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2/06/2014 - Looking back at the history of Microsoft Windows

A brief look at Microsoft Windows 1983-2014

While not exactly a "news" story, we thought it would be interesting to take a walk back over the history of Microsoft Windows as it sits at the crossroads in 2014 with Windows 8 failing to meet expectations and Windows 9 on the horizon. Since 1983, Microsoft's Windows operating system has made leaps and bounds in evolving to its present form.

12/05/2013 - Microsoft's General Counsel: N.S.A. Hacks Were an 'Earthquake' for Tech

New leaked documents from former NSA employee Eric Snowden show government tracking cell phones, hacking Microsoft data centers

Information regarding the U.S. Government's National Security Agency (NSA) continue to be leaked to the media. On December 4th, the Washington Post reported that the NSA is tracking cell phone movements and interactions between cell phones to develop profiles of device owners.

It has also been revealed that Microsoft's data centers have been compromised by the NSA as well. This includes servers behind Microsoft's Office 365 and SkyDrive platforms, where users store email and Microsoft Office based documents. Microsoft is promising to defend their customers' data with new encryption methods, and will notify end users when it receives legal orders to turn over data to the NSA. In addition, Microsoft says it will fight such requests in court.
Time will tell if Microsoft can truly keep your data secure.

Read more from the New York Times

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12/21/2012 - Dell Booted From S&P 100 Index: 1992 Dell Precision with 2MB of RAM operating on MSDOS 6.06
During the days of the internet bubble, Dell was one of the top PC makers in the U.S. The fall of Dell from Standard & Poors adds further confirmation that the day of the PC is over as tablets and smartphones become the primary devices of consumers.
Read More from Forbes

11/09/2012 - Security Issues to Watch in Microsoft Windows 8: Despite being on the market for only a few weeks, serious vulnerabilities have already been identified in Microsoft Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10. Users should also be aware that threats to Windows 7 also apply to Windows 8 since they are built on similar architecture.

The majority of threats at present are phishing attacks and fake antivirus programs, which were notorious for attacking Windows XP systems. Richmond Computer recommends that users install an antivirus program that can detect and neutralize threats real-time.
Microsoft will be releasing patches to address the vulnerabilities on Tuesday November 13, 2012 on "Patch Tuesday". Contact us at [email protected] for a free consultation on securing Windows 8 in your IT environment.
Read More on the full list of vulnerabilities identified in Windows 8

11/07/2012 - Technology and President Obama's Second Term: What will Obama's second term mean
for the IT industry?

With President Obama moving towards his second term as Commander-in-chief, the United States can expect to see the continued investment in technology fueled through Federal programs, and some political battles stemming from past initiatives by the President to deal with privacy and piracy issues.

In the President's first term, solid commitments were made for research and development in relation to technology and energy use, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which mandated that doctors and hospitals convert medical records to digital format, cyber security and net neutrality

One controversial piece of legislation was the PROTECT IP Act, which was intended to address the problem of piracy of digital media, such as movies and music, by blocking open access to websites operated and registered overseas through DNS stripping or redirection. From a technical perspective, a strong case was made that such a policy could "break the internet" or redirect users to other rogue websites. This act caused a great deal of protest, which culminated in the January 18, 2012 "blackout" of the internet by organizations such as Wikipedia who protested the measure.

Read more on President Obama's second term technology initiatives and issues.

11/01/2012 - Microsoft Launches Windows 8 - Hold the phone on upgrades: In time for the holiday shopping season, Microsoft has released its next rendition of their desktop, laptop and tablet operating system, coined "Windows 8". Some significant changes are included in the latest version, namely the look and feel of Windows in response to the sleek features of Microsoft's competitors iOS and Android.

Windows 8 supports USB 3.0, UEFI Firmware, near field communications and low power ARM architecture. What end users will notice though is the new "Metro" interface, which is a new start screen and desktop made up of tiles that represent applications instead of the traditional desktop icons and start button.

However, like every other Microsoft new product release, Windows 8 likely contains some vulnerabilities not yet exposed during the beta development and testing phase. Most recently, hackers funded by the government were able to compromise the enhanced security of Windows 8 and take control of the system. Read More

While Microsoft's Windows 8 may be the up-and-coming for our desktops in the future, Richmond Computer strongly recommends against upgrades and new purchases until the software has undergone several months of testing in the IT and computer "hacking" world. If you are in the market for an upgrade or immediate system replacement, please call us at (215) 634-2997 for a consultation.

09/28/2012 - Prosecution team in Holmes case to use SMS Text messages as evidence: Arapahoe County District
Court prosecutor Carol Chambers

By Jim Finkle
As reported by USA Today, Prosecutors handling the mass murder case against suspect James Holmes plan to use a series of text messages sent to a fellow student as evidence against the University of Colorado graduate program dropout.

