Badrabbit Malware Attack

Good morning customers! It was brought to our attention yesterday that many businesses worldwide were hit with a new and particularly rough form of ransomware, dubbed "Badrabbit". The majority of these ransomware attacks were centered in the USA, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Germany, Bulgaria, and Estonia. It disguises itself as an Adobe Flash update, which is a very common update to see on your computers.

Many anti-malware and anti-virus software's and vendors failed to catch Badrabbit with catastrophic results for those businesses. However, we are proud to announce that Malwarebytes was one of the only anti-malware software's to find, alert and protect against Badrabbit. 

This is why we choose to partner with and use Malwarebytes, and also why it is incredibly important to have good, reliable anti-virus and anti-malware software on your computers.

Give us a call at (858) 345-0382 if you have any questions and would like to sign up for a 1-year subscription of our Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection!

 

Malware Protection Made Simple

One of the most common issues we find in our day-to-day repair work is the discovery of malware on a customer's PC or laptop. Malware (short for malicious software) is a software specifically designed to damage, incapacitate or otherwise ruin computers and their systems. Malware can include viruses, worms, ransomware, spyware, adware and other annoying (and often expensive) programs. The easiest way to infect your computer with malware is by downloading suspicious or unknown content, such as images or files, but it can also find its way onto your computer by visiting certain websites that contain it. Once downloaded, the computer can begin exhibiting many symptoms of infection including, but not limited to, sluggish response, freezing, unwanted popups and more.

For many, this becomes a mild inconvenience resulting in a trip to our shop for a cleanup or minor repair. For others, especially those unlucky enough to have been infected by ransomware, it can be incredibly costly to retrieve your data from the person or persons who now hold your data hostage.

So how do you protect yourself and your computer from Malware?

 

Exercise Caution When You Click

First and foremost, education is important with the ever-evolving tech and internet industry. Don't click unverified links, don't download files in an unverified email you've received, don't click that popup no matter how enticing it might be. Though it might seem paranoid, always consider the fact that anyone or anything on the other side of your computer screen is doing all they can to obtain your personal information and gain access over your computer.

The old adage of "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" rings accurate when it comes to the internet, as most malware have become personalized enough that they can even appear to be friends or family. Double and triple-checking can save you a whole lot of hassle.

Long story short: if you don't know where it came from, don't click it. Educate yourself on what types of websites to avoid, what things not to click, and you'll be on your way to protecting yourself from any adverse malware affects and infections.

 

Malwarebytes: MCW Approved!

Waste no time in getting an approved anti-virus/anti-malware software on your computer. Seriously. Don't wait.

Here at Mobile Computer Wizard, we partner with Malwarebytes to come to the rescue and assist us with infected machines, as well as preventing any further infections once a healed computer leaves our shop. Malwarebytes is a layered system that provides malware detection, specialized ransomware protection, and security. Downloading the free version to your computer gives you scanning and removal ability of malware right at your fingertips. They also provide a paid premium program that handles virusware, rootkits, anti-exploits, scheduled scans and more.

If you want to take it ten steps farther, sign up for the Cloud-based Endpoint Protection, which includes everything that is in the Malwarebytes paid premium version, but has a managed services back-end. This allows Mobile Computer Wizard to remotely respond to any threats on your machine, for just $39.99/year. That's just $3/day!

Virtually every machine that comes to our shop leaves with Malwarebytes installed, because we trust it on our own computers, business and personal. 

Call or email us at (858) 345-0382 or support@mobilecomputerwizard.com if you have any questions about Malware, Malwarebytes, or the services that Mobile Computer Wizard provides. We're here to help!

Data Preservation - Protect Your Data Now with a Cloud Backup!

A cloud backup is exactly what it sounds like: the data stored on your laptop, computer or other device is uploaded and saved on an online archive, safe and sound from those unthinkable (and almost always unplanned) device or hardware failures. We’ve all been there at some point in a personal or business capacity: something happens with the device we’re working on, it crashes, and we’re left with a terrifying amount of complete squat. All that hard work (for some people it can be years worth of important documents) gone… and while data recovery is possible, it’s not always successful.

If you don’t have a cloud backup, you need to get one, and soon! For every minute you don’t have a backup in place for your data, you risk losing some or all of it to any number of potential failures… even one so simple as accidentally spilling your morning coffee on your laptop.

While it’s possible to back up and store your own data, it can be tricky and time consuming. Most folks find it easiest to toss some money at a third-party provider once a month to store their data. But what happens if that third-party discontinues?

 

Crashplan Backup Service Discontinuing

One of the most popular services our customers have used for backing up personal data has been provided by the online service CrashPlan. They were reliable, cost-effective and had well-managed customer service… until now. The CEO of CrashPlan has announced that they have discontinued their cloud backup service as of August 22, 2017 for home users - that is, the individuals of the world - and are shifting their focus to businesses and enterprises only.

This is huge, and impacts every person who just wants to make sure their personal data is safe and stored away in a cloud backup. CrashPlan will continue to offer Business plans, but the pricing is nowhere near feasible for a single person or persons simply wanting their data reliably backed up. Those with current home subscriptions will have them honored, but if you have one be prepared that they will not renew it once it expires.

