ETC Blog, The Tech Resource
Update to IOS 9.3.1
Now this is a nasty one. If you are not running IOS 9.3.1 an automated WiFi based attack against your Idevice(which is not that hard to carry out) can permanently brick your expensive Idevice. The problem is that if your Idevice gets set back to the date of Jan 1,...
When vendors go boom
Astaro was probably the best edge UTM out there for quite some time. I used them from the first v4 all the way up until now. Astaro was then purchased by Sophos and it became a morass of corporate interference, no service to their smaller partners, a series of badly...
Scheduled Maintenance Window
ETC Maryland will be performing various maintenance tasks on it's server fleet. The maintenance window is midnight Apr 2nd to 1AM Saturday Apr 2. During this time websites and other services may experience loss of connections or a total outage due to server reboots...
ETC Maryland case badges are here!
I have been drawn back into building custom computers again by request of my clients. I figured I needed some way of advertising my work...:) If you want one for a computer I have built for you let me know. If you want one I have a limited supply and will happily...
DOJ vs Apple: Game Over? Apple has some issues.
The DOJ has withdrawn from their battle to force Apple to unlock an IPhone from the San Bernadino shooting. As I had mentioned earlier the US Dept of Justice had botched the investigation in the first place making it nearly impossible to unlock the Iphone. Then the...
Backups In The Age of Ransomware
I have been watching with concern as ransomware spreads nearly unchecked throughout the world. Many ways are being discussed but I chose to focus on recovery. Local backups are now no longer safe as if you get a ransomware infestation these malware packages start...
ETC Maryland Suffers Major Website Outage
I woke up about 0730 this morning to my phone being alerted that my webserver was offline. right after that several of my web hosting clients also began texting and messaging me about the issue. Once i got up I was able to see that not only was my server offline but...
FBI Granted Motion to Vacate Tomorrow’s Hearing Against Apple. What is Going on?
The FBI has asked and been granted a motion to postpone their hearing tomorrow claiming somebody from outside the government has shown them a possible way to unlock the Iphone of the San Bernardino shooter. Now comes the real question. Have they truly found a way or...
Update Your Kindle or Loose Internet Access
Amazon has pushed out a critical update for its Kindle readers. If you fail to install this update before midnight tonight your kindle will not have Internet access any longer. As noted on the relevant Amazon webpage this affects mainly older Kindles and not...
Microsoft Partially Backs Down on its Hardware Support Policy
Microsoft has just announced they are adding a year to their windows 7 Skylake and above support times. Excerpted from The Tech Report article: Microsoft has now updated its Skylake support policy, and saw it fit to extend the support period for Windows 7 and...
IOT and BYOD Must be Kept off Your Internal Network
I have talked about keeping IOT(Internet of Things) and BYOD(Bring your Own Devices) out of your internal network privately for a while. I have often told my clients in private that allowing employee(or guest) devices on your internal network is a bad idea and have...
Malvertising: Why Blocking Ads at the Edge is Good Security
I have posted about this multiple times. I do not block ads to harm websites. I actually allow ads for sites that I frequent AND run their own internal ad servers. When it comes to my clients I put up the stoutest edge defenses I can. One of those defenses is a...
ETC Maryland Moves Forward in Webhosting
ETC Maryland would like to announce 4 significant enhancements to its web hosting product. ETC Maryland is moving to become the premier WordPress hosting company in Frederick County, Maryland. From competitive pricing, servers with low loads for fast performance,...
ETC “Rescue Operation” Successful
Remember my webhosting post about a new client with a messed WordPress transfer? I finally got rid of the Godaddy code injection but several of the plugin images inside the administrative interface would not display. It turns out there was another security plugin...
The Truth Finally Comes Out..The FBI Screwed Up.
Apple vs. the FBI continues. Now the FBI admits what i suspected all the time..the FBI screwed up and were asking for Apple to bail them out. Unfortunatly most of the data is toasty now. We will see what actually comes of this now. The head of the FBI...
Another Nail in Norton’s Coffin
I have long taken joy in removing Norton products from client machines simply because of the performance drain and the aggressive invasive nature of the software. i now have a new reason. Norton is now bundling the Ask.com toolbar with their security product....
When Web Hosting Goes Bad ETC Maryland Comes to the Rescue
I had a site I like to read get taken down....so I offered to host them. I was ready for a challenge but I had no idea how big of a challenge I was in for. It started off as a problematic endeavor. The client had been locked out of his account via his web host....
Latest major security problem in Windows affects ALL supported versions.
There's no real way to know how much legacy code is still in Windows but i get it is more than anyone wants to admit. I see articles that claim windows has been rewritten but i have known for a long time that is not the case. The latest major security problem in...
Get Your Phone Repaired by the Wrong Tech And Your Iphone is a Brick
Apple has implemented a system that if you get your screen replaced by a non apple tech your phone is most likely going to be bricked with an error 53. Apple has confirmed this is expected behavior when a screen replacement results in damage to or the replacement of...
The Forcible “Upgrades” for Windows Users Begins
If you are running 7 or 8.x your machine is most likely going to surprise you and go right to windows 10 irregardless of if your hardware can actually handle it. For some folks this will be painless and for others it is not going to be a fun time. You can go to my...
Microsoft Requires Windows 10 For New Hardware
I was simply stunned by this. If you buy the newest processors from Intel and AMD or anyone...Microsoft is now saying you have 18 months to upgrade your desktops/laptop/workstations to Windows 10 or you loose updates. The best line is the one bout we will give you...
Blackberry was NOT hacked
When i saw this I figured I needed to wait to talk about it until the REAL story came out. Almost all media outlets(new and old) now use sensational headlines based on either old data or not data at all for clickbaiting. This "story" is no different. The...
Microsoft is DESPARATE to get Windows 10 everywhere
To the point of saying that windows 7 is as dangerous as running windows xp. Windows 7 is still supported for security updates and is no more dangerous to run than before. To quote a MS marketing person: Microsoft chief marketing officer Chris Capossela told a...
ETC Webhosting is Growing!
Thanks to my clients who have chosen ETC Maryland for webhosting I have had to order a larger, more powerful server to make sure your website does not slow down. I was using my own Virtual Private Server Product to launch my webhosting business. Due to growth I am...
Dell does its own superfish.
Dell's stupidity is on display as Dell has inserted a base root certificate that can sign code. The really bad part is dell leaves the keys to this cert exposed in the clear so it is easy to extract the keys from the machine and use them as a man in the middle...