April Wrap-Up

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:15:00 GMT

<div id="pagecon"> <div id="header"> <div id="flash_con"> <img alt="Applied Integration Logo" longdesc="Applied Integration Inc. Main Logo" src="http://www.appliedintegration.net/images/Logo_FullSize.jpg" width="476" height="111" class="float_left"/> </div> <div id="header_right"> <div class="right"> From the desk of: <strong> <a href="mailto:don@appliedintegration.net">Don Cockayne</a></strong><br /><br /> Applied Integration, Inc.<br /> 865 East 4800 South<br/> Suite #110<br/> Murray, Utah 84107<br/> Phone - 801.266.4888<br/> Fax - 801.266.0373<br/> </div> </div> </div> <div id="topnav"> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/index.htm">Our Website</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/about.htm">About Us</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/services.htm">Our Services</a></li> <li><a href="http://helpdesk.appliedintegration.net">Support</a></li> <li><a href="http://mail.appliedintegration.net">WebMail</a></li> <li class="last"><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/contact.htm">Contact Us</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="content">  <div id="left_col"> <div class="title">Links to Our Site</div> <div id="leftnav"> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/about.htm">Company History</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/disaster_recovery.htm">Disaster Recovery</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/networks.htm">Network Installation</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/management.htm">Remote Management</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/monitoring.htm">Proactive Monitoring</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/security.htm">System Security</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/email.htm">Hosted Email</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/websites.htm">Hosted Websites</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/white_papers.htm">White Papers</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/reference.htm">Technical Reference</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/customers.htm">Customer Care</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net/consulting.htm">Consultation</a></li> </ul> <div class="clear"></div> </div> <div class="title">LATEST NEWS</div> <div class="padding10"> <span class="date">Web Based Helpdesk</span><br /> Our Web Based Helpdesk is now up and running. You should have recieved a welcome email from the System that included a link to the site, along with some instructions for you to verify yourself and get started using the system.<br /><br /> If you haven't taken a look at it, I'd like to invite you to do so. We think you're going to find it to be very easy to use.<br /> <div class="right"><a href="http://helpdesk.appliedintegration.net" class="readmore">Login to the Helpdesk</a></div> </div> <div class="padding10"> <span class="date">Hosted Mail Statistics</span><br /> Around Mid-April of this year, our anti-spam hardware marked its first full year of service, protecting our hosted email users from both spam email and email-borne viruses and trojan applications. In that year, we've had 2.5 million emails hit the appliance. Of those, 1.8 million were dumped as spam, we blocked several hundred that contained viruses, and a further ~11,000 were tagged as possible spam but sent through so that users could decide for themselves.<br /> Is your inbox this well protected? If not, perhaps we should be hosting your email.<br /> </div> </div>  <div id="right_col"> <div class="title">Today's important notes and updates</div> <div class="padding10"> <img src="http://www.appliedintegration.net/images/webmail%20icon.jpg" class="float_left" width="111" height="111" /> <p>April 29, 2009 - As we get ready to put a wrapper on April, I wanted to take a few minutes to update you on a couple of things that have been going on around here. The first and most obvious new item is the format of this email. If you're using am email Client application that is capable of reading a page that is in Web format (HTML) you'll be seeing this as an email that looks much like it's a page stolen directly from our website. Not only should this look a bit more presentable than a standard Text Only email, it also gives us the ability to include lots of direct links to information so that you don't have to hunt for more information. I'll be using this new format to update you periodically, not too often as I know you probably already get a lot of email, but often enough to keep you informed.</p> <h5>Conflicker - April Fools Day Virus</h5> <p>Well, if you believed the hype about this one, April Fools Day this year was supposed to see the Internet brought to a screaching halt as millions of Infected PCs came to life and started a series of Denial of Service attacks. In actuality, other than a few notable exceptions, most people and organizations had plenty of time to get ahead of this one and there were no major problems. We stay tightly in the loop here with our major security partner Symantec, and were already certain that the Servers and PC's we monitor and maintain were protected. We did however still come in to work a bit early on April 1st, just to keep tabs on things.</p> <p>The media frenzy created over this particular incident, while a bit sensational, has served to once again bring the issue of Security up onto the "radar screen" of just about everyone, and that's never a bad thing. The landscape is always changing, and I don't think we'll ever be able to stop being vigilant and well informed. You've no doubt seen the recent explosion in "Web 2.0" social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, and you've probably heard about how some of these sites have already been exploited.</p> <p>What we should take away from April Fools Day this year are some important reminders. First, if your IT resources aren't covered by a reliable, state of the art anti-virus application that is regularly updated and that enforces some realistic security policies (and I don't mean some free thing you downloaded off the Internet), you may be putting the stability of the systems your people rely on at risk.</p> <p>Second, if you haven't spelled out at least a basic "acceptable use" policy that you have put in the hands of your users, you should do that immediately. Don't assume your folks know what you consider to be appropriate use of the Internet and Email, spell it out and make sure they know.</p> <p>And lastly, if you need help with any or all of this process, just give me a call. I know you probably have plenty of things to fill your day without taking time to read security bulletins, software update notifications and such, but that's some of what we do each and every day here. Don't forget that partnering up with us let's you "bolt-on" a fully functional, highly focused IT department. I know you know to call us when something goes wrong, but I also want to make sure you know that you can call us to make sure something DOESN'T go wrong!</p> <h5>Tell a friend</h5> <p>I think it never hurts to remind folks of the value of an honest compliment, and the highest compliment we can recieve is that of a referral from an existing customer. The things we do for your company, keeping your systems running smoothly, securing and maintaining your complex systems, hosting your email and websites, are all things that we can do for lots of companies just like yours, even those that might not be in the same exact line of business as you. When you bump into folks in your circle of peers and partners that might be a good candidate for our services, I hope you'll help us spread the word.</p> <p>Our growing customer base means our combined volume with our vendors earns us extremely competitive pricing on all sorts of hardware and software, from the basic PC workstation, all the way up to the high end Servers. When things come up that you need for your systems, don't forget that we're here and that we might just be your best source for getting the absolute right stuff at very competitive prices. Remember, no one has a more vested interest in your success than we do, we will make sure you get the right gear to do the job, and that it fits well into your overall system.</p> </div> <div class="clear"></div> </div> <div class="clear"></div> </div>  <div id="footer"> <div id="footer_left">Copyright 2008. Applied Integration Inc.. All rights reserved.</div> <div id="footer_right"><a href="http://www.appliedintegration.net">www.appliedintegration.net</a></div> <div class="clear"></div> </div>  </div>

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