Do firewall appliances expire like a carton of milk?

Something that many people don’t know is that there are actually expiration dates on hardware and software. Let’s say you buy a Cisco ASA 5505 security appliance (firewall) for your business, and you keep it up to date. When do you expect to replace it? Chances are, you feel that the firewall should be left in place until it dies …

Patch your Mac, patch your Windows, patch your Microsoft Groove too… #patches

  Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, March 10, 2011 It has been patch city this past week… Let’s start off with the Mac stuff for a change…   Apple Mac OS X 10.5.x (Leopard) and 10.6.x (Snow Leopard) are the subject of two Apple security advisories which warn of 16 vulnerabilities in OS X’s Java components. Apple simply states …

Who is your Greenville / Upstate BUSINESS computer dealer?

If you are in the market for a new business computer, where do you go in the Greenville / Upstate area? Do you go to a “big box store”? A warehouse? An office supply? You should be aware that the “business computer” you purchase from some dealers may actually be a computer designed for home use, and not actually a …

Secure IT Alert: Microsoft Patches Coming along with Mozilla Firefox Update for Windows, Mac & Linux

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, March 3, 2011 Microsoft issued the Advance Notification for March 2011 and today… The full version of the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for March 2011 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms11-mar.mspx. The advanced notification will be replaced with the March bulletin summary on March 8, 2011. On the Critical list are updates for remote code execution …

ShredDisk Onsite Hard Drive Shredding demonstrates The Shredder for @BigJonEvans – @ShredDisk

Our friend Jon Evans (@BigJonEvans) from www.4head4rent.com spent some time with another of our great friends and business partners, Brent Amyette with ShredDisk Onsite Hard Drive Shredding (@ShredDisk) yesterday… In their live web stream, they discussed the benefits of using ShredDisk Onsite Hard Drive Shredding, and how traditional means of erasing a hard drive before donating the computer and drive …

Why do you need Microsoft Windows 7 SP1?

I am hearing that many people are opting to not install Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 which was released back in February 22, 2011. The reasoning is that it is a large download (750MB or 1GB depending on whether you need 32bit or 64bit versions), a long install process, and there are no enhanced features. So what does the Service Pack …

Secure IT Alert: Microsoft Security Bulletin Re-Releases & AutoRun Advisory

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, February 23, 2011 Microsoft has released Security Advisory 967940, titled “Update for Windows Autorun”, and it covers an issue that has long plagued Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. When you insert a USB flash drive, or USB hard drive, Windows has attempted to treat them like CD/DVD material and perform an autorun on it. While …

Secure IT Alert: Potential Microsoft Windows SMB vulnerability discovered

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, February 17, 2011 I’m posting this verbatim from the WatchGuard security blog… — Yesterday, a gray hat going by the alias Cupidon-3005 posted details about a zero day Windows SMB vulnerability that could potentially allow attackers to gain control of fully patched Windows Server 2003 and XP computers. Microsoft is currently investigating this surprise …