Category: Technical

How to setup “Out of Office messages” on Outlook Web Access (OWA) on Microsoft Office 365 Portal (user)

Posted on by Mark Pace

holiday-out-of-office-w724

The easiest way for a user to change their Out Of Office or Holiday message can be done through outlook or via the Outlook Web Access from anywhere.

1. Login to Office 365 Portal (https://login.microsoftonline.com) . Use your EMAIL ADDRESS and your LOGIN PASSWORD.

2. Click the Gear icon at the upper-right corner of your mailbox, click Options

3. Click organise email tab, and then go to automatic replied page

Then you can create Out of Office messages with a start time and end time so it turns off and on automatically as well.

Thanks

Mark

How to fix problem Mazda 3 / 6 / CX7 / CX9 and more with handsfree bluetooth and Apple phones iOS 8 problems not calling

Posted on by Mark Pace

Edited 14.3.2015

Finally Apple updated the IOS 8.2 and bluetooth is now working in Mazda Vehicles. If you have another brand tested, please leave in comments. Thank you 

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If you are the owner of a Mazda and an Apple iPhone, good change you will have issues trying to call with your iPhone and it connecting to the bluetooth. There is a way around this by selecting speaker and when person picks up, select on the phone the bluetooth. DANGEROUS!

Hands-free are suppose to be SAFE and Mazda/Apple have not worked together to keep this safe.

There are hundreds of forums discussing this but it seems that the problem is iOS8 as even with an iPhone 5 with iOS7 there is no issues but as soon as that phone or other phones are upgraded to iOS 8 the problem starts.

After months of frustration and reading forums, we have found the solution (or the answer) on the Mazda website.

Mazda’s response is as follows:

These devices have been tested in accordance with Mazda interoperability standards. Overall device compatibility as well as individual feature operation and functionality is contingent upon the device software version, device operating system, device settings, wireless service provider, and third party applications installed on the device. Individual user results may vary. Mazda Australia and Visteon Corporation are not responsible for software irregularities or hardware issues devices may experience that are outside of our testing scope. As new device software versions become available, test compatibility results may change so please check these results regularly. Last update occurred on 17/12/2014.

Beware Apple iOS attacks using ‘Masque Attack’ techniques from uncertified apps

Posted on by Mark Pace

Researchers have discovered a technique that may enable attackers to substitute malware for a legitimate app on Apple iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads.

Although the risk of being subjected to a Masque Attack is low, it is another reminder not to download pirated apps or software from untrusted sources. It is also a reminder that Apple products are increasingly being targeted by attackers.

As many people believe you cannot get a virus/trojans/malware on Apple devices (more so on OSX), this is not true and Apple devices, due to their numbers, will and currently are being targeted. Sterling IT use and recommend Webroot and/or Trend Micro Antivirus to protect Apple Mac.

About Masque Attack

A Masque Attack can occur if a user downloads an app from a rogue source such as a link embedded in a phishing email or from an unofficial app site hosting fake ‘uncertified’ apps.

The Masque Attack takes advantage of a weakness in iOS security which can enable malware to be installed.

If a malicious app can be crafted to use the same ‘bundle identifier’ (an ID Apple uses to identify individual apps) as a legitimate app on your phone, Apple will not check its security certificate. It means that a malicious app can replace a legitimate app on your device.

A criminal using the Masque Attack technique will typically disguise their malware as a popular game or program for you to install. Only install via the APP STORE via your device.

Once installed it may be able to steal information from your device such as passwords or internet banking details and send them to a remote server controlled by criminals. Possible impacts include the malware being able to steal logon credentials; access sensitive data; avoid detection and steal Apple IDs and passwords.

Staying safe

  1. Do not download software or apps from untrusted sources. Sticking with Apple’s AppStore helps protect against downloading malicious software
  2. Do not click ‘install’ from pop ups when viewing a web page. Even if it tells you , that you have a virus. Most of these are traps.
    Sterling IT has posted MANY emails recently with relation to this and unfortunately we are still getting clients infected, even with prior warning.
  3. If your iOS device shows an ‘Untrusted App Developer’ alert when you open an app, click on ‘Don’t Trust’ and uninstall the app immediately.
  4. Use security software for all your computer and mobile devices.
  5. Keep your system up-to-date by downloading software updates as they are released.
  6. Do not connect or ‘pair’ your device with untrusted computers.

