In the sister article to this piece, we talked about choosing Hyper-V Server over Windows Server as the management operating system. In this one, we’re going to go down the other road and make the case for Windows Server instead. A Clear Definition of Hyper-V Terms The earlier article had a section devoted to clearing…
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MailStore Server performs a check on every email in the mailbox to see whether it is already in the archive when archiving from mailboxes. This is how it prevents duplicates from occurring in the archive.
The time required for this process varies and depends on the number of mailboxes to be archived, the volume of received email, and the size of the existing archive.
Now an intelligent caching system and a new store hinting algorithm have been implemented in MailStore Server 9 for the first time. The algorithm greatly reduces the time required for checking emails when archiving mailboxes.
Read our new white paper to learn more about how MailStore Server 9 proves its worth during a performance test and how you can achieve an even greater increase in performance.
For the server edition of Hyper-V, you have a choice in management operating systems. You can use the free, no-GUI Hyper-V Server or you can use the full-fledged Windows Server. This will be the first of two articles in which I will argue both sides of the debate. In this installment, I’ll take the position…
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What’s been around for 6 whole years, has infected roughly 500,000 Windows-based PCs, and has intercepted information from over 800,000 online banking transactions, including account credentials? Zeus? Guess again.iBanking? Nope. Dyre? No, it’s not that one either – although it does have an equally unusual name. This time around, the culprit is called Qbot, and according to researchers it’s a highly successful botnet operation specifically targeting people who use older versions of Windows in the United States and Europe.
Qbot is a family of malware that spreads through compromised WordPress sites. Once these sites are compromised, they are reprogrammed to exploit visiting computers that contain application vulnerabilities.Once these vulnerabilities are exploited, the computer is instructed to download Qbot, a malicious program that connects the machine to a botnet and that can steal banking credentials.
According to recent reports, Qbot has an eye for the outdated. Since 2008, 52% of observed infections occurred on Windows XP; 39% of observed infections occurred Windows 7; and, 7% of observed infections occurred on Windows Vista. In all that time, 59% of Qbot banking interceptions occurred when a user accessed a website of one of the 5 largest banks in the United States.
Qbot is currently alive and well, with 75% of its 500,000 infected bots residing in the United States.
With headlines reading that the security of nearly 83 million JPMorgan Chase accounts has been compromised by Russian hackers and that 56 million people who shopped at Home Depot between April and September 2014 will need to get a new credit card, 500,000 might not seem like a lot. But a stolen banking password is still a stolen banking password, and in addition to credential theft Qbot also allows attackers to rent out your computer to cybercriminals looking for a zombie horde to commit malicious deeds (think spam or taking down a competitor’s website by overloading it with traffic).
What can you do to stay protected?
Well, a quick look at the stats should make the steps to prevention pretty clear. Don’t run an outdated OS filled with applications that haven’t been updated in years… and if you do, don’t use it to bank online. If you’re unfamiliar with why doing so is generally unsafe, we’d recommend this article on application vulnerabilities.After that, you can also check out the Emsisoft Security Knowledgebase to learn How to perform online-banking securely.
Want an automated solution instead? Then check out the brand new Emsisoft Internet Security. It can block Qbot variants in 3 different ways and also features an online banking mode specifically designed to harden browser software against vulnerabilities the malware attempts to exploit.
Have a great (Qbot-free) day!
For more on Qbot, see this recent featured article from SC Magazine.
Ever since its founding in 1841 in Langensalza, Thuringia, the Beltz Group has remained an independent family-run business that still specialises in publishing. The publishing group releases academic books and magazines for psychology and education (‘Psychologie Heute’), as well as children’s books, including the famous Janosch series. Approximately 450 employees at sites in Weinheim, Hemsbach, Frankfurt am Main, and Bad Langensalza help contribute to an annual turnover of more than €35 million.
The media company archived its emails with a competitor’s solution until the beginning of 2014. Since this failed to meet expectations, Jürgen Krapp, network administrator for the Beltz Group, carried out some research into possible alternatives. The business switched to MailStore Server in February 2014 after a brief evaluation phase.
“We particularly liked how the MailStore solution was installed within two to three hours and you could start using it immediately. Of course we tested everything first but we had no problems throughout the entire test phase. This is exactly how email archiving should be,” summarizes Jürgen Krapp.
Since Beltz replaced another manufacturer’s email archiving solution with MailStore Server, they were able to profit from our competitive upgrade offer, which enables customers to purchase our solution at a special discount rate of 50%.
The project leader describes the migration to MailStore Server in the corresponding case study.
Remember BadUSB? The proof of concept exploit from about 2 months ago which demonstrated that USB firmware could be reprogrammed to act as malware? Well, now the code that makes this possible has been released in the wild.
Researchers Adam Caudill and Brandon Wilson have published code that can make USB firmware act as a keyboard, which can issue malicious commands to any computer to which it connects. The researchers state that they have done so to place pressure on USB manufacturers so that the issue is fixed. Of course, as a side effect, the code is now freely available to malware writers and hackers around the world.
