Author: rory-admin

The biggest cyber security breaches of 2023
Now that it’s 2024 we’re reflecting on the biggest events in tech that occurred in 2024, and in today’s article we want to talk about the biggest cyber security breaches that occurred in 2023.

Before we get into it, let’s talk about the hard numbers. Across the board, cyber threats are up year over year and 2023 was no exception. Here are 8 eye opening statistics on cyber threats as of writing:
1. The global average cost of a data breach is $4.45 million and a ransomware attack $5.13 million as of 2023.
2. The average lifecycle (discovery to remediation) of a data breach is 277 days.
3. 74% of data breaches still involve a human element in 2023.
4. 64% of Americans have not checked to see if there data has been lost in a data breach.
5. Almost half (46%) of all cyberattacks were on US targets.
6. More than 1 million identities were stolen in 2023.
7. 30% of those people were a victim of a data breach in 2023.
8. 54% of office works express feeling “cybersecurity fatigue” in regards to news of data breaches.
Unfortunately, public apathy towards cybersecurity preventions from ongoing, sustained attacks and the lucrative nature of successful attacks performed on business entities makes for a potent recipe in these attacks only continuing to increase in 2024.

We want to take a look back at the biggest breaches that occurred in 2023 and also present our solution for preventing an attack of this nature from occurring to your business.
1. MGM – Occurring in September, the unusual way MGM was breached made headlines because it did not initially involve a computer. Instead, attackers posed as people of importance to the company via a phone call and gained access to their systems, causing a loss of reputation, $100 million in damages, and 5 class action lawsuits to be filed.
2. ChatGPT – Not even AI is safe when it comes to targeted attacks from hackers, in March of 2023 a bug in their source code exposed the personal information of a 1.2% of their Plus Subscribers including home addresses, full names and email addresses.
3. MOVEit File Transfer System – The fallout from this breach that occurred in June 2023 extended far beyond the file system management software company itself, including California’s biggest pension fund holders CalPERS and CalSTRS.
4. RockStar – RockStar is another example like MGM that proved hackers don’t need expensive equipment to breach insecure systems, with this breach being conducted using a cellphone, a hotel room TV and an Amazon FireStick.
5. The City of Oakland – An entire city was the target of a hack that occurred in February of 2023, the sustained attack which lasted more than a week prompted the city to even declare a state of emergency while systems remained offline. Class actions lawsuits were also filed in the aftermath of the attack in this case.
These are just five attacks that made major news last year, but there were thousands more that did not make major news. When an attack occurs on a small business many times it leaves the owners with no choice but to close up shop (60% of small businesses that are the victim of a cyber attack close within 6 months).

As IT providers it’s a frustrating topic for us as so much of this is preventable. If more preventions were put in place and it was more difficult for attackers to realize their goals than it would have a cumulative positive effect overall. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Let us help you meet your cybersecurity goals in 2024 by clicking on the image below.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.
This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.
January 12, 2024
7 Tech New Year’s Resolutions to Accomplish in 2024
Happy New Year! It may not feel like 2024 yet to you (it certainly doesn’t to us) but the new year is upon us and with that comes a renewed opportunity to address some of the tech items that have been pushed under the rug to deal with “later”.

