ComputerWorld – Page 21 – PossibleThreat Articles

China’s digital Yuan project, a blockchain-based cryptocurrency for consumer and commercial finance, can no longer be considered a pilot. That’s the assessment by economic and cryptocurrency experts.

Those experts have been monitoring efforts in China and other countries developing and piloting central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) with the aim of establishing a blockchain-based virtual cash that is cheaper to use and faster to exchange, both at home and across international borders.

To date, the People’s Bank of China has distributed the digital yuan, called e-CNY, to 15 of China’s 23 provinces, and it has been used in more than 360 million transactions totaling north of 100 billion yuan, or $13.9 billion. The country has literally given away millions of dollars worth of digital yuan through lotteries, and its central bank has also participated in cross-border exchanges with several nations.

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ComputerWorld Independent

The trials and tribulations of Microsoft’s KB5012170 patch

December 19, 2022 0 Comments Microsoft, Security, small and medium business, Windows

KB5012170 is many things to many Windows users. First, it’s a patch that either installs with no problems or leads to a blue screen of death (BSOD). It can also be an indicator we have a problem getting updated drivers on our systems. It can demonstrate how users don’t keep up with Bios updates. And it shows that some OEMs enable Bitlocker on the systems they sell (not necessarily in a good way).

In short, it’s a problematic patch that just keeps rearing its head.

Also known as “Security Update for Secure Boot DBX,” KB5012170 was released earlier this year and makes improvements to the Secure Boot Forbidden Signature Database (DBX). Windows devices that have Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)-based firmware have Secure Boot enabled. It ensures only trusted software can be loaded and executed on during the boot process by using cryptographic signatures to verify the integrity of the process and the software being loaded.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Patch Tuesday: Two zero-day flaws in Windows need immediate attention

December 16, 2022 0 Comments Microsoft, Security, small and medium business, Windows

Microsoft’s December Patch Tuesday updated delivers 59 fixes, including two zero-days (CVE-2022-44698 and CVE-2022-44710) that require immediate attention on the Windows platform. This is a network focused update (TCP/IP and RDP) that will require significant testing with an emphasis on ODBC connections, Hyper-V systems, Kerberos authentication, and printing (both local and remote).

Microsoft also published an urgent out-of-band update (CVE-2022-37966) to address serious Kerberos authentication issues. (The team at Readiness has provided a helpful infographic that outlines the risks associated with each of these updates.)

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ComputerWorld Independent

Patch Tuesday: Two zero-day flaws in Windows zero-days immediate attention

December 16, 2022 0 Comments Microsoft, Security, small and medium business, Windows

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ComputerWorld Independent

Jamf Protect adds powerful telemetry to protect Mac enterprise

December 16, 2022 0 Comments Apple, desktop pcs, MacOS, Security

Security and privacy go hand in hand in the connected enterprise. So as we approach the holiday break, there’s good news for security-conscious Mac-using enterprises from Jamf: powerful new telemetry tools in Jamf Protect.

Because complex security is sexy

We know that enterprise users don’t just have a responsibility to keep things secure, they also need to prove they’re doing so. Beyond that, many regulated industries must maintain ever more complex security event logging and insight to show how hard they’re working to protect their systems.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Microsoft calls time out on Apple Watch Authenticator

December 15, 2022 0 Comments Apple, Microsoft, Mobile, Security, small and medium business

Using an Apple Watch as a device to authenticate access to enterprise sites and services using Microsoft Authenticator is a convenience that’s about to go away. Microsoft says the feature will stop working after an Authenticator update scheduled for next month.

Apple Watch auth out

Microsoft Authenticator makes it easy to sign into Microsoft accounts, supported apps or services using two-step verification. Authenticator also generates one-time use codes, so you needn’t wait for text messages or calls to access your accounts.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Microsoft’s EU data boundary plan to take effect Jan. 1

December 15, 2022 0 Comments Data privacy, regulation

Microsoft on Thursday said it will begin rolling out the first phase of its European Union data boundary plan from January 1, 2023 that’ll allow customers to store and process their customer data within the EU. The move comes two days after the EU commission said it had officially begun the process of approving the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

Under the first phase of the plan, companies that use Microsoft products and services will be able to store and process their customer data within the EU. Microsoft has included Azure, Power BI, Dynamics 365 and Office 365 under the first phase.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Microsoft’s EU data boundary plan to take effect from January 1

December 15, 2022 0 Comments Data privacy, regulation

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ComputerWorld Independent

European Commission takes step toward approving EU-US data privacy pact

December 13, 2022 0 Comments Compliance, Data privacy, regulation

The European Commission announced Tuesday that is has officially begun the process of approving the EU-US Data Privacy Framework—hammered together to allow the flow of data between the US and the European Union—after concluding that the framework provides privacy safeguards comparable to those of the EU.

After President Biden signed the executive order that implemented rules for the Trans-Atlantic Data Policy Framework in the US in October, the Commission conducted an assessment into the US legal framework that the bill was based upon. That assessment, released Tuesday, says that the legislation ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the EU to US companies.

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ComputerWorld Independent

Apple sets a security challenge for 2023

December 9, 2022 0 Comments Apple, iOS, MacOS, Security

Given Apple’s big moves this week to roll out new data protection tools for iMessage and allow users to encrypt more of their data in iCloud, it seems obvious that security is going to be a major Apple priority in the year ahead.

Stamping out surveillance

The Biden administration’s decision to blacklist the mercenary hackers at NSO Group was a welcome move, but it hasn’t stopped the “surveillance-as-a-service” industry. Instead, it’s atomized it, which means we now have more companies offering such “services” than ever before.

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