In an interview with Wired, the researchers also mention that they are working on an exploit that could invisibly inject malware into files that are copied from a USB to a computer. Such malware would then also be able to infect any other USB drive that connects to the infected computer. Furthermore, because it would exist in the invisible-to-user firmware portion of the device, instead of the flash memory, this malware would be extremely difficult for most people to detect, let alone remove. As yet, Caudill and Wilson have not released this more serious exploit, and do not know if they ever will because it would likely lead to a “USB-carried malware epidemic.”
Now that at least one type of exploit has been made public, though, it is likely that it will be adopted for malicious use. For this reason, we can only recommend USB file sharing with extreme caution – if at all – and only in conjunction with an anti-malware that is able to prevent unregistered threats through use of behavior blocking technology.
Have a nice (malware-free) day!
Are you actively using PowerShell to help manage Hyper-V? Pick up a copy of our new eBook, entitled “The Altaro PowerShell Hyper-V Cookbook”, written by PowerShell MVP Jeff Hicks.
In this eBook you’ll find a number of recipes to cook up a number of PowerShell scripts that will help you make complex tasks easier to manage. Don’t worry though, you don’t need to be a PowerShell expert to use these recipes and all scripts are provided in a separate zip file download so you can start “cooking” right away.
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on 2014.10.02
Now being rolled out in the Australian market through DataStor, Pure Channel delivers 30% protected margins to resellers and addresses the key points of pain SMBs face with data protection and backup and DR.
As a 100% channel company, Paragon has aligned with DataStor based on its reputation for providing resellers with value-added services and expertise in pre-sales and technical support, according to Tom Fedro, president, Paragon.
“DataStor is the ideal distribution partner for Paragon Software, the Pure Channel Program and our Paragon Protect & Restore (PPR) BDR offering,” said Fedro. “Their reputation for service excellence and channel enablement, along with their ability to drive a ROI, is second to none, and we look forward to working with them to help fuel success for our mutual resellers and SMB customers across Australia.”
The Pure Channel Program is built around the PPR solution, which is optimized for SMBs with a focus on ease of use and ease of implementation, while also protecting data spanning physical, virtual and hybrid server environments. Earlier this year, Paragon announced that PPR earned a 9.83 out of 10 points possible in TopTenReview’s 2014 ranking of Best Server Backup Software. In addition, PPR tied with a brand to capture the top spot in the professional support category, while also earning the highest possible ratings across three other server backup software categories including recovery and restoration, management tools and resource management.
“Backed by the power of PPR, Pure Channel offers our reseller partners a new and refreshing approach to BDR sales, with simplified and streamlined sales cycles and a proven method for helping them achieve profitable growth,” said John Couvaras, MD, DataStor. “We’re proud to serve as a catalyst for Paragon in the Australian market and we look forward to a strong and growing relationship.”
Since the Pure Channel Program launched in the US earlier this year, deal registration is exceeding expectations, and Paragon expects high levels of success in Australia. Pure Channel features a high-impact ‘Pure Profit’ strategy grounded in what Paragon calls ‘POP’ (Paragon Opportunity Protection), which eliminates minimum revenue and tech training requirements, guarantees 30% margin protection and streamlines sales cycles with fast online deal registration and transaction processes. In addition, unlike traditional, multi-tiered partner programs, with Pure Channel, resellers and MSPs can opt into one of only two Pure Channel partner levels: Pure Platinum or Pure Gold
As the iSCSI and iWARP RDMA over 40Gb Ethernet market momentum accelerates, this quarter has seen Chelsio participate in a number of industry firsts, notably the first NVMe over Fabrics prototype demonstration, and first 40Gb FCoE VN2VN (with BB6) product launch.
New Products
Chelsio released a number of new software products during Q3, including:
On the hardware side, Chelsio delivered support for the Intel 40GbE Ethernet Modular Optics and Cabling Solution. With a dramatically lower price point than existing solutions, the new optics will accelerate the pace of 40GbE adoption.
Thursday evening, JPMorgan Chase confirmed a system compromise by hackers that affects approximately 76 million households and 7 million small businesses. According to the official statement, both customer contact information and “internal JPMorgan Chase information” relating to users has been compromised.
There is currently no evidence that suggests account information, such as account numbers, passwords, user IDs, dates of birth, or social security numbers, was compromised. The bank also states that they have not found any instances of customer fraud related to the hack.
The extent of this intrusion makes it one of the largest financial data breaches in U.S. history, and the confirmed count of affected customers dwarfs the company’s original estimate of roughly 1 million when the hack was first discovered in July 2014. Speculation as to who carried out the attack currently points to hackers from Southern Europe, with possible ties to the Russian government.
For the full report, see The New York Times. For additional precaution, Emsisoft recommends that any JPMorgan Chase customer reading this alert change their password as soon as possible.
Have a great (cyber-crime-free) day!