30Aug 2021 by nathan

Closed Monday, 6 September 2021 for Labor Day

CTC NEWS
We will be closed on Monday, 6 September 2021 to enjoy the Labor Day holiday with friends, family and loved ones and will reopen during normal business hours on Tuesday, 7 September 2021.  Emergency support will be available for our commercial 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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22Jun 2021 by nathan
Closed 5 July 2021

Closed 5 July 2021

CTC NEWS
Cyber Tech Cafe will be closed on Monday, 5 July 2021 to celebrate Independence Day and enjoy time with family, friends and loved ones. Emergency support will be available for commercial 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. Please note that holiday rates will apply. Any non-emergency support requests will be addressed in the order they were received on Tuesday, 6 July 2021.
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14Jun 2021 by nathan

June 2021 News & Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Monthly Newsletters, Tech news
Executive Summary So far, June 2021 is a bit of a reprieve from the massive oil pipeline breach that we were looking at this time just a month ago. That said, there are a couple of things to keep your eyes on. Threat actors, including nation states, are targeting vaccine and virology organizations as well as pharmaceutical companies. If you're in these verticals or do business with these verticals (supply chain, customers, etc.), be on the lookout for targeted attacks.Multiple significant bugs patchedMicrosoft patched six zero-day vulnerabilities, including a Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability and a privilege escalation vulnerability that are being actively exploited in the wild.Threat actors are evolving - According to this article, the bad guys seem to be doing a better job of applying lessons learned to…
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19May 2021 by nathan

May 2021 News & Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Monthly Newsletters
Executive Summary May 2021 is proving to be a busy month (already) from a technology perspective. Between massive ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure (and $5M USD ransoms paid) to newly patched wormable vulnerabilities (that could easily be weaponized and used against other critical infrastructure targets) to the latest Windows Feature Release, IT Pros have certainly been tested. Regular site visits return - When we saw the potential for a fuel shortage and the subsequent rush on gas stations, we halted all non-critical site visits. With the fuel supply stabilizing, I'm happy to report that site visits are back to normal.Enhanced Patch Management - Cyber Security impacting the physical world - We have two cases where cyber attacks had real world impacts on the physical worldColonial Pipeline Breach - Details are…
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12May 2021 by nathan

Enhanced Patch Management Reboot Prompt

CTC NEWS, Tech news
Your computer may need to be rebooted for some important updates to be installed. Failing to restart and / or install these updates can leave your computer and the network of devices that it's connected to open and vulnerable to attacks like ransomware, viruses, data theft and more. Our Enhanced Patch Management system can install updates for more than 300 programs and applications and, if there is a need to restart, will prompt you to restart now (with a 60 minute countdown timer) and give you the option to postpone the restart for 4 or 6 hours or the next time that you log out. The default is to "Restart Now" with a 60 minute countdown timer. If no action is taken, the computer will restart and the updates will…
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11May 2021 by nathan

Important Notice Regarding Site Visits

CTC NEWS
Like everyone else, we are watching as the fallout from the Colonial Pipeline breach and subsequent shutdown ripples through every corner of commerce. Specifically, as we're already seeing widespread fuel shortages and stations simply out of fuel, we're looking at the cost and availability of fuel in the coming days and weeks. Effective immediately, we will be limiting site visits to matters that cannot be addressed remotely. We want to do what we can to conserve fuel for first responders and other essential workers. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and support.
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30Apr 2021 by nathan
But the HIPAA Security Rule doesn’t explicitly say anything about patches and updates!?!?

But the HIPAA Security Rule doesn’t explicitly say anything about patches and updates!?!?

Industry News, Tech news
Technology is a requirement for business and is deeply embedded in modern healthcare. Although no specifics for patch management is available in the HIPAA Security Rule, healthcare providers who fall victim to threats like phishing, malware, ransomware or other cyber criminals may be subject to significant fines if they do not have a documented patch management program in place. Most of the software that powers the technology used in healthcare contains "bugs" that can negatively affect how the software works and create risks to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data. These "bugs" are regularly fixed with updates and patches by the manufacturers, but it's generally the users responsibility to test, approve and install these updates and patches. While the HIPAA Security Rule doesn't explicitly detail a patch management…
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18Mar 2021 by nathan

March 2021 News & Updates

CTC NEWS, Industry News, Monthly Newsletters, Tech news
Executive Summary A number of Windows Users, after installing the latest security updates, found that they were unable to print. In some cases, the symptom was simply that blank pages were printed and in some cases the computers would blue screen (crash) or freeze (requiring a power cycle). Additional information is available here.Four zero day vulnerabilities were published and publicly exploited in Microsoft Exchange servers including Exchange Server 2013, 2016 and 2019. The vulnerabilities were used extensively to target and attack US targets including healthcare, government and more. Additional information is available here.Microsoft's Azure Platform (Azure AD, AAD) suffered a pretty significant outage on 15 March starting at apparently 19:15 UTC and finally ending at approximately 09:37 UTC on the following day. Impacted users were unablet o access Azure resources…
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