Category Archives: Blog

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Voice Commands Getting New Attention In Windows 11

For a few years now Microsoft has been experimenting with voice commands.  Their early experiments were limited to contexts that resided wholly inside specific applications however.

For example, once you opened Word you could use voice commands to activate a few of the software’s features.

Recently the company decided to take voice controls to a whole different level and by the time you read these words you’ll be able to download the latest Windows 11 update and play with the new feature.  Consider it to be a sneak peek of the shape of things to come.

As of Windows 11 preview build 22518 users can utilize voice commands to open and close applications, switch to Desktop view, minimize or maximize specific windows, select items, edit text, and more.

There are two important caveats to bear in mind though:

First at present only US English is supported.  Second the feature isn’t enabled by default so if you want to play around with it you’ll need to turn it on manually.

To do that go to Settings > Accessibility > Speech

Once there you’ll see an on/off switch to either enable or disable the Voice Access feature.  When you enable it for the first time there will be a slight delay as the OS will need to download a language pack.  Once that’s done you’ll be treated to a brief tutorial that will guide you through the basics of using the feature.  After that you’re all set.

In its current form the Voice Access feature supports more than 80 different commands. If the company’s massive user base embraces the feature you can bet that plenty of others will be added in the weeks and months ahead.

It’s a good feature and well worth taking the time to check out.  Kudos to Microsoft for bringing us one step closer to our Star Trek future!

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

QNAP Still Dealing With Attacks On NAS Devices

QNAP has recently warned its customers of an ongoing campaign that is targeting QNAP NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices and infecting them with cryptomining malware.  This particular campaign is deploying software designed to mine Bitcoin and using your computing power to generate profits for them.  If you are infected, you’ll see a new process running on your system named “OOM_Reaper.”

While it’s certainly not the direst threat you can face the malware will utilize up to 50 percent of your system’s processing power while mimicking a kernel process with a PID higher than 1000.

If you find that you are already infected, here are the steps the company recommends taking to rid yourself of the malware:

  • Update QTS or QuTS hero to the latest version.
  • Install and update Malware Remover to the latest version.
  • Use stronger passwords for your administrator and other user accounts.
  • Update all installed applications to their latest versions.
  • Do not expose your NAS to the internet, or avoid using default system port numbers 443 and 8080.

The company has really been struggling this year  as they have been targeted by an unusual surge in attacks against them and the equipment they sell.  In January QNAP urged their users to defend themselves from a nasty malware attack that rendered their NAS devices unusable after spawning rogue processes that would soak up most of the target system’s processing power. Then in March the company faced a similar cryptomining campaign which installed a miner called UnityMiner.

Before that beginning in May of 2019 and continuing intermittently until June of 2020 QNAP users faced a spate of eChoraix ransomware attacks which came to also be known as QNAPCrypt.

All that to say that if you’re a QNAP customer you’re probably already familiar with threats on the landscape. If you’re not doing so already be sure to head to the company’s website and review their FAQ page which lists current best practices relating to security.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Study Shows People Are Spending More On Mobile Apps

App spending in 2021 grew by an impressive 25 percent in 2021 and has increased to an impressive $135 billion.  Even better is the growth shows no signs of slowing down.

That is surprising because the industry at large has come under increased scrutiny and both the Apple and Google App Stores have introduced new developer rules governing in-app payments.

Overall Apple’s App Store leads in total revenues while Google’s massive Play Store leads in terms of total numbers of downloads. That is according to the most recently published research by App Annie.

Apple users accounted for 65 percent of the total app revenue with $87.5 billion. Google Play racked up $47.25 billion which is a lower number despite having a larger user base.

A different app analytics company named Sensor Tower reports similar data.  According to their research spending on apps will reach $133 billion in 2021 representing a 19.7 percent growth.

Of interest Sensor Tower’s data provides more detail on the total number of downloads as well.  They estimate that downloads from the Google Play store will top 100 billion by the end of this year (2021) versus just over 30 billion from Apple’s App Store which is a good way of comparing the relative size of the rival ecosystems.

There are some lingering concerns that as the pandemic recedes further into the background and life begins to return to normal that the explosive growth in app sales will taper off.  It’s entirely possible that the rate of growth will slow given that the pandemic has fundamentally altered a number of aspects of our daily life. However all expectations are that growth will continue to be robust.

If you’re thinking of launching a premium app to support your existing business now is a great time to do so.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Hackers Stealing Credit Card Info Are Targeting E-Commerce WordPress Sites

With the holiday shopping season in full swing shoppers are descending on virtual storefronts in droves seeking the best deals.  Naturally this means that hackers are also circling like sharks watching for an opportunity to steal data and profit from it.

Their most recent trick?  To infect random WordPress plugins with malicious code that can be activated later to harvest and exfiltrate payment card information.

WordPress has gotten pretty good at ferreting out malicious code residing in the ‘wp-includes’ and ‘wp-admin’ directories. Those are the places that most other anti-malware software looks first. So malicious code that relies on being in either of those directories doesn’t tend to last long enough to pay dividends to the hackers.

Naturally this has prompted them to find workarounds. This year’s big evolution in the ongoing war between hackers and security professionals seems to be hiding code in places that not many would think to look for it.

So far that seems to be working out well for the hackers and card scraping type attacks are on the rise again this year.

The good news is that if you have a WordPress ecommerce site and want to minimize your risk there are several things you can do.

Here are the Big Three:

  • Restrict and closely monitor access to your ‘Wp-admin’ folder. Only specific trusted IP addresses should have access to this folder.
  • File integrity monitoring via active server-side scanning. That way if code changes on your website you’ll know about it almost immediately.
  • And make sure your IT staff is reviewing log files on a regular basis. Even if a hacker manages to slip something past your defenses it’s either going to be reflected in the log file or there will be a conspicuous absence which should raise a red flag.

The holiday season is a very big deal to online vendors but it also carries some risk.  Make sure you’re minimizing yours.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

WhatsApp Now Provides Disappearing Messages Feature To Improve Security

Whatsapp has had a tough year from a security standpoint and has suffered losses in the size of its user base as a result.

To their credit, the company has been working hard to make their product more secure.

Recently they took another powerful step in that direction with the introduction of disappearing messages. These allow you to set a time delay that will cause your conversations with other users to have a pre-defined shelf life of either 24 hours or 90 days at your option.

This builds on the disappearing messages feature the company introduced last year which allowed users or admins to set messages to disappear after seven days.

The company had this to say about the recent changes:

“When enabled, all new one-on-one chats you or another person start will be set to disappear at your chosen duration, and we’ve added a new option when creating a group chat that lets you turn it on for groups you create.  This new feature is optional and does not change or delete any of your existing chats.

For people who choose to switch on default disappearing messages, we will display a message in your chats that tells people this is the default you’ve chosen.

This makes clear it’s nothing personal – it’s a choice you’ve made about how you want to communicate with everyone on WhatsApp moving forward.

We believe disappearing messages along with end-to-end encryption are two crucial features that define what it means to be a private messaging service today, and bring us one step closer to the feeling of an in-personal conversation.”

These are good changes and they do indeed serve to mitigate the risks of Whatsapp users.  Kudos to the company for continuing to improve their product and make it more secure.

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