Technology In Check

As I mentioned in my last post, the Outlook phishing scam continues to run rampant. There’s a screenshot of what the email looks like after the break, if you’re wondering what I’m talking about.

Questions continue to arrive from clients asking me about this, and whether or not they should be applying these patches. Of course, for our clients the answer is no, because their patches and updates are ALREADY taken care of. That’s the advantage of managed services - a whole lot of pain you never have to be concerned about anymore. Like patches and updates, routine maintenance, and….. well, I could go on, but I won’t. The point is, peace of mind is better than wondering, dont you think?

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So the latest virus/ phishing attempt by spammers and scammers has actually generated a few emails in our direction. People have asked whether or not the email they received is real, and I can understand why.

The email comes in looking like it’s an update for a Microsoft  product… there’s a screenshot after the jump. The problem of course if that the link in the email doesn’t take you anywhere near the MS site, even though it looks like it will.

This is simply another phishing scam. Phishing is when someone does something to try to convince you to go somewhere. Then they load some software on your computer, and who knows what happens after that.

Of course, if you were subscribed to CPG Systems’ Total Guard Protection service, you’d never have to worry about it. Total Guard Protection takes care of all the patches and updates that your computer needs, along with providing managed anti-virus and anti-spyware protection. So even if you did accidentally click something bad, then your computer would be protected.

The internet can be a dangerous place. Contact CPG Systems to make sure you’re protected, and to ensure that your technology is in check.

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I just realized that it’s been a long time since I’ve done anything with this site; well that’s about to change.

I was having a discussion yesterday with a client regarding online marketing tools, and their effectiveness in reaching certain segments of your customer base, or your potential customers. I mentioned that I had a blog for my company, then as the words were coming out of my mouth I realized that I didn’t really do anything with it.

Technology is a great tool. However like any other tool, you have to wield it to gain any benefit from it. And we’ve been so busy of late that there hasn’t been much time to work on the marketing and updating side of things. That’s about to change…

For medium sized companies with aspirations of becoming really big, this is one to play close attention to.

There’s a move by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to expand the name space used for what are called top-level domains. In short, there are a few top-level domain in the world, such as .com, .net, and .org. However in a news release today, ICANN announced that it is planning to expand the “real-estate” available at the top level.

What this means for business is that there will be a whole range of new names available. For example, if you’re willing to pony up the dough (and if you’re fast enough to get in on the application process) you might be able to acquire the top-level domain name of .acme. Or .yourname.

The possibilities here are staggering from a marketing perspective. Already, the news release cites certain cities that want to have access to their own names as a top level. So if you control the .van top level domain, you would then be able to market websites like canucks.van, dining.van, hotels.van …

The possibilities are staggering.

From a technical perspective, if you know what IPv6 means, then you’ll likely see that thjis new decision from ICANN will speed up adoption of the new protocol. Then again, if you don’t know what IPv6 means, then check back here again next week, and I’ll explain it.

I’m still surprised that many people continue to disparage Vista mercilessly. Having just installed Vista SP1 yesterday, I’m now onto my 12th month of running Vista with comparatively few problems. The biggest difficulty I’ve faced in my own experience comes from attaching external hard drives; if I plug in a USB hard drive, and try to use it too quickly, my PC will sometimes blue-screen. Sometimes.

And after I spoke with a friend this last weekend, I heard more about how Vista is “a bad thing”. Continue Reading »