16Jan 2019 by nathan
Problems reported with Office365

Problems reported with Office365

Industry News
We have had a number of reports this morning of performance and connection issues with Office365 applications, specifically Outlook. In most cases, the reported issues have been slower than normal performance and outgoing emails getting 'stuck' in the Outbox for an extended period of time. Although the Office365 Status page doesn't record any issues, we confirmed via DownDetector.com that a number of users are reporting issues and they appear to have started around 10:32am ET.
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21Dec 2018 by nathan

Is your network safe while you’re gone for the holidays?

Industry News
I just saw this article about the ordeal a Network / Systems Administrator went through as the result of a ransomware attack. If you're a business owner or Network / Systems Administrator for your organization, here are some quick lessons learned to consider before leaving for the holidays. Lessons Learned Do not expose RDP to the Internet - Remote desktop is a tool that's built into Windows to connect to other Windows computers remotely. It's incredibly convenient way to get remote access to a computer for legitimate users as well as the bad guys. A good rule of thumb, do not expose RDP to the Internet. FortiGate firewalls include both an SSL VPN and a web-based portal that makes accessing RDP over the Internet securely trivial. All of the backups…
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27Jul 2018 by nathan

A $100 box that can help you see (and control) what you’re sharing on the Internet

Industry News
We're connecting voice activated tablets, nanny-cams, security cameras, home assistants and even home security systems to our home Internet connection and inviting anyone with access to those devices into our homes with them. In an ideal world, the number of folks coming in would be very small and our trusted devices would be, well, trustworthy. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. Making matters worse, we're creating very soft targets for even low skilled attackers. At home, our defenses are down, the gear is typically ad-hoc and there's no logging or oversight on what's going on on the network. New devices can be added at will (yours or, when the neighbors kid guesses your wifi password, theirs) and devices on your network have the freedom to do pretty much anything that…
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06Feb 2018 by nathan

The Results Are In – Backblaze Hard Drive Statistics for 2017

Industry News
If you're looking to purchase a hard drive and want to know which ones have the best track record, it would be harder to find a better source of information than the annual report from Backblaze. Backblaze is a cloud storage provider that uses exclusively off-the-shelf commodity hard drives in it's datacenter. They maintained detailed statistics on how well various drives performed and, in 2013, they began analyzing that data and making it available to the public. Since then, the annual Backblaze Drive Stats report has been an authoratative source of data on which drives to buy (and which to avoid). Links - Backblaze - https://www.backblaze.com/ - Backblaze Hard Drive Stats for 2017 - https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-for-2017
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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.
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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…
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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…
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