The symptoms are usually that you are unable to open your company file in Quick Books and resolution attempts like repairing the installation fail, and you get prompts for a mysterious html file.

From most indications, this usually happens if you do a system restore, or move your operating system files to a new hard drive or new computer. It leads one to believe that there is some kind of hash or signature on the specific file causing the frustration and that file is the aptly named “Entitlement” file which manages the phone-home registration process of Quick Books. The file in question is the “Entitlement DataStore.ecml” file.

To fix error 3371, rename the offending file and you should be able to start living again. Obviously, you will have to re-register with Intuit.

If you are still using Windows XP, you need to do this:

For those who like to type:

• Click Start and choose Run.
• Type the following command into the Open field:
  C:Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\Entitlement Client\v2 (Note: you may have multiple “v” folders, so look for the current or latest one)
• Click OK
• Delete (or preferably, rename) the “Entitlement DataStore.ecml” file.

For the clickers, you can just “Explore” your way to the “C:Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\Entitlement Client\ v*” folder and rename or delete the stupid file.

For the Windows 7 users, go here: C:\ProgramData\Intuit\Entitlement Client\v* (where ‘*’ is a number). Rename the errant file. Quick Books will create a new one when you start the application.

[Note that the "ProgramData" folder may be hidden in which case you can unhide it like this:

• Open "Computer", Click on "Organize | Folder and search options | View,  and select "Show hidden files, folders..."]

Start Quick Books and you should be good to go. Remember, you most likely, will get a reminder to register Quick Books within 30 days.

Disclaimer: Backup your stuff before you start messing with files. If you hose your application, do not come crying to me. If you are not sure, consult a professional. ‘Nuff said.

In today’s business world, where organizations face ever-escalating customer demands and expectations and little room for downtime, logic dictates that businesses today are seriously revamping their business continuity and risk management plans, or developing one if they did not have any.

This is even more pertinent given what we have witnessed in recent months in the areas of data breaches, hack attempts and the underground “war” being waged in cyberspace that has put most of the world’s powerful organizations on the defensive.
Business continuity management is usually regarded as “the capability to assist in preventing, preparing for, responding to, managing and recovering from the impacts of a disruptive event”. (Business Continuity Management, Australian National Audit Office, 2009)

We have always been told that to remain competitive we must build a resilient IT infrastructure, or risk our competition having us for lunch. Apparently, the folks at Distribute IT were not listening.

As few may be aware, Distribute IT, one of Australia’s web hosting providers got hacked on June 14, 2011 and practically went out of business overnight. In what could only be described as weird, absurd or the greatest display of corporate irresponsibility, the company did not have sufficient redundant backups to save its or most of its customers’ data. The company did not take offline backups and was forced to shamefully admit that:

Our Data Recovery teams have been working around the clock in an attempt to recover data from the affected servers shared Servers [sic]. At this time, we regret to inform that the data, sites and emails that were hosted on Drought, Hurricane, Blizzard and Cyclone can be considered by all the experts to be unrecoverable… our greatest fears have been confirmed that not only was the production data erased during the attack, but also key backups, snapshots and other information that would allow us to reconstruct these Servers from the remaining data.

Aptly named servers apparently, because nothing good usually comes out of an encounter with drought, blizzard, hurricane or cyclone unless you heed safety warnings and take appropriate measures! As the company explained to its customers, the hack and its aftermath left them with “…little choice but to assist you in any way possible to transfer your hosting and email needs to other hosting providers.”

Business continuity management is supposed to be an essential part of an organization’s overall approach to effective risk management. It is or was the overall responsibility of DIT’s executive to raise awareness and implement some form of resilience into the infrastructure and sadly, it failed woefully in that regard.

It is amazing that despite what we have experienced this year in terms of hacks, breaches and what not by the likes of Google, RSA, Comodo, Barracuda, and City Group to name a few, Distribute IT did not think it was pertinent to take precautions and bolster the security of its servers. The company has since been acquired by NetRegistry, but questions remain.

Distribute IT was ICANN accredited, but it appears that there is no form of auditing performed by the organization to determine whether registries are doing enough to secure their systems and preserve customer data.

Second, is the check-box “methodologies” of risk management experts creating a false sense of security and the ability to recover in the minds of clients?

How do information security “experts” do a better job of encouraging better risk and security decisions? Or avoid making the assumption that an organization will always recover if its risk controls fail?

Distribute IT is a small business compared to other providers in the industry, but it is not too farfetched to think that we couldn’t see similar sorts of existential threats to larger, IT-dependent businesses that might not be as risk savvy as a financial entity, for example – heck even those are feeling the pain – just ask CitiGroup or Bank of America, or Commerica Bank.

