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“Insider Tips To Make Your Business Run Faster, Easier And More Profitably”

I.T. News

Get More Free Tips, Tools, and Services At My Web Site: www.justdoitsj.com

“As a business owner, you

don’t have time to waste on

technical and operational is-

sues. That’s where we shine!

Call us and put an end to your

IT problems finally and forev-

er!” Elaine Gouskos,

Just Do I.T.

3 “Techie” Reasons You Can Be

Thankful This Season

1. Cyber Thieves Keep A-Knockin’ But They Can’t Come In. A study

presented at the International Conference on Dependable Systems

and Networks showed that small-business networks are attacked

every 39 seconds by some type of hacker or malicious software.

Thankfully, having the proper firewall and office network security

tools can prevent even the most determined cyber hacker from

getting his hands on your network.

2. Downtime Should Be A Thing Of The Past. Thanks to monitoring

and maintenance tools that are openly available, any reputable

computer company can now actually notice when things go awry

and prevent your computers from having issues. Hot fixes, patch-

es and security updates are generally items that, when maintained

on a regular basis, keep a network healthy and up and running. If,

for some reason, your network still has some kind of downtime,

cloud-based remote management tools allow Just Do I.T. to access

your system from anywhere, getting you up and running more

quickly than ever before.

3. If Disaster Strikes, You Can Be Back Up & Running In Minutes

Instead Of Days. In addition to lost data, many businesses’ opera-

tions would be completely down for days or weeks if a major dis-

aster like fire, flood or theft ever occurred. Here’s where Backup &

Disaster Recovery solutions (BDR) can help you feel very thankful

indeed. Most of today’s BDR solutions include a “virtualization”

component, which means an exact “picture” of your server and

computers is taken throughout the day and stored elsewhere. If

you ever need to get back up and running, Just DO I.T simply re-

stores that image…and you’re back in business.

Want To Feel Thankful Instead Of Frustrated With Your Computers?

Call us before November 30 for a FREE Problem Prevention Network

Audit (a $297 value) that will help eliminate problems on your network

and give you peace of mind.

CALL 408.470.3711 NOW!

Inside This Issue…

November 2013

San Jose, CA

Reasons To Be Thankful………...

Shiny Gadget Of The Month........Page 2

MSFT & XP Warning ……….…. Page 2

Threatsaurus of Computer..…….Page 3

Did you know.………….……….. Page 4

7 IT Policies and Procedures......... Page 4

Solid Strategies………...………….Page 5

What The Heck Is a Website Certifi-

cate………………….....……….….Page 6

Fun Trivia………….………..…….Page 6

Computer Funnies………..……...Page 7

Training & Education..……….….Page 8

The Lighter Side……..………..….Page 8

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I.T NEWS


Shiny New Gadget

Just when you thought technolo-

gy couldn’t make things any easi-

er, they’ve gone and done it

again! With a wave of a hand or

lift of a finger, you’re about to

use your computer in a whole

new way. The Leap Motion Con-

troller senses the way you natu-

rally move your hands. So you

can point, wave, reach and grab.

Even pick something up and put

it down. Just like in real life. It’s

an amazing device for the things

you do every day and for the

things you never thought you

could do.

Browse the web, read arti-

cles, flip through photos and

play music just by lifting a

finger.

Draw, paint and design with

your fingertip. You can even

use a real pencil or paint-

brush.

Sculpt, mold, stretch and

bend 3D objects. Take things

apart and put them back to-

gether.

Pick, pluck, strum and drum.

Play air guitar, air harp or air

anything.

Slice fruit and shoot bad

guys with your finger.

You literally hold all the power

in your fingertips. This sensitive

device provides superb accuracy

up to 1/100th of a millimeter. Get

yours today for just $79.99.

https://www.leapmotion.com/

product

An URGENT Security Warning For Businesses Running

Microsoft XP And Office 2003

If your organization is currently running either Windows XP or Office 2003 on one or more computers in your office, you

need to know about a dangerous security threat to your organization that must be addressed within the next 4

months. Please take a moment to read this important announcement.

Leap Motion Controller

Microsoft has officially announced that it will retire support on the XP operating system and Office 2003 software suite on April 8, 2014 (see the enclosed article for more details). That means any computer or server with these software programs installed will be completely exposed to serious hacker attacks aimed at taking control of your network, stealing data, crashing your system and inflicting a host of other business-crippling problems you do NOT want to have to deal with. This is such a serious threat that all companies housing financial and medical information are being required by law to upgrade any and all computer systems running XP or Office 2003 because fire-walls and anti-virus software will NOT be sufficient to completely protect them (or you). Unless you don’t care about cyber criminals running rampant in your company’s server, you MUST upgrade any servers or work-stations running these programs. Just Do I.T. has committed to helping businesses in the Bay Area by offering a Microsoft Risk Assessment and Migration Plan for free.

