What is Office 365? How is it different from Microsoft Office?

Microsoft-Office-365“Office 365” refers to subscription plans that include access to Office applications plus other productivity services that are enabled over the Internet (cloud services), such as Lync web conferencing and Exchange Online hosted email for business, and additional online storage with OneDrive and Skype world minutes for home.
Many Office 365 plans also include the desktop version of the latest Office applications, which users can install across multiple computers and devices. The Office 365 plans that are online-only are a great choice for certain business needs, and they are compatible with desktop versions of the latest version of Office, Office 2010, Office 2007 (with slightly limited functionality), Office 2011 for Mac, and Office 2008 for Mac.

All Office 365 plans are paid for on a subscription basis, monthly or annually.  “Microsoft Office” is the name we still use for our familiar productivity software. Office suites have traditionally included applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. All the new Office suites (for example, Office Standard 2013) include the latest versions of these applications. These suites can be installed on only one PC and do not come with any cloud-based services included in Office 365.

Don’t try setting up office 365 on your own.  Let TMDTechnology.com help today!

Windows XP…Still Lurking? 6 Reasons to Upgrade Now!

xp-retiredIf you’re still using Windows XP on any of your computers, it’s extremely important for you to know – Microsoft stopped releasing security updates and supporting the Operating system on April 8th 2014.

If you haven’t weighed the risk of staying with Windows XP against the benefits of migrating to a newer version of Windows right away – here are 6 reasons you should consider.

  1. Improved security – As a business owner if this reason alone doesn’t give you the push into windows 7 or 8 I’d be surprised.  Cyber criminals and hackers have been looking forward to April 8th as any exploits that become known will be easy for them to take advantage of.  To prevent company or client loss of data and protect your computing environment, newer versions of Windows offer advanced security features that are much more difficult to exploit.  Not upgrading is a huge liability for your business.
  2. Continued vendor support – If they haven’t already, it’s only a matter of time before all hardware and software vendors stop supporting Windows XP and your network.  By moving to a newer version of Windows, you’ll ensure ongoing vendor support is available.
  3. Increased productivity – Because newer versions of Windows are more stable and reliable than Windows XP, you’ll experience faster performance, less downtime, fewer glitches and enhanced mobile capabilities with newer applications.
  4. Improved performance – Windows XP is obsolete with dated coding, takes much, much longer to launch applications, and is much slower going into and coming out of hibernation mode than newer Windows versions.
  5. Better browsing experience – Since Windows XP doesn’t support Microsoft Internet Explorer above version 8, web browsing will become more dangerous and less compatible with many newer sites utilizing new programming.
  6. New features – The latest Windows versions offer simpler interfaces, and a variety of new features that significantly increased security and reliability – all of which translate to much less downtime and much improved productivity.

Call us today so we can offer the most economical path to replacement.

www.TMDTechnology.com

Windows Server 2003 end of support is coming – are you ready?

TMD Technology Services can help you migrate, mitigate risks and reduce costs.

2003serverMicrosoft extended support for Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 (WS2003/R2) is scheduled to end on 14 July, 2015.  No patches to fix security exposures.  No corrections to repair any defects in code and no assistance with problems encountered in operation.

If you rely on these solutions for business-critical applications, it should be clear that completing a migration before mid-2015 needs to be a high priority!  If you don’t know where to begin or have already started but not sure you can make the deadline on your own, TMD Technology Services can help.

TMD Technology Services has the expertise to help ensure a successful transition from Windows Server 2003 or SBS 2003 to Windows Server 2012 R2, Azure, or other destinations.   We will help you choose the path that best fits your environment and budget needs. Whether you choose to migrate and modernize your server OS or capitalize on this opportunity to transform your IT and transform your business – TMD Technology Services can help.

Don’t delay, give us a call to discuss how TMD Technology Services can help you plan and deploy a solution tailored to your organization’s unique needs. www.TMDTechnology.com

Fix For Internet Explorer Bug Has Been Released

 

In a follow-up to our previous post, Homeland Security: Don’t use Internet Explorer due to bug.

Microsoft has released a fix.

Summary

 

This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage using an affected version of Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

 

This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6), Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7), Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8), Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9), Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10), and Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) on affected Windows clients, and Moderate for Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6), Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7), Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8), Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9), Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10), and Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) on affected Windows servers. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

 

The security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way that Internet Explorer handles objects in memory. For more information about the vulnerability, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry later in this bulletin.

 

This security update addresses the vulnerability first described in Microsoft Security Advisory 2963983.

 

Recommendation. Most customers have automatic updating enabled and will not need to take any action because this security update will be downloaded and installed automatically. For information about specific configuration options in automatic updating, seeMicrosoft Knowledge Base Article 294871. For Customers who do not have automatic updating enabled, the steps in Turn automatic updating on or off can be used to enable automatic updating.

Security Update for Internet Explorer (2965111) 

This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted webpage using an affected version of Internet Explorer. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

www.TMDTechnology.com

Homeland Security: Don’t use Internet Explorer due to bug

ieSAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Department of Homeland security is advising Americans not to use the Internet Explorer Web browser until a fix is found for a serious security flaw that came to light over the weekend.

The bug was announced on Saturday by FireEye Research Labs, an Internet security software company based in Milpitas, Calif.

“We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem,” the Department of Homeland Security’s United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in a post Monday morning.

It recommended that users and administrators “consider employing an alternative Web browser until an official update is available.” We Recommend Chrome.

The security flaw allows malicious hackers to get around security protections in the Windows operating system. They then can be infected when visiting a compromised website.

Because the hack uses a corrupted Adobe Flash file to attack the victim’s computer, users can avoid it by turning off Adobe Flash.

“The attack will not work without Adobe Flash,” FireEye said. “Disabling the Flash plugin within IE will prevent the exploit from functioning.”

While the bug affects all versions of Internet Explorer six through 10 it is currently targeting IE9 and IE10, FireEye stated.

The attacks do not appear to be widespread at this time. Microsoft said it was “aware of limited, targeted attacks that attempt to exploit” the vulnerability.

These are called “watering hole attacks,” said Satnam Narang, a threat researcher with computer security company Symantec in Mountain View, Calif..

Rather than directly reach out to a victim, the hackers inject their code into a “normal, everyday website” that the victim visits, he said. Code hidden on the site then infects their computers.

“It’s called a watering hole attack because if you’re a lion, you go to the watering hole because you know that’s where the animals go to drink.”

FireEye said the hackers exploiting the bug are calling their campaign “Operation Clandestine Fox.”

Microsoft confirmed Saturday that it is working to fix the code that allows Internet Explorer versions six through 11 to be exploited by the vulnerability. As of Monday morning, no fix had been posted.

Microsoft typically releases security patches on the first Tuesday of each month, what’s known as Patch Tuesday. The next oneis Tuesday, May 6. Whether the company will release a patch for this vulnerability before that isn’t known.

About 55% of PC computers run one of those versions of Internet Explorer, according to the technology research firm NetMarketShare. About 25% run either IE9 or IE10.

Computer users who are running the Windows XP operating system are out of luck. Microsoft discontinued support of the system on April 8.

Symantec is offering XP users tools to protect themselves, which it has made available on its blog.