ComputerWorld – Page 55 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 04:16:00 -0800

Today Microsoft issues its final free security update for Windows 7, putting an end to that operating system’s decade.

To remember that service – a retirement party but without the cloyingly-sweet cake and cheap gold watch – Computerworld selected seven highlights of Windows 7. While the seven do not pretend to trace Windows 7’s history, they illustrate the influence and impact of the OS.

Here’s to Windows 7. Raise a glass, for cryin’ out loud.

It salvaged Microsoft’s reputation after the Vista debacle

The numbers say it all.

Windows Vista, the 2006 replacement for Windows XP, topped out at 20% of all Windows versions in October 2009. Even though the OS it followed was long in the tooth – XP was nearly twice the age of a typical version when it was supplanted – Vista struggled to put a dent in its forerunner’s share.

To read this article in full, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

January 14, 2020 admin

Saying goodbye to Windows 7 isn’t easy, but you must

Credit to Author: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 03:00:00 -0800

Listen, I get it. Windows 7 has worked really well. After the Vista fiasco, you were so happy to get a decent version of Windows. You dodged the Windows 8.x sinkhole, and, boy, were you glad! Then, you thought about Windows 10, but 7 just did the job so you stuck with it, and then you felt vindicated because of Windows 10’s dodgy upgrades and patches. Now, today, Jan. 14, 2020, Windows 7 has reached its end of life, and either you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 or you’re working on another Windows 7 alternative like Chrome OS, macOS or Linux, right?

To read this article in full, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

January 9, 2020 admin

Mozilla patches Firefox zero-day as attackers exploit flaw

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2020 11:46:00 -0800

Just one day after releasing Firefox 72, Mozilla updated the browser with a fix to shut down active attacks, the company acknowledged.

On Wednesday, Mozilla issued Firefox 72.0.1, which included one change: A patch for the vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-17026. “We are aware of targeted attacks in the wild abusing this flaw,” Mozilla said in the short description of the flaw, signaling that criminals were already leveraging the zero-day vulnerability, the term applied because there no time elapses between patching and exploitation.

To read this article in full, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

January 9, 2020 admin

Your Windows PC may become collateral damage in any conflict with Iran

Credit to Author: Preston Gralla| Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2020 10:18:00 -0800

When Iran launches cyberattacks in revenge for the killing of Major Gen. Qasem Soleimani — which it almost certainly will do — the attack vector, as always, will be Windows. And when that happens, your PC and your business’s PCs will be right in the crosshairs. Here’s why — and how you can protect your machines and your business.

A long history of U.S.-Iranian cyberwarfare

To understand the coming cyberattacks, it’s useful to look back. For more than a decade, the U.S. and Iran have engaged in low-level cyberwarfare, with occasional bursts of higher-level attacks. The most destructive of them was Stuxnet, launched in 2009 by the U.S. and Israel against Iran’s nuclear program. It exploited four zero-day flaws in Windows machines, which controlled the centrifuges Iran used to create nuclear material that can be used in nuclear weapons.

To read this article in full, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

January 8, 2020 admin

Apple wants privacy laws to protect its users

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2020 06:54:00 -0800

Your iPhone (like most smartphones) knows when it is picked up, what you do with it, who you call, where you go, who you know – and a bunch more personal information, too.

The snag with your device knowing all this information is that once the data is understood, that information can be shared or even used against you.

Information is power

Jane Horvath, Apple’s senior director for global privacy, appeared at CES 2020 this week to discuss the company’s approach to smartphone security. She stressed the company’s opposition to the creation of software backdoors into devices, and also said:

To read this article in full, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

January 8, 2020 admin

Apple’s wants privacy laws to protect its users

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2020 06:54:00 -0800

Your iPhone (like most smartphones) knows when it is picked up, what you do with it, who you call, where you go, who you know – and a bunch more personal information, too.

Information is power

The snag with your device knowing all this information is that once the data is understood than that information can be shared or even used against you.

Jane Horvath, Apple’s senior director for global privacy, appeared at CES 2012 to discuss the company’s approach to smartphone security.

To read this article in full, please click here

ComputerWorld Independent

January 8, 2020 admin

How to fix insecure LDAP binds

Prevent Windows admin credentials from being exposed in cleartext with this tip.

ComputerWorld Independent

January 7, 2020 admin

FAQ: Last-minute answers about Windows 7's post-retirement patches

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2020 04:53:00 -0800

A week from now, Microsoft will serve customers with the last for-free Windows 7 security update, in effect retiring the 2009 operating system.

However, hundreds of millions of personal computers will still power up thanks to Windows 7 on Jan. 14, and for an indeterminate timespan after that date. Windows 7 may be retiring, but it’s not disappearing.

Microsoft admitted as much more than a year ago when it announced Extended Security Updates (ESU), a program for commercial customers who needed more time to ditch Windows 7. ESU would provide patches for some security vulnerabilities for as long as three years. For a fee.

To read this article in full, please click here

(Insider Story)