Whether you’re committed to trying to up your game this year or clean up areas of your business where the tech has fallen behind, we have 7 New Year’s resolutions that will push your business forward and maximize your efficiency and growth in 2024.
1. New Year, New Tech? Starting off, the start of the year is a great time to do some housekeeping and figure out what devices may be holding you and your staff back. Vendors like Dell, Lenovo and more often have start of the year sales and dragging that aging PC or laptop through another year versus starting clean with a new device (with vastly superior hardware) just doesn’t make sense.
2. There’s an app for EVERYTHING. Next, it’s a good idea to see what processes you’re still trudging through manually and evaluate whether some of those manual tasks could instead be modernized with an app. Whether it be pen and paper calendar or planner (Microsoft Outlook has both built in!) or tools for managing budgets, inventory, scheduling and more – going digital with your processes in 2024 is the smart choice.
3. Connect with your customers. When it comes to engaging with your clients, reaching them where they are is a powerful tool. For a lot of business owners stepping out from the shadows and putting more of themselves online is a scary thought, but many customers want to identify with your brand or with you directly not just with your product. Who better to promote your brand than you? Improving your online presence for your business and yourself is a powerful sales tool you should take advantage of in 2024.
4. Are you cyber aware or cyber scared? If cybersecurity has been a topic you’ve been avoiding or interacting with as little as possible, it’s really past time to change that. The threats to your business aren’t going away and a little proactive maintenance in this area can have a HUGE impact. One thing you can do today (as in right now) to bolster your protection? Turn on multi-factor authentication on all the accounts where it’s available. This simple action will give you over 50% improvement in protecting your accounts from being compromised vs not having it.
5. In the same vein, data loss is not inevitable. We get it, we’re all inundated with news of this breach or that data leak where everyone’s information was dumped into the internet ether – we just would argue that this scenario is NOT an inevitability. In fact, in 2024 we would also guess many insurance companies would agree as rules for being covered continue to grow stricter. If you don’t have a plan for your backups and data in 2024 you need to make one, STAT.
6. Tech improvements can have a positive effect on your ROI. Whether it be ditching traditional telecom in favor of VoIP (our customers have paid as little as a 10^th of what they were spending for phones with our solution), utilizing digital training to increase your employees confidence and performing, or deploying communication tools in your business that allow for more efficient back and forth – there are a lot of areas where tech won’t just make your business run better it will also make your business more profitable.
7. You can’t do it alone, take this piece of advice. If nothing else the best resolution you can make regarding your tech in 2024 is acknowledging that it might be too much for one person, whether that’s you or a non-technical staff member that’s trying to help out – to keep up with maintenance alone is often times not a one-person job let alone making improvements. The best bang for your buck in 2024 will be bringing in additional assistance.
If your business is located in the Central Valley that’s where Valley Techlogic can assist. We provide support for ALL the topics we’ve listed above and more, and when you sign up with us you will have access to our whole team – often times for much less than it would be to hire a single dedicated IT staff person.

If you’re curious what we can do for your business we’re also offering $100 cash to business owners that simply hear what we have to offer, no strings attached. Click on the image below to get started.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.
This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.
January 5, 2024
In 2023 some of the biggest cyber-attacks were orchestrated with “low tech” methods
Whether you’re “tech aware” or not, most of us know that the human element is one of the riskiest elements of our business when it comes to our data being compromised.

2023 proved that in spades with many of the largest attacks of the year being orchestrated with “low tech” methods – whether that be social engineering as we saw with MGM or literally low tech as with the attack on Rockstar that was conducted with a cellphone, TV and an Amazon Firestick.

Attacks such as the one on MGM are conducted with social engineering and the attacker doesn’t need to possess any particularly strong tech skills to pull an attack of that nature off. These attacks are usually accomplished through persistence – the attacker sometimes researches their target and reaches out to decision makers or those close to decision makers to try and gain access through Vishing, Phishing, and other methods (see our chart below for examples).

They may also “bruteforce” their way in though not in the typical way you might think, compromised credentials are often found very cheaply on the web and many people use the same password for everything. The bad actor will again look for specific targets and then try to purchase credentials that will match their target.

A common social engineering attack is orchestrated as follows:
1. The attacker will research their target. This includes trying to figure out who is a decision maker or close to a decision maker. They may also look for details about you found on social media (such as family and friends names they can use to make their attack appear more legitimate).
2. The attacker will reach out to the victim using what they have learned or try any credentials they’ve managed to find. They may pose as someone you trust and can even spoof that person’s email.
3. They will use their access to infiltrate your systems or use your account to continue pursuing their target. They may not immediately make themselves known – many attacks are orchestrated over months or years to produce a bigger payout.
4. Once they have successfully infiltrated your systems the attack may proceed in a variety of ways, whether that be trying to ransom back your compromised data or systems, threatening to release stolen data online if they don’t receive a payout, posing as you to your clients to expand their reach and more.
5. The attack only ends when you can successfully remediate/remove their access.
This attack is the end game for many attackers but not all attacks have this level of energy put towards them, phone scams and simple email phishing scams can look to steal your credit card or banking info for a quick payout and these sorts of attacks are conducted en masse often by attackers located overseas. Scams like these are still a variety of social engineering and quite effective – and again any data they manage to get in the process can also be sold on the dark web allowing these attackers to “double dip” on the profits they receive from their nefarious efforts.

As we mentioned above many attackers are not conducted on a quick timeline, attackers know they can receive a bigger payout the more enmeshed they are in with the victim’s systems and data. Your system could be compromised right now, and you may not even know it.

