2K Networking

Facebook tries to protect you but it can't

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

Over the past months there have been many many malware attacks targeting Facebook users. As much as Facebook tries to do it's best to keep users safe, there are too many ways to lure a user into infecting themselves and others. While Facebook is a social network, it is social engineering that is getting users into trouble. How do you protect yourself from these attacks? You need to educate yourself on what they are and how they work.

Barracuda Networks blog post on the Seven Annoying Attacks That Facebook Misses is one of the best ways to start educating yourself and being able to spot the fake posts and social engineered attempts at getting you to click and infect yourself.

PDF Based malware is back

2012-01-04T08:00:00.002-05:00

Adobe recently put out a notice that they have another security hole in their Acrobat Reader product (version 9.x and 10.x) and has been patched with the newly released version 9.4.7. But Version 10 will not be updated until sometime in January because it actually is more secure than version 9 already. 2K recommends all users to UNININSTALL Acrobat Reader version 9.x and installed Acrobat Reader X 10.1.1 to have the best protection possible.
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While other security websites have been beating the drum on PDF malware making a comeback, F-Secure recently found that some malware PDFs are being signed by stolen Malaysian government security certificates.

And now it's time to make sure you are reminded to be VERY careful opening those attachments in your email. Even if you know the person that sent them, if you were not expecting the email on the subject they sent, contact them and ask first. Better safe than infected and losing valuable time at your computer.

What iPhone Apps do I use?

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Writing this post could take forever, but luckily Lifehacker has a great post on their recommended apps for many different categories. I have to say that I'm using 95% of the apps in the Lifehacker Pack of iPhone Apps - so if you have any questions, please let me know.

Find the Lifehacker Pack here.

Did you get an iPhone for Christmas? Does it have an Applecare + Warranty?

2011-12-26T08:00:00.001-05:00

Apple has changed its policies on the purchase of the Applecare+ warranty for it's iPhones to make it a bit easier to obtain. Previously you had to purchase it at the time the iPhone was purchased. But now you can purchase it up to 30 days from the date the iPhone was purchased. While there are some hoops to jump through, such as taking the iPhone into an Apple Store for inspection to verify it has not already been damaged, it is well worth the purchase.

You can see more details on the iPhone Applecare+ directly from Apple.

Watch out for deceptive holiday emails

2011-12-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

UPS was not able to delivery your package and your claim is in this attachment.

Would you believe that? You shouldn't! Think about it for a moment...how did UPS get your email address and attach it to a package someone may have sent you?

Tis the season for Holiday cheer and a rise in malware infections. ESET's security blog has more details on the types of email and malware that prey on the goodwill of Christmastime.

Did you forget your iPhone passcode? What do you do?

2011-12-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

In this day and age we are dealing with more than a few passwords/passcodes/PINs to keep our information safe. What happens if you forget which one actually belongs to your phone?

This article from LifeHacker will put your mind at ease.

Did you forget your Android phone passcode? What do you do?

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Are you always running late for your appointments?

2011-11-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you are always running late for your appointments, and have an iPhone, then the GoTime app could be a great 99 cent investment. This app accesses your iPhone calendar appointments and their locations and will calculate the travel time from your current location and inform you of when you should leave.

Give it a try....as 99 cents is well worth the higher productivity you will have.

ANDROID App: Take screenshots easily

2011-11-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

iPhone users have been able to take screenshots quite easily for a number of years via a native "home + sleep" button combo push. Android users have been hurting for an easy way to do screenshots on their on devices since the beginning as it is not native to the Android software. Yes there are many apps out there that can do it, but they require "rooting" (hacking) your Android phone and we cannot recommend that.

Well, No Root Screenshot It is now available to make it easier for all of you Android users out there. It is a $4.99 app, but getting this feature could be well worth the cost for many.

You can find all the information at this LifeHacker article

Tough cases for your iPhone 4 & 4S

2011-11-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

CNET has a great "top 20" photo gallery of tough cases for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Personally I've used the Otterbox Defender and currently have the LifeProof case (which I took with me on my trip to Alaska and survived numerous falls and drops in puddles along the way.) If you are looking for a case that can survive an active lifestyle, I definitely recommend the LifeProof case. The others will work too, and I know a number of people that have a variety of these cases.

Check out the CNET gallery here.

Best hidden feature of IOS5 - Custom Contact Vibrations

2011-11-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

While I have not yet upgraded to IOS5 (some of my apps won't work with the new notification system properly, I'm looking forward to the Custom Contact Vibrations feature that has been added. This feature is similar to being able to add custom ringtones or sms message alerts to a contact, in that you can have something specific to one contact so you will be able to identify who is trying to get in touch with you.

Essentially you get to tap out your own rhythm and the iPhone saves it and replays it for your contact when your phone is in silent mode.

This LifeHacker article will help you set up Custom Contact Vibrations.

iPhone 4S Insurance options compared

2011-11-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

With the release of the iPhone 4S, apple also released AppleCare+ for $99 that would cover the device for 2 years and allow for up to two replacements due to accidental damage for $49 each. But there are other options too, such as carrier based monthly fee insurance (that could even cover lost/stolen devices). This article from Digital Trends will go over all your options, including some 3rd party ones so you can make a decision on which is best for your situation.

Do you know how to lock & wipe your IOS5 device?

2011-11-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

iPhone & iPad security is extremely important these days when you have your corporate and personal email, contacts, and calendar on there. But think about everything else you may be using on your iPhone/iPad that could be utilized to steal personal information if your device gets lost or stolen: Social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter), E-Commerce sites (Amazon, Netflix) and any other site/app combo that may have your Address, Credit Card or Bank information.

Well this post from How To Geek outlines how to Remotely Lock & Wipe your IOS5 device should you find it is no longer in your possession.

Disaster strikes - but how do you get emergency information?

2011-10-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

This year has been an extreme weather year here in Central PA and many times required getting local emergency information being broadcast by the local radio or TV stations. But when you do not have cable or power and you only have your smart phone how do you easily find out this information. Well rad.io and iHeartRadio are two apps that you can use on multiple smartphone platforms to gain access to your local radio stations stream through the internet.

You can find the appropriate app for your phone by clicking on the links below:

iHeartRadio.com
rad.io (scroll to the bottom of the page and locate your smartphone platform app link)

Steve Jobs - 1955-2011

2011-10-05T23:02:00.004-04:00

Apple Remembers Steve Jobs and so do I.

