Hackers found a way in to AT&T’s iPad 3G registry and, using a brute-force attack based on unique ICC-ID numbers, managed to pull down corresponding email addresses for those users — who include members of the US military, executive branch, and media companies.

AT&T has since closed the vulnerability and issued the following statement:

“AT&T was informed by a business customer on Monday of the potential exposure of their iPad ICC IDS. The only information that can be derived from the ICC IDS is the e-mail address attached to that device.

This issue was escalated to the highest levels of the company and was corrected by Tuesday; and we have essentially turned off the feature that provided the e-mail addresses.

The person or group who discovered this gap did not contact AT&T.

We are continuing to investigate and will inform all customers whose e-mail addresses and ICC IDS may have been obtained.

We take customer privacy very seriously and while we have fixed this problem, we apologize to our customers who were impacted.”

So once again it’s the convenience of the cloud vs. the security of customer information. Increasingly we’re trusting online accounts and services with our personal and financial information, and high-profile incidents like this, if nothing else, force everyone to re-examine what we trust and with whom.

How serious is this loss of data to you? Does it make you hesitant to signup online or on-device?

see original post here: http://www.tipb.com/2010/06/10/att-hacked-ipad-3g-owners-email-addresses-harvested/

This past Charleston areas Power Breakfast hosted at the Marriott in down town Charleston was a great one. The topic was on a much talked about subject, Health Care.  With some very distinguished voices on the panel in a Q and A session, the mediator had to be fast on his feet so to say.
Neadom Tucker, the owner of our company Kotori Technologies, was a sponsor for the event and a guest speaker. The speech came at a great time with our company expanding into the Health care market, with our Disaster recovery and data backup solutions for the Medical field.  We had some inquires on our services and hope to put together solutions for these clients.
Medical offices have enough on their plate with these health care bills and agendas; I.T.     shouldn’t be one of their concerns with all they have to deal with. This is where our off site Managed Services IT solutions could also benefit them most.
It was great to be there and listen to the panel discuss these issues and look forward to at the next Power Breakfast.

Ok so it is 3 AM and you need to find a plumber because your water pipe has leaked…  where do you go?  Do you reach for the phone book? Do you go online and search Google, Bing or Yahoo?  For most of us now a days we search the web for what we need.  We want, what we want now!  So what do you do?  You go to your favorite browser and you type in “plumber Charleston, SC.”  What happens next? You pick someone on the first page that says 24/7 Service.  You place the call and get your issue fixed.  Are you that plumber they call?  Can your company be on the web and be on the first page for your service or product?  Yes it can. The internet is growing so fast that the small business has the ability to compete with the big guys as well.  You just need to know how.

I wanted to take this moment to announce our partnership with AdzZoo.com.  Kotori has partnered with AdzZoo to give internet marketing to the Small Business owner.  Are you getting the search engine results that you need?  I am sure you could do better.  Take a few moments to check out our site at http://kotoritech.adzzoo.net/.  If you want be on the 1^st page of Google, Yahoo, Bing or Facebook, give us a call!

As you may or may not know, Kotori Technologies, LLC uses Sunbelt Vipre for most of our clients' Anti-Virus needs. Here is an interesting article from Sunbelt in reference to the Antivirus Product Wars:

All antivirus companies are being hit with the next wave of malware: Rogue antivirus tools like Antivirus 2010. This code throws messages on the user's screen that they are infected, and "download here to get rid of the malware". Sure enough, that gets the trojan installed.
Our CEO Alex wrote about this: "For what it's worth, as someone who is on the inside of an AV company and is intimately familiar with these threats, the reality is that no AV vendor, ESET, McAfee, Sunbelt, Sophos, Symantec, etc. can give you 100% coverage against it.
These new fake antivirus variants are some of the most vicious, polymorphic trojans this industry has seen. They use extremely complex obfuscation techniques which make detection quite challenging by even the best antivirus engine. Many of these rogues are also service-side polymorphic. That means every time an exe is downloaded, it's recompiled on the server-side into a different piece of code.
And, there are about 75,000 new tier-1 pieces of malware coming out every day. So your AV vendor, realistically, is only going to be one layer of protection, no matter what the sales guy might say. (That being said, AV is a must. Just look at viruses like Conficker, Sality, Virut, etc. These are viruses that the industry does a pretty good job at, and if they get into your network and you don't have endpoint protection, it's quite messy.)

Key things to do are:
     a.  No Admin Privs. Try to run as many users on Limited User accounts as you can (always difficult, I know). It won't stop all infections, but it does make a difference -- probably 80% reduced infection vector. 
     b.  Patch aggressively. The key exploit vectors right now are PDF and Flash, then Windows/IE. When I browse the web, I obsessively check Adobe and Flash to make sure I'm fully patched, and I constantly check Windows update. If you're tight on funds and can't afford a professional patch management solution like Shavlik or Lumension, Secunia has an excellent free / inexpensive solution. Or do it yourself, which depending on your network size, can be challenging. However, it really is an absolute must.
     c.  Educate your users. The vast majority of infections these days are caused by social engineering. A user will get a funny video link on Facebook or some other social networking site, click on it, and it will say that they need to "install a special codec", or "update Flash". Or they will be doing a Google search and a malware site will have attached itself to an innocent keyword. The user will click and start getting crazy warnings that their machine is infected. This is the malware trying to get the user to install.
     d.  Do malicious web filtering. There are tens of thousands of pieces of malware daily, but only a few thousand new malware sites a day. Many endpoint protection tools, including ours, offer malicious web filtering. Or use a web gateway proxy. If you're tight on funds, setup a simple Linux gateway and download URL block lists places like malwaredomainlist.com. It's not perfect but it's not bad either.
     e.  Submit malware files to AV vendors. Most, if not all, AV vendors take customer submissions very seriously, and the internal escalations are always senior to anything else.

