What's News...

July 27, 2004 Please be aware of a new internet virus that is spreading rapidly. MYDOOM.0 arrives in e-mail message attachments that, when open, install the virus and open a back door that remoteattackers can use to access infected machines. While similar to other versions of MyDoom, the O-variant is testing a new approach: using major search engines to harvest e-mail addresses on Web domains that it discovers, slowing down those sites. Messages will arrive from a spoofed address, which means that the listed sender did not actually send the mail message. The sender address is stolen from an address book on the infected computer. The subject and body will contain one of the examples listed below. Please make sure that your virus definitions are up to date and do not open email that you dont recognize. We hope you will contact us if you have problems that you cannot resolve yourself.

Subject: (One of the following)
hello
error
status
test
report
delivery failed
Message could not be delivered
Mail System Error - Returned Mail
Delivery reports about your e-mail
Returned mail: see transcript for details
Returned mail: Data format error

Attachment:
The worm may generate an file name from a domain name of an email address gathered from the computer. For instance, if the worm finds an address john_doe@example.com on the infected computer, the attachment name could contain example.com.

The attachment name may also be one of the following:
readme
instruction
transcript
mail
letter
file
text
attachment
document
message

the attachment may have a second extension, which will be one of the following:
doc
txt
htm
html

Due to problems with the way Qwest Communications chose to fill our order to move circuits to our new location, the transition period during which both the old number and the new number would be available for a period of time is not going to be possible.

On Friday afternoon, May 28, 2004, we sent you a notice that our new access number was now available, encouraging you to switch as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Qwest has since disabled the new number in preparation for making a “hard-cut” on the move date. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Since we will no longer be able to use a “phased in” approach to this move, you will want to be aware that the “hard-cut” move will occur the evening of Thursday June 3, 2004. ACES and Qwest engineers will be moving all of our services at that time. Internet service to our customers will be unavailable, beginning at 5:00PM June 3. Service will resume late that evening, or during the early morning hours of Friday, June 4.

When Internet service availability returns, the new dial-up access number will be active and the old number will be in-active. Our new dial-up access number is the same number we provided to you in the previous message, 319-277-3498. Please visit the following link for instructions on how to change your dial-up number: http://www.webiowa.net/changingnumber.htm

3/22/04 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - ACES IS RELOCATING TO THE CEDAR FALLS INDUSTRIAL PARK

A new high speed, high availability Data Center is being built in the Cedar Valley. This facility (sometimes referred to as an "Internet Hotel") is a highly redundant, high security facility located in the Cedar Falls Industrial Park. This exciting new Data Center, scheduled to be ready for occupancy in June of 2004, will have:

A conglomerated network of, high bandwidth, high speed connections to the Internet. Including OC3 and multiple peering connections, joining to provide robust, dynamic internet connectivity
Multiple HVAC systems for redundancy in cooling and humidity control
Electric Generators and battery backups for redundancy in AC power supplied to each equipment cabinet
Multiple levels of physical security, including electronic badges and bio-metrics
Monitoring and security staff on duty 24x7, 365 days a year.

ACES is moving its operations; hosting, dialup, Internet access, etc. to this new Data Center and will also be moving staff offices to be adjacent to this state of the art facility.

What does this mean to you? ACES will be able to provide more robust connectivity to the internet for the services we provide. Better access to the Internet, with increased reliability means the services hosted by ACES will be more available than ever.

As with any move, we anticipate one or more outages while equipment is physically relocated from the current data center to the new facility. This interruption in service will affect all facets of ACES Internet Services; web hosting, email services, dialup Internet access, etc. This move is being planned for a weekend in mid May of 2004. The exact dates have not yet been finalized. You can expect ACES to do everything possible to minimize this interruption, and to notify you in advance of any planned service interruption.

ACES will help you make any changes that may be required due to this move. Including any necessary IP address changes to network devices, such as servers or firewalls. Dialup customers will need to change the telephone number used when connecting to the Internet. This new number and instructions on how to change the dialup number will be provided, when the information becomes available. These IP addressing changes and phone number changes are anticipated to be performed in a phased approach. These will not need to be performed simultaneously with our cut-over to the new facility. No changes will be made to email addresses, or server names.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact ACES at moving@acesiowa.net or by calling us at our new phone number (now in service) 319-266-9800.

3/05/04 - ATTENTION Email Customers
With the continued proliferation of computer virus activity on the Internet ACES believes it is important to issue a warning to you about the sophistication of some of the most recent viruses and the clever delivery methods being used by the authors of these malicious computer codes.

The most prolific viruses we are seeing over the past couple of weeks are known as NETSKY, BEAGLE and MYDOOM. Each of these has multiple variants, with each subsequent release offering a new twist, to fool users and anti-virus mechanisms.

One reason it is important for us to bring this to your attention is that these viruses may arrive in an email which claims to be from our company (such as support@acesiowa.com) these messages may contain an attachment and claim that the attachment contains important information about your email account.

This attachment is unique, in that, the author of the virus has password protected the attachment and provided the necessary password within the body of the email. This “password protecting” mechanism has presented a challenge for some of the anti-virus software, in some cases allowing the payload to be delivered to the recipient undetected.

Please be assured that at the time of this writing ACES has no intention of sending any password protected attachments to you, either now or in the future.

Please remember that the anti-virus game is ALWAYS A REACTIVE PROCESS. When a new virus is released into the wild, it cannot be protected against until it has been discovered and counter-code has been written and installed on your system. This is why it is imperative that your computer has anti-virus software installed and that your subscription is current. Furthermore, if possible, configure your anti-virus software to check for new anti-virus definition downloads daily, if not more often.

An additional precaution is to make sure your computer’s operating system is kept up-to-date. If you use any of the currently supported Windows operating systems, you can use Microsoft’s Windows Update site to assist with the installation of OS patches and critical updates. These patches include counter-code that is also necessary to protect your system from known vulnerabilities. REMEMBER: email is not the only way to be infected by a virus.

1.29.04 - Beagle is So Big! - Many of you will have woken up this morning to email boxes full of messages - a new virus Beagle or Bagle has landed... [ read more ]