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Outlook 2010, 2007, and older are no longer supported by Microsoft Office 365. If you are using any of these versions or even unpatched versions of Outlook 2013, you will have trouble connecting to your Office 365 mail. Microsoft announced earlier this year, “after November 1, 2021, only Outlook 2013 Service Pack 1 (with latest fixes) and later will be able to connect to Microsoft 365 services. It’s worth noting here that Outlook 2007, 2010, and Office 2013 versions earlier than 15.0.4971.1000 aren’t supported now, but we know some customers just can’t quit them.” Folks who have delayed upgrading to current Outlook versions will begin to experience connectivity issues with Office 365. They can purchase one-time license upgrades or subscription-based licenses for Office 365 applications that are always the latest version. We like the subscription option as it’s flexible and allows quickly adding and removing users as needed. Billing is monthly, so you pay for only the licenses you need. License management with a subscription is simple, and deployment of new installs is fast and dependable. If you are using Outlook versions older than 2013, you need to upgrade now. Outlook 2016 will work until October 2023. We recommend employing Office 365 Standard licenses, which include “always up to date” versions of the Office Suite for the best performance. Contact Slingshot today for advice on upgrading your Microsoft Office Suite.

How to Protect Yourself from Phishing Scams There's nothing like the bright ding of a text first thing in the morning to grab your attention. This one alerted me that "Your Apple ID was used to sign in to iCloud on a MacBook Air." I don't have a MacBook, so it got my attention. Did some cybercriminal have my credentials? Had I been hacked? What else did they steal from me? Oh crap, I need to fix this and fast. But, wait. I have questions. Who sent this text? Have I ever seen a text alert like this before? What's with the IP-based URL that isn't an apple.com domain? Is this a scam? Well, of course, it is a scam attempting to phish my credentials from me. Just for fun, I used a test computer to open the bogus link. The blue hyperlink above brought me to a fake website spoofing an Apple web page with a form to enter my Apple ID and Password. Were I to enter my actual credentials, the hacker behind the fraud would have gained the keys to my Apple Account and every linked credential. If I were lazy enough to reuse my passwords, he would likely have taken over my Gmail, dropbox, amazon, and other accounts. What's Wrong with this web page? The URL is not an apple.com domain. When I hover my cursor over the embedded links, "Store, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Watch, AirPods" they indicate the same non-apple page URL. The blue hyperlinks "forgot your Apple ID or password and Don't have an Apple ID" both loop back to the same sign-in scam. "If you're suspicious about an unexpected message, call, or request for personal information or money, it's safer to presume it's a scam and contact that company directly if you need to. If you're concerned about a security issue with your Apple device, you can get help" – Apple Support What you need to do Slow down. Hackers design their attacks to pressure you into fast decisions. When in doubt, throw it out. It may have been legitimate, but if it was you will certainly hear from the sender again. It's better to err on the side of caution. Never give your credentials to anyone or type them into a web form that you have not verified as genuine. If it seems strange, contact the sender directly or reach out to your IT Professionals for their advice. Phishing scams are not limited to email messages. Cybercriminals are texting, using pop-up ads, and telemarketing to target victims. Slingshot Can Help Slingshot Information Systems keeps its clients updated on new scams that might impact their networks. We provide training seminars both online and in person. We're always there, ready to help. Got a question, then reach out.

Adobe will stop supporting Flash Player after December 31, 2020 (“EOL Date”). Newer and more secure standards such as HTML5, WebGL, and WebAssembly have continually matured and serve as viable Flash content alternatives. Major browser vendors (Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Brave) are dropping support for most other plug-ins (like Flash Player). Adobe provided more than three-years’ advance notice for developers, designers, businesses, and other parties to migrate Flash content to new standards. After the EOL Date (December 31, 2020), Adobe will not issue Flash Player updates or security patches. Therefore, Adobe will prompt users to uninstall Flash Player and strongly recommends that all users immediately uninstall Flash Player. To help secure users’ systems, Adobe will block Flash content from running in Flash Player beginning January 12, 2021. Major browser vendors will disable Flash Player from running after the EOL date. When Flash Player is opened, it will automatically prompt users to uninstall it. Please do so. The vast majority of our users have already had Flash Player removed from their computers. If you have trouble, let us know, and we can help remove it for you.

