AskWoody

Tasks for the weekend March 6 – check your logins

Youtube video here

For those of you that do use Microsoft accounts, do you check your log in history?

I mean your ONLINE log in history?

Go here – sign in – and see if you see any suspicious activity. Do you recognize all of those log ins and where they came from?

If you do see unusual activity, investigate if anyone got into your accounts. Change your password and investigate two factor protection. Consider shutting down whatever access you don’t want.

Plus member bonus – Exchange security issue

For those of you that are small businesses, I have uploaded to the Master Patch list page some special links, resources and a  Plus member only video discussing the huge security issue going on right now with Microsoft email servers.

I don’t normally tell you to patch early. If you are a small business and still run a mail server running Microsoft software, I HOPE that your consultant or IT department already installed those out of band updates. If you have not, your mail server may need to be rebuilt and all (and I do mean ALL) of your passwords changed.  Like now.

Edit: if you’ve been impacted, the FBI wants to hear from you.

March 2021 Office non-Security Updates are now available

The March 2021 Office non-Security updates have been released Tuesday, March 2, 2021. They are not included in the DEFCON-4 approval for the February 2021 patches. Unless you have a specific need to install them, you should wait until Susan Bradley (Patch Lady) approves them and any problems have been reported.

Remember, Susan’s patching sequence and recommendations are based on a business environment that has IT support and may have time constraints on the updating process. Consumer patching should be more cautious due to limited technical and mechanical resources. The latter is the reason for the AskWoody DEFCON system.

Office 2016
Update for Microsoft Access 2016 (KB4493188)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4493153)
Update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 (KB4493226)
Update for Microsoft Project 2016 (KB4493191)

Office 2013
Update for Microsoft Outlook 2013 (KB4493174)

There were no non-security listings for Office 2010 (which reached EOS on October 13, 2020).
On April 10, 2018, Office 2013 reached End of Mainstream Support. Extended Support will end for Office 2013 on April 11, 2023.
Office 2016 also reached  End of Mainstream Support on October 13, 2020. EOS for Office 2016 is October 14, 2025.

Updates are for the .msi version (persistent). Office 365 and C2R are not included.

Security updates for all supported versions of Microsoft Office are released on the second Tuesday of the month (Patch Tuesday).

Do you still patch on premises Exchange servers?

Do you still patch a Microsoft Exchange server in your network?  If you do, heads up. There is limited/targeted attacks  widespread attacks underway. Microsoft has released patches for it. While they say “Exchange online is not impacted”… my guess is that it’s already patched and/or mitigated for the issue.

What’s interesting to me is that the attackers are coming FROM the United States. It’s like the SolarWinds attacks, they aren’t coming from outside the USA, but inside. Thus geo blocking no longer works to keep the bad guys out.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/released-march-2021-exchange-server-security-updates/ba-p/2175901

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/03/microsoft-chinese-cyberspies-used-4-exchange-server-flaws-to-plunder-emails/

Note this is no longer “limited attacks”.  Many small businesses have been impacted as well.

Microsoft has detected multiple 0-day exploits being used to attack on-premises versions of Microsoft Exchange Server in limited and targeted attacks. Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) attributes this campaign with high confidence to HAFNIUM. https://t.co/tdsYGFICML

— Microsoft Security Intelligence (@MsftSecIntel) March 2, 2021

“Stuttering” glitch on a brand-new PC

LANGALIST

By Fred Langa

A subscriber’s new system experiences erratic mouse and touchpad problems almost from the very first startup.

Unwanted pauses, hesitations, and stutters can afflict any PC of any age, potentially causing problems with numerous subsystems: mouse, keyboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, disks and memory, screen operations, and more! Here are the likely causes, and fixes.

Plus: Taming CCleaner’s Smart Cleaning feature.

Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.8.0 (2021-03-01).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.8.F (2021-03-01).

Here’s looking at you, kid: the child-cam scam

PUBLIC DEFENDER

By Brian Livingston

It’s terrible when no one is paying attention to you. But it’s much worse when someone is paying attention to you whom you don’t WANT to be paying attention to you.

Around the world, millions of nursery schools, daycare centers, and private homes have installed “child cams.” These are intended to allow parents to see what their kids and caregivers are doing at daycare, how their infants are sleeping in a crib room, and so on. Many of the systems allow the video to be viewed from a distance across the Internet.

Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.8.0 (2021-03-01).

The best things in life are copyrighted

LEGAL BRIEF

By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

At least on the Web.

Even though there is a sea of material there for almost effortless copying, nearly everything on the Internet is subject to copyright law. And the purpose of copyright law is specifically to protect the creators of copyrighted works from unauthorized copying.

Here’s the problem that intellectual property law is designed to solve. Innovation is a gamble. It takes time, effort, and money to develop something new, and it is hard to predict whether the gamble will pay off or not.

Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.8.0 (2021-03-01).

Using Microsoft OneDrive on your Android device

ONEDRIVE

By Lance Whitney

You can access, view, and edit your synced OneDrive files from your Android phone or tablet.

Microsoft OneDrive is an effective tool for backing up, syncing, and sharing documents and other files across your computers. But the program is also adept on a mobile device. In February, I covered the process for using OneDrive on an iPhone or iPad; now it’s time to see what it can do on an Android device.

Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.8.0 (2021-03-01).