11Dec 2024 by nathan

December 2024 News & Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Monthly Newsletters, Tech news
Policy Update - Starting 1 January 2025, a 3% surcharge will be added to any credit card payment of $1,000 or more. Additional information is available on our policies and procedures page here. New Email Security Partner - We are excited to announce our new partnership with Proofpoint and the Proofpoint Essentials email security platform. The Proofpoint platform includes basic email security features similar to what we were able to offer through AppRiver and adds an impressive array of additional features including seamless integration with Microsoft 365 and Exchange, email encryption, Data Loss Protection (DLP), Social Media protection, Security Awareness Training, One-Click Message Pull to remove malicious emails from user inboxes, emergency mailbox access and more. We will continue supporting clients wishing to remain with AppRiver but are happy to…
Read More
25Nov 2024 by nathan

Please check your AppRiver Billing

Industry News, Tech news
Cyber Tech Cafe has used and recommended AppRiver for email filtering (SPAM, phishing, malware, etc.), email encryption, Hosted Exchange, Microsoft 365, cloud to cloud back and more since approximately 2007.  One of the many things that kept us with AppRiver was that it was a relatively local company (based in Florida, US) with unbelievable customer service.  In the last few years though, AppRiver has gone through a number of ownership changes (AppRiver was acquired by Zix who was subsequently acquired by OpenText) and many of the things that drew us to and kept us with AppRiver are changing.  One change that was recently brought to our attention may impact pricing to our customers.  We don't have access to the AppRiver billing information so we aren't able to check / verify…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
22Jul 2024 by nathan
After Action Report – CrowdStrike

After Action Report – CrowdStrike

Industry News, Tech news
As many of you know, an issue with an update to CrowdStrike, a security platform installed on literally millions (if not billions) of computers worldwide, caused a global IT Outage on Friday and many organizations (and IT workers) are still feeling the sting of that outage today. The root issue appears to have been a bad configuration update from CrowdStrike that prevented affected systems from booting. We are thankful that none of our clients were directly impacted but the incident provides an excellent opportunity to "sharpen the saw" and update our internal processes. In this email, I'd like to quickly summarize what happened, some key things that we took away from the incident and some changes that we're making in as a result. What happened? CrowdStrike released a corrupt configuration…
Read More
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…
Read More
25Jun 2024 by nathan

Please update your FortiGate

Industry News, Tech news
What is this about? In February of this year, Fortinet disclosed multiple vulnerabilities in the FortiOS firmware, the operating system for their entire line of products. The vulnerability was highly publicized by Fortinet, The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), news outlets, message boards and on social media and we reached out directly to all of our MyIT Clients. The vulnerability is significant because it's position in a network, often running on the Internet facing firewall protecting that network from Internet borne threats, means it's exploitable from anywhere on the Internet and successful exploitation could give an attacker full access to a vulnerable device. It's also important to note that state sponsored threat actors are known to favor (and target) these types of vulnerabilities. What do I need to…
Read More
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…
Read More
14Feb 2024 by nathan

February 2024 News and Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Tech news
We're Moving Cyber Tech Cafe will be moving our office to 319 North Tennessee Street, Cartersville GA on 15 March 2024. Our mailing address will remain the same. Urgent Update from Fortinet - Fortinet disclosed on 8 February 2024 a significant vulnerability in basically their entire firewall product line. The vulnerability can allow an attacker with access to the VPN interface on the affected device the ability to run code on the device. According to reports, the vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild. If you are a MyIT Client, you should have received an email on Tuesday with details on the vulnerability and, in most cases, your firewall has already been updated. If you are not a MyIT Client, we would recommend installing the update immediately if at…
Read More
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…
Read More