Why a Local MSP?

Tamar Osterman, Jerry Stern, and Paige Sunderland, with the Secretary's Citation for 35 years of computer services by Science Translations.

Science Translations, also known as PC410, provides MSP (managed service provider) local PC support in Carroll County, Maryland and nearby areas. There are hundreds of MSPs that want your business, many of them national companies that can do quite a lot remotely. Some have local staff; ask the question before you sign up: Do you have to use local subcontractors in my area?

We don’t do that. If you’re not within Carroll County or a reasonable driving distance, we can still do remote work for you, malware cleanup, tuneups, drivers fixes and much more, but for your ongoing month-to-month IT care, you need a tech that knows your office and is able to visit in-person when needed.

So if you’re near me, call me at 410-871-2877. Otherwise, here’s a great nation-wide list of MSPs to choose from; find an MSP near you.

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Oct 14th, 2025, Old Windows

Windows 10 ends Oct 14th, 2025

Mark that date. Tuesday, October 14, 2025. It’s the second Tuesday of the month, so it’s a Windows patch Tuesday, and it will be the last Patch Tuesday for a whole set of Microsoft products. This list is probably going to grow:

  • Windows 10 Home and Pro. The last feature update was 22H2.
  • Windows 10 Enterprise and Education
  • Office 2016
  • OneNote 2016
  • Office 2019
  • Windows Defender for Windows 10
  • Skype for Business 2019
  • Exchange Server 2019

Also check the Windows end of Support Calendar for a list by year, of when the patches end.

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Cryptowall 2.0 and Assorted Ransomware; Prevention

CryptoWall 2.0 Ransom Note

There’s some nasty malware showing up in inboxes right now, disguised as fake receipts and documents, or delivered on web sites from a very fake ‘You must update your… ‘ message. While these have always been a major source of computer attacks, the current batch deserves special prevention and backups. CryptoWall 2.0, CryptoLocker, and other ransomware arrive quietly, encrypt all your documents in the background, and then place a ransom notice on your screen, asking for payment in Bitcoins or an untraceable money order. The encryption is not breakable on most variations of this ransomware; the best defenses are to never work with an administrator account (use ‘standard’ or ‘limited’), and to backup your entire computer on a schedule, and unplug the backup device between backups–these programs encrypt every document they can see, even on backup drives and networks.

We have more information on prevention, either do-it-yourself or as a service, here. And we can help with the cleanup, in central Maryland.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedin

Phone Call from Microsoft… NOT

You would think that the malware pushers would know better than to place a phone call to a company that specializes in cleaning up malware and try to lie to us. Nope. So here’s what’s happening:

The phone rings, I answer, and manage to start recording right after. The standard LIES are that they’re from Microsoft, and are in the US, and can see viruses in your computer, and can clean them up, and can be trusted, and, on and on–all wrong. The skill level of whoever wrote the script is high enough that they do point to screens that do show information that is sufficiently technical that it looks scary. They take you to the ‘event log’–that’s a list of routine stuff. Not scary unless the computer is already spitting sparks out the front.

Don’t try this at home. The result of letting these guys actually play in your PC are not pretty for your computer or your credit card. When you get this phone call, just hang up.

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