Digital Brigade

02/06/2026

We do have a small number of used Windows 11 machines back in stock.

07/25/2024

So I've been getting asked all week about how many clients I had hit by the Crowd Strike bug and how it hurt my business.

It's a really easy answer. Not at all.

Maybe it's that I've been doing this a really long time (pushing 30 years now), and maybe it's because I'm really jaded.

But never let a 3rd party software get it's hooks into everything you do. It's actually pretty hard to avoid, especially if you are an MSP. But after the SolarWinds hack a few years back, I looked at the risk factor and said nope! Once Windows 10 came out the need for an RMM kinda went away anyway. So I killed off our RMM (we used Connectwise which never got hacked), and then a bit later the Kaseya hack hit. So two of the top RMM providers got hit.

Maybe it's because I grew up in IT before the cloud with a healthy sense of paranoia. Backup to 3 separate locations. Cloud, local physical and physical isolated offsite (i.e. removable offline media stored offsite). Image the heck out of everything before any changes and keep the image offline and easily spun up.

An offline image that could be spun up quickly to an imaging server would have solved a bunch of issues this week.

X-Files translation... "Trust No One."

05/26/2024

Temporary Hours Change June 1-20

I will be on vacation, so our hours will be as follows when I am out.

Digital Brigade
Closed Saturday-Tuesday
Wednesday-Friday 10-6

Midwest Jedi
Monday-Tuesday 3-9
Wednesday-Friday 10-9
Saturday-Sunday 12-7

Thanks for your understanding
-Reuben

Send a message to learn more

02/08/2024

We do free computer recycling. The hard drives are pulled and securely wiped using a 3 layer Department of Defense wipe and all parts are kept out of the landfill.

We also take most electronics like VCR's, camcorders, printers and stereo components.

We are also a drop off point for the Lions club which takes ink cartridges, cell phones and used prescription medicine bottles.

09/26/2023

Just a little bit of a gaming system build tip here.

The gold connectors on your RAM and expansion cards should never ever be touched by your fingers. The oils in your skin can and will damage the connector. It's always a bit painful to explain to someone that just spent $1500 on a video card that they either static killed the card, or caused issues by touching the connector.

I know you tube makes gaming builds look like building a lego set, but it really isn't unless you take the right precautions.

If you need help building your gaming rig, swing by or give us a buzz and we can help you out. I've been building PC's since around 1990. So, we can make sure it's done right. PC builds run a flat fee of $99 and zero tears.

07/25/2023

Just a heads up our parking lot will be getting re-paved starting Thursday-Sunday, so we will be open, but you will have to park on the street or neighboring parking lots.

07/11/2023

Our expansion is finally done! So this weekend we are having a 10% off everything sale. Friday to Sunday everything is 10% off. Computers, repairs, cables... the whole 9 yards.

07/02/2023

We are open on Monday, but cappers on the 4th.

04/24/2023

We've added an option to our webpage https://www.digitalbrigade.com/ to set appointments for remote and onsite support. Simply click on the Remote Support or Onsite Support buttons on our website and you'll be able to book a time for a support call.

We are committed to providing the necessary guidance you need in order to take action. From making strategic decisions to understanding what your logical next steps are, we are here to guide you through any and all processes. With our help, your organization will be able to get the best performance....

02/23/2023

Due to the weather we are closed all day today.

02/13/2023

Starting next week our residential in house hours will be from Monday to Friday 10-6. We will no longer be doing weekend hours for walk in computer repair, pickup or drop off. We know this may be an inconvenience, but our techs need the weekend off as well.

12/04/2022

As antiquated as it sounds, sometimes the best way for home users to store their passwords is a bit of very old and a bit of new and a bit of the obvious..

The obvious: Don't reuse passwords.
The new: Use Two factor authentication.
The old: Use and literal pen and paper notebook stored in a safe space.

Every hack we run into is usually a combination of reusing passwords, and not using 2FA.

Services like lastpass are out there because nobody can remember all those crazy different passwords.

Even the Sony hack a few years back, was basically this. They had an Excel spreadsheet (a virtual piece of paper), but failed to encrypt it.

So here is where the old comes in. Hackers work in bulk. A notebook on your shelf with passwords and usernames written down is something that can be stolen if someone breaks into your house and grabs it. But the odds of that happening are almost infinity less than a massive database getting hacked and all that data getting stolen.

IF that does happen and you have Two Factor Authentication turned on using a secured app on your phone. The bad actor needs also to hack your phone. A combination of a physical hack and a online hack.

That isn't going to happen to regular home users.

The password manager said a hacker used information stolen from a breach of LastPass' systems in August to break in again.