Independent – Page 206 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2018 14:46:30 +0000

T-Mobile, AT&T and other mobile carriers are reminding customers to take advantage of free services that can block identity thieves from easily “porting” your mobile number out to another provider, which allows crooks to intercept your calls and messages while your phone goes dark. Tips for minimizing the risk of number porting fraud are available below for customers of all four major mobile providers, including Sprint and Verizon.

ComputerWorld Independent

February 28, 2018 admin

Microsoft Patch day brings bug warnings, another Office CtR, and the return of KB 2952664

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2018 05:54:00 -0800

Once upon a time, the fourth Tuesday of the month was reserved by Microsoft for non-security patches. How times have changed. Yesterday, we saw a bunch of new bug warnings — including an admonition to uninstall a previous buggy .Net Preview patch — and an unexpected fourth update this month for Office 365’s reputedly stable Monthly Channel.

New .Net Preview warning to uninstall

The Feb. 2018 .Net Framework Previews — which were pulled last Thursday — got new warnings. Each of these updated KB articles:

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Independent Krebs

February 27, 2018 admin

Bot Roundup: Avalanche, Kronos, NanoCore

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:10:52 +0000

It’s been a busy few weeks in cybercrime news, justifying updates to a couple of cases we’ve been following closely at KrebsOnSecurity. In Ukraine, the alleged ringleader of the Avalanche malware spam botnet was arrested after eluding authorities in the wake of a global cybercrime crackdown there in 2016. Separately, a case that was hailed as a test of whether programmers can be held accountable for how customers use their product turned out poorly for 27-year-old programmer Taylor Huddleston, who was sentenced to almost three years in prison for making and marketing a complex spyware program.

ComputerWorld Independent

February 27, 2018 admin

GDPR deadline looms: The price and penalties | Salted Hash Ep 20

With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) deadline fast approaching, host Steve Ragan explores the implications of noncompliance for companies — and possible penalties — with Greg Reber, founder/CEO of AsTech Consulting.

Independent Krebs

February 26, 2018 admin

USPS Finally Starts Notifying You by Mail If Someone is Scanning Your Snail Mail Online

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2018 19:28:41 +0000

In October 2017, KrebsOnSecurity warned that ne’er-do-wells could take advantage of a relatively new service offered by the U.S. Postal Service that provides scanned images of all incoming mail before it is slated to arrive at its destination address. We advised that stalkers or scammers could abuse this service by signing up as anyone in the household, because the USPS wasn’t at that point set up to use its own unique communication system — the U.S. mail — to alert residents when someone had signed up to receive these scanned images. The USPS recently told this publication that beginning Feb. 16 it started alerting all households by mail whenever anyone signs up to receive these scanned notifications of mail delivered to that address. The notification program, dubbed “Informed Delivery,” includes a scan of the front and back of each envelope or package destined for a specific address.

ComputerWorld Independent

February 26, 2018 admin

Microsoft Patch Alert: February's fixes aren’t as bad as last month, but problems abound

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2018 09:34:00 -0800

The January 2018 Microsoft patching cycle may have been the worst and most invasive set of Microsoft releases in recent memory. The February updates, by marked contrast, only clobber a limited number of machines. How many? We don’t know — and Microsoft isn’t saying.

Bad Win10 Fall Creators Update patch

What we do know for sure is that the buggy Win10 Fall Creators Update cumulative update KB 4074588 tossed many PCs into bluescreen hell and disabled USB devices of various stripes. That’s quite an accomplishment for version 1709 which, according to AdDuplex, is now said to run on 85% of all Windows 10 machines. To look at it a different way, Microsoft blew the cumulative update to the most-used version (1709) of the most-used Windows (Win10 now surpasses Win7).

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ComputerWorld Independent

February 23, 2018 admin

New non-security patches arrive for Win10 1607 and 1703; 1709 update likely soon

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2018 04:26:00 -0800

Microsoft last night released a flood of unexpected patches. Yes, that’s a Thursday night dump. No, there weren’t any pressing security fixes – at least, none that were advertised. I have no idea why Microsoft’s pushing this offal out the Automatic Update chute.

In addition to a scattering of Preview patches for Win7, 8.1 and Server 2002 – which are usually posted on the third “Week C” Tuesday of the month – and the Surface Pro 3 firmware patch that was announced, but not delivered, Wednesday, we have two new cumulative updates: one for Win10 Anniversary Update (version 1607) and one for Win10 Creators Update (version 1703). Susan Bradley has a full list with links on the AskWoody site.

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