pretty close. If you prefer to not have someone else proof your work, the Read Aloud function is a great substitute. So grab a beverage, sit back and let the proof listening begin.
 

07 Jun

Collaborating with Office Part 1: What Are You Waiting For?

by NTELogic
in All, SO/SMB Solutions
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Ntelogic.com | Collaborating with Office Part 1
One of the most powerful features of Office 2016 is the ability to collaborate with others. Collaborating with Office allows more than one person to work on a file at the same time. All parties see the changes as the other collaborators make them. This is a welcome, long overdue addition to the Office suite.
Adding collaboration tools to Office moves the Microsoft productivity suite up a notch, bringing it head-to-head with the likes of Google Drive and Google Docs.
Being able to edit a document with team mates and seeing the changes in real time requires some setup. With a few easy steps, your team can start collaborating with Office.
First things first. You’ll need a cloud storage account to be able to share your document. Office is aligned with OneDrive. You can also use other cloud storage services like a SharePoint folder or a ShareSync folder (more on this in Part 2).
Ntelogic.com | Word Share PanelTo begin collaborating, create a new document or open a saved document. Click on the Share button on the menu bar. Enter one or more names in the Invite People box, or choose team members from the Address Book. You can include a personal note it. When you’re ready to start, click the Share button. You’ll be asked to save your shared document. Choose OneDrive. Once your document finishes uploading to OneDrive, you’ll see the list of people you’ve invited. The people you’ve invited will receive an email with a link.
If your collaborators are using OneDrive and Office 2016, you’ll see their edits in real time. Changes will display in a color and the editor’s initials are visible.
You might not see changes in real time if your collaborators access your shared document in a different way, such as the online version of Word. In this case, check the bottom of the window. If changes are available, the status line will display updates available. Refresh the document by clicking that text, and your collaborators’ changes will appear.
You can manage the permissions of your document in the Share pane. Right-click on someone in the list of collaborators. You can remove them from the document completely or change their level of access. Also, when you’re done sharing, right-click the link in the collaborators list and choose the remove option.
We’ve covered the basics. You’re ready to start collaborating in Office 2016. In Part 2, we’ll discuss how to share a document using other cloud storage.

05 Jun

Email Archiving: Top 10 Questions to Ask Your Provider

by NTELogic
in All, Services, SO/SMB Solutions
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Ntelogic.com | Email ArchivingBusiness email contains valuable information. Email archiving preserves information and enables compliance.

Choosing an email archiving provider is no small task. Many options exist and not all services deliver equal capabilities. We explain what email archiving is and its importance in today’s business world.

 

What is email archiving?

Email archiving is a system that captures incoming and outgoing messages, stores the content and makes it searchable.

Why do you need email archiving?

Over 90% of all businesses will face a lawsuit. Regulated business fields like finance, healthcare and retail must meet compliance mandates. Every business needs to protect sensitive data against accidental loss and malicious tampering.
For many businesses, the cost of not archiving can reach into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Email archiving is insurance against the loss of valuable and sensitive company information. When having to answer legal actions, the speed at which important messages can be gathered pays dividends.
Today, many email archiving solutions exist. We’ve put together the 10 most important questions you need to ask when selecting an email archiving service provider.

1. Compatibility with your email platform

The best setting is when your email archiving provider and email service provider are the same. If that’s not the case, make sure your provider is compatible with all popular email solutions, including Office 365, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, Groupwise, Gmail, Imail, Scalix, and Zimbra.

2. Fast migration of existing data

When you talk to a provider, ask about ingestion speed. This is how long it takes them to import your existing data. If a provider lacks a robust architecture, it can be a lengthy process to get the solution up and running.

3. Simple searching-and-retrieving

Non-It people should be able to use your archiving provider’s search and retrieve features. If they can’t, they call IT every time there’s an email to recover. This will add time and complexity to every search.

4. Fast searching and retrieving

It’s common for companies to have tens or hundreds of millions of emails in their archive. Your provider should offer the ability to search through them rapidly. The best providers can sift through these massive archives within a few seconds.

5. Robust searching and retrieving

An archiving solution may be fast and easy when searching, however if you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for, you’ll spend extra time sifting through search results. Your ideal solution will give you effective tools. You’ll want full text search, tagging capabilities, rich Boolean logic, and the ability to search within at least 500 different kinds of attachments.

