Charland Technology

08/28/2025

Yesterday was Tech Makeover day for our friends at the Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce!

We replaced a sluggish old PC & 2-screen setup with a new ThinkCentre and 43" display. Some people like multiple screens, some prefer a single bigger display.

Look at that desk space now!

07/11/2025

We're seeing several reports of Verizon FIOS related internet issues. Seems mostly related to interfaces between Verizon and other carriers (notably Comcast) in the Northeast. Folks can get to some (most?) websites, etc, but can't reach office VPN and other less-used paths.

Explore this post and more from the sysadmin community

10/29/2024

We are less than a year from the end of support for Windows 10.

This doesn't mean automatic PANIC for most people, but if you're an organization that is required to keep systems & software updated it's something to keep in mind.

Many Windows 10 systems can still be updated to Windows 11. Others might have technical limitations, or be old enough that replacement is a better way to go.

Something else to keep in mind for next year's budget - Windows Server 2012 R2 has been out of support for a full year now. If any of these systems are still around it's time to move on.

Make a smooth transition to Windows 11 from your unsupported operating system with help from Microsoft. Enjoy the benefits of upgrading to a Windows 11 PC.

10/16/2024

Emergency on-site service... sometimes you need a local pro to get your systems running again. That's why we focus on tech for Central New England.

09/16/2024

Where's Greg? At the IBM cyber range!

07/12/2024

Infragard is the FBI's public-private partnership focusing on cyber security. Greg participated in their event at Barnes AFB that included a tour of their info security operations and close-up with the F-15s!

07/10/2024

Online scammers don't take holidays off - in fact we often see increased activity after-hours, especially on holidays and long weekends. This can give the bad guys extra time to do their thing before the IT staff gets back to work on Monday Morning.

We have tools to detect many common security concerns and take action in real time. Here's something we caught at 7pm on July 3, after everyone headed out for the holiday and LONG weekend.

With the immediate threat locked out we checked for other signs of unauthorized access across the organization and attempted to contact the person whose account was blocked.

If your organization uses cloud services it's important to have these security tools in place, configured, and monitored

07/03/2024

Yes, libraries are targets for online attacks. So are small businesses, local governments, and non-profits.

If you're online - you're a target.

Some of the attackers are after money - financial details or access to get $. Some of them are after personal information to sell for $.
Others are looking to disrupt government, commerce, or services.
Some are trying to get into systems affiliated with other targets, using trust to get in elsewhere.

No organization is "too small" to go after.

Nearly three months after a ransomware attack disrupted phone lines, computer services and Wi-Fi across Solano County’s public libraries, systems are still down with no recovery in sight — an all too common plight for vulnerable government agencies, experts say. Patrons who depend on using libra...

06/20/2024

The 911 emergency phone system in Massachusetts was down for about 2 hours earlier this week. The outage is being attributed to a firewall. Ironic, isn't it?

Modern enterprise firewalls are complex devices that inspect millions of network communications per second. They have layers of detection rules and processes that decide which connections look legit, which look like intrusion attempts, which look like specific apps, etc. and allow or block connections based on those rules.

The specifics of these rules aren't public knowledge (because then the bad guys would know how to get around them), so it can be challenging to make sure the device we're using to PREVENT risk doesn't BECOME a risk of its own.

A lock icon ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the official website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

06/19/2024

Not a good day for car dealers...

BREAKING: CDK Global, a company that provides cloud services for auto dealerships, is experiencing a nearly-complete outage (possibly ransomware, though this hasn't been confirmed).

This is one of the risks of relying on cloud services - your office and services can be set up properly and according to your risk tolerance, but if your SaaS provider gets taken down you're still dead in the water.

It's still vital to secure your systems. It's also critically important to work through the exercise of, "What is our plan if we can't get to this system for a couple hours? A day? A week?" It does happen.

Operations that have done this work will be able to keep running when their competitors have sent everyone home.

The DMS giant said it shut down most of its systems to contain problems as it works to address the issue and restore service.

08/24/2021

Please please PLEASE!
DO NOT TRUST EMAILED WIRE INSTRUCTIONS.
(and know what your cyber insurance policy covers)

Criminals pretending to be the ConVal School District and a construction contractor used forged email accounts and bank documents to fool the town of Peterborough into sending them $2.3 million, in the latest example of online theft via false...

09/16/2020

https://charlandtech.com/quickbooks-2021-read-before-you-buy/
Intuit is changing the way you'll buy Quickbooks desktop... are they adding value or pulling you into the hamster wheel of subscription payments?

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