One of our very special clients will have their crafts for sale – You can check them out in Downtown Pinckney this weekend or online at www.thehiddencardinal.com

She joins are growing Computers Plus Team and is the third new addition to our team within the past year bringing our total number of employees to nine!

The Wi-Fi router you use to broadcast a private wireless Internet signal in your home or office is not only easy to hack, says a report released today, but the best way to protect yourself is out of your hands.

The report, written by research firm Independent Security Evaluators of Baltimore, found that 13 of the most popular off-the-shelf wireless routers could be exploited by a “moderately skilled adversary with LAN or WLAN access.” It also concludes that your best bet for safer Wi-Fi depends on router vendors upping their game. All 13 routers evaluated can be taken over from the local network, with four of those requiring no active management session. Eleven of the 13 can be taken over from a Wide-Area Network (WAN) such as a wireless network, with two of those requiring no active management session.
My router’s not safe? Really?

“It is not a safe assumption to make that you’re safe,” Steve Bono, the company’s CEO and principal security analyst, told CNET in a phone interview.
The report notes that all 14 of the devices had critical security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a “remote adversary” and could lead to unauthorized remote control of the router.

Before you dismiss router hacks as exceptionally rare, it’s important to note that they’ve been a small but growing segment of computer security threats. In 2011, one firmware vulnerability affecting six hardware manufacturers combined with two malicious scripts and 40 malicious DNS servers to attack 4.5 million Brazilian DSL modems, with the goal of stealing bank and credit card information.

Craig Heffner, a vulnerability analyst at Maryland-based Tactical Network Solutions, said that he isn’t familiar with the Brazil story but isn’t surprised by it. “In a lot of countries, there’s only one or two ISPs, and you get whatever router they give you,” he said. “They often enable remote administration by default, so any vulnerability would be amplified.”

And just yesterday, ReadWrite reported on wireless router hacking, based in part on research conducted by security firm Rapid7. ISE’s study, while similar, reports “all-new findings,” said ISE’s marketing head, Ted Harrington.

Harrington further explained why router hacking could turn into a big problem. “What’s notable about this is that if you compromise the router, then you’re inside the firewall. You can pick credit card numbers out of e-mails, confidential documents, passwords, photos, just about anything,” he said.
He added that ISE plans to release additional information from the study in the coming weeks, following the routine security community best practice of giving vendors a chance to respond to vulnerabilities that have been uncovered before publishing them.

“We notified all vendors about all vulnerabilities that we found,” said ISE security analyst Jake Holcomb. “We’re in the process of receiving Common Vulnerability and Exposure (CVE) numbers” for tracking information security vulnerabilities.

Some vendors, Holcomb said, got back to ISE quickly and had beta firmware with fixes ready to test within 72 hours. “Other vendors escalated their Tier 1 support up the chain but we never heard back from them,” he said.

Darren Kitchen, founder of the Hak5 security and tinkering show and a maker of Wi-Fi penetration-testing devices, said he isn’t surprised by the results of the study. Routers are “low-powered devices, most made in China and Taiwan, and they’re rushed out the door. There’s not a consumer demand for security; it’s not a feature that will sell it.”

Wireless under attack

ISE found the routers were vulnerable to three kinds of attacks:

• Trivial attacks can be launched directly against the router with no human interaction or access to credentials.

• Unauthenticated attacks require some form of human interaction, such as following a malicious link or browsing to an unsafe page, but do not require an active session or access to credentials.

• Authenticated attacks require that the attacker have access to credentials (or that default router credentials are used — an all-too-common situation) or that a victim is logged in with an active session at the time of the attack.

The attacks were performed under both local adversary and remote adversary situations. A remote adversary is a threat that is not connected to the router via Wi-Fi, while the local adversary is. The most common form of successful attack ISE used was the “one-click attack” known as a cross-site request forgery.

Holcomb explained the testing methodology went beyond one-click attacks in an e-mail to CNET:

Cross-site request forgery was the first component of all of our attacks. After that, our standard attack was to reset the administrative password to a known value, or add a new administrator, and then enable remote management. Only when this was not possible (e.g., some routers require the old password as part of the request to change it) did we try other attacks. Those included: shell command injection, directory traversal to share the root of the filesystem over an Internet-accessible ftp server, exploiting a race condition to upload shell scripts over ftp and then have them execute, enabling additional vulnerable services, and some more. There are more vulnerabilities in the routers, and we’re disclosing those, too, but they’re not necessarily part of this report we’re publishing.

While none of the trivial attacks — the weakest ones — worked from a remote adversary, they were successful about one-third of the time from a local attacker. Unauthenticated attacks were rarely successful from a remote attacker, but locally reached the same level of completion as local trivial attacks. Authenticated attacks were almost always successful from both adversaries. “When you’re remote, there’s very little attack surface,” explained Tactical Network Solutions’ Heffner.

Routers tested included units such as the Linksys WRT310Nv2, Netgear WNDR4700, Belkin N300 and N900, TP-Link WR1043N, and Verizon Actiontec, but Heffner cautioned that this was no guarantee that your router wouldn’t be affected. “In my experience… you should worry about your router. If my device is in this list, you should be concerned. If not, you still may want to be concerned, although it’s more difficult to say.”

