20 Million New Malware Strains This Year

Malware authors have been busy this year. 20 million new Malware strains have been created this year alone. According to Panda Security, new threats have been increasing at a rate of 100 percent or more since 2003. However, this year there was 50 percent of purely new malware that had been created. The threats are continuing to expand at rapid rates which means the more cautious you need to be as a computer user.

The average number of threats created each day has reached 63,000 to date. Panda also states that the average lifespan of 54 percent of malware has been cut to just 24 hours. Thirty-four percent of all active malware threats were created this year. Also, it "seems hackers are applying economies of scale, reusing old malicious code or prioritizing the distribution of existing threats over the creation of new ones."

Many of the new threats are noted as having keywords such as "Thanksgiving Lunch Invitations," "Thanksgiving Invitation Template" and "Thanksgiving Printable Invitations" attached to malicious websites.

Out of 50 search results for each of the three terms, roughly 20 directed users to infected URLs, the firm said. Waiting for the user is a fake anti-virus scan page that tells the person they need an immediate scan of their PC, followed by a prompt to download the malicious malware.

These Malware authors try to use holiday shopping keywords in order to spread the virus faster and on a broader scale.

As always, at CMIT we ask you to please be aware of these threats and malicious downloads that may pop up onto your screen while surfing the web.

Gmail Releases Email Delegation Feature

Google has now made it easier to manage multiple Gmail accounts. Instead of logging in and out of your accounts, the new feature is much more convenient. Now when you sign in, you can manually navigate from one account to the next. In order to do so, click the “Accounts” tab, and select “Grant access to your account”. Now you can add your other Gmail usernames and will have to approve this through each e-mail account. This will save a lot of time for those who use Gmail and is a great new feature!

Read the full article here.

Merrick Kiwanis Participates in Food Drive

Over the past few weekends, Merrick Kiwanis has spent time collecting food outside local shops, such as Waldbaum’s, Stop n Shop, and A&J Met Market. They collected groceries, toys, and monetary donations to give to families in the Merrick community. Merrick Kiwanis member and CMIT owner Armando D’Accordo and the rest of the amazing team would like to thank everyone for their generosity and time.

The wonderful collection drive concluded this past Sunday, December 12, with the Food and Toy Distribution Day. The Kiwanis team and a crew of volunteers met early in the morning at Calhoun High School to sort all of the collected cans of food. While the experience can be described as "sad" and "humbling", it can make you appreciative and thankful for what we have. Later that day, the team happily handed over turkeys, potatoes, food and toys to local families who will subsequently have a happier holiday season!

How to Ensure That Your E-mails Don’t Come Across As Spam

Do you ever notice that sometimes important emails can be automatically placed into spam? There are several things you can do to prevent this from happening. First and foremost, be sure to use a reputable email service since they are specialized in blacklisting, whitelisting, and other services. The content of your message is also important since certain words or subject lines can cause people to mark the e-mail as spam. If your subject line is confusing, people can place it in spam before they even read it. Many words in the content of your message may be considered “trigger” keywords, and the greater the amount of these words, the higher the chance of the message being moved to spam. See a list of common spam keywords here.

Another precaution to take is to make sure the code isn’t complex. It is recommended to use simple text or HTML. Finally, proofreading your message before sending can help, and this includes using spell check. Typos are often a way to make your email look like spam and appear unprofessional. Overall, bulk emailing and marketing are great tools, and in order to take advantage of them, you want to make sure that they don’t go into spam. Please feel free to contact CMIT if you would like help with your email filtering!

Malware Temporarily Invades Advertising on Google and Microsoft Networks

Last week malware attacked advertising on both Google and Microsoft networks that possibly harmed users’ computers. If users clicked on these ads, they were redirected to harmful websites. This allowed the hackers to install software and gain control of the computers. Google uses DoubleClick Ad Exchange which does have filtering abilities. They have acknowledged that there were problems and quickly blocked these malicious ads. While they were unsure how the ads even made it onto the network, they believe many stemmed from AdShufffle (as opposed to the authentic AdShuffle). A small typo like this can easily lead to some much larger security issues. All problems with Google have been fixed thus far.

Microsoft had a similar problem with their Hotmail users. The attacks could affect Adobe, Java, and other types of software. It was designed so the malware could be installed even if users didn’t click on anything.

To read more about these malware attacks, visit Computer World.

Be Careful of Malware Attacks on USB Devices

Avast Software has announced that one in every eight malware attacks occur because of a USB device. These devices are often the target of attacks, and besides flash drives, digital cameras, mobile phones, or mp3 players are also subject to the same thing. When studying Avast users during the last week of October, they learned that approximately 14% of viruses came from USB devices. Infected drives contain the malware that is often disguised as an AutoRun or AutoPlay file.

The best precautionary measure to take is to never start up your computer while a USB device is plugged in. Often these devices will load quicker before any security software does, therefore leaving your computer temporarily vulnerable.

Enhancing your Business’s Online Profile

It is crucial to make sure that your online profile has all correct information so that customers are easily able to find you and are presented with a current profile. Many prospective customers do their research online and so all information should be accurate. This includes the right phone number and location, and also an easily navigated web page. Customers can quickly be turned away if they can’t find what they are looking for in a short amount of time.

To first ensure that everything is up-to-date, type your business names into various search engines to see what comes up. Check your Place Page on Google as well. You can register with the Google Local Business Center to create and/or edit your page. Besides search engines, all social networks should be verified as well. Finally, look for business reviews on Yelp or similar sites. Responding to reviews, whether they were positive or negative, is valuable customer service.

Making certain that your business is being represented correctly and consistently helps create a professional outlook for your company!

Top E-Mail Management Strategies

Your e-mail inbox may seem cluttered and crowded, but there are ways to manage your messages in a more efficient manner. Computer World has offered simple tips to organize your inbox while allowing you to become more productive.

1. Zero your inbox so that your new management techniques will start off with a clean slate.
2. Create folders sparingly in order to separate messages into broad categories such as “Invoices” or “To Review Later”. The generalized subject headings will save time navigating through dozens of folders to find the message you are looking for.
3. Use filters sparingly as well. While some may create filters for each sender, this can allow for mail to go overlooked at times.
4. Delete all junk mail first before perusing through important messages. This can quickly reduce the amount of clutter in your inbox.
5. Take action immediately if the time needed is two minutes or less. You can also sign up for services such as Nudgemail, which allows you to re-receive the message at a better time (for instance, the next day.)
6. Set your refresh time for every half hour, instead of every minute so that you are not continuously distracted by the influx of messages.
7. Use canned responses in order to save time. If people are always asking for directions to your office, having them saved as a canned message prevents you from having to type them repeatedly.

E-mail management is definitely a great way to ensure that you are efficient with both communication and organization, while also saving time during the work day. To read the full article, visit Computer World.