June 2019
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The May 2019 Windows 10 Feature Update was released May 21st. We recommend not installing it till the bugs get worked out, as usual. Last time this took several months. Microsoft will force an upgrade before the version you are on becomes unsupported. This is a change – previously it would not be forced. Support will end for Version 1803 in November.
You can see your version by typing Winver at a dos prompt or looking at the properties of “my computer”.
Known issue with the May Feature Update are listed here. Some older drivers including Realtek and Qualcomm Bluetooth and Intel display audio drivers are incompatible.
Microsoft Office users on a subscription (perpetual version) will see updates to the ribbon and look of MS Office programs. The “simplified ribbon” in Outlook can be turned on/off (for now) by selecting the “Coming Soon” switch in the top right.
Desktop Icons have a new look as well.
Teams will now be automatically installed as a part of the MS Office suite for subscription users.
If you write in Microsoft Word Online, you’ll soon have an AI-powered editor. Word will soon get a new feature called “Ideas” that will offer writers all kinds of help with their documents.
Security companies Sophos, Avast, Avira, ArcaBit and McAfee acknowledged issues with May updates.
OnePlus 7 Pro Phone – First Impressions.
Gmail scans emails for receipts and collects these automatically. The purchases are neatly listed on a hard to find Purchases page on Google’s My Account portal.
CCH (ProSystem) will be discontinuing support for Server 2012 as of November 30, 2019.
Entertaining podcast with Elon Musk.
SpaceX Launches First Starlink Satellites to provide worldwide internet service.
Other competitors such as Amazon, Telesat and OneWeb, are also launching satellites.
Yesterday the U.S. State Department began implementing its requirement that nearly all U.S. visa applicants submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers as part of the application process.
Border entry searches of electronic devices up nearly 50 percent last year.
Security
Microsoft Office 365 Security Observations
CISA recommends that administrators implement the following for Office 365 accounts:
- Use multi-factor authentication. This is the best mitigation technique to use to protect against credential theft for O365 users.
- Enable unified audit logging in the Security and Compliance Center.
- Enable mailbox auditing for each user. (New Office 365 customers get mailbox auditing turned on automatically, but prior to January 2019 it was off for new customers.)
- Disable legacy email protocols, if not required, or limit their use to specific users.
Newly discovered vulnerabilities in Intel chips can be used to steal sensitive information directly from the processor under the right conditions. Computer makers Apple and Microsoft and browser maker Google have released patches, with other companies expected to follow.
The ZombieLoad attack allows stealing sensitive data and keys while the computer accesses them.
First American Financial Corp. Leaked Hundreds of Millions of Title Insurance Records.
POS Malware Found at 102 Checkers Restaurant Locations.
2.3B Files Exposed in a Year due to misconfigured cloud storage.
A publicly accessible Elasticsearch database discovered on March 27 exposed various types of personally identifiable information (PII) and medical info of more than 100,000 individuals.
50k Servers Infected with Cryptomining Malware.
Billing Details for 11.9M Quest Diagnostics Clients Exposed.
By Tim Torian