Data loss remediation and protection is just two of the cyber security offerings Valley Techlogic provides to help us protect our clients from social engineering and other cyber based attacks. Reach out today to learn more.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.
This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.
December 29, 2023
7 Gadgets you shouldn’t leave home without this Holiday Season
The holidays are truly upon us and for many of us that means traveling to friends and family and enjoying some time spent away from work and in our loved one’s company.

However, for business owners being on the go doesn’t mean the work stops and we often carry our work devices with us to keep a watchful eye on things even from afar. We have 7 gadget recommendations that can facilitate working on the go or keeping in touch with those you’ve left in charge as you try to unwind a bit this holiday season.

Our 7 tech gadget recommendations will make traveling with your tech easier on the go.
1. Luggage trackers: The first step is making sure your tech makes it to your target destination, and luggage trackers will help you keep track of your belongings while you’re on the go. We recommend Tile Pro for Android users and AirTags for Apple. These trackers use Bluetooth to communicate to other devices in the area and will pinpoint the location of your luggage should you lose track of it. Our Recommendation: Airtag and Tile Pro.
2. Battery banks: Another way to make working on the go easier is having additional battery power at your fingertips, battery banks are inexpensive and can power multiple devices simultaneously. Our Recommendation: Anker Magnetic Battery 5,000 mAH
3. Portable monitors: Portable monitors have come a long way, for $200 or less you can get a decent secondary monitor that will make working away from your home office much more convenient. Our Recommendation: UPERFECT Portable Monitor
4. Cord organizing case: We have all pulled out a knot of cables we then have to untangle before we can begin charging our travel depleted devices, there is a better way. Our Recommendation: MATEIN Cable Organizer Bag
5. Laptop stand: In another effort to bring the comforts of home with you we recommend a good quality laptop stand that will make working on whatever open surface you can find much more pleasant. Our Recommendation: OMOTON Ergonomic Laptop Riser
6. Privacy screen: If you’re planning to work in any public spaces this holiday season you might want to consider a privacy screen, this will make it so passersby’s can’t take a peek at what you’re doing and most of them reduce blue light as well. Our Recommendation: Acer 2-Way Privacy Filter
7. Portable door lock: If your travel plans involve a hotel or shared AirBNB we recommend adding additional protection with a portable door lock. This will keep out unexpected and uninvited guests and leave any belongings you might have in your room (such as your laptop) more protected. Our Recommendation: Winchy Portable Door Lock
Tech advice like this is just one of the services we provide to our customers, and right now we’re offering $100 just for meeting with us and hearing about our services. Time is running out on this offer, click this link or on the image below to get started.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.
This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.
December 21, 2023
Leave the World Behind features alleged cyber warfare as the main movie villain, how realistic was it?
The cyber attacks we typically report on are localized or contained to a specific sector or even business entity.

In Netflix’s new movie “Leave the World Behind” characters are confronted with what looked like a global cyber attack causing mass destruction and chaos, including self-driving cars crashing into each other with no driver present and planes crashing into the ocean into land with GPS absent.

The movie features an all-star cast and is the first movie we’ve seen take on the apocalypse narrative with a unique technology twist – not to besmirch the Terminator legacy, but killer robots are found fairly frequently in pop culture.

Originally adapted from Rumaan Alam’s book of the same name, the movie actually takes liberty in specifically calling out the cyber attack in the movie where in the book the nature of what’s going on is left a lot more ambiguous.

The movie even received feedback from former President Barack Obama to make sure the cyber warfare elements were realistic instead of fantastic which left us with an eerie feeling after viewing the film, because the truth is some of the elements of it could be replicated in real life.

Venturing into spoiler territory now, at several points in the movie the characters are subjected to an ear-piercing noise that stops them in their tracks. It’s alluded to that these attacks might be “sonic booms” and are the reason one of the characters begins having physical symptoms as a response (odontophobia folks beware). This attack in the movie mirrored an alleged event in Cuba where directed energy waves, in this case microwave instead of sound, caused physical harm to locals.

In another scene one of the main characters attempts to check her phone for news and is instead confronted with several news articles, seemingly normal messages at first then devolving on red paper are dropped from a drone in the sky on a character driving down an empty road – this is several hours after the characters have been cut off from the outside world by the technology we all rely on for news and information.

By sheer coincidence these scenes are again mirrored by a real-life news event that happened just this month, where Iran-located hackers took over a water authority in Pennsylvania because their devices were Iran made, screens of these electronics found in the facility displayed a message in red with “YOU HAVE BEEN HACKED” featured prominently.

