Archive for the ‘ news ’ Category

Cable Cleanliness

Posted on: December 19th, 2017 by Supportedge No Comments

There are many places where cable tidiness is disregarded and end up looking like the aftermath of a tornado. Messy cables make it harder to maintain and scale your IT systems, can be a WHS hazard and simply don’t look nice. We pride ourselves on keeping cables clean and tidy as part of every project we work on, so if you need your cables organized neatly, we’re happy to help.

DisasterCables     Cable cleanup

Do your cables look like the picture on the left? Want your cables like the ones on the right? Give us a call!

Client Notice – More Power!!

Posted on: December 12th, 2017 by system No Comments

World's biggest battery

This evening (12.12.17) and tomorrow morning we are doing some upgrades on the power systems to our servers.  We have moved clients systems to other equipment and are not expecting any downtime.

But….

It will effect our phone system.  You may not be able to get through to our office before 9am (13.12.17) on the phone.  Please send an email or call 0423 052 668 if you have an urgent request.

New NBN HFC connections halted for 6+ months

Posted on: December 7th, 2017 by Supportedge No Comments

NBN_Masterbrand_Australia_Descriptor_NOTAGLINE_Landscape_CMYK

NBN has halted all new NBN HFC connections ‘effective immediately’. The decision came as a result of numerous complaints of poor service, low speeds and dropouts. With only 10% of HFC-ready households already connected, this delay will most likely push back NBN’s completion date from 2020.

The current state of NBN is messy, it’s common for connections to take longer than 2 months to complete. It may sound best not to switch over but unfortunately NBN Co shuts off non-NBN connections after 18 months (I.E Your ADSL/Cable won’t work after 18 months of NBN being available in the area). Eventually everyone will have to switch to the NBN. We here at Supportedge are dedicated to providing our clients with high quality IT solutions, so if you have any questions about what the NBN means for you, give us a call so we can help tailor a specific IT solution just for you!

Melbourne Cup 2017

Posted on: November 1st, 2017 by Supportedge No Comments

Melbourne Cup horses
Hi all, we will be closed from 1pm on Tuesday for the Melbourne Cup.

Wishing the best of luck with the races to all :)

Gamble responsibly.

Dealing with service providers

Posted on: October 18th, 2017 by Supportedge No Comments

Service providers are renown for their generally terrible customer service, miscommunication, frequent outages and incorrect billing. Recently an Australian Woman on her honeymoon was billed incorrectly 3 times, with bills greater than $2000 each time. In Mrs McCarthy’s battle with Telstra, she has had to deal with 4 different case managers, the CEO of Telstra and the Queensland Police.

At Supportedge we offer support subscriptions which allow you to streamline your IT and keep your business running efficiently for a flat cost every week. Included in these subscriptions is the Service Provider Management subscription, which covers us establishing communication with your service providers to help resolve problems like Mrs McCarthy’s faster and more efficiently.

Is your business cyber-secure?

Posted on: October 10th, 2017 by Supportedge No Comments

Cyber-Security-Credit-Shutterstock
This week is Stay Smart Online Week, which is all about raising awareness of the massive damage that cyber-crime can do to you and your business.

The Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia (COSBOA) have stated that 20% of small businesses experienced a cyber-attack in 2016, and predict that 40% of small businesses’ will be attacked in 2017. Cyber-criminals typically target small businesses, who have large amounts of sensitive data and smaller budgets to defend it with.

In order to keep you and your business protected, We’re offering a Level 1 security audit for $550. We will take a look at your systems, ensure you haven’t been breached, check for malicious attempts and report on the current cyber-secure methods your business uses. Call us on 02 8007 2930 for more details.

