MS-DEFCON 4: A “sort of” quiet February

By Susan Bradley

The February updates have generally been well behaved, with one major exception: gamers.

Otherwise, things have been mostly quiet. That’s why I feel comfortable lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4. Patches are unlikely to cause most users any problems.

Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.09.1, 2024-02-27).

Get ready for AI

ON SECURITY

By Susan Bradley

Not a day goes by that we don’t hear about some new technology using AI.

Whether we like it or not, vendors are going to be slapping a coat of AI on just about everything to ensure it gets in front of us.

We already know that many in our readership do not want AI in their technology. But what if you do want to embrace it? What are some things you need to concern yourself about, or at least be aware of before you start using it?

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.09.0, 2024-02-26).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

All the places a “missing” email can be hiding

MICROSOFT 365

By Peter Deegan

If an email hasn’t arrived, there are many reasons why it’s not sitting in your Inbox. Before complaining to the sender, save yourself embarrassment by checking the many other hiding places.

Over 20-plus years, I’ve had a lot of experience from both sides of a missing email. I’ve traced missing emails sent to me and helped people trace messages that my site, Office-Watch.com, sent to them.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.09.0, 2024-02-26).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

AM-DeadLink — Because nothing lasts forever

FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

By Deanna McElveen

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” —Jimmy Dean

Websites disappear or get redirected as their original owners stop paying for the domain names and someone else scoops them up. I’m going to show you how to adjust your sails.

AM-DeadLink is a free program by Aignesberger Software, an Austrian software company. The program searches your Web browser’s bookmarks or favorites for links that are no longer active (dead) or are getting redirected to another website (a common tactic used by scammers who buy up the old domains). But AM-DeadLink doesn’t stop there. You can also use it to scan text files, tab-delimited files, CSV files, and HTML files to find dead links.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.09.0, 2024-02-26).

Windows Terminal arrives?

WINDOWS 11

By Will Fastie

Microsoft’s Windows Terminal is not a new thing, but it arrived by stealth in Windows 11. It’s quite a change.

Windows Terminal is a replacement for the Windows Console that can run any command-line-interface (CLI) app within a tabbed interface. It was developed for Windows 10 and has been around since 2019, but it has suddenly appeared in Windows — apparently with no warning.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.09.0, 2024-02-26).

Do you know what to do for identity theft?

I hope you are following Brian Livingston’s series on Password managers. There’s more to come in fact. As a password manager program is one of the best things you can do to prevent identity theft.

As the SANS  OUCH newsletter points out, the best way to prevent such thing is to ensure you are using strong passwords.

“Strong Passwords: One of the most effective ways to protect yourself is secure each of your accounts with a unique, long password, and when possible, enable multi-factor authentication.”

There is no way the human brain can remember a long strong password even if you did make it a passphrase. In addition, if you reuse it on many sites, all it takes is one site that does not do their due diligence in protecting your hashed password and once “popped” by an attacker, they then try that saved hashed password against other web sites.  We are creatures of habit when it comes to reusing passwords. Try to NOT be a creature of habit. Are you following Brian’s series?  Do you use a password manager? What steps have you taken to keep your identity safe?

Born to fail?

BEN’S WORKSHOP

By Ben Myers

A beguiling and captivating laptop showed up here with a bad combination of RAM and SSD.

One of my clients recently traded in a Dell Inspiron 15-7568, a laptop with a brilliant 15-inch, 4K (3840×2160) resolution touch screen; eight gigabytes of memory; and a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD).

Nice, but troubled.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.08.0, 2024-02-19).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

Can you use a free password manager, or must you pay?

PUBLIC DEFENDER

By Brian Livingston

We all face security threats on the Internet. A common recommendation by tech pundits is this: at each website where you register, enter a different username-password combination.

Remembering all those combos — especially if you make up random strings, such as 6!p#o&a0%9b — almost forces you to install software called a password manager. But do you really have to?

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.08.0, 2024-02-19).