6. High levels of redundancy

Replicating data across two-to-four data centers is common. Regional disasters like a hurricane can take multiple data centers offline. For the best redundancy, your provider should replicate data a minimum of eight times across their data centers.

7. High levels of resiliency

Your archived data must remain free of corruption. Always. Many email archiving solutions boast resiliency of 99.999%, which implies an annual expected loss of 1-in-100,000 objects. You should seek a higher resiliency rate, such as “eleven-nine’s”, or 99.999999999%. This indicates an annual expected loss of 1-in-one-hundred-billion objects.

8. Full compliance with government directives

Ask a potential provider if their archiving solution is compliant with FrCP, SEC, HIPAA, PCI or FInrA. If you’re thinking about going public, your archiving solution must comply with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). This requires tamper-proof wOrm media, ssAE-16, IsO, 27001, and FIsmA at a minimum.

9. Legal hold for any email

To have email submitted as evidence, it must usually be tamperproof. To comply with the Federal rules of Civil Procedure, a business must produce all relevant emails within a minimum timeframe. This costs $150–$450 per Gb on average when using an eDiscovery service.

10. Exceptional phone support if you need any help

If you ever get in a bind, it’s critical to have live expert help that’s a phone call away. Your vendor should stand behind their service 24 hours a day.
Your email archiving solution should make it simple to keep your email secure and easily accessed. It helps provide the preservation, protection and restoration your business needs to help safeguard intellectual property, facilitate compliance, and speed eDiscovery.

04 Jun

Cloud Voice Service Shields Against Outages

by Matt Kiolbassa
in All, SO/SMB Solutions
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[twitter_follow screen_name=”ntelogic” show_count=”false”]

Safeguarding Against Voice Service Outages

ntelogic.com | Cloud Voice ServiceThe most recent Microsoft outage left key Office services down for over 17 hours, leaving many companies wondering how they can communicate when disaster strikes. Business is impacted and opportunities lost if phone lines are not functioning. A statistic by the Federal Emergency Management Agency highlights the impact of downtime – up to 40% of companies shut down following a disaster. Cloud-based phone systems can keep companies open for business even when phone lines aren’t, letting them continue to communicate with clients and vendors regardless of major outages.

Key Cloud Voice service features

  • With Cloud Voice service, a phone platform lives in a service provider’s data center, not a physical location.
  • Failover nodes with automatic transitions maintain high availability by compensating for server failure.
  • If a company’s main phone lines are down, a cloud-based voice system can automatically re-route calls to other devices.
  • When any challenges emerge, automated attendant capabilities can answer and route calls even with IT issues in the office.

Cloud Voice service ensures network resiliency when outages threaten to stunt business productivity. How? Well, there are a few ways. Let’s take a look at how Cloud Voice service can help improve business efficiency:

Increased mobility

One of Cloud Voice service’s major benefits is increased hardware flexibility. Employees can use desk phones from any location that provides a network connection. Phones are plug-and-play and can be easily moved across various spaces, enabling an increasingly mobile work environment or the need to quickly relocate to stay ahead of a foreseeable issue.

Minimal hardware risks

Traditionally, if a phone breaks, a company would be out of luck when trying to utilize phone services. Cloud Voice service lives in the cloud, meaning the line can be re-routed to a different platform if a phone is broken. Fewer pieces of hardware also means fewer expenses, as the only equipment needing purchase are desk phones. In the event of a damaged, lost or inoperable phone, you’ll still preserve voice communication without incurring a substantial financial burden.

Customer access

Customer interaction is the life blood of any business, which is why staying in constant communication is a priority. Cloud Voice service phone systems put a customer through, even if a phone line goes down. This increased availability means your company can stay connected to customers at any time.

High network availability

High-availability ensures Cloud Voice service-based phone network reliability will be accessible in real-time, even if your location is compromised by outages. This is where failover nodes can help, as they step in and keep systems running when certain elements fail. Unlike traditional phone systems at the mercy of outages, Cloud Voice service strengthens network reliability by keeping information safe in the cloud and free from physical damage.
The Aberdeen Group reported that downtime can cost small businesses an average of $100,000 in revenue annually. Making sure your company’s phone system is shielded from downtime events is a crucial component of business productivity. Consider enlisting the help of a Cloud Voice service-based phone system to minimize downtime effects and maximize system responsiveness to ensure customers receive consistent company communication.
 

