Device ManageR, Ransomware, and Your Security

The WannaCry ransomware virus has unfortunately made headlines over the past few weeks due to how quickly it spread, and how many companies it has affected. The latest statistics show that it has infected organizations in over 150 countries at this point in time.

As a result, many anti-virus software packages have updated their definitions and increased their strength to help protect their users.

We recently heard from one of our AVTECH resellers located in Australia that an installation of our Device ManageR software triggered the anti-virus software on their client’s computer, and the installation was blocked. Device ManageR is our locally installed software that helps end users manage and monitor all of their Room Alert environment monitors.

Naturally, when the MSP’s tech and the end user saw the anti-virus program triggered by our software they were very concerned. They stopped the installation immediately, and sent us screen captures of the messages from the anti-virus software.

Given the impact WannaCry has had on organizations worldwide, it’s entirely understandable that many anti-virus manufacturers have tightened security and are flagging more programs as suspicious. End users have every right to be suspicious of new software and the warnings their security programs give them.

Thankfully when our support team saw the screencaps of the messages from the user’s anti-virus software, they knew exactly why it raised a warning for the Device ManageR installation. Device ManageR needs to install certain code on the user’s machine to communicate with Room Alert in order to help the users monitor and manage it effectively. These files are installed within the Device ManageR directory in ‘Program Files’, and the messages from the anti-virus software confirmed that the files being flagged were valid installation files being installed to the correct location. Because Device ManageR needs to communicate over the network, it’s relatively common for a new installation to cause warnings to be displayed by a user’s firewall or anti-virus application. Since this is normal and expected behavior, most customers simply click ‘Accept’ after reviewing the details.

Our techs also noted that the anti-virus software correctly identified the Device ManageR creator and copyright holder as “AVTECH Software, Inc.” which is a key indicator that the installation was indeed valid. Again, given the current spread of WannaCry, it’s not surprising at all that the anti-virus program was triggered, however the program also gave every indication that the Device ManageR software was distributed by a well-known and trusted source.

After some information exchanges between the end user and our support team, Device ManageR was successfully installed and the end user is now able to fully monitor and manage their Room Alert environment monitors. Of course, they also have the option of using their RoomAlert.com account in addition to Device ManageR for a full monitoring solution; we want our users to be able to use one of the options we make available, or use them both together. In fact, Room Alert monitors are fully SNMP capable, so end users can even opt to use a third-party monitoring software as well if they like in addition to the software we provide with every Room Alert.

Room Alert is designed to help protect organizations against environment-related downtime, just as anti-virus software is designed to protect organizations against malicious software-related downtime. When used together, along with other security options like dedicated firewalls, they create a suite of services to help organizations maintain the highest level of uptime and profitability.

AVTECH users can rest assured that all of our hardware and software is completely designed, tested, and manufactured by our employees here in the US. Our quality assurance standards are extremely high, and they need to be given the nature of our products. If Room Alert is helping to protect your facility and critical assets, it needs to be the most resilient piece of hardware in your data center or on your network. Likewise, our software needs to be secure and resilient as well.

While Room Alert can’t help protect organizations against malware like WannaCry, together with Device ManageR and RoomAlert.com it can help protect you against downtime caused by temperature, humidity, flood, power, smoke, motion, and more. When you include it as part of your business continuity plan, you’ll be sure that your organization is protected against any number of potential threats.

Anti-virus software helps to proactively protect your data and assets, just as Room Alert makes proactive environment easy. Don’t wait until it’s too late!

Note: The former GoToMyDevices online monitoring and management platform was migrated into RoomAlert.com in December 2017. For more information, please see our announcement article and FAQ.