 

A New Plan for your Cloud Backup

Because of the news above, Mobile Computer Wizard has taken action and will now be offering cloud-based backup services to our customers!

Wizard Cloud Backup 1PC+100GB (File Based) - This subscription provides you with secure backup services for a single PC or Laptop with 100GB of file storage.

Wizard Cloud Backup 1PC+100GB (Image Based) - This subscription provides you with secure backup services for a single PC or Laptop with 100GB of image storage.

We also provide additional storage that can be added to either plan, providing you with as much space as you need for your files. All storage purchased is pooled and can be shared between your computers. For example, one computer can have 50G, while a second has 150G, for a total of 200G used.

Prices for the above plans range from $99-120 yearly - that’s <$10/month to ensure your data, documents, projects, family photos and more are backed up safely on the MCW cloud. Most of all, it’s peace of mind that you'll never be left in a compromising position of losing some (or all) of your hard work.

Give us a call at (858) 345-0382 or email us at support@mobilecomputerwizard.com to discuss your options. We're always happy to answer any questions you might have!

 

 

 

 

 

CCleaner version 5.33 is known to contain malware. Please update to 5.34 or higher ASAP.

Today Avast/Piriform announced that they have discovered a malware infection in their CCleaner windows software.  Their blog post can be found here: BLOG  We highly recommend that you update to their newest version ASAP and run a Malware-bytes and Windows Defender scan to make sure.  The updated version can be found here: LINK

Piriform was recently purchase by the security software company AVAST.

Sync Text Messages from Android/iPhone to PC like iPhone and iMessage does with a Mac!

I don't know about you but as a PC/Android user, one of the things for which I've always wished, and have been envious of Mac/iPhone users for, is the ability to send text (SMS) messages from the PC or phone seamlessly.  Thanks to Pushbullet, there is finally a way.

Simply:

• Download the PushBullet App on your iPhone or Android device.


• Install, sign in with your Google account (Any old gmail account will work.  Same credentials and everything!)


• Allow it all necessary permissions the app requests.  (And make sure to say yes when it asks if you would like to sync SMS.  That's the whole point of this tutorial!  Basically, say yes to everything the app requests up first launch.  Those are the correct configuration choices, "yes", all the way.)


• Next, download and install the PC PushBullet app.  Sign in with your Google account and presto, you're finished!

You can now see your SMS messages on the Desktop PC as well as send SMS messages from the PC!    The nice thing is, they don't make you use their app/interface.  The sync happens in the background so keep using whatever SMS messaging app you prefer on the phone.

One last thing.  Because of the nature of SMS messages, just like with iMessage, your phone must be on in order to send them.  Even if it's from your PC.  Since most of us keep our phones on 24/7, it doesn't matter!  Just don't expect this to be a backup if your phone is out of commission.

Pushbullet Desktop App



 

Hurry, Windows 7, and 8.1 Users!

Microsoft will not be putting in the work necessary to make new hardware work with older versions of Windows. The old operating systems will lack the latest updates and they might not function properly.

This new policy doesn't mean that Windows 7 and 8.1 are no longer supported in general. The two operating systems will continue to get updates through January 14th, 2020 and January 10th, 2023, but that's only if you're using hardware that was current with those operating systems. Here's is an informative table to keep you up to date...Contact Mobile Computer Wizard if you have ANY questions! We would love to help!



 

Google Takeout!...And possibly your photos.

I know we've all been there.  Trying desperately to get all the pictures out of someone's iCloud account.  It's frustrating.  Thankfully using the iCloud for PC app seems to work and we can, relatively, easily get those photos into a computer from the mystery that is the internet. Today though, this isn't about iCloud, it's about Google/Android.  What happens when you're in the same situation on Android.  Someone has been using Google photo backup or uploading all of their photos to Google Photos and has deleted them from the phone.  They want their photos on the computer but doing so requires selecting each individual photo in small groups and downloading.  The answer, Google Takeout!!

Google Takeout is a service offered by Google which allows you to download basically any information you have ever uploaded to the cloud via your Google account. Be it a list of your searches, YouTube videos, Hangouts messages, Google Drive files and of course, photos.

Step 1: Navigate to https://takeout.google.com/, login to your account if you aren't already

Step 2: Select which item(s) you would like to download.  If you have a large amount of the selected item(s) it may take some time for Google to prepare your download.  Thankfully, you don't even need to leave the page open or your computer on!  Make sure to select how you want your files delivered.  This brings us to the next point.

Step 3: Get your files.  Google will email you when the files are ready. You have a few options for how you would like to receive your files.  A neat .zip format where you can even select the size of the .zip files you would like to receive in a range between 1 GB and 50 GB archives.  Or you can have them added directly to your favorite cloud drive service, Google Drive, Dropbox, or even OneDrive!  

So that's it.  If you want to get any files from google onto your local computer simply go to https://takeout.google.com/ and your files are just a few clicks away.