Category Archives: Blog

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

People Using Mobile Data Instead Of Internet Service Providers

The ongoing pandemic has impacted daily life in the United States in a number of ways, some predictable and others surprising.

On the predictable side, when tens of thousands of employees were asked to work from home, broadband internet connectivity saw a huge surge in use and nearly 80 percent of broadband users upgraded their service to get better speeds.

Unfortunately, the increased demand put a tremendous strain on the broadband providers, many of whom are still, to this day, struggling to respond. As a result, there has been a growing migration away from broadband service, as more than 12 million former broadband customers have canceled their service. They’re opting instead to turn their cellphones into WiFi hotspots and make use of their Cellular data plan.

While that is an effective solution for some, there are a few potential pitfalls to be mindful of. For starters, while high speed connectivity is certainly possible, most cell plans have much tighter data limits than broadband providers do, and if you stream video on a regular basis, you’re likely to run into those caps very quickly if you adopt this strategy.

Closely related to this issue is the fact that while it is possible to upgrade your cellular data plan, it’s usually much more expensive than upgrading your broadband plan.

In addition to that, the issue may not be with your provider, or at least not solely with your provider. If you haven’t yet upgraded your home network to one of the popular mesh network systems, then doing so could see an overall boost in speed, depending on the particulars of your home network and how you use it.

According to research conducted by Parks Associates, more than half of all broadband customers are currently reporting problems of one sort or another with their service. The most common of which is the monthly cost, but other top contenders include slow service speeds, unreliability, poor customer service, and other technical and billing-related issues.

On the other hand, with a growing number of people leaving the broadband ecosystem, this may wind up being a self-correcting problem. If you decide to tough it out, you may find that performance improves over time. Either way, it is an interesting and unexpected development that’s worth watching.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Mobile App Vulnerabilities Found To Leave Data Unsecured

Most apps these days make use of cloud storage in order to minimize their footprint on your device. That’s good in theory, but based on new research from Zimperium, a disappointing percentage of app developers don’t do nearly enough to secure the data they’re housing for you. In fact, the recent study indicated that fully 14 percent of iOS and Android apps that use cloud storage had insecure configurations or were otherwise vulnerable to attacks by third parties.

Naturally, depending on the exact nature of the apps you use, the nature of the data that’s stored within them will vary markedly. Thus, hackers who breach those unsecured cloud storage systems may wind up with little more than your email address and your latest high score on whatever game you’re obsessed with at the moment, or they could wind up with sensitive financial and/or health-related data.

It should be noted though, that even relatively innocent apps like games (that don’t keep much in the way of personal information) often ask for and receive a wide range of intrusive permissions on your device. That means the developers of those apps could be harvesting a lot of more sensitive data you weren’t even aware of.

The study puts the exclamation point on the end of two very important points that are well worth remembering. One, it pays to read every app’s terms of service agreement closely and monitor exactly what permissions every app you install is asking for, and selectively denying that permission if you deem it to be a bit too intrusive for your comfort.

Second, it’s well worth taking a bit of extra time to uninstall any app that you lose interest in and stop using. By keeping it on your device just in case you decide to circle back to it later, you’re increasing your exposure and increasing your risk.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Microsoft Is Giving Windows 10 A New Makeover

One of the most frequently heard complaints about Windows has to do with aesthetics.

Despite a few seemingly halfhearted attempts to modernize, significant portions of the OS looks and feels like they were designed in the 90’s. That’s because Windows is still utilizing a lot of design techniques and icons from Windows 95, so the criticism turns out to have a lot of truth to it.

It looks and feels like it was designed in the 90’s because frankly, large swaths of the OS’s visual elements were designed in the 90’s. That, however, is slowly changing.

The changes began with Windows 8, but these were largely rejected by the user community. With Windows 10, the company tried again, and to their credit, Windows 10 does sport the most modern look and feel of any OS the company has ever produced. That said, there’s only so much you can do when so many of your windows and icons are relics from an earlier time.

In the latest preview build of Windows 10, the company is rolling out the first part of its new design effort, based around it’s “Fluent Design Style.” The changes are relatively small so far, centered around streamlined, simplified and more colorful icons that have rounded edges of the type many popular apps currently employ. Rather than trying to fight against it, Microsoft seems to be embracing that aesthetic, and although a modest beginning, the most recent change does indeed make a striking visual difference.

The company promises that we’ll be seeing much more of their Fluent Design concept in the months ahead. It seems that at long last, after years of talking about modernizing the look and feel of their OS, Microsoft is finally taking steps toward making that a reality. It is a welcome change indeed.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Hackers Are Using Unpatched NAS Devices To Mine Bitcoin

In late 2020, QNAP discovered a pair of critical security vulnerabilities that would allow hackers to take remote control over network attached storage devices (NAS). In this particular instance, the hackers chose not to encrypt files and demand payment or cause other mayhem. Instead, they made slaves of the devices and put them to work mining Bitcoin on their behalf, quietly creating little profit centers for themselves, scattered all over the web.

The company patched the vulnerabilities before the end of 2020, but according to industry statistics, there are still millions of unpatched NAS devices out there. In fact, security researchers at 360 Netlab found evidence of cryptomining software on unpatched QNAP devices as late as March 3 of this year (2021).

If you have a QNAP and you’ve been noticing degraded or disappointing performance of late, it pays to check to see when you last updated your firmware. As an added security measure, change the passwords for all accounts on the device as well.

In fact, while you’re conducting your review, if you spot an account associated with the device that you do not recognize, remove it, If you haven’t done so already, set up an access control list for the device by going to the Control Panel, clicking on “Security” and then establishing security levels as appropriate.

360 Netlab did an exhaustive search and discovered just over four million NAS devices that had yet to be patched and were thus vulnerable to this kind of attack. It pays to make sure that you don’t own one of the remaining vulnerable ones. If you do, it’s not really a question of if you will be attacked and your drive put to work in the service of others, but when. Download the latest firmware and install today if you haven’t done so already.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Microsoft Expanding Fight Against Macros Based Malware

Macros have been a simple, effective means of spreading malware since the 1990’s, and some hackers still rely on them heavily to ensnare and infect unsuspecting users.

It’s a long standing issue that many companies have attempted to address over the years. Now, it seems that it’s Microsoft’s turn at bat again.

Recently, the Redmond Giant announced a new integration between its AMSI (Antimalware Scan Interface) and Office 365, aimed squarely at delivering a knockout blow to macro-based malware.

Earlier attempts to put a stop to macro abuse focused on Visual Basic Scripts and removing macro-based vulnerabilities from them.

That was effective as far as it went, but it had the unforeseen effect of pushing hackers away from using VBS and toward XLM. Those are of an older macro language that first shipped with Microsoft Excel back in 1992 and is still supported to this day. The new integration paradigm sees AMSI scanning Excel 4.0 XLM macros at runtime, which should (emphasis on should) make it virtually impossible for hackers to exploit them.

As a representative from Microsoft Security Teams explains:

“While more rudimentary than VBA, XLM is powerful enough to provide interoperability with the operating system, and many organizations and users continue to use its functionality for legitimate purposes. Cyber criminals know this, and they have been abusing XLM macros, increasingly more frequently, to call Win32 APIs and run shell commands.

Naturally, threat actors like those behind Trickbot, Zloader, and Ursnif have looked elsewhere for features to abuse and operate under the radar of security solutions, and they found a suitable alternative in XLM.”

Time will tell how effective this new approach will be. Unfortunately, even if it is wildly successful, it will simply push hackers toward some other easy exploit. Even so, kudos to Microsoft for taking the fight to the hackers.

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