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Microsoft 365 Scam Alert

A few of our clients and Kerrin have received this in an email recently. It's a scam. It looks quite convincing though, I imagine it's been fairly successful as scams go. They have the office logo correct, but it is old. Microsoft is not using 'Office 365' anymore; they're now calling it Microsoft 365. But hopefully the biggest giveaway that this is a scam is that it has come through in an email. This is not how your Microsoft 365 system will operate. If you need to enter your password the notif...

Christmas Hours

Here at Green Mouse we would like to thank our excellent clients for another great year.  It's been a big year of change for us - Josh has left us for another position and we've moved into our very nice new office at 16 Dick Street. This has put us back into the same building as the Saasam team again and it's been great to catch up with them. This year we will close for the holidays on the 23rd of December at midday and will open again on the 16th of January at 8:30am. If you need your comp...

Passwords!!

Imagine your computer suddenly dies, or your laptop and phone and tablet all get stolen from your car - will you be able to get back into your various accounts? As companies strive to improve their (and your) security, passwords are becoming ever more important but also, more numerous and more difficult to recover. It seems like every company wants you to have your own account with a password, and they all have their own requirements: capital letters, unusual characters, and numbers may all be r...

2-Step Verification for Gmail

If you have a Gmail email account, you may recently have received an email about 2-step verification (2SV). It's the same thing as the multifactor authentication (MFA) that Microsoft talks about, and it's designed to solve the biggest remaining source of risk for your account security - human error.  Both Microsoft and Google have extremely good security these days. By far the most common and effective method for scammers to get hold of login details is by asking users for them via scams an...

We have Moved!

Green Mouse is happy to announce our amalgamation with our sister company SaaSam Group Ltd. The two companies have always maintained close ties; moving forward, Green Mouse will fall under the SaaSam Group umbrella - enabling us to work even more closely together and utilise our combined strengths and natural synergies.   SaaSam is locally owned, with offices in Cambridge, Australia and the UK. Saasam provides Cloud based solutions to small to large enterprises. Also a Microsoft partne...

Josh Leaving Green Mouse

Today is Josh's last day at Green Mouse Computing. He has secured a position in the IT support team in a large national company in Morrinsville; we wish him the best of luck in this exciting new role.Here at Green Mouse we would like to extend our warm thanks to Josh for all of his work over the years. He has been a valuable member of the team and we've enjoyed his lighthearted presence here in the office. We know that Josh will be missed by his regular clients but him and Simon have worked...

Very Convincing Phishing Email

Today Kerrin received this very convincing phishing email in his inbox. Check out the picture above; it looks just like a legitimate email from the IRD. Sometimes I wonder whether the constant barrage of super obvious phishing emails are part of an elaborate plan to exploit a created hubris - we can get a bit too confident about spotting them and then miss the most clever examples.  Here's how to spot this one: It's asking you to log in via a link in the email. IRD never does this, they mig...

The Dangers of BitLocker

We had a client come in this week with a small problem that very nearly turned into a catastrophe because BitLocker was enabled by default on her computer. Luckily it was linked to her Microsoft Account and the BitLocker key had been saved, otherwise she could have lost all of the data on her computer following an otherwise minor fault. So after explaining what BitLocker is all about, Josh asked me to pass a warning on to anyone who reads my posts. Let's start at the beginning... ...

Please Restart Your Computer

I have written about this before but it bears repeating - computers need regular restarts. Back when many of us started using Windows computers we all learned that it was important to shut it down, most, if not every day. We did this to save power but also to force the computer to consolidate and cease any background activity. In recent years however, Microsoft decided that this process was too slow at start up, so in order speed it up they removed most of this functionality. A shut down is...

Is Scan to Email Broken?

Last week we had a few of our MS365 clients call us about their scan to email suddenly not working. Simon spent some time looking into it and it turned out that Microsoft had turned off a particular function in everyone's settings in an apparent attempt to even further boost security. Unfortunately this function is necessary for those who have their printers or scanners set to scan to email, as opposed to scanning to a folder. Having determined the exact cause of the issue we're able to sort it ...

The Deleted 'Folder"

We've had a few instances recently where customers have asked us why the emails they thought they were keeping safe in the Deleted folder have been disappearing. And the reason is that the Deleted folder is not a folder, despite looking like one. It's more like an email graveyard, or maybe email purgatory, where emails that you've deleted go briefly before they disappear forever. The time period varies between email applications but eventually, all emails that are deleted will be gone for real. ...

The Norton Anti-virus Scam

Here's a phishing email that I haven't written about before. To start with I think it's worth mentioning that we don't recommend Norton as an Anti-virus solution anyway. We've found it to be a rather cumbersome application which is arguably a case of the cure being worse than the disease. We find that it clogs up computers and is constantly trying to upsell to Users. We recommend and manage ESET Anti-virus instead which is a lot less intrusive and does an excellent job.  However, the email ...