Would you click the link in this email? Pros It's from a known sender. The signature is familiar. The sender can be verified as the sender's actual email address. Cons I wasn't expecting this message. There are no names listed in the "To:" field. I never got a message like this from the sender before. When I float my cursor over the hyperlink, I don't recognize the URL. What if you did click it? In a recent case, the link leads to a webpage where a form requested the user enter their email address and password to download documents. Giving up email credentials unlocks your Mailbox, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams for the cybercriminals. The bad guys will scan your entire mailbox for any passwords that they can use to access other personal information and accounts. Within minutes, your contacts would receive a similar email apparently from you, and the scam is perpetuated. This is a representation of an actual phishing attempt received by one of our clients this week. Education and multiple security layers, including Endpoint Detection and Response and Web Security Filtering, protected these users. Protect Yourself from Phishing attacks When in doubt, throw it out. If it's an unexpected or strange email, call (don't email) the sender to confirm before clicking any link. Call your IT Helpdesk and ask them to review it. Slingshot Information Systems provide Business Technical Support. If you need help with your business network, contact us for a free network security review.

1. Complex passwords become easy. Although simple passwords are effortless to remember, they are also easy to hack. Password managers generate and manage very strong, complex passwords and remember and keep them easily available to only you. 2. Unique passwords compartmentalize exposure. Major organizations are breached daily, and cyber criminals steal customer data. If you lost the one key that unlocked your car, your house, your mom’s house, your bike, your safe deposit box, and your mailbox, all those belongings would be at risk. The same goes for your passwords. When you reuse the same simple-to-remember password, stealing that credential exposes all the accounts it secures. Password managers let you easily create and administer unique passwords for each account and, in doing so, protect access to your secured sites and applications. 3. Save time – no more forgotten password resets. It probably takes five minutes every time you reset a forgotten credential. For people who share credentials with other users, each reset requires notification of those shared users, or the routine back-and-forth battle ensues as each user repeatedly resets whenever they need access. A good password manager lets you access your passwords on your desktop, laptop, or mobile device. When you open a website, the password application recognizes the URL and pastes in your username and password. Password managers encrypt and store your passwords in the cloud, where they are available to you wherever, whenever, and on whichever device you need them. One strong password to remember, combined with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), secures your valuable credential data. The transition to good password management requires effort on your part. Think of it as a short-term inconvenience for long-term ease of use. Every Slingshot client who has made the move to a password manager becomes an advocate for the system. Password managers simplify your life and, more importantly, lock down access to your data, credit cards, websites, banking applications, and more. We use 1Password, and our familiarity with that application makes it a favorite for us. There are numerous high-ranking products available, and many are free. Try out 1Password, Keeper, Dashlane, LogmeOnce, or one of many others you can find by searching "password manager" on the web. Contact Slingshot today if you need help to up your security with an encrypted password manager.

Old school anti-virus depends on virus definition signatures to recognize and block malware threats. Think of signatures as wanted posters where the sheriff shouts out “that’s the guy, let’s get him.” This system worked well in the 90’s when there weren’t that many viruses around. In present day there are over a billion viruses in the wild, with 350,000 new ones launched every day. You can see the limitations of scanning through hundreds of millions of virus signatures. In addition, viruses are polymorphic; they continuously modify themselves to become less recognizable to security software. Think of the outlaw in the poster, growing a mustache or shaving one off, maybe a new hat. Anyway, typical anti-virus protection fights a losing battle to keep up with new and slightly changed malware threats. Have you heard of file-less attacks? No executable file means that anti-virus has nothing to compare to its signature list. File-less attacks use Windows files to perform their dirty work. No file attachment or download advises the resident anti-virus software, “nothing to see here.” In response, we looked for a better solution and found SolarWinds Endpoint Detection and Response, powered by SentinelOne. This security service is built on eight powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) engines to scan and detect dangerous behaviors and respond instantly. There are no threat definitions to download, no daily scans to slow your computers down. Fully automated detection and response kills, quarantines, remediates damage, and rolls back the system to its pre-attack state. Watch the video below of our SentinelOne Endpoint Detection & Response rollback of ransomware attack and encryption demonstrated by SolarWinds' Andrew Miller. EDR crushes this ransomware attack. Our advice is to uninstall your anti-virus and move up to better security with Endpoint Detection and Response. IT network security requires multiple layers of protection. Slingshot uses Endpoint Detection and Response along with web protection filtering, email security filtering, patch management and risk intelligence scanning to protect our clients. If you’re looking for a better way to protect your business, talk to us. We are your source for Tech Support on Cape Ann.

