What’s the truth behind Tape for Data Backup?

Watch my latest episode of The Master of Disaster and find out!

Tape Backup has been a standard for businesses for many years. However, the technology is both dated and flawed. Find out the truth about Tape Backup and how to think about backup in your Continuity Strategy. 

A few months ago, new piece of malware started spreading around the internet. The fake Microsoft Security Essentials Alert is a Trojan that attempts to trick you into thinking you are infected so that you will then install and purchase one of 5 rogue anti-virus programs that it is distributing. When the Trojan is run it will masquerade as an alert from the legitimate Windows Microsoft Security Essentials Program anti-virus program. This alert will be titled Microsoft Security Essentials Alert and states that a Trojan was detected on your computer. It will list this Trojan as Unknown Win32/Trojan and state that it is a severe infection. It will then prompt you to clean your computer using the program in order to remove it. When you click on the Clean Computer or Apply actions button, it will state that it was unable to remove it and then prompt you to scan online. If you click on the Scan Online button it will list 35 different anti-virus programs, 30 of which are legitimate anti-virus programs and 5 that are rogues that the Trojan is distributing. These five rogue programs are:

• Red Cross Antivirus
• Peak Protection 2010
• Pest Detector 4.1
• Major Defense Kit
• AntiSpySafeguard or AntiSpy Safeguard

During this fake online scan only the 5 fake anti-virus programs listed above will state that this supposed Trojan is an infection. It does this to scare you into clicking the Free Install button next to them that will install the rogue program onto your computer and then reboot your computer. It should be noted that Red Cross Antivirus, Peak Protection 2010, Pest Detector 4.1, Major Defense Kit, AntiSpySafeguard, and AntiSpy Safeguard that this Trojan is distributing are exactly the same. They just have different names and different graphical user interfaces. Here is a sample image of the Trojan below. 

Fake Microsoft Security Essentials Alert

After your computer is rebooted, the rogue that was selected will automatically start and perform a fake scan on your computer. When it has finished it will state that it was able to clean numerous files, but was not able to clean some files, such as iexplore.exe, until the program is purchased. While running, this program will also terminate many programs when you attempt to run them and display a message stating that they are infected. This message is:

The application taskmgr.exe was launched successfully but it was forced to shut down due to security reasons.
This happened because the application was infected by a malicious program which might pose a threat for the OS.
It is highly recommended to install the necessary heuristic module and perform a full scan of your computer to exterminate malicious programs from it.

Furthermore, these rogues will also display security alerts from your Windows taskbar that display messages such as:

Warning! Database updated failed!
Database update failed!
Outdated viruses database are not effective can’t guarantee adequate protection and security for your PC! Click here to get the full version of the product and update the database!

Warning! Running trial version!
The security of your computer has been compromised! Now running trial version of the software! Click here to purchase the full version of the software and get full protection for your PC!

All of these security alerts, like the scan results, are fake and should be ignored.

As you can see, this Trojan was created to trick you into thinking that you are infected so that you will then download and install one of its rogue anti-virus programs. If you have been tricked by this Trojan and installed Red Cross Antivirus, Peak Protection 2010, Pest Detector 4.1, Major Defense Kit, AntiSpySafeguard, or AntiSpy Safeguard then do not purchase it for any reason. If you have already purchased one of these programs, then I strongly suggest you contact your credit card company dispute the charges stating that it is a scam and a computer virus.

Our ConnectCare clients are always protected from this sort of garbage, but if you were infected and need some help, please call us at 954-920-9604 and we are happy to give you a hand.

Meet me on the web! One more week to Register!

Please join me for a special webinar looking at the Neverfail; the Best-in-Class solution for automation, application aware monitoring and replication to deliver high availability and disaster resilience.

Neverfail provides High Availability  and Disaster Recovery  out-of-the-box designed to let your business run 24x7 without major investments in costly resources.

Registration: Click Here

Neverfail & Connections for Business Present:

Continuous Availability for Critical Applications

Join our webinar Tuesday October 26th, 2010 from 12-12:30pm EST to learn how you can use one solution to proactively manage and protect the entire business
application ecosystem. 

Employing Neverfail as your cross platform Disaster Recovery site provides cost effective Application Resilience for a mixed estate of physical and virtual applications without costly and time consuming infrastructure upgrades.  Also, Neverfail provides the added benefit of a single management console to monitor and control the entire environment from one GUI.

Neverfail solutions can:

• Protect availability of mission-critical business
  applications against user downtime, regardless the cause of failure
• Ease the risk of migration of critical applications
  from physical servers to virtual servers with user transparent,
  automatic failover and failback capabilities
• Reduce infrastructure and operating costs

Date: Tuesday, October 26^th

Time: 12- 12:30pm EST

Registration: Click Here

Meet me on the web!

Please join me for a special webinar looking at the Neverfail; the Best-in-Class solution for automation, application aware monitoring and replication to deliver high availability and disaster resilience.