Even before I knew his name, Steve was influencing my life. As a kid, I was working on Apple IIe computers in elementary school and summer computer camps. In college I worked on some Mac Quadras and some of the unibody Macintosh Classics with handles behind the monitor. At MindSpring I had a PowerMac G1 sitting on my desk beside my Windows 95/98 computer. While I'm a PC guy in my daily life - I've always admired the Mac side of the world. All those PC computers that I used were influenced by Apple Computer and Steve Jobs. Then came MP3 players - I had an Archos Portable Music Player (the geek MP3 player) when the iPod came out 10 years ago - and I instantly knew what I wanted. iTunes changed the way I managed my music, got me started with podcasts and I was hooked. I got the first generation iPod nano so I could ride around on my bike with my music without killing myself. I got the iPhone 3G to replace my generic flip phone and iPod nano and converge them into one device. I have the iPhone 4 and absolutely LOVE it so much I purchased a LifeProof case for it so I could have it with me on my big 2 week cross country train trip and vacation to Alaska. I'm not an Apple fanboy by any means. My life is much easier to manage thanks to my iPhone. I am an Apple Macintosh Certified Technician. I Think Different....

"Here's to the Crazy Ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world - are the ones who DO!"

Those words were spoken over top of images of Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali and many others flashing across the screen in the first commercial of the Think Different campaign in the late 90s after Steve came back to Apple Computer. I felt they described me then but today I leave them with you as Steve's own words describing himself.

We will miss you Steve. You changed the world more than any single man has in the past 36 years I have been alive. Thank you!
- S. Alexander Feazell

My Best Airplane Fare site comes to Android

2011-10-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

I recently took a vacation that required me to locate an airplane flight home. I utilized a number of travel sites like Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz and others, but had problems locating a flight I was satisfied with - that is the right combination of cost, time, length of layovers, and number of stops.
Well I used a fairly new website called hipmunk.com which pride's itself on being able to search by "pain tolerance" again the worst combination of the categories above - limit the hours you want to fly and much more. In utilizing this service I found the perfect flight.

Well they've already got an iPhone app and now have released an Android app. I highly suggest downloading this app and utlizing both the app and website next time you are looking to book a flight for business or pleasure.

Customize your Windows 7 Notification Icons

2011-09-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

In earlier versions of windows you had very little control over all those icons that inevitably showed up in the lower right corner of your screen. Well, Microsoft add a great feature in Windows 7 that lets you customize when the icons are hidden and when they show up so that you can handle any alert or item that you need to.

How to Geek has a great article that takes you step by step through the process of customizing your notification area icons. Check it out here.

Nuance updates Dragon Dictate for Mac

2011-08-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

Back in July, I posted about Nuance updating the PC version of Dragon Dictate and the release of the Dragon Go! iPhone App that allows you to use your iPhone as a mic for Dragon.

Well, Nuance has now updated the Mac version of Dragon Dictate to version 2.5 and enabled the capability to use the Dragon Go! app with the new 2.5 version. You can find out more at ICLARIFY and at Lifehacker.

It is great to see Nuance pushing the envelope with it's products!

10 Secret Features in Mac OSX 10.7 Lion

2011-08-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

It has been over a month since Apple released 10.7 Lion and Lifehacker has a nice post on some secret features they've found that could make your choice to upgrade a wise decision.

http://lifehacker.com/5817644/top-10-secret-features-in-mac-os-x-lion

iPhone Autocorrecting you too much? Add Custom Words!

2011-08-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

My iPhone is always autocorrecting my text messages, emails and other forms of communications to the incorrect word. This is because I'm using tech jargon, slang, abbreviations or other words that are not in the default dictionary. Well the iPhone does have a custom dictionary function, but it is not easy to get to.

Lifehacker has published a step by step guide on how to enable the custom dictionary so you can add all those words that autocorrect should not be touching. Check out the post at the link below:

http://lifehacker.com/5822520/how-to-add-new-custom-words-to-your-iphones-autocomplete-dictionary

Andorid App to put your music to sleep

2011-08-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

So...You want to play some music on your phone but you want it to stop in 45 minutes because you're trying to fall asleep and don't want to run your battery down. Is there a way to do that?

The iPhone has had this feature built into it's clock/timer app for a very long time, but the Android community has not been able to do this very easily...until now.

Sleep Timer for Android can do exactly that. How to Geek's article gives you more details as well as the download link - check it out.

My Favorite iPhone/iPad tip ever!

2011-08-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

I spend quite a bit of time using my iPhone.

I know where nearly every useful app is located - so much so i can get to it without thinking many times.

BUT.... When I finally upgraded from iOS Version 4.3 to 4.3.3 all my organization of apps went out the window. Needless to say I was annoyed and honestly, I've been annoyed for 3 years because every time I do an upgrade/restore of my iPhone this happens.

Well - a few weeks ago I ran into this LifeHacker article which explains that if you essentially do a "double restore" that all your settings, folders, and arrangements will be put back into place. So I tried it. And it works!!

For all of you out there that needed this - I'm glad I could share it.

Print from your iPhone or iPad via the cloud

2011-08-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

PCWorld has an article entitled "5 Fixes for the Biggest iPhone & iPad Headaches" that takes a different approach to printing from the iPad - Use Google Cloud Print!

See the full article with details and instructions on how to set Google Cloud Print up here.

How to create a secure password the fun way

2011-07-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

We always tell you that your password should be a secure one - something that looks like I8kjH9s&ER1()G. But are you really going to remember that? Most likely not, you will write it down and most likely leave it somewhere unsecure.

A blog post from Avast gives you a nice and easy way to come up with a secure password that you will remember.

See more on this at the Avast Blog here.

Do you trust the messages, links and attachments you receive via email?

2011-07-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

Over the past 6 months there have been a large number of hotmail.com/live.com/msn.com, gmail.com/googlemail.com, aol.com and yahoo.com accounts compromised because of weak passwords.

The owners of those compromised accounts are still probably unaware that they were compromised because the hackers did not change any settings or passwords. The hackers are utilizing these accounts to send out massive amounts of spam to the addressbooks of those compromised accounts. This means that there is a higher probability of the spam message being opened, and any links or attachments opened because the sender is trusted by the receiver.
While this problem occurs all the time on infected computers with email programs, this is the first widespread attack to utilize web-based email accounts.

Many of these emails that contain links go to websites that are either advertising some medical drug or a video that asks you to upgrade Flash or other video software on your computer. The attachments are many times PDF files. In all cases the intent is to infect your computer with some type of malware - many times some variation of a scareware antivirus/antimalware program telling you your computer has been infected and requesting payment to clean the infection.
Adobe has admitted and computer security analysis of the attacks over the past 18 months have shown that over 50% have targeted vulnerabilities in Adobe's Acrobat PDF creation and reader software as well as it's Flash product line.

Adobe has recently patched a number of major security flaws in both products and EVERYONE should update to Acrobat Reader 10.1 (link to adobe download site) and Flash 10.3 (link to Adobe download site).

These new versions fix some critical flaws that can allow malicious attackers install software on your computer without your knowledge as well as potentially take over your computer entirely.
Adobe has included in these updates a much more reliable software updater that will alert you to updates and allow them to be installed fairly quickly after they are released to keep your computer safe.

