The Dangers Of Neglecting Your Server

The other day I was driving to one of my clients and I passed an old neglected carved bear statue on the side of the road that some carver apparently forgot about and left on display.  I've grown quite fond of that bear as it sits out in all kinds of weather deteriorating with time.  I've even given him a name (Ralph) and look for him every time I drive down that road.  I've often thought of trying to rescue try to restore him but my wife responds with "What are you going to do with a 6 foot wooden bear and where do you intend to keep it? . . . and NO, he won't fit in the family room!"

The last time I passed good old Ralph, I suddenly was hit with the parallels that exist between his plight and the network servers that people ask us to resurect after years of similar neglect.  Ok, maybe they don't leave their servers out in the rain and snow or let birds roost on them and cover them with droppings but there are parallels.

More often than not, when we're called to rescue a server we find them stuck in poorly ventilated closets, in dank basements, or in hot furnace rooms and covered in dust.  Servers are often treated as much as an afterthought as poor old Ralph.  We've had to rescue servers sitting in pools of water in school closets located directly beneath the boys bathroom at a school.  Another set of servers died when they overheated because a school kept them running all summer in an unventilated room with the air conditioning turned off during one of  the hotest summers on record.

The differnce between these situations and poor Ralph's plight is that the wood carver didn't entrust all of his critical business information to his wooden bear. 

Over 25 years in business, we've development certain expectations of clients that are almost univeraly true.

1. Unless we nag a client to update their technology, they'll try to run them until they fall apart without regard for their expected useful life.  It amazes me how people will buy new vehicles every couple of years to avoid something going wrong with them but will run their computers forever knowing fully well that all of their business data may be at risk.
    
2. Most organizations won't budget  sufficient funds for replacement equipment and seem surprised when we tell them that a computer needs to be retired due to age.  I was asked to work on a computer yesterday that was still running Windows 2000 Pro and we still have a client running Windows Server 2000.  Those suckers are over 13 years old!
    
3. If left to their own devices, clients will stick their servers in the most awful location they can find.
    
4. That same client will express shock when that server fails because of the conditions in that location.  Example:  "I didn't know that computers needed ventilation."

Just so we're clear, here are some rules for you to follow:

1. Servers have an effective life of about 4 years.  There's a reason that the standard manfacturer warranty for a server is only 3 years.  They expect that things will start going wrong after that.  Budget and plan accordingly!
2. Servers need to be in well ventilated and dry environments.  Forget about sticking them in a closet unless you make SERIOUS efforts for proper ventilation and plan on keeping it clean.  AND DON'T STACK THINGS OR AROUND IT!!!!! 
3. Computer cooling systems act as giant vacuum cleaners for dust and dirt and suck all of that onto the electronic components inside.  Plan to have your computers cleaned at least annually.  More so if you're in an enviroment that is dirty (factories, golf courses or garden shops). 
4. Real servers have environmental monitoring systems that you should pay attention to.  If a fan fails inside a server, the resultant rise in temperature will likely shorten the life of your server and/or hard drives.
5. Unreliable power sources can shorten the life of your servers by browning out or spiking the electricity.  Make sure you have a good UPS with voltage control.  Brown outs will dramtically shorten the usefullness of your UPS by over-using its battery.  Replace your UPS battery on a regular basis. A surge protector is NOT an adequate substitute for an UPS.

I hope that this information clears up any boubt in your mind about caring for your server.  And finally, don't worry about poor Ralph, I'm clearing a space in my office and when my wife isn't looking . . .

Read More

Praying Computers?

Today we received what has to be one of the most unusual service requests ever in our 25 year history in the computer business.  A client called to report that their computer was praying. Actually they said it was reciting The Lords Prayer.  When I arrived on site, sure enough, after hearing heavy breathing coming out of the computer speakers, a voice did start to recite the prayer over and over for a couple of minutes.  Another user standing nearby reported hearing a gun shot as the praying stopped.

I ran several of our anti-malware programs and discovered 3 Trojans embedded in the system and removed them.   After a re-boot the praying stopped.

 It was obviously some sort of WAV file playing but the $64,000 question is how did it get on this business PC?  A search of various support blogs turned up previous references to this behavior but the causes listed varied from a extraneous audio file left over from a game, to malware and also to paranormal activity.  It stopped after I removed the malware so I'm going with answer #2 for now but if they call again with a recurrance of the problem, I'm bringing holy water and a priest on the next service call.

Read More

What is a Zero Day Exploit and what can you do about it?

Everyday it seems that there is a new term to describe how hackers and malware writers  attack you.  Originally everything was called a Virus.  Then we split the definition to separate malware into it's own category and now the current popular term is Zero Day Exploits.

What are they?  Essentially a zero-day attack is an exploit that takes advantage of a previously unknown vulnerability in a piece of software hence the designation "zero-day".  Even the author of the exploited software isn't away of the vulnerability until too late.  The malware is out and running wild before the vulnerability is even identified.  On the Internet, a headstart like that gives the malware writers a big advantage.

For example, when the last big Zero Day exploit was identified in Java, it took Oracle (the owner of Java, over a month to fix it).  On the Internet, a head start of a few hours is a tremendous adavantage.  A month is ridiculous.

Within the ranks of the various malware specialists there is a new group called Researchers.  They don't necessarily do the attacking.  They just search for new vulnerabilites is various programs and sell their findings to others so that they can do the dirty work.

Most often the malware writer or Research has found an opening in a commonly used piece of software on your PC that enhances your Internet experience like JAVA, Flashplayer, RealPlayer, Acrobat and others.  He takes advantage of a flaw in that program to inject their code or behavior into your computer and BOOM you're infected!

What can you do to reduce your risk of exposure?  Make sure all of your apps on your computer are up-to-date.  Make sure your A/V program is running and getting updates from the vendor in real-time.  The days of batch updates and running your A/V once a day or once per week are long gone!  Remember, Microsoft updates their patch services at least twice per week, get all of your updates and patches as other as possible.

Will this stop everything?  Of course, not!  But it will sure as heck REDUCE your risk of exposure.  What other steps can you take?  Check our Facebook page for a link to our new Blended Protection Plan for business networks.

Read More