KAST, along with Kootenay Business magazine, KRIC and the Columbia Basin Trust are sponsoring the first iTech event to be held in both Nelson and Cranbrook. This trade show event is designed to showcase technology and innovation in the Kootenays.

Secure by Design owner Kirk Ismay will have a table at both the Nelson and Creston events. Stop by to say hi, or ask about any of our service offerings.

West Kootenay — Nelson

The Prestige Lakeside Resort and Convention Centre
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Trade show 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Lunch 11:45 am to 1:15 pm

East Kootenay — Cranbrook

The Rocky Mountain Resort and Convention Centre
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Trade show 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Lunch 11:45 am to 1:15 pm

For those of you affected by poor DSL performance since Thursday morning, we have discovered a workaround until the underlying network problem is resolved.  The solution is to set your network MTU to 1250.

If you have a router, change the MTU on the Internet interface, which should fix the problem for all computers on your network at once.  Consult your router’s documentation for details.

Note, the following instructions are of advanced nature. We provide these instructions on an ‘as provided’ basis. If you do not follow the instructions properly, or use them on a different type of computer than described, it may make the problem worse.

Windows 7 or Windows Vista computers do the following:

1. Click on Start. Choose Accessories.
2. Right click on “Command Prompt”. Choose Run as Administrator.
3. You should get a screen reading “Administrator: Command Prompt”.
4. Type the following:
   netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface “Local Area Connection” mtu=1250 store=persistent
   Or if you use a Wireless connection type:
   netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface “Wireless Network Connection” mtu=1250 store=persistent
5. The command should return “Ok.”.  If it doesn’t, you may not be running the command prompt as Administrator.
6. Reboot your computer.  Or disable, then enable your Local Area Connection.

The above instructions are a summarized version of this article by Richard Slater (thanks!).

Macintosh users can easily set their MTU in their System Preferences:

1. Open System Preferences. Choose Network.
2. Select “Built-In Ethernet” or “Air-Port” (if you use wireless) from the “Show” menu.
3. Go to “Advanced Settings” (Leopard or newer), or “Etherenet” (Tiger and earlier).
4. Change MTU to Custom, and enter 1250.
5. Click on “Apply Changes”, and close System Preferences.
   If the settings are greyed out, click the padlock icon on the bottom left to unlock the settings.

Linux systems:

1. Type the following in a terminal window:
   sudo ifconfig eth0 mtu 1250

Verifying your MTU:

1. Open a web browser. Go to:
   http://speedguide.net/analyzer.php
2. The second line of the report will show your MTU = 1250.  It will also display the following:
   MTU = 1250
   MTU is not fully optimized for broadband. Consider increasing your MTU to 1500 for better throughput. If you are using a router, it could be limiting your MTU regardless of Registry settings.

To return your system to normal, repeat the instructions above with the value of 1500.

There is a malware (malicious software) threat that can affect all Mac OS X systems.  Users running with Administrator level accounts with Safari set to open safe files automatically are particularly at risk.  This program pretends to be an AntiVirus program for Mac OS, but isn’t really.  If you see this on your screen, close it immediately:

MacDefender Malware Screenshot

Those responsible for spreading the malware are exploiting users’ interest in late breaking news about Bin Laden’s death, however, other avenues are possible.

For more information see the following bulletins:

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/02/new-macdefender-malware-threat-for-mac-os-x/

http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=10813

Email from The Net Idea   Subject: Very Important Message For You..

Dear webmail user

It was noticed that you have exceeded your Email Quota Limit of 450 MB and you need to expand your quota.  In less than 48hours to aviod lossing your email account.

To expand your email quota limit use email quota link below and update your email account.

{link Redacted}

Thank you for your understanding.

This email and all like it are to be deleted immediately.  The Net Idea no longer exists, and Secure by Design does not deal with sensitive account information in this fashion.  We will ALWAYS call you over the phone.  If you clicked on the link, please call us at 1-877-373-6121 as soon as possible.  We are monitoring, and will suspend any compromised accounts.  Thank you for your continued cooperation.

The following is a fairly convincing looking Phishing Scam. Delete it on sight. The link below goes to a form that looks like this:

If you were tricked, you will need to change your password.  Once again, we never email asking for passwords.

Dear Email User,

This message is from Net Idea internet message center,during our regular
update and verification of your email accounts, we couldn't verify your
current information.

Either your information has changed or it is incomplete. If the account
information is not updated to current information within 5 days then, 
your account will be set on hold.

Log in to your e-mail account by clicking on this link:

http : //budhibbs.com/bh/forms/phpform/use/Net-Idea-Techical-support/form1.html

After you logged in, update and verify your information please.

Thank you for your patience as we work together to protect your email
account.

Copyright © 1995 - 2008 The Net Idea Telecommunications Inc. All
rights reserved.

The office will be closed Friday, December 24th, through Sunday December 26th, and again on Friday, December 31st, to Sunday January 2nd.  During ‘boxing week’ from the 26th to the 30th, we will be closed for lunch from 12-1pm.

Have a safe and happy holiday!

One of our servers, mail.secure-by-design.com was blacklisted by spamhaus.org.  As soon as we became aware of the problem, we worked with our suppliers and spamhaus to get removed from the blacklist. They removed us from the list at approximately 2:30 PM (PST).  Due to the automtaic nature of such lists, we were not notified by spamhaus when this occurred.

As far as I can tell, it was not because of any email from our server or from our customers. In this case, it seems to be “Collateral Damage”, as spamhaus listed a block of 62 IP addresses, including 3 that are assigned to us.

I apologize for any inconvenience, and I am researching options of detecting this class of problem in the future.

Attn: Mail-Box User Quarantine Notification:

This is to inform you that the www.netidea.com Web Mail is migrating to a new spam filtering service, which improves the ability to identify and block spam,“phishing” attempts and other undesirable messages  that flood our email system on a daily basis. and also a mail box user quarantine exercise is currently going on. we are carrying out a (inactive email-accounts / spam protecting) clean-up process to enable service upgrade efficiency.

Please be informed that  we  will delete all mailbox account user that do not adhere to this notice. You are to provide your email account details as requested by Clicking Here for Quarantine exercise and  protection against spam and for secure upgrading.
This will confirm your www.netidea.com Mailbox login/usage Frequency):

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Secure by Design Service.
Copyright © 2010 Secure by Design. All rights reserved.

We would like to thank our customers who voted for us in Kootenay Business Magazine’s “Best of Business Readers’ Choice Awards”. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you!

Our offices will be closed Saturday, October 9th through Monday, October 11th.

We will re-open Tuesday, October 12th at 9am.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving Weekend!