Newsletter Archives

• Preparing for 24H2

  Posted on October 7, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Don’t roll out Windows 11 24H2 yet. Defer. Delay. Wait.

  Most importantly, I always say wait, even if it’s just about monthly patches. But this is about what even Microsoft says is a major release, a complete OS overwrite. That makes 24H2 even more dangerous. Let other, more venturesome, souls take the slings and arrows, and use the lessons learned.

  Those lessons may be coming fast. Within the AskWoody community, forum posts associated with last week’s MS-DEFCON 2 Alert demonstrated that some brave testers ran into problems. Other sources have reported glitches, including BSODs. I’m still collecting data and beginning my own testing.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.41.0, 2024-10-07).

  Patch Watch CUPS, CVE-2024-47076, CVE-2024-47175, CVE-2024-47176, CVE-2024-47177, iOS 18, Linux Printing, Microsoft Surface, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Port 631, Recall, Snapdragon X Elite, Windows 11 24H2, Windows Hello

• Microsoft adopts passkeys in Windows 11 — death to passwords!

  Posted on November 20, 2023 at 02:44 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  When Microsoft enhanced Windows 11 in a September 2023 update to support “passkeys” — a more secure form of authentication — it signaled the beginning of the end for insecure and hard-to-remember passwords.

  To create a passkey, you simply use whatever method unlocks your devices: a character-based PIN, your face, a fingerprint, or what have you. You then visit any website or other remote service that’s passkey-compatible. The server exchanges with your device an “authentication token.” This uniquely identifies you and the device you are using to sign in.

  The token is a private/public key pair. Your PIN, photo, or fingerprint is never sent across the network, where it could be intercepted by man-in-the-middle attacks.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.47.0, 2023-11-20).

  Public Defender FIDO, FIDO2, Newsletters, Passkeys, Passwords, PINs, W3C, Windows Hello

• The Windows 10/11 Hello PIN works, but change is coming

  Posted on November 13, 2023 at 02:45 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.46 • 2023-11-13

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  A new Microsoft sign-in method — designed to replace today’s relatively insecure usernames and passwords — was introduced to Windows 10 in July 2015.

  The technology is called Windows Hello. It involves your entering a PIN, which can be up to 127 characters long including numbers, letters, and symbols. This PIN is associated with a device of yours: a smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer, etc. Once you use your PIN with a Microsoft Account, an Active Directory, or other services that recognize the technique, you never have to enter a username or password on that connection again.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.46.0, 2023-11-13).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender KB5030310, Newsletters, Passkeys, Passwords, PINs, Windows Hello

• Are you using Windows Hello?

  Posted on December 20, 2020 at 11:55 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  • The number of consumers using Windows Hello to sign in to Windows 10 devices instead of a password grew to 84.7 percent from 69.4 percent in 2019.

  From https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2020/12/17/a-breakthrough-year-for-passwordless-technology/

  Hmmmm….. so I have a couple of computers that demanded that I set up a PIN and then I flipped it back to password.  For sure 84.7 percent of us do not have the hardware to support biometric process.  Given the amount of posts I’ve seen about “how do I get rid of the PIN“, I’m not convinced that 84.7 percent of us CHOSE the PIN process willingly.  Rather a feature update was installed, realized that our computers could handle a PIN enablement and walked us through that.

  What do you think?  Do you think 85% of us use Windows Hello?

  Windows 10 Patch Lady Posts, Windows Hello

• New Surface Pro 4 driver “Surface – System – 1.0.75.1” fixes the Windows Hello bug

  Posted on August 4, 2017 at 04:58 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  The buggy “Surface – System – 7/21/2017 12:00:00 AM – 1.0.65.1” driver, pushed through Automatic Update earlier this week, was never documented

  Computerworld Woody on Windows

  Windows Patches/Security Surface – System – 1.0.75.1, Windows Hello