F1 is working on increasing our security platform

We are currently taking steps to better our customers security. Nothing has prompted these actions we are just taking steps to make our customers more secure in their workings. You will be notified before any of these changes are made.

F1 is working on changing mail over to thier New Sever.

We are currently in the process of changing over to a new mail server hosted with RackSpace. This process is a long and tricky one so bear with us as we move though it. Please do not be alarmed you will be contacted by us before this processed is started.

Windows 7 will be here on Thursday!!

On October 22, Windows 7 will be widely available and you can see the results for yourself. We have developer Licenses installed here at the office today and are working through any and all problems that we come across so we will be ready to serve you come Thursday.

We've joined Technorati!

To complete our registration I need to post this on our blog. 72jrx4ymde You guys feel free to check us out there if you get a chance!

F1 Solutions is looking for a New Employee

Sr. Technical Support Engineer

We are a business computer support company that is responsible for over 2000 computer systems including 200+ Windows servers.   We are team oriented and have a work hard play hard philosophy.  Our core value is Professional Customer Service.   We have been in business for over 15 years and are debt free.  We are looking for someone (non smoker) to join us for a permanent position. Our annual growth has remained over 15% per year since 1998 and we want to maintain our customer support levels.  We currently have 6 full time techs and we value our employees' time and efforts. In return for your hard work and expertise, we offer a comprehensive benefits plan, including health, dental, life and cancer insurance and a salary to commensurate experience. We also offer matching retirement benefits.

 

Description:

Be able to troubleshoot difficult server, program and networking issues.  Self manage the time and job through multiple steps and days. Attention to detail and the responsibility not to drop important details or customer request. Be able to install and maintain systems and networks to standard operating procedures.  Must be personable and empathetic to customer and their needs.  Must have good communication skills and maintain professional appearance.

• Troubleshooting - Provides answers to clients by identifying problems; researching answers; guiding client through corrective steps. Utilize all available resources and knowledge to fix IT equipment and software that is not working properly and/or to customers expectations. Know how to research problems and know when to ask for help. Improves systems by conferring with vendors and services; testing, evaluating, and installing new software
• Installation - Review current IT situation if it exists and plan proper migration to new equipment and software. Installations must be to our standard operating procedures where that does not conflict with the best interest of the customer. Follow the installation through to be sure no components of the install or are missed and all customer needs are met.
• Customer Service - Foster communication with the customer and their employees to strengthen trust and partnership. Manage customer expectations at all times.
• Quality Assurance - Always be sure our work is done at a professional level in functionality and appearance.

 

  Requirements:

• Professional, customer service oriented
• Five years of senior level experience in Network Administration and Network Engineering with direct Microsoft OS server level experience during that time. We expect that the applicant is experienced with working on large or multiple networks
• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills as related to professional representation, both written and oral skills, are essential.
• Ability to follow standard operating procedures and to initiate new procedures when appropriate
• Project management skills are a must
• Accomplished in computer and network troubleshooting
• Required skills include a thorough knowledge of Microsoft Active Directory architecture, infrastructure and management model.
• Experience with support of varied Microsoft network environments from single server small LANs, to multi server routed WANs
• Required skills also include extensive knowledge of Windows operating systems, Microsoft Office Suite, Windows Domain architecture, Information Technology Security, Routers and Firewalls, and effective knowledge of both wired and wireless Local Area Network technologies.
• Be flexible
• Experience with ConnectWise and Kaseya a big plus

 

Benefits:

We value our employees' time and efforts. In return for your hard work and expertise, we offer a comprehensive benefits plan, including health, dental, life and cancer insurance and a salary to commensurate experience. We also have matching retirement benefits.

 

Applicant selected maybe subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information and must successfully pass a pre-employment drug screening and a back ground check prior to employment.

Help! My computer just sneezed!!

Does this mean that your computer has been infected by the dreaded CONFICKER VIRUS, and will now crash, burn, and in all other ways prevent you from finishing on time that project your biggest customer has called about twice this morning?

Maybe.

The current worm, called Conficker, has been around for a while now; it has gone under many names including Downloadup and others. The press has just picked up on this one, but these viruses have been around for months and will continue to be around in the future.