03 Feb

What's On Your Hard Drive?

by NTELogic
in All, Services, SO/SMB Solutions
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It’s one of those little technical details most of us don’t think about much less understand – your computer’s hard drive. Gigabytes, terabytes, RAM, SATA, SSD. Most of it sounds Greek because it is. Sure, we looked at the specifications of the computer right before we bought it. Not many of us have given it a second thought since.
Your computer’s hard drive is the keeper of all your data. It’s like the human brain’s long term memory storage. It’s all there – photos, documents, spreadsheets, banking info, even the computer’s operating system. Without the data on the hard drive, your computer wouldn’t be able to do much more beyond powering-up. Sounds pretty important, huh? It is.
Ponder for just a moment – what’s on your hard drive? Got an idea of what’s there? Good – now, imagine it’s all gone. You turn on your computer and it’s suffered from a major case of amnesia. How would the rest of your day, week and month go?
Whether the bag carrying your laptop fell off the baggage cart, a thief snatched it off your desk, or the hard drive suddenly failed, without a copy of your important files or irreplaceable pictures, you’ve suffered a major loss.
There are a few steps you can take to maximize the service life of your hard drive and reduce the risk of sudden drive failure.

  • Be cool and keep it clean. Heat is the number one killer of hard drives. Regularly check all air vents and fan ports. Carefully use a compressed air duster (canned air) to clean air vents and fan ports, or better yet, have your friendly PC service clean and inspect your systems cooling system components. When using your laptop, make sure the bottom of the case has an air gap between it and what it is resting on. As tempting as it is to use your laptop in bed, having the laptop sit on a blanket will cause your system to overheat quickly.
  • Be kind and be gentle. Any physical force can cause damage to your hard drive. Sudden, sharp bumps or dropping your laptop at just the wrong moment can send the read/write head crashing into the hard disk platter causing catastrophic damage.
  • Use protection. Power protection that is. A good surge protector is a must for any system – laptop, desktop or server. Your system needs good, clean electricity to function properly.
  • Stay dry. Spilled drinks or sudden changes in humidity can damage your system. Although they’re sealed units, hard drives are not resistant to moisture.
  • Shut ‘er down. Avoiding power loses and always using your operating system’s shut down procedure will avoid corrupted files and damage to the hard drive.

Now that you’re giving your system some proper love and respect, let’s talk about life insurance for your hard drive – a data backup plan. Many people create copies of their files on a USB thumb drive. This is certainly better than no backup at all, but there is room for improvement. Let’s briefly look at the common, industry standard ways to back-up your files:

  • Local backup to storage media
    This approach saves copies of your files to storage media like a USB thumb drive or burning a DVD. This is good for backing up your documents, files and pictures. Drawbacks are storage space is limited to the capacity of the storage media, and the amount of time it takes to copy the files. If you use this method, it’s best to make two separate copies and keep one off-site somewhere.
  • On-site backup to an external drive, server or Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive
    This method alleviates most storage capacity concerns with external drives and NAS drives available in 1 terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) or larger. These devices are subject to the same failures as your onboard hard drive, so extra care should be given to external drives and NAS drives.
  • Off-site backup using a cloud storage service
    Cloud backup services like Carbonite, CrashPlan and iDrive are easily recognizable examples of off-site cloud storage services. This approach uses software installed on your system and your Internet connection to create a copy of your files on your cloud storage services’ storage platform. Your files are stored on redundant storage drives for safety and reliability, and some services encrypt your files for added security. The one drawback to this approach can be the length of time to upload a complete backup. The speed of your Internet connection will control this.

Backing-up your files can be done manually, automated via software or managed for you. Each method has its own investment:

  • Manually backing-up your files puts you squarely in the driver’s seat. It is time consuming and is only effective if you stick to a regular schedule.
  • Automated backup eliminates the time consuming effort of selecting the files to backup and committing them to the storage device. Thanks to native functions in your operating system or third-party apps you can purchase, setting-up an automated backup plan is pretty simple and reliable.
  • Managed backup is the worry-free option. All aspects of your backup plan are looked after by a managed backup service provider. This is like having your trusted financial advisor review your finances every day and adjust as needed to make sure your retirement nest egg is safe, healthy and growing.

