Do firewall appliances expire like a carton of milk?

Something that many people don’t know is that there are actually expiration dates on hardware and software. Let’s say you buy a Cisco ASA 5505 security appliance (firewall) for your business, and you keep it up to date. When do you expect to replace it? Chances are, you feel that the firewall should be left in place until it dies …

Those affected by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami today are in our prayers…

Totally off the IT theme here or even Greenville / Upstate related stuff, I just wanted to say that our heart goes out to those affected by today’s earthquake and tsunami disaster. The actual events and resulting damage are horrible of course, but honestly, it will be weeks before the long term effects are known. Water supplies destroyed, sewage systems, …

Patch your Mac, patch your Windows, patch your Microsoft Groove too… #patches

  Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, March 10, 2011 It has been patch city this past week… Let’s start off with the Mac stuff for a change…   Apple Mac OS X 10.5.x (Leopard) and 10.6.x (Snow Leopard) are the subject of two Apple security advisories which warn of 16 vulnerabilities in OS X’s Java components. Apple simply states …

Who is your Greenville / Upstate BUSINESS computer dealer?

If you are in the market for a new business computer, where do you go in the Greenville / Upstate area? Do you go to a “big box store”? A warehouse? An office supply? You should be aware that the “business computer” you purchase from some dealers may actually be a computer designed for home use, and not actually a …

Ditch the WiFi and go with 3g or 4g broadband connectivity for your mobile devices

Those of you who are using a notebook computer or mobile device such as an iPad, iPhone, Android or Android tablet and connecting to those public free wifi access hotspots may want to just ditch the WiFi after what I heard about today… In spite of what I said about safe browsing from public wi-fi hotspots using a VPN a …

Mozilla Firefox 3.6.15 released – Fixes Java Bug introduced in 3.6.14 last week…

About a week ago (03-02-2011), Mozilla released Firefox update 3.6.14 designed to patch a number of security issues, then they turned around and released Mozilla Firefox 3.6.15 designed to correct a Java bug that presumably introduced in the 3.6.14 update. The Java applet loading bug does not appear to create new security vulnerabilities, so you should be secure if you …

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“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Opening Night Performance at Warehouse Theatre, Greenville, SC

Opening Night of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” directed by Jayce Tromsness and presented by The Warehouse Theatre As Reviewed by Pamela M. Hoyt Last night was one of those evenings that leaves a Mom smiling!  Allow me to explain… John, myself, and our daughter, Megan, were very excited about attending the opening night of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at The …

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What is the best boardroom or conference room video display system?

I was at a meeting today in a nicely laid out conference room, and it made me think about how various businesses use video displays. Here are a few options for typical boardrooms: Whiteboard, permanent screen or wall  for display with a projector on the table, and cables running everywhere (currently how I do it at our office) Exposed retractable …

Secure IT Alert: Microsoft Patches Coming along with Mozilla Firefox Update for Windows, Mac & Linux

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, March 3, 2011 Microsoft issued the Advance Notification for March 2011 and today… The full version of the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for March 2011 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms11-mar.mspx. The advanced notification will be replaced with the March bulletin summary on March 8, 2011. On the Critical list are updates for remote code execution …