Microsoft’s New Strategy: Free Software

Software,
19
Jun 2015

Microsoft-Logo

Microsoft has always used a traditional way of marketing their products to customers until now. Here’s a look at Microsoft’s Free Software strategy.

The idea behind the strategy

With Microsoft dominating the desktop applications market for decades and charging customers for all of their products suites, why would they want to move away from their usual marketing method to offer free software?

It could be that in recent years, Microsoft has been falling behind Google and Apple, who’ve dominated their niche markets by offering their products and services free in return for ads or data. With smartphones becoming as ubiquitous today as PCs were in the 90s, Microsoft has had to step up their game to attract more users to their products. Their new strategy of offering free software is a step in aligning themselves to the competition and keeping up with the times.

Executing the strategy

Microsoft has recently offered a free version of Microsoft Office that can be used on the iOS platform. They’ve extended this to give Android devices free versions of Excel, Word and PowerPoint. In addition to this, they’ve also offered free licenses for Windows as well as Windows Phone for PC and mobile devices.

Reaching out to new markets

1920x1080_windows_10_technical_preview_windows_10_logo_microsoft

Since they’ve acquired a number of mobile applications, they’ll also plan to offer these for free too. Some examples include free mobile apps such as an email app that is used with Android and iOS platforms acquiring a much larger user base than before. For example, an Android or iOS user, who may not use Microsoft software at all, would now be presented with the opportunity to try the software for free and use it.

Microsoft’s hope is that users will gain a beneficial experience from their software, enough for it to become indispensable to them. The free version will come with a whole host of features that will be very useful. Still, there will be some features that are held back from the free versions, which will be offered in the subscription plans.

Microsoft’s ecosystem

Microsoft-Metrics-2014-Counterpoint-Research

Image courtesy of Counter Point Research

Microsoft is also looking to get users to experience a whole host of other products and services that are closely aligned with the free software offered by them.

This ecosystem of products and services is the perfect strategy that will entice users to sign up to their subscription plans. For example, by integrating Skype into Outlook, Microsoft plans to get users to become accustomed to Skype. Once they are familiar with the product, it’ll be easier for the user to upgrade within minutes of seeing the offer as well as the other paid features available through Skype.

In the same vein, users of Cortana are encouraged to use Bing, which will help draw them away from Google as a search engine.

For more ways to optimize your office software and productivity, contact your local IT professionals.

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Microsoft Office 2016 Preview: What you should know

Software, Uncategorized,
17
Jun 2015

office-2016

Microsoft Office 2016 has features that will benefit any office and business environment. Read our Office 2016 Preview to get an overview of what’s to come.

Microsoft Office has made a big impact in handling the nuances of small and big business document processing and management. With Microsoft Office 2016 being released, everybody is curious to know what features and enhancements it will bring to the work environment.

This version’s focus is definitely on simplifying things. Many features which had been missing in previous versions and were in great demand have now been added to MS Office 2016.

Preview of the Microsoft Office 2016 features

Here are some of the striking features and enhancements that have been included in Microsoft Office 2016:

office365-suite-img

 

  • Word, Power Point and Excel finally get the data loss protection feature. Centralized sharing mechanisms have been built into these tools to help keep the office documents safe. Authoring policies can also be applied which gives a way to restrict and authenticate the use of documents. This feature was previously only available in Outlook, Share Point and One Drive. Due to popular demand it has now been brought over to Word, Power Point and Excel too.
  • Outlook has also been revamped to suit popular business requirements. Support of multi-factor authentication has been added, which scales up the security and integrity of official emails. The search functionality has been improved to a large extent which will make it easier for professionals to search for emails from huge folders or inboxes. Outlook’s performance has also been enhanced so that users don’t have to wait for their messages to download. In addition to the above, extra options related to mail storage has also been included.
  • Excel has added improvements related to accessibility using the keyboards. Vital diagrams like Pivot Tables can now be constructed with keyboard shortcuts which save a lot of time and adds precision.
  • Office will still continue to offer macros and add-ins, which have proven to be a great success in other versions. Since Microsoft feels that these features are designed to the best of their ability, there hasn’t been any updates or changes made to them.
  • Visio has also gone through an enhancement in this version. It can now accommodate Information Rights Management protection. So all Visio images and diagrams can be protected, irrespective of whether they are online or offline.