This unfortunate incident is yet another example of what happens when businesses ignore the risks that they shouldn’t. This situation will continue as long as executives think that security is all about installing firewalls and running the latest antivirus software.

As is always the case, it is only after a tragedy happens that people spring to action, despite several warnings that could have prevented the problem in the first place. Of course, there is always the reminder by company executives that they have tape and/or offline backups, but how many have taken the time to do a proper risk assessment?

Are we truly in an era when people can claim that “[t]here is no security, there will be no security. The horse has bolted, and it’s not going to be the infrastructure that’s going to change, it’s going to be us”?

Are these recent spate of breaches and hacks that have been exposed just old occurrences coming to light? US Department of Homeland Security advisor Jeff Moss Tweeted recently, “When I heard RSA had a shiny new half million dollar HSM to store seed files I wondered where had they been stored before”.

This error comes up when you try to print a form in QuickBooks, or try to access the File | Printer Setup menu. In some cases, installed printers will not show up in the Printer Setup drop-down box even though there are printers installed on the computer.

The culprit is usually a corrupt QBPrint file and the fix is very easy, in this case at least.

According to Intuit:

The Qbprint.qbp file contains a data line for each form in QuickBooks. It has a line for invoices and it has a line for journal entries. When you print a form, QuickBooks pulls the form information and uses it to print the form. If you change the selections on the Printer Setup window or the Print One Form window, QuickBooks writes the new information into the Qbprint.qbp file.

The easiest way to fix the “No printer installed” error is to rename the QBPrint.qbp file which is usually a hidden file located within the ProgramData folder in Windows 7 and Vista, or in the All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks folder in Windows XP

To locate the QBPrint.qbp file:

Windows 7:

1. Right click the Start Menu and select “Open Windows Explorer”.
2. Click on Computer on the left hand side.
3. Choose Local Disk C:/.
4. Click on Organize right below the back and forward arrows.
5. Click on Folder and Search Options.
6. Click on the View Tab.
7. In the View Tab select the option “Show Hidden Files,Folders, or Drives.”
8. Navigate to C:\ProgramData\Intuit\QuickBooks – note that if you have multiple versions of QuickBooks installed, you need the one for the current version in use.
9. Right-click the QBPrint.qbp file and choose Rename – note that if the application is open, you may need to close it before you can rename the file.

Rename the file to QBPrint.old.

Windows Vista:

1. Click the Start button and choose Search.
2. Click the Advanced Search down arrow.
3. Click the Location drop-down arrow and select Local Disk (C:).
4. Select Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files. (QBPrint.qbp is a hidden file.)
5. In the Name window enter QBPrint.qbp and click Search.

Or you can browse to the file C:\ProgramData\Intuit\QuickBooks XXXX.

Windows XP:

1. Click the Start button and choose Search > For Files or Folders.
2. Select All files and folders.
3. In All or part of the file name enter QBPrint.qbp.
4. Click the Look in drop-down arrow and select Local Hard Drives (C:).
5. Click the More advanced options arrow and select Search hidden files and folders. (QBPrint.qbp is a hidden file.)
6. Click Search.

Or you can browse to the file C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks

In the Search Results window, right-click the QBPrint.qbp file for your version of QuickBooks and choose Rename.

• Enter QBPrint.old and press Enter.

After Renaming the QBPrint.qbp file:

• Open QuickBooks.
• Choose File > Printer Setup and make sure your printers are showing up in the drop-down
• Click any one of the transactions in the Form Name drop-down and click OK. This will create a new QBPrint.qbp file. (This usually needs to be done just once)

Open and print the transaction that was having problems.

The same cannot be said of executives in small and medium-sized organizations, especially when it comes to loss of personal information, including credit card data, patient records or other financial information, stored by the company. Data breaches happen and information is lost every day due to small mistakes that could have been avoided. For small businesses, these events can be devastating.

With news makers such as Wiki Leaks and other high-profile breaches over the last several months, you never know where your information will end up if it lands in the wrong hands – so of course, you must protect it.

With the advances in technology, it is not uncommon to find a user lugging around a laptop with 500GB of hard drive space. That is a lot of  space for corporate data and with the breaches like we have witnessed recently – Wiki Leaks, HBGary, etc. you never really know who will end up with your corporate data should it get stolen.

Couple that with the fact that small organizations do not have the resources to set up a sophisticated VPN architecture that would require a user to log in the mother-ship before accessing data. They cannot afford expensive data plans.

Research records from the Ponemon Institute show that over 75% of organizations are aware of an incident in the organization where confidential or sensitive information was at risk as a result of a lost or stolen laptop.