Ntelogic’s Managed Backup Service is the perfect fit for those looking for a “set-it and forget-it” backup experience. Whether you’d like a local backup, on-site backup to an external or NAS drive, cloud backup or a combination of all, our managed solution provides a seamless and secure backup of your data to the cloud and takes care of the management and monitoring for you. Secure, cost-effective and scalable, Managed Backup Service from Ntelogic is ideal for home users and businesses alike. Best of all, you can try it for free for 14 days. To get started, visit our web site, or call our office at (209) 790-4560 for a no-hassle, no-pressure conversation about your backup needs.
Regardless of what approach you implement, the most important first step is to have a plan. Think back to the question I first posed… Do you remember what’s on your hard drive? Good – now it’s time to protect it!
 
 
 

27 Apr

Microsoft's Smaller OneDrive

by NTELogic
in All, SO/SMB Solutions
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Microsoft Reduces OneDrive Storage by 67% } Ntelogic.comLast November, Microsoft announced it would scale back the cloud storage space of its OneDrive service. Citing “abuse” by a group of users, Microsoft said in a statement “Instead of focusing on extreme backup scenarios, we want to remain focused on delivering high-value productivity and collaboration experiences that benefit the majority of OneDrive users.” The announcement flew in the face of Microsoft’s previous stance that OneDrive users would enjoy free unlimited storage. Microsoft immediately implmented a 1TB limit on OneDrive accounts, and then announced in December further reductions would be coming in “early 2016”.
According to an article published at computerworld.com, Microsoft has given users of its OneDrive cloud storage service a 90-day notice that their free allowance will be scaled back from 15GB to 5GB in late July.
The 67% reduction in free storage space will take effect July 27. On the same day, Microsoft will also eliminate the 15GB free “Camera Roll” bonus it once gave to anyone who asked. The result: Users who formerly had 30GB of free storage will have just 5GB.
Given that OneDrive has been closely integrated into Windows 10 and Office 365, scores of OneDrive users will be confronted with the inability to upload new files, read-only access to their existing files. Worse yet, small businesses that use the free, personal version of OneDrive will be left scrambling to download or delete files to meet the new, significantly smaller OneDrive storage limit.
The changes also reach into Microsoft’s OneDrive for Business service, implementing a 1TB cap on each user account. OneDrive for Business allows users to sync files to the cloud, share them with business colleagues and edit them together in Office Online.
For small business users, the storage squeeze may be the last straw. OneDrive lacks the ability to sync and store folder structures outside of the default OneDrive folder and suffers from slow file syncing speeds. Many alternatives to OneDrive are available, bit not all are designed from the ground up for business use.
While the free consumer versions of popular cloud storage and sync services like Mozy, Box and Dropbox may seem like viable alternatives, business users and small business owners need capabilities like administrative control of files, folders and retention policies, file version history and point-in-time restoration. Security is a major concern as well – are files encrypted while in transit as well as at-rest? How about the ability to safely store and control access to files and folders from departing or terminated employees?
If your business is considering a move away from OneDrive, Ntelogic’s ShareSync service is a business-grade file sync and share service that meets the needs of users, administrators and business owners.
ShareSync from Ntelogic syncs files and folders across every device:

  • Syncing happens automatically the moment a file
    modification occurs
  • Offline work on PCs is synced the moment a user comes back
    online
  • ShareSync apps available for Mac, Windows, Windows Phone,
    iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry
  • Content also accessible through web browsers

ShareSync allows you to share with recipients both inside and outside the company:

  • Intuitive sharing interface is integrated with your corporate
    address book
  • Users can set sharing permissions (Co-Owner, Modify, View)
    and change them at any time
  • Sub-folders can be shared with different permissions than
    parent folders
  • Quick group sharing with Exchange Distribution Lists
  • Files can be shared via web-link to recipients, even if they
    don’t have ShareSync installed
  • Share directly from Outlook and Office with easy-to-enable
    Windows plugins

ShareSync keeps content secure and protected:

  • Data is encrypted at-rest and in-transit
  • An account-specific unique security key provides additional
    data protection
  • Sharing permissions and access are strictly controlled and
    easily amended at any time
  • ShareSync data on lost or stolen devices can be remotely
    wiped
  • An Audit Log keeps track of all the ShareSync activity on your
    account
  • Reliability is assured with a 99.999% service level agreement

Contact us today to discover how your business can benefit from Ntelogic’s ShareSync service, and to arrange a free trial.