Paint 3D to replace Paint in latest version of Windows 10

Posted on: July 26th, 2017 by Supportedge No Comments

Source: Techhive.com

With the latest Windows 10 update, Microsoft has set paint to be a deprecated feature, which means that it is not recommended by Microsoft anymore but is still available for anyone to use. This can happen for a wide range of reasons, but it seems that Microsoft is preparing the way for their new program Paint 3D. Paint 3D is exciting new software meant to allow easy and intuitive access to 3D modelling, designed to be simple to use and easy to learn much like Paint. Users of Paint 3D should be able to 3D print their creations with ease, adding a fun new tool to Windows’ toolkit.

Paint will no longer come as a default app on windows 10, instead it will be available on Microsoft’s App Store, where users can download it for free. While paint does not have a set date to be discontinued entirely, it’s safe to say that Microsoft does not want to continue supporting it for much longer, and users will eventually have to adapt to different software.

It has arrived! Petya

Posted on: June 28th, 2017 by system No Comments

Petya Ransomware

Supportedge have been monitoring this threat since 28 June 2017

Again None of our clients have reported this infection.

What is the danger to Supportedge’s clients?

This problem is an issue for Microsoft Windows systems only. The Petya attack starts by sending spam messages containing links to download a ZIP archive. The archive contains a malicious file and as well as a JPEG image. The file names are in German at this stage, the file names are made to look like resumes for job candidates, for this reason the main is HR staff in German-speaking countries.

Australia has not been hit by a wave of attacks. This attack uses the same exploit in Windows that was used to spread WannaCry virus. There are notable differences between Petya and WannaCry, the largest is, WannaCry had a kill switch, Petya does not! If you are infected by Petya Your computer becomes locked and held at ransom (no access to the operating system).

The top 5 countries that have been affected

  1. Germany
  2. China
  3. India
  4. Japan
  5. Russian Federation

What do I do to protect myself?

Call us, we will check your system and report the risk. If you’re a subscription client we have already checked your systems, you don’t need to do anything.

If you’re interested in self-checking your system and you don’t need our help you can find more information and procedures here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms17-010.aspx As a part of your self-checks please also make sure to validate your backups.

Ask about our computer monitoring tool!

Not only will this software provide centralised and market-leading anti-virus protection, it will also conduct a thorough series of checks each and every morning before you start work. Checks include:

Way more to come: WannaCry and Malware

Posted on: May 17th, 2017 by system No Comments
WannaCry Global Infection rate at 11am 16.05.17 AEST

WannaCry Global Infection rate at 11am 16.05.17 AEST

Source: MalwareInt https://intel.malwaretech.com

 

Supportedge have been monitoring this issue since 12th May 2017.

The good news is none of our clients have reported this infection or system breach to date. The bad news is this is still a big concern.

If we originally setup your network and no changes have been made to the systems we put in place. Supportedge’s security policies have been protecting you from external threats like this.

What is the danger to Supportedge’s clients?

This problem is an issue for Microsoft Windows systems only. The largest risk factor at this stage is an internal infection. If an infected computer is physically connected with a cable or Wi-Fi to your network you must have Microsoft’s security update MS17-010 that was released in March to be protected.

You have seen this cyber security problem in the News. What’s WannaCry (semi-technical)?

WannaCry leverages the ETERNALBLUE exploit. It’s a problem with the way computer systems share files with each other. To prevent penetration, block ports 135, 139 and 445.

What do I do to protect myself?

Call us, we will check your system and report the risk. If you’re a subscription client we have already checked your systems, you don’t need to do anything.

If you’re interested in self-checking your system and you don’t need our help you can find more information and procedures here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms17-010.aspx As a part of your self-checks please also make sure to validate your backups.

I’ve been infected, what now?

First thing is to turn off the infected computer. Most likely the only recovery is your backups. Call us and we will start your system in our security lab so that we can recover your files.

#MalwareTech #Ransomware #CyberSecurity #WannaCry #wannacrypt #supportedge

New services on offer from 1st of July

Posted on: April 28th, 2017 by system No Comments

From the 1st of July we will be offering new services for our customers. These services are designed in order to lower our consulting costs, while also ensuring our customer’s IT solutions are always protected.

Click here to read more.