Do you have Cisco ASA firewalls and VPNs? “…this is as bad as it gets.”
If you have Cisco ASA firewalls and VPNs you better assess your patching on these devices. Click here to read the story: Firewalls running Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software can be compromised remotely with malformed UDP packet
Can IT Staffers Really Help Marketing?
Arcadia, CA - One of my favorite authors to follow is Dave Berkus. He has been a great mentor of mine for about 20 years. I am on his Berkonomics blog list. Weekly, with Berkonomics, he share tips and anecdotal experiences [...]
A Revelation that Leads to a Revolution
This morning on the way to the office I was listening to Bill Handel’s broadcast on KFI640 AM. This morning he did another one of his Success from Scratch segments that feature somebody that created success from nearly nothing. They are always good stories.
This morning’s story was an exception beyond compare. I don’t normally share stories that I find touching and inspiring as I feel like they are just “feel good” stories that while interesting it is not necessarily worthy of the time of others. But this morning was different.
The story is of Richard Montanez, the son of a
Are You at Risk with the Government for Sloppy Cybersecurity?
Court: FTC can bring down the hammer on companies with sloppy cybersecurity Hotel chain Wyndham had challenged the FTC's authority to mandate cybersecurity standards The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has the authority to take action against companies that fail to [...]
Oli Thordarson and The VAR Guy on “Cyberthreats: Worse Than Anyone Thinks”
The potential for a cyberattack is top of mind for not just IT professionals and CIOs but also among the general population. Experts—from government agencies to technology experts—have been warning that this year will see the worst cyber breaches in [...]
Interview with Oli on Effective IT Management
Our CEO, Oli Thordarson, shares how we provide effective Managed IT services here at Alvaka and explains the different tools that we use to keep our client's operations in check good running condition.
Smoke testing is a term used to describe the testing process for servers after patches are applied. 
Estimating an average time for patching servers and PCs can be a bit tricky. It can vary from one month to the next, depending upon the number and complexity of the patches released by your software vendors. You must consider all versions of operating systems and have a complete inventory of all your application software to do this job correctly. Our experience has shown that manual patching of systems takes on average of about 1.5 hours each.
This is a basic cost calculator for you to compute your typical monthly cost for patching your servers, PCs, laptops, tablets and associated application software. It also forms the basis for you to begin calculating your Return on Investment for software patching, or for comparison with alternatives to the manual process of patching operating systems and application software—such as Patch Management as a Service, also known as Vulnerability Management as a Service.