Author: nathan

We found out today that, for some reason, some inbound email is being *extremely* delayed.  After digging into the issue a bit, it looks like some nameservers (Google's public nameservers in particular) have just lost our domain name.  Our authoratative nameservers (GoDaddy) seem to be in tact and most of the nameservers that we have checked (Comcast, MIT, OpenDNS, etc.) but a few (Google) is intermittent.  If you are trying to send us email from an @gmail.com account or an account hosted with Google Apps, please note that it may be seriously (hours) delayed.  Until we can find out what's going on, please feel free to submit support requests directly via the helpdesk at http://helpdesk.cybertechcafe.net . 

What's New Internet Explorer Zero Day - There was a nasty zero day vulnerability discovered in Internet Explorer this month.  The vulnerability was very similar to countless other zero day vulnerabilities found in Internet Explorer in past months / years but this one seemed to seize the attention of the media, so it got a lot of press.  One thing that it did that was good was it reiterated the importance of using an alternate web browser (Google Chrome, Mozila Firefox, even Apple Safari or Opera).  Basically, anything but the 'big blue e'. First month with no Windows XP Updates - As many / most of you know, 8 April was the last update for Microsoft Windows XP and a number of other Microsoft products.  This does not mean that…

  What's New Two Big Stories This Month RIP Windows XP - As of 8 April 2014, Microsoft will no longer be providing support for Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Office 2003, Windows Server 2003 or Exchange Server 2003.  If you are using any of these products, you need to consider upgrading as soon as possible.  If you are subject to compliance regulations like HIPAA or PCI, you need to review these compliance guidelines and plan accordingly. PLEASE READ THIS - We reported that the Cryptolocker virus was making it's way around the Internet again back on 17 October 2013 and have reported a few additional times since then of specific incidences.  We have seen a few computers in the shop with this virus from people with no backups of their data and…

Just a quick reminder that we are now less than a week away from the end of life for Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003 and a number of other Microsoft Products.  If you have any of these products in use, you will no longer receive updates to them to address usability or security problems and are encouraged to upgrade as soon as feasible.  If you are a HIPAA covered entity or are required to maintain any level of PCI compliance and still have any of these products in use, you should check with your compliance officer to review the HIPAA and / or PCI compliance issues and work to address those as soon as possible.

I've written a number of times on the Cryptolocker virus but just got a call from a client that walked into her office this morning to find that all of her files had been encrypted and she had no backup.  I know that folks are busy and I know that backups can slip to the last thing on your mind very easily but I can't stress enough that, if you get nailed with this thing, your *only* options to get your data are a) restore from backup or b) pay up (in this case, it's a $400 ransom).  If you don't have a backup, you're left with a single option (pay up).   Readership on the out of band emails that we send is generally very low so I will…

Project Get Off Your Can And Do What You Can is under way!! Last month, we posted an article that we would be accepting donations of older Windows XP computers, refurbishing them with Linux and then giving them away for free to folks that don't have a computer.  I am excited to annonce that the project is moving along nicely and seems to be taking a little bit of shape.  We have had a few computers donated so far and, in the availability section, we have two that are ready Eligibility Requirements We currently do not have the resources to determine who does and does not 'need' these computers so currently the only elegibility requirements are that you come by and ask for one.  If we have one ready, we'll…

  What's New PLEASE READ THIS - We reported that the Cryptolocker virus was making it's way around the Internet again back on 17 October 2013 and have reported a few additional times since then of specific incidences.  We have seen a few computers in the shop with this virus from people with no backups of their data and have had to deliver the unpleasant news that, without a backup, their options are a) pay up (typically between $1,000 and $4,000 USD) or b) lose the data.  The virus encrypts all pictures, documents, etc. with very strong encryption and, without the encryption key (which is what you purchase for $1,000 to $4,000 USD), there is no way to recover them.  Please stay on top of updates, make certain that your antivirus…

We have had 3 instances in as many days of clients having trouble connecting via wifi to AT&T Uverse routers.  The computers tend to connect everywhere else and, after manually releasing and renewing their IP addresses will connect to the AT&T Uverse routers but it's odd that it has only happened now.  I am curious to hear from anyone else out there that may be having the same problem or possibly even from any AT&T sources (you can remain anonymous, if you like) that may know what's going on.  Again, this seems specific to AT&T Uverse routers and is affecting computers that a) had were connecting just fine before and b) can connect fine to non-AT&T Uverse wireless access points / routers.

The 2014 Tax Season is upon us and the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US CERT, http://www.us-cert.gov/) is providing some good advice for the barrage of scams and malware campaigns that are certain to come.  We've already seen this story from the BBC that 360 million account credentials including email addresses and passwords were reportedly uncovered, many of which were tax preparers and I suspect will be used in spear phishing attacks as the criminals piece the data together.  We will be posting information about attacks on our Facebook page and Helpdesk news site as we find them but the the liklihood of us catching all of them is very low.  Take a moment to review the article over on US CERT and, anytime that you get online solicitations that are reportedly…

I haven't seen any reports of another Yahoo breach but we have seen a spike in the number of emails from yahoo.com users in the last 24 hours.  The format of the email is always the same, the subject is the reported sender's name and in the body is a link to a random site and a file called 'news.php'.  I haven't bothered to try the link to see what's behind it but suspect that it's not actually news.  If you have a Yahoo email account and are getting notices from friends, family, customers, vendors, etc. that you're sending out SPAM and / or viruses, this may be worth looking into.  If anyone has information from Yahoo (or anyone else) on the matter please forward it along.