08Nov 2017 by nathan

2017 Holiday Schedule

Uncategorized
The leaves are changing, we've got pumpkin spice everything and I'm already starting to see Christmas commercials on television.  It's hard to believe, but we're officially back in the holiday season.  We are already starting to schedule projects around the holidays so it seemed like a good idea to go ahead and post our official holiday schedule.  As always, we will have on-call personnel available in the event of emergencies and will post additional reminders as the holidays get closer.   Thanksgiving Closed Thursday, 23 November and Friday, 24 November.  Returning to normal business hours on Monday, 27 November. Christmas Closed Monday, 25 December and Tuesday, 26 December.  Returning to normal business hours on Wednesday, 27 December. New Year Closed Monday, 1 January.  Returning to normal business hours on Tuesday,…
Read More
19Oct 2017 by nathan

October 2017 News and Updates

Monthly Newsletters
Updates Executive Summary - This month's dominate tech news story had headlines warning us that "'All Wi-Fi networks' are vulnerable" . Security researcher Mathy Vanhoef of imec-DistriNet, discovered a vulnerability in the WPA2 standard that has been dubbed KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attacks) and according to the researcher "works against all modern protected Wi-Fi networks." The attack is particularly devious in that it allows not only for things like "steal[ing] sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails, photos, and so on" but also can allow the attacker to "inject ransomware or other malware into websites". The paper goes on to say that "if your device supports Wi-Fi, it is most likely affected. " Also this month, using Shodan, a search engine for Internet-connected devices, we are able…
Read More
25Sep 2017 by nathan

Problems with GoDaddy email

Industry News
If you are using GoDaddy for email, you are likely having problems sending and receiving emails.  Very few details at this point but there is a problem that GoDaddy has acknowledged and is currently working on.  No reason for outage or ETA on the resolution has been provided.
Read More
12Sep 2017 by nathan

The Equifax Breach: Just How Bad Is It?

Industry News
For those of you that have just emerged from under your rock to read this article, I appreciate it, but if you haven't heard, a cyber security breach on one of the 3 main credit bureaus, Equifax, effecting over 143 Million Americans was announced this past week and some are touting this as one of the worst breaches in history. While we wait for the smoke to settle on this one, I wanted to put together a small collection of some of the key points I have heard being discussed and why they make this one of the more serious breaches in history. Severity of leaked data - The data reported to have been stolen includes the full names, address, birth date, social security number, and in some cases the…
Read More
11Sep 2017 by nathan

Closing at 2:00pm ET Monday, 11 Sept 2017, possible late opening on Tuesday

Uncategorized
We will be closing at 2:00pm ET on Monday, 11 September 2017 to get our folks home in advance of forecast bad weather resulting from Hurricane Irma.  We will be monitoring incoming support requests and responding as conditions allow. At this time, we plan to open tomorrow (Tuesday, 12 September 2017) by 10:00am ET if conditions permit.  We will be updating our website here as well as social media with any changes.
Read More
10Sep 2017 by nathan

Hurricane Irma

Uncategorized
Our thoughts and prayers are with those in the path of hurricane Irma now and over the coming days. We will be watching the path of the storm closely and will be announcing any changes to our normal business hours here and posting those changes to our Facebook and Twitter accounts.  If we do have to close the shop, we will be monitoring the incoming support requests closely and responding as conditions allow. With the storm bearing down, now would be a good time to confirm that all of your unnecessary electronic equipment is powered off and disconnected (in the event of flooding, this will give the equipment the best chance of surviving) and that any mission critical equipment is connected to at least surge protection or ideally backup battery…
Read More
30Aug 2017 by nathan

Code42 to End Support for CrashPlan for Home subscriptions

Industry News
In a shocking announcement making its way across the tech world, Code42, the company behind the CrashPlan backup service stated earlier this week that they will be discontinuing their Home backup service. The reasoning the company gave behind the move away from the residential market was to "focus on business customers", which they claim have different needs that "have diverged from the needs of the consumer". While this may seem like a normal move for a company, it has left many in the industry scratching their heads, specifically because the CrashPlan backup service is NOT designed to be run on a server or a centralized location on your network. While this is not clearly laid out in black and white, based on years of experience and various official statements from…
Read More
09Aug 2017 by nathan

August 2017 News and Updates

Monthly Newsletters
Updates Executive Summary - In addition to the normal Microsoft, Adobe and Oracle / Java updates, Google released an update to patch 10 critical bugs in the Android operating system and Mozilla released an update to patch 29 vulnerabilities in Firefox including making Adobe Flash objects Click-To-Enable.  The excitement from WannaCry and Petya / Not-Petya seems to be calming down but it looks like the Mamba ransomware (gained fame in the end of 2016 by taking the San Francisco transit system offline) seems to be making a comeback.  It only seems to be impacting Saudi Arabia and Brazil at the moment but it would be wise for blue teams to take note and make sure that you're ready (Are you all patched up?  Network segmented to minimize the damage of…
Read More
19Jul 2017 by nathan

July 2017 News and Updates

Monthly Newsletters
Updates Executive Summary - 2017 has been an explosive year for ransomware and a wake-up call for administrators of the importance of installing updates in a timely fashion.  The WannaCry virus in May wreaked havoc when it took advantage of an already patched bug in Microsoft Windows.  The Petya and Not Petya viruses struck in June, leveraging the same already patched vulnerability. Microsoft - Microsoft patched a total of 54 vulnerabilities this month in Windows, Edge, Internet Explorer Office and Exchange, 19 of which were rated critical, 32 rated important and three rated as moderate.  Several of the critical vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable and could give an attacker full control with little or no action on the part of the user. Microsoft releases regular updates the second Tuesday of each…
Read More