Welcome to My Brother Steve .com Computer Services, Repairs & Web Design. We're here to provide you with repairs, upgrades, spyware and virus removal, dead computer recovery, data transfer and recovery, setting up new systems, network and internet setup, website design, digital services, print layout services, even one-on-one teaching and help, and a variety of other services.

 
Our main navigation above is color coded by section to help you know where you are on the site. Below each section tab, in the colored coordinated navigation bar, are the links for each page in that section. In the gold column on the left, you will also see the name of the section you are in, with a list of the section's pages below it, to give you additional choices for navigating the site.
 

In the majority of email systems, if you hover your cursor over the Sender's name in your Inbox, a tooltip appears next to the cursor, that will show you the email address of the Sender. If the email address you see is YOURS, be wary, because that email is almost certainly from a scammer/hacker, and is looking to do you harm. These emails may purport to be from a company or organization, and may be in regard to anything, from telling you about a "special offer" or somethnig "you've won", or perhpas that there's "something wrong" with your computer or something you need to "take action" on right away.

The idea is that the scammers are trying to create a sense of urgency and/or panic within you, so that you don't spend time thinking, but that you feel you need to click on their message or link, or call their phone number right away. The problem is, the link they want you to click, or the number they want you to call, is where the problems begin. Take that extra moment to do your due diligence. The extra minute you take to discern whether that email, or that popup on your screen, or that text message is legit, may save you hours, or even days, of headache & heartache, dealing with banks and credit card companies, and everything that goes with cancelling cards, changing passwords, etc.
Be aware and be safe, my friends.

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), which was created in 2015, is being used, not only by regular citizens for legitimate purposes, but also by malicious attackers, to send phishing emails to people, in an effort to get them to click on links in legitimate sounding emails, in order to compromise the user's computer and/or gain login credentials from the user. The attackers are trying to coax the user into clicking on a button or link, which would resolve to a URL such as ipfs.io and other top-level domains that are being used, as well.

As always, if you ever receive messages, phone calls out of the blue, texts, emails, etc., that want you to click on a link or button, or call a phone number, be suspicious. Do not call the number or click the link, but instead, directly call or go to a company's website, using a phone number or bookmark you already have. If there really is some sort of problem with an account, a customer service representative will be able to see it in their system.

You can read a very good article about IPFS being used for phishing at Trustwave.

Apple and major security researchers are urging users of Apple devices to immediately update the operating systems in their devices, to patch a serious iMessage security flaw that is known to have already infected deices "in the wild".

Utilizing code from a malware package known as Pegasus, this variant, which has been dubbed "FORCEDENTRY" by the research group Citizen Lab, due to its ability to bypass "BlastDoor" protections that Apple had added to its operating system, to attempt to block such attacks.

While it seems that devices so far have been selectively targeted, as time goes on, malware is often put to use by a wider array of attackers, to compromise devices used by average people, and this attack requires NO INTERACTION on the part of a user. If your device is unpatched, and can receive iMessage messages, then IT IS VULNERABLE.

Apple's security patches will update devices to iOS & iPad OS 14.8, macOS Big Sur 11.6, macOS Catalina (security update 2021-005), and watchOS 7.6.2 for the respective devices.

Although devices that cannot run iOS / iPad OS 14, MacOS 10.15 or 16, or watchOS7 will not be able to be updated with a patch for this vulnerability, most devices that can't would be at least several years old. A list of iPhones that can run iOS 14 & iPads that can run iPad OS 14 can be found here, all Mac computers that can run (at least) MacOS 10.15 Catalina can be found here, and as for Apple watches, the original & 2nd generation watches will not be able to install this patch, but all watches from generation 3 onward are capable of running both watchOS 7 & 8.

Several good articles detailing the Pegasus malware and FORCEDENTRY can be found here, here, here, here, & here.

We want to thank you for taking the time to come to our site. We want the information, services, and support to be useful and relevant to you. Please feel free to contact us to take advantage of our services, to offer suggestions, or to inquire about our work. We're looking forward to working with you to help you be more productive and successful with all your computing needs.

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Website updated on January 2nd, 2023