Neverfail provides High Availability  and Disaster Recovery  out-of-the-box designed to let your business run 24x7 without major investments in costly resources.

Registration: Click Here

Neverfail & Connections for Business Present:

Continuous Availability for Critical Applications

Join our webinar Tuesday October 26th, 2010 from 12-12:30pm EST to learn how you can use one solution to proactively manage and protect the entire business
application ecosystem. 

Employing Neverfail as your cross platform Disaster Recovery site provides cost effective Application Resilience for a mixed estate of physical and virtual applications without costly and time consuming infrastructure upgrades.  Also, Neverfail provides the added benefit of a single management console to monitor and control the entire environment from one GUI.

Neverfail solutions can:

• Protect availability of mission-critical business
  applications against user downtime, regardless the cause of failure
• Ease the risk of migration of critical applications
  from physical servers to virtual servers with user transparent,
  automatic failover and failback capabilities
• Reduce infrastructure and operating costs

Date: Tuesday, October 26^th

Time: 12- 12:30pm EST

Registration: Click Here

Hurricane Season -- Get past the headlines!

Now that we are approaching the end of the 2010 Hurricane Season, what happened and what does it mean for you? A viewer asked “tell me when you talk about earthquakes because hurricanes don’t hit here (California).” This is about disaster preparation, period. Whatever disaster you are vulnerable to. We specialize is computer systems so I can tell you; folks, they up and die when you can least afford it anywhere, anytime.

Anyway, I had fun recording this episode. I hope you enjoy it. Comments and suggestions welcome. Thanks to Aaron for the earthquake comment! Subscribe for updates on the right (where it says, “Let Us Contact You”). Or, follow the Master of Disaster on Twitter www.twitter.com/modconnections.

 A look back from the beginning of the
2010 Hurricane Season

This was recorded at the beginning of hurricane season. Let’s put those predictions in perspective at the end of the season and answer the burning question: “What does it mean?”

Please be sure to add some comments or suggestions. Also you can sign up on the right side to receive automatic updates when a new episode if available.

Thanks for tuning in.

Take a Step!

 Welcome back to the Master of Disaster. Your best source for easy-to-take disaster preparation tips for both your business and home. In this episode, I get you started on making a “video inventory”.

Your job is to Take Action! Set a date to get started on your video inventory and stick to it. My other request to you is to share this blog with your associates as well as leaving comments or suggestions for me.

Also, feel free to email me at mod@connections.com

Thank you for watching.

Step One -- Call Tree

Thank you for tuning in to my premiere episode last week. Your response was fantastic! This week we are going to get the ball rolling with your first simple step on the road to Personal and Business Continuity; a Call Tree.

Enjoy this episode and please spread the word. Your comments, feedback and suggestions are welcome. Leave comments here or shoot me an email. You can get Business Continuity News as well as updates on new episode of The Master of Disaster by following me on Twitter

Missed last episode? View it here

All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

Even cheerleaders lose their enthusiasm from time to time. If you’re feeling sluggish and unmotivated, reviewing this checklist (adapted from 10 tips for motivation on the George Washington University Counseling Center website) may help you reignite your spark:

• Purpose. Why are you here? Sometimes people get so caught up in daily responsibilities that they lose sight of the Big Picture. Remind yourself why you chose this field, this path, and this role.
• Expectations. Are your goals realistic or do you expect too much of yourself? It’s hard to muster a lot of enthusiasm when you’re so overwhelmed that you barely have time to breathe. Reconsider your priorities and look for ways to cut your workload.
• Connection. Do you see a gap between what you do every day and where you want to be in your career? Try connecting the dots. You’ll be more committed to your tasks if you can view them as steps in the right direction.
• Assistance. Are you in over your head? Don’t be afraid to ask for help from mentors, bosses, colleagues, and employees. If you stubbornly insist on taking responsibility for more than you can handle, you’ll wind up burning out.
• Distractions. Are you struggling with personal issues? Simmering personal problems can drain attention and energy from your work life. Consider taking time off or seeking professional help to resolve your issues.
• Scheduling. Do you allow yourself enough time to focus on each of your duties? Poor scheduling can leave you frazzled and frantic. Rework your schedule to ensure you set realistic deadlines.
• Negativity. Are you your worst enemy? If you spend a lot of time beating up on yourself for your perceived inadequacies, you’re undermining your own motivation and progress. Stop obsessing about perfection and start recognizing—and rewarding—your own accomplishments.

All of my clients have shared with me that dealing with their computer headaches were a constant distraction in their life. One very dear client worked with me for over fifteen years before he realized that the best thing he could do was to eliminate the distractions in his life and focus on his business. He called me that very day and essentially said “Take over running the computer network in my business… I don’t want anything to do with it from now on. I want to run my business!” He immediately took advantage of our ConnectCare plan, and we are now his complete IT department. You can listen to his story yourself (check out Jason’s story at the top of our testimonial page).

My challenge to you is to consider what is distracting you from your purpose, and determine how you can eliminate them!