It’s unlikely that an attack could take out an entire nation easily, but it is worrying for us as a technology provider when we encounter lackadaisical responses to very serious cyber threats. The whole world does not need to be hacked for a hack to affect your whole world.

If after watching this new blockbuster you’re thinking it might be time to evaluate your cyber preparedness, Valley Techlogic has you covered.

If you book a consultation with us this month you will even receive a $100 cash for your time just for hearing us out. Click here or on the image below to get started.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.
This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.
December 15, 2023
5 emerging cyber threats to worry about in 2024
We’re all familiar with the usual suspects when it comes to cyber threats, viruses, trojan horses, phishing attacks, malware and ransomware. We’ve covered these threats in great detail (here’s just a few articles on these topics: 10 scary cybersecurity statistics business owners need to know, Zero trust or zero effort, how does your businesses security stack measure up?, Can you spot the phishing clues? And 10 tips to avoid falling for a phishing scam). Even if you’re not a technical inclined person you probably have some awareness of how to avoid these threats, such as being careful with suspicious emails and attachments or not downloading files from unknown sources.

What about emerging cyber security threats? These are threats that are not well known and in fact may use improvements in technology such as AI (artificial intelligence) to their advantage for nefarious gain.

Bad actors are continuously looking for new ways to subjugate your devices and gain access to your systems and data to exploit it for their own gain, and unfortunately in 2024 we don’t believe things will be any different.

Knowledge is power, so by being aware of these emerging threats you can learn to avoid them or learn what protections you need to put in place to prevent yourself and your business from becoming a victim.

Here are five emerging threats that we believe will grow in popularity in 2024:
1. Supply Chain Attacks: Cyber criminals have learned targeting vulnerable systems that supply the things we need day to day (for example the Colonial Pipeline attack that occurred in 2021) can result in lucrative payouts as the vendor(s) scramble to get things back up and running again. We’re expecting these types of attacks to continue to increase in 2024.bio
2. Biometric Data Threats: As more biometric data is used to confirm your identity for accessing your accounts or making payments, more regulations need to be put in place to protect that data. Facial recognition and fingerprint scans can often give someone access to your personal devices (such as a cellphone) and those devices can be the keys to the kingdom when it comes to accessing your accounts. Attacks in 2024 may escalate not just to the theft of data but also physical theft in unison on high value targets (think CEOs, Presidents and other C-Suite users).
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Manipulation: As more and more people explore using AI in their business or to provide solutions to common problems, there will be more and more bad actors trying to exploit it. We’ll see increased attacks using AI including data manipulation (feeding AI erroneous results so that users are receiving incorrect information) and attacks on systems using AI or powered by AI.
4. 5G Network Vulnerabilities: As 4G continues to be phased out and 5G becomes more common place we’ll see increased attacks aimed at these networks, especially as more and more businesses in rural locations utilize 5G as a solution to spotty or absent cable or fiber options in their area. As the nature of 5G is aimed at providing a geographically robust internet solution to companies like these it’s important to make sure your security settings are beyond reproach to inhibit attacks on your network from the outside.
5. Advanced Ransomware & Phishing Attacks: Ransomware and phishing attacks are not new, but they continue to grow more sophisticated as as-a-service models continue to roll out, this allows attackers that may not have a firm grasp of technology or even English to send out widespread attack emails that are indistinguishable from emails you may get from reputable services you use for a relatively small monetary fee. Also, because many of these attacks originate outside the US you may have no recourse if your business is successfully hit by one.
These are just five emerging threats but there are many threats out there making it all the more crucial you have a cyber security solution behind your business that’s staying ahead of these threats and more.

The threats mentioned above are crimes of opportunity and it’s very easy to be caught in the wide net that’s being cast by those with ill intentions. Valley Techlogic has been at the forefront of providing all encompassing security solutions to our customers. If you would like to learn more about protection your business from cyber security attacks in 2024 schedule a consultation with our experts today. Also for a limited time when you hear us out, you can also take advantage of our Black Friday offer.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.
This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.
December 8, 2023
Inclement weather, solar flares, earthquakes – how disaster proof is your businesses technology?
We’ve written quite a bit about cyber security disasters and disaster recovery in that context (here are just a couple options Why every business needs a documented backup and disaster recovery strategy and Data Breached? 5 ways to reduce the impact on your business), but what about a disaster that’s truly out of your hands?

