We are getting more and more of these and, I suspect, some of our clients are getting the same and thought that it may be handy to point out some easy ways to confirm that this was a fake.  The request looks very legitimate and, rather than just offering the link to change your password (which would be an obvious phishing email), they also give you the option to report this immediately if you didn't send the request (it can't be bad if they're giving you an opportunity to report possible fraud, right)?  So, here are a few quick and easy test to see help determine if this is a legitimate request: This scan notes the email that it's being sent to in the footer.  In this case, solarwinds@cybertechcafe.net.  We…

Two questions that we frequently get are how / why do I get viruses and how do the people creating the viruses make money?  I found this article this morning linked to another news story and it does a pretty decent job of answering both.  Basically, the article talks about the Sweet Orange exploit kit and what it does.  There were some really good points in the article but they're mixed in with a good bit of geekspeak.  I've tried to distill the important points of the article in the following 5 bullet points but there's a link to the full article at the bottom. What is an exploit kit?  From the article, an exploit kit is "...an effective and streamlined methodology of distributing malware; they allow the Bad Guys…

If you or someone that you know is looking for a job in IT and has great customer service skills as well as tech skills, send them our way.  We've posted details and an online application at https://www.cybertechcafe.net/jobs .  

We are experiencing and have had a number of clients (who are also Comcast customers) note that there appear to be some issues on the Comcast backbone.  The symptoms that we are seeing thus far are problems accessing very specific networks and hosts, most notably Google.com (Gmail appears to be up but several other Google services like Google Maps, YouTube, etc. are not).   If you are having trouble accessing some sites on the Internet and you are a Comcast subscriber, please let us know so that we can pin down where the issue is.

What's New Cyber Tech Cafe - We announced in April that we have partnered with Domain.com for all of our website and email hosting and that we would begin migrating all of our current website and email hosting customers to Domain.com in the coming months.  We are excited to announce that this has been going well and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  As you're reading this, most of you have already been migrated and some are still on the schedule.  If your migration is not complete and you are not working with us already, please contact us right away.  If you missed the original announcement, it is still available on our website here.  If you have any questions about the transition or would like to discuss other options, please don't hesitate to give us a call at…

What's New Cyber Tech Cafe - We announced in April that we have partnered with Domain.com for all of our website and email hosting and that we would begin migrating all of our current website and email hosting customers to Domain.com in the coming months.  We are excited to announce that this has been going well and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  As you're reading this, some of you have already been migrated and some are already on the schedule.  We will be contacting each of our hosting customers directly to schedule the migration and expect to have everyone migrated by July of this year.  If you missed the original announcement, it is still available on our website here.  If you have any questions about the transition or would like to discus other options, please don't hesitate…

  Updates Microsoft - There are a total of 10 updates from Microsoft this month with 2 of them listed as critical and the remaining 8 listed as important.  The first critical vulnerability affects all version of MS Windows and Internet Explorer and allows an attacker to install viruses, malware, etc. or completely take over the computer simply by getting the victim to view an infected web page. The second critical  vulnerability affects MS Windows XP, MS Windows Vista and MS Windows 7 (this reportedly does not affect Windows 8 or Windows RT) and also allows an attacker to install viruses, malware, etc. or completely take over the computer simply by getting the victim to view an infected web page.  Microsoft releases regular updates the second Tuesday of each month, often referred…

There are a LOT of reasons and ways here but the most popular reason (right now) is money.  The folks writing the viruses are making a TON of money doing it.  How do they make money writing viruses?  Consider the little story below.  We have a couple of players in our story.  We have Alice, who is the typical computer user.  We have Mallory, who is the bad guy who actually writes the virus.  Then, we have Trudy who has gotten a great deal on 100,000 Viagra pills that she wants to sell anonymously via email.   Alice has a computer that she uses for day-to-day computer activities.  She doesn't do her banking online and doesn't store anything 'sensitive', so she doesn't obsess (or really even think about) about security…

How did I get a virus, I don't visit porn sites?!?!?! Ok, so I just saw this on the wire and wanted to take an opportunity to a) warn folks about the hack on the DOL website and b) use it as an example of how easy it is for someone to get a virus from otherwise legitimate websites.  I'll try to be brief, but, well, you know how I tend to get on this stuff. First, the news.  According to this article, one of the U.S. Department of Labor's websites has been 'hacked' and is now redirecting users to malicious code.  Translation, if you visit the site, you stand a very good chance of getting a virus. Now, on to the good stuff.  According to the article, visitors to…

What's New Cyber Tech Cafe - We announced last month that we would had partnered with Domain.com for all of our website and email hosting and that we would begin migrating all of our current website and email hosting customers to Domain.com in the coming months.  I'm excited to announce that this has been going well and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  As you're reading this, some of you have already been migrated and some are already on the schedule.  We will be contacting each of our hosting customers directly to schedule the migration and expect to have everyone migrated by July of this year.  If you missed the original announcement, it is still available on our website here.  If you have any questions about the transition or would like to…