How Amazon AppStream 2.0 can help businesses
Today’s workforce is no longer confined to office walls. People work from home, while they’re commuting to and from work, and even on vacation. This is made possible thanks to remote access solutions, and Amazon’s powerful web features. Here’s what you need to know about this powerful application streaming service.
What is it?
Initially released in 2013, Amazon AppStream was created as a platform for remote access to digital resources to help businesses streamline the costly process of managing apps on-premises. Simply put, it streams desktop apps to users across various devices via a browser.
Today, Amazon AppStream 2.0 has been updated with major improvements thanks to user feedback. Now, you can stream desktop applications from Amazon Web Services to any device running a web browser compatible with HTML 5.
What can you do with Amazon AppStream 2.0?
You can run desktop applications on any device, including Windows, Linux, Macs, and Chromebooks. Amazon AppStream 2.0 features multiple streaming options, including the General Purpose, Compute Optimized, and Memory Optimized.
Everything is fully managed by Amazon and all your applications and data will be kept on Amazon Web Services. This means you can expect robust security like network firewalls, web application firewalls, secure streaming gateway, encryption in transit across all services, and the ability to isolate your applications for secure delivery.
You’ll always have access to the latest version of your applications and minimize the risk of compromising confidential data if your device gets lost or stolen, as data is stored on Amazon’s cloud infrastructure.
What other benefits are there?
Apart from mobile access to documents and applications, you’ll appreciate the simple user interface that allows you to upload files to a session, access and edit them, and download them when you’re done.
What’s more, Amazon AppStream 2.0 uses NICE DCV for high-performance streaming. This ensures secure and fast access to applications since NICE DCV automatically adjusts to network conditions.
Amazon AppStream 2.0 also supports delivery of high performance graphics applications from Amazon Web Services. This allows you to stream powerful graphics applications to a web browser on any desktop.
Last but not least, this remote access solution lets you scale up or down as needed and pay only for the streaming instances you use, and a small monthly fee per authorized user. There’s no upfront capital or premises infrastructure maintenance costs.
If your business mainly consists of a remote workforce or is planning to adopt remote work policies, Amazon AppStream 2.0 is one solid option. For other tips on how small- and- medium-sized businesses can leverage technology to improve efficiency and lower costs, give Multi IT a call on 011 435 0450 and we’ll be happy to advise.
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New Locky ransomware: what you need to know
In 2016, the Locky ransomware infected millions of users with a Microsoft Word file. It was eventually contained, and cyber security firms have since created protections to detect and block previous Locky variants. However, a similar malware is currently spreading worldwide and has so far infected tens of thousands of computers.
Quick facts
According to a threat intelligence report, the email-based ransomware attacks started on August 9 and were detected through 62,000 phishing emails in 133 countries in just three days. It also revealed that 11,625 IP addresses were used to carry out the attacks, with the IP range owners consisting mostly of internet service providers and telecom companies.
How it works
The malicious email contains an attachment named “E 2017-08-09 (580).vbs” and just one line of text. Like the original Locky authors, attackers responsible for the new variant deploy social engineering tactics to scam recipients into opening the attached .doc, zip, pdf, .jpg or tiff file, which installs the ransomware into their systems.
When an unsuspecting user downloads the file, the macros run a file that provides the encryption Trojan with an entry point into the system. The Trojan then encrypts the infected computer’s files.
Once encryption is completed, the user receives instructions to download the Tor browser so they can access the "dark web" for details on how to pay the ransom. To retrieve their encrypted files, users will be asked to pay from 0.5-1 Bitcoin.
What you need to do
This ransomware variant builds on the strengths of previous Trojans. In fact, the original Locky strain made it easy for cyber criminals to develop a formidable ransomware that could evade existing cyber security solutions. This is why adopting a "deny all" security stance, whereby all files are considered unsafe until proven otherwise, is the best way to avoid infection.
Here are other tips to avoid infection:
Don’t open unsolicited attachments in suspicious emails. Alert your IT staff, and most importantly disallow macros in Microsoft Office unless they’ve been verified by your IT team.
Performing regular backups guarantees you never have to pay cyber criminals a ransom. If all other security measures fail, you can always rely on your backups, which protect your business not just from cyber crime-related disasters, but also from natural and other unforeseen system failures.
Train your staff to identify online scams like phishing. This and other similar ransomware strains take advantage of users’ lack of cyber security training.
Update your operating systems as soon as updates become available to reduce, or eliminate, the chances of your system’s vulnerabilities being exploited.
Even with a trained staff and the latest protections installed, your IT infrastructure may still have unidentified security holes. Cyber security experts can better evaluate your entire infrastructure and recommend the necessary patches for your business’s specific threats. To secure your systems, get in touch with our experts at Multi IT now on 011 435 0450.