Depending on where you live there are different types of types of disasters to worry about, and some disasters such as solar flares or geomagnetic storms are a global concern.

While it’s been hyped by certain news outlets that a solar storm of spectacular magnitude could wipe out our global network and cause nationwide blackouts, solar events of the level required to cause mass destruction are spectacularly rare. Nasa rates solar flare levels on a scale that includes B Class which is the smallest, through C, M and X class which is the biggest. Within each scale there is a rating from 1-9 for the first three levels of solar flares and X class flares can be rated up to 17.

X-class flares actually occur fairly frequently, with there being 11 so far in 2023 at the time of writing. These flares are strong enough to disrupt satellite signals or deliver a minor dose of radiation to passengers on an airplane when they occur.

The best defense against solar events such as these is to advocate for improving our electricity grids, above ground electricity components are the most vulnerable if a significant solar flare were to occur. We do want to stress again though that an event of that nature would be exceedingly rare.

Let’s now take a look at events that are much more common, such as inclement weather or for California based businesses such as ours, earthquakes.

While you most likely have insurance that would cover your physical property including your office building, hardware and office furniture, it might be important to ask your insurance broker if it will also cover intangible assets.

It is likely you’ll need a cyber liability policy to provide coverage for your data, below is a chart for what we typically see is covered (and not covered) by cyber liability coverage.

As you can see most cyber liability policies cover business interruptions and data loss even if the cause is not cyber security related. What’s often not covered is events that fall within your control (such as the human element we’re always mentioning when it comes to common hacking techniques such as phishing).

Another good way to protect your data from disaster events that may impact your business is to have most of your data located off premises in the cloud.

While the cloud is often construed as a nebulous concept, really hosting your data in the cloud just means it’s on a server somewhere else. If your on-premises server is subject to catastrophic system failure for any reason, the cloud copy of your data would be safe.

There are many low cost or free cloud options you can take advantage of for your data, we have a guide to the best way to use the free OneDrive storage that comes with your Microsoft 365 subscription here.

Also, if you work with a managed IT provider such as Valley Techlogic, backups and backup maintenance is often included as part of your service plan. We have information about our own back program, TechVault.

If disaster proofing your business in 2024 is on your to-do list, why not collaborate with us? We have experience in creating plans for businesses to make sure we avoid all preventable downtime and to protect your data from catastrophic events. If you’ve already suffered a data breach or other system outage and need assistance in data recovery that is also a service Valley Techlogic can provide. Reach out today for more information.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.
This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.
December 1, 2023
Traveling for the holidays? Take 8 tech tips from our experts with you
If you’re traveling the holidays this year, we have eight tech tips to help you stay safe while using your devices on the go.

We’ve offered holiday themed tech advice before (here are a couple of our past articles on the top 10 Holiday Shopping Tips for Safer Online Shopping & 5 Holiday Tips for Your E-Commerce Business and 5 for Everyone Else). The holidays usually mean more time off which can lead to more time spent browsing the web or being able to work on things in your business you usually don’t have time for.

It’s also a good idea to keep in mind that bad actors don’t typically take the holidays off, in fact ransomware attacks usually increase by 30% on the holidays. That’s because many people are keeping an eye out for sale emails or emails from relatives this time of year – giving more opportunities for scammers and bad actors to take advantage of folks just looking for a good deal or a message from their loved ones.

Traveling especially can leave you more vulnerable, if you’re quickly scanning messages in-between flight connections, logging into public WiFi or any number of things that are a normal part of being on the go you can miss some obvious red flags.

That’s why we’re going to divide up our advice into 4 tips that are related to being safer online while traveling, and 4 tips for improving your technology experience while traveling.