Call us to schedule an assessment 408.470.3711

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I.T’s NEWS


7 IT Policies And Procedures That Companies Under

HIPAA Regulations Must Have

HIPAA and HITECH have been around for quite

some time. Even so, many companies covered by

these laws are way behind the times when it

comes to actual implementation. And when you

really think about it, even companies not covered

by these laws should have the requisite policies

and procedures in place.

1. Access Control Policy. How are users granted

access to programs, client data and equipment?

Also includes how administrators are notified to

disable accounts when needed.

2. Workstation Use Policy. Requiring secure

passwords, monitoring logins and limiting

unsuccessful logins are just a few of the basics

covered. Policies also need to cover basic security

best practices such as not allowing passwords to

be written down or shared with others.

3. Security Awareness Training. Organizations

must ensure regular training of employees

regarding security updates and what to be aware

of. You must also keep an audit trail of your

reminders and communications in case you’re

audited.

4. Malicious Software Controls. You must have

documented policies for the frequency with

which anti-malware and antivirus software are

updated and what happens if an infection/

outbreak occurs.

5. Disaster Recovery Plan. How you respond to

emergency situations (of all shapes and sizes) must

be fully documented and tested regularly. A full

Disaster Recovery Plan is something our company

can help you with.

6. Media Disposal Policy. How do you dispose of

old computer equipment and data? You must

have policies and procedures in place that cover

exactly how all equipment is properly disposed

of and logged.

7. Review And Audit Procedures. There’s much

more to HIPAA compliance than the 6 items

discussed here; however, be certain also that

whatever you do has a firm audit trail/log that

shows that everything has been executed

according to plan.

8. These are just starting points. If you’re subject to

HIPAA or just want to make sure that your

company is covered by these simple best practices,

contact our office and we’ll be happy to review

these areas with you.

4

Arnie has over 20 years of experience in Information Technology. He loves

learning new technology and enjoys working with clients. He has been a

part of Just Do I.T. team for over 13 years and we love working with him.

His clients would not trade him for any other tech.

The majority of the client he works with are Microsoft Software based- Windows OS technologies for

Desktop and Server, MS Exchange for E-Commerce ,MS Terminal Server technologies

for Remote Access, as well as Citrix and Juniper Firewall products. Arnie earned an Asso-

ciate's Degree in Electronics and certified in Citrix with a CCA.

Arnie is a family person and loves his nieces and nephews. He is an excellent baker and

goes out of this way to make birthday cakes. In his spare time he also loves to cook. He is

also a Candy Crush King…. As you can see from the this picture he has a very fun side to

him.

Did you know this about Arnie Alegre?

I.T NEWS

Threatsaurus of computer and data security threats

Adware—Adware is software that displays advertisements on your com-

puter. It displays advertising banners or pop-ups on your computer when

you use an application. This not necessarily a bad thing, however, adware

becomes a problem it : Installs itself on your computer, Installs itself in ap-

plications other than the one it came with, Hijacks your web browser in order to display

more ads.

Denial of Service Attack—A denial of service attack prevents users from accessing a computer web-

site. In a DoS attack, a hacker attempts to overload or shut down a service so the legitimate user’s can no

longer access it.

Malware—Malware is a general term for malicious software viruses, worms. Trojans and

spyware. Many people use the terms malware and viruses interchangeably.

Trojan—Trojans are programs that pretend to be legitimate software, but actually carry

out hidden harmful functions. Trojan is an umbrella term covering many types of mal-

ware; bots backdoor Trojans and downloader Trojans.

Virus – Viruses are computer programs that can spread by making copies of themselves. Computer viruses

spread from one computer to another, and from one network to another, by making copies of themselves, usu-

ally without your knowledge.

5

I.T NEWS

Solid Strategies = Solid Success

Success results from a solid strategy. Even the greatest ideas are of little value unless they are backed up by a practical and workable plan of action. The word strategy comes from an ancient Greek term that literally means to be a general, leading troops into battle. Setting up a good strategic plan involves five steps:

The first step is to translate your vision into measurable and achievable goals. You decide specifically what you want to accomplish during the next five to ten years — those are your long-range goals. Next, you break those goals down into intermediate goals — things you wish to accomplish during the next six months or year. Then you break them down further into short-term goals covering the next month or six weeks.

The second step is to break your goals down into achievable objectives. Dr. Robert Schuller says, “Yard by yard life is hard, inch by inch it’s a cinch.” Working by objectives helps you concentrate on what’s important, in-stead of spinning your wheels on those things that seem urgent but don’t lead to your long-term goals. Objec-tives add purpose and direction to all your activities.