Noteworthy to the field of information technology is the reliance of litigators in both civil and criminal suite on SMS text messages and other electronic communications as evidence in proceedings. The Holmes case provides another example of a case where application of Richmond Computer's SMS Witness tool would provide clear, ordered and irrefutable electronic evidence that can help influence a court's decision.

SMS Witness is a SMS text message collection tool that recovers text messages from mobile devices and produces a transcript of specific conversations within the pool of messages retrieved. For example, a conversation between the defendant and his roommate. SMS Witness also produces a full index with references to the use of each word contained in the index. Our collection process is fully documented, including chain of custody reporting for the collected data.

To inquire about SMS Witness, please call (215) 634-2997 or contact us by e-mail at [email protected].

09/18/2012 - ***Microsoft Issues Security Bulletin for Internet Explorer 9***: By Jim Finkle
BOSTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp warned a newly discovered bug in its Internet Explorer web browser makes PCs vulnerable to attack by hackers and urged customers to download a piece of security software to mitigate the risk of infection. The security flaw affects hundreds of millions of Internet Explorer browser users. Microsoft said attackers can exploit the bug to infect the PC of somebody who visits a malicious website and then take control of the victim's computer. The software maker advised customers on its website late on Monday to install the security software as an interim measure, buying it time to fix the bug and release a new, more secure version of Internet Explorer. The company did not say how long that will take, but several security researchers said they expect the update within a week. The free security tool, which is known as the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit, or EMET, is available through an advisory on Microsoft's website: blogs.technet.com/b/msrc/

The EMET software must be downloaded, installed and then manually configured to protect computers from the newly discovered threat, according to the posting from Microsoft. The company also advised customers to adjust several Windows security settings to thwart potential attackers, but cautioned that doing so might impact the PC's usability. Some security experts said it would be too cumbersome for many PC users to implement the measures suggested by Microsoft. Instead they advised Windows users to temporarily switch from Internet Explorer to rival browsers such as Google Inc's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox or Opera Software ASA's Opera. "For consumers it might be easier to simply click on Chrome," said Dave Marcus, director of advanced research and threat intelligence with Intel Corp's McAfee security division. Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer of the security firm BeyondTrust, said it may not be feasible for some businesses to install Microsoft's EMET tool on their PCs. He said the security software has in some cases proven to be incompatible with existing programs already running on networks. Tod Beardsley, an engineering manager with the security firm Rapid7, said that at first blush it appeared that the EMET may not be particularly effective in thwarting potential attacks. Microsoft officials declined to comment on the skepticism that those security experts expressed about the effectiveness of the EMET software.

POISON IVY

Eric Romang, a researcher in Luxembourg, discovered the flaw in Internet Explorer on Friday, when his PC was infected by a piece of malicious software known as Poison Ivy that hackers use to steal data or take remote control of PCs. When he analyzed the infection, he learned that Poison Ivy had gotten on to his system by exploiting a previously unknown bug, or "zero-day" vulnerability, in Internet Explorer. "Any time you see a zero-day like this, it is concerning," said Liam O Murchu, a research manager with anti-virus software maker Symantec Corp. "There are no patches available. It is very difficult for people to protect themselves." Zero-day vulnerabilities are rare, mostly because they are hard to identify - requiring highly skilled software engineers or hackers with lots of time to scrutinize code for holes that can be exploited to launch attacks. Security experts only disclosed discovery of eight major zero-day vulnerabilities in all of 2011, according to Symantec. Symantec and other major anti-virus software makers have already updated their products to protect customers against the newly discovered bug in Internet Explorer. Yet, O Murchu said that may not be sufficient to ward off adversaries. "The danger with these types of attacks is that they will mutate and the attackers will find a way to evade the defenses we have in place," he said. Internet Explorer was the world's second-most widely used browser last month, with about 33 percent market share, according to StatCounter. It was close behind Chrome, which had 34 percent of the market.

07/06/2012 - Microsoft Eliminates Small Business Server from the Windows Server 2012 suite: Microsoft has announced that the small business server version of Windows Server 2012 will not be included in the latest release of their server suite. The final version of Small Business Server is the 2011 version, and will remain on the market through 2025. The 2011 version is the last to include embedded Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint.

Microsoft advises that customers who wish to retain on-premises messaging services utilize the standard Microsoft Exchange suite, which can be deployed in a virtualized environment on the replacement for Small Business Server, Windows Server 2012 Essentials.

Download Microsoft's whitepaper on Windows Server 2012 Essentials

Richmond Computer is experienced with deploying and managing Microsoft servers and the Small Business Server product line. Our certified staff is available to help our Philadelphia regional clients with migrating to Windows Server 2012 Essentials, and other versions available for small businesses. We encourage our clients in Philadelphia who have any support questions with their existing small business server to call us for a consultation.
on Windows Server 2012 product release