Please do not ignore these alerts as doing so will at some point cause your computer to become infected. Please note that this alert does not only pertain to Windows users but Mac users as well. While OSX has a built in PDF viewer, some users do still install the Adobe Acrobat Reader product. Flash 10.3 on the otherhand should absolutely be installed on your Mac and security firm INTEGO agrees

Use your iPhone by talking to it with Dragon Go! from Nuance

2011-07-25T08:00:00.002-04:00

Nuance has been increasing it's dominance in voice directed apps on the iOS platform the past few months with the last offering allowing you to use your iPhone/iPod Touch as a microphone for their desktop based Dragon software.

Well today they just moved the bar much higher with their Dragon G0! app (iTunes link) that allows you to use your iPhone much more intuitively by voice.

Navigate Facebook, launch a specific station on Pandora or get driving directions to a new destination - the options are endless.

You can see more details at the Press Release and pick it up for free at iTunes.

How to setup Find my iPhone (to find your iPad or iPod touch as well)

2011-07-22T08:00:00.002-04:00

CNET's "How To" section has a great article on how to setup this useful service and you can find it here.

You never really know when you might misplace, lose or even have your iOS device stolen. For example - This article goes into detail on how a TSA agent was caught stealing an iPad out of luggage he was scanning. The Find My iPhone service would be a great tool to locate that iPad once you realized it had been stolen.

Just spend some time to set it and forget it (until you really need it)!

Turn off Facebook's Facial Recognition Feature

2011-07-20T08:00:00.002-04:00

Facebook last month released a new feature to it's Photo Albums that enabled facial recognition for all users by default. It's again another one of their feature expansions that could become a privacy problem for some users.

F-Secure's Safe & Savvy blog post provides you with the details on how to turn the facial recognition feature off.

Amazon has a Mac Download Store Too

2011-07-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

Apple launched their Mac App store with great fanfare, but did you know there are a number of pieces of software that Apple does not make available for purchase? The most obvious omissions are products from Microsoft and Adobe. Well Amazon has come to the rescue.

See more at this link.

Customize Windows 7 with beautiful themes from Microsoft

2011-07-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

Since Windows 7's release, Microsoft has been slowly and steadily adding more and more themes to it's personalization gallery.

These themes range from exotic locations, to space, to abstract art, to nature and movies. And these are EXTREMELY high quality theme packs that provided great backgrounds to show off on your large widescreen flat-panel monitors.

Here are some links to a few of the newest themes:
Galapagos
Abstract Diffusion (a favorite of mine)
Classic Managa (Japanese Comics/Animation)
Space Art by GTGraphics

Browse - Download and Enjoy some new background scenery!

Expense report software for your mobile phone: ExpenseWatch.com

2011-07-13T08:00:00.002-04:00

This company and the app they provide looks very promising. While my Windows Mobile 6.5 phone will not be supported, they already have an app available for Android phones and iPhones and Blackberries will soon be available.

Check it out at their site.

Infographic from McAfee explaining Botnets

2011-07-11T08:00:00.001-04:00

Understanding what malware threats are out there is a big step in staying protected from them.

With this in mind McAfee has created a nice infographic that goes a long way into explaining what botnets are.

Can you sync iTunes with an Android Phone? YES!

2011-07-07T08:00:00.002-04:00

I've been asked this exact question quite a few times. Every time I've had to search for the answer and provide it to the friend or acquaintance. But now...How-To-Geek has a great step by step article with pictures on how to do this.

Find out how to sync iTunes with your Android phone here.

Lifehacker also has a great article on how to sync your Android as seamlessly as an iPhone

Do you really know how to use your iPhone?

2011-07-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

While this miracle from Apple that we call an iPhone is, for the most part, easy and intuitive to use, there are times when you just need to look up how to do something or to learn about the features you are not even using. Well here's an app that touts itself as the "Training Manual that should have come with your iPhone".

iCademy at the iTunes App Store.

Android App lets you set custom vibrations for txt and email messages

2011-06-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

Don't miss that important email or text message with this app: Vibration Notifier

How to set a stronger passcode for your iPhone

2011-06-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago there was a report out of the most popular passcodes on the iPhone that should be avoided. The report came from an app that was trying to capture passcodes and Apple has since banned this app from the iTunes App Store, but it does bring to light the downfall of 4 character pass codes.

This post from CNET provides a great guide on how to setup your iPhone to allow complex passcodes (as well as just words).

Check out all the latest data breaches with this chart

2011-06-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

CNET has put together a great chart (via google spreadsheets) that contains a great look at the last 4 months of large data breaches

Find the chart here - and apparently they will be keeping this up to date too!

Citibank hackers were just really observant

2011-06-21T20:07:00.004-04:00

Back in 1998 & 1999, while working at MindSpring, myself and a large number of co-workers were testing a new web-email product called "SpringMail". A group of very observant co-workers paid attention to the browser URL address-bar and noticed that their email address was there. If they made a change to the URL to contain someone else's email address, then they could easily gain access to that mailbox without being asked for a password. We alerted the developers and they tried fixing it. The next time this group of co-workers tested it, there was a unique ID in the URL field instead of the email address. If you changed that unique ID number up or down, you could again gain access to someone else's mailbox without being asked for a password. This problem took months for the developers to solve and caused product delays, but the developers did not release the product to the public until the security issues were resolved.

I'm relaying this story to help you understand that some very high paid CitiBank software developers in charge of creating the credit card management and authentication system created and why it was so easy for the hackers to compromise CitiBank's credit card databases in 2011.

There are links below that provide more details into the CitiBank story, but the beginning of it started with the CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT NUMBER being displayed as the "unique identifier" in the website URL field. All someone needed to do was notice this and they could then start changing numbers to see if they could gain access to someone else's account. While there were other flaws in the website database system that allowed the hackers to gain deeper access into the CitiBank servers, the basic fact remains that one of the simplest software development oversights caused all these problems. Yes Citibank is providing new credit cards to the 300,000+ accounts they feel were compromised, but do you really know WHO was grabbing your browser sessions when you logged into your credit card account BEFORE this problem was fixed? If I were a CitiBank credit card holder (of any type credit card) - I would be asking for a new card immediately.

H-Online's Article
ComputerWorld's Article
SoftPedia's Article
Yahoo Finance's Article

Updated Dragon software allows you to dictate with you iPhone

2011-06-17T08:00:00.001-04:00

Earlier this week Nuance upgraded quite a few of their Dragon Naturally Speaking dictation software to version 11.5 that included quite a few additions to allow you to interact with many of the popular social networks, including Facebook.

But the biggest news is the fact that once you're using Version 11.5, you can download the free Dragon Remote Microphone app from iTunes and begin using your iPhone as a wireless dictation microphone! (As long as your computer and your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad are connected to the same wifi network that is.)

Users of Dragon version 11 will be able to upgrade to 11.5 in a few weeks at not additional cost.
Unfortunately, users of Dragon Medical do not have an upgrade yet and are still on Version 10.1

But I still believe there are a number of you out there that this will be a must have upgrade.

Adroid App: SMS Popup

2011-06-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

This app is one that I've personally recommended to a number of friends that are quite the texters. It has a ton of features and it's FREE!

See more details at DownloadSquad's review page.