For FREE advice or any questions regards to this, please contact Sterling IT. You are better asking as prevention is better than cure!!

 

Cryptolocker attack but removed and all data recovered with zero data loss

Posted on by Mark Pace

Attack of one of the worst Trojans around.

Last week, for the very first time, one of Sterling IT’s customers was attacked with Cryptolocker virus.

When we had the alert, and then found client couldn’t access files, we thought it was just a corruption. Upon inspection, most files were renamed with .encrypted at the end and a HTML file explaining to pay a ransom to recover all the emails.

Sterling IT went into Disaster Recovery Mode (SITDR) and we were able to save the client from any data loss (even though EVERY file on 1x user PC plus most shares on the server were affected, as this user was in management and accounts security groups and shares). Using Shadow Protect and our monitoring systems, we were able to lock down the network, recover all files from DR backups and get the client back up and running.

It was first noticed because of Dropbox. As this company uses Dropbox for some business applications, and the infected user also had Dropbox access, ALL FILES were deleted. The only savior was one of the PCs was locally backed up which the files were recovered from there.  (we recommend using private sharing apps with Synology , synocloud,  rather than Dropbox as you have full control and is PRIVATE CLOUD).

How did this all happen?

Simple, opening an email with the Trojan. You might also ask about protection mechanisms we have.

First and foremost, the client recently moved to Microsoft Office 365. We would have thought that Microsoft anti-spam and antivirus would have maybe picked this up as first defense, but obviously didn’t. The second defense was a Fortigate firewall with antivirus scanning – been a great defense in general. And thirdly, antivirus and firewall on desktop.

Even with ALL these defenses, the Trojan still go through.

We have many clients sending us emails daily asking IS THIS SAFE? This is what we are here for, to help and protect our clients. Its FREE and QUICK!

REMEMBER :
PLEASE DO NOT CLICK ON EMAILS YOU DON’T KNOW OR/AND NOT EXPECTING.
IF UNSURE CONTACT STERLING IT.

How to setup SMTP server to send email using Microsoft Office 365 Connector with Exchange Online

Posted on by Mark Pace

This article is for clients that have moved to the Microsoft Office 365 platform that needs to be able to SMTP from devices. Example of this is multi-function scanner/copier/printer device and using the scan-to-email capability.

The most common solution that is suggested by Microsoft and others is to use an internal Exchange Server to relay the mail or use an IIS server with SMTP service enabled to relay the mail. However because the client is going CLOUD, they would be decommissioning old servers. To install SMTP servers in the business is just another added cost.

The other option is to use the ISP SMTP server that the office is connected to.

The solution is described here will work with or without TLS encrypted connections and also supports either port 25 or port 587 and does not require any type of authentication.
In fact, no user accounts or additional licenses are required to make this work. This is good because many older devices/applications only support clear text across port 25.

The first step is to create a connector on the Exchange Server to allow for the connection by an unauthenticated user. This sounds like it is an open relay but we are going to take steps to allow this connection ONLY from known IP Addresses that should be allowed to use the connector. All other attempts will be denied as an unauthorized relay attempt.

Creating the Exchange Connector:

  • Log into the Microsoft Online Portal as a user that has Global Administrator access
  • Click on the Admin menu and then on Exchange to open the Exchange Admin Center.
  • Click on the Mail Flow category and click the Connectors sub menu.
  • Add an Inbound Connector
    • Give the connector a descriptive name
    • Set the Connector Type to On-premises
    • Set Connection Security to Opportunistic TLS
    • Set Domain Restrictions to Restrict domains by IP addresses
    • Add a single Sender domain and use an * wildcard character here to allow all.
    • Add the public IP addresses that you will allow to relay
    • Save the Connector
  • Enable the connector if it is not already.

The SMTP Server you use in your sending application/device is a little different but easy to locate. There are many ways to get this info, I am going to show you only one.

Finding the SMTP Server:

  • Go back to the O365 portal and click the Admin menu and click on Office 365
  • Click on the Domains category
  • Select your primary domain (or the domain you wish to use) and then click Manage DNS
  • Find the MX record and copy the Point To Address for that record.
    • The format will be in this format: -.mail.protection.outlook.com or I have also seen -.mail.eo.outlook.com. If your domain was “XXYYZZ.COM” then your MX record would look like this: XXYYZZ-COM.mail.protection.outlook.com as an example.

