Don’t Fall Victim!

OnGuard Remote Backup platform has helped many customers over the bast few months recover from encryption ware based attacks! We offer a trusted protection platform that’s flexible enough to meet your current and future business needs. Our LIVE support works with you to help recover your systems quickly.

We are also introducing several new OnGuard security products this year geared to protect your business.

Onguard Mail Essentials powered by GFI: Protect your business against email-borne junk, viruses, spyware, phishing and other malware threats.

Hardware Firewalls with Advanced Security Protection: We are working with our U.S.A. based developers in order to provide proactive protection of your entire network, reducing your exposure to cyber threats at a price point that will not decrease your bottom lime.

We also offer managed Antivirus as well as advanced Network Monitoring. We monitor numerous parameters of your systems including disk space, backup status, operating system updates, errors. This proactive approach allows us to proactively maintain your systems for optimal performance and minimal downtime.

 

The U.S. government on Wednesday plans to ban the use of a Russian brand of security software by federal agencies amid concerns the company has ties to state-sponsored cyberespionage activities, according to U.S. officials.

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Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke will order that Kaspersky Lab software be barred from federal government networks while giving agencies a timeline to get rid of it, according to several officials familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. Duke ordered the scrub on the grounds that the company has connections to the Russian government and its software poses a security risk.

The directive comes months after the federal General Services Administration, the agency in charge of government purchasing, removed Kaspersky from its list of approved vendors. In doing so, GSA suggested a vulnerability exists in Kaspersky that could give the Kremlin backdoor access to the systems the company protects.

In a statement to The Washington Post on Wednesday, the company said: “Kaspersky Lab doesn’t have inappropriate ties with any government, which is why no credible evidence has been presented publicly by anyone or any organization to back up the false allegations made against the company. The only conclusion seems to be that Kaspersky Lab, a private company, is caught in the middle of a geopolitical fight, and it’s being treated unfairly even though the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage or offensive cyber efforts.

“Kaspersky Lab has always acknowledged that it provides appropriate products and services to governments around the world to protect those organizations from cyberthreats, but it does not have unethical ties or affiliations with any government, including Russia,” the firm said.

The directive comes in the wake of an unprecedented Russian operation to interfere in the U.S. presidential election that saw Russian spy services hack into the Democratic National Committee and the networks of other political organizations and release damaging information.

At least a half-dozen federal agencies run Kaspersky on their networks, the U.S. officials said, although there may be other networks where an agency’s chief information security officer — the official ultimately responsible for systems security — might not be aware it is being used.

The U.S. intelligence community has long assessed that Kaspersky has ties to the Russian government, according to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Its founder, Eugene Kaspersky, graduated from a KGB-supported cryptography school and had worked in Russian military intelligence.

In recent months concern has mounted inside the government about the potential for Kaspersky software to be used to gather information for the Russian secret services, officials said.

Richard Ledgett, former National Security Agency Deputy Director, hailed the move. Speaking on the sidelines of the Billington cybersecurity summit in Washington Wednesday, he noted that by Kaspersky, like other Russian companies, is “bound to comply with the directive of Russian state security services, by law, to share with them information from their servers.”

Concerns about Kaspersky software had been brewing for years, according to one former official who told The Post that some congressional staffers were warned by federal law enforcement officials as early as November 2015 not to meet with employees from Kaspersky over concerns of electronic surveillance.

When GSA announced its July decision, it underscored its mission was to “ensure the integrity and security of U.S. government systems and networks” and that Kaspersky was delisted “after review and careful consideration.” The action removed the company from the list of products approved for purchase on federal systems and at discounted prices for state governments.

The directive will also put pressure on state and local governments that use Kaspersky’s products. Many had been left to speculate about the risks of sticking with the company or abandoning taxpayer-funded contracts, sometimes at great cost. In July, The Post found several state or local agencies that used Kaspersky’s antivirus or security software had purchased or supported the software within the last two years.

Tired of spam email? Try this simple technique to reduce your spam.

My INBOX receives over 400 emails a day. Many of these emails are from websites I have either ordered something from,  downloaded something or are just junk mail. The number of emails almost doubles during the weekend and at nite. Now, its not difficult to DELETE these unwanted emails. But it does take some time to do so and I sometimes delete by mistake a good email that I need (Murphy’s law at work!). To be honest I actually find something interesting in those “junk” emails every now and than.

The technique:

About 3 weeks ago, I decided to try an experiment to reduce the spam emails I receive and save me some valuable time. What I came up with is so simple that I was skeptical if it would actually work. What did I do? I scrolled down on every “spam” email and hit the UNSUBSCRIBE button.

How to UnSubscribe:

Not every email has an “unsubscribe” and those are truly spam and need to be deleted. What i found over the last 3 week was interesting. First, not every web site handles the unsubscribe the same way. Most bring you to a web site where you have to OPT OUT of the list you are subscribed. These require you to be careful and read the screen and make sure you select UNSUBSCRIBE ME FROM ALL and not just the boxes with a check in it. Experimenting, I began first de-selecting all boxes and unsubscribing THAN reloading the page (clicking on the link again from the email) and hitting UNSUBSCRIBE FROM ALL – basically doing it twice. After 3 weeks, the double method seemed to work best in removing you from the list. Other sites have you type in your email (yes I thought this is how they confirm you are real, but this was an experiment remember) and again hit unsubscribe. Still other’s required you to CHECK OFF not UNCHECK the lists you no longer want. The best ones send you to a web page that states “you are unsubscribed”.

Finding the Un-subscribe button:

No one wants you off their list as you are a potential customer. So they don’t make it easy. The BETTER more reputable sites have a clear button to click. The less reputable sites don’t have a button but text you read and click. This text does not always show a link with your mouse so you have to click around – sneaky. This text may state “to remove yourself…”, “if you no longer wish to..” or my favorite “you requested these emails if you no longer want them” yes that’s right nothing else after that – even sneakier.

Finally some emails require you to reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in the email – again experimenting, i put unsubscribe in the subject and the body. What i found was that doing both, placing the unsubscribe in the subject and body of the email works best.

What happened after 3 weeks of doing this?

You may think this was a lengthy process and too time consuming – but fear not! It takes less than 8 seconds per email – yes I timed it! So for 3 weeks I diligently removed myself from every email I did not want.

First, some sites state you will be removed in 10 days (sears, homedepot etc..) and some said it will take a few days to process your request –  so be patient hence why I gave this 3 weeks. Some emails continued to come in despite my efforts to unsubscribe. I followed my process may times on each email. Interestingly, some continued to send emails but WITHOUT the UNSUNSCRIBE button – even sneakier – bastards! So i began making the unsubscribe links my favorites and continued to remove myself from the emails. Others immediately send me 2-3 emails right after unsubscribing without the button – like parting shots in a war. But I remained vigilant and continued to remove myself from the lists.

The results were quite astonishing

3 weeks later, my inbox receives less than 200 emails  a day with most if not all being good emails – a 70% reduction! Now at nite, I find myself looking at my phone only to find NO emails for me to delete! Saturday what was over 200 spam emails is now less than 20.

so this process works, costs nothing but some time and has greatly reduced junk mail. As a side benefit, since a lot of junk mail has been eliminated, the incidences of viruses also has gone down.

So if you want less spam and some virus protection, follow these steps – it worked for me!

Anthony Pennacchio
President