The third step is to set up your strategies for accomplishing your objectives. Strategies are the specific ways you will go about achieving your objectives. The more clearly thought-out they are, the more effective they will be.

Fourth, you choose each task you must complete each day to achieve your goals. This is where most planning breaks down. We tend to leave it vague — thinking that, as long as we are working hard all the time, we are achieving our goals. Most people I talk with are extremely busy — and most of them are working hard to do things right. The problem is they are not doing enough of the right things — the things that will help them achieve their goals.

It is not enough to merely list each task you need to do; you need to build the tasks into your schedule. So many hours each day should be dedicated to working on specific actions that will lead to accomplishing your definite objectives.

And, finally, build in the monitoring mechanisms that will help you keep track of your progress toward implementing your plan. It’s one thing to have a “gut-level feeling” that you must be doing something right be-cause you are always working hard. But it is far better to design simple mechanisms to let you know precisely how much progress you are making.

Look for a few key indicators that will help you stay on track, and monitor those like a doctor would monitor the vital signs of a patient. It doesn’t matter how much activity is going on. What matters is how successful you are in achieving your objectives.

One good example would be that you would target to contact three people each day to generate new business. At the end of the day, you’d know whether you have achieved that goal. Your plan is not complete until it has been communicated satisfactorily to every person in your organization who must help to implement it.

Dr. Nido Qubein is president of High Point University, an undergraduate and graduate institution with

4,500 students from over 51 countries. He has authored two dozen books and audio programs distributed

worldwide. His foundation provides scholarships to 48 deserving young people each year.

As a business leader, he is chairman of Great Harvest Bread Company, with 220 stores in 43 states. He

serves on the boards of several national organizations, including BB&T (a Fortune 500 company with $164

billion in assets), the La-Z-Boy Corporation (one of the largest and most recognized furniture brands world-

wide) and Dots Stores (a chain of fashion boutiques with more than 400 locations across the country). Learn

more about Dr. Qubein at www.nidoqubein.com.


6

I.T NEWS


Who Else Wants To Win A $25 Gift Card?

The Grand Prize Winner of last month’s Trivia Challenge Quiz is JoJo Q of Santa Clara! They were the first

person to correctly answer my quiz question from last month: What is the most expensive object ever con-

structed?

The correct answer was b) The International Space Station. Now, here’s this month’s trivia question. The

winner will receive a gift card to Starbucks!

Barbara Millicent Roberts is the real, full name for: a) Barbara Walters

b) Barbara Mandrell c) Barbie (the doll) d) Barbara Bush

E-mail Us Right Now With Your Answer! [email protected]

What The Heck Is A Web Site Certificate And Why Should You Care?

If you ever make purchases online, you must know how to quickly determine if the web site you are about to buy from is secure.

A secure connection is an encrypted exchange of information between the web site you are visiting and the browser you are using. Encryption of data is simply a process of converting the information you type in (your name, address, and credit card number) into an unreadable format that only the receiving web site can decipher.

Encryption is done through a document the web site provides called a web site certificate. When you send in-formation to the web site, it is encrypted at your computer and decrypted at the web site to prevent hackers from intervening and stealing your credit card information. So how do you know if a site has a certificate and a secure connection? There are two things to look for. Just note that these two checks only apply to the web page where you actually enter your credit card information, NOT the entire site itself.

Once you are on the actual order page, look for a tiny yellow padlock in the bottom right corner of your web browser. Depending on your browser version, the Security Status bar may be located on the top of the browser and to the right of the Address bar. The padlock should be closed (locked). Next, look at the actual URL. It should begin with “https” rather than the standard “http.” If you are on a web site and you see these two things, the site will have a certificate. You can view the certificate by double clicking the yellow padlock. Upon clicking, a certificate dialogue box will pop up that contains information about who the certificate is issued to, who it was issued by, and when it expires.

Another way you can view a site's certificate is through your browser's menu options. In Internet Explorer, go to File, Properties and then click on the Certificates button. The same dialogue box will then come up for you. In Firefox, go to Tools, Page Info and then click on the Security tab. You can then click on the View button to see that site's certificate.

If you ever get a warning that there is a problem with the web site’s certificate, it could be due to a number of

problems such as the names on the certificates don’t match up with the web site or the certificate has expired. If

this happens, you may want to call the company and place your order by phone rather than going through their

web site. Finally, make sure you check out every company’s Privacy Policy. Even if they have a secure checkout

process, they could give or sell your information to third party companies.

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Computer Funnies Life has so many serious moments now a days so my goal is to make you smile if not get a good laugh at least once a month from me. In every industry there are funny times and in my industry there are many funny times. Even in our own office we have to laugh at each other for silly things that we do that is stupid…. So please know I do not intend to offend anyone by sharing these with you…. If you have a good short story I would love to post it in my next months newsletter. Email–

[email protected]


I.T NEWS

Blocked Sites "Hello, this is the help desk."