The security portion of the F1 Solutions PAM agreement takes care of a lot of these issues; however, because the evolution of viruses can morph faster than the virus detection companies can issue an update to their databases, constant vigilance must be maintained - just as you have to get a new flu shot to counter new biological strains that appear each year.    

These newer variants take new approaches, (or re-hash old ones), in trying to infect your computer. You can be surfing any number of so-called ‘safe' sites - Babies-R-Us, for example -- and get a popup that looks very much like a Windows warning message. "You have a virus. Please click this to fix it," or something similar. A lot of people will automatically click the icon and unknowingly download the virus to the system.

Let's take a step back. Why would your computer do this? "I've found viruses, download this to fix it." This doesn't make sense because you would normally expect a message like, "Virus found and deleted..." It is just a variant of this favored phishing scam: "Hey, (your name), I am from (your bank), and unfortunately, we have had a problem with someone hacking our system and stealing funds from various customers. I need your pin number to check on your account..."

These "Drive-by" infections are becoming more common, and the sad fact is that innocuous sites like Babies-R-Us are almost helpless. They sublet ad-space on their sites to ‘banner ad' companies, and it is these companies that are getting infected and spreading the virus.

Some viruses will infect your PC if you plug in an infected USB key since the ‘autorun' function is enabled by default for plug-in devices. This has benign uses like playing a DVD automatically, but can also be used to ‘auto-infect" your PC. Some people have been ‘leaving' infected USB keys at different events like trade shows, or even in city parks. Be careful with any USB key that you did not buy new in the package yourself; you MUST be vigilant.

There are very few, if any, virus programs that block these types of ‘autorun' viruses or ‘click here to run this application' programs, because they are assuming you already clicked when you actively downloaded their virus-blocking program. If they did block these types of viruses, they would also block legitimate uses of autorun - say, your favorite DVD or that important software upgrade CD.

As with everything from locking your car to watching your kids, you just have to be vigilant. Remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Use common sense, and if you do think you have one of these ‘fake' popups, call F1 right away. We can usually clean them off if we can catch it before the virus payload has been run.

Do not try to clean them up yourselves - that's what we do, both to help you out with IT issues, and to ensure that the IT infrastructures of our customers' offices run as well as they can.

The “Free Wi-Fi” Is a Fly on the Wall

 

""If you're using Wi-Fi in a public place and you're not getting hacked, it's only because there's nobody around bothering to do it," says Robert Graham, CEO of consultancy Errata Security." (1)

 

At fourteen, he was eyeing the video games in the local shopping mall, mentally calculating how easy it would be to take one and get it past the security guard. At twenty-one, he's eyeing you in the local coffee shop, mentally calculating how easy it would be to take your identity and get a few purchases on your good credit.

 

How can he do this, you ask? By simply sitting one hundred feet away from you, and waiting for you to connect to the Café Network (1). That's right; he doesn't have to be right over your shoulder, or upload a virus to your laptop, to see and steal your personal information. All he has to do is follow basic instructions, (2), and/or download free Wi-Fi monitoring programs, available to anyone with computer access (1).

 

But the Wi-Fi has an official company attached to it, you cry. Does it? Most Wi-Fi providers don't require encryption (1), so roughly 95% of Wi-Fi data is unencrypted (1). That means as your bank account number floats through cyberspace to its intended destination, it's painfully unprotected and just the type of easy target with which our local identity thief is looking to abscond.

 

A common practice among hackers and thieves is called "channeling", where the thief acts out a "middleman" scenario in which he or she uses their computer to dip into the channel between your computer and your information's intended destination, in order to redirect your information to their computer. (2) Your computer automatically saves the names of networks you've used before, and will automatically log you on to any network with a saved name (2). All a hacker has to do is offer a name that your computer recognizes and he's all set. (2)

 

No one has yet been arrested for doing it, (1) and it's so easy that it is, pardon the cliché, like taking candy from a baby. Take the example given by Tom Brennan, technology risk manager for security consultant Access IT Group (1), of  "a tech systems manager on a lunch break in New York's Bryant Park, who used his laptop via the city's free hot-spot hookup. The manager logged onto his company's network to troubleshoot a computer server. An eavesdropper nabbed his username and password. Later, someone used the information to access the server." (1)

 

Is there any way to prevent this? Well, AT&T and T-Mobile do suggest you download their free encryption software, (1), but otherwise, common sense (3) and vigilance will go a long, long way. Thieves use routers meant for home use that they can buy locally to give a fake name brand signal (1), then steal whatever you transmit; so the next time you find yourself looking at your laptop thinking, "I thought they didn't cover this location," don't connect; it's probably someone's personal computer seeking a computer-to-computer connection as it masquerades as a hotspot (2).