Phone Phishing or Vishing (voice phishing) is not new, but this con has been elevated to a level of remarkable sophistication. Cyber criminals are using LinkedIn, Facebook, company websites, and insider information harvested from breached email accounts. They are doing some serious investigation on organizations before launching their actual attack. When an unsuspecting employee receives a phishing call from IT support or the fraud department, the crook on the phone may know more about the organization’s structure and who is a new employee than they do. This scam has many forms, but one effective one is to call into a carefully selected employee or department to report a fraud situation or to resolve a security issue related to the victim’s network access, or some financial issue that needs verification. The caller will represent themselves as a person of authority: Bank Fraud Investigator, IT Support, IRS or FBI Agent, and other intimidating characters. Scammer - “Is this Mark Whipple?” Target – “yes, how can I help you?” Scammer – “It’s George from IT. We are getting alerts that your VPN has been compromised. I need you to answer some questions so we can lock it down.” Target – “are you new?” Scammer – “Yep, Stan asked me to take care of this for you.” From here the con-artist will lead the victim to a spoofed web page and coax them to enter credentials for the VPN or your email account, or whatever access they are targeting. Even multi-factor authentication will not protect the network when the cyber-creep instructs a user to enter their PIN or one-time code into their fake web page form. When the vishing attack succeeds, the bad guys end up with access to your VPN, your email, and your entire network. With that access (keys to the kingdom) they will leverage further attacks to take over your network, install ransomware, or steal sensitive data. If a call or email seems slightly peculiar, it likely is. Slow down. If your Spidey Senses are tingling, then tell them you will call back after you check with your manager. If it is your real IT guys, they will be impressed with your good security practices and not offended at all. If the caller protests, you know you just caught a phish. The frightening success of this hack has been headlined by major tech news providers. Andy Greenberg, of Wired recently reported, "In mid-July, Twitter revealed that hackers had used a technique against it called "phone spear phishing," allowing the attackers to target the accounts of 130 people including CEOs, celebrities, and politicians. The hackers successfully took control of 45 of those accounts and used them send tweets promoting a basic bitcoin scam. The hackers, Twitter wrote in a postmortem blog post about the incident, had called up Twitter staffers and, using false identities, tricked them into giving up credentials that gave the attackers access to an internal company tool that let them reset the passwords and two-factor authentication setups of targeted user accounts." Advice to Follow No one needs to know your email, network, or VPN credentials; they are secret and just for you. The only place to type your credentials is into the corresponding application (Outlook, VPN Client) or genuine, you are sure it is the right site, web portal. No financial institution or government agency are going to call or email asking for your social security number. The government will not call to arrest, fine, or deport you. Fun story - My eighty-five-year-old mother cracked up laughing when a scammer called her and threatened her with arrest if she did not pay up on some fictitious, over-due IRS penalty. He asked why she was laughing since this was a very serious issue. She explained that his scam was so pathetic that she could not help herself. He hung up and I expect they took her off their list. You go mom! Slingshot Information Systems helps its client protect their IT networks with multiple layers of security: anti-malware, email security filtering, web filtering protection, end-point detection & response, and user education. Located on the tip of Cape Ann in Rockport, Massachusetts, we are ready to help. Contact us for a free network evaluation.