The report noted several caveats. Client-side attacks were considered fair game, as long as they were running in a browser and based in HTML and JavaScript. The routers were not extensively tested for other vulnerabilities, and none of them had the remote administration features activated by default.

This means that although many modern routers come with the ability to control them when not directly connected to the network, that feature is not active by default. Activating it decreases the router’s security level. Also, before testing, the firmware for all the routers tested was upgraded to the most recent version.

What you can do

There’s not much outside of common-sense behavior that you can do to make your router more secure.

Dong Ngo, a CNET Reviews senior associate technology editor and a wireless networking expert, was skeptical that many people would be affected by router hacks — provided they follow some basic steps for securing their router. Part 5 of his home networking guide has some advanced security tips from Step 4 onward.

“Since there are certain requirements to be met for these hacking methods to be successful, if you set up your router properly, and practice prudence while being online, chances are you’re safe.” Ngo said.

ISE analyst Jake Thompson also has some easy-to-implement tips, including some obvious ones like making sure that you change the router’s default username and password credentials. However, he cautioned, not all router firmware lets you change the username. “We also recommend that people use WPA2″ security protocol, over WEP, he said.

ISE chief Bono advised that people change the router’s IP address to be non-standard when possible, while Holcomb added that good precautions to take include updating your firmware after buying your router, and clearing your browser cache and cookies after changing any router settings.

Meanwhile, Kitchen of Hak5 recommends that people make their own routers entirely. “The best that a person can do is to roll their own using the Marin, Ca.-based Untangle, which takes any spare PC and turns it into a wireless router.” He also recommends Monowall and Smoothwall. Heffner at Tactical Network Solutions agreed. “The best thing you can do is install a third-party firmware, such as OpenWRT or Tomato,” he said.

But the most important fixes must come from router vendors, according to ISE, because they can ensure that security fixes get installed more easily than end-users, who rarely consider the security implications of their router. Changes to vendor behavior that Bono said he’d like to see include not only making firmware updates available, but setting firmware to automatically update like any other modern operating system.

Failing that, the report advocates notifying registered users on how to upgrade the firmware themselves, and for vendors to perform regular device security audits. Updates, according to ISE, currently lack digitally signed updates that can be verified by the router.

Bono was bearish on router vendor responses. “We have to start looking at these routers as a critical security component. Some of the vendors told us that their routers are older and no longer supported,” he said.

The problem with routers is that they’re actually fairly good at what they do, and can take years to fail and be replaced. “They’re just going to sit on the network for five years,” he complained. And Heffner was less polite. “[Vendors] need to hire people who know how to code and have higher quality products that ship. That’s not a very high on the their priority list, but maybe that’ll change in the future.”

Harrington said that this ought to be a wake-up call for the average person with a home wireless network. “Our study says that here’s a pervasive problem with this technology,” he said. “We’re trying to raise awareness to that issue.”

Article Credits:

Seth Rosenblatt is a senior editor at CNET, and has written about nearly every category of software and app available. At CNET since 2006, he currently focuses on browsers, security, and operating systems, with occasional forays into tech and pop culture.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57579981-83/top-wi-fi-routers-easy-to-hack-says-study/?google_editors_picks=true

Ryan has been working hard to add a new page and update the shopping cart at http://nameart.alphabeticalarchitecture.com/ – Check out this father/daughter team and their website! It is quite amazing to see what can be found in the architecture all around us!! Let Erin and Gaylen know the team over at CPS sent you!

It is common to have a website designed, online and functioning without paying any attention to it for years. Will it work for growing your online business or reputation? The answer is simple, NO! In order for you online presence to grow, as well as your business, you must keep up with your website. This includes keeping up with the information throughout the site and ensure that it is relevant and up-to-date.

If you current site has an outdated look it is time to update it. A full redesign should be considered as much of the information is probably just as outdated as the design. Think about it this way, when you are looking to purchase a home and the kitchen has not been update since the 80′s what is your initial reaction? I am sure most of you simply pass on the home. The thought being that if the homeowner did not take time to keep up on the design and updates of the house what else has not been kept up on. The same is true of your website design.

The next item I will bring to your attention is more subjective and according to taste. People just enjoy different things. Some people prefer plastic bracelets some prefer gold however the perception is that plastic is cheap and gold in not. The same bias holds true for your website. If your site is done by a professional web designer you should expect a complete different outcome then if you attempt it on your own or higher a high school web designer. The more professional it looks the better the perception from your potential clients.

Another thing to think about when it comes to your site is upkeep. I know I have mentioned this more than once. It is so important that when visitors come to your site they see recent blog posts along with new products, services or even just fresh information.

When it comes to your website and the design a great way to attract customers is to have your contact information visible at first glance. There is nothing more hated than outdated contact information listed that is difficult to locate on the site. A lot of website redesigns include a fresh Logo presence along with strong contact information.

Your website is to the online world as a display window is to a store front. It is how the world will see your product and your company. Keeping up to date on your website will let prospective clients know that you are serious about your business and its longevity thus proving to them that you are in it for the long haul and that they should be as well.