US Senate website defaced by hackers

2011-06-14T09:25:00.003-04:00

It does appear that 2011 is going to be the year of security breaches.

Over the weekend, the US Senate web server was, along with possibly other servers, breached by hackers and the website defaced. This adds to the growing list of high profile hacks over the past few months that include the IMF, RSA, PBS, Lockheed Martin, Sony and others.

Is your network security up to being attacked? Read over The 10 Immutable Laws of Computer Security that Microsoft posted and get a better idea.

Law #1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it's not solely your computer anymore.

Law #2: If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it's not your computer anymore.
Law #3: If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore.
Law #4: If you allow a bad guy to run active content in your website, it's not your website any more.
Law #5: Weak passwords trump strong security.
Law #6: A computer is only as secure as the administrator is trustworthy.
Law #7: Encrypted data is only as secure as its decryption key.
Law #8: An out-of-date antimalware scanner is only marginally better than no scanner at all.
Law #9: Absolute anonymity isn't practically achievable, online or offline.
Law #10: Technology is not a panacea.

You can read more about each of them at their TechNet article.

Get your RSA SecureID Token replaced ASAP!

2011-06-13T08:00:00.001-04:00

A few months ago RSA alerted the public to the fact that their network had been compromised but the full extent of the attack on RSA was not understood until an attack and infiltration of the Lockheed Martin network had occurred: RSA's SecureID tokens were compromised

RSA has now decided to essentially replace all SecureID tokens upon request. I am sure there are a few 2K clients that use the SecureID tokens for various login systems. I highly recommend that everyone request replacement SecureID tokens from your vendors to be sure that your account logins are not compromised in the future the same way as Lockheed's were.

If your vendor is unaware, please send them this link and have them contact the numbers at the bottom of the RSA website.

Yes, Macs can get infected, and 2K can help!

2011-06-02T14:34:00.003-04:00

For a long time, the general public consensus was that Macs did not have virus problems. That all changed a few weeks ago.

After over a two weeks of reports that a fake antivirus malware was able to infect OSX systems, Apple has published a knowledge base article that details the infection and how to remove it. Apple has also released a patch that for OSX that will seek out and remove Mac Defender.

The biggest issue on this infection is that while browsing a hijacked website would present a file to be downloaded automatically that the system would deem as "safe" and open automatically, requiring an administrator password to install and thus infecting the computer.

Apple and many other security firms are recommending that all users make the following changes to their Safari preferences:

Preferences, General, un-check "open 'safe' files after downloading"

Quite Honestly - this setting should be set by EVERYONE. Yes this causes you a few extra clicks to open a file you've just downloaded but it does increase your safety.

And now there's news that a new variant of Mac Defender has made it into the wild that would bypass the need for an administrator password to install and infect a computer as well as another that bypasses Apple's recently released patch to protect against Mac Defender

As part of the new OSX patch, Apple has changed the settings of the OSX internal malware program to update itself daily and scan more often that the previously configured. While this may help, the malware makers are already far ahead of what Apple can do to protect you.

2K Networking now has the capability of providing access to the newly released F-Secure Protection Service for Business - Mac version. F-secure has finally provided a central managed mac version of their highly rated anti-virus and anti-malware software. We are recommending to all of our clients that did not have a Mac antivirus program to sign on now and get it a discount before July 1. F-secure does have a consumer version of this software that they're now making available for purchase and 2K can provide that as well.

Give 2K a call at 717-724-0537 and we can help!

Increase the text size on your iPhone

2011-05-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

I know there are some of you out there that have some issues seeing all the tiny writing on our amazing iPhone devices. Here's a way to save some eye strain by increasing the onscreen text size!

How to Increase your iPhone text size by MacLife

How do you spot a "Fake Antivirus" infection?

2011-05-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

From fake emails (phishing) to fake antivirus, we all have to be vigilant to keep our computers and networks secure. Over the past 2 years this type of malware infection has become the dominant one we have seen . Everyone should get familiar with the antivirus that is installed on their computers in order to be able to more easily spot the fakes. 2K Networking's antivirus of choice is F-Secure for numerous reasons.

Now please familiarize yourself with How to tell if your antivirus is fake.

And there is more reading at: Dangers of Rouge Antivirus Threats

How do you spot a "Phishing" email?

2011-05-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

With the numerous corporate account database breaches gaining access to millions of names and email addresses, there probability of getting a few email trying to get you to divulge passwords or bank account information. It is now time to be suspicious of all email.

This all brings me to this post. A few weeks ago How To Geek posted a great breakdown of how to verify that the email asking you to login to Paypal is real or not.

Online Security: Breaking Down the Anatomy of a Phishing Email

F-Secure Scores High on Q1 2011 at AV-Test.org

2011-05-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

F-Secure again scored very high on the Q1 testing at AV-Test.org usability testing in Windows 7.
Depending on how you look at the scores F-Secure would have tied either for first or second place on this recent reporting.

Unfortunately this report does not bode well for the free Microsoft's Security Essentials (Based on MS Forefront Security) or CA's Internet Security Suite (the consumer version of their Endpoint 12 product). Both of them were at the very bottom of the list and did very poorly in protecting the computer at all.

This report just goes to outline why 2K moved from CA's Etrust/Endpoint product line to F-secure in the first place.

Do you want to move to F-Secure's Protection Service for Business to ensure that you're systems are protected?

Contact to 2K at 717-724-0537 and we can help.

How can I have a secure password that is easy to remember?

2011-05-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

A few months ago I posted about the common myth that you could not use spaces in passwords. And since that myth was in fact untrue, this post follows on to let you understand why that is so important.

While some gibberish password of at least 8 characters containing at least one of each capital letter, number and symbol and is NOT in part or whole the same as one of your last 10 passwords is highly secure. It becomes very difficult to continue to remember these passwords. Here is where the space helps!

A pass-phrase of How high the 2 kites fly! can fulfill all the requirements for many password rules and it is easy to remember. And I will be very difficult to hack!

You can find out more details at this Lifehacker article on how to begin using passphrases to simplify your remembering of passwords.

Sony offering identity theft protection to users affected by database breach

2011-05-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

As we posted a few weeks ago, Sony's Play Station network was infiltrated by hackers. The story got worse, after that though. Their Sony Entertainment Online network for computer based games was also compromised and credit card information was most likely obtained by hackers.

As part of Sony's apologies, they are going to be offering free identity theft protection for over 100 million of it's users.

If you are included in this group - please find more details at the Sony Blog.

LastPass: Shining example of what to do when a compromise occurrs

2011-05-09T08:00:00.001-04:00

On May 4, LastPass informed its users and the public that someone may have had unauthorized access to its servers. The company immediately set in motion a forced reset of all master passwords for all users. It then continued with a very commendable action of informing everyone, users and public alike, to what the problem was and what steps they were using to mitigate the issue. And Management even allowed an interview on a live podcast of Tech News Today on the TWiT network.

When this company that prides itself on keeping your passwords safe, had a compromise of its system it was open and honest about very quickly. Unlike how other companies handled the few security breaches over the past month, this one is a shining example of how other companies should act and react.