 

• (1) USA Today Wi-Fi Center, "Public Wi-Fi use raises hacking risk" http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/2007-08-06-wifi-hot-spots_N.htm
• (2) ZDNet News, "Hidden dangers of free public WiFi" http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-149778.html

Basic, Windows-, and Mac-specific tips available at http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-149778.html

“Ms. Larvie, come in. No doubt you’re wondering why I’ve called you into my office…”

 

"Well, sir, I am a little curious."

"It seems, Ms. Larvie, that you've been a little slow on your end of the team project lately."

"Well, sir, I've been researching the topic and finding little pertinent information."

"(Sigh) I'd hoped I wouldn't have to bring this up, but Ms. Larvie, your computer's record shows that you haven't visited one "pertinent" site for more than ten minutes of every hour you've spent online this week. In fact, you've spent more time on social networking sites and career advancement sites than any other type."

 

Busted.

 

Who owns the rights to your information when it's transmitted from your workstation, you or your employer?

 

According to the United States General Accounting Office, most courts say it's theirs. (1) Your employer bought, maintains, and so has complete access to, your computer (2). Between September 2001 and August 2002, the USGAO conducted research into what companies are doing with employees' information (1). They found that most are storing a lot more than you think.

 

Your employer can keep information, such as what site you visited, what time you logged in, how long you were on a particular site, or how long you were away from your computer, for anywhere from 3 to 90 days(1) - most closer to the 90 mark. This means that if you are at work visiting the website for the company you're interviewing with tomorrow, chatting to your boyfriend, or gossiping on facebook, all of that information will be completely accessible to your employer three months later.

 

While you can reasonably expect that enough of your very private information - passwords, bank account numbers - will be kept private while used on a secure site, (meaning the URL begins with https://, and there is a lock in the bottom toolbar), that you have no cause to fear identity theft, this does not say that no one has access to such information. It means merely that management alone would have the clearance necessary, should such information be deemed "pertinent".

 

Think you'll know when you're being monitored? Unfortunately, there is no law stating that employers have to inform employees that they are being monitored. Some companies will communicate such information in a memo, the employee handbook, or some other method (2), although according to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, most employees are told in an evaluation where the issue is raised. (2)

 

Some believe that you can not be fired for internet use, but one company interviewed by the USGOA had 20,000 employees and conducted 90 investigations, five of which employees were let go after the investigations into their computer use(1), so while you most likely won't be fired the first time you let your work suffer from a case of "Internetis Tardyitis", Privacy Rights Clearinghouse does report, "In Smyth v. Pillsbury, the employee's termination was upheld by the court, even though the company had a policy of allowing e-mail use for personal communications. In this case, the employee had sent messages to co-workers that were deemed highly inappropriate for workplace communications. (Smyth v. Pillsbury, C.A. NO. 95-5712, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Jan.18, 1996, Decided, Jan. 23, 1996, Filed. www.Loundy.com/CASES/Smyth_v_Pillsbury.html )" (2)

 

Even if your company has a clear policy allowing some personal use of their computer terminal, common sense must apply.

 

 

• (1) "USGAO September 2002 Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on 21^st Century Competitiveness, Committee on Education and the Workforce, House of Representatives" http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02717.pdf

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse "Workplace Privacy and Employee Monitoring" http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs7-work.htm#3a

Office 2007 New Messages Problem

Been having issues with your "New Messages" in Outlook 2007? I found a good fix to sort of wipe the slate clean. We had a customer opening new messages and when they typed every time they pressed enter it would double and triple space in between lines! I found this fix to be pretty easy.

Open up your my computer. Go to this location.

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
Then remove these two Files
Normal.dotm and normalemail.dotm files

Restart Microsoft Outlook and your done!