Adaptive Technical Inc.

10/12/2026

The UK's criminal records office was reprimanded by the privacy regulator in August. Its antivirus had flagged a password-stealing tool four times and nobody read the alerts. An attacker had access for about seven months, and up to 10,920 people may have been affected. An alert nobody reads is worth nothing. Decide who reviews yours, how they escalate, and where they record what they checked.

Unread antivirus alerts and an unpatched content management system exposed Britain's ACRO to three separate data breaches, according to a reprimand notice.

10/11/2026

A short send delay gives you a window to pull back an email after you hit Send. In new Outlook and Outlook on the web the maximum is 10 seconds. Gmail goes to 30. Classic Outlook can hold every message for a minute or two with a rule. That's often enough to catch the wrong recipient or attachment before payroll records or a client file leave the building.

10/10/2026

Your network diagram should show how your internet connection, firewall, switches, wireless access points, servers and main cloud services fit together. Keep it current and keep a copy somewhere you can reach when the network is down. A diagram saved only on the server doesn't help when the server is the problem. Need a current diagram? Contact us.

10/10/2026

Some free VPNs make their money by renting out your internet connection.

In January, Google took down a big piece of a network called IPIDEA, which was built on devices running apps advertised as free VPNs. In July it went after a second one, NetNut, with at least two million devices in it.

The VPN part worked. What the apps didn't mention was that they also let paying customers route their own traffic through your device.

On a work laptop, that traffic comes from your company's internet address. Your address can end up blocked for activity nobody in your business carried out.

Google also found that this software can expose the other devices on the same network. NetNut spread mostly through cheap streaming boxes and smart TV apps, so the home office counts too.

Check which VPNs and browser extensions are installed on company devices. Staff should use the VPN the business provides, and skip the one they found online because it was free.

Want to know whether unapproved VPN or proxy software is sitting on your company devices? Reach out and we'll check for you.

10/09/2026

DNS filtering blocks known phishing and malware sites, even after someone clicks the bad link. Ask your IT provider whether it's on for office computers and for work laptops used at home or on the road. CIRA, the people who run the .ca domain, offer a business version called DNS Firewall and a free one for home called Canadian Shield.

10/08/2026

The FBI is investigating a North Korean IT worker who was hired by a US federal agency. The agency hasn't been named. Canada isn't exempt. The RCMP and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security warned last year that these workers target Canadian companies, and paying one can breach sanctions. For remote hires, interview on video, verify credentials directly with past employers, and do it before you ship a laptop.

The investigation shows that North Koreans are able to infiltrate government agencies, as well as private organizations and crypto exchanges.

10/07/2026

Your out-of-office reply goes to anyone who emails you, scammers included. It shouldn't tell them where you are, which clients you're with or who's covering for you. Outsiders need two things: when you'll reply, and how to reach the business if it's urgent. Outlook lets you set a separate, shorter reply for people outside the company.

10/06/2026

Your company should own the main admin account for its accounting software, CRM and file storage. Too many of these get set up under whoever signed up first, sometimes with a personal email. Use a company address, give two trusted people access, and keep the billing and recovery details current. Need help checking? Contact us.

10/06/2026

Your multifunction printer has a password problem you can't see from the screen.

Scan-to-email on most office printers still signs into Microsoft 365 with a saved username and password. Microsoft turns that kind of sign-in off at the end of December. When it goes, the printer will keep scanning and fail the email part. Same for any old invoicing app that sends email the same way.

One question for whoever runs your IT: is anything in this building sending email with a username and password? The fix is usually a firmware update and an hour of work.

10/05/2026

Emailing the same message to a group of customers? Put their addresses in BCC. An email address is personal information, and the federal privacy commissioner has investigated a company that exposed nearly 300 customers by using CC. For newsletters and bigger lists, use an email marketing platform. It handles the unsubscribe link Canada's anti-spam law requires.