May – June 2016

allows time to take action without damage. For our Managed antivirus solution, we provide weekly reports, and we also review them ourselves. If there are issues, we send an email or make the phone call to let you know what steps need to be taken by the user, or to get on the machine with you and take specific action. Your best defenses include monitoring for unusual or unhealthy activity; keeping anti-virus software up-to-date; updated firmware on switches and firewalls; ongoing education regarding unknown email, and staying away from risky websites! — CMW Security—Protecting Your Network Updates and Tips from Syscon Monitoring, watching for Attacks Recently, Evan noticed a high CPU usage alert for one of our client’s servers. When we took a look, we found that a port was being scanned in an attempt to hack the server. Within minutes, we were able to block the IP address and shut down the attack—what just happened? Think about a group of kids out on a warm summer night with nothing to do. They walk up and down the street looking in the car windows to see if there are any keys in the ignition, windows down with packages on the seats, anything that looks like easy pickings. If the opportunity presents itself, they act! In this specific example, someone is scanning a common port looking for a weakness to get in. The activity caused a high usage alert, which lit up on our monitoring board. We essentially brought our packages in the house, locked the car, and took the keys; no entrance! There are a number of things we can monitor with our Managed Services. Another helpful example is low disk space on a server. If it gets too low, it can cause data corruption, or even lock up completely. We monitor and setup alerts at the warning level, then another alert at the critical level, which is still a level that Congratulations! Our Ladybug campaign received the Hermes Creative Award in the Gold category—great job, Renee Montgomery, Message Maestro at Syscon. Perhaps you’ve noticed our ladybug on the website, or our Contact post card, or maybe you even have one of our mousepads! Sage has given Brian Bruns an Amazon Echo for selling the most Sage 100 Contractor seats in the quarter across all Business Partners nationwide. Great job, Brian. We’d love to hear more about this cool toy and what it can do! Certifications are part of being an IT Tech. Congratulations to Lenny Palmer for ear ning his Security + Certificate, having passed the Certification test after a lot of studying. Great job, Lenny! Please welcome Mary Zirlin, our new Financial Wizard (Controller). Mary joins us after a long and successful career with Bally Fitness. She loves all the built-in integration in Sage 100 Contractor and has already had a chance to help some of you. —CMW Syscon, Inc. 15 Spinning Wheel, Suite 218 Hinsdale, IL 60521 (630) 850-9039 (630) 850-9040 FAX Did You Know? Sage 100 Contractor When the new Union rates and benefits come out, and you update the Paygroup information, the next check will have the correct hourly rate, but the default hourly amount on the check stub shows the prior hourly rate. As soon as the first check is cut, the default is updated, but it can cause confusion with your field people. After the pay groups are updated, go to 5-2-1, select Options, then Update All Employees from Paygroups, then Update Payrates. This changes the default hourly rate in the record so the new rate is displayed on their next pay stub. Do the Update Benefits at the same time! — CMW Upcoming Events May 19th webinar Paygroup Rate and Benefit Updates June 2nd Webinar Mobile Strategies for the Field May/June 2016 -- 1 of 2 - Hacking—not a game anymore; it’s Business Be on Guard—IT scams that can burn you It happened again; a client received a call from someone saying they were monitoring the company’s computers and saw something odd. Can they log in and take a look? The office person says ’sure’ and the hacker was in the network causing havoc within minutes. With a few questions, the office person could have confirmed who was actually calling. Better yet, tell them thanks for the call, now isn’t a good time, and you’ll call your IT company shortly, then call us directly (not the number they give you). Even if they give you the right tech name, it may not be us; call us back instead. Better safe than sorry! — CMW Hackers and Social Science Engineering When we think of hackers, many of us think of geeks sitting in front of a bank of monitors trying to break into things. There’s some truth here, but there’s a whole new generation of very sophisticated hackers, and they’re learning all about your habits. Most of us are aware that when we take a survey, search a topic on the internet, or buy something online, various companies are gathering data about us, our habits, our age, what we buy, where we shop, and so on. With this info, we are targeted with advertisements, our Google results are filtered and adjusted, and many other focused initiatives. Hackers are using some of the same social engineering to prey on our older population, but they’re targeting you, too. You give them your pet’s name, your anniversary date, the type of car you just bought, the kind of computer you have, how many kids you have, where you vacationed last year, and the list goes on. These details are on your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, they’re in your blogs, you even provide pictures! It doesn’t take much for the next step on their part; a call or email that includes enough details to make the person sound like they know you. You don’t want to embarrass yourself, so the next thing you know, you’re confirming the details, or falling prey to the scam. Maybe they’ll just try your pet’s name as your password (hope you read my last newsletter about this). Keep your personal information, personal. Don’t be paranoid, but be cautious! — CMW ‘If there is no struggle, there is no progress’ —Frederick Douglass ‘Sir, what you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear a word you say’ — Abraham Lincoln Love what we do? Love how we do it? When you refer someone to Syscon and they become a client, we’ll reward you for your time, and thank you for your vote of confidence. Contact Brian Bruns at Syscon to share the contact details and sign up. Syscon, Inc. 15 Spinning Wheel Suite 218 Hinsdale, IL 60521 630-850-9039 Voice 630-850-9040 FAX Catherine has a monthly Tech Tip column in the Business Ledger newspaper. Sage 100 Contractor Are you coming into Chicago for the Sage Conference this July? Let us know—we’d love to have you join us for dinner, or even visit our office. Hope to see you soon! May/June 2016 Larry is presenting a webinar in May with the National Mason Contractors Assoc, and an event with ASA Chicago. -- 2 of 2 -