Password guidelines supplied by NIST (The National Institute of Standards and Technology) have changed. The current password complexity rules require an uppercase character, lowercase character, numbers, and symbol that would need to be changed every 90 days. The issue with this guideline is that people have a hard time remembering these passwords and would write them down (Security violation because unwanted people could gain access to sensitive information) or incrementally change a number or character to essentially keep the password as close to the original as possible. This would cause a headache with many system administrators because of constant resetting of passwords [...]
There are three levels of ransomware. Ransomware is a type of malicious software which is designed to block your access to your computer until you pay a specific amount of money.
1.) Scareware – These are lowest on the totem pole and include fake anti-virus and anti-malware clients detecting non-existant issues and demanding money for the program to fix it.
2.) Browser/Screen locking ransomware – Think of the FBI moneypack virus where they claim to have detected illegal activity on your computer and demand a “fine” to prevent further prosecution.
3.) Encrypting ransomware – This ransomware is the worst of the worst and encrypts all [...]
While Solid State Drives are definitely a worthwhile investment they are not fail-proof, and failing SSD’s are not that uncommon and it’s always important to have backups in place for any system that houses important files.
Solid State Drives have a limited number of writes before they fail so here are some tips to maximize the life of your SSD.
Hibernation
The hibernation feature can hurt your SSD. It’s recommended to put the computer to sleep or shutdown instead. Hibernation works by writing your current session to the hibernation file whenever the computer goes into that mode (increased number of writes to your SSD). You can disable [...]
Dropping your computer off with a company you don’t know full of technicians you have never met can be a nerve-wracking experience and our job as your technician and consultant is to help you feel as comfortable as possible with dropping your PC (i.e. your entire life) off with us. CyndrTec will never go through your personal files without explicit written consent and only if it’s absolutely necessary. Times that this will be necessary are during severe drive failures when there are specific files that you need recovered, or if you have a missing file that needs to be recovered through other means.
Our diagnostic work is incredibly in depth and includes both [...]