http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/ en-gb Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:26:45 GMT http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/August-2010/AMD-set-to-scrap-ATI-brand.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/August-2010/AMD-set-to-scrap-ATI-brand.aspx Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:48:58 GMT Four years ago, chip manufacturer AMD made a $5.4 billion purchase of ATI (a major Canadian designer and supplier of GPU’s) and promised to preserve the brand. However 6 years later the company believe the time is right to discontinue the ATI brand. The Radeon and FirePro product brand names will be kept, but they will adopt the AMD moniker when the company releases brand-new GPU’s in the coming year. Pre existing ATI products will retain their original name. Recently, ATI has increased its popularity over its main rival Nvidia and the PC PRO A LIST has been topped both in value & enthusiast graphics by ATI cards. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/August-2010/Intel-Buys-McAfee.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/August-2010/Intel-Buys-McAfee.aspx Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:20:10 GMT Intel buy McAfee Chip maker Intel has taken a huge step into the world of security software after its $7.68 Billion purchase of McAfee with the intentions of selling security products alongside its own hardware. Intel believe that as more and more devices, such as TV’s & Smart phones have the ability to connect to the internet the need is greater for better products to secure them. Paul Otellini is the CEO of Intel, this is what he had to say “In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements, Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences.” He went on to say “Everywhere we sell a microprocessor, there’s the opportunity for a security software sale with it” McAfee is set to help Intel improve the security of its chips, this will open a new revenue for Intel, who have decided to offer McAfee’s software alongside its chips for PCs and other products. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/August-2010/Malware-levels-hit-brand-new-high.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/August-2010/Malware-levels-hit-brand-new-high.aspx Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:20:54 GMT A top security firm announced recently that they had catalogued 10 Million new pieces of malicious code. Mike Gallagher, the chief technology officer of Global Threat Intelligence for McAffe had this to say when asked to comment “Our latest threat report depicts that malware has been on a steady incline since the first half of 2010” McAffe warned users of Apple’s Mac computers that they also may face malware attacks in the future, “For a variety of reasons, malware has never really been a problem for Mac users, but those days could end soon” Your businesses IT infrastructure has never been more at risk than current times, if you wish to speak with people who know exactly how to deal with security problems, before they do to much damage, simply call the IT Services office and one of our engineers will be happy to discuss the various options open to you. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/August-2010/Microsoft-patch-Tuesday-brings-34-fixes.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/August-2010/Microsoft-patch-Tuesday-brings-34-fixes.aspx Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:41:21 GMT Today's scheduled updates from Microsoft is a significant amount of releases that aim to fix 34 vulnerabilities identified across 14 bulletins. The patches, confirmed by an advance bulletin, confirm eight of the fourteen security bulletins addressed in the patch cycle as 'Critical' with others as important. The vulnerabilities addressed are for all desktop and server products, the high amount of patches come still despite the recent removal of XP Service Pack 2 from Microsoft's supported systems http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/August-2010/BT-Port-25-Update.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/August-2010/BT-Port-25-Update.aspx Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:37:03 GMT Most Internet Service Providers currently block Port 25, otherwise known as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, in an effort to cut down spam sent through their own network. All the e-mails sent through the Internet, by default will be routed through Port 25, the channel is used for communicating from one host to another. By blocking port 25, ISP’s can control the amount of e-mail sent out through their networks. This can become a pain for people who wish to send mail through e-mail servers other than one belonging to their ISP, for example @btinternet.com In March of 2008, BT’s retail division told the world that upcoming changes would require anyone sending from a domain other than BT’s own would have to submit their domain name to be granted access to an approved list database. So that means that anyone who didn’t submit their domain before BT blocked port 25 would receive an error message of: 553, an error caused when an SMTP server rejects a request to send mail. IT Services are finding that this issue is causing problems with ISP's that both use and do not use restrictive measures. Those that are not controlling the mail flow through networks and not taking responsibility