It is assumed that presently, almost 40% of sensitive and confidential corporate information is being accessed at any given time by remote workers, including corporate execs.

It is strongly believed in the IT security field that humans are the weakest link in the area of data security and that employees are careless. Moreover, in many small businesses and organizations there is no IT personnel to take ownership of securing corporate data.

It is not uncommon to find contents on the laptops of executives that could put the company at risk should it get on the wrong hands – pictures and videos of a wild night out, for example.

While most modern laptops contain whole-disk encryption software, not many users are aware of them. The are also location tracking, and file-level encryption.

Expanded use of encryption has become the most popular technology solution to data protection. So here is a round-up a few tools that could be useful for the traveling executive:

AxCrypt:

AxCrypt – Personal Privacy and Security with AES-128 File Encryption and Compression for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/7. Double-click to automatically decrypt and open documents. Store strong keys on removable USB-devices.

Features:
Seamless integration with Windows Explorer.
Double-click to decrypt, open and re-encrypt.
No configuration required.
Many languages supported.
Extensive command-line interface for scripting and programming.

TrueCrypt:

Main Features:

• Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
• Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
• Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
• Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
• Provides plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password
• Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.
• Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish.

Personally, I believe this should be your first choice. What you can do is create an encrypted file on your system that the software mounts as an encrypted virtual hard drive and you can dump all your critical documents in there. It is possible to use a folder, file or image as a key (password). So for example, you can create a text file of your favorite movies and use that as your key – one less password to remember.

The nice thing about TrueCrypt  is that depending on how paranoid you are, the options are endless.

MyTextIsTreasure:

I stumbled on this during a frustrated search for a password “holding cell”. With so many passwords, login credentials, online subscriptions etc. to manage, I was getting irritated by the limitations of an Excel spreadsheet and a plain text file was dangerous at best.

It is a simple password manager for your PC and Smartphone. It works like a text editor and uses a strong cryptography algorithm to generate the end file.

What MyTextIsTreasure (MTT) does is give you a notepad-like page that you can type your sensitive data in and secure with a password. It has been an awesome tool because I can save it on an FTP site, a USB flash disk or a Synced online folder without worrying about unauthorized access.

Features:

• It is a password manager
• It works like a simple text editor
• It protects your private information using the known crypt algorithm AES
• It can be installed in your PC and in your Smartphone
• You can organize passwords by categories like credit cards, websites, forums, internet banking, personal life, and so on.

You don´t have to fill a lot of fields and follow a square structure.

SecureFolder Portable:

This is another application that allows you to hide, lock and encrypt folders using 256-bit AES encryption through an intuitive and simple interface. If you had the app installed on a laptop, you can password protect a specific folder use the tool to open the folder when you need access to it.

Key Features:

• Unlimited number of folders can be protected.
• Intuitive & easy-to-use interface.
• NTFS, FAT32 and FAT volumes are supported.
• Implements 256-bit AES (Rijndael) to encrypt files.
• Effective password protection.
• System Cleaner, File shredder, Virtual Drive.
• Removing or uninstalling will not uncover locked folders.
• Windows Explorer integration.
• Supports Drag & Drop.

It is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7

WinSCP:

WinSCP is a SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Its main function is the secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. It uses Secure Shell (SSH) and supports, in addition to Secure FTP, also legacy SCP protocol.

Portable PGP:

Portable PGP is a fully featured, lightweight, java based, open source PGP tool.
It allows to encrypt,decrypt,sign and verify text and files with a nice and absolutely straight graphical interface.
It’s absolutely simple to use and provides everything you need to get started with PGP cryptography.

There is a USB-Stick version of PortablePGP which comes as a simple zip file that you can decompress on the root folder of your USB drive and allows to run PortablePGP on both Window and Linux platforms without the need of installing it and without the need to have a Java virtual machine installed(a private JRE is bundled in)

Requirements:
Java Runtime Environment 6 (or greater)
Java(TM) Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files

HaDES:

HaDES (Short for Hard Disk Encryption System) is an enterprise level open source hard disk encryption tool, which enhances TrueCrypt by adding functionality that enables TrueCrypt for enterprise use, for example multi-user capability and recovery

HaDES Additional Features:Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk

• several users have access to the encrypted disk via username and password
• Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication)
• Users can be administrated in volumes and partitions with multi-user capability:
  • users can be created
  • users can be deleted and
  • every user has the possibility to change his or her password.

Ultimately, the best way to protect corporate data is to assess risks by identifying and classifying confidential information and them implementing the following:

• Educate employees on information protection policies and procedures, then hold them accountable
• Deploy data loss prevention technologies which enable policy compliance and enforcement
• Proactively encrypt laptops to minimize consequences of a lost device
• Integrate information protection practices into businesses processes

FreeOTFE:

FreeOTFE is a free, open source, “on-the-fly” transparent disk encryption program for PCs and PDAs with a simple goal: the secure storage of bulk data, while making it readily accessible to authorized users.