That value will be what you use as the SMTP Server when you define your outbound mail settings in the application/device you want to send relay email.

One additional setting you may want to enable on the Exchange Online Server which will prevent all of your relay email from going directly to the Junk Folder. This process will create a mail filtering rule which will bypass the filters altogether.

Creating Bypass Rule:

  • Go back to the Exchange Admin Console.
  • Click on the Mail Flow category and then the Rules sub menu.
  • Add a new Rule of type “Bypass Spam Filtering…”
    • Give the rule a good descriptive Name.
    • Set Apply this rule if… to “The sender is…” and add the email addresse(s) you will be using for sending relay email. Keep in mind this can be anything you want butit must match exactly, else this rule will not work.
    • Set Do the following… to “Set the spam confidence level (SCL to…” and then set the action to Bypass spam filtering.
    • The remaining options can be left as default.
    • Save the rule.
  • If you have multiple rules, you may want to adjust the order of this rule so it fires properly. I would suggest that you make it the first rule while you test things and then adjust all of your rules to accomdate the order in which you ultimately want to process the rules. Mail Flow in general is complex and I am not giving much detail in this walk through on how best to manipulate these features.

The final step of this process is to put it all together and make it work. Modify your SMTP settings for the Application/Device as follows:

  • SMTP Server: Set this to the MX data that we gathered from the above step “-.mail.protection.outlook.com”.
  • SMTP Port: 25 or 587
  • SMTP TLS: Enabled or Disabled (Enabled is recommended if it is an option)
  • SMTP Username: This can be anything you want as it is not used at all. Leave it blank if you can. If you do need to populate this info, use the email address of the FROM address you set in the Spam bypass filter above.
  • SMTP Password: This can be anything you want as it is not used at all. Leave it blank if you can.
  • SMTP TO: Set this email address of the recipient of the email message. Be aware, this does not have to be a user within the domain defined by the MX record or the SMTP Server above.
  • SMTP FROM: Use the email address you specified in the Bypass Spam Filtering rule. This MUST match exactly.

That should be all there is to make this work. Of course, the client side configuration will be different on every application/device you try to set up this way but I can say that I have made this work with a number of different MFP devices as well as Routers that send notifications. I have also made this work with Mozilla Thunderbird which is a good simple testing application. If you can make things work using Thunderbird, you should be able to translate the settings to any application/device and make it work as well.

WARNINGS:

  • The first thing you want to check for is to see if you can even use port 25 or not.
  • Not all applications/devices support anything but port 25. If you have one of these AND you have a port 25 port block ISP, you may need to take some fancier steps within the router to make this work. I have found that not all providers will turn off port 25 blocks and if they do, it is very common for the block to get turned back on randomly.
  • Microsoft frowns heavily on bulk email and will block your ability to send any email outbound if you use this to abuse their mail platform. Microsoft uses the phase” Reasonable Limits” when describing how many emails they will allow you to send using this technique so be reasonable… If the mail is being sent internally, you really should not have much issue but if you send a lot of email externally, then you might run into some limits problems.

 

 

Source : https://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Server_Software/Email_Servers/Exchange/A_15699-SMB-Office-365-Exchange-Online-SMTP-Relay.html

Skype wont logout or showing online when you believe you are offline on other devices

Posted on by Mark Pace

Do people say you are online with Skype when in fact you are offline?
After some research, I have found some commands that will Log you out of all places and also Show you where you are logged in.

  1. Sign out on all devices. (that you know of)
  2. Log in on one device (PC in my case).
  3. Open a chat windows and type /showplaces to see if I’m still logged in on other devices\sessions.
  4. /remotelogout to close all sessions (I had none, but I did this anyway).
  5. Set Skype to not log in automatically (auto sign-in) on any device.

The final step of disabling the auto sign-in into Skype did the trick.  I signed off and wasn’t showing online anymore.

I did verify that my Skype account is not linked with my Microsoft account before starting this process.  I know some steps are redundant but better to be prudent with the current state of Skype.

I was able to recreate the ‘always-on’ issue when I re-enabled the auto sign-in on my PC.  As soon as I disabled it and signed out I was once again showing offline.

Enjoy

Mark Pace