Gravtec

28/05/2022

It's been 18 months since Gravtec finished up in The Whitsundays and relocated to Sydney. A few regular customers still checked in from time to time for advice, guidance, and product support (you know who you are), and a few were surprised to find we'd made the move.
It hasn’t been all Harbour Cruises and cocktails at the Opera House though. Gravtec was still called upon to assist in supporting a key client in Sydney to carry out warranty repairs, particularly within the education sector.

Of course, we can’t forget to mention the effect Cov19 had on everyone, and Gravtec was no different. In fact, it presented Gravtec with the opportunity to change tack completely and branch out into providing ad-hoc maintenance services to aged care facilities in and around Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Coffs Harbour and even as far as Wagga.

But alas, the time has come to call it a day for Gravtec (again). This time, after nearly 20 years, I am stepping away from being self-employed and running “my own show”, and taking up a real job working for wages. Somewhat ironically, I have come full circle and crossed to the dark side, returning to working with the Navy as a civvie contractor.

Come Monday morning, 25 years since leaving the RAN, I will be walking back through the front gate, just in time for Colours.

08/01/2021

Regretfully the time has come to press ALT+ F4 one last time.

Gravtec has been providing IT services to Whitsunday businesses for over 15 years. I would like to thank you for your ongoing support and patronage during this time. I wish you, your business and staff continued success, and all the very best in the future

06/07/2016

We've setup our first Business NBN customer site this week....and it's looking pretty good!

10/02/2016

a little bit of computer geek humour...

01/09/2015

13/05/2015

Another variation of the crypto style virus. Have a read and be aware what to look for.

Alert Priority High Researchers have discovered a new version of ransomware that encrypts images, videos, documents and other files on compromised computers.

26/03/2015

Please beware of a very serious computer virus doing the rounds.

We have had two customers hit with this virus on the same day.

It has potential to destroy a lot of data.

The virus arrives in an email as a resume in a .zip or .js attachment.

Please do NOT open of forward these emails. Delete them immediately.

If your Antivirus pops up and says there is a problem, pay attention to what it is saying, and call us if in doubt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CryptoLocker

19/12/2014

You cannot and will not win a car on Facebook, ever. When entrants are asked to like a page, share the post on their timeline and often say what colour car they would like if won, particularly for the exotic or European cars.
Scammers start these pages for to harvest :Likes". The higher the number of likes the more use these pages are to launch fraudulent activities such as malware and survey scams to larger audiences. Once the page has built up enough Likes the list of users can be sold on the black market and used for more targeted attacks.

So how can you identify a fake competition for free cars? If it is offering a free exotic car...it is fake!

1.Join Date
The join date on these competition pages are usually a dead giveaway. When you notice a page has just been created within recent months and their first post is the competition, leave! Why would a large brand have just joined Facebook recently?

2.Page URL
pages require at least 25 likes before they're eligible for a custom URL. Some of these scammers are even too lazy to even create one - another clear indicator that a large brand's SEO and Marketing department would not have allowed this

3.Number of Likes
Most of the scam competitions have a small amount of likes, sometimes getting up to 50,000 (yes, that's small). Take a look at BMW for example - they have 19 million likes! Need I say more?

4.Too good to be true?
It is what it is.

Rest assured there are some credible competitions out there giving away make-up, beauty packages and concert tickets. But when you see a free car, do not further the aims of these scammers by participating in their bogus promotions.

In saying all that, if I win I want a red Ferrari 458.

25/11/2014

Another Email Virus scam pretending to be from Australia Post.

Please do NOT click or follow the links from any emails, no matter how genuine they appear.

This one will take you to a very genuine looking website, and ask you to enter some letters from a Captcha image to download a form to print.....this is the virus....there is no form...there is no parcel!

Delete these emails and do NOT interact with them

07/10/2014

Australia Post is warning customers of emails which advise that a "courier" was unable to deliver a parcel to their address. Australia Post does not request customers to remit a payment for parcel collection, nor does it charge customers for holding a parcel.

The aim of these scam emails is to collect personal / financial information or to install a malicious virus such as 'ransomware' which can 'take over' your PC. Prevention is the best approach to any malware. It's vital that you know the warning signs of a phishing scam.

If you receive this email, please delete it.

Protect yourself against scams, phishing attacks and fraud

13/08/2014

CryptoWall is a ransomware virus that is very dangerous.

It can enter your PC silently and then encrypt files, blocking them and making it impossible to access them.

The attacker demands US$500 for the private key to unlock your files, with a deadline for this price. After that time, the ransom increases to US$1,000.

CryptoWall can enter the system as a seemingly legit update for a program. Most of the time this program is well-known like Adobe Reader, Flash Player, Java or similar.

Know that when visiting unsafe and unreliable pages, fake update messages might appear. This is exactly how CryptoWall works. It also comes in the form of Phishing Emails, with an infected email attachment, or a link to an online location. The content will generally be for an invoice or a fax from a company you may already deal with.

Even the best Antivirus programs are easily thwarted by this virus.

Your best protection is to back up your data regularly and avoid phishing emails. Do NOT blindly click on links or attachments in emails.

07/06/2014

This morning I have received a call from a distressed customer that had a call from Microsofts Head Technician last night...this morning they no longer can access their computer.

NEVER provide information to a anyone who initiates a call. If you called Microsoft or any other organisation, that is different, you know who you have reached.

If you received a call, you have no idea who the person on the other end is, but I can guarantee you, Microsoft is NOT interested in the "errors" or any other such activity on your PC.

Do NOT engage with unsolicited callers, simply hangup the call.