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ComputerWorldIndependent

Windows security in ’22 — you need more than just antivirus software

Credit to Author: Susan Bradley| Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2022 06:10:00 -0800

Do you need antivirus in 2022 — especially when some options now come with a cryptominer built in?

Several antivirus vendors — some options free, others, paid — have begun bundling their antivirus products with software that generates virtual currency. Of all of the requirements for antivirus, using excess cycles on your computer to generate crypto-coins is not on my list of must-haves.

Recently, Krebs on Security noted that both Norton Antivirus and Avira have told users that versions of their respective software now include a cryptominer. While it’s not enabled by default, it still gives me pause; antivirus is supposed to protect us from such potentially unwanted software, and these two vendors are now including it in their wares.

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ComputerWorldIndependent

How to manually update Microsoft Defender

Credit to Author: Ed Tittel| Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2022 03:00:00 -0800

Microsoft Defender is the built-in anti-malware package that’s included with modern Windows operating systems. It’s alternatively known as Windows Security (it shows up under Settings as Windows Security) or Windows Defender (sometimes with Antivirus at the end of the name, as in this Microsoft Docs page). But whatever you want to call it, for many Windows users, this tool is the go-to default for handling security on their PCs.

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(Insider Story)

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SecuritySophos

Patch now! Microsoft releases fixes for the serious SMB bug CVE-2020-0796

Credit to Author: alexandrebecholey| Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2020 15:34:59 +0000

Microsoft issues its latest set of cumulative updates for Windows and other Microsoft products this week, but the March, 2020 Patch Tuesday is notable not only because of the sheer volume of fixes, but because it will prevent one very serious bug in its Server Message Block (SMB) technology (download the patch right now) that [&#8230;]<img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sophos/dgdY/~4/d5Hn2Ie7ee4″ height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=””/>

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ComputerWorldIndependent

Take your time, get it right for March Patch Tuesday

Credit to Author: Greg Lambert| Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2020 11:41:00 -0700

This is a big update to the Windows platform for the Microsoft March Patch Tuesday release cycle. Consisting of 115 patches, mostly to the Windows desktop, with almost all of the critical issues relating to browser-based scripting engine memory issues, this will be a difficult set of updates to release and manage.

The testing profile for the Windows desktop platform is very large, with a lower than usual exploitability/risk rating. For this month, we do not have any reports of publicly exploited or disclosed vulnerabilities (zero-days), so my recommendation is to take your time, test the changes to each platform, create a staged rollout plan and wait for future (potentially) imminent changes from Microsoft.

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