13Nov 2024 by nathan

November 2024 News and Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Monthly Newsletters, Tech news
Upcoming End of Life for Windows 10 - We're officially under one year before the Windows 10 End of Life (EOL), currently scheduled for 14 October 2025. Prior to that date, you will need to make certain that all Windows 10 computers are either upgraded (Windows 11 Requirements) or replaced. Additional information is available from Microsoft here. Holiday Schedule Thanksgiving - We will be closed Thursday, 28 November and Friday, 29 November 2024 for the Thanksgiving holiday and the office will open for regular business hours on Monday, 2 December 2024. Christmas - We will be closed Tuesday, 24 December and Wednesday, 25 December 2024 for the Christmas holiday and the office will open for regular business hours on Thursday, 26 December 2024. New Year - We will be closed…
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09Oct 2024 by nathan

October 2024 News & Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Monthly Newsletters
Apple / Mac Security Updates - Once again, Apple is releasing an update to it's Mac OS 15 Sequoia to address a bug in last month's update that broke a number of security tools from vendors like CrowdStrike, SentinelOne and Microsoft. Basically, if you've got an Apple device, update it :) Project Lazarus - After the initial client testing of the Project Lazarus boot disk, the consensus is that it's not viable for non-technical users. The plan at this point is to keep it for internal use and we can provide a copy to any MyIT clients that would like one but the bulk rollout to all MyIT clients will likely be suspended. Client Forms - In an effort to make requesting support easier for common tasks (onboarding and offboarding…
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18Sep 2024 by nathan

September 2024 News and Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Monthly Newsletters, Tech news
Apple / Mac Security Updates - In addition to the usual suspects, significant security updates have been released by Apple for multiple products including iOS / iPadOS 17.7, iOS / iPadOS 18, MacOS 13.7, 14.7 and 15, tvOS 18, watchOS 11, visionOS 2 and more. Additional info is available from CISA here. Basically, if you've got an Apple device, update it :) Microsoft Recall - The short version is that Microsoft Recall is apparently not as dead as we thought (hoped) that it was and I've not seen anyone state this better than Brian Krebs here. "...But last week, the software giant clarified that what it really meant was that the ability to disable Recall was a bug/feature in the preview version of Copilot+ that will not be available to…
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09Aug 2024 by nathan

August 2024 News and Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Monthly Newsletters
Labor Day - Cyber Tech Cafe will be closed on Monday, 2 September 2024 in observance of Labor Day. CrowdStrike - I've had a lot of conversations with folks on this and believe that, in addition to the takeaways in the original post, there are three things that could have been done different. First, test the changes before you deploy it. In the case of the CrowdStrike incident, that likely would have saved the day. Second, fail gracefully. The bug caused an error at a very low level in Windows that prevented Windows from booting and required physical access to impacted systems to revive them. The fix was a very simple fix but it required physical access. Allowing the application to fail gracefully so that the systems was able to…
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10Jul 2024 by nathan

July 2024 News and Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Monthly Newsletters, Tech news
Client Forms - In an effort to make requesting support easier for common tasks (onboarding and offboarding users, for example), we are launching a number of forms that clients can use to request support. Links to the forms are located at the top of our website under Client Forms. Windows Recall - We received a surprising amount of feedback on the blurb about Windows Recall in last months newsletter and, not surprisingly, literally none of it was positive. The common thread in all of the feedback was basically what are the alternatives? We don't really have a plan, just yet, but we do have some ideas. Expect more on this next month and, if you're concerned about Windows Recall for whatever reason (privacy, regulatory compliance, etc.), keep an eye out…
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13Jun 2024 by nathan

June 2024 News and Updates

CTC NEWS, Monthly Newsletters, Uncategorized
Client Forms - In an effort to make requesting support easier for common tasks (onboarding and offboarding users, for example), we are launching a number of forms that clients can use to request support. Links to the forms are located at the top of our website under Client Forms. Google Chrome has been the subject of a number of critical security vulnerabilities over the past few days. Google Chrome typically does a pretty good job of patching itself but a restart of Google Chrome will be required for the updates to be applied. Additional information is available here. Windows Recall - Microsoft has recently announced a controversial new feature called Windows Recall . There's a good article on it over at Ars Technica but the short version is basically that…
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16Jan 2024 by nathan

January 2024 News and Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Monthly Newsletters
Election Year Antics - In the US, this year is an election year and it's safe to assume that criminals will leverage election related topics in their pretexting for attacks (phishing, vishing, smishing, all of the ishings), so be sure to consider that when planning your security awareness training. Updates Microsoft has hit the ground running with the January 2024 Patch Tuesday, releasing updates to patch 49 flaws including 12 remote code execution and two, one is a Windows Kerberos Security Feature Bypass and the other a Hyper-V RCE, are rated critical. Microsoft releases regular updates the second Tuesday of each month, often referred to as ‘Patch Tuesday’. These updates are categorized as Low, Moderate, Important or Critical. Details on the categories are available here. The updates can include any…
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19Dec 2023 by nathan

December 2023 News & Updates

CTC NEWS, Monthly Newsletters
End of Life for Windows Server 2012 - October was the last month of updates, including bug fixes, security updates, etc., for Microsoft Windows Server 2012. If you still have Windows Server 2012 installed in your environment, Microsoft strongly recommends making plans to decommission it as soon as possible. Changes to the MyIT Program - We are in the process of making some changes to the MyIT Program that we're pretty excited about. The biggest and most visible change for most MyIT Customers will likely be related to communications. There will be some changes to the monthly report as well as some reminders about systems that may need extra attention. More on this to come but we're excited about the opportunity to provide more value to our MyIT Customers! 2023…
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15Nov 2023 by nathan

November 2023 News and Updates

CTC NEWS, Monthly Newsletters, Tech news
End of Life for Windows Server 2012 - October was the last month of updates, including bug fixes, security updates, etc., for Microsoft Windows Server 2012. If you still have Windows Server 2012 installed in your environment, Microsoft strongly recommends making plans to decommission it as soon as possible. Changes to the MyIT Program - We are in the process of making some changes to the MyIT Program that we're pretty excited about. The biggest and most visible change for most MyIT Customers will likely be related to communications. There will be some changes to the monthly report as well as some reminders about systems that may need extra attention. More on this to come but we're excited about the opportunity to provide more value to our MyIT Customers! 2023…
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12Oct 2023 by nathan

October 2023 News & Updates

CTC NEWS, Monthly Newsletters, Tech news
End of Life for Windows Server 2012 - This will be the last month of updates, including bug fixes, security updates, etc., for Microsoft Windows Server 2012. If you still have Windows Server 2012 installed in your environment, Microsoft strongly recommends making plans to decommission it as soon as possible. Changes to the MyIT Program - We are in the process of making some changes to the MyIT Program that we're pretty excited about. The biggest and most visible change for most MyIT Customers will likely be related to communications. There will be some changes to the monthly report as well as some reminders about systems that may need extra attention. More on this to come but we're excited about the opportunity to provide more value to our MyIT Customers!…
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