With this software, you can create one or more “virtual disks” on your PC/PDA. These disks operate exactly like a normal disk, with the exception that anything written to one of them is transparently, and securely, encrypted before being stored on your computer’s hard drive.

Features include:

Highly portable – Not only does FreeOTFE offer “portable mode”, eliminating the need for it to be installed before use, it also offers FreeOTFE Explorer – a system which allows FreeOTFE volumes to be accessed not only without installing any software, but also on PCs where no administrator rights are available. This makes it ideal for use (for example) with USB flash drives, and when visiting Internet Cafés (AKA Cybercafés), where PCs are available for use, but only as a “standard” user.

TAILS LiveCD:

The Amnesiac and Incognito LiveCD System is a secure web browsing platform that is ideal for travelers who frequent Internet Cafés and want to prevent the possibility of their systems being compromised.

From the website:

The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Live CD, Live USB) is aimed at preserving your privacy and anonymity by forcing all outgoing connections to the Internet to go through the Tor network; and not leaving any trace on local storage devices unless explicitly asked.

It’s a LiveCD which means that you do not have to install it. You set your laptop’s BIOS to boot from CD and no changes are made to your operating system. The software can also be to run off of a USB stick.

Some important features of TAILS include:

• Tor and the Vidalia graphical front-end
• Firefox preconfigured with: Torbutton for anonymity and protection against evil JavaScript
• FireGPG for e-mail encryption
• All cookies are treated as session cookies by default; the CS Lite extension provides more fine-grained cookie control for those who need it
• OnBoard virtual keyboard as a countermeasure against hardware keyloggers
• Shamir’s Secret Sharing – a form of secret sharing, where a secret is divided into parts, giving each participant its own unique part, where some of the parts or all of them are needed in order to reconstruct the secret.
• To prevent cold-boot attacks and various memory forensics, Tails erases memory on shutdown and when the boot media is physically removed.

Of course there other LiveCDs out there like Kiosk from rPath, Webconverger and Ubuntu Kiosk. The difference is that TAILS has the tor software enabled by default.

Necessary Warning:
Please bear in mind that the subject of encryption can get overwhelming at times. If you are not comfortable using these tools, please seek assistance. We must tell you that you bear total responsibility for lost data – seriously. Do not attempt disk/folder encryption if you have no clue on how to go about it.
Enough said.

Shameless Plug:

If you own a small business in the Austin area and have less than 20 employees, see how you can protect your mobile users and data in transit without upfront or out-of-pocket cost here.

Most home users or even business users without dedicated IT support usually find themselves calling technical support or local providers of support services for computer problems they can easily fix themselves if they take a minute to get online and search for answers.

In the past couple of weeks, I have had to rebuild a few Linux servers and I kept running into all kinds of errors that would have driven a tech support person insane if I had been calling every few hours.  Take the following errors for example on the Linux server:

• “User’s $HOME/.dmrc” file is being ignored
• error while loading shared libraries : libresolv.so.2 : cannot open shared object file
• “GConf error: Failed to contact configuration server

Then on the Windows side, I had  to deal with a couple of these:

• “Aw, Snap” error when opening a web page
• Windows protection errors when shutting down a computer
• Fatal exception errors
• Computer not coming out of hibernate or sleep mode
• Blank monitor even though computer is on

Then there are the usual suspects – a virus or spyware infection, computer running slow, web browser not loading, wireless connection not working etc.etc. The solution to any of these can easily be researched by the user online. Just hop on a search engine like Bing, Yahoo!, Google, Answers.com or even Wikipedia. If you have access to your operating system, great. Type in the error you are getting or even your frustration in your own words – like “my desktop has disappeared in Windows 7″ and try out a few of the fixes.

Some solutions may be as simple as making sure your firewall is not blocking the web site. Others may require you to reboot your computer. For example, if you run across the disappearing desktop problem on Windows 7, the solution could be as simple as right-clicking on the “blank” desktop, selecting “View” and choosing “Show desktop icons”. That would have just saved you at least $75 of support charges.

If you have a virus infection and cannot access your computer, there are Linux LiveCDs from major antivirus vendors like Kaspersky, Bifdefender, Avast that you can use to scan your system and they are free. There are also regular Linux CDs like Puppy Linux with a built-in virus scanner that will scan and remove any infection without altering the operating system.

There are options you can try before spending the $150 to fix a computer problem. Obviously, if it turns out that you cannot fix it yourself, then the money spent will have more value.

Happy computing.