Cyber Wars?

According to an article on internetnews.com McAfee is warning nations against politically motivated cyber attacks. They have been predicting this threat for awhile now and just recently have seen the threats become real. Not worried about it since your not into politics? According to McAfee private and public business will not fare well and may get caught in the crossfire. It's more important than ever now to protect your information and technology against threats. Here is the original article. McAfee Outlines Growing Cyber Warfare Threat.

Microsoft Axes Accounting Software

Microsoft announced recently that they will no longer be offering their suite of accounting software packages. Bummer for those who stuck with it for these past few years. I myself had switched over from Quickbooks to Small Business Accounting a few years ago. You see, we are a big Microsoft supporter and were excited they had added that element to the Microsoft software family. Unfortunately, it wasn't very easy to use, they kept changing it, and I eventually got so frustrated that I switched back to Quickbooks. I guess others may have had the same experience now that I hear Microsoft will no longer be offering the software. Too bad, really - it would be nice to go with Microsoft on this one but when it came down to it, I had to have a good program to do the books for my business on. Quickbooks fit the ticket. Now I am using Quickbooks Online which I love because I can travel and still access my accounting records. I can easily give my accountant a log in as well and she can work on our taxes. I just pay a monthly fee and we get a 3 user license. If you are interested ... check it out! Quickbooks Online Article Microsoft Info

Should I backup online?

Until recently I kept all my files on an external hard drive. So far, so good. Last year my laptop just stopped working. One day it was fine and the next day kapowee it won't boot up. Lost everything. Luckily I had copied a lot of my files onto Microsoft's SkyDrive so that was great. But I hadn't been diligent about keeping it updated and unfortunately lost a lot of information. After that happened I decided to stop using my local hard drive and use an external hard drive. I was feeling pretty smart about that when one day my husband brought up the idea that ... even an external hard drive can fail. Duh, why didn't that occur to me? Now I'm using Microsoft Mesh. It's a free service and I'll admit it doesn't give you much space and isn't real easy to figure out but at least I could recover my files if I needed to.

What's your story? Are you backing up your files? According to a recent article by Kim Komando

• 43% of people lose irreplaceable files every year
• Only about 3 out of 100 stolen laptops are recovered
• Thousands of files are lost every year to disasters like fires, floods, etc.
• Up to 13% of hard drives crash in their first year

Kim recommends an online service called Carbonite. We like using MozyPro for our business and may be switching for our personal use as well. But what ever you decide to use - just use something. Don't find yourself in that 43% category with no backup of your data. Here are a few ideas:

• Online backups (like Carbonite, or MozyPro)
• Online backups for free - Microsoft's SkyDrive, or Mesh
• Copy files to an external hard drive
• Copy files to a CD or DVD

One further note I would add is to be sure and backup your email and contact information. That is one of the things I lost when my laptop crashed - I still don't have all the contacts back - and there were lots of emails that I was keeping and now can't recover.

Windows 7 Upgrade Confusion

Read an article from ComputerWorld by Gregg Keizer about some confusion with upgrading to Windows 7. Evidently a company called Digital River was offering discounted downloadable upgrades to students for Windows Version 7. 100's of customers complained that they were receiving an error message when trying to install the upgrade. According to Digital River and Microsoft, the problem occurs when students purchased a 64 bit version of Windows 7 to download onto their 32 bit existing versions of either Vista or Windows XP. I have to admit, I probably would make the same mistake and was curious about the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit. So I typed into Google (gotta love that!) "Difference Between 32 bit and 64 bit Windows". Amazingly an article from Microsoft popped up and I read all about it! Evidently some 32 bit computers are capable of running 64 bit but some are not able to. I decided to check out my own laptop. Here were the instructions: Open your Control Panel (by clicking first on the Start button) and go into Systems Maintenance. Click on Performance Information and Tools. View and Print Details. In the System Section you can read if you are running 32 or 64 bit and whether your computer even has the capability of running 64 bit. Be sure to check it out before downloading your upgrade. Digital River mentioned they would give refunds so if you ran into this problem read the article - it gives instructions on how to get that refund.

Go Ahead

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Go Ahead

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Cyber Insurance

Great article by Kim Komando. She lives in Phoenix AZ and is fabulous at teaching about computers and technology! Enjoy the article and you may also want to visit her website or facebook account! http://j.mp/V4nqH

proAktivR Basics

proAktivR Questions and Answers
the low cost solution to a healthy computer network

What exactly does proAktivR do?
Our computer services are very simple. We remotely watch over and verify accuracy in 4 basic areas: (1) Data Backup and Recovery (2) Virus’ (3) Software Patches and Updates (4) User Activity & Compliance with corporate IT policies. Your company’s future may be in jeopardy if you are exposed in even one of these areas. Don’t risk it! Call in the watchdogs!

I think we already do backups. Why would I need to sign up for your Backup Monitoring & Verification?
Many companies THINK they have a backup routine. Many companies, unfortunately, have to learn the hard way that their “backups” haven’t been running properly, if at all. We analyze your data and configurations, set you up on a good backup routine either on equipment at your office, or online through our affiliation with Mozypro. We then monitor your backups EVERY DAY to make sure they have executed properly and backed up all data as required. We communicate with your contact person EVERY DAY letting them know the status of the backup and if there have been any problems that need to be addressed.

Why would I need your Virus Protection Monitoring & Verification? I already have virus software.
Virus protection in this day and age is of vital importance – second only to data backups. In a corporate network environment simply running standard virus software is not enough. Similar to our Backup Service, our Virus Service will monitor your systems in detail on a weekly basis. We make sure your anti-virus software is running and up to date with the most recent virus definitions. We analyze activity on your systems and watch for possible risks and threats. We communicate with you weekly with status updates and advice on action items.

What is the Software Patches and Updates Monitoring & Verification?
Software Patches and Updates go hand in hand with keeping an eye on virus activity. Unfortunately, there are people out there looking for opportunities to send viruses your way and compromise your corporate information. These “hackers” can find “holes” in software and voila, your information has been compromised. Microsoft software holds the biggest lure for such hackers. Fortunately Microsoft knows this and is dedicated to providing free patches and updates for their customers. We keep you current on these updates and patches and communicate the status weekly.

Why would I need you to Monitor & Verify User Compliance with our corporate IT policies?
Using software that is installed on workstations at your place of business, we track and monitor activity, including internet sites visited, email sent and received, files opened from emails, anything that happens on the computers will be tracked. You decide the level of monitoring based on your corporate policies. Why do you need this? Keeping your systems and information safe and running well means making sure employees are not compromising your company through risky behavior. It’s not about looking over employees shoulders; it’s about protecting your business and your information. It’s about figuring out why one particular computer seems to crash constantly - costing you time and money with your IT person. We monitor this activity, keep you abreast to what’s going on, and give you our expert advice on how to make corrections and educate your employees.

Contact Us For more information on proAktiv R services please contact Kristin Qualls at advantage@proaktivr.com or call 425-788-1181. Even if you are not interested in our services right now – I welcome your friendship! Maybe you can find some helpful tidbits from posts I’ve made or maybe we just enjoy chatting back and forth once in awhile! www.kristinqualls.com (my blog) www.facebook.com/kristinqualls www.twitter.com/kristinqualls