Archives March 2015

A particularly stealthy type software which is typically malicious; a rootkit is called so because it gives access to the “root” of the computer and therefore can be particularly dangerous as it gains admin access and therefore full control over your computer. It can modify software and therefore circumvent software designed to prevent infections and detection such as antivirus software. This also means that infection is particularly concerning as its use is more of an attack than an irritation and risk of danger to data and information is high.

Detection and removal is particularly difficult as a rootkit may well be able to subvert software designed to find and remove it.

Although a rootkit infection may occur through many sources, it is usually via vulnerabilities in software or social engineering. It is classic Trojan horse infection type.

Several providers offer rootkit detection products which can be downloaded for free. In no particular order they are

• Sophos Root Detection Toolkit
• Trend Micro Rootkit Buster
• Kaspersky TDSSKiller

Even with these powerful tools however, a rootkit can be a tough challenge and sometimes a system reinstallation may be a more cost effective option.

EasylifeIT Security

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From Chadwick Design

On Google’s official blog, Webmaster Central, Google announced that starting April 21st they will be officially considering the mobile-friendliness of a website as  part of their ranking algorithm for mobile search results.

They go on to say “This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.”

Google’s main goal, as always,  is to improve the searcher experience. It’s frustrating to search on a phone and land on a page that’s so tiny you can’t accurately click the links without pinching,  zooming and scrolling.

If your site is not mobile-friendly you may see a drop in your Google rankings from the 21st. You can check if you are  compliant with Google’s Mobile Optimization Guidelines here.

Note that the mobile-friendly update only affects mobile search results — i.e., searches from smartphones and tablets — not searches conducted on a desktop or laptop computer.

Read more (link to external website – Chadwick Design)

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We have seen a significant uplift in virus and malware incidents these past few weeks; the vast majority circumventing antivirus protection via user interactions with the internet and email.

As part of our TechTalks events on Cyber Security we have produced several documents relating to this issue and stress the importance of providing information to users on the front line to help them avoid infections.

To that end, please find below links to 2 documents which you may use as you think best. While we cant hope to be comprehensive on a single page; these cautions account for the majority of issues we have seen recently. The links below download documents created by myself and hosted on our own website.

EasylifeIT TechTalks Print and Protect-IT: How to best avoid a virus

EasylifeIT TechTalks Print and Protect-IT: Signs that you may have virus

Lindsey Hall – EasylifeIT TechTalks

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Back in 2013, Neil Darwin gave me the platform at Opportunity Peterborough to address 200 people with a wavering but passionate voice; Fengate, Cygnet Park, Woodston and Orton Southgate suffered from attrocious broadband provision and had no prospect of anything better than the BT offering … which putting it politely wasn’t much and was woefully inadequate.

We sought to bring pressure to bear on BT to improve their offering, but being monolithic and unresponsive; it just wasn’t happening. It was by happy co-incidence that in the wings stood CityFibre, who in partnership with the city council, were preparing to make Peterborough a gigabit city. Read More

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