David Schnardthorst's blog

Its Friday, so let's have a little fun today.  Remember back in the day this little device called a pager.  A little black box that would display a number that you had to call back, or if you were really fancy an actual message.  I believe most messages were limited to 80 characters (so if you thought twitter was difficult...).  You can always check out the clip below from Tron Legacy if you can't remember the ever famous pager.  At least we aren't talking about the Motorola Flip Phones or better yet the infamous "Bag Phone."  But I digress . . .

Back in January of 2009 I wrote an article about Safe Password Management with KeePass.  While this article is still relevant today, I also wanted to point out a recent article from Information Week showing KeePass in the top 10 password managers.  Check out the article at: http://www.informationweek.com/security/client/10-top-password-managers/240153906?pgno=8.

What password manager do you use?  If you aren't using a Password Manager, give us a call and we can help you select the right tool for the job.

Yesterday I had a conversation with one of our clients who indicated that they had apparently had an issue with a desktop that they had purchased.  Turns out they had to order a new power supply.  Unfortunately, the system in question was under warranty and yet they paid $120 to get the part shipped to them next day for replacement.  The reason is that they (both the client and the manufacturer) did not check the warranty status on the system prior to ordering parts.  System warranties can save you money, especially considering that they paid $87 for the three year NBD warranty that was in place and yet purchased $120 worth of parts that they didn't need to purchase.  So lesson learned for them was to call WavesCo first so we can double check the service st

Yet another PCI Breach

We have all heard recently about the security breach at Schnucks supermarket, especially those of us from the St. Louis area.  Its unfortunate that this breach exposed credit and debit card information of Schnucks customers.  The ramifications of this event may yet take time to completely play out, and it is events like these that will continue to help identify the kinds of gaps in security that need to be dealt with.

Another sad fact is that as technology improves, hackers get smarter. In this case the hackers work went undetected.  Thankfully though, the a card processing company issued an alert about fraudulent activity on a handful of debit and credit cards that had been used at the store.