Along with the enhancements that this version will bring about, IT professionals can reap great advantage by using bandwidth management features. Not forgetting, much more flexibility and support in accessing and applying updates. Administrators will be able to manage users and give them designated rules to activate devices.

For more ways to update and improve your systems, contact your local IT professionals.

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USB Thumb Drives that can Fry your System

hardware, Security,
06
May 2015

PC On Fire Shoot

Learn how USB thumb drives can potentially destroy laptops / pcs. We’ll explain how this works and what measures can be taken to protect your computers.

If you happen to find an unknown flash drive in any place that you aren’t familiar with, we strongly advise not to plug it into a computer, especially one that is used for work.  It makes sense when there’s a high element of risk involved. Not only does the possibility of being infected by a virus exist, but as of late, a new type of attack has been created which can physically damage your systems. We have recently learned of dangerous USB thumb drives that are capable of frying a computer or laptop. 

How does it work?

Think of a computer’s ports as physical access points for an attack.

USB-Killer-2

  • An attacker would modify or build a USB thumb drive by using an inverting DC-DC converter to draw power off the USB port.
  • The power drawn from the USB port is then used to create a -110VDC charge on a capacitor bank.
  • Once the caps have charged up, this triggers the converter to shut down.
  • This forces a transistor to propel the voltage from the capacitor over to the port’s data pins.
  • This pattern repeats every time the caps recharge, discharging its high voltage through the port.
  • As long as there’s a bus voltage and high current present, the attack will run its course and overrun the small TVS diodes present on bus lines  of the computer or laptop.
  • Inevitably this will lead to a computer’s components, including possibly the CPU, to fry.
  • With fried components, a laptop or computer will be “dead”.

In typical circumstances a USB thumb drive is design to be protected, and a computer is normally able to dissipate manageable amounts of power, which wouldn’t cause this type of damage.

An example of an attack

A thief had stolen a USB flash drive off a commuter on the subway.  When the thief inserted the flash drive into his computer USB port, the least he’d expected was to see some data. Instead, his computer died as its internal components have been fried.  Although one may think that it was good for the thief to get their just desserts, it addresses a more serious problem- trusting unknown peripherals such as flash drives.

Precautionary measures

Now that we have a good overview of how a USB thumb drive can be engineered to take out a computer, let’s discuss how to prevent such an occurrence.

  • Don’t allow strangers to connect a USB thumb drive in to a mission critical computer or laptop.
  • Don’t plug in USB thumb drives found in public.
  • Do only use thumb drives purchased from reliable retailers or officially provided by an IT administrator.
  • Avoid sharing thumb drives, especially if they leave the premises and return to be used on computers.
  • Aim for individuals to carry their own thumb drives which can safely be used within an office environment.
  • Always question any thumb drives which may be presented to your business by an unknown third party. Even if it lands at your office’s reception desk, have an IT admin check it out first.
  • Have a thumb and flash drive policy in place to cover all of the above as part of your IT security policy.

For more ways to safeguard your computers and IT infrastructure, contact your local IT professionals.

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CryptoWall: Advanced Ransom Malware

Security, ,
04
May 2015

ransomware-161113CryptoWall 3.0, a new variant of the Cryptolocker ransom-ware virus is out causing problems to many businesses. Learn how it works and how to prevent it.

Discovered in late February 2015, CryptoWall 3.0 works very much like the previous versions of this virus, however its strategy to infect systems is somewhat different..

How CryptoWall 3.0 works

  • When the infected file containing CryptoWall 3.0 is opened, the malicious program encrypts all files that it finds mapped over the network.
  • Files become encrypted and unreadable.
  • Only the perpetrator can unlock the code to make it readable again.
  • Once it finishes encrypting all files, it asks for a ransom of around $500USD.
  • This amount is expected to be paid in Bitcoin currency, which is a universal currency used around the world.

