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.

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

 

 

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

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.