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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25Sep 2024 by nathan

Preparing for inclement weather

CTC NEWS
Due to the anticipated arrival of inclement weather from Hurricane Helene, the state of Georgia is under a State of Emergency. No closures or scheduling changes are planned at this time but we will be monitoring power, weather and road conditions as the storm moves through the area and updating plans as needed to ensure the health and safety of our team. If there are any schedule changes or closures, we will post updates to our website here and to our social media (Facebook and X).
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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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27Aug 2024 by nathan

Closed 2 September 2024 for Labor Day

CTC NEWS
We will be closed on Monday, 2 September 2024 to enjoy the Labor Day holiday with friends, family and loved ones and will reopen during normal business hours on Tuesday, 3 September 2024.  Emergency support will be available for our commercial and MyIT clients.  If you need emergency support on Monday, simply include the word 'emergency' in the subject of your email to help@ctc.co or by noting it in your voicemail at 770.386.8900.
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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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24Jul 2024 by nathan

Announcement – Project Lazarus

CTC NEWS
I alluded to it in my After Action Report for the CrowdStrike incident but one of the takeaways was that the fix was a relatively simple one but many administrators and support personnel were left without the ability to connect to the impacted computers. As a small MSP, this resonated with our team since a large scale event requiring a manual fix, like the CrowdStrike failure, impacting multiple client sites at once would be difficult for us to address quickly. It's still very much in the early stages but I'm excited to announce what we're calling Project Lazarus. Project Lazarus is a bootable USB drive that, as long as the hardware is still functional, will allow customers to boot the machine, connect to to the Internet and get our team…
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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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25Jun 2024 by nathan

We will be closed July 4th

CTC NEWS
Cyber Tech Cafe will be closed on Thursday, 4 July 2024 in observance of Independence Day to enjoy time with family, friends and loved ones. We will reopen on Friday, 5 July 2024 at 9:00am ET. We will have on-call support available for commercial and MyIT clients via the emergency support option on the phone or by adding 'emergency' to the subject line of support email. From all of us at Cyber Tech Cafe, we wish you a happy Fourth of July and are eternally grateful to the men and women who have fought to win and preserve our freedom.
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21Jun 2024 by nathan

CDK Breach – Threat actors now contacting CDK customers directly.

CTC NEWS, Tech news
We are working with a number of clients who have been impacted by what is, I believe, now officially being referred to publicly by CDK as an attack and, specifically, multiple attacks. This latest development (the threat actors are reaching out to CDK Customers directly) confirms that there was data, at the very least customer lists and contact info, taken during the attack. Details are sketchy and there are a lot of moving parts behind the scenes so this post will be a) short, b) in no particular order and c) vague but there are a number of common questions / concerns / comments that we're getting that I'm hoping to address with this post. For those who don't know who CDK is or why this may be important, CDK…
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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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