Category Archives: Managed IT Services

Cloud Computing, IT Consulting, IT Support, Managed IT Services

Office for iPhone and Android

 

We’ve talked about Office for iPad in a previous post. Office for iPad based on a

office

subscription model from Office 365. However, Microsoft has been nice enough to charge $0 for the iPhone and Android versions of Office. This means you can have a free, fully functional document editing application on your smart phone.

This is an example of some of changes the new CEO of Microsoft is making towards the company.

It is quite interesting as why the iPad version needs a subscription, when phones do not.

 

If you’d like more info on Office for mobile devices, and info how it could benefit your company, feel free to contact Group 4 Networks.

About Group 4 Networks

We provide Toronto and GTA businesses with IT Support, IT Consulting and Managed IT Services at a fraction of the cost that they would pay a low-level full time IT Manager. Our team eliminates the hassle of dealing with the single knowledge and abilities of a lone “computer guy.”  What makes us unique is that we proactively manage our customer’s computer networks to eliminate many of the headaches and hassles of using computers to run a business.

We guarantee our customers a response within 60 minutes or less and are the only IT service provider in the region that offers a 60-Day 100% no hassle money back guarantee on our flat rate all inclusive service plans.

 

Cloud Computing, IT Consulting, IT Support, Managed IT Services, Uncategorized, Websites

Heartbleed bug

 

Heartbleed was the popular word of the internet last week, and it still is. What exactly is heartbleed though?

Heartbleed is a major bug within the authentication system for website which use OpenSSL to authenticate website logins. The problem is, a great majority of the internet uses OpenSSL as their authentication system.

The fix against this bug is to update the OpenSSL software on webservers. Major websites like Yahoo, Facebook, Google and plenty of others were affected, however they quickly patched the bug. After the fix is applied, users should change their passwords and make it complex.

Upon the discovery of this bug, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) temporarily suspended their online portion of the website. However, today it is reported that on average 900 Canadian social insurance numbers were stolen using the heartbleed bug.

How does heartbleed work though? Take a look at the image below. heartbleedexplained

 

 

 

 

To get more information on the heartbleed bug, visit http://heartbleed.com/

To test some websites, to see if they are currently affected with the heartbleed bug, visit https://filippo.io and enter the website address you wish to test.

In an upcoming article we will talk about password managers and how to choose a strong password and why you should do so.

If you would like more info on passwords, heartbleed, or internet security in general, feel free to contact Group 4 Networks.

About Group 4 Networks

We provide Toronto and GTA businesses with IT Support, IT Consulting and Managed IT Services at a fraction of the cost that they would pay a low-level full time IT Manager. Our team eliminates the hassle of dealing with the single knowledge and abilities of a lone “computer guy.”  What makes us unique is that we proactively manage our customer’s computer networks to eliminate many of the headaches and hassles of using computers to run a business.

We guarantee our customers a response within 60 minutes or less and are the only IT service provider in the region that offers a 60-Day 100% no hassle money back guarantee on our flat rate all inclusive service plans.

 

IT Support, Managed IT Services

Internet Explorer 0day vulnerability

 

Microsoft is warning people about Internet Explorer, which has a serious 0day vulnerability, which attackers can exploit and gain control of your computer. A 0day vulnerability is a bug or hole in the product which has never been documented before, is an unknown bug or hole to the developer, and something that has not been fixed yet.

securitybrokenThis 0day vulnerability within Internet Explorer affects versions 6 to 11. The vulnerability is triggered when the user goes to an infected website and if the client computer has Adobe Flash installed. This 0day vulnerability news comes at somewhat of a bad time, since Microsoft has just ended their support for Windows XP. Windows XP users will not receive any patches to fix this major vulnerability within Internet Explorer.

At this time there is no fix from Microsoft, however it is expected for a patch to be released with the upcoming Windows updates. In the meantime, we recommend users to temporarily use a different browser, either FireFox or Google Chrome, as these browsers are not exposed to the latest IE vulnerability.

If you are a client of Group 4 Networks and if you are on our managed service plan, these updates will be applied automatically as soon as the fix from Microsoft is released.

If you would like more info on this latest Internet Explorer vulnerability, feel free to contact Group 4 Networks.

About Group 4 Networks

We provide Toronto and GTA businesses with IT Support, IT Consulting and Managed IT Services at a fraction of the cost that they would pay a low-level full time IT Manager. Our team eliminates the hassle of dealing with the single knowledge and abilities of a lone “computer guy.”  What makes us unique is that we proactively manage our customer’s computer networks to eliminate many of the headaches and hassles of using computers to run a business.

We guarantee our customers a response within 60 minutes or less and are the only IT service provider in the region that offers a 60-Day 100% no hassle money back guarantee on our flat rate all inclusive service plans.

IT Consulting, IT Outsource, IT Support, Managed IT Services

Windows XP end support

IT Support after XP

 

As you may already know, Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows XP. If you have machines that are still running Windows XP, you may wonder how this will impact your protection and system security. To help address your questions, we’ve crafted a blog post that addresses a few important things we think you should know.
You can find the post here:
https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/what-endpoint-protection-customers-need-know-about-windows-xp-end-support
Should you find that you have other questions or if you need technical help, please contact the Customer Support Team: [email protected]

Sincerely,

The Group 4 Networks Customer Communications Team

 

About Group 4 Networks

We provide Toronto and GTA businesses with IT Support, IT Consulting and Managed IT Services at a fraction of the cost that they would pay a low-level full time IT Manager. Our team eliminates the hassle of dealing with the single knowledge and abilities of a lone “computer guy.”  What makes us unique is that we proactively manage our customer’s computer networks to eliminate many of the headaches and hassles of using computers to run a business.

We guarantee our customers a response within 60 minutes or less and are the only IT service provider in the region that offers a 60-Day 100% no hassle money back guarantee on our flat rate all inclusive service plans.