EON Consulting

Mac Malware Discovered

Eriq — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:54:21 +0000

Just when you thought that you’d be safer on the Internet using a Mac over a PC comes another reminder that your Mac needs malware protection just like PCs do. Graham Cluley, writing to the Naked Security blog for Sophos, writes in a post dated March 30 that a new Mac malware threat has surfaced this past week. The threat comes in by taking advantage of unpatched Microsoft Office for the Mac, specifically Microsoft Word. The vulnerability exists in Office 2004 and 2008 for the Mac, but not in Office 2011 for the Mac. If you have been updating your Office for Mac software regularly, you should be protected against this particular threat, as the patches for it were released in June of 2009. Still, if you want to double-check that you have the correct update installed, here is the update information for the Office Mac software:

Office 2004 – Version 11.5.5

Office 2008 – Version 12.1.9

If you have a later version of Office Mac installed, you are protected against this particular threat. How can you tell which version you have installed? Follow these steps to find out:

Open the Finder on your Mac.
Open the Applications folder on your Macintosh hard drive.
Find and open the Office for Mac version that you are running (Microsoft Office 2004 or Microsoft Office 2008).
Open the Office folder inside the main Microsoft Office folder.
Find and select the file named Microsoft Component Plugin.
From the File menu, select Get Info or Show Info (will depend on which version of Mac OS X you are running).
If the version shows 11.5.5 or later for Office 2004 or 12.1.9 or later for Office 2008, you are protected.

If nothing else, take your next opportunity to run the Microsoft Office Autoupdater to update your Mac Office version. While you’re at it, it can’t hurt to run Software Update on your Mac and ensure that you’re running the latest update for Mac OS X. And, as always, don’t open unusual or unexpected file attachments that you get in e-mail.

Happy Holidays from EON Consulting!

Eriq — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:09:40 +0000

The staff and families of EON Consulting would like to wish our customers and friends a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! While our offices will be closed on December 22-23 and 29-30, we will be in the area in case of emergency. Should you have a critical issue that is impacting your business operations during our office closure times, please send an e-mail to support at eon consulting dot net and leave a phone message in our support voicemail at the office. We will get back with you just as soon as reasonably possible.

We hope that you and your families have a safe and enjoyable holiday season, and we look forward to continuing to work with you in 2012!

Hard Drive Prices Skyrocket due to Flooding in Thailand

Eriq — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:36:23 +0000

Thanks to the unusual flooding in Thailand that has all but shut down Western Digital manufacturing plants in the region, worldwide pricing on hard drives has started to increase, and increase significantly. An article by CRN on October 21, 2011 (http://www.crn.com/news/storage/231901420/thailand-floods-raise-havoc-on-hard-drive-business-as-customers-scramble-for-supplies.htm) provides additional details about the problem and the impact it’s having on manufacturers and distributors, but that article is now over 10 days old, and prices have already started to increase significantly.

We have noticed from our suppliers that costs for hard drives have started to rise considerably in just the last week. Thus far, we have been able to make good on quotes we have provided for Dell server and desktop systems when those orders have been placed within a few days of creating the quotes, but its possible, even likely, that any systems we quote in the next few weeks are going to have higher pricing thanks to the increase in the cost of hard drives to manufacturers as well as distributors.

Another trend we have seen this week is that many online components resellers, including but not limited to Fry’s and New Egg, have started limiting hard drive sales to one drive per customer, and that’s for those products they show to have in stock. Many of the regular hard drive listings at those resellers are simply not available.

If you have been considering hard drive purchases, or you have been looking to get a new server or desktop configured with a lot of disk space, you’ll probably want to look at making those purchases sooner rather than later to hedge against probable continuing increases in the cost of disk space over the next few months.

Security Update October 2011

Eriq — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:15:40 +0000

On Tuesday, October 11, 2011, Microsoft released their latest round of security patches for their entire software suite. This is what’s considered a “light month” as there are few updates that have been released, but most of them considered critical. The ISC Diary analysis of the updates from Sans.org can be found at https://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=11779. Sophos has released their analysis of the security updates and that report can be found at http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/10/11/patch-tuesday-october-2011-8-bulletins-2-critical/.