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OneNote: the hidden gem in Microsoft Office
Almost everyone loves PowerPoint, Excel and Word, but there’s another Office application that should be recognized as a must-have: OneNote. It’s an app for pulling together text, video, audio, and other visual resources to create shareable notebooks full of useful information. With this article, you can master OneNote in no time at all.
OneNote is a digital notebook
Despite the visual similarities, the thing that sets OneNote apart from Word is the way it stores and displays saved information. In OneNote, one window displays all your Notebooks, which can contain several pages and separate documents.
To create a Notebook, click File and then New. From there, you’ll be given the option to create a new Notebook, which can be saved locally to OneDrive or to SharePoint.
A Notebook will help you organize several types of information in one space, so let’s imagine we’ve named a SharePoint Notebook “New Product Ideas” and clicked Create New.
Next, you’ll be looking at a blank screen with “New Product Ideas” in the upper left-hand corner. To get the most out of OneNote, we need to start organizing our Notebook.
Separate your Notebook into Sections
Every Notebook is organized into Sections, similar to what dividers do in a physical notebook. For example, our New Product Ideas Notebook might be divided into Sections based on things like design, price and materials.
Sections are shown as color-coded tabs along the top of the screen, next to the name of your Notebook. You simply click the ‘+’ button to create a new section.
Start filling your Sections with useful Pages
Up until this point, OneNote seems like little more than a Word document with improved organization. But Pages in OneNote are built so that different types of media can be dropped into your pages with the click of a button.
So let’s say you’ve bookmarked a number of websites with reference images you want to add to your Design Section. Open up Design and select Add New Page on the right-hand side of the screen. Right-click it and name the page, and in our example this could be Ideas from online.
One way to insert the images from your bookmarked webpages is to save them to your computer and then drag each icon onto your OneNote Page where the image will automatically appear.
However, with Microsoft’s OneNote Web Clipper this can be done much more easily. After installing the browser extension, open it and select what you want to save from the web page with your cursor. The Web Clipper will ask which OneNote Page you want to save the selection to and it will automatically be added.
Start experimenting!
Now that you understand how to organize your information, you can experiment with linking Pages from different notebooks, adding category tags to Pages, and inserting online videos into your notes.
If you’re worried about a Notebook becoming overly complicated, don’t worry. Above the Pages pane is a search bar that you can use to find keywords from Notebook titles, Section titles and Pages content.
You could spend an entire year learning the ins and outs of every Microsoft Office application, but a faster way would be to let us help you cut through the clutter with practical recommendations and assistance. Call Multi IT on 011 435 0450 today!
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5 Simple ways to cut your printing costs
It may not seem as though your printing infrastructure is costing your business a great deal. But if left unmanaged, you could end up with an overinflated IT budget dominated by equipment maintenance and hardware and supplies purchases. Here are some ways to avoid that.
Replace outdated printers
Outdated and cheap printers may be functional, but they are putting a huge dent in your IT budget.
Any piece of equipment that is seven years old (or older) requires frequent repairs and causes more trouble than it's worth. Because old printers are no longer under warranty, fixing them is more costly and challenging. It’s also difficult to replace parts for old printers because manufacturers have stopped carrying them for models that have been phased out.
When you replace outdated equipment with newer, multi-functional printers, you’re investing in hardware that will pay for itself with increases in productivity and efficiency.
Avoid purchasing unnecessary supplies
A poorly managed printer environment could result in a stockpile of cartridges, toners, and reams of paper. This happens when, for example, an employee uses a printer that’s about to run out of ink and makes an unnecessary request for a new ink or toner. This is more common than you may think, and definitely more expensive.
In the absence of a dedicated printer manager, you can avoid this situation by automating supply replacement. Assign a point person to proactively place orders when supplies are about to run out, so your company can avoid needless purchases.
Impose strict process workflows
Submitting expense reports, filing reimbursements, and other administrative tasks require a proper document workflow. Without a guideline, employees and administrative staff tend to print an unnecessary amount of documents.
Automate your company’s document-driven processes to reduce or prevent redundant print jobs that result in stacks of abandoned documents. Not only is it wasteful, it’s also a security and privacy concern.
Go paperless
Designing a document management solution that reduces paper consumption is the best way to save money. It may not be possible in every department, but those who can do their jobs without printing should be encouraged to do so by management. Printing lengthy email chains that can be discussed in a meeting is just one example of a wasteful practice that should be avoided.
Reduce IT support calls for printing issues
Calling your company’s IT guys to assist with problems like paper jams, printer Wi-Fi issues, and other concerns reduces employee frustration. You and your IT personnel could avoid dealing with these productivity killers by identifying the problem areas of your print environment. Then, you can work on solutions specific to your office, such as drafting a printing workflow, or getting help from document management experts who can recommend time- and budget-saving solutions.
