Computers | The Apheus Blog

Ransomware Attacks Shift to Mid-Sized Targets

2Nov

By Bob BarcusNo Comments

Computers, Tech News, Tech Talk

Ransomware Attacks Shift to Mid-Sized Targets

The latest Coveware research has been posted with some startling trends in ransomware attacks for the third quarter of 2021. There were numerous takeaways collected from the data and many of them paint a dangerous picture of things to come. As the government begins a serious crackdown on attacks against large corporations, the focus of attackers has shifted to smaller and mid-sized targets. The government's reaction has been attributed to the massive Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack. The focus towards smaller targets can be seen in the median ransomware payment of $71,674, which is a 52.2% increase since the second quarter of this year. The average ransomware payment of $139,739 is essentially unchanged. This is attributed to a smaller number of larger ransomware payments, but a...

18Oct

By Bob BarcusNo Comments

Computers, Tech News, Tech Talk

Music and the Mac

The latest Apple event was clearly focused on two things - music and the Mac. In fact, that's exactly what Apple's Tim Cook said right from the get-go. It was also quite nostalgic to hear a traditional Mac startup sound mixed in at the beginning. Audio Stuff Apple has created a new Apple Music subscription called Voice Plan for $4.99/month. This will be the cheapest plan available to access Apple's music library.New colors for the Home Pod Mini in yellow, orange, and blue, priced at $99. All of the colors look fantastic.The third generation of AirPods is being released with spatial audio for $179. Lots of new features in these AirPods. MacBook Pro Apple is calling the new MacBook Pro a "beast of a machine" with an impressive set of specs and features. MacBook Pro has th...

White House Urges Companies to Take Steps Against Ransomware Attacks

8Jun

By Bob BarcusNo Comments

Computers, Internet, Tech News, Tech Talk

White House Urges Companies to Take Steps Against Ransomware Attacks

As previously stated on this blog, ransomware attacks are up 485% year-over-year according to an industry report. In just the last few months, several high-profile ransomware attacks have impacted corporations, sending shockwaves that have not only impacted large corporations but individuals and their personal wallets. The White House penned an open letter urging private companies of all sizes to take ransomware more seriously. The letter outlines several steps that companies need to take in order to secure themselves against a ransomware attack: Implement best practices to help prevent and stop the spread of cybersecurity threats.Backup data, system images, and configurations. Regularly test backup systems and keep backups offline.Update and patch systems promptly.Develop and t...

10May

By Bob BarcusNo Comments

Computers, Internet, Tech News, Tech Talk

Ransomware Attacks Up 485%

According to the most recent Bitdefender 2020 Consumer Threat Landscape Report, ransomware attacks were up 485% in 2020 compared to 2019. And there's no indication that 2021 will see a reduction in attacks. That's a number that should shock most business owners into taking immediate action. Indeed, Apheus is actively warning all of our customers to do something - take action to defend your business against these types of cyberattacks. A ransomware attack can cripple a business. This past weekend, a major pipeline company called Colonial Pipeline was struck by a ransomware attack that effectively shut down the delivery of fuel to the northeast portion of the United States. While there were some immediate ramifications, there will be long-term effects as well. This attack is being ca...

4May

By Bob BarcusNo Comments

Computers, Internet, Tech News, Tech Talk

What Are NFTs?

So here's something new that my intern alerted me to last week: NFTs. Now you may be asking yourself (just like I did), what are NFTs? NFT stands for non-fungible tokens, which in itself, still doesn't quite answer our question. According to Forbes, an NFT is "a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos." So again, what does that mean? Basically, you have a digital asset such as a cat GIF. You purchase that GIF from the creator for say, $100,000, usually in cryptocurrency. You now own that asset. But you may be asking yourself one of several questions: Why buy it?Why does it cost so much?If it's already spread across the internet, how do you own it?What's the point?! I'm still struggling with understanding this whole NFT thing....

Hard Drive Full? Here’s a Couple of Suggestions

2Mar

By Bob BarcusNo Comments

Computers, Tech Talk

Hard Drive Full? Here’s a Couple of Suggestions

A full hard drive can actually cause your system to slow down considerably. If your hard drive is showing full on your computer, there are probably a couple of culprits. First of all, maybe you just have too many files stored on your hard drive. Photos and videos downloaded from your phone or camera can really eat up hard drive space, especially if you have a small drive. Consider transferring those files to another drive or using a cloud storage solution to get those files off of your system. Microsoft's OneDrive, DropBox, Google Drive, or a similar product will do the job. Secondly, it could be that you have a ton of temporary files on your system that you didn't even know you had. While Windows 10 does an excellent job of cleaning up those temporary files, I have noticed a l...

Critical Bug Can Corrupt a Windows 10 Hard Drive with Little to No Effort

18Jan

By Bob BarcusNo Comments

Computers, Tech News, Tech Talk

Critical Bug Can Corrupt a Windows 10 Hard Drive with Little to No Effort

The tech website BleepingComputer recently published an article discussing a strange and dangerous zero-day vulnerability in Windows 10. The problem is extremely critical and simple, according to the article: In multiple tests by BleepingComputer, this one-liner can be delivered hidden inside a Windows shortcut file, a ZIP archive, batch files, or various other vectors to trigger hard drive errors that corrupt the filesystem index instantly.https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/windows-10-bug-corrupts-your-hard-drive-on-seeing-this-files-icon/ This super-harmful exploit is so simple that almost anyone following the simple instructions outlined in the article and corrupt their NTFS-formatted hard drive without even opening a file. Commonly referr...

5Jan

By Bob BarcusNo Comments

Computers, Internet, Tech News, Tech Talk, Websites

The End of Adobe Flash

I think everyone can agree that 2020 sucked. However, there was one bright spot on December 31, 2020. It was the end of Adobe Flash. Made popular in the early days of the internet, Flash made moving graphics a mainstay for websites. Movie studio websites and online games took advantage of the software, but it quickly became apparent that Flash had a number of security holes. Constant patching by Adobe couldn't stop the eventual adaptation of HTML 5. Goodbye, old friend.

22Dec

By Bob BarcusNo Comments

Computers, Tech News, Tech Talk, Technology

Monitors are in Short Supply

I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a difficult year. Especially for those of us who work in the information technology field. In late 2019 we were facing a shortage of processors. That was quickly followed by a shortage of desktop computer systems in early 2020 that lasted nearly half the year. That was followed by a shortage of laptops and webcams. And that was just the hardware difficulties. Now that we're finishing out the year, we're faced with another hardware shortage - this time with monitors. If you can get a monitor, it's probably more expensive. There's no doubt about it, we are in the midst of a monitor shortage and it's not going to get any better anytime soon. The most recent round of problems (they say) is due to a strong earthquake in Taiwan and a power o...

The New Apple M1 Processor Set to Change Everything

17Nov

By Bob BarcusNo Comments

Computers, Tech News, Tech Talk, Technology

The New Apple M1 Processor Set to Change Everything

At Apple's event on November 10th, they unveiled the new M1 processor - a chip designed to replace the Intel processors previously used in their desktop and laptop computer products. The new M1 chip is debuting in new versions of the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. The first of these products are set to start arriving today. You can watch the whole video event below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AwdkGKmZ0I&ab_channel=Apple I have some take-aways from the event... First of all, you could tell that Apple was excited. In fact, it almost seemed like they were surprised by the power of their first Apple Silicon processor. These processors are fast, packed with features, and a step above anything else Apple has ever offered. Indeed, it may be one of the most...