First our safety themed tips:
1. As we mentioned, be careful on public WiFi. Nowadays, even if you need to use your laptop the better option might be to use your phone as a hotspot. If you do need to connect to public Wi-Fi, consider doing it through a VPN. We can personally recommend Mullvad which is not subscription based, one payment will get you online through a secure connection without having to remember to cancel it later.
2. Be careful about what you’re posting on social media. Posting travel photos for your friends and family to see can be really fun, but you should be wary about who else might be watching. It’s a good idea to make your social media profiles private but if you maintain a public presence, you can also think about posting those photos after your trip has concluded instead.
3. Public charging stations can also pose a risk. Unfortunately, these stations can be tampered with and become an attack vector to everyone who uses them. Battery banks are pretty inexpensive these days and even more convenient when you’re on the go.
4. Don’t leave your items unattended. Just as airport personnel will ask if your suitcases have been in your possession the whole time, it’s a good idea to keep track of your belongings from a tech standpoint as well. Someone with bad intent might not be after your device when your data is much more valuable.
Now for our convenience themed tips:
1. Keep track of your belongings on the go with an Apple Airtag, Tile Pro or other bluetooth based trackers. A misplaced bag can ruin your vacation, having one of these trackers inside it will prevent that from happening.
2. Turn any audio jack into a Bluetooth wireless transmitter. Whether you rent a car without a Bluetooth adapter or you want to use your Bluetooth headphones on the plane, a wireless Bluetooth transmitter is a gamechanger. Best of all many options are on sale at the moment for Black Friday, we’ve personally used the Anker Soundsync. It’s small so it won’t take up much room in your bag and as 12 hours of run time per charge.
3. We mentioned using your phone as a mobile hotspot up above, but if your data plan is not the best you can also purchase a standalone mobile hotspot (with a data package included). This can also be a gamechanger if your network Isn’t going to be stellar where you’re going, you can purchase a mobile data plan for a network that has coverage instead. T-Mobile, AT&T and more all have options for this.
4. Having to work on the go but don’t want to drag your whole setup with you? Consider a portable monitor. If you’ve gone to two (or more) monitors at work you know there’s no going back, but sometimes travel includes doing some work out on the road and bringing your at home setup is not going to be an option. Portable monitors often come with a travel ready case and can be connected to your laptop via USB-C (both for power and display), bringing you the convenience or two displays without the headache of trying to travel with a full-size monitor.
Technical advice like this is one of the advantages of being a Valley Techlogic customer, and for a limited time if you meet with us about our services, we will give you $100 cash just to hear us out.

What do you have to lose? Schedule a consultation today.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.
This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.
November 22, 2023
If you have a computer or server with an Intel Processor, you need to patch for this vulnerability ASAP
Intel just released a fix for a vulnerability that would make certain CPUs in jeopardy of being compromised. The vulnerability would allow an attacker to gain privileged access to machines or trigger a denial-of-service attack.

You can see the list of affected CPUs here, patching for this vulnerability may need to occur in phases including micro-updates to the BIOs, system OS and drivers. In a statement on their website Intel says malicious exploitation of this code would need execution of an arbitrary code (so it can’t be exploited with no input from the end user). They don’t believe patching for this issue will impact devices in a noticeable way.

Originally discovered by a Google Security Engineering team and dubbed “Reptar”, a researcher at Google commented on how strange this vulnerability appears to be.

The vulnerability changes how redundant prefixes, basically small bits of code, are interpreted by the effected CPUs. Normally CPUs ignore redundant prefixes for obvious reasons (the key word being “redundant”) but instead these prefixes triggered expanding errors within the system. The Google team found that when it was left without remediation eventually the affected machines would report processing errors and begin to malfunction.

Destructive code like this is frightening because it may not just be a loss of data or temporary use of the affected machine, but it may cause the computer or server to fail altogether.

This Isn’t the first CPU exploit Intel has suffered and they’re not the only ones battling attacks to their hardware, with AMD also announcing news of their own “CacheWarp” vulnerability that allowed attackers to gain root access to Linux Virtual Machines. So, if you thought these types of attacks were limited to Windows, think again. In this case the vulnerability only affects 1st through 3^rd generation EPYC processors, the 4^th generation is not vulnerable in this case.

Also, with the AMD vulnerability it’s also important to note that while a patch is available for just the 3^rd generation EPYC processor. For 1^st and 2^nd generation there is no mitigation available. As with Intel it’s not expected that the patch will have any effect on the CPU performance.

Both companies have been very quick to patch these aggressive vulnerabilities and attacks like these highlight the need to make sure regular patching is a primary component of any tech service plan. Below are 5 key components we recommend when it comes to proactive technology support

Proactive care is often a tough sell, with many business owners not feeling the need to spend the money on proactive tech care as these things “won’t happen to them”. It’s important to note that many attacks that occur are widespread and have no specific target in mind. If you have unpatched equipment in your office, you may be a sitting duck to any widespread attack issued to a vendor you use or because you bought a certain kind of hardware that ended up having a vulnerability. These attacks are ones of convenience not of malice as is often misconstrued.

