Blog Archives

• Checking on your vote (USA centric)

  Posted on September 14th, 2020 at 22:39 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Patch Lady Susan here with a bit of an off-topic post.  Being in a country that lets all individual states run their own elections means that there’s no set rules across the country to check if your vote has been counted.  Where I live (smoky and a bit orange) Central California, I can use a web site called Ballottrax.com to track that my vote has been counted.  Specifically in the state of California I can go to this web site on the Secretary of State site and sign up to be alerted when my ballot is sent to me and when they receive my ballot back.

  After listening to the Blackhat presentations on election security I am convinced that electronic voting is NOT the way to go.  You want to make sure there is a paper trail and the ability to audit the vote, but with something more direct and confirmable than hanging chads 😉

  Here are some resources to know more information about voting in the upcoming elections:

  Turbovote has a site to help you get to your State’s resources.  From there you can check to see if your state allows you to check to see if you are registered, and if available, you can sign up to get email alerts about the acceptance of your ballot.  Vote411.org is put out by the League of Women Voters so you can check when and where to sign up to vote and the issues on the ballot.

  The bad guys are REALLY trying to get into accounts having to do with the UK and USA elections.  And they are really using social media to sway and influence.  One of the suggestions I’ve heard of recently to get a different view regarding the issues is to go outside of your own country and read the media from another country and see what they say about the elections in your country.  I’m personally a fan of reviewing the actual language of the bills and propositions on the ballots and ignore any radio or television commercial regarding an issue.

  Regardless of your views, I urge you to step away from the dollars being thrown at this election and go back to deciding the issues the old fashioned way:  Read the ballot.  Read the propositions you have to vote on.  Read the words of the candidates rather than listening to them.  Often reading the plain boring words allows you to see through the ….uh…. fluff on both sides and get a clearer picture of the issues and what you need to vote on.  Use resources like the League of Women Voters or other non partisan sites that you trust to give you an unbiased viewpoint.  Get ready to turn off the television and the social media in the next few weeks and do your own research.  A LOT of money is going to be spent in the next few months to sway you.  I challenge all of us to make sure that all of this money is a waste of funds and that you will make up your mind with good old fashioned minds made up with good old fashioned research on the issues.

  To anyone in the way of the fires or dealing with the smoke, stay safe and take care.

   

  On Security Patch Lady Posts

• Living in a time of digital obsolescence

  Posted on August 9th, 2020 at 23:00 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ON SECURITY

  By Susan Bradley

  Recently the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation released a document warning about unpatched Windows 7 machines.

  That alert reinforced what we already know: using an unpatched copy of Win7 is risky. According to the FBI, cybercriminals are targeting network infrastructures containing Win7 systems. And the document pointed out past problems with obsolete operating systems. For example, after Windows XP’s end of life, the healthcare industry was slow to upgrade to a supported version, leading to increased exposure of “records.”

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.31.0 (2020-08-10).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, FBI alert, IoT threats, Jailbreaking, Two-factor authentication, Win7 vulnerabilities

• 0patch instrumental in fixing a 0day with Zoom running on Windows 7

  Posted on July 12th, 2020 at 07:46 woody Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Details are sparse, but it appears that the folks at 0patch were told of a significant bug in Zoom, the online conferencing app that’s become wildly popular. They notified Zoom of the hole, which only affects Windows 7, then developed and distributed their own “micropatch” fix.

  Zoom released a patch on Friday.

  Remarkably well done, all around.

  On Security Zoom

• Wanted: Your views on Windows/Office patching

  Posted on June 22nd, 2020 at 01:05 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ON SECURITY

  By Susan Bradley

  Recently, it occurred to me that it’s been two years since I posted my survey on consumer- and business-systems updating.

  Given the changes in Windows and Office, a new audit of updating perceptions is clearly overdue. This time around, you’ll find links for two surveys: one for consumer-PC patchers and another directed at businesses.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.24.0 (2020-06-22).

  On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patching experience survey, Windows patches

• BSoDs can be a good thing — really!

  Posted on May 11th, 2020 at 01:15 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge
  

  On Security

  By Susan Bradley

  If your system crashes with an infamous blue screen of death, consider it a cry for help!

  BSoDs have always been an ugly side of Windows. Almost invariably, when Windows takes a powder, it’s at a most inopportune moment: right when you’re on deadline, right when you suddenly remember you haven’t hit Save for a while, right when your system is rebooting from an update. I like to joke that computers somehow know when you have to get something done — and now would be a great time to crash or otherwise malfunction. But blue screens of death are honestly a good thing. They are trying to tell you something is wrong with your computer.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.18.0 (2020-05-11).

  On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Blue screens of death, BlueScreenView, BSOD, Crash reports

• Patch Lady – COVID-19: The challenges of working from home

  Posted on March 30th, 2020 at 07:03 woody Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  

  ON SECURITY

  By Susan Bradley

  “Social distancing” — such a simple-sounding phrase. But it’s having a titanic impact on our social and economic fabric. By any measure, we’re now living in uncertain times.

  With so many folks being furloughed or laid off, consider yourself fortunate if you can work from home. For those who can, there’s a wealth of online information on remote computing. Here are some highlights for making the experience effective and safe.

  And for all of you with kids staying home, I’ve included some information on home-learning resources.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.12.0 (2020-03-30).

  On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, COVID-19, Remote access, Working from home

• COVID-19: The challenges of working from home

  Posted on March 26th, 2020 at 14:20 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Note: Here’s Patch Lady Susan Bradley’s comprehensive guide to working from home, from an Enterprise point of view. This story will appear in the March 30 AskWoody Plus Newsletter. But given the timely value of the information, we’re posting it early.

  ---

  On Security

  

  By Susan Bradley

  “Social distancing” — such a simple-sounding phrase. But it’s having a titanic impact on our social and economic fabric. By any measure, we’re now living in uncertain times.

  With so many folks being furloughed or laid off, consider yourself fortunate if you can work from home. For those who can, there’s a wealth of online information on remote computing. Here are some highlights for making the experience effective and safe.

  And for all of you with kids staying home, I’ve included some information on home-learning resources.

  Read the full story here.

  On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, COVID-19, home learning, Remote computing

• How small businesses are easy ransomware targets

  Posted on March 9th, 2020 at 01:15 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  

  ON SECURITY

  By Susan Bradley

  Yes, they really are out to get us. Recent trends in malicious attacks mean that small businesses need to be more vigilant than ever.

  As exploits rapidly evolve, we face the threat of falling behind in the battle to protect ourselves. On the latest front, simply keeping backups of our data isn’t enough.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.10.0 (2020-03-09).

  On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Cyber insurance, Ransomware, scams, small business
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