See original articel by Sunbelt at: http://www.wservernews.com/archives/wservernews-20100322.html

I don’t know about you, but I have heard lots of talk about the upcoming release of Microsoft Office 2010. I decided to do a little research on it and pass it on to you. Office 2010 is currently in Beta and is scheduled for release during the first half of 2010 (according to some sites most likely June). Here is the Top Ten Benefits of Office 2010 Beta according to Microsoft:

1. Express your ideas more visually
Office 2010 opens up a world of design options to help you give life to your ideas. The new and improved picture formatting tools such as color saturation and artistic effects let you transform your document visuals into a work of art. Combined with a wide range of new prebuilt Office themes and SmartArt® graphic layouts, Office 2010 gives you more ways to make your ideas stick.

2. Accomplish more when working together
Brainstorm ideas, provide better version control, and meet deadlines faster when you work in groups. The co-authoring experience for Word 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Excel Web App and OneNote shared notebooks let you work on a file with several people at once — even from different locations.2

3. Enjoy the familiar Office experience from more locations and more devices
With Office 2010, you can get things done more easily, from more locations and more devices. Using a smartphone or virtually any computer with an Internet connection, you can work when and where you want to work.3
Microsoft Office Web Apps
Extend your Office 2010 experience to the web. Store your Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files online and then access, view, edit, and share content through the Web.
Microsoft Office Mobile 2010
Stay current and respond quickly using enhanced mobile versions of Office 2010 applications, specifically suited to your Windows Mobile-based smartphone.

4. Create powerful data insights and visuals
Track and highlight important trends with new data analysis and visualization features in Excel 2010. The new Sparklines feature delivers a clear and compact visual representation of your data with small charts within worksheet cells. Filter and segment your PivotTable data in multiple layers using Slicers to spend more time analyzing and less time formatting.

5. Deliver compelling presentations
Captivate your audience with personalized videos in your presentation. Insert and customize videos directly in PowerPoint 2010—trim, add fades and effects, or bookmark key points in the video to call attention to selected scenes. Videos you insert are now embedded by default, relieving you from managing and sending additional video files.

6. Manage large volumes of e-mail with ease
With Outlook 2010 you can compress your long e-mail threads into a few conversations that can be categorized, filed, ignored, or cleaned up. The new Quick Steps feature let you perform multi-command tasks, such as reply and delete an e-mail in a single click, saving you time and inbox space.

7. Store and track all your ideas and notes in one place
Get the ultimate digital notebook for tracking, organizing, and sharing your text, picture, video and audio notes with OneNote 2010. New features such as version tracking, automatic highlighting, and Linked Notes give you more control over your notes so you’re always on top of where your ideas came from and the latest changes when working in teams4.

8. Get your message out instantly
Broadcast your PowerPoint presentation to a remote audience, whether or not they have PowerPoint installed.5 The new Broadcast Slide Show feature allows you to share your presentation through a Web browser quickly without additional set up.

9. Get things done faster and easier
Microsoft Office Backstage™ view replaces the traditional File menu to give you a centralized space for all of your file management tasks, such as the ability to save, share, print, and publish. The enhanced Ribbon across Office 2010 applications lets you access commands quickly and customize tabs to personalize the experience to your work style.

10. Access work across devices and platforms
Enjoy the freedom of using Office 2010 from more locations on more devices. When you use Office 2010, you’re getting the familiar and intuitive Office experience across PCs, Smartphones, and Web browsers on the go.

If you are interested in the features of Office 2010 and would like more information, please feel free to contact Kotori Technologies at 843-553-8800.

1 Some functionality requires Office Mobile 2010, which is not included in Office 2010 applications or suites.
2 Co-authoring for Word, PowerPoint, and excel require either SharePoint Foundation Services or a Windows Live account. Co-authoring for Excel is available via the Microsoft® Excel® Web App.
Office Web Apps require either SharePoint Foundation Services (for business) or a free Windows Live account (for personal use). Office Mobile 2010 is not included in Office 2010 applications or suites.
4 Requires one of the following: Office Communicator 2007 or later with Office Communications Server 2007 or later, windows Live Messenger, or another instant message application that supports Imessenger or OCOM. Video available only with Office Communicator; voice calling availability varies by provider.
5 Broadcast Slide Show requires either SharePoint Foundation Services or a Windows Live account.

Find out more about Microsoft Office 2010 (and this Top Ten List) on their website at: http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx