Verizon Email Scam Confirmed - Use Caution

In the past 24 hours, a large number of fake emails arriving in Baltimore City mail box/email accounts have been confirmed to be falsely claiming to be from Verizon. This has been a scam that has been going on for much of the month of May 2012. I have also confirmed that these messages have been appearing in the West Chester PA area as well. These emails would appear to be “Phishing Scams”, but they are link trying to take you to web pages that quietly exploit your workstation.

IF YOU RECEIVE A EMAIL MESSAGE LIKE THIS, PLEASE DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY & REMEMBER THE GOLDEN RULE. NEVER EVER OPEN AN UNSOLICTED EMAIL MESSAGE. YOU ARE ONLY RISKING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND THE DIGITAL LIFE OF YOUR PC.

Introduction to Lync 2010

Here is a short training video for Microsoft Lync 2010. Please take a few moments to watch this short "Introduction to Lync 2010"

There will be formal training later this month or early June for all of our Lync users.

Junk Mail Just Got Fun!

Our Junk Mail folder is now active. You can say goodbye to "Forefront". To learn more watch this exciting video!

Microsoft Lync

To learn a little about the new exciting world of Microsoft Lync please take a few minutes to view this video. If you have been given access to Microsoft Office 365 (E3) than you have access to Lync. Take some time to work with it. Special training will be held in mid-May and a policy and procedure guide distributed as well.


You can learn a little about the history of Lync by clicking here.

Lesson Plan for Tech Training - March 29, 2012

Session 5 - Managing Microsoft Outlook and More

View more presentations from William Mann.

Step 3 - Installing the Microsoft Online desktop

You need to install the new Microsoft 365 Online Desktop applicant. To do this:

1. Go to portal.microsoftonline.com.

2. Log in with your user name (email address) and new password.

3. On the right tool bar select “Downloads”.

4. Select “setup” and follow the on screen directions.

Preparing for 365 - Step 2

Here is STEP 2 for preparing your computer for Microsoft 365.

You need to change your password to the new Microsoft 365 requirements. These requirements are:

The password must be 8 characters and include (3 of 4) lower case, upper case, numbers or special characters.

You can change your password by opening the Microsoft Online Services client, selecting the “Options” tab and clicking “Change Password”.

You can find the Microsoft Online Services client on the bottom right toolbar are in the program group “Microsoft Online Services”.

Coordinating Virus and Spyware Defense

Isn't it better to have more protection? This is a topic we discussed in our most recent technolgy training. Here is some great information that was recently publiched by US-CERT (United States Computer Readiness Team). Take a few moments to learn how to protect yourself while not going overboard!

Spyware and viruses can interfere with your computer's ability to process information or can modify or destroy data. You may feel that the more anti-virus and anti-spyware programs you install on your computer, the safer you will be. It is true that not all programs are equally effective, and they will not all detect the same malicious code. However, by installing multiple programs in an attempt to catch everything, you may introduce problems.

How can anti-virus or anti-spyware software cause problems?

It is important to use anti-virus and anti-spyware software (see Understanding Anti-Virus Software and Recognizing and Avoiding Spyware for more information). But too much or the wrong kind can affect the performance of your computer and the effectiveness of the software itself.

Scanning your computer for viruses and spyware uses some of the available memory on your computer. If you have multiple programs trying to scan at the same time, you may limit the amount of resources left to perform your tasks. Essentially, you have created a denial of service against yourself (see Understanding Denial-of-Service Attacks for more information). It is also possible that in the process of scanning for viruses and spyware, anti-virus or anti-spyware software may misinterpret the virus definitions of other programs. Instead of recognizing them as definitions, the software may interpret the definitions as actual malicious code. Not only could this result in false positives for the presence of viruses or spyware, but the anti-virus or anti-spyware software may actually quarantine or delete the other software.

How can you avoid these problems?
•Investigate your options in advance - Research available anti-virus and anti-spyware software to determine the best choice for you. Consider the amount of malicious code the software recognizes, and try to find out how frequently the virus definitions are updated. Also check for known compatibility issues with other software you may be running on your computer.

•Limit the number of programs you install - Many vendors are now releasing packages that incorporate both anti-virus and anti-spyware capabilities together. However, if you decide to choose separate programs, you really only need one anti-virus program and one anti-spyware program. If you install more, you increase your risk for problems.


•Install the software in phases - Install the anti-virus software first and test it for a few days before installing anti-spyware software. If problems develop, you have a better chance at isolating the source and then determining if it is an issue with the software itself or with compatibility.


•Watch for problems - If your computer starts processing requests more slowly, you are seeing error messages when updating your virus definitions, your software does not seem to be recognizing malicious code, or other issues develop that cannot be easily explained, check your anti-virus and anti-spyware software.

