Recent Phishing Attack

We have been noticing an increase in spam lately. This is not unusual, the volume of spam goes up and down as botnets that create spam are taken down, then replaced.

The increase in spam appears to at least in part be from a phishing attack that is nearly a year old already. A phishing attack is when an email uses false identity to attempt to gain access to sensitive information, usually financial in nature.

The attack purports to report an issue with an electronic funds transfer. You are requested to click through to a web site. The message is a fraud. NACHA, an industry organization that supports the ACH network, has reported on this fraud as early as February, yet it persists.

Here are some tips on how to avoid being a victim of Phishing scams:

Tips from the Federal Trade Commission:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt127.shtm

Tips from CNet:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3000_7-6459186-1.html

Tips from the Anti-Phishing Working Group:
http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html

Tips from Microsoft on how to recognize a Phishing message:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/phishing-symptoms.aspx

With Adobe Announcement, iPad Looks to Dominate

Adobe announced this week that they are discontinuing development of their Flash product for mobile platforms. The ability to display Flash-enabled web sites was one of the primary differentiating features for the Android-powered tablets (and smartphones, for that matter) trying to compete with Apple's IOS-powered iPad.

Dual Internet Connections

Internet connectivity is increasingly important to business operations. Apart from the obvious email and Internet access, it often provides connections to vendors and customers (via EDI or e-commerce sites), remote access for company employees, and remote office connectivity.

As happened very briefly Monday of this week, interruptions can happen deep in the Internet, beyond the control of your Internet service provider. The risk of downtime can be reduced by setting up redundant Internet connections on the company firewall(s).

Redundant Internet connections can create a mesh network, allowing remote sites to automatically attempt to connect to each other over either of their connections. The cost per business location is the time to design and configure the firewall settings to use dual connections plus the ongoing cost of a second Internet connection, preferably one from a different carrier.

For example, if the primary Internet connection is a T1-based connection, a cable Internet provider could be configured as the backup/redundant connection. Typical ongoing costs for a secondary connection would range from $50 - $250 per month, depending on the type of connection.

Advanced Scripting for MAS 90/200 - Certified Vendors

In a prior blog posts, we've explained Advanced Scripting for MAS 90 / MAS 200.  Here is a real-world example of how it can save time and money:

Company XYZ only wishes to buy from "certified" vendors per a government regulation they must adhere to. They maintain a user-defined field in the vendor master file of the date the vendor is "certified" through.

We added a script to their Purchase Order Entry screen such that once they choose a vendor, it will look at the vendor master file, and check that not only does the vendor have a date filled in the user-defined field, but that the date has not passed. It will only then allow the user to continue entering the P/O. This saves the user time for each purchase order created, because they do not have to manually check the vendor's status.

Contact us to learn more about how Advanced Scripting can streamline your operations.