Even if it can be recovered from, why take the chance? Having a partner like Valley Techlogic to make sure vulnerabilities like the ones in this article are patched as soon as a fix is available means you will never be part of the eye-opening statistic about businesses who suffer a major breach. If you’re not aware, 60% of businesses close after a cyberattack. Don’t let that be you, reach out for a free consultation with us today.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.
This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.
November 17, 2023
10 Microsoft 365 tools you need to take advantage of TODAY
Most of our clients are Microsoft 365 customers and enjoy the tools and applications they receive through their Microsoft 365 subscription. Many of these same clients were long time Office customers and were already familiar with the software benefits – such as Word, Office, Outlook, Powerpoint and Excel. These are staple products in the business community and chances are if you’ve been in business long enough you’ve had some exposure to them throughout your career.

We have had clients who miss the days when Office was a standalone product only. While you still can purchase Office 2021 for a one-time fee, many have to weigh the value of a pretty substantial upfront cost when purchasing for many employees for a product that will at some point expire vs the subscription model that is now favored by many software companies. This is a discussion onto itself, but in a nutshell many clients choose to go with a Microsoft 365 subscription.

There is an obvious benefit to doing so right off the bat if you choose to go with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, the security benefits of this plan are well known and touted throughout the technology industry as being the crème de la crème of security suites for Windows machines.

However, there are many benefits to your Microsoft 365 subscription that many users are not even aware of. Microsoft 365 is much more than just an Office subscription – your plan comes with business utility programs that can make organizing and running your business better.

Here are 10 tools you can take advantage of TODAY if you have a Microsoft 365 subscription:
1. Microsoft OneNote: OneNote is Microsoft’s digital notetaking app, it’s a step way above NotePad with the ability to organize multiple notes (with colored tabs) and collaborate and share your notes with other.
2. Microsoft Intune: Intune allows you to control and manage all of the Microsoft endpoints within your business from one place. This one might need an IT pro when it comes to setup and management but once you get it going it really can simplify many IT tasks for your team.
3. Microsoft Forms: Did you know that you can create surveys, quizzes and polls with a Microsoft product? You can with forms, you can even export the data to Excel and share the forms you create on your website or social media platforms.
4. Microsoft List: With Microsoft 365 you don’t have to go off platform when it comes to managing even the somewhat more mundane aspects of your business, Microsoft Lists is Microsoft’s solution for keeping track of well, everything. Also just like with Forms you’re able to export these lists to Excel with a click of a button.
5. Microsoft Bookings: Microsoft Bookings is Microsoft solutions to having a public calendar where clients or colleagues can book a meeting with you, and it’s tied right to your Outlook calendar. Another benefit of Bookings is it can be added to your website for prospective clients to book time with you and eliminating the cost of an outside calendar application.
6. Microsoft To Do: If you or your employees struggle with staying on task, Microsoft To Do is the solution for you. You can plan out your days in advance and Microsoft To Do will be your one stop place for keeping things on track.
7. Microsoft Viva: Microsoft Viva is an addition to Microsoft Teams that adds a lot of functionality not usually found in a chat program, Microsoft Viva is a multi-faceted platform but in a nutshell it allows you to set goals for your business, provide training to your employees and see insights into their workday, as well as offering them to provide feedback to you all in the Teams application they already use.
8. Microsoft Streams: If you already use Teams for your video conference calls then you’re familiar with how reliable Microsoft is when it comes to video streaming. Microsoft Stream takes that a step further and allows you to broadcast video outside your organization with up to 1000 participants.
9. Microsoft Power BI: Microsoft Power BI provides a snapshot of your business’s data in the form of charts and graphs, so you can see how the data your business creates evolves and changes over time.
10. Microsoft Planner: Finally, we bring it all home with Microsoft Planner, it’s exactly what you would expect it to be a simple visual tool for planning out meetings, business goals, marketing pitches and more all found at your fingertips with your Microsoft 365 subscription.
Of course, if you’re considering signing up for Microsoft 365, you do have to take the cost into account. Here are the costs for the most popular plans (these costs factor in a discount for committing to an annual subscription, the costs are approximately 20% higher when you choose a monthly term).

Interested in learning more about Microsoft 365? Valley Techlogic is a Microsoft partner, and we can walk you through the process of buying and making the most of your new subscription. Learn more today with a consultation.

Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.
This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, an IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.
November 10, 2023