You can see some of the articles about this below:

CNET's Seth Rosenblatt
Computerworld's interview with LastPass CEO
Computerworld's analysis article on the issue

Steps to lower your online credit card theft risk

2011-05-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

With all of the large corporate data security breaches exposing not only personal information but credit card data as well, this post comes just in time!

#1 - Go over ALL charges on your credit card bill.

#2 - Shop at secure AND trusted sites only. This means they are using https: with a valid SSL certificate AND that they are trusted. Trust is relative so lets say you find an unbelievable price on some website you don't recognize but Amazon.com is still about $15 more. I'd recommend using Amazon because they are a known brand and that $15 you may have saved on the one transaction could turn into a loss of hundreds or thousands!

#3 - Use one time credit card numbers. More details on these are at the link below but the companies that provide these still provide you the protection of the credit card itself unlike pre-paid debit cards.

Details on each of these items can be found at the F-Secure Safe & Savvy Blog

2K Networking Adds Technology Professionals to Fast-Growing Team

2011-05-04T09:29:00.001-04:00

From The business desk:

Harrisburg, PA—March 30, 2011—2K Networking, a Central Pennsylvania technology solution provider and system integration company is pleased to announce the hire of several new employees to its growing team of technology professionals serving the Harrisburg, Lancaster and York areas...

Click here to see the full story

Beware of any Osama Bin Laden related emails or social network posts

2011-05-03T11:37:00.004-04:00

Since Sunday night the spam and phishing email traffic related to Osama Bin Laden has increased tremendously. And that's not just the only place OBL related scams are showing up. There have been malicious Facebook postings, fake YouTube videos and many other fake/scam social network related postings to lure people into clicking the links and infecting their computers.

You can find more information at this Barracuda Labs blog post. And even more at this Computer World article.

Overall - be skeptical of even TRUSTED friends sending you anything OBL related at this point because it is hard to pick out the real ones from the fake ones. Please use trusted news websites such as CNN, BBC World News, ABC, NBC, CBS, Yahoo News, Google News and others to get your information.

Do you use Sony's PSN? All of your personal information has now been compromised!

2011-04-27T09:15:00.004-04:00

It's been a week since Sony's PlayStation Network was taken offline and it took nearly that long for Sony to acknowledge why they took PSN offline. The PSN was compromised by hackers that gained access to over 70 million customer accounts and the information attached to those accounts. This includes:

Customer Names
Customer Addresses
Customer E-mail Addresses
Customer Birthdays
Customer PlayStation Network and Qriocity passwords
PSN & Qriocity and user names & as well as online user handles

Now - Sony cannot confirm if Credit Card information was accessed but it is my opinion to assume that it was. I would recommend to any client that was using PSN to watch their credit card charges very carefully. The most drastic measure to take would be to cancel the credit card attached to the PSN account and get a new one.

You can find out more details here:
CNET News.com story
Yahoo! News story

2K Networking in the York Sunday News

2011-04-25T10:54:00.007-04:00

Click to View Full Size

Amazon's EC2 Cloud Service surffers a major outage

2011-04-22T12:47:00.002-04:00

The secret to today's quick launch Internet 2.0 businesses is Amazon's Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2) service offering. This provides a cloud-based infrastructure that many companies run their databases, websites, and other services from.

Unfortunately, Amazon has had a major outage that has taken down a huge amount of these high profile companies, including FourSquare, Reddit.

To say that running your company entirely off of this type of cloud service is risky would be an understatement. You can read more from the Yahoo! New story here.

2K Networking Renews as Microsoft Partner

2011-04-08T15:40:00.002-04:00

2K Networking is very excited to renew their prestigious silver level partnership with Microsoft. The 2K team continues to strive to improve themselves with additional training and certification, and we are proud to be recognized by Microsoft for that effort:

"Did you know that only about 5 percent of Microsoft partners worldwide can distinguish themselves by having attained a high degree of proficiency with a Microsoft silver competency?"

Another Followup on the Epsilon Email Database Breach

2011-04-07T07:44:00.002-04:00

I received information from one of our clients that Verizon is now included in the list of companies affected by this problem.

CNET has a great article on who Epsilon is and why they have your data - please read as it's very eye-opening.

CNET's Video Podcast "CNET to the Resecue" yesterday dedicated nearly its entire episode to this issue and goes over some recommendations for affected users that include changing the email addresses and passwords that are used for those affected companies.

Followup to the Epsilon Data Breach

2011-04-05T08:08:00.004-04:00

From information I've gathered across the internet over the past 24 hours as of now here is a list of major companies affected by the email breach includes (but is not limited to):

Abe Books
American Express
Ameriprise Financial
Barclays Bank of Delaware
Best Buy
Borders
Brookstone
Capital One
Citibank
City Market
CollegeBoard
Dillons
Disney Vacations
Food 4 Less
Fred Meyer
Fry’s
Hilton Honors
The Home Shopping Network (HSN)
Jay C
JP Morgan Chase
King Soopers
Kroger
LL Bean
Marriott Rewards
McKinsey Quarterly
New York & Co.
QFC
Ralphs
Ritz Carlton
Robert Half
Smith Brands
TiVo
US Bank
Verizon
Visa
Walgreens
1-800-FLOWERS

Other possible companies are Target, Home Depot, AirMiles Canada

CRITICAL ALERT: Two Data Breeches started last week will affect millions

2011-04-04T08:00:00.003-04:00

2K does not make alert statements often, but when we do it is urgent that our entire client base know about them as quickly as possible.

The two data breeches that we are alerting you to are going to cause targeted spam messages that will most likely NOT be blocked by the Barracuda Spam filter as they ramp up AND will cause fake antivirus or fake computer maintenance utility alerts to pop up.

The targeted spam is going to be coming from a huge database breech at Epsilon, a commercial email and PR company. Epsilon's clients include Kroger, TiVo, Walgreen Drugstore, Capital One Financial, and the Home Shopping Network (HSN). The information that was vulnerable was, for the most part, limited to names and email addresses of account holders with the companies that Epsilon had as clients. Over the weekend, many of those companies affected sent out official email alerts to their users (I received one from TiVo and Capital One) about the data breech. And I have already started seeing targeted SPAM messages on my personal account asking me to click on links that would then infect my computer. You can read more about this at Yahoo Finance.

The Second data breech involves hackers using an SQL Injection attack against servers running Oracle/Sun's open source database program MySQL. This started early last week and gained momentum as the week progressed. Webfiltering company WebSense was the first to report on this. This attack is being known as the Liza Moon SQL Injection attack due to some of the domain name hosting the attacks. While this attack is not gaining access to personal information, it is causing fake antivirus and fake system maintenance alerts to be served up from millions of websites. These alerts can be very deceptive and look very real. Clicking on any of these alerts would infect a computer and begin prompting you for credit card information as payment to clean the computer.

Should you feel that you have been affected by either of these attacks, please contact 2K immediately at 717-724-0537 for assistance.

