An Alarming Windows Bug, a Triumph for Tesla, and More News
Credit to Author: Alex Baker-Whitcomb| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 22:45:55 +0000
Catch up on the most important news from today in two minutes or less.
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Windows 10 Has a Security Flaw So Severe the NSA Disclosed It
Credit to Author: Lily Hay Newman| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 22:30:55 +0000
In a shift toward transparency, the National Security Agency announced a bug that could have left over 900 million PCs vulnerable to attack.
Read MoreIf Russia Hacked Burisma, Brace for the Leaks to Follow
Credit to Author: Andy Greenberg| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 20:38:27 +0000
The Kremlin likely hacked the oil giant. Its next play: selectively release—and even forge—documents. Did the US learn enough from 2016 to ignore them?
Read MorePatch Tuesday aftermath: The NSA Crypt32 threat is real, but not yet imminent
Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2020 07:26:00 -0800
Get ready for your local news station’s weather reporter to start lecturing on the importance of installing Windows patches.
Yesterday we were treated to a remarkable Patch Tuesday. “Remarkable” specifically in the sense that the U.S. National Security Agency was moved to put out a press release (PDF):
NSA recommends installing all January 2020 Patch Tuesday patches as soon as possible to effectively mitigate the vulnerability on all Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016/2019 systems.
Breaking iPhone encryption won't make anyone safer
Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2020 05:06:00 -0800
Imagine all your tax documentation could be examined by officials from any government merely on suspicion. That’s the future some governments are pushing for when they demand Apple puts security backdoors into its products.
Making no one safe
Think about the nature of security backdoors:
Microsoft to Windows 7: Beat it, you bum
Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 12:36:00 -0800
Microsoft today figuratively told Window 7 – which ended support with a final security update – not to let the door hit it on the way out.
“Ten-year-old tech just can’t keep up,” Jared Spataro, an executive on the Microsoft 365 team, wrote in a post to a company blog. “As we end support for Windows 7, I encourage you to transition to these newer options right away.”
Not surprisingly, Spataro named those newer options as Windows 10 to replace Windows 7, and Office 365 to fill in for the retiring-in-October Office 2010. Combined, they make up the bulk of Microsoft 365, the business subscription plan Microsoft wants all customers to adopt.
Apple refuses latest government iPhone-unlock request
Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 12:30:00 -0800
Apple turned down a request from U.S. Attorney General William Barr this week, saying it will not help unlock two iPhones used by a terrorist suspect last month in the deadly shooting at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla.
Barr said the shooter, 21-year-old Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, acted alone when he shot and killed three service members and wounded several others, including two sheriff’s deputies responding to the attack. Alshamrani, a member of the Saudi Air Force and an aviation student at the base, was shot dead on the scene by police.