Monroe Tech has opened the first ever data center right here in Hilton, NY to host our new online data backup service. Our new local data center and online data backup service offers  our customers major advantages other services can’t.

INTRODUCING MONROE TECH DATA VALET™

No other online data company can deliver your data to your business front door within 24 hours.  Our local data center and IT staff gives us the advantage to get your business critical data back in your hands. Other online services require you to re-download your  data. Average restore time can be 3-4 weeks!  While there are other companies that can backup your data, only one can get it back to you fast during an emergency. We believe in our exclusive Data Valet™ service so much it’s been trademarked and is patent pending.

LOCAL DATA CENTER & SUPPORT

When you need your data, or help from our IT specialists,  we are right here, local and ready to help. Your critical data isn’t sitting in a server farm in another country, it’s right here in Rochester. Online  companies can’t offer that.

EXPERIENCE MATTERS

Our IT staff specializes in everything, including PC, Mac, Linux, servers, data recovery and more.  Our customers range from aerospace to automotive, from farm to industry. Any business, any size we have a solution for you.

SECURITY

Your data is transferred to our data center servers using RSA 1024 bit encryption, keeping it secure from point-to-point. Our servers are built to keep your data safe, offering redundancy at every level of its operation.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is, your business and customer related data is the heart of your operation. The big question every business owner needs to ask is can I still continue to operate and serve my customers if I loose all my data? The answer will always be no. Onsite backups are good, but they don’t help in the case of fire, theft or flood. Also they have a failure rate 15 times higher than manufactures’ estimates. Beyond hardware failure one of the biggest threats to business owners is the people that work for them everyday. Checking personal email, checking in on Facebook…it’s a virus writer’s dream. Virus infections are at an all-time high and your company’s data and productivity are at risk. That’s why you need to keep a copy of your important data offsite for safety, redundancy, and security. Monroe Tech is now offering a new data service that not only keeps your business data safe, but in the case of computer failure can deliver your data right to your front door. With our data center located locally in Hilton, we are able to offer our Monroe Tech Data Valet™ service. No other company online can provide this personal service. Online data backup companies require you after failure to re-download all your company’s critical data. With the average small business having 30-50 GB of data it would take approximately 3-4 weeks to get it back. Can your business and customers wait that long? That’s where our local data center, local IT professionals and experience make the difference. Let Monroe Tech keep your business data safe so your business will stay productive and profitable. Call us today at 392-TECH (8324) and talk to one of our IT business solution techs about your business technology needs.

“The trademarks, logos, and service marks (collectively the “Trademarks”) displayed on this Web Site are registered and
unregistered trademarks of Monroe Tech Corp™ its affiliates and others. “Monroe Tech™”, “The Hard Working Dollar™”, “Computer Running Slow™”, “Computer Running Slow? Take It To Monroe™”, “We Got Your Backup™”, “Discover Hilton™”, “H.W.D™”, “Monroe Tech Corp™” are all trademarks of Monroe Tech Corp.  You can view trademarks owned by Monroe Tech Corp™ on Trademarkia at this link. Nothing contained on this Web Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use any Trademark displayed on this Web Site without the written permission of Monroe Tech Corp or such third party that may own the trademark displayed on this Web Site. Your misuse of the Trademarks displayed on this Web Site, or any other content on this Web Site, except as provided herein, is strictly prohibited.” Any questions can be directed to business@monroetech.com.

If you are affected by this issue, update your virus definitions manually, reboot and the problem should go away. Microsoft has pushed out new updates that remedy the issue.

Monroe Tech can help. We can provide the necessary hardware and installation to tap off your existing network and provide customers with a secure (separate from your internal business network) connection so they can enjoy their gadgets while you provide them with your services.

Call a Monroe Tech representative today to schedule a free site-discovery of your business. Your customers will thank you.

If you’ve researched cost in the past and you’ve determined it was too expensive, we’re pleased to inform you that due to recent advances in router and access point technology, it is cheaper than you think.

These local businesses have recently installed free Wi-Fi for their customers through Monroe Tech:

Lakeshore Hockey Arena, 123 Ling Road, Rochester, NY 14612
Hilton Senior Center, 59 Henry Street, Hilton NY
Parma-Hilton Historical Society, 1300 Hilton Parma Rd, Hilton NY
Hilton Apple Fest (Yearly Event), 59 Henry Street, Hilton NY

and Coming Soon:
Villiage of Hilton Offices, 59 Henry Street, Hilton NY
Willow Inn, 428 Manitou Road, Hilton, NY

“When I was a kid there was nothing like going to the bank with your hard earned paper route money and having your book stamped,” Tobin added. “I would look at that Hard Working Dollar logo the whole way to the bank and really appreciate what it meant to earn a buck. To me that same philosophy works in running a small business. Small business owners are some of the hardest working people out there, and this logo represents that work ethic.”