Android App Alert: Winamp 1.0 - who knew...

2011-03-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

So you purchased your Android phone before the Verizon iPhone 4 was released and you're having iPhone envy OR you're just not wanting to live inside the Apple bubble... Either way you can now be the envy of other iPhone owners with the Android app Winamp 1.0. Yes you heard me - that venerable MP3 playing app from way back has made it's way to the Android platform with some amazing features:

Wireless Syncing of your media library (Even Apple devices cannot do this yet)
Better than the default Android media player
Shoutcast free streaming radio stations
Import of iTunes media libraries and playlists

You can find it now here in the Android Marketplace and the Windows desktop version of Winamp is required for wireless syncing.

Do you want to automate items on your Android device?

2011-03-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

Well - There is an app called Tasker that lets you script some items, but there is now an app called AutomateIt which provides a more intuitive way to automate actions on your Android Device.

Find AuotmateIt on the Android Markeplace

Find out more on Tasker at LifeHacker

Tips to secure your Windows 7 Phone

2011-03-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Android Marketplace has been in the news lately for having trojan infected applications. Here are a few tips on how to secure your Windows 7 phone

1. Download Games and Apps only from trusted sources. For Windows Phone, you can only install apps from the Zune Marketplace. This means that they have been digitally signed, which reduces your risk. As mentioned, Apple uses the same model for iPhone. With Google’s Android, you have to be careful!

2. Install your WP7 Phone updates as soon as they are made available. These may be some security updates too!

3. Use passwords to protect your Windows Phone and important data. Set up a password for the WP7 lockscreen. Imagine what would happen if your un-protected phone were to get lost! Everything including your social networking accounts, email accounts, important data, would be available to a total stranger, for potential misuse. Use a secure password manager or an eWallet app to save and store all your important passwords, and credentials and data safely.

4. Use a PIN (Personal Identification Number) for the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card in your phone to prevent people from making unauthorized phone calls.

Find the rest of the tips at the source...

Make that iPad (or even iPhone) useful - Sign Documents Electronically!

2011-03-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

To me - this is truly one of THE killer apps for the iPad - EasySign. What does it do? It lets you use your finger and sign those documents that you received via email, save as a PDF and send the signed copy out via email. This means that no longer do you have to wait till you get back to an office to print out, sign, and fax (or scan and email).

Essentially - you are Getting Business Done quicker!! I do not know any of 2K's clients that could not utilize this. The app itself is free and includes 3 free documents. You can then buy the ability to sign 20 more documents (in app purchase) for $4.99. And they've promised a $9.99 unlimited document version will be available soon.

You can watch a demo below and find EasySign in the iTunes Appstore here.

ALERT: Japan Disaster Scams are EVERYWHERE!

2011-03-20T17:50:00.006-04:00

And even someone as vigilant as I am, I fell for one of these (a fake tsunami YouTube video link in my Facebook feed) - It tried downloading a file to run on my system which was blocked by F-secure and was asking me to verify my age - which if you have a YouTube account it will ask you to login to your account to verify your age.

First - please read this site for tips on how to avoid the scams that are going on. This does include the one I fell for.

Here are a number of other links from a few security related sites that go over a number of the malware scams that are becoming very prevalent over the past week:

419 Scam (similar to the Nigerian scams - asking you to send money)
.tk domains serving out fake tsunami videos
Other Email SPAM messages requesting donations for Japan
Miracle and Survivor stories fake videos
Save Japan and Donate to Japan fake websites

What's the big deal about tablets anyway? A: Productivity

2011-03-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

In the business world we're getting lots of questions about how this person can use a tablet device or how person could use it. Really what the question comes down to is: Can (brand name tablet device here) improve my productivity?

Depending on what tasks each of you out there do on a daily basis the answer may be an emphatic "Yes!" a strong "Maybe." or an "I don't know." What it all comes down to is what tasks could be moved from a laptop or desktop computer to a smaller form factor tablet.

What 2K needs for you, the client, to do is to have thought about what tasks you feel could benefit from the tablet form factor THEN we can go further by showing you what that tablet could do for you with those tasks and others.

There are other items to think about too and Lifehacker has a great post: How Tables are Great Productivity Tools that should be read and though about before leaping into the purchase of a new hot technology.

HUMOR: David Letterman's Top 10 reasons to buy an iPad2

2011-03-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

OK - Enough serious stuff for a moment - get a laugh to start your day.

iPad vs other Tablets

2011-03-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

A few websites have put some iPad vs Motorola Xoom and other tablets comparisons together and we wanted to share them with you:

A "By the Specs" comparison from Droid Life

A Computerworld "Death Match" between iPad and Xoom

BUT – remember – that the Xoom is Android 3.0 and there are very few apps (between 50 adn 100 out of 150,000)that have been updated for 3.0 because it’s currently only a tablet OS. This is the biggest downfall for ANY Android tablet at the moment and will continue to be so until the developers get on the ball and create TWO versions of their apps. Google has stated that Android Phone 2.2/2.3 branch will be merged with the Android Tablet 3.0 branch sometime later this year…. Until then do you think the developers want to maintain 2 copies of their apps? Probably not. This is where the iPad2 has the advantage. Most developers are creating “unified” apps that work on both the iPhone and iPad natively without having to create two different apps.

The app advantage goes to the iPad and it’s really all about the apps you are going to use with the tablet of your choice.

Of note – upon the announcement of the iPad2 Samsung has already begun re-evaluating it’s new Galaxy Tab 10.1 that’s not even released yet!

To tell you how important the iPad is – the FAA has approved it to REPLACE the paper flight path maps AND LAPTOPS for pilots!

And now that the iPad 2 is finally out - here's a feature by feature comparison against the Motorola Xoom (in the end iPad2 comes out on top).

So we've gone this long without even mentioning Microsoft.... How can that be??

Microsoft tried to move into the table space before 2004 with Windows XP Tablet edition. They migrated that into Windows Vista Home Premium and above a few years ago and there are still Tablet based services built into Windows 7. Yet where is the multitude of tablets that the big computer makers should be pushing to compete with the iPad? There isn't any really because I feel Microsoft just cant get out of it's own way to innovate. Microsoft could lose out BIG TIME (up to 1.28 billion) in potential lost revenue and R&D monies needed to play catch up if they want to stay in the game. They keep looking at the tablet market as a touch screen PC... it's NOT! The way we interact with tablets is different when we touch than when we use a mouse and physical keyboard. Just look at this video with a baby learning how to use the iPad - I've never seen any kid be able to figure out a Windows laptop computer with such ease. That ease of use is what makes tablet computing different. That's why I feel Microsoft may NEVER field a true tablet OS that can compete with the iPad or the Android tablets.

IE 9 is out, but wait...

2011-03-15T08:55:00.002-04:00

Many sources across the web are announcing the release of Internet Explorer 9. We just have one thing to say about it: wait! Many times, a new version of a browser will not be compatible with many different websites and applications until there has been enough time for them to adjust. If you rely on any web sites or applications (especially those that require Internet Explorer), don't install IE9 until you have verified (on a test machine or with your IT department) that they will not be broken.

