ABB’s May 2023 Active Directory Ransomware Attack

Black Basta Ransomware Attack Hits ABB’s Active Directory | May 2023 ABB, a multinational corporation based in Switzerland, is a leading industrial tech provider, employs 100,000+, and reported revenues above $29 billion in 2022. It’s believed the attack was carried out by famed ransomware group Black Basta on May 7th, 2023. Recent Headlines News headlines […]

Another Month, Another Onslaught of Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware & Malware – Not “IF” but “WHEN”. Are We Ready to Do Something About It? I’m going to play a little Captain Obvious here but cyberattacks, particularly ransomware and malware, continue to embarrass organizations globally. Boards of directors and executive leadership teams at enterprises, big and small, claim to be concerned about cyberattack impact, […]

Patch Now: Microsoft Releases Updates for Over 75 Flaws

Microsoft Releases Patches for 9 Critical Flaws & 3 Zero-Day Vulnerabilities On Tuesday, Microsoft released its security updates for February 2023, including patches for over 75 flaws. Among the 75 vulnerabilities, nine were rated “critical” and 66 “important” in terms of severity of threat to the organization. Three of them have been identified as zero-day […]

Four Different Microsoft Azure Services Found Vulnerable to Server-Side Request Forgery Attacks

Microsoft Azure Services Flaws Could’ve Exposed Cloud Resources to Cyberattacks According to a blog post Tuesday by Orca Security, four Microsoft Azure services have been found vulnerable to server-side request forgery (SSRF). The security issues were discovered by Orca between October 8, 2022 and December 2, 2022. The vulnerable services include: Azure API Management, Azure Functions, Azure […]

Microsoft Launches Brute Force Attack Protection For All Windows Versions

Microsoft Releases Policy to Further Prevent Brute Force Attack Attempts Earlier this week, Microsoft announced additional protection against brute force attacks, one of the most common methods used to attack Windows machines. IT admins can now configure a group policy to automatically block brute force attacks targeting local administrator accounts on any Windows system still […]

Senate Passes Cybersecurity Act: Orgs to Report Cyberattacks & Ransom Payments

The Senate on Tuesday passed major cybersecurity legation, moving one step closer toward forcing critical infrastructure companies to report cyberattacks and ransomware payments. The passage comes as federal officials have repeatedly warned of the potential for Russian cyberattacks against the United States amid the escalating conflict in Ukraine. The legislation, which still has to pass […]

Azure AD Connect: New Update

New Azure AD Connect Version 2.0.91.0 Released This week, Microsoft released an updated version of Azure AD Connect. This new version provides compliance of the Azure AD Connect Health component with the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) requirements. Keep track and understand all the versions that have been released — view Azure AD Connect version […]

New Pricing for Microsoft 365

New Commercial List Pricing for Office 365 Microsoft announced changes to their commercial pricing for Microsoft 365—the first substantive pricing update since the launch of Office 365 a decade ago. Microsoft says that this updated pricing reflects the increased value they have delivered to their customers over the past 10 years. On March 1, 2022, […]

Thank Your SysAdmins – It’s System Administrator Appreciation Day!

SysAdmin Appreciation Day

Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day! System Administrator Appreciation Day, also known as SysAdmin Day, is an event created by System Administrator, Ted Kekatos. It all started when Kekatos saw a magazine advertisement in which a System Administrator was presented with flowers and fruit-baskets by grateful co-workers as thanks for installing new HP printers. Kekatos had […]

New Fluid Office Documents from Microsoft Coming This Summer to Teams, OneNote, and More

Microsoft Fluid Coming to Teams Soon

Fluid Components Starting to Arrive in Microsoft Platforms Soon The biggest change to Microsoft’s Office documents in decades is coming to life soon, as the company’s Fluid framework arrives in Microsoft Teams, OneNote, Outlook, and Whiteboard. The future-facing concept of Fluid’s framework, introduced last year, allows for immediate sync of content that lives independently across […]