Protect Your Business from Instant
Messaging Threats

Instant messaging (IM) programs facilitate real-time, text-based communication between two or more users who are using the same messaging program.

Though IM first gained popularity as a social interaction tool, it has made its way into the business environment, as well. According to a recent IMlogic Threat Center report, there are now 393 million global users of instant messaging. Because IM was initially developed for social chats, security was not a priority. Now that IM use is increasing in business, however, attackers are finding that most IM systems are virtually unprotected, so threats to IM are quickly increasing. In fact, a recent report by Gartner predicts that IT administrators who make no effort to protect public IM programs will experience 80% more IM-related security incidents than those that do. The IMlogic report also noted that IM threats grew by 1,693% in 2005.

Please click here for the most prevalent threats to IM.
 

Technology Tips

Make Documents Look Great in Word 2007

With Microsoft Office Word 2007, you can quickly and easily turn a plain-looking document into one that looks professionally designed. Use styles to quickly format major elements in your document, such as titles, subtitles, and headings. Start with predefined, coordinated designs and then customize to suit your needs. As you work, you don't need to apply formatting and then do it again until you have what you want — just point to a style in the dialog box to see a preview in your document. Not quite right? Point to a different style and see what it looks like.

Watch the demo to see how easy it is to give a plain document a professional-looking makeover, and then give it a final polish with headers and footers and a cover page.
 

Welcome to our May edition of the Progressive E-News. As we develop the content for these newsletters, we are evaluating information to share with you about upcoming technology, security concerns, best practices, proactive measures, and also available tools to improve the technology you rely on daily.

Some of the most recent new technologies include virtualization, Windows 7.0, IE 8.0, W2008 Server, Exchange 2007, Windows Small Business Server 2008, and Microsoft Vista. It is very important to check the compatibility of these new technologies with your major applications in order to ensure that you have a migration strategy in place as Microsoft makes plan to retire their end-of-life products such as Windows 2000/ 2003, Exchange 2000/2003, and Windows XP. As your IT partner, we will be happy to assist you with these kinds of technology decisions, so please feel free to let us know if we can help you in any way moving forward.

In closing, our relationship with you is very important to us and we look forward to continue working with you to assist you in making sound and reliable technology decisions for your businesses. In our next newsletter, we plan to cover virtualization and the new wireless standard since both of these are hot topics in our industry now.

As always, we welcome your feedback to help us deliver an effective and useful newsletter for you. In the event that you have any suggestions for improvement or topics of interest, please feel free to email llambert@pc-net.com. 

Thank you,
Mark Michal and Lisa Mitchell
 

Now is a good time to check your UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) devices and surge protectors because there is a good chance they have taken some voltage hits and suffered power outages.

Larger UPS devices, otherwise known as Battery Backups, may have power indicators that tell you how much battery capacity is left. Smaller devices may not have such indicators. If they are connected to a computer, chances are good they came with some software that gathers that information. Opening the software can give you some general idea of the overall health of your UPS. Either way, you can't always believe the lights and software; the best test of a UPS is to periodically unplug it from the wall and seeing how long the items plugged in still run. Most UPS devices will beep until power is restored, so this is normal behavior. If your computer is plugged in to one of these, please make sure that all applications are closed before trying this! If you want to test the capacity of the UPS, you can leave the unit unplugged and time how long it is until your connected devices begin to power off. If the time is short, you can purchase a newer, larger device, or plug fewer items into the UPS; the more devices a UPS has to keep powered during an outage, the shorter the duration it will last. One important note: many UPS devices have outlets that are not protected by the battery, and in the event of a power outage, anything plugged into one of those outlets will simply shut off. We have seem many instances where a client has plugged devices into the wrong outlet. I was a client earlier this week where they unplugged a router and computer to move a desk. When they plugged everything in again, the router and cable modem were in surge-only protected outlets. Please read the UPS labeling carefully to ensure you are using the correct outlets.

Surge protectors fail over time as well, especially as they are subjected to the constant fluctuation in voltage. Most modern surge protectors have a light when power is running through it. If the light is steady, the surge protection is still functioning. If the light is flickering, you have minimal protection and should replace the surge protector. If, when power is still running through the surge protector, the light is off, then you have nothing more than an extension cord and anything plugged in is not protected at all, so these should be replaced immediately.
 

If you're a Windows user (Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Me), just set up your PC to "hibernate" overnight. "Hibernate" powers down your monitor to about 5 watts of energy and your PC to 2.3 watts -- virtually the same as turning your PC off (your monitor uses zero watts when turned off; more on this below). Either way, you save as much as $90 a year in power costs compared to a PC left on with a 3D screen saver running.

The question keeps coming up, year after year: Should you shut your computer down at night or leave it running? Some time ago, I touched on the issue in a previous column -- I essentially passed on the recommendation of the good folks at Energy Star, a product-labeling program sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, that "if you are going home for the day, turn it off."

"Andy in Austin" triggered my interest in revisiting the subject by raising the question in tech guru Kim Komando's weekly e-mail newsletter. "Should I shut my computer down at night? Or is it better to leave it running?" he asked. Komando's response, in a nutshell: "The truth is, it really doesn't matter."

Read on