Company News

Rebranding back to NerdHouse

When I started the company we spelt NerdHouse exactly like how you see it here. There came a point where I wanted to keep the logo and design similar and decided to create a box logo which was inspired from Barbara Krueger. In the end, the NerdHouse name with the capital N and H looked funny to me. I ended up leaving the H lowercase.

As time went on I continued to see the name and get a little irked by the way the H wasn’t capitalized. Sometime within the past two months I decided to go back to our roots and capitalize the H on our company name. Hoping this sticks and no more changes.

Company News

Advanced Data Recovery now done on island, in shop

We are happy to announce we have acquired data recovery hardware that allows us to keep more data recovery jobs in-shop vs. sending them out to our partner on the mainland.

We are ready to provide advanced data recovery services to the state of Hawaii. We are able to recover data from most drives including drives that are clicking.

Our prices start out at $300.00 per drive for most in-shop jobs.

Call us if you have any questions, 808-952-6373. Thank you!

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Hurricane season is among us

From June 1st to November 30th we are at risk of experiencing a natural disaster in the form of a hurricane.  Hawaii hasn’t been hit with a hurricane since Hurricane Iniki which happened on September 11, 1992.

Is your backup system in place ready for a hurricane?  What would happen if your office or data center was damaged from a hurricane?  How long would it take you to restore your systems and get  your business back up and running properly?  Have you thought about or planned for a hurricane?

We at Nerdhouse provide complete backup & disaster recovery in the form of the Datto Alto device for small businesses.  Our device backs up locally to a small appliance that resides on your network and also uploads your data, safely and securely to our data centers on the east and west coast.

The saying goes, don’t leave all your eggs in one basket.  If you have all your data ONLY in Hawaii, you’re still leaving all your eggs in one basket.  We do have data centers here locally but what if those were hit hard by a hurricane or natural disaster?  Having your data uploaded to the cloud, again safely and securely, would get around that dilemma of having everything only in Hawaii.

We are able to fire up a 1:1 replica of your server in the case of a natural disaster that knocks your systems offline here in Hawaii.  We could fire up your backup in one of our west or east coast data centers and have you up and running within hours, not days or weeks.

Our entry level product starts out at $140/month for 150GB backed up with a two server maximum.

If you’re interested in learning more about our backup & disaster recovery solutions, give us a call at 808-952-6373 or send us an e-mail at bdr@nerdhouse.com

Inspiration

10,000 hour rule of deliberate practice

Going through my daily RSS feeds and came across this interesting Lifehacker article which reiterates the law of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice in order to become a master craftsman in something.  Whether it’s Kobe Bryant, Mozart, whoever, it took each individual roughly 10 years or 10,000 hours to become a master in their craft.  In the article it goes on to talk about a trainer who worked with Kobe Bryant and Team USA prior to their Olympic run and how Kobe Bryant was in the gym from 4:30AM up until the later part of the day constantly working on his skills.  It’s amazing, thought it would be something I would share.

Apple

iPhone users update to iOS7 for its new security feature

To all of our clients, friends, family, if you have an iPhone 4 and above, it is recommended to upgrade to iOS7.  One of the greatest improvements comes from its security stand point.  Lost or stolen iPhones pop up in the black market all the time.  Remove a SIM card, pop in your own and you’re often good to go.  It also fetches a decent amount of money in the grey market as well.

iOS7 introduces activation lock.  Upon wiping/locking a phone via icloud.com Find My iPhone – anyone who either steals or finds your phone will require a) to login with your iCloud information.

We haven’t seen a lot of blatant iPhone thefts in the islands but we’ve seen stolen iPhones on the grey market or listed at various online market places.  Check out the official Apple website on iCloud: Find My iPhone for more info.

Security

New extremely dangerous malware variant making the rounds – Cryptolocker

This is a special warning going out to everyone, please be careful of opening email attachments and links via email as well as instant messenger and social media.

