Hi, Folks!
It’s not Patch Tuesday, but security updates from Google, nVidia, TeamViewer and others have triggered an out-of-cycle update.
This Month Week in Technology (Again)
Microsoft is fixing Windows Search again today, and soon scaling back Cortana features in order to better focus the CPU-intensive AI.
Storing your passwords in Notes in your iPhone and iPad is something almost every iOS user does, but shouldn’t. Any app or widget can read the clipboard contents any time. Apple’s Safari browser will soon prevent you from accessing websites secured by SSL/TLS certificates with duration’s beyond 13 months. Their stated goal is to improve validity and reliability of certificates by increasing automation and thus reducing the likelihood of human error. This might be more trustworthy if the systems that automate the processes could be better trusted. I’m old enough to remember when large certificate providers (including Verisign) issued half a million certificates to almost anyone that asked, whether they had any relationship to the site or not. Surely this should have hurt Verisign pretty bad, right? Nah, they are still the Domain Registry for all .com, .net, .gov and .edu TLDs, and they’re currently attempting to discredit everyone that dared to comment on their contract renewal that grants them the ability to raise .com rates in 4 out of 6 years.
ISPs believe they own your data if you dare use their service to get online, but for what it’s worth, they don’t have nearly the scope of data access that a flaw in over a billion wireless devices (including Apple iPhone, iPad, Amazon Echo, Kindle, Samsung Galaxy, and Google Nexus devices) does. If you haven’t patched all your mobile devices recently, do it now.
Speaking of data access, reliance on cloud backups and local backups with permanently tethered drives won’t help you when you’re hit with ransomware, and reliance on cloud-based services allows patent claims to remotely disable your property, and, in a possible first, ransomware may have actually been responsible for keeping criminals out of prison.
Wells Fargo has been fined $3b over creating millions of fraudulent accounts based on real people, but none of it will go to their victims. Over 50,000 people hit by the Click4Support scamware will be getting about 5-10% of their losses back. It ain’t much, but it’s better than nothing.
In yet another example of sky-is-falling ignorance from “Tech Commentators” that don’t actually understand the technology they’re talking about, Gordon Kelly claims that information that never leaves your computer can be spied on by several unrelated third-parties. Sigh. More importantly, Google has released 7 security updates for Chrome in the last month. Yes, really. If you followed Gordon Kelly’s advice to block updates you’d be at actual risk from several real and serious vulnerabilities instead of just thinking you know so much stuff that isn’t true.
Professor Norman Sadeh, of Carnegie Mellon’s Institute for Software Research,
the same group that helped the FBI break TOR “on a budget” (paid $1m from the FBI, they spent $3k to break TOR), have released an app, IOTA, to help you identify the Internet-of-Things devices that exist around you, and they might not even abuse the information you share with them to gain a foothold into your networks.
While we’re on the topic of abuse, a facial recognition company was breached and their entire client list was stolen. It’s easy to blame the contractor for making this kind of mistake, but the US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) hasn’t done any better, even exposing White House data.
Finally, a US Federal Appeals court ruled that online censorship is okay, ensuring that the 2020 election will be tainted by Silicon Valley’s very own form of social engineering via censorship. Oh, well.
Let’s Get Busy
The typical computer should see approximately 400 MB of updates today. Let’s get started.
Microsoft has released another update to fix the search bugs in Windows 10 v1903 and newer and a security update for the new Edge browser. Use Windows Update to get the updates.
Don’t forget to check your mobile devices, too! Many updates will also apply to your tablet, phone, kindle or television – so check your device-appropriate App Store and install updates.
Important Notes
Everything above this section should be checked by everyone on every computer. Chances are good that close to every single computer you touch will be affected by those updates. This is not the case with the items below, though you should still check each line item below to see if it applies to software you have installed.
Please remember that while I list many different applications within these updates, most people should ONLY install updates for a program if they already have a previous version of that program installed.
It is essential to maintain all the applications you have installed on your computer, but often you can minimize the time investment and the potential for exploitation simply by uninstalling software you do not need.
Also note that using the applications own “check for updates” function, when available, will best preserve your current settings, and often avoid any crapware that might come with a fresh installer. Use this option if it’s available to you.