Windows 11 Widgets

The Widgets Board in Windows 11 is very similar to the News and Interests section of Windows 10. It's comprised of a bunch of little windows like news, weather, stocks, calendar and so on that are dynamic, customisable and re-arrangeable. The widgets are at the top of the Widgets Board and you'll find news feeds underneath. The idea seems to be that widgets are where you can go on your computer to keep up to date with things that you like to follow. ...

File Explorer in Windows 11

Good organisation is vital if you want to use your computer efficiently, and organisation takes place in File Explorer. It was in Windows 10, and is still in Windows 11, the library catalogue of your computer. The Start Menu is where you find your applications but File Explorer is where you find your own documents, files, photos, downloads etc. Anything you save winds up here so it's important to get it right if you want to be able to access these things again in the future. Savings items to you...

Windows 10 vs Windows 11 - What's the Difference?

I've written quite a few blogs this year about Windows 11 and whether you should move to it. I tend to get bogged down in logistical concerns - have the usual transitory bugs been worked out? Can my computer support it? And what are the time frames for Microsoft's continued support for Windows 10? But what about the actual functional differences between the two operating systems? How will Windows 11 change your daily experience of using your computer? ...

Green Mouse Covid-19 Precautions

Now that Omicron is active in the Waikato and in the Cambridge community, the Team here at Green Mouse is taking steps to ensure continuity of service to our valued clients. Our strategy is to split up our staff to avoid becoming close contacts of each other if anyone is exposed to Covid. Most of the team are working from home and the office will be manned by just one team member at a time. What this means for service is that we will carry out as much work as we can remotely (Download Team Viewe...

Is Your Business Omicron Ready?

Covid 19 has drastically shaken up how businesses operate. Over the last two years we've had lockdowns, working from home, parents needing more flexibility in their work to deal with homeschooling, masks, distancing, santising, delivering more services remotely, increasing online purchasing, serving customers at the door... It's been an impressive display of adaptibility and good old Kiwi ingenuity by NZ businesses, and now we have to deal with the next stage - Omicron.  Based on ...

Windows 11 Update

Late last year I advised that Windows 10 Users might want to wait until January to upgrade to Windows 11. Your computer has probably already been suggesting this. Like many big upgrades, Windows 11 has had some teething issues when installed on existing computers, though many people have already upgraded with no problems. My caution was also about our availability over the Christmas period to fix your computer for you in the event that the upgrade causes problems.  The new computers we...

Merry Christmas!

Green Mouse will close for the holidays at mid-day on the 24th of December.We will re-open on the 10th of January at 8:30am....

We Have Monitors!

After months of struggle to get hold of monitors from our suppliers we now have a good range available. If you're keen to get hold of one before Christmas, give us a call or email today....

Your Vaccine Certificate - Keep it Safe

Just like tickets that you buy for an event or a flight, you absolutely should not post pictures of your new Vaccine Certificate to Facebook or other social media. These items can be easily stolen just by taking a screen shot of your post. It's also a risk for identity theft - it shows your full name and date of birth. The Vaccine Certificates became available for download on the 17th of November but as of this morning (the 18th) the site is still experiencing heavy traffic - you might want to w...

Phishing Emails

Recently I received a phishing email of exactly the type that we've been warning our clients about and taking measures to protect them from - the kind of phishing email that businesses are being subjected to more and more often. Scammers have realised that the security of Microsoft 365 and SharePoint is top notch, so the easiest way to get hold of valuable company data that can be held for ransom, is to trick users into giving them access with an official log-in....

Windows 11 - Time to Wait

The Windows 11 update is out and some Users will already have received notifications popping up on their computer encouraging them to upgrade. At this stage there are two important points to make about this update. 1 - The update is not suitable for every computer.  Here are the specifications (from ARS Technica):  A "compatible" 1 GHz or faster dual-core 64-bit processor from Intel, AMD, or Qualcomm4GB of RAM64GB of storageUEFI Secure Boot supported and enabledA Trusted...

Windows 11

We got the big announcement from Microsoft this week that Windows 11 will be available from the 5th of October. You might also have received pop up notifications on your computer about it. Microsoft is touting a fresh design, Teams integration into the taskbar, a better gaming experience, increased speed and efficiency, improved integration with touch, pen and voice input, an updated Microsoft Store and more. Check out Microsoft’s release details here.However the reality is that the updat...

Track and Trace Package Scam

I received this package scam email twice this morning. It’s a fairly poor attempt frankly, claiming to be from NZ Post without even making use of their new logo (or even the old one). Plus the sender address is this give-away: <admin.9m9sgrjwa2pbdplsyz6@coralco.org.uk>The entire email is a link so wherever you click you’re going to a secondary site, so please don’t click on it. These scammers are trying to take advantage of the lockdown situation where people are ordering packages an...