Blog & Updates

Crypto-type Virus Alert

August 13, 2015

Recently, we’ve heard reports that some clients have received emails which contain a very bad virus (a Crypto-type Virus, destroying data access). If you didn’t get our email, here’s what you should be on the lookout for. This email comes disguised most commonly as a resume or a scanned file and may have an attachment that has some kind of dot-m (resume.doc-m) – you may think this is from a mobile device or something like that. This particular virus is called Cryptowall, and it works by encrypting your files and follows the scheme requiring you to pay a fee to unlock the files again. While it is easy to disinfect the computer, unencrypting those files is next to impossible without the key that you need

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How to Make An Animated Gif

June 25, 2015

The internet is a vast, ever-expanding web of articles and videos, memes and photos. It seems like there is always something new being shared. Some of the most recognizable posts are short, soundless, animated images called a GIF. GIFs (pronounced either with a soft “g” that sounds like Jif peanut butter or, more commonly, with a hard “G” like gross) can be made of just about anything, from snippets of movie scenes to brief clips of movements on your computer.

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Festive holiday graphic featuring children decorating a Christmas tree with snow and mountain backdrop, perfect for winter holiday greetings and seasonal celebrations.

Holiday Card 2014

January 2, 2015

Chris illustrated our holiday card again this year. If you missed the email, you should really take a look. Happy New Year.

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Phishing Scams Use Your Social Network Against You

November 17, 2014

Be on the lookout for some new, email-based attacks spammers are using to infect people’s machines with malware. Spear phishing targets companies and individuals directly by sending email that looks like it comes from a coworker or friend but uses a different email address. It’s much harder to spot than your run-of-the-mill fake dating site/drug spam, which is why it’s been so effective. How are they getting information about my friends, family, and co-workers? Similar to social engineering efforts, we suspect scammers gather information posted publicly to websites and social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. Even if your profiles are set to “private,” information may be gathered about you based on the people in your network. What can I do?

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Heart-shaped graffiti art with dripping paint, symbolizing creativity and artistry in street art.

Heartbleed Bug, Password Security, and You

April 21, 2014

Two weeks ago computer security researchers notified the public of the Heartbleed Bug, a “serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library” that is widely used around the web. Left unchecked, it left a lot of people’s data at at risk, where third-parties could potentially eavesdrop on sensitive data including passwords. In response, system administrators scrambled to address this issue as soon as possible (while shady characters tried to take advantage). Even worse: it took two years for the bug to be discovered. Fortunately Twin State servers were never at risk, but a lot of popular web services like Pinterest, Yahoo Mail, and Dropbox were affected and quickly patched their systems. While there’s no evidence anyone was able to steal

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How to Design an Email Signature

April 7, 2014

Email signatures are like business cards. They exist to meet an obvious purpose, so they’re pretty easy to not think much about. In fact, the HBR Guide to Better Business Writing, Bryan Garner offers just two sentences on the topic: Use a signature that displays your title and contact information. It should look professional (not too long or ornate) and make it convenient for others to choose how to reach you. Pretty straightforward, right? While I think Garner gives us some good guidelines, the reality is a little more complex. Like a business card, email signatures are an extension of our marketing, so most of them are customized to meet business objectives beyond just exchanging contact info. But instead of the standard

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Status Board: Inside Twin State Technical Services

January 22, 2014

We’ve been quietly overhauling almost every aspect of the way we receive, manage, and fix problems for our clients. Our status board is instrumental in helping us solve issues faster. When one of our clients calls us with a problem, we want to solve it as quickly as possible. This, of course, is much easier when everyone at Twin State is on the same page. Where is everyone? Who is the best person to solve this issue? Are we allocating our resources as efficiently as possible? We built a status board ((We wrote our own solution before Panic released their app to the public. However, I use Panic’s app to keep track of my own projects. It’s great.)) to answer

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Participants at Twin State Technical Services security seminar discussing cybersecurity and data protection strategies.

Some Notes from our Security Seminar

August 23, 2013

Thanks to everyone who came to our security seminar on Wednesday. It was great talking with everybody about the latest trends in security. Check out our slide deck here (PDF) if you’d like to refresh your memory. We particularly enjoyed the conversations we had following the presentations during the Q&A time, so we wanted to share them here. Q: I have customers and employees who are using their phones on our WiFi network. Should I be concerned? Yes. When you visit a Starbucks and hop on their wireless network, do you think you have access to their corporate intranet? Of course not. Your business should treat wireless in the same way: as a separate, guest network. By doing so, you can protect

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