Resources

  You can easily block these applications from getting on your endpoints Here’s a quick Tech Tidbit: Configure your “Potentially Unwanted Applications” (PUA) settings in Windows Defender. Hopefully you kept Windows Defender on each workstation and server regardless of what your primary antivirus or EDR type security product is.

  Keep your browser extensions limited to those you need to support the district and trust “There is a snake in my boot” – Woody, Toy Story When I was whitewater rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, our guides warned us to shake out our shoes/boots before we put them on in […]

  “I am watching you…Always watching” -Roz Monsters Inc. For New Year’s we once again had a holiday crisis. Fortunately, this wasn’t an attack. Microsoft had a 2022 date bug in Exchange that totally shut down the on-premise Exchange server’s ability to send emails worldwide.

  Boring Email Formatting = Improved Reliability We love to use graphics and links in our emails. There are lot cool tools. However, the reality is that your district sends emails out in bulk. Spammers do that too.

    Cybersecurity Event Session Two: The Front Lines of Ransomware Speaker: Chris Loehr, Co-Founder, Service Provider Partners Chris Loehr is a cybersecurity professional and has worked firsthand on the resolution of roughly 300 ransomware incidents this past year.

I have four quick thoughts for you to ponder   Here are a couple of items that I have been reminded of recently: Not all problems are solved with technology. Today I had two completely unrelated discussions.

  With school districts now required to adopt the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) for managing their IT operations, our district administrative and technology teams have just become responsible for ensuring that approximately 108 technical or management best practice outcomes are occurring each day in their IT operations.

  I have something hard that I really need you to do – audit your DNS. It takes a lot of time. It is boring to do. However, it is vital. The old network endpoint troubleshooting adage is true, “It is probably DNS”. I believe you really should audit your DNS at least once if […]

  I heard the other day that the FCC is moving to get more aggressive in getting phone carriers to do all they can do to block spam and robocalls. I absolutely hate those calls on my cell or house phone that get through the basic spam filter only to be told that “my car […]

  In August CISA added “Single Factor Authentication” to its list of practices it considers “exceptionally risky” as it exposes you to an “unnecessary risk from threat actors”. It has been officially added to CISA’s “Bad Practices Catalog”. My experience is that if CISA recommends it, Superintendent’s are much more amenable to implementing the recommendation.