Having a group of experts manage your IT workflow can make your day-to-day operations more efficient and help you save on printing costs. Our experts will gladly recommend best practices and tips on document management. Call Multi IT on 011 435 0450 today.
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Facebook faces devious adware
When you receive an email from an unfamiliar source urging you to click on a link or download a file, it’s easy to send it straight to the bin due to its spam-like nature. It’s a completely different story when the message is sent via Facebook Messenger by one of your friends. Such is the case with the latest social engineering scheme, and here’s what you need to know to stay safe.
What is it?
Little is known about the adware itself or those behind it, but it was uncovered by David Jacoby, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, when he received a Facebook message from one of his friends, only to find out that wasn’t the case.
Basically, the adware uses Facebook Messenger to track your browser activity and pushes you to click on malicious ads or give out personal information.
How does it work?
By clickjacking and hijacking credentials of Facebook users, the adware is able to send messages to people in the victim’s contact list. If you’re one of those people, you’ll receive a phony message from your friend’s compromised Facebook account.
The message includes your friend’s name followed by the word “Video,” a shocked face emoji, and a shortened URL. Once clicked, the URL will redirect you to a Google Doc with a blurred photo taken from your friend’s Facebook page, disguised as a video. If you click on the “video”, you’ll be redirected to one of a number of targeted websites based on your browser, operating system, and location.
For instance, if you use Google Chrome, you’ll be sent to a website that looks exactly like YouTube, complete with the official logo. The hoax website will show you a fake error message to trick you into downloading a malicious Chrome extension.
If you’re on Firefox, you’ll be sent to a site with a false Flash Player update notice and a Windows adware executable; the same goes with OS X except the adware is hidden in a .dmg file.
The goal here is to move your browser through a set of websites so tracking cookies can monitor your activity and display malicious ads or you can be “social engineered” to give up confidential information.
How do you avoid falling victim?
Facebook has rolled out a number of automated systems to stop harmful links and files. What’s more, they will provide you with a free antivirus scan if they suspect that your account has been compromised by adware.
Still, you should be very skeptical about any shortened URL links sent to you by your Facebook friends, no matter how long you’ve been friends.
Due to their low key nature as potential security endpoints, cyber criminals are turning to social media platforms as their new medium of choice. To keep your business safe, you need to stay up-to-date and educate your employees. If you have any other questions about social media and how it can impact your business, just give Multi IT a call on 011 435 0450.
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Take a look at Outlook.com’s new features
Are you looking for a business email service provider? A convenient option would be Gmail, which lets you sync your emails easily with Google applications. But if discreet ads, a cleaner design, increased storage, and other productivity enhancements sound appealing to you, we recommend taking a look at the following new Outlook.com features.
Easy elimination of unwanted emails
Employees spend an excessive amount of time poring through both important and junk emails. In the redesigned Outlook.com, it takes only three clicks to block unwanted emails, helping you to organize your mailbox better and faster. Simply click on the Sweep function to configure inbox preferences like blocking incoming emails from specific senders or automatically deleting 10-day-old messages.
In case you accidentally delete important messages, you can use the “undelete” function to retrieve them without the assistance of IT staff.
New security features
When you log in to your Outlook account on a public device or on your laptop using public WiFi, Microsoft will send you a one-time password via SMS. Once you’ve logged out of your account, further attempts by intruders to log in to your account in the same public place will be foiled by this additional safety procedure.
Another security feature is the stealth email address features, which allows you to create a temporary email address. This is particularly useful in situations where you have to provide your email to sign up for a service, e.g., eCommerce or file sharing websites, and you’re not sure whether or not these sites are secure. Using your temporary email address, you can filter incoming emails from suspicious senders or delete them if you suspect that they’re spam.
Social media contacts integration
For users whose business connections extend to their social media contacts, this feature lets you easily sync and consolidate Outlook contacts with contacts from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus. Note that you can choose to sync just one platform, e.g., LinkedIn, to ensure that only professional contacts get synced to your Outlook account.
Minimal advertising
If you spend an inordinate amount of time in your email, a busy interface can be distracting. The new Outlook.com reduces the number of intrusive ads on your screen, unlike in Gmail where ads appear right on top of your most recent email. Although there are ads, they are not prominently placed within your mailbox, and you have some control over the ads that do get shown.
Other enhancements
Other minor but useful enhancements include a bigger reply window, HTML and CSS formatting functionality, folders and category labeling features, increased storage capacity via SkyDrive integration, an improved photo gallery viewer, and more. These are just some of the more useful enhancements on Outlook.com, and Microsoft is expected to add even more in the future.
If you need more productivity-enhancing email features, or if you want to make the most of your existing email functions, call Multi IT today on 011 435 0450 for tips and recommendations.
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