You've likely seen this phishing attempt subject line or one of its variations: Are you available for a quick task? Got a minute? Are you here? Are you in the office? Can you help me? These emails typically appear to come from your manager or company president, are brief and project urgency. They all want to start a conversation to play out their ruse. Scam Indicators The sender's name is accurate, but the actual email address is not a company email. Doesn't your boss have your cell? Urgency - Hurry up and respond because I'm your boss and this needs to be done ASAP. The signature block may not be the one you are used to seeing. However, the slightly more sophisticated cyber-criminals may cut and paste the spoofed sender's actual signature block. The Con Explained The scammer wants to trick you into responding without thinking. They express that it's urgent, they need it right away, it is critical. They switch you over to texting because they are "in a meeting," which continues to show urgency. They'll next ask you to rush out and purchase gift cards from Amazon, Apple, Visa, or whatever, then text the numbers over right away. This type of phishing attempt seldom contains any malicious payloads, but on occasion may include a link to an online form requesting your email address and password. Your Defense Slow down, think it through. If it seems strange to you, it probably is. Contact the purported sender with information directly from your contacts, call her cell, or walk over to her office. Don't respond to the original email, or if you get as far as texting, to that number. Contact your help desk In the spectrum of phishing emails, this is a low-budget attack. If they send out enough, someone will bite and the cyber thieves will have earned their pay. Don't become a victim. Slingshot Information System provides multiple layers of cyber security protections from firewalls and email filtering, to web filtering and end point detection and response services. Contact us today to schedule a free network assessment. Let Slingshot be your North Shore Technical Support resource.

We have yet to rappel down to an office from a hovering helicopter like a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, but we do routinely perform lifesaving rescues. To recover from backup an accidentally deleted folder of important spreadsheets and documents, or someone’s file littered desktop, or even an entire server does make you feel like a hero of sorts. Not exactly Superman braced for battle, cape fluttering in the breeze, but perhaps a tier 3 technical support super hero. For us there is nothing more satisfying than solving a technical networking or computer problem, large or small, that results in a happy client. Many of the businesses we provide IT support for contacted us after years of getting by on their own by cobbling together PC’s, network printers and a few shared folders scattered around office PC’s. They might have an employee with some computer skills, or a son or niece who helps them out, or they may have a moonlighting IT tech whose day-job is at the help-desk for a large company. Often the IT Admin is the company owner laboring to keep everyone working. Eventually the network services that keep failing, or never worked, and anxious hours spent patching freezing computers, and recovering lost shared folder connections, or Internet connections take their toll. When the part-time IT Admin is too busy to help, the wiz kid is hiking the Appalachian Trail, and the owner is so underwater with her own work to respond to, “I can’t print” or “the spreadsheet I’ve been working on all morning just disappeared,” we get the call. I’ve been a business owner for several decades and I’m aware how difficult it is to surrender control and hire professional help. So many times, we think we’re saving money by doing it ourselves when we could earn more focusing on our expertise on our own job and hiring experts to do their jobs. It took years of cutting my lawn myself before I figured out that in those two-hours I could earn more than enough to pay a company that does it quicker and better. Now, when I turn into my driveway to see that the landscaper has come and gone leaving behind a neatly trimmed deep green lawn I crack a little smile. I gave my lawnmower to my daughter and don’t worry about fertilizing or dandelions or who’s going to cut it while we’re on vacation. Laboring to keep your growing computer network online and performing is comparable. As your business has expanded, IT systems grow in complexity and the ill effect of employee down-time and frustration compounds. Slingshot Information Systems provides expert IT support and services to dozens of small businesses within Boston’s greater North Shore. From our Rockport Office we monitor and manage over seven hundred desktops computers, laptops, servers, firewalls, and printers. The resulting economies of scale let us provide basic computer monitoring, patch management, remote support systems and malware protection for less than many businesses pay for anti-virus software alone. Computer support issues that you struggle with are routine for us and are quickly resolved via remote support or an onsite visit. You and your staff are free to focus on your business and your customers. Contact Slingshot today to discuss your computer support needs. We can schedule a free site visit to review your IT network, share some ideas for solutions and provide a fast and detailed quote to setup Slingshot’s Virtual Rescue Helicopter to secure your IT network with our Managed IT Services. #Informationtechnology #TechnicalSupport #NetworkSecurity #ITServices #ITCompanies #ManagedITServices #AntiVirus