Google removes malware apps from app store and devices

2011-03-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

Google used it's "remote removal" (also known as a "kill switch" capabilities built into the Android OS to remove all of the malware infested applications installed by users on their phone and tablet devices. This is not the first time this has happened but is the most pervasive with over 50 apps included in this remote removal action. More details can be found in this H-Online article. For all of those wondering - yes Apple does have the same capabilities built into it's IOS devices, but has not had the need to use it.

Google has now officially acknowledged the issues in it's blog posting a few days ago and is vowing to increase security of the Android Market place so this kind of infestation of bad apps does not occur again.

My opinion on this is this: There are reasons Apple has an approval process to get an app added to it's AppStore and security is one of the top reasons. Google's Android Market place currently does not have any such process or capabilities so it's Buyer Beware when downloading/purchasing an app for your Android device.

And now we've got an alert from Trend Micro that they're seeing the Zeus malware/trojan makers (known for phishing scams and Fake AV utilities) targeting Blackberry users.

We have moved into a SmartPhone era where it truly is a mini computer in your pocket with lots of very personal and valuable items to the same community creating FAKE Antivirus Trojans for PC that would allow them to steal your identity. Everyone needs to be vigilant and pay attention to what they're downloading.

Trojans in Pirated Android Apps

2011-03-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Yet another reason to stay away from pirated software, and as always, be very careful about what you download!

Click here to read the full article

Apple tells you what makes that Verizon iPhone different from the ATT iPhone

2011-03-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's the carrier, stupid! :-) Yes and the carrier differences mean that different service related options such as call forwarding, call waiting and other features are accessed and changed in a different manner.

Lifehacker has a nice post with an image you can print out for quick reference, or you can go directly to the Apple Knowledge Base article that outlines this in table format.

F-Secure Tops another independent lab test

2011-03-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

AV-Test.org has revealed the Q4 2010 test results for the 20+ antivirus products they pit against some very bad malware and F-Secure has come out on top. F-Secure and Symantec had been battling it out for the top two all last year, but F-Secure has come out on top where it counts. While they tested the F-Secure Internet Security Suite product - the F-Secure Protection Service for Business version only adds central management to the mix!

See the PC Mag article detailing the testing here.

See the actual results from AV-Test.org here.

Free Financial Apps for Apple Devices

2011-02-28T08:00:00.002-05:00

In these troubling times, we should all be more aware of our financial health. So if you've got an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, there are a large number of apps out there to help find out how your money is working for you or just being lazy and sitting there. This site comes to us via mashable.com and is a great collection. I personally use a few of these myself.

21 Free iPhone Apps for Staying Financially Fit in 2011

Do you know what a failing hard drive sounds like?

2011-02-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Over the past 15 years I've handled a huge amount of bad hard drives and many times the most obvious indicator is the sound that it makes. One data recovery company has put together a list of sounds from failing hard drives from different vendors. This list also indicates what the actual cause of failure that is producing that sound. Those of us in the 2K Techroom have heard many of these sounds directly in the course of our workday. Now you can hear these sounds as well by going to the website linked below.

Click here for more details.

Oh - and those with iPhones/iPads/iPods Touch can also download an app from iTunes that visually demonstrates (and audibly as well) some of these hard drive failures.

So you've got an iPad - now what?

2011-02-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

You can look for more iPad related posts in the near future - but for now I'll share an extremely useful page with tons of tips and tricks from one of my favorite sites - howtogeek.com

Click here to read get your full list of tips and tricks.

Android Market Upgrade - Install Apps Remotely

2011-02-17T12:11:00.004-05:00

The Android market can now be accessed through your browser. This means you can search for an app, browse by categories, purchase, download and install apps to your phone, all on your computer.

To give it a try, go to https://market.android.com/

Visit 2K Networking at PETE&C at Hershey Lodge

2011-02-14T11:52:00.003-05:00

2K Networking is at the PETE&C Trade Show this week at the Hershey Lodge. Stop by and visit us at our booth

Did you get a new Verizon iPhone - time to Update already!

2011-02-10T15:05:00.003-05:00

Apple released iOS 4.2.6 for the Verizon iPhone and is available to update via iTunes as soon as you purchase. I highly recommend you update as soon as you get your phone connected to iTunes so you don't have to worry about re-arranging all those apps you're about ready to download and install!

iPhone/iPad tip - create lock screen to do lists

2011-02-09T12:27:00.002-05:00

I love my iPhone and the 2K iPad but there are times when we need a quick look at the phone to see our to-do list. The nice thing is that you can now set a different background for the lock screen and a nice screenshot of a "notes" list works quite well for a to-do list.

See this post from CNET for more details

30 more tips and tricks for Windows Phone 7 users

2011-02-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we had a post with links to many how-to pages for Windows Phone 7. Now I've run across an article with tips and tricks to make life easier while using your new phone and you can find it here.

Malware University 101: How to tell if your Antivirus is Fake

2011-02-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

"Fake antivirus or FAKEAV has become a significant threat and more and more users have become victims of this profitable scam. Trend Micro and the rest of the security industry continues to work hard to protect users against this threat. However, educating and informing users about this scam is more effective than any technical solution that the industry can provide. In this blog entry, you will find some tips that will allow you to identify fake antivirus programs and other similar Internet scams."

Click here to read full article.

Do you know what the term "Net Neutrality" means?

2011-02-02T10:00:00.001-05:00

Over the past 3 years the term "Net Neutrality" has gone from a concept, to a buzz word, to a network provider hated term. But do you know what it ACTUALLY means and how having it in place (or not in place) would affect your business? LifeHacker has posted a great article to introduce you to what it does mean and the reasoning behind the movement to have the concept turn into reality. PLEASE read up on this and if you have any questions or concerns please let us know.

An Introduction to Net Neutrality: What It Is, What It Means for You, and What You Can Do About It

Free Anti-Theft security for your mobile phone from F-Secure

2011-01-31T09:30:00.000-05:00

Nearly all of us have at least one smartphone that we carry around on a daily basis and sometimes even sleep with it next to our bed at night. With this little piece of technology becoming so important to us, we absolutely get frantic if we lose it or it gets stolen. F-Secure has released a free app that will help you locate your phone if you've misplaced it. It will even go so far as to allow you to lock and wipe the phone if necessary to keep any valuable information out of the hands of some stranger. The phone types supported include nearly 85% of the smartphones sold in 2010 (outside of the iPhone itself):

Android 1.6, 2.x
Symbian S60 3rd and 5th Edition
Windows Mobile 6 Professional
Windows Mobile 6 Standard
Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC
Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone

F-Secure's overview page (linked here) provides you with a video demo of how the software and service works. It looks quite easy to install and use and I do believe I'll be installing it on my own Windows Mobile 6-based phone. You can go here for instructions on how to install. And you can go here for instructions on how to use.