"Yes, this is Mrs. Stuart on the fourth floor. I'm calling to report a violation of company policy."

"What seems to be the problem, Mrs. Stuart?"

"I have found some of the computers in the office here are being used to look at orgies."

"We have filtering software on the network that prevents sites like that from being displayed."

"Well, I just sat down at one of the computers and clicked on the bookmarks."

"And there's a list of pornographic sites?"

"I'll say. Quite a few, actually."

"They should be blocked by the filter. Did you click on them?"

"I didn't have to. They say dot O-R-G and I've been around long enough to know what that means!"

Technologically Challenged??

For those of you who have ever felt you may be technologically challenged, take heart. The following incidents may do the trick in restoring your self-confidence:

* A woman called AST customer support complaining that her mouse was difficult to control with the dust cover on. The 'dust cover' turned out to be the plastic the mouse was packaged in.

* AST asked another customer to send them a copy of his defective diskettes. A few days later, a letter from the cus-tomer arrived, together with photocopies of the floppies.

* Compaq tech support received a call from a woman saying her brand new computer wouldn't work. She had unpacked the unit, plugged it in and sat there for 15 minutes waiting for something to happen. When asked what happened when she pressed the power switch, her reply was, "What power switch?"

* An aggravated woman called Dell complaining that she wasn't able to get her new Dell computer to turn on. After en-suring the computer was plugged in, the tech asked her what happened when she pushed the power button. Her re-sponse was, "I pushed and pushed on this foot pedal and nothing happened." The 'foot pedal' turned out to be the mouse.

* Another Dell customer called support to say he was unable to get his computer to fax anything. After half an hour of trouble-shooting, the technician discovered the man was attempting to fax a piece of paper by holding it in front of the monitor screen and hitting the "send" key.

* IBM received a call from a confused customer who was having problems printing documents. He told the technician that the computer had said it "couldn't find printer." The user said he had also tried turning the monitor screen to face the printer - but his computer still couldn't "see" the printer

8

A Boeing 737 weighing 150,000 pounds (68,000 kilo-

grams) must deflect about

88,000 pounds (40,000 kg) of

air — over a million cubic feet

(31,500 cubic meters) down

by 55 feet (16.75 meters) each

second while in flight.

A commercial aircraft door will not open in flight because

it is actually bigger than the

window frame itself, and the

door opens inward toward the

cabin. To open, it must be

opened inward, rotated and

then slipped sideways out of

the frame. Even if the door

could somehow be opened, it

would be like lifting a 2,200-

pound (1,000-kilogram)

weight.

Most planes flying interna-tionally have their home

country’s flag painted on or

around their tails. Generally,

the flag is facing the proper

way round on the left (port)

side of the aircraft and back-

ward on the right (starboard)

side. Why? Because that’s

how it would look if a real flag

were hoisted on a pole above

the airplane during the flight.

Airline doors and windows are often inset a few millime-

ters from the fuselage so that

they’ll expand to be flush with

the fuselage during flight.

The windows in an airport control tower must be tilted

out at exactly 15 degrees

from the vertical to minimize

reflections from both inside

and outside the control tower.

I.T NEWS

The Lighter Side:

Random Aviation Facts

NOVEMBER 2013

FREE Executive Seminar Shows You How To

Cut IT Costs In Half With Cloud Computing

WEBINAR

Dear Colleague,

If you want to learn how you can keep more of your hard earned profits AND improve your ability to work remotely, access your desktop

from home or on the road and have automatic disaster recovery, read on.

On Friday December 6th we’re holding an webinar for a select group

of CEOs and Executives to show how this amazing new technology can

eliminate a number of the IT costs and problems you may be dealing with –

During this seminar you’ll discover…

What cloud computing is and why thousands of companies are trading in

their traditional computer networks for this new, lower cost, more flexible alternative.

How cloud computing can drastically lower your IT costs and free you from frequent (and expensive) hardware and software upgrades.

How to gain automatic backup and disaster recovery through cloud com-puting.

Answers to important questions about security, where your data is stored and Internet connectivity.

How you and your staff can gain greater freedom to access your desktop and e-mail from anywhere, using practically any device.

Critical facts every business owner must know before switching to a cloud based network.

Who Should Attend?

C-Level executives and managers who want to learn how cloud computing can lower IT costs and provide strategic work flow and operational benefits not offered by traditional computer networks. While IT executives are wel-come to attend, this session will not be a deep dive into the technical aspects of cloud computing, but rather a strategic look at the cost savings and strategic operational advantages.

Register today : https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/151802950

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/151802950

i.t. news...2 i.t news get more free tips, tools, and services at my web site: shiny new gadget just...

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