KINETICS NEWS

This is an important conference for us and we now go each year to what is possibly the biggest gathering of IT firms like Kinetics, to learn the latest trends and tools to ensure we’re at the forefront of best practice for our clients. As with previous years, we pick up a few hints on how to run ourselves better, and on what other IT businesses are [...]

Its hard not to be impressed by this beauty of a phishing mail - but DON'T BE FOOLED! The item link goes to a genuine item on TradeMe, but when you look closely The email came from mailer@traderme.co.nz - that's right... traderme (not trademe) If you hover the mouse over the link for cancelling the transaction, you'll see it actually links [...]

And we know that getting started is always the hard part. To help, we run an intern program and encouraged senior staff in mentoring new comers to IT. Kinetics know that starting a career can be expensive. So we were very excited to hear, via our membership with CompTIA, that students under 25 can get free training and certification with the [...]

At last – Windows 10 1909 – the long awaited second Windows 10 update for 2019.  Were you waiting for it?  Actually it’s unlikely!  In fact the first update, from March, is only just rolling out now, so it will be some time before this version hits your PC or laptop. On the surface, its mainly minor feature updates.  Behind the scenes, [...]

A recently released report on the Botnet 'MasterMana' has highlighted a simple but effective social engineering technique. MasterMana has been spreading via emails requesting information on products or services offered by the target company.  The email is accompanied by a spreadsheet and the recipient is requested to fill in the products/service [...]

Have you ever noticed how your laptop gets quite warm. Sometimes if you are actually using it on your lap, it can get a little uncomfortable. Or why your phone gets hot enough to toast bread? The reason might surprise you. Of course, we’re so used to the slim machines we enjoy today that we often forget how big laptops used to be. Miniaturisation has [...]

In September, Kinetics held a lunchtime IT security event focused around a presentation by our CTO Bill Lunam. After taking us though an abridged history of the internet, and an update on the current status of Internet crime,  Bill explained some specific’s around the types of hack taking place, the impact they can have on a business and what [...]

Its easy to think of security as something that’s only for larger organisations. They can afford the fancy systems that lock down networks, wireless connections and endpoint PCs & mobile devices. After all, aren't they the only organisations that hackers target? We’ve debunked that myth many times, pointing out how hackers attack SMEs in mass, [...]

Keep an eye on your payroll! We're hearing about a but it's bound to come to our shores soon.  It's probably more likely to be effective in larger businesses or ones with an outsourced payroll. Essentially, the scammers try to intercept staff salary/wage payments and redirect it to their accounts. They do this through two avenues. 1) They [...]

You are most vulnerable when you are busy, frantically jumping from call to call, meeting to meeting, distraction to distraction.   So when you get a dodgy email,  it's very easy to open it. Thankfully (or rather - thanks to Microsoft ATP) , the message 'unsafe attachments blocked' was a good warning. Then of course, a closer inspection [...]