Need to sign a document on the go with you iPhone/iPad?

2011-01-24T09:56:00.000-05:00

There's a new app available that will let you sign that PDF or Word document and send it off to continue business while you are on the go. This app is called Sign-N-Send. There are two versions - a paid app version for $2 that removes the 1 page Advert at the beginning of the document that is inserted if you use the free app version. I'm quite sure this is going to come in very handy for quite a few of 2K's clients that are always on the go.

You can read more about this nifty little app at LifeHacker.

Deferred IT Maintenance is a Ticking Time Bomb

2011-01-18T09:48:00.002-05:00

During these hard economic times, many companies have cut back on the IT budget, and maintenance is often the first thing to go. But, failing to give the proper attention to a business network can only lead to even higher expenses down the road.

Click here to read full article.

Do you need to backup your Android Phone?

2011-01-15T21:59:00.003-05:00

While the Android ecosystem does not have a unified data and media management system like the iPhone does with iTunes, there is something very close. It's called DoubleTwist. And you will be the envy of your iPhone owning friends because it also will allow you to sync over a WiFi connection.

Now there are other options on backing up your content and that information is explained in the Lifehacker article linked here.

F-Secure named Windows AV Product of the Year

2011-01-13T08:09:00.002-05:00

AV Comparatives has released their latest analysis of the top AV products on the market. The product of choice this year, F-Secure, is also a 2K partner. The AV Comparatives report (PDF via Google Docs) shows that F-Secure was one of the only products to get the highest marks across the board.

2K Networking partnered with F-Secure in July of 2010 and have since completed over 600 installations on both desktops and servers. The F-Secure Protection Service for Business software protects our clients from multiple threat vectors and has proven to have lowered the overall infection rate to near zero in the first six months of this partnership. Before July of 2010 we were seeing 3-7 client desktop infections per week.

Do you have F-Secure on your system? Would you like to? Please contact 2K at 717-724-0537 for more information on how F-Secure can protect you.

Malware University 101: Rootkits

2011-01-12T10:01:00.002-05:00

This is the fourth posting in a series covering common threats a user may encounter.

Click here to read the full article

Malware 101: Worms

2011-01-07T08:40:00.003-05:00

This is the third posting in a three-part series covering common threats a user may encounter.

This series serves as a rough and ready guide, highlighting key features and trends relevant to most users.

Click here to read the full article

Didhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif you get a new iPhone 4S or upgrading to IOS 5?

2011-01-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Before you upgrade to the new iPhone 4S or upgrade to the new IOS 5 you absolutely need to make sure you backup your data before you move to the new phone or version of the iPhone OS or you may lose valuable data, apps or contacts!

This Lifehacker article will guide you through backing up your data.

Once you have this completed, you're ready to move to that new iPhone 4S or update to IOS5.
But with all that's new inside IOS5, there are quite a bit of items that need setup for iCloud and this Lifehacker article will help you set all those new features up.

And then you can go exploring some of the hundreds of new features. But this Wired article will help you find 7 of the hidden gems.

Adblock Plus Now Available for Chrome

2010-12-23T13:34:00.003-05:00

Adblock is a plug-in for your browser which will block most ads. Not only does this cut down on annoyances and distractions, it also helps protect your computer from infections propagated through rogue advertisements.

Click to read article

Adblock Website

Windows Phone 7 Tips and Tricks

2010-12-20T08:23:00.002-05:00

Click to read each part

Part 1 - Hubs
Part 2 - "Find My Phone"
Part 3 - Improve Battery Life
Part 4 - Pin Apps to Start
Part 5 - Import SIM Contacts
Part 6 - SkyDrive and Zune
Part 7 - Web Browsing
Part 8 - The Three Buttons
Part 9 - Syncing Files
Part 10 - The 'Me Card'
Part 11 - Keyboard Tips
Part 12 - Office Mobile
Part 13 - Speech Recognition
Part 14 - Calendars

Malware university 101: Viruses

2010-12-15T09:12:00.001-05:00

This is the second posting in a three-part series covering common threats a user may encounter.

This series serves as a rough and ready guide, highlighting key features and trends relevant to most users.

Click here to read the full article

Google, Microsoft Ad Networks Briefly Hit With Malware

2010-12-13T08:15:00.003-05:00

Both web advertisement networks were compromised last week and were serving out infected ads. You can Click here to read article . All 2K Clients that have F-Secure Antivirus deployed were protected during this outbreak. 2K's management dashboard with F-Secure showed nearly all clients would have been affected by this if they had not been protected with F-Secure.

Gawker.com says its user database was compromised

2010-12-13T08:13:00.001-05:00

Gawker Media Inc. is urging subscribers to change their passwords because hackers have found their way into the company's user databases

Click here to read article

Password Myth - Passwords cannot include spaces

2010-12-03T14:03:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to pass this along to all those of you out there trying to figure out what your next password will be when it expires - Use PHRASES :-)

Pulled from a Symantec article.

"Although most users do not realize it, nearly all versions of Windows since Windows 2000 allow spaces in passwords. In fact, if you can view a character in Windows, you can use that character in a password. Therefore, spaces are perfectly valid password characters. However, due to how some applications trim spaces, it is often best not to begin or end your password with a space.

Spaces can actually make it easier for users to come up with more complex passwords. A space is used between words therefore using spaces may encourage users to use more than one word in their passwords.

An interesting fact I recently discovered in my research is that spaces do not fall into any of the categories for Windows password complexity requirements. It is not a number or letter yet does not count as a symbol either. So while it will make your password more complex, it does nothing to help you pass Windows complexity requirements.

And finally, one drawback with spaces is that the spacebar makes a unique noise when tapped. It is not hard to hear when someone uses a space in their password. So use spaces, but don't overuse spaces."

Facebook Malware Attack Occurring Now

2010-12-02T14:46:00.002-05:00

2K Networking has noticed a large number of recent attacks originating from Facebook applications and advertisements. Clients with F-Secure are protected against these attacks. Those without F-Secure are advised to contact 2K Networking for more information.

As always, use caution when browsing or opening e-mail links/attachments, and contact 2K Networking if you suspect your computer is already infected.

Where to find Windows Phone 7 Apps online

2010-12-01T13:06:00.004-05:00

Microsoft in it's infinite wisdom (and to be different) did not setup a website repository for users of their new Windows Phone 7 smartphones to browse for apps while on their computer. Normally you have to use the Marketplace app on the phone to attempt to locate your favorite application. The 3rd party WP7 Applist website makes it much easier to search for and find new apps. While you still have to use the Marketplace app on the smartphone itself to do the downloading, now you can find new apps easier and use QR Codes or MS Tags found on WP7 Applist to take you to the app download in the Marketplace. You do need the ZUNE software installed on your syncing computer to download from the web and sync to your phone. They even have an App Activity section that shows you when the app was updated and if there have been any price changes.

Top 10 iPhone Annoyances and How to Fix

2010-11-30T10:46:00.000-05:00

Click Here to read the article