 

14 Apr

Farewell SQL Server 2005

by NTELogic
in All, SO/SMB Solutions
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Still using SQL Server 2005? Time is not your friend.

Tuesday marked the official End of Support for Microsoft SQL server 2005. This means no more updates will be issued. Businesses still using SQL Server 2005 are at increasing risk for security breaches and data loss. Now is the time to move off of SQL Server 2005.
Moving to SQL Server 2014 or SQL Server 2016 will benefit your business with improved security, greater performance and increased availability. A likely concern for small business owners is the cost of upgrading. If your SO/SMB is using SQL Server 2005 on-premises, now is an excellent time to consider moving your SQL Server needs to the cloud. Rather that buying new server hardware, installing server software packages and then migrating the data to the new deployment, an Ntelogic Cloud Server can be provisioned and running in a matter of minutes. Moving your SQL Server deployment to the cloud also relieves your business of the care, feeding and upkeep of a physical server. Combining the performance of SQL Server 2016 with an Ntelogic Cloud Server gives your business a worry-free experience.
Making the move off of SQL Server 2005 must be planned. Having a solid transition and migration plan will help you avoid headaches, mistakes and ugly surprises. This is a good time to evaluate what your database needs are – have they increased or decreased?  Timing is everything and moving to a new database server is no exception. Although the move off of SQL Server 2005 is a priority, having a realistic timeline for transitioning is key to a successful transition. Our Cloud Server platform includes our Concierge Onboarding ensuring a hassle free move.
Some of the other benefits of moving to an Ntelogic Cloud Server are:

  • NO upfront hardware costs
  • Predictable, fixed monthly pricing
  • 99.999% uptime Service Level Agreement
  • 24x7x365 US-based human support
  • Fully integrated into the Ntelogic Office in the Cloud platform

If you need to move off of SQL Server 2005, consider moving to the cloud. Contact us today to learn more about how your business can benefit from Ntelogic’s Cloud Server offerings.

24 Feb

The Human Firewall – You're the First Line of Defense

by NTELogic
in All, Security, SO/SMB Solutions
Comments

It’s tax season and cyber criminals are working overtime. Are you a Human Firewall?

The Human Firewall - You're First Line of Defense | ntelogic.wpstagecoach.com
Tax season is a prime time for online scams and this year, the threats are more dangerous than ever before. From phishing scams looking to catch valuable personal and financial information, to IRS impostors looking to cash in on your tax refund, to Word files infected with ransomware that encrypts your files for ransom. Sure, your devices may be protected with antivirus and anti-malware software, and your local network is protected with a firewall (it is, right?), but what about you? Do you how to spot a phishing scam? The first line of defense against cyber threats is you. Are you a Human Firewall?
The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) has some easy-to-use tips that will help you be a Human Firewall against cyber criminal’s tricks.

  • Keep All Machines Clean: Having updated software on all devices that connect to the Internet is critical. This includes security software, web browsers and operating systems for PCs and your mobile devices. Having current software is a strong defense against viruses and malware that can steal login credentials or potentially use your computer to generate spam.
  • Get Two Steps Ahead: Turn on two-step authentication – also known as two-step verification or multi-factor authentication – on accounts. Many popular email services and financial institutions offer this key security step for free, but you must opt in to turn it on.
  • Make Better Passwords: If your passwords are too short or easy to guess, it’s like giving a cyber thief your banking PIN. Longer passwords and those that combine capital and lowercase letters with numbers and symbols provide better protection.
  • Get Savvy about Wi-Fi Hotspots: Public wireless networks are not secure. Cyber criminals can potentially intercept Internet connections while you are filing highly personal information on public WiFi.
  • When in doubt, Throw It  Out: Links in email are often the way bad guys get access to your personal information. If it looks weird, even if you know the source, it’s best to delete.
  • Think before you act: Be leery of communications that implore you to act immediately – especially if you are told you owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly.