There is a new malware variant making the rounds called Cryptolocker.  Why is it so dangerous?  It encrypts or locks your data away with a special key that you have no access to and only the bad guys know what that key is.  They are holding your data for ransom in the amount of $300.00.  Currently there is absolutely NO way to bypass or reverse the damage done.  If you do not have a current backup of your data you will have to shell out the $300.00 to these criminals in unknown areas/countries.  They exist outside the jurisdiction of the United States.

Here are a few links to some sites that discuss the malware in detail but please be careful!  We are currently unable to undo the damage that these guys are spreading.

PCRisk article on Cryptolocker
Geek.com article on Cryptolocker
Emisoft article on Cryptolocker

 

 

Company News

Microsoft and Adobe release slew of updates (for your protection)

Per the good man over at KrebsonSecurity.com, Microsoft and Adobe has released a whole bunch of updates.  We highly suggest doing all of your Windows updates and any Adobe update as well as any Java update that your computer may prompt you with.  We know how annoying it can be but we also know how much it can save your computer from viruses and the bad guys!

Windows updates can be done from the start menu and with all Adobe updates you can get it direct from their website, www.adobe.com (beware of the embedded Google Chrome or Ask Toolbar when you install Adobe Reader)

If you’re unable to do your updates give us a call, we charge a nominal fee to perform the updates for you, $50+tax and we do it remotely.  Depending on how much Windows updates there are it can take anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours.

808-952-6373
Nerdhouse LLC

Apple

New iPhone being released tomorrow morning

Apple’s holding a special event to unveil the latest iPhone which will include an iPhone 5C which I believe stands for cheap?  I’m not entirely sure what the C denotes but if I had to guess it would be for cheap (I doubt this is the official name of the iPhone 5C).

Also Anker Products confirmed the iPhone 5Cs existence by posting a case for it this evening on their Facebook page.  I’m not sure if the NDA lifted but I’m guessing it has since they all but confirmed the iPhone 5Cs existence.  It isn’t a huge secret as leaks have been coming out little by little for quite some time now.  Anyways enjoy tomorrow’s news.

Security Updates

August 2013 Microsoft Security newsletter repost

Welcome to August’s Security Newsletter!
This month our newsletter focuses on client   security and the security implications of running software that is no longer   supported by the software manufacturer. If you have been following Microsoft   security news recently, you are likely aware that support for   Windows XP ends on April 8, 2014. It is important to note that   after this date, customers running Windows XP will no longer receive new   security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support   options, or online technical content updates. This means that any new   vulnerabilities discovered in Windows XP after its “end of life”   will not be addressed by new security updates from Microsoft.

From a security perspective, if you are running Windows XP, I cannot stress   enough the importance of migrating to a newer platform that is supported and   can provide increased protections. The very first month that Windows XP goes   out of support, attackers will have the advantage. The first month that   security updates for supported versions of Windows are released, attackers   will reverse engineer those updates, find the vulnerabilities, and test   Windows XP to see if it shares those vulnerabilities. If it does, attackers   will attempt to develop exploit code that can take advantage of those   vulnerabilities on Windows XP. Since security updates will no longer be   available for Windows XP to address such vulnerabilities, Windows XP will   essentially have a “zero day” vulnerability forever. I discuss this   in greater detail in a recent blog   post.

This should be concerning for anyone using Windows XP today. If your   organization has not started the migration to a modern operating system, it   is crucial that you begin planning and application compatibility testing as   soon as possible. Based on historical customer deployment data, the average   enterprise deployment can take 18 to 32 months from business case   through full deployment. If you are looking for resources on how to get   started, I encourage you to read the Windows Blog post on “365 Days   Remaining Until XP End Of Support. The Countdown Begins” for   more detailed questions and answers.

  Best regards,
Tim Rains, Director
Microsoft Trustworthy Computing

Have feedback on how we can improve this newsletter? Email us at secnlfb@microsoft.com and share your   ideas.