According to author Richard O. Reisem in his 1997 book “100 Years of the Hard Working Dollar,” a book about the history of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Rochester, the Hard Working Dollar logo was first designed in 1947. An entire chapter in this book is devoted to the special history of this emblem. Over time and through bank mergers, it ended its public use in 1982, and was decommissioned in 2004. First Federal used the little man with a variety of costumes, and even had a jingle written in the 1960s for commercials. “When I was looking up information about the logo and saw it was available, my heart just stopped. It was a great piece of my childhood history, and what better way to bring that feeling to my company than to bring it back to life,” Tobin said.

The response by Monroe Tech customers has been extremely positive, to say the least. Tobin also noted, “When people come in and see the logo for the first time, they have the biggest look of excitement on their faces. It may be a sense of nostalgia for those who recall its earlier role, and for others perhaps it’s that smile he has. A common response is that it’s an image you can trust. I bring that same sense of pride in my business to all my customers, and this iconic logo is a perfect representation of my business and my employees.”

Submitted by:

Myke Merrill

WPS uses the PIN Method, in which an 8 digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) has to be read from the router (often written on a sticker on the router) in order to access the wireless network. However, if anyone could guess (hack) that PIN they could illegally access your wireless network.

Up until now it had been thought that the PIN was very secure as the random 8 digit PIN code should have 100 million possible combinations – far too many to successfully hack as even automated ‘brute force’ attacks would take years to guess the correct combination (brute force attack = using a computer program to generate thousands of possible combinations until the correct sequence of numbers is found).

So far so good, and that is why most modern wireless routers include WPS – and it is enabled by default.

However, Kaspersky Lab reports that researchers have now found a huge flaw in the PIN security used by WPS which “results in too much information about the PIN being returned to an attacker and makes the PIN quite weak”.

In practice, the WPS standard is flawed because, if an attacker takes a guess at the 8 digit PIN, the router responds by confirming whether the first 4 digits are correct or not.

This is very bad as it means that an attacker can just brute force attack the first 4 numbers until the router confirms they are correct – as there are only 11,000 possible combinations of the first 4 numbers, it is relatively simple to hack them in just a few hours.

Even worse, the 8th digit is a checksum of the whole PIN so this digit is easily calculated too. Now an attacker knows the first 4 and the last digit – that only leaves the middle 3 digits left to guess. As there are only 100 possible combinations of these 3 digits, it is a piece of cake to guess those too!

So an attacker could crack all 8 digits in just a few hours (not years) and the router will then let the attacker access your wireless network – exactly what WPS security was designed to prevent!

WPS has been around for 4 years now so most wireless routers will include it – which means this WPS security flaw could put at risk millions of Wi-Fi routers and access points around the world.

A mitigating feature would be if your router had a ‘lock out’ policy which, after a certain number of failed attempts, blocked all further attempts for a certain time period e.g. after 5 failed attempts, all further attempts are blocked for 10 minutes. In that case, trying to brute force up to 11,100 possible combinations could take weeks (an attacker might get very lucky in the first few hours but would likely give up).
Unfortunately, it appears that many routers do not include such a lock out policy – and as there seems to be no way to tell if your own router includes it (or how good a policy it might be even if it did) this can’t be relied upon as a fix.

In time, router manufacturers may release updated firmware to implement a lock out policy on existing routers, or even change the way WPS works, but this might never happen for your own router and certainly does not solve the current problem.
Therefore the best solution now is to disable WPS in your wireless router – you will need to access your router’s configuration pages to disable WPS completely (it will probably be in the Wi-Fi or Security settings).
Once WPS is disabled, check you are using WPA2 security with a strong password (i.e. 10+ characters with a mix of upper/lower case letters, number and symbols) to ensure that your wireless network is still protected against attackers.

WPA2 itself (with a strong password) continues to be secure – it is only the WPS PIN method that has been exposed as a risk.

Many businesses, locally and across the country, report receiving emails from the fake BBB that claim that the business has a complaint to be reviewed.
The email instructs the business to click on a link to review the complaint and respond to it. Once you click the link, you can potentially become infected with a virus, or are offered a form to fill out which asks for personal and financial information.