of the standings of their IP ranges are ending up on global blacklists as fraudulent e-mail and spam in general is being relayed through ISP networks. The end result is that e-mail relayed through these ISP's, is that e-mail are being blacklisted. For example. Pipex/Tiscali is responsible for (at time of test) 3052800 of which in the last 7 days over 7000 individual IP's were listed by UCE Protect. http://www.uceprotect.net/en/rblcheck.php?asn=9105 Compared to AOL who lock down port 25, had 17 IP's listed, out of much larger range of 5996288 Individual IP addresses. http://www.uceprotect.net/en/rblcheck.php?asn=1668 If you’re struggling with the error message above and can’t find a way to fix the problem, or any other e-mail issue, feel free to contact us here at IT Services, simply ring us on the number to the right of this article and one of our highly skilled engineers will be happy to help you to address the nature of the fault. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/July-2010/Adobe-lock-down-Reader-software.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/July-2010/Adobe-lock-down-Reader-software.aspx Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:08:24 GMT To protect against attacks, Adobe have announced their plans to lock down its popular Reader software. Recently, Microsoft accused various 3rd party applications of being “easier pickings” than Windows operating systems such as XP, Vista & 7. With the upcoming update, “Adobe Reader Protected Mode” is expected to arrive and prevent attacks via Reader from affecting the rest of the computer; this is called the “Sandbox” technique. “Sandboxing” is used also by Google’s Chrome browser to isolate the code from the rest of the operating system, this limits potential damage from an attack significantly. Adobe have worked with both Chrome & Microsoft office teams whilst developing this update. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/July-2010/USB-Malware-flaw-hits-Windows.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/July-2010/USB-Malware-flaw-hits-Windows.aspx Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:27:33 GMT Microsoft operating systems from XP to 7 and Server 2003 & 2008 editions are being targeted by a new type of malware that uses a flaw in Windows to infect computers using shortcut icons. In a security warning, Microsoft announced that “The vulnerability exists because Windows incorrectly parses shortcuts in such a way that malicious code may be executed when the user clicks the displayed icon of specifically crafted shortcut, this vulnerability is most likely to be exploited by removable drives, such as a USB disk.” Soon after the problem was discovered, Microsoft issued workarounds that can be found at the link below. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/July-2010/Windows-XP-support-flaw-hits-25000-computers.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/July-2010/Windows-XP-support-flaw-hits-25000-computers.aspx Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:13:34 GMT A flaw that affects Windows XP machines has spread across 25,000 computers, as a result of a Google researcher announcing the flaw to the public. Microsoft rushed to issue a patch to combat the vulnerability in XP’s support centre. The flaw was discovered by Travis Ormandy and he decided to make it public just days after notifying Microsoft. This has raised questions about responsible disclosure. The UK has seen more attacks than the global average; however Russia and Portugal have been hit the hardest by the attackers. Microsoft announced that 100 countries have been affected. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/July-2010/Microsoft-Scrap-Downgrade-Deadline.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/July-2010/Microsoft-Scrap-Downgrade-Deadline.aspx Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:53:01 GMT Software giants Microsoft have recently announced changes to their downgrade deadline, meaning that customers with Windows 7 Ultimate & Professional now have longer to choose to downgrade to either Vista or XP. Previously, Microsoft had intended to stop people from downgrading from Windows 7 upon the release of SP 1, due early next year. However in a blog post, Microsoft Windows communications manager Brandon LeBlanc announced that “To support our customers’ unprecedented move to migrate their pc environment to Windows 7, we have decided to extend downgrade rights beyond the previously planned end date of Windows 7 SP1” This means that businesses can freely purchase new machines for employees and downgrade them to Windows XP or Vista until ready to move forwards onto Windows 7, making it easier for administrators to deploy Windows 7. http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/July-2010/BT-Workers-set-to-strike.aspx http://www.ITServicesConnected.co.uk/News/July-2010/BT-Workers-set-to-strike.aspx Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:57:48 GMT On June 18th the communication workers union were set to vote on planned strike action that could result in 50,000 BT workers going on strike. If the strike goes ahead, BT are likely to suspend their SLA’s and that may lead to delayed repair times during and after the strike. IT Services recommend that any of our clients who do not have back up services such as a 3G dongle or Back Up ADSL circuit contact us so we can guide you to make the correct decision for your business.