Sierra's Top 5 Techy Costume Picks!

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Are you a true nerd at heart, where technology just seems to always be surrounding you?  Halloween is the perfect chance to go all out and blow those boring costumes out of the water with your super cool tech costume. Here is our top five list of tech costume ideas for 2015:

1. Mario and Luigi: Who doesn’t like a little Mario Cart? Grab your best friend or significant other go out as the dynamic duo.

2. Social Media: Because who doesn’t have a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Wear the logo or even create a cardboard cutout of your page. Your costume will be sure to get some “Likes” that night.

3. Micro Chip: Are you that simple guy who normally wears the t shirt that says “This is my costume”? We have an alternate solution for you. Buy a plain t shirt and a marker- write the word ‘micro’ on it. Then simply carry around a bag of potato chips. Cheesy or genius?

4. Flash Dance: Fan of the popular 1983 film, but also have a nerdy side? Solution: take a tutu and attach flash drives to it. Simple and creative, what more does one need?

5. Cloud: Let’s face it, if you work in the IT industry, everything is now switching to the cloud, so why not be one. There are a few ways to pull, this one off. Wear all white and a white boa, make a paper cut out and wear it around your neck, or even just draw one on your shirt!

So go out and nerd it up. Halloween is the one day of the year when it's okay to go all-out on a geeky/techy costume!
 

 
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Keep Calm and Maintenance On

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Chances are your work environment will have scheduled maintenance done within. No need to panic, you can easily be prepared and keep your businesses valuable data safe and save yourself a lot of headaches. It is key to not only let everyone in the office know of the scheduled down time, but also you’re MSP (Managed Service Provider). Doing this can reduce the risk of someone trying to power up components when they are supposed to be powered down. Scheduled maintenance that should be communicated includes server maintenance, planned power outages, or implementing new switches or routers.
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Back to the Future: October 21, 2015

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Today is October 21, 2015. This is the same date on which a time traveling Marty McFly arrived in the future within the 1985 film Back to the Future.

In case you are too young to remember the 80’s, here’s an IMDB link: http://imdb.to/1HwWIs4

In the film, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels back in time, where he alters his parents’ lives for the better and also takes steps to ensure his future existence. The film trilogy is notorious for featuring interesting technologies that are said to exist in the future. Since we are now here, let’s take a look a few of these technologies and see how the film stacks up against today’s reality.

Hover Boards
Hoverboards may be the most iconic prop from the film series. Marty uses the wheel-less board to freely surf over land. It turns out hoverboards are a reality in 2015, sort of. Lexus developed a hoverboard that requires a special surface for it to work, but it’s still pretty cool. 

Back to the Future: http://bit.ly/1jZuvi6
Today: http://bit.ly/1dfCwRH

Holograms
Marty McFly comes across a movie billboard that is holographic. A massive shark comes to life atop a building and lunges toward him with its mouth wide open. Here again, holograms are pretty much a reality in 2015. Just last year, a deceased Michael Jackson reappeared on stage, in hologram form.

Back to the Future: http://bit.ly/1qwdS1N
Today: http://bit.ly/1hWnFIc

Biometric Authentication
Back to the Future Part II features futuristic biometric authentication when Jennifer, Marty’s girlfriend and future wife, scans her finger in order to enter her home.  This prediction came true - today, many of us use this technology to access our homes and our phones.

Back to the Future: http://bit.ly/1XkbMC1
Today: http://bit.ly/1PGGOSm

Drones
When the film’s antagonist, Biff, is arrested, a USA Today flying camera covers the scene. Camera-equipped drones are of course commonplace today.

Back to the Future: http://bit.ly/1LnUOxa
Today: http://on.mash.to/1LLDiEE

We think the Back to the Future films got it pretty right. If we can help you with your technology needs, now or in the future, please visit our website at www.SierraExperts.com or call a member of team at 412-722-0707. Ok, time to go back to work.
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Spam, it’s for the birds.

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Become an expert at identifying spam in your inbox. We all know to delete the standard **Free 60’ TV!!** in the subject line, however there are times when SPAM isn’t written in black and white.  Spam emails have become very challenging to read, because it seems like it is coming from a legitimate source. There are a few tips that can help you.

Make sure you check the links found in the message before clicking. Copy and paste into notepad or a word document so you can analyze and see if it looks fishy. If the message claims it is coming from your cell phone provider and when you click you are directed to http://susy-and-tom-from-nowhere.com you have been spammed and should automatically delete. You can also contact MSP to purchase spam detecting software. This is the safest and most efficient way of sorting through what emails are coming from a legitimate source and which ones are not.
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Adobe confirms major Flash vulnerability

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With Adobe releasing their monthly security patches including Flash Player, they confirmed a major security vulnerability that impacts all versions of Flash for Windows/Mac/Linux.  Yes...ALL versions.  The security vulnerability has been used by a limited amount of hackers that are crashing computers or taking full control of them. 

“A critical vulnerability (CVE-2015-7645) has been identified in Adobe Flash Player 19.0.0.207 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux,” Adobe wrote in a security bulletin posted to its website. “Successful exploitation could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.”

 Adobe has said it hopes to have an updated patch available next week.  Hope is a tricky word.

The vulnerability was identified by Trend Micro which stated:
“Trend Micro researchers have discovered that the attackers behind Pawn Storm are using a new Adobe Flash zero-day exploit in their latest campaign,”  “Pawn Storm is a long-running cyber-espionage campaign known for its high-profile targets and usage of the first Java zero-day we’ve seen in the last couple of years.”

Resolution?  Uninstall Flash until Adobe resolves their issues, hopefully faster than they entail. If Sierra is protecting your network with our Next Generation Managed Firewall solution, you can disregard this message.  Contact our Sales@SierraExperts.com to find out how Sierra can secure you against these and other types of threats proactively.
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3 questions to ask about your business’s website

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In today’s technology driven world, every successful business has a website, but is their website successful? When it comes to a website there are three questions to ask yourself: Is my website appealing to my customers? Is my website’s data safe and secure? Is my website device agnostic?

You can’t just slap your logo into the corner of a web page and call it a day, you need to invest time and money into making your website as appealing as possible. Companies sometimes make the mistake of burying their websites with mass amounts of information on too many pages. Keep it clean and simple. This way you won’t discourage customers from navigating away from your site. Also keep your brand in mind. Make sure your logo, contact information and social media links are present on each page, chances are that is what the browser is looking for.

Next you need to find an MSP (Managed Service Provider) to monitor your site, so you don’t have to. This means you can put your focus on your business, and let the experts handle your IT infrastructure. MSP’s can monitor for threats to your website and detect and prevent downtime. MSP’s usually operate 24x7x365 so you can rest easy knowing your website is safe and secure.

79% of mobile web consumers use their phone for shopping and browsing the web, 40% of mobile shoppers will abandon a site that doesn’t load in 3 seconds. Being device agnostic means your website is compatible across all internet browsers and devices. When designing your website this is one of the most important components to keep in mind. Don’t lose out on customers because you didn’t take the time to test your site!
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