Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.
Right now folks…it’s here and it’s bad. It’s so bad that technicians have been scrambling to figure out ways to fix this issue, the most easy and affordably for our clients…but sadly, this may not be the case.
Here is what is happening and what’s going on. An executable file is being sent through email and the recipients are opening them, opening a file and it’s taking over your computer, encrypting all of your files and locking you out. And this is no joke, if you pay the “ransom”, you can get your files back (or maybe not). Or you can call a technician and they can try to get your files back for you, but honestly…the time may be as much as the ransom is for the decryption of your files. This is horrifying to our industry. Have a client pay ransom or have us spend hours on your computers to get your computer back up and running.
What I will be doing today in this blog, is explaining many ways for you to protect your computer from this ransomware. (what is ransomware? software that takes your computer hostage via log in screens or destructs your computer in a manner you can’t use it).
1.) If you are backing up with an external hard drive, insure you are backing up (many people think they are, but are not) and eject the external hard drive from the computer when you are not backing up. Do not risk the external hard drive getting encrypted.
2.) Better choice, back up online. I can help you with this service, we can back up not only one computer, but as many as you want.
3.) We are finding that virus and malware detection products will not stop this attack, but having something is better than nothing in my opinion as it “might help” because the virus and malware companies by now are aware of the attacks and hopefully adding to their updates.
4.) Backup your entire computer and data files with a “image backup” and if something goes wrong, we can bring your computer back to the state it was at prior to the attack (or any virus attack or operating system crash) for just $49 per computer and some labor fee’s for setting it up.
If you have a computer that is already encrypted and need help, contact us.
If you want to protect your computer in case this happens, contact us.
612-865-4475 or email info@callthatgirl.biz
If you are using Outlook Express to manage your email for personal or business, I am writing this blog to give you a heads up on some changes coming up.
After April 2014, your old computer running Outlook Express will no longer be supported from Microsoft and it will not be safe to have on the internet. You will be recommended to upgrade your computer by me, others and Microsoft. That also means your email is no longer secure and you will have to move your email from Outlook Express to a new email program. (Windows Live Mail, Outlook 2013 or Outlook.com is recommended).
Moving email from Outlook Express can take some time and be complicated, or it can be easy and not very difficult. I have upgraded many people from Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail (Replacement for Outlook Express on Vista and Windows 7 & 8) successfully for many years now.
It’s up to you on this one folks, if you want my help, with just a few questions I can let you know if this will be a project or a quick upgrade. Many clients have 13 years of emails in their Outlook Express and due to size issues, transitioning email and configuring can take hours to accomplish this task. We also need to figure out if you want access to these emails when you are on different computers/devices and while traveling.
I will offer free consultations on this project, please email me at info@callthatgirl.biz or call 612-865-4475 to schedule an appointment on my calendar.
With the increasing internet browser toolbar software redirect calls we are getting, we have now created a special deal for just these types of requests.
A bit about these types of issues. These are usually not viruses, but more software downloads that happened by accident (you didn’t know you were installing it) or intentionally, (you meant to install one piece of software and downloaded a fake program). What this means, is that your antivirus & malware products will probably not catch these downloads as they are not infected.
We can remove the redirects and uninstall the software for just $49 from Oct 17 to Nov 17th.
After Nov 17th, the price will go up to $69
What if you do have a virus? Our virus removal prices are $129, so if you do have us to the $49 clean up and we find a virus, we will recommend moving to a virus removal and this special price is $99.
If your computer is slow and sluggish, it’s doubtful that the toolbar removal will make your computer faster (but it will make your internet faster probably), at that point, you can upgrade to a tune up for just $79 during this special.
Do you need online backup? Add on $49 (regular price $79)
Do you need a better antivirus and malware protection package? Ours is regularly $59, during this sale it’s just $39
Want everything? Dang! Get online backup installed, a tune up and our malware & antivirus installed for just $129.
We only book these appointments during the hours of 3:30 pm and 8:00pm or on a weekends. This sale is not available during the typical workday.
To schedule an appointment, email Info@callthatgirl.biz or call 612-865-4475
Awhile back, I had a client who did an update on her iPhone and during that update, her calendar went missing. She was on hosted exchange and due to some “terms and conditions”, a mailbox restore was not going to happen for the client. (By the way, not all companies refuse to do mailbox restores, just this specific one company that will remain nameless for now). Even if you have a company that will restore mailboxes, it’s sometimes time critical to get back your information that you have already stored locally.
So if you have any version of Outlook, not just Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2010, the same instructions will work to some degree. There are screen shots below. The backup file will be stored in your default Outlook folders in your computer, but these should be backed up to an external backup or online.
If you need online backup, please call me to schedule an appointment. We charge $79 for setup and your products costs are $65 for one computer up to $109 for 3 computers.
The larger your hosted exchange is, the longer a backup will take. I recommend doing this on Fridays before you leave the office or before you go to bed. You will not be able to use Outlook during this time.
Click “Finish” and Outlook will now export a full copy of your hosted exchange to your computer.
If you’re like me, you want to be more connected on LinkedIn, but during your workday you just can ‘t find the time to stay connected. As much as I adore LinkedIn, I do have a job to do during the day and don’t have time to always be on the site. I discovered a quick way to manage all of my LinkedIn “everything messages” in just one inbox in my Outlook (You don’t need to use Outlook btw).
Not only does this awesome little management tool help me stay on top of my messages, I actually participate a lot more now on LinkedIn than I did before responding to direct messages more often and staying on top of discussions I should be spending time with. And we all know that the more time you put into LinkedIn, the more marketing time you get in, and that brings in the money folks. So these tips should help you as I have found they help me.
On with the tips! See the picture below. I circled some important areas. Also, I have Outlook 2013, your version should be similar.
