Newsletter Archives

• Randy’s remedies: Oops! — I called the scam number

  Posted on December 5, 2022 at 02:43 CST by Randy McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  SUPPORT

  

  By Randy McElveen

  The fact that you got tricked into calling a scammer’s phone number does not mean you’re stupid. It means the world has gotten stupid.

  I remember the vacuum salesman coming to the door when I was a kid. Of course, my mom and dad let them in. They were just people doing their job. They showed my parents what this new vacuum could do, and my parents made a decision to buy a vacuum or not. If they said no-thank-you, the salesman didn’t put a padlock on our old vacuum. He didn’t set any booby traps in our front yard as he left. He just told my parents to have a great day and moved on to the next house.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.49.0, 2022-12-05).

  Support malware, Newsletters, passwords, scams, Support

• Randy’s remedies: Juice, heat, glass, social, grid, and malware

  Posted on September 19, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Randy McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  SUPPORT

  

  By Randy McElveen

  Let’s finish up that list of remedies from Randy’s top 10 customer-support issues: Identified!

  In this article, we’ll tackle #6 all the way up to #1. If you remember, we’re going to get you some free malware-removal tools for #1, so find that flash drive!

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.38.0, 2022-09-19).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Support AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Internet connectivity, malware, Overheating, Power, Support

• Randy’s top 10 customer-support issues: Identified!

  Posted on August 15, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Randy McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.33 • 2022-08-15

  SUPPORT

  

  By Randy McElveen

  You hear pretty much everything when you’ve been in the computer-repair business for as long as I have, but you also hear a lot of the same questions and see the same issues on a daily basis.

  In this series of articles, I have one goal — to keep you out of stores like mine by giving you some tips on what to do when you experience any of the following problems or have any of these questions.

  Let’s start this week by simply identifying the most common things I see on a weekly basis, and then I’ll do a few follow-up articles to show what you can do to avoid me.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.33.0, 2022-08-15).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Support AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Customer satisfaction, hardware, malware, Software, Support

• Linux malware is on the rise. What should you do?

  Posted on March 7, 2022 at 02:43 CST by Sandra Henry-Stocker • Comment in the Forums

  LINUX

  

  By Sandra Henry-Stocker

  Threats to Linux systems used to be relatively mild because Windows was such a larger target, outnumbering Linux systems by a huge percentage.

  Not any longer. Linux has become a much bigger target due to its increasingly significant role on Internet of Things (IoT) devices, virtual machines, containers, cloud services, and supercomputers.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.10.0 (2022-03-07).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Linux AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Linux, malware

• When File Explorer stutters, loses focus

  Posted on April 6, 2020 at 01:10 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  By Fred Langa

  PCs with multiple hard drives that spin up at different rates can cause File Explorer to temporarily lose its way.

  Single-drive systems, too, can experience similar issues due to wear and maintenance problems. Here’s a fix.

  Plus: An old malware scam resurfaces.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.13.0 (2020-04-06).

  LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Drive spin-up, Drive timeout, File Explorer, malware

• Questions on controlling Windows 10 updating

  Posted on March 2, 2020 at 01:10 CST by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  By Susan Bradley

  With the end of free support for Windows 7, there’s a spate of new Win10 users.

  One of the most common questions I see from this group is how to manage the monthly updating task.

  Over its many revisions — culminating with Version 1909 — Windows 10 has come a long way toward making the patching experience more agreeable to rank-and-file users. But the key is to follow some important guidelines. Here are my rules for making Win10 updating as pain-free as possible.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.9.0 (2020-03-02).

  Patch Watch AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Group Policy Editor, malware, Patching guidlines, Windows updating

• DDEAUTO vulnerability evolving

  Posted on October 22, 2017 at 14:29 CDT by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  Further to recent news on DDEAUTO vulnerability, this threat has, like all good malware, evolved.

  From nakedsecurity.sophos.com:

  On Friday, independent reports surfaced showing that it’s possible to run DDE attacks in Outlook using emails and calendar invites formatted using Microsoft Outlook Rich Text Format (RTF), not just by sending Office files attached to emails.

  In the original attack users had to be coaxed into opening malicious attachments. By putting the code into the email message body itself, the attack comes one step closer, meaning that the social engineering needed to talk a recipient into falling for it becomes easier.

  The good news is that whether a DDE attack comes via an attachment or directly in an email or a calendar invite, you can stop the attack easily:
  Just say no

  You can read their article here

  AdminITs might like to check out the Microsoft blog on ASR (Attack Surface Reduction), which is said to mitigate the risks – linked in the AdminIT Lounge topic “Enable Attack Surface Reduction in Win10-1709“.

  Office Patches/Security, Windows Patches/Security Attack Surface Reduction, DDEAUTO, malware

• Consider a non-Windows OS for email security

  Posted on July 24, 2017 at 03:27 CDT by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  In closing a recent ComputerWorld.com post, Michael Horowitz concluded:

  “If you read email on a Windows computer, do yourself a favor and use a different operating system, at least for email.”

  The article was discussing Windows Scripting Host (WSH), JavaScript and VBScript malicious files, which have been associated with recent malware via emails.

  WSH can execute scripts written in many programming languages. Out of the box, it does JScript and VBScript but other languages, such as Perl and Python, can also be installed.

  Michael details how to disable the WSH component, and to have any such attachments to open in Notepad, which changes them from being script files. You can find the details here.

  Windows Patches/Security JavaScript, malware, VBScript, WSH

• Malware: Its Prevention, Detection & Blocking

  Posted on June 8, 2017 at 12:39 CDT by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  Last week, a blogpost raised the issue about Fireball, a recently discovered browser hijacker and malware downloader.

  In response, an anonymous poster has suggested:

  anonymous wrote
  This is why corporations should be using HOSTS files and utilizing applications like Spybot Search & Destroy and Teatimer.

  Corporations and end users have differing needs, using different methods to achieve similar results. Some utilities are freely available to end users, but EULAs mean corporations pay for those services.

  While one solution will not be suitable for all setups or Windows versions, what are the best methods and utilities available today? How much time, effort and skill do those methods require, to set up, update and maintain?

  Other, Windows Patches/Security hosts file, malware, Spybot

• “Fireball” Malware Contains Digital Certificates

  Posted on June 3, 2017 at 15:00 CDT by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  Check Point Threat Intelligence Research Team have discovered a “high volume Chinese threat operation”, in the form of Fireball.

  The scope of this malware is eye-watering: an estimated 20% of worldwide corporate networks have been infected, 250,000,000 machines! In U.S., Check Point’s sensors show 5,500,000 infections (2.2% of global infections, but 10.5% of corporate networks infected).

  From InfosecurityMagazine.com’s Tara Seals:

  The good news is that Fireball can be removed from PCs by uninstalling the adware using Programs and Features list in the Windows Control Panel, or using the Mac Finder function in the Applications folder on Macs.

  Yes, you read that correctly – it affects Macs too!

   
  Check out the new Code Red – security updates post, which has links to further information.

  Other Fireball, malware

• Alureon rootkit tops the list of malware caught this month

  Posted on May 24, 2010 at 22:13 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  See the details in my new InfoWorld Tech Watch blog.

  Windows Patches/Security Alureon, malware, Microsoft Security Essentials, rootkit, Windows XP