The Web Development Team is hard at work on several projects which include:

Wingit’s Website Redesign

Sundance Data Base Design

Pound Pool Plastering Website

Longton Law Website Redesign

MC Tree Website

Matrix App

Knife Country Database and Web redesign

Our Commercial Networking Team is finishing up the Wiring and Computer set up for the Pinckney Library and starting on wiring for the new building for Anchor Printing. While continuing to successfully navigate everyday networking emergencies throughout Livingston, Oakland and Washtenaw Counties for residential and commercial clients.

CPS is continuing to expand in 2013 as we look for another web design/data base designer to join our growing team.  Our ideal candidate would have experience in HTML, PHP, MySql, Javascript and Photoshop. Duties would include designing websites and databases for multiple clients, managing web servers and email, and eventually developing iPhone and Android applications. Company is willing to train some aspects of position; however candidate must have a firm understanding of HTML, PHP and databases.   If you are interested in submitting a resume or know of a recent college graduate you can have them submit a current resume and cover letter to germain@cpsmi.com/.

As we continue to grow our focus will continue bringing the highest quality products and services to both commercial and residential clients. If you are interested in Search Engine Optimization, Website Design, Networking, Cabling and Wiring or Computer Repair feel free to give the office a phone call today and talk to one of our experts – (810) 224-5252

First of all you will want to make sure that the content and text on the site are of quality.  Your site can have all the “right” keywords in the world however without quality content people will not stay on your site and believe it or not search engines will find little value in your site overall.

It is important not only that you have quality content but that it is also unique to your site. Your site should provide content that is unique to your company and the products and services that you offer.  A great way to ensure that the content is unique and relative is to create a blog and post about the industry happenings as they happen.  This will also help as adding content to your site shows search engines that your site is up to date.

Each page within your site should be optimized for a keyword or phrase. Don’t overdo one keyword or phrase for the entire site.  Come up with a combination of keywords and phrases relative to your goals and add them in to the pages of the website.  Another thing to keep in mind is that you want common keywords however it is best to avoid the most popular keywords and aim for the middle ground. It will be easier to optimize your pages.

Make sure that your site is accessible to search engine spiders and screen readers.  The more accessible the better when it comes to drawing traffic and rankings to your website.

When selecting a domain name think about the keyword phrase that best suits your business and incorporate that into the domain name you select.  It is okay to use your business name just try to incorporate the keywords into the entire domain as well.  Be sure the domain is easy to read, spell and say.

Tips are great when it comes to having a healthy website that functions well with search engines but nothing can beat experience when it comes to designing a website.  Website developers are looking at a lot of data and trends when developing a site for you. They are also well aware of META tag needs and changes as well as incorporating key elements that are needed for better results into the whole website equation. It might cost a bit more to hire a web company to design your site but consider the time you are saving and the benefit you are receiving from their knowledge.

The Pinckney Library had their grand opening on the new facility – CPS installed the cabling and wiring for the new computer system and is currently installing the new computers the Library has purchased!  If you are in the area check the hard work out that went into moving and upgrading the Pinckney Library.

Anchor Printing is getting ready to start the renovation and move into their larger facility as well.  CPS is gathering cabling supplies and will be all set to begin this large project before the holiday season starts.

Our web designers have been going strong on several web projects including The Link Fund (www.thelinkfund.com), WingIts (www.wingits.com), Sundance, MC Tree (www.mctreemi.com), Coates Grill (coatesgrills.com), Lake Chemung Association Website, Longton Restoration (www.longtonresotoration.com) not to forget to mention several Logo designs for up and coming small business The Hidden Cardinal.  More to come on that site soon I am sure.

Just an FYI if you are stopping by the office for general computer repairs during the holiday season note that we will be closed Dec 24 and 25 as well as Dec 31 and Jan 1 to celebrate the Holiday and New Year with our families.  If you happen to be having a corporate emergency feel free to contact Kevin via his cell phone.

1)       How is your current site ranking within search engines?  If your search rankings are not showing up like they previously had it might be time to look at the sites design that is not visible.  Meta tag changes are just as important as the visual changes in website design.  Search engine optimization is a key element in your website design.

2)      When you pull up your website do you feel it accurately reflects your business?  If your business has grown or changed at all it is important that those changes are reflected within your website.  You want to make sure that the site is keeping up with your growing markets and that it is keeping pace with the industry.

3)      Another aspect to consider is the changes in technology that have happened since your website was programmed.  Is the site compatible with newer browsers or mobile applications?  This can be a common problem with so many people accessing information with mobile devices.  It is important to make sure your site is able to been seen when clients are using their phones and other devices.

4)      One more thing to consider is if the images on your site take longer than two seconds to load.  It is proven that web users are impatient and want instant gratification.  If it is taking forever for the images to load within your site they will close out and go elsewhere.

These are just a few of the many reasons to look into a website redesign.  Most business owners have a difficult time being impartial when it comes to marketing their business online or in print.  It is important to get several opinions on your website and the design when considering the growth of your company.  Online marketing campaigns can do a lot for your business however if your site is still missing something or lacking luster you could be losing potential clients.