27Feb 2014 by nathan

US CERT Warns that the Tax Season will bring Phishing Scams and Malware Campaigns

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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…
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24Feb 2014 by nathan

Nothing on the wire that I’ve seen yet, but we have received virus emails from multiple Yahoo! mail users

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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.
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22Feb 2014 by nathan

Issues with some inbound calls

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We are having some intermittent issues with inbound calls to the office.  The calls are going through, but about 20% of the time there is no audio (e.g., you won't hear a ring).  We've identified the issue as a firewall configuration issue on a newly deployed firewall and are working to correct the issue now.  If you happen to call and are not able to get through, please either hang up and call back (the problem seems to be transient) or you can email support@cybertechcafe.net or open a support ticket directly at http://helpdesk.cybertechcafe.net .  I apologize for the inconvenience.
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18Feb 2014 by nathan

What to do with those old Windows XP Computers. Get off of your can and do what you can.

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Get off your can and do what you can. That was the message Sunday at Church and it struck a chord with me.  We are knee deep replacing Windows XP computers with Windows 7 computers prior to the Windows XP end of life on 8 April 2014 and have been asked by a number of customers the best way to dispose of the old computers.  We also routinely get requests for older or refurbished computers by folks who, for one reason or another, don't have a computer and can't afford to buy a new one.  I don't really have a solid plan yet but, rather than waiting until I do have a plan (some of you have heard me talking about this for the last several months), I figure I'll…
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18Feb 2014 by nathan

Cyber Tech Cafe Mail Server Blacklisted

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The Cyber Tech Cafe mail server is currently blacklisted on a number of blacklists and, as a result, a number of emails are not being delivered.  We are working on the issue now and expect to have it resolved momentarily but wanted to let everyone know that they may not get the normal status updates on tickets via email.  If you have an open ticket and are not receiving updates via email, please check the helpdesk at http://helpdesk.cybertechcafe.net for the latest information.
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10Feb 2014 by nathan

Inclement Weather Plans for Cyber Tech Cafe

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We will be posting any weather-related schedule changes or closings to our Facebook Page at https://facebook.com/cybertechcafe .  If we are closed for weather-related reasons, we will still be monitoring voicemail (770.386.8900) and email.  For safety reasons, on-site visits may be delayed or rescheduled if the weather and / or road conditions get bad.  
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07Feb 2014 by nathan

The case for Keepass and making strong passwords easy.

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SplashID servers up and down, why is that important? A HUGE thing in technology these days is security and a big part of that is passwords. For years, the folks in IT have been trying to come up with creative ways to keep users from using passwords like 'password' or '123456' and a big help in this has been password safes like Lastpass, Keepass and SplashID. The advantage of a password safe is that you can easily create long, complex and quasi-random passwords that you could never remember otherwise and have a separate password for everything that you do (one for your Facebook account, one for your Twitter account, one for your eBay account, one for your main email, one for ...., you get the idea). That way, the passwords…
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06Feb 2014 by nathan

February 2014 Updates and News

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    We're at 450 likes right now on Facebook and would LOVE to hit 500 as a result of this email.  If you're on Facebook and don't like us already, take a minute to click on the Facebook image above and like us.  If you do like us and haven't told all of your friends, now would be an awesome time to click 'Forward' on this email :).  In addition to links to the monthly emails, we also post news on technology related current events and security and would love to get your input and feedback.   What's New Policy Changes for 2014 - We've made some changes to our pricing and policies and have posted a summary on our website here.  If you have any questions or would like more…
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05Feb 2014 by nathan

Adobe releases emergency update for Adobe Flash Player

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Emergency Update to Adobe Flash Player affecting Windows, OSX and Linux Adobe has released an emergency update to patch a vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player that is affecting all previous versions for Windows, OSX and Linux.  On Windows and OSX, the [now] current version of Adobe Flash Player is 12.0.0.44 and for Linux, the [now] current version is 11.2.202.336.  Google Chrome users should ensure that they have the latest version of Google Chome and Internet Explorer 10 and 11 users should be certain that they are using the latest version of Adobe Flash Player for the browser.   US-CERT has confirmed that a successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker full control of vulnerable systems.   Links: Adobe Security Bulletin US Cert CNet All current Cyber Tech Cafe MyIT Customers…
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30Jan 2014 by nathan

HIPAA covered entity fined $150,000 for lost thumb drive containing PII / PHI

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More and more, we're hearing about instances where networks are breached and personal information for hundreds, thousands, millions, tens or hundreds of millions of people are compromised.  The net result is a huge black eye for the targeted entity (think Target here), a lot of rightfully worried people (the ones whose personal information may or may not have been compromised) and a lot of fines and class action lawsuits being thrown about.  When the data is lost due to a breach (like Target), that's one thing.  When the data is lost due to negligence though (like a lost thumb drive containing unencrypted personal information), it's a completely different thing.  It's this second scenario that I'd like to address with this post.   There is no doubt that the ability to…
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