The Friday Firewall – Issue 11 – October 16, 2026

Featured: Tales from the Hacked

Episode 1: The Shortened Link

It’s alive! Remember the story from Issue #9 about the shortened link that tried to hand a stranger remote control of a client’s PC? It’s now the first episode of Tales from the Hacked, and yes, that’s me under the bolts.

Tales from the Hacked is a video series started by P3C Technologies to educate users on real cybersecurity stories seen in the wild, at our clients and elsewhere. The stories are real, but the names have been changed or omitted to protect the innocent.

AI was used in the production of this video, and we had fun making it. It’s not meant to be perfect, just a fun way to present scary topics.

Stay vigilant, stay safe, and most importantly, sit back and don’t move your mouse.

Watch Episode 1 on YouTube

Tip of the Week

Buying a computer for work? Get Windows 11 Pro.

Here’s one we see all the time. You buy a new laptop, and Windows 11 Home won’t let you finish setup until you sign in with a Microsoft account. So you create one on the spot, using your work email because it’s the address you have handy. It works fine… until it doesn’t.

Now two different Microsoft accounts share the same email address: the personal one you just made, and your real work account in Microsoft 365. Outlook, OneDrive, and Teams start asking which account you mean. Files sync to the wrong place, and sign-ins fail in confusing ways. Microsoft doesn’t make this easy to spot, and untangling it later takes time.

Two takeaways:

1. If the computer is for work, buy Windows 11 Pro. It can sign in to your company’s Microsoft 365 the right way, and it’s the version we can properly manage and secure.
2. Never create a personal Microsoft account with your work email. If you already did, no judgment. Let us know and we’ll help clean it up.

Thinking about a new PC? Ask us before you buy, and we’ll point you to the right one.

IT Vocab of the Week

RAM (Random Access Memory)

Last week we covered the hard drive, your computer’s long-term, non-volatile storage. It keeps your files even when the power is off. RAM is the opposite: short-term, volatile memory. It holds whatever you’re working on right now, and it clears out completely when the computer shuts down or loses power.

Think of the hard drive as your filing cabinet and RAM as your desk. The bigger the desk, the more you can have open at once (browser tabs, spreadsheets, Teams calls) before things slow down and Windows starts shuffling papers back to the cabinet.

Two practical takeaways:

1. Unsaved work lives in RAM. If the power blinks, it’s gone. Save often, and this is exactly why last week’s battery backup (UPS) tip matters.
2. For business PCs, 16 GB of RAM is the minimum. If you’re an office power user with lots of tabs, big spreadsheets, and Teams calls running all day, 32 GB is even better.

Cybersecurity News

They had the password and the 2FA code. Here’s how we stopped them anyway.

Last week, a client got an email with a link. The link opened what looked exactly like the Microsoft 365 sign-in page, so he typed in his password. Then the page asked for his two-factor code, and he typed that in too.

That page was fake. The attacker wasn’t just collecting the password; they were sitting in the middle, passing everything through to the real Microsoft in real time. Once he entered the code, the attacker captured his signed-in session (called a “token”) and reused it on their own server. That got them past MFA without ever needing his phone.

Within minutes, our security monitoring flagged the sign-in as a compromise and automatically locked the account. Our tech then:

• Reset the password and signed the attacker out of every active session
• Cleared and re-registered all MFA methods
• Kept the account locked long enough for the stolen token to expire
• Checked for the attacker’s usual tricks, like hidden forwarding rules, inbox rules, and rogue apps. We found none.
• Pulled the sign-in and audit logs, found the phishing email, and walked the client through how to spot the next one

The lesson: MFA is still essential, but it isn’t a force field. If an unexpected email link asks you to sign in to Microsoft 365, stop. Open Outlook or office.com yourself, or call the sender at a number you already know. Fake login pages are built to look perfect.

Working With P3C

Hitting the road? Give us a heads-up first.

A client emailed us last week before leaving on a nearly three-week road trip through five states, work laptop in tow. Her note was short and perfect: “Just giving you a heads up in case you see my laptop logging in from weird locations!”

That’s exactly what we want. Our security monitoring watches for sign-ins from unusual places. It’s the same system that caught this week’s MFA-bypass attacker within minutes. When your laptop suddenly checks in from Ohio or Tennessee, a heads-up tells us it’s you on vacation and not someone in a hoodie. Without one, we have to treat it as suspicious, and nobody wants a locked account at a rest stop.

Before you travel, send us:

• Your travel dates
• Where you’re going (states or countries)
• Which devices you’re bringing

Leaving the country? Tell us well before you go. International travel can take extra prep to make sure you can connect and stay protected.

On the road, use your phone’s hotspot instead of hotel or coffee-shop Wi-Fi whenever you can.

Just email support@p3ctech.com or submit a ticket. It takes two minutes and saves everyone a headache.

The AI and Automation Minute

How AI helps us write this newsletter (and what it doesn’t do)

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes. The newsletter you’re reading right now used to take me several hours every week: digging through tickets for good stories, writing, then fighting with formatting to make it look right on our website and in our email system.

Now it takes less than an hour. Here’s how:

1. AI does the digging. It reviews our support tickets and past client conversations to find real stories worth sharing, like this week’s MFA-bypass attack and travel heads-up. Every client name and detail is stripped out before anything is published.
2. A defined project does the layout. We built an AI project with standing instructions and rules: our template, colors, sections, and writing style. It produces finished HTML that I paste straight into our website and our CRM with no reformatting.
3. A human stays in the loop. I review and approve every section before it goes out. AI drafts; I decide. (You’ve read here before what happens when AI makes the call on its own.)

That’s the real value of AI for a small business. It doesn’t replace your judgment; it takes the tedious, repeatable work off your plate. If you have a weekly task that eats hours, there’s a good chance it can be streamlined.

Curious what that could look like for you? Visit ai.p3ctech.com to explore what we’re doing with AI and automation.

Product of the Week

Belkin PivotPlug 12-Outlet Surge Protector

Last week our hero was a surge protector with a 25 ft cord for outlets that are hard to reach. This week is the other side of the problem: plenty of outlets, but no room for the big, chunky power bricks that block their neighbors.

The Belkin PivotPlug has 12 surge-protected outlets: four regular and eight that pivot, so you can turn the bulky chargers and spread them out. You get the full strip instead of losing three outlets to one laptop brick. It also has 4,320 joules of protection, an 8-foot cord, and indicator lights that show when protection is active and the equipment is grounded. Belkin backs it with a $300,000 Connected Equipment Warranty.

It’s a good fit for the home office desk or the network closet. And remember last week’s rule: plug it straight into the wall, not into another power strip.

Check it out on Amazon →

As an Amazon Associate, P3C Technologies may earn from qualifying purchases.