Finally, if you’re sick of doing this all yourself, let me! Call or email me any time, and we can set you up with subscription SaferPC updates which will be installed each month whenever necessary. Click, call or email for more details:
https://saferpc.info/updates/
209-565-12PD
shawn@12pointdesign.com
Driver Updates
If you’re using this hardware – these updates are for you.
Zebra Driver 2020.1 doesn’t provide a changelog, so should be treated as a security update.
https://www.seagullscientific.com/support/downloads/drivers/zebra
nVidia 442.50 is a security update.
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
Browser Updates
One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.
Google Chrome 80.0.3987.122 is a security update. Use Menu, Help, About to install the most current version.
Vivaldi 2.11.1811.44 is a security update. Use Menu, Help, About to install the most current version.
Brave 1.4.95 is a security update. Use Menu, Help, About to install the most current version.
Iridium 2020.01.79 is a security update. Use Menu, Help, About to install the most current version.
Email Updates
One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.
Mailspring 1.7.4 adds Google contact management, plaintext mail (yay!), and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://getmailspring.com/
Internet Updates
One or more of these are likely to be of interest to everyone.
FileZilla Client 3.47.1 resolves a bug loading advanced site parameters. This is not a security update.
https://filezilla-project.org/
WinSCP 5.17.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://winscp.net/eng/index.php
Media Updates
These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.
Picard 2.3.1 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://picard.musicbrainz.org/
Office Updates
One or more of these are likely to be of interest to most people.
LibreOffice Fresh 6.4.1 resolves 80 bugs, including several crash bugs. This is not a security update. Please note that LibreOffice Fresh is their beta product. Most users should use LibreOffice Still.
https://www.libreoffice.org/
Security Software Updates
One or more of these is likely to be of interest to most people.
RogueKiller 14.2.1 updates libraries and resolves a signature update bug. This is a security update.
https://www.adlice.com/download/roguekiller/
uBlock Origin 1.25.0 adds DNS resolution to Firefox and resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/latest
Capture Updates
These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.
ScreenToGif 2.21.2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://github.com/NickeManarin/ScreenToGif/releases/latest
Converter Updates
These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.
DVDFab 11.0.7.5 adds support for new encodings and improved upscaling. This is not a security update.
https://www.dvdfab.cn/download.htm
Utility Updates
These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.
1Password for Mac 7.4.3 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://1password.com/downloads/mac/
Dell Command Update 3.1.1 improves reliability and stability. This is not a security update.
https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln311129/dell-command-update?lang=en
Etcher 1.5.79 resolves two minor bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.balena.io/etcher/
GoodSync 10.10.25 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://12pd.com/click?goodsync
MS ISO Downloader 8.32 adds images for new Dell models and preview versions of Win10 v2004. This is not a security update.
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-and-office-iso-download-tool
NTLite 1.9.0.7330 resolves several bugs and improves compatibility. This is not a security update.
https://www.ntlite.com/download/
SetDefaultBrowser 1.5 adds support for side-by-side Edge installations. This is not a security update.
https://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/11/10/setdefaultbrowser-set-the-default-browser-per-user-on-windows-10-and-server-2016-build-1607/
TeamViewer 15.3.2682 adds the ability to remove a chat participant, and resolves several bugs, including the ability for mouse actions to be processed when disabled. This is a secuirty update.
https://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/windows/
Developer Updates
These are unlikely to be of interest to most people.
Android Studio 3.6.0.21 resolves the Git bug and disables the Multi Preview feature. This is not a security update.
https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html
WinMerge 2.16.6 resolves several bugs, improves tab behavior, and adds support for more file formats. This is not a security update.
https://winmerge.org/
Web Package Updates
These are likely to be of interest only to web developers.
HumHub 1.4.2 resolves several bugs. This is not a security update.
https://www.humhub.com/en/download
Autoptimize 2.6.2 adds eager-loading support, improves compatibility, and resolves a couple bugs. This is not a security update.
WordPress Importer 0.7 improves compatibility and resovles several bugs. This is not a security update.
That’s all for now folks. Keep it clean out there. 😉
Regards,
Shawn K. Hall
https://SaferPC.info/
https://12PointDesign.com/