My recommendations include "Microsoft Security Essentials" for anti-virus protection and Spybot for malware protection. Both are free, and both work!

Avoiding Holiday Scams

Here is the "Staying Safe This Holiday Season" presentation from the technology training on December 6, 2011.

Holiday scams

View more presentations from William Mann.

Dragging & Dropping in Outlook

Do you know how easy it is to drag and drop email into "Notes", "Tasks", "Calendar" and "Contacts" in Microsoft Outlook? If you do not know, don't panic and simply watch this short training video to see how easy it really is!



Note: You can enlarge the video to full screen by selecting the icon on the bottom right of the video window. This is especially helpful if you are going blind (like me).

Protect Yourself While Shopping Online

This is the season for online shopping. Everyone should take a few minutes to remind themselves that we all live in a dangerous online world. At our regularly scheduled training on December 6 I will talk a litte bit about online shopping and protecting yourself. In the meantime start the process of protecting yourself by reading the following article.

Shop With Well Known Establishments
Start at a trusted site rather than shopping with a search engine. Search results can be rigged to lead you to dangerous destinations. If you know the site, chances are it’s safe for shopping!

Shop Only On Secure Sites
Never trust purchasing anything online using your credit card from a site that does not have SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption installed. You can be assured of this by looking in the URL bar for the https:// in front of the website address as well as a padlock image. If you do not see these – do not use your credit card!

Don't Give Up Your Personal Information
Online shopping stores do not need your social security number or your birthday. If the website is asking for this information, shop somewhere else!

Check Your Statements
Don't wait for your bill to come at the end of the month. Go online regularly during the holiday season and look at electronic statements for your credit card, debit card, and checking accounts. Make sure you don't see any fraudulent charges, even originating from sites like PayPal. If you see something wrong, pick up the phone and contact the vendor immediately!

Protect Your PC
Keep your computer update with a good virus and malware application! There are many good free solutions out there like (my personal favorite) Microsoft Security Essentials and AVG.

Don’t Be Lazy With Your Passwords
Strong passwords are critical when banking and shopping online.

Avoid Public Terminals When Shopping
Avoid shopping on public networks. Also keep your in home (wireless) network secure with a strong WEP and use your network to shop online.

One of the Oldest Lessons Out There
If the “deal” online sounds too good to be true it probably is. No one – and I mean no one is selling IPAD’s for $49.99! Stay away from these offers for you own good!

Facebook Scam Alert

A new Facebook scam is making the rounds. If you are on Facebook be aware of this and as always avoid responding to unsolicted email messages.

Today an unsolicited email began appearing that stated it was from Facebook. The email comes with the subject line "Your account has been disabled by an administrator".

Hovering over the links in the email shows that we will visit paflape.smyslzivota.cz instead of Facebook. It’s worth mentioning that the spammers forgot a dot (.) in one of the URL’s rendering the URL irresolvable (paflapesmyslzivota.cz instead of paflape.smyslzivota.cz).

From there we are redirected to viagralevitratestosterone.com, registered on the 13th October 2011 via NETLYNX, INC.

The website viagralevitratestosterone.com sells fake versions of well known prescription drugs such as Viagra, Cialis, Vicodin etc ... in other words the Canadian Pharmacy which is a frontend for GlavMed, a rogue affiliate program run by a Russian cybercrime group.

The domain viagralevitratestosterone.com was also used in a mass spamming campaign two days ago. Reference: AOL Administration Center Notification leads to Canadian Pharmacy.

It is yet unclear if paflape.smyslzivota.cz has been hacked / compromised or not. Visiting the front page directly results in a similar redirect via soft.msk0.ru. The request does not complete at the time of the write-up as PHP errors halt the execution of the redirect script.

If you are a member of Facebook you can learn more and stay up tp date with ongoing spam issues at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Report-Online-Scams/120468575683.

On October 27 and 28, 2011 I participated in a Microsoft Office 365 event in Harrisburg Pennsylvania and in fact I was the opening presentation titled "Cloud 101". The sound in the beginning is very low because I forgot to wear the microphone. Once the staff stopped me and I setup the microphone the sound gets a little better. I wish I could have taken all of you, my co-workers with me however sadly that was not possible. Anyway here is the next best thing. If you are curious about the "cloud" check out the presentation. Lucky for me I remain "off camera" for the majority of the presentation.



Technical Note: This video uses Microsoft Silverlight. Take a moment to run the small install in order to watch the video. If you have a 64bit computer you will need to run the 32bit version of Internet Explorer to view the video. You can find your 32bit version of Internet Explorer at C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer.

Cloud 101

Check out my "Cloud 101" presentation from the Microsoft 365 2 Day event in Harrisburg PA, October 27-29, 2011.

Cloud computing 102711 - ccap

View more presentations from William Mann