Computer Safety & News

Office 2010 recently reached EOL and users should be on Office 2013 or higher to replace existing suite.  The Office 365 family is also a popular option for business users so they continuously stay on latest product capabilites. https://redmondmag.com/articles/2020/10/14/support-ends-office-2010-office-for-mac-2016.aspx Microsoft on Monday noted the end of support for Office 2010 and Office 2016 for Mac, which […]

Checkpoint security has released an interesting & comprehensive research study of Phishing Attempts attempted during the 3rd quarter. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/10/19/2110233/0/en/Microsoft-is-Most-Imitated-Brand-for-Phishing-Attempts-in-Q3-2020.html In Q3, Microsoft was the most frequently targeted brand by cybercriminals. 19% of all brand phishing attempts related to the technology giant, as threat actors sought to capitalize on large numbers of employees still working remotely […]

On October 16th, Microsoft released “out-of-band” (OOB) security updates to address vulnerabilities affecting Windows Codecs Library and Visual Studio Code. https://redmondmag.com/articles/2020/10/19/microsoft-patches-window-codec.aspx https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/current-activity/2020/10/16/microsoft-releases-security-updates-address-remote-code-execution Microsoft issued two “out-of-band” security updates late last week.  The two security bulletins were released outside Microsoft’s usual “update Tuesday” security patch-release cycle. Microsoft’s October security bundle had arrived on Oct. 13 (the […]

While there are no known “exploits in the wild” all ADMINs should ensure their Sonic Wall VPN facilities have the latest OCT-2020 security updates in place.  SANS ISC rates this vulnerability as a “PATCH NOW” security issue https://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/CVE20205135+Buffer+Overflow+in+SonicWall+VPNs+Patch+Now/26692/ SonicWall released updates last week which fix this vulnerability and several others. Although no known exploit has […]

https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/current-activity/2020/10/16/ncsc-releases-alert-microsoft-sharepoint-vulnerability The United Kingdom (UK) National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has released an Alert to address a vulnerability—CVE-2020-16952—affecting Microsoft SharePoint server. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system. Applying patches from Microsoft’s October 2020 Security Advisory for CVE-2020-16952 can prevent exploitation of this vulnerability.   The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency […]

CORPORATE VPN SOLUTIONS https://www.pcmag.com/news/business-choice-awards-2020-vpn-services-for-work-remote-access It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been working from home for years or started this year due to the pandemic: if you’re working remotely, you better have a virtual private network (VPN) to keep your internet traffic safe and protect company resources. The best solution for this kind of remote access scenario […]

The October 2020 Harvard Business review has an excellent article “How to Shine in Virtual Meetings“.  Virtual video meetings using ZOOM, Teams, and other technologies still require professionalism & making good impressions to others.  It is important to use many of the best practices virtually, that we use in-person.   https://hbr.org/2020/10/how-to-shine-in-the-virtual-spotlight Over the last six […]

The new Apple iPhone 12 smartphones were announced on October 13, 2020.  The following are related U-Tube links  

Microsoft & other firms recently ended the Trickbot criminal network which often hosted ransomware attacks in past. https://redmondmag.com/articles/2020/10/13/microsoft-patents-trickbot-network.aspx https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/10/12/trickbot-ransomware-cyberthreat-us-elections/ Microsoft and other software and services companies this week described their efforts in taking down the Trickbot criminal network.  The years-long effort involved working with the courts, software security firms and telcos to eliminate the hosting […]

Microsoft has released important “Patch Tuesday” monthly security updates. These should applied promptly as some of these vulnerabilities have potential to be actively exploited in-the-wild later: https://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/Microsoft+October+2020+Patch+Tuesday/26672/ https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2020/10/microsoft-patch-tuesday-for-oct-2020.html https://www.thezdi.com/blog/2020/10/13/the-october-2020-security-update-review https://patchtuesdaydashboard.com/ https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-us/security-guidance/summary https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/current-activity/2020/10/13/microsoft-releases-october-2020-security-updates For October, Microsoft released patches to correct 87 CVEs in Microsoft Windows, Office and Office Services and Web Apps, Azure Functions, Open Source […]