We support several clients on Microsoft Surface Book 2 laptops with NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Processors. These users work with highly resource-demanding design applications and have experienced, poor performance, unresponsive programs, and blue-screen crashes. In some cases, the hardware does not meet the application requirements. Other times the hardware is marginal and becomes overheated when struggling to render complex graphics. On July 12, 2019, Microsoft acknowledged though their release information website that their May 29, 2019—KB4497935 update has serious compatibility issues with their Surface Book 2 laptops configured with Nvidia discrete graphics processing unit (dGPU). In response to this, they have put a “compatibility hold” on updates being rolled out to these laptops. This issue results in the graphics adapter disappearing from the Windows device manager and results in computer crashes. Microsoft recommends restarting then scanning for hardware changes in device manager to get the display adapter back. That has worked for us, but with limited access to device properties. We have found that downloading and installing the most recent Nvidia driver has resolved the blue-screen crashing. We also make a point to use the Nvidia Control Panel to prefer the “High-Performance NVIDIA Processor” instead of allowing the system to automatically choose which can result in sending graphics processes to scrawnier on board GPU. In stubborn cases, we have gone so far as to roll back the 1903 update (when possible) and pause updates in the hope that Microsoft will announce a permanent fix. For this issue to occur on a Microsoft Device is an indication of how poorly these updates are tested before release. Had the problem occurred on some off-brand PC, it would be understandable but, for it to occur on their product is ridiculous. #1903 #microsoft #Nvidia #Surface #dGPU #Graphic #SurfaceBook #KB4497935

We’ve been advising our client base about the death of the Windows 7 operating system for the last couple of years. Many of our clients have migrated their inventory of PCs to Windows 10, but of the 400 desktop and laptops that we manage there still remain nearly 100 Windows 7 PCs that need to be upgraded or replaced by January 2020. Microsoft explains what the end of support means. If you continue to use Windows 7 after support has ended, your PC will still work, but it may become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses. Your PC will continue to start and run, but Microsoft will no longer provide the following support for your business. • No technical support • No software updates • No security updates • To avoid security risks and viruses, Microsoft recommends you upgrade to Windows 10. Now is the time to get those machines replaced. We are already faced with the limitations and compatibility issues that an aging operating system triggers. Time spent fighting through installing applications and resolving issues caused by updates on Windows 7 computers is wasted. It would be more cost efficient to direct those funds to migration costs. Users on the Windows 10 Operating System will work faster, have fewer computer issues and be substantially more secure. It’s time to move on. Let’s coordinate your remaining upgrades soon to avoid the inevitable overload of requests just as the holiday season arrives. #Windows7 #Windows #upgrade #operatingsystem #Microsoft #Endofsupport #Endooflife

Learn to identify and avert data hostage situations Ransomware is malware constructed by cyber-criminals to encrypt your network data and hold it hostage until you pay their ransom. Slow Down! Use the checklist below to review messages before opening any links carefully. Safety checklist Do I know the sender? Was this an expected or a typical correspondence? Why was this email sent to me? Can the link be verified as safe? Is the email threatening and pressuring you to act immediately to avoid loss of account access or cancellation of mail services or other important accounts if you fail to update your personal information? When you hover your cursor over a link does the embedded URL match the advertised destination? If you delete this message because it seems odd, what’s the worst that can happen? Remember, if in doubt, throw it out. If it were legitimate, the sender would certainly contact you again. You won't be criticized for being cautious when it comes to network security. Tips: Patch every device to maintain current antivirus and software updates. Back up critical files often and off-site. Onsite backups residing on your network are vulnerable. Close pop-up windows asking you to update account information or install applications you didn't request. Bookmark your favorite web pages to avoid visiting a fake site due to a misspelling such as gogle.com. Use trusted sites and avoid scams like "you're a winner!" banners – nothing is free! Be wary of email attachments, like bogus shipping receipts or requests to download an important file from an associate. Heed warnings from your AV and report all suspicious activity to your Slingshot support team. Infected computers must be shut down immediately and disconnected from the network then call your Slingshot Support Team directly. Slingshot Information Systems is your North Shore Technical Support Expert. If you have concerns about network security, we can help. #ransomware #cybercriminal #Phishingattacks #NorthShoreTechsupport