IT Gets a Summer Vacation with Light Patch Load for June
June 11th, 2013
It’s a record month for Microsoft this month. With just five bulletins, June marks the lowest number of bulletins we’ve seen from Microsoft to date this year, making it a light month for IT admins. It’s also the halfway point for the year, which is always a good time to look back at last year [...]
Securing the Internet of Things
June 6th, 2013
Gone are the days when the Internet was something accessed only through a PC attached to an Ethernet plug. Access is now available from anywhere and via a multitude of form factors. The Internet has moved beyond the computer and even your smartphone into the most unlikely of things. Your TV, your thermostat, even your [...]
Near Real-Time Threat Intelligence in the Cloud
May 30th, 2013
Microsoft announced this week they will host known botnet malware infection information and other threat data in their Azure Cloud. This move will enable near-real-time threat data sharing and inarguably, this is a step in the right direction in our fight against the bad guys. ISPs and CERTs have received threat data via email from Microsoft [...]
Ten Bulletins This May Patch Tuesday; But Don’t Get Excited
May 14th, 2013
While 10 patches covering 33 vulnerabilities may seem like a high number, it isn’t all bad news for IT professionals this May Patch Tuesday. Only two of the 10 patches released today are critical and both impact Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer. The two critical-rated patches address the IE 8 zero-day that made news after attacking a [...]
Patch Tuesday Not Too Taxing For IT This Month, Despite Heavy Patch Count
April 9th, 2013
It’s another heavy month of patches this month from Microsoft. There are 9 bulletins, with 2 critical and 7 important. While 9 may seem like a lot, there are a few pieces of good news this month. First, there are only 2 critical bulletins and most of the patches are rated important. Second, most of [...]
Embedded Chinese Malware – Theoretical Threat or Practical Issue?
April 4th, 2013
Before we begin discussing the issue of the theoretical or practical reality in the potential threat of the Chinese embedding malware in the computer equipment they manufacture, consider this: Just a few years ago who would have thought that any government (never mind our own) would have created malware to attack another government’s computer systems [...]
No Luck o’ the Irish for IT this St. Patty’s Day
March 12th, 2013
IT admins can’t seem to catch a break this year. First, the never ending stream of Java issues that has kept folks on their toes since January. Now they’ve got another busy month of patches ahead of them, with 7 total patches from Microsoft, 4 of which are critical. However, once again the issues outside of Microsoft [...]
Eliminating Java Will Not Solve Your Problem
March 6th, 2013
While many are jumping on the ‘Death to Java’ bandwagon and ranting about turning off Java to eliminate risk, it is important to put the issue in the proper context: the reality of the matter is a Java vulnerability is not the end game for a cyber criminal; it is merely a delivery mechanism in [...]
No Love for IT This Valentine’s Day
February 12th, 2013
It’s going to be a rough Valentine’s Day for many IT admins this month. With ongoing issues with Java and 12 bulletins from Microsoft, including 5 critical issues and many restarts, it’s going to be a very disruptive Patch Tuesday. It’s disturbing to note how many different Microsoft platforms are critically affected this month. Everything [...]
Microsoft Kicks off the New Year With Fixes for Current Code Base
January 8th, 2013
So far, it looks like 2013 is off to a fairly average start with 7 bulletins: 2 critical and 5 important. You may recall that January of 2012 also came in with 7 bulletins, though only 1 was critical. After closing out 2012 with more consistency in the number of patches per month, we can [...]
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