ETC Blog, The Tech Resource
Another Geek Squad Rescue
Geek squad used to be competent albeit overpriced. I now have a client machine here that was diagnosed with a series of problems over the past few months to a year. 1. bad internal nic. new nic was installed. It was a good one(Intel) at least. 2. The machine...
New Client Upgrade
ETC Maryland has been working with this client for several years. The network this setup replaced was first installed in 2005 when this clients business first started. Due to ETC Maryland's forward thinking this system was able to be literally rolled into this new...
MIcrosoft Office365=fail
Being a Microsoft partner when i saw they were giving MAPS subscribers their top of the line Office365 package I thought this would be great. I was met with several challenges right off the bat: 1.Setting up the account isn't straightforward at all. In...
Target’s Been Hacked Before
The latest breach isn't Target's first breach it turns out. Back in 2005 they were compromised as well. If this report is true many retailers have not upgraded to modern security on their front ends in over 10 years. If this is true the big box stores are going to...
Neiman Marcus Network Compromised Even Longer Than Target
NM's breach is more significant than Target's because of the length of the known compromise. Folks the same advice i gave for Target now goes to NM. If you used the same card at Target and NM and you've already re-issued that's good. If you don't know which one it...
Starbucks is an open door to your bank account.
There's not much more to say. If you have the Starbucks app on your phone get it off of there and don't put it back on. Starbucks has a lazy attitude towards security and it appears they aren't going to change that anytime soon. The Starbucks mobile app, the...
Target Was Totally and Remotely Compromised
So Target was running Windows XP embedded and it appears they will for quite some time as it's going to take quote a while to replace all of their vulnberable windows based POS systems with something else. The problem is even if they switch to something else if the...
2014 and What it Means For Your Technology and Network
I know there are many small businesses that are running Windows XP still. As of April of this year Windows XP officially dies. Many programs are simply going to not work anymore as announced by their creators. Sure you can hang onto the old versions but as more and...
Told You So!(Target Got Totally Owned)
If you have ever shopped at Target your information was taken. 100 million? This means Target was totally compromised and they had no idea. They'll never be able to tell EXACTLY how many...if you are smart just assume everyone who has ever used any kind of...
The Target Breach: The Full Extent is Becoming Known
When the first reports were only a limited subset of their data but a huge amount of customers I figured it was much worse. Target was just going to bide time for AFTER the holidays to fully report. NOw that the holidays are over the real extent is coming out....
More Nails in the Coffin of Windows XP. It’s Time to Upgrade
If you still have a windows xp machine. Contact ETC quickly for upgrades or replacements. If you are content to deal with Windows 8 you can go to any store and pay little for a computer...if you can use the computer with the interface disaster that is Windows 8. If...
NSA’s ANT Division Catalog of Exploits for Nearly Every Major Software/Hardware/Firmware | LeakSource
All I can say is wow. NSA’s ANT Division Catalog of Exploits for Nearly Every Major Software/Hardware/Firmware | LeakSource.
HOw Insecure are Smartphones?
Alli can say is READ THE ENTIRE LINKED ARTICLE then come here for the link to part 1 of the talk. I am providing links to part 1 and part 2 below. Part 1: The militarization of the Internet part 2: Remote Iphone Compromise Following up on the latest stunning...
(REality? It Would Not Surprise Me) Catalog Reveals NSA Has Back Doors for Numerous Devices – SPIEGEL ONLINE
I have no way to confirm or deny this..but given my own thoughts about weird things I've seen over the years and the continuing Snowden revelations I wouldn't be shocked if this is true. Catalog Reveals NSA Has Back Doors for Numerous Devices - SPIEGEL ONLINE.
If You Shopped at Target During Black Friday..It’s Now on the Black Market.
Me and my wife are cancelling our cards right now. If yours is a debit card you should cancel it now as there usually no protection from fraudulent charges. If you are a business any cards you've used at target are either stolen or at risk. Credit and debit...
Target Confirms Massive Credit Card Breach
Nationwide retail giant Target is investigating a data breach potentially involving millions of customer credit and debit card records, multiple reliable sources tell KrebsOnSecurity. The sources said the breach appears to have begun on or around Black Friday 2013 —...
Possible Large Scale Card Compromise at Target
This could be a serious breach. I'll post more as details emerge. Nationwide retail giant Target is investigating a data breach potentially involving millions of customer credit and debit card records, multiple reliable sources tell KrebsOnSecurity. The sources said...
The Ultimate Act of Desperation
Microsoft is so desperate to move copies of it's turd Windows 8(by extension Server 2012 and office 2013) it's now forcing partners to that OS. I have 1..1 client that actually tolerates Windows 8. Every other client is avoiding it like the plague that it is. So...
One Less Microsoft Partner
My own protest here won't mean anything to Microsoft but I am NOT renewing my membership at the beginning of 2015. Microsoft has summarily removed ALL windows 7(server 2008, office 2010) etc etc etc from tech net AND their partner download areas. I can't even have...
New Mac Product Line: Why Your Data is at Risk
I've been working on hardware for quite a while. I've seen my fair share of companies trying to keep folks out of their products. Apple is at the top of this list in terms of difficulty in computer repair now. I've had to accumulate quite a toolset for dealing with...
An Interesting Power Saving Trick for IOS 7
I've noticed that both on the Internet and in my own experience IOS 7 is quote the battery hog. After some research I did the following to my wife's Iphone 5: 1. Disabled Airdrop 2. Removed as many of the animations as possible 3. Reduced the apps allowed to run in...
It’s good to be back..:)
Facebook wanted to increase security by requiring https. While that is normally a good thing they required third party security certs. Now that everyone knows folks like me aren't crazy in terms of what the NSA is capable of...by government order not superior...
Adobe Owned…Total Network Compromise
So much for cloud security. Basically everything you have given Adobe is out in the wild. Adobe is offering credit monitoring..that's a joke. If you have given a credit card to Adobe..cancel it immediately. Also if you have used a password on Adobe's site you'll...
A Truly False Sense of Online Security. SSL is Done(At Least Third Party Certificates Should Be)
I have said over and over third party trust on security certificates is stupid. I've never really been able to articulate in a simple way why it is stupid. Read below and Karl articulates this beautifully. This should be a wakeup call to EVERYONE in the wake of...
Nine traits of the veteran network admin
If you see an IT person exhibiting any of these...they haven't lost their mind..:) Nine traits of the veteran network admin.