Point of entry and identification

CryptoWall 3.0 employs social engineering tactics via phishing emails. These come through with attachments disguised as an “incoming fax report” displaying the same domain as the one the user is on creating a false sense of trust by making them believe it is a legitimate document. Once opened, Cryptowall picks up all mapped drives identified from the host machine it infects and encrypts all of the contents on it as well as the data on the mapped drives.

CryptoWall 3.0 uses .chm attachments, which is a type of compressed file used for user manuals within software applications. Since .chm is an extension of HTML, this allows the files to be very interactive with different types of media such as images, hyperlinked table of contents and so forth. It also uses JavaScript to allow the attack to send users to any website on the Internet, which occurs when a user opens up the malicious .chm file.
Once the file is opened, the attack automatically runs its course.

CryptoWall: More than meets the eye

rouge

Ransom Malware bas been evolving since the first wave of Cryptolocker attacks back in September 2013, which had netted the virus writers over $27,000,000 from claiming ransom money within only a few months of the Cryptolocker operation. Attacks are happening all over the world with detections in Europe, the UK, the US and in Australia.
The sophisticated Cryptolocker and CryptoWall attacks also use botnets, which is a wide network of compromised machines, to be the originators of the attack. Aside from speeding up distribution of the virus, it allows anonymity for the virus writers.

How to prevent CryptoWall 3.0

For more ways to stay protected and safeguard your network, contact your local IT professionals.

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The Declining Firefox Market Share

Office IT,
02
May 2015

chrome_vs_firefox_securos.org_.ua_

Is Firefox as popular as it used to be? A decline in the Firefox market share has proven its loss of user share. Learn why by reading our overview here.

Browsers take long-term data statistics very seriously, as it is a measure of their success in the internet browser market. The popular and widely used browsers today are considered to be Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera.

In the past year, Mozilla Firefox’s desktop user share has dropped by a significant 34% and since April 2010, dropped down to a total of 54%.

In recent months and years, Mozilla’s Firefox has continued to lose user share due to other widely used internet browsers gaining popularity. The Firefox browser has dropped to the lowest numbers in the browser market share since its initial release back in 2004 when Internet Explorer had already captured most of browser market.

Less people are using the Firefox browser and they’re increasingly reporting issues related to its use. For instance, there are now fewer browser users discussing bugs and fixes on blogs and forums than ever before. This has led to more problems for Mozilla Firefox.

The rise and fall of user share

browser-war-galit-weisberg

Browser wars as depicted by Galit Weisberg.

 

Let’s look at the rise and fall of user share regarding Mozilla Firefox browser and compare it to other popular browsers.

February saw Mozilla Firefox’s user share on desktop platforms to be down to 18.2%, which was down half a percentage from the previous month.

According to Computerworld, if the trend of losing market share continues at the same rate, this could mean that Firefox would go under 8% by this coming October based on both mobile and desktop users being at a low 9.8%, which is 3.4% down from when they first recorded statistics in July 2014.

Mobile Device Browsers

web-browsers

Since the introduction of smartphones that have been made widely available to the consumer market, users are also accessing the internet on their mobile devices. The drop in user share for Firefox appears to correlate with the increased use of mobile devices. Not even their combined numbers of desktop and mobile device users can make up for this loss in market share.

This is despite having a mobile web browser available on smartphone devices, such as for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android devices.

According to Computerworld’s records, February’s mobile share usage was less than seven-tenths of 1%.  Google’s Chrome browser has been the biggest beneficiary of the loss of user share suffered by Firefox.

With Chrome being a popular browser choice on mobile platforms, this has helped their share flourish on the overall market. According to Net Applications’ statistics, Chrome along with the former Android browsers it has replaced, takes up a massive share of the market with 41.5%.

Mozilla committed to evolve their services

As Mozilla is focusing on their cloud service to offer an improved browsing experience for mobile and desktop browser users. They have also signed a five year contract with Yahoo to make its search engine a default one for Firefox browser in the United States.

In regards to a snapshot of the current market share for browsers, the order of popularity from highest to lowest includes Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Opera.

For more information on Cloud services and flexible IT solutions, contact your local IT professionals.

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