Watch that Word file!

It was only a matter of time, but someone finally did it.  A new ransomware strain amateurishly named “Locky” is professional grade malware that uses a Microsoft Word attachment that has malicious macros in it, making it hard to filter out. Over 400,000 workstations were infected in just a few hours, data from Palo Alto Networks shows. Antivirus engines are being updated to catch it, but it took several days to get there, so you cannot rely on endpoint security tools with new attacks like this. The bad guys use social engineering twice to trick the user first into opening the attachment, and then to enable the macros in the Word file. The email message will contain a subject similar to ATTN: Invoice J-98223146 and a message such as “Please see the attached invoice (Microsoft Word Document) and remit payment according to the terms listed at the bottom of the invoice“.
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Ransomware Word Document

When the Word document is opened, the content of the document look scrambled. A message will be displayed stating that you should enable the macros if the text is unreadable.


Locky Ransomware Message

After macros are enabled, Word downloads an executable from a remote server, installs it on the local machine and takes over the computer. The Locky cryptoware encrypts the user files and displays the ransom message.


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Having Business-grade Backup and Restore Capabilities is the new Gold Standard

It is critical that you have a regular routine to backup your files and user data as well as knowing how to restore the data from a backup. Should you find yourself in the position of having lost your files, a few hours of work to restore them from backup is far better than the permanent loss of your invaluable data. Having a backup and restore plan is a top priority, but it’s not enough. The security of your data and local network starts with you – be the Human Firewall.
For a no-cost assessment of your data security, please call Ntelogic @ +1 (209) 322-9621 or email us @ info@ntelogic.com.

25 Oct

Save with Hosted PBX

by NTELogic
in SO/SMB Solutions
Comments

Hosted PBX saves you 50% or more…
and we can prove it!

How much can you save with Hosted PBX? Our study looked at 19 companies’ phone costs and the results might be surprising. To see how businesses like yours save 50% or more, watch this 1 minute video.
Cost savings are just the beginning. Hosted PBX offers a full suite of Fortune 500 style features, such as auto attendant, hunt groups, music-on-hold, conferencing, and much more. Getting started with Hosted PBX is simple and, of course you can keep your existing phone numbers.
 

 
 

Sound interesting?

Contact us so we can delve into the before-and-after comparison of these businesses’ phone bills, discuss how to untangle the phone bill mess and explore the hidden costs to avoid.

14 Oct

Using an Android Smart Phone? You Need to Read This…

by NTELogic
in Security, SO/SMB Solutions
Comments

Malicious Malware Targets Android Devices.

September was a relatively quiet month for new cyber-threats. That is until a rapidly spreading malware outbreak named Kemoge was discovered. This nasty little bug masquerades as a legitimate Android app, and once installed, it “roots” or unlocks your phone, allowing the malware’s command and control computer to take control of your device. Here’s what you need to know about Kemoge and how you can protect your Android devices.
Kemoge disguises itself as a legitimate Android app that is downloaded from the Google Play Store and other 3rd party app sites. Some examples of confirmed infected apps are:
kemoge2

What to Look For

Device users will likely not notice obvious changes in their device once it has been infected. Over time, advertisements will begin to pop-up while other apps are in use. The true tell-tale sign is when ad pop-ups appear on the Android Home Screen. If you think your Android device has been infected by Kemoge, contact your wireless provider right away. You can also contact Ntelogic Tech Support by calling +1 (209) 471-9372.

How to Protect Your Device

Following these basic rules will help prevent exposure to and possible infection from Kemoge:

  • Rule #1: ALWAYS use the official Google Play Store to install new apps.
  • Rule #2: NEVER download or install an unverified app from anywhere.
  • Rule #3: NEVER click on any links that offer to download an app from a web site.
  • Rule #4: Install an Android anti virus program such as AVG AntiVirus for Android http://www.avg.com/us-en/antivirus-for-android

The Take-away

Being smart with your smart phone can save you time and money. Using legitimate apps from a trusted source prevents infections and attacks from viruses, malware and hack-attacks. If you think your device has been compromised, contact your wireless carrier immediately. If you are an Ntelogic Hosted Exchange email user, contact us immediately so we can assist you.