As always, EON Consulting strongly recommends installing updates on individual computers and workstations as soon as possible after they are released, especially when there are critical updates released for commonly-used tools like Internet Explorer and Adobe utilities. Customers under our maintenance plans will have their servers updated with the appropriate updates this coming weekend. If you would like additional information about our server maintenance offerings, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss how we can help your business stay protected.

We’re Moving!

Eriq — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:59:51 +0000

What’s more fun than a Ribbon Cutting? How about a Ribbon Cutting on Halloween? Complete with a costume contest?

Join EON Consulting as we celebrate our move to new, larger office space at our ribbon cutting on Monday, October 31, 2011, from 4-6pm. In addition to the ribbon cutting and reception, we will be holding a costume contest with several different categories being judged. Cookies By Design will be providing the snacks for the reception as well as the prizes for the costume contest.

Our new office address is:
1204 W University Drive Suite 312
Denton, TX 76201

We’re in the Chase Bank building on University, right next to First Presbyterian Church. Please join us to celebrate our growth and expansion as well as have some fun on Halloween!

Eriq Speaking at Industry Conferences in September

Eriq — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:36:39 +0000

EON Consulting’s founder Eriq Neale will be in Las Vegas the last week in September to speak at a couple of industry events. On Thursday, Eriq will be presenting a session on Remote Web Access as part of Third Tier’s Brain Explosion event (http://www.thirdtier.net/2011/09/brain-explosion-session-detail-under-the-covers-of-remote-web-access/). Then on Friday, he will present a session on Group Policy on the opening day of the SMB Nation Fall conference (http://fall.smbnation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75&Itemid=128#group). This will mark the third consecutive appearance for Eriq at the SMB Nation fall conference and the second time that Eriq has presented as part of the Brain Explosion event.

Security Updates September 2011

Eriq — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:16:40 +0000

On Tuesday, September 13, 2011, Microsoft released their latest round of security patches for their entire software suite. This is what’s considered a “light month” as there are few updates that have been released, but several of them considered critical. The ISC Diary analysis of the updates from Sans.org can be found at https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Early+Patch+Tuesday+Today+Microsoft+September+2011+Patches/11551. Sophos has released their analysis of the security updates and that report can be found at http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/14/patch-tuesday-for-september-what-you-need-to-know/.

Adobe has released one update this month as well. This is a major update as it addresses a dozen vulnerabilities in their product. Links to this update can be found on the Adobe web site at http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb11-24.html.

Security Updates August 2011

Eriq — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:47:34 +0000

On Tuesday, August 9, 2011, Microsoft released their latest round of security patches for their entire software suite. This is what’s considered a “big month” as there are a number of updates that have been released, several of them considered critical. The ISC Diary analysis of the updates from Sans.org can be found at http://isc.sans.org/diary/Microsoft+August+2011+Black+Tuesday+Overview/11341. Sophos has released their analysis of the security updates and that report can be found at http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/08/10/patch-tuesday-august-2011-13-updates-22-vulnerabilities/.

Adobe has released a number of security updates this month as well. Links to those updates can be found on the Adobe web site at http://blogs.adobe.com/psirt/2011/08/adobe-product-security-updates-available-2.html.

Eriq Neale Featured in ChannelPro Magazine

Eriq — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:31:25 +0000

EON Consulting’s Eriq Neale has been interviewed several times for articles featured in ChannelPro magazine, an industry publication for SMB IT Professionals. In the March 2011 issue, ChannelPro chose to feature Eriq on the magazine cover as part of the feature story on tablet computing. The online version of the magazine can be read at http://www.channelpro-digital.com/channelpro/201103#pg1. The cover and inside photograpy was done in the lobby of our office building on the Denton Square.

Security Updates February 2011

Eriq — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:27:52 +0000

On Tuesday, February 8, 2011, Microsoft released their latest round of updates. This month is a “big” month in terms of the number and severity of updates, but it’s far from the record-setting months we’ve seen in the last year. You can read about the specific updates, what they address, and their severity levels from these two sites:

http://isc.sans.edu/diary/February_2011_Microsoft_Black_Tuesday_Summary/10375

http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2011/02/08/assessing-the-risk-of-the-february-security-updates.aspx

EON Consulting will coordinate with our maintenance customers for installing updates on their servers this coming weekend. We also encourage our customers to patch their workstations immediately by going to http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate and following the instructions there to download and install the latest updates, as there are active attacks against the vulnerabilities fixed in the Internet Explorer updates.