Email Phishing is continuing source used by scam artists to get your money…

An interesting newsletter publication from Bloomberg supporting them scammers are impersonating Barclays, shell, and other entities in effort to steal your money going towards investments. They are reporting that thieves have walked off with $3.8 billion in reported thefts last year alone. Here's a link if you want to learn more about this method of fraud.

EOL Notice: Windows Server 2012R2 – Oct 10, 2023

Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 will end on October 10, 2023. After this date, these products will no longer receive security updates, non-security updates, bug fixes, technical support, or online technical content updates. Microsoft has migration guidance for both cloud and on-premises solutions. Jan 3, 2023

This is a good time to sit down and take a look at how you are using your current server in your network environment. We are seeing many of our smaller clients that use a server primarily as a file storage device that provides a centralized access for all of their employees and we can make a very good case for replacing the server with some of the cloud services that you may already be using, specifically with the Microsoft Office 365 environment.

We have had great success in moving some of our clients from an on premise server to SharePoint Cloud with the Office 365 licensing environment. SharePoint is available if you have Office 365 Business Basic or Business Standard licensing. We would use Azure for your authentication of your users in place of your server so that we can set up the right controls for accessing SharePoint file structure. It takes a little forethought in designing the best control but this is all part of the services that we can provide you during the migration from your on premise server to a cloud SharePoint environment.

Be sure to give PAconnect a call to give you a free evaluation of what the best solution for you would be.

Wi-Fi 6: Everything you need to know

Want an overview of the new WI-FI 6 designation and what you can expect when upgrading to the new standard? Here is an article that will help you understand what to expect.

Here is a quick list of what the upgrade provides:

• Faster transfer speeds between devices
• More throughput for connected systems
• Better performance with many connected devices
• Less device battery drain when connected

I'd take any one of these, but to take advantage of the new standard both the access point and the device connecting to it must have the new WI-Fi 6 configuration.

CRN Post:Sophos CTO Joe Levy On Surging MDR Demand And Endpoint Security Updates

Managed detection and response (MDR) ‘continues to be the fastest-growing offering in the history of Sophos as a company,’ Levy tells CRN.

Services Revolution

Since transitioning its managed threat response offering to a managed detection and response (MDR) service at the end of November, Sophos has seen strong demand that’s not expected to be slowing down anytime soon, Sophos CTO Joe Levy told CRN. The cybersecurity giant disclosed a suite of new endpoint security capabilities that will help feed into the MDR service — as well as the underlying extended detection and response (XDR) platform that helps to power the MDR. The updates include new account health check capabilities and “adaptive active adversary protection,” which offers the ability to disrupt attacks that are in progress and “buy more time for responders,” Levy said.

Ransomware on the Rise

A CSO article suggests that cyberattack tactics rise up as ransomeware payouts increase. The author goes on to describe the different modes of attack and what to look out for. Worth a read!