The primary red flags in the emails are:

· The web address for the link in the email does not contain the BBB’s domain name – ___.bbb.org

· The grammar in the email is worded awkwardly.

· The address in the email is not from the local BBB that serves their area.

If you receive similar emails, the BBB has this advice:

· Do not click on any links in the email because you could download a virus.

· Forward the email to phishing@council.bbb.org so that the BBB can analyze it to determine where it originated from.

· Delete the email from your inbox and your junk mail and deleted items folders.

· Run your anti-virus software to scan your computer system for viruses that the email may have planted in your computer to find bank account and credit card information.

· Review your bank accounts and credit card statements frequently to check for unauthorized charges.

“We’ve heard from dozens of businesses in the Charlotte area that have received these emails,” said BBB President Tom Bartholomy. “These businesses were suspicious of the emails and deleted them.”

“Now, the BBB is encouraging anyone who receives these emails to not only delete them immediately, but to also run their anti-virus software to scan their computer system for viruses.”

For more information, please call your local BBB office or visit www.bbb.org.

In 2011, Facebook earned $1 billion on sales of $3.7 billion. As of December 31, Facebook had 845 million monthly active users.

The company crossed the line into profitability in 2009, five years after it launched in founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room. Facebook earned $229 million that year on sales of $777 million, and has remained profitable ever since.

It’s not yet known on which stock exchange Facebook will trade, through it said it plans to use the ticker symbol “FB.”

Facebook will likely re-file its paperwork several times over the coming months. Those updates will add more details and could even restate some of the financial information detailed in Wednesday’s filing.

In this initial paperwork, companies don’t declare how many shares they’re going to sell, or how much those shares will cost. Those details will be added in an updated filing shortly before trading begins.

Without that share price information, Facebook’s valuation is still speculative.

Facebook has its own guesses, though. The company said it conducted its own valuation of its stock at the end of each quarter, and as of December 31 determined it to be worth $29.73 a share.

Revenue breakdown: Advertising accounted for 85% of Facebook’s 2011 revenue, or almost $3.2 billion.

Facebook’s other revenue stream is its payment system for purchases within apps and games: Facebook Credits. Facebook keeps 30% of the revenue from those payments, and passes the remaining 70% on to the app developer.

Those fees brought in $557 million for Facebook last year.

Revenue from Zynga, which makes FarmVille and other games played on Facebook, represented 12% of Facebook’s total revenue in 2011.

About 44% of Facebook’s revenue came from overseas last year, compared with 38% in 2010 and 33% in 2009.

As of December 31, Facebook had $3.9 billion in cash and liquid assets.

Exec compensation: Another choice tidbit: In 2011, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg raked in a $500,000 base salary. But he requested — and will receive — only $1 per year in salary starting January 1, 2013.

Don’t feel too bad for Zuck, who remains the largest shareholder in the company he created. His total compensation in 2011 came to $1.48 million, according to Facebook’s calculations.

He was one of the lowest-paid among Facebook’s executive ranks. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg topped the list with a total package Facebook estimated at $30.9 million, almost all of it in stock.

Engineering VP Mike Schroepfer made an estimated $24.7 million — again, mostly in stock — while CFO David Ebersman collected an $18.7 million pay package.

As far as the regular rank-and-file at Facebook, the company had 3,200 full-time employees as of December 31. That was a 50% increase from the previous year, and Facebook said it “expect[s] this growth to continue for the foreseeable future.”

Facebook also noted that it has bought out some small companies mainly to acquire employees, and said that it intends to continue that strategy. How much Facebook is worth: Trading won’t begin for several months, as Facebook now has to field questions from regulators and court investors for its stock sale.

Most analysts estimate Facebook’s valuation will fall somewhere between $85 billion to $100 billion. But the value of Web companies can be extremely volatile.

A recent example: Zynga. The FarmVille maker’s IPO filing reported that it valued its shares in August 2011 at $17.20 each, which gave the company a valuation of $14 billion. But when Zynga went public in December, shares sold for just $10 — valuing the company at $7 billion.

Several other Internet companies made their public debuts in 2011, but the end of the year proved to be a turbulent time for the sector. Shares of Groupon, Pandora, Zillow, LinkedIn and Angie’s List all suffered steep double-digit losses for November, though most clawed back at least a bit in December or January.