WIN 7 & 8 Users Alert

[Lee B]

Before you do anything Monday morning, make sure your Windows updates are totally current.

The ransomware attacks that occurred the last several days went after known holes in all Windows OS prior to Win 10.

Microsoft issued updates back in March that closed some of the holes and more updates that will now close the rest of the holes.

[Lion EA]

Thank you.  Updating now.

[Catherine]

Me, too.  And the home computer once I get home tonight.

[Jack from Ohio]

1. The vulnerability that the ransom-ware exploited was for Windows XP.  Anyone still running XP is 75% responsible if they get hit.
2. The ransom-ware is initiated by clicking on a phishing e-mail.  Anyone who does that in addition to running XP becomes 100% responsible for the damage.
3. Buy a new machine with WIN 7 PRO.
4. Learn how not to gullible about e-mail.
5. I am as busy on the internet as anyone, manage over 15 separate e-mail accounts, and in 15 years I have not fallen prey to any phishing e-mails, nor contracted any viruses. 

[Abby Normal]

10 hours ago, Jack from Ohio said:

Buy a new machine with WIN 7 PRO

Win 8 is more secure and much faster.

[Terry D EA]

Well what do you do with a machine that has windows 7Pro that won't update due to Microsoft issues that they have not launched a fix for. I'm talking about the infamous checking for updates for an eternity and never completing any updates. I have research extensively trying to fix this problem which is one reason I went to a Windows 10 machine.

[Lee B]

16 minutes ago, Terry D said:

Well what do you do with a machine that has windows 7Pro that won't update due to Microsoft issues that they have not launched a fix for. I'm talking about the infamous checking for updates for an eternity and never completing any updates. I have research extensively trying to fix this problem which is one reason I went to a Windows 10 machine.

I must say that I am still using a Win 7 Pro 64 bit computer, and I have have never had this problem.

[Tax Prep by Deb]

19 minutes ago, Terry D said:

Well what do you do with a machine that has windows 7Pro that won't update due to Microsoft issues that they have not launched a fix for. I'm talking about the infamous checking for updates for an eternity and never completing any updates. I have research extensively trying to fix this problem which is one reason I went to a Windows 10 machine.

I'm having the same problem with a Windows 10, it will not update to the creator version, however it is continuing to update the updates to the anniversary version, also I can not get mine to back up either.  I really want to love 10, but I have had some issues.

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

2 hours ago, Terry D said:

Well what do you do with a machine that has windows 7Pro that won't update due to Microsoft issues that they have not launched a fix for. I'm talking about the infamous checking for updates for an eternity and never completing any updates. I have research extensively trying to fix this problem which is one reason I went to a Windows 10 machine.

I have had this problem on several Windows 7 pro computers. I have fixed all but a laptop. I Googled until I came upon a fix from some website that worked on two desktops. I can't get the laptop to recover for anything. Fortunately, it only has some pictures, but they are important. I'm afraid to turn the darn thing on now long enough to back them up. My original update problem with my office computer was caused by the update to 10 that was not supposed to happen. After Microsoft took it back to Windows 7 for me, it would not update until I found the solution myself. They were no help with the endless circle up never finishing updating.

[JohnH]

I decided to limit my work day on Monday by using only my Mac, mainly doing work in Excel and any online stuff such as checking email, web browsing, etc.  I wanted to see how things developed with the virus issues before even switching on the PC.  (I turn the computers off each night at my office)

But that still brings on an interesting issue.  Are Macs less vulnerable to viruses overall, or is it just that there are so few of them compared to PC's that hackers haven't yet taken a keen interest in them?  Is there really a reliable answer to this question?

[Abby Normal]

14 hours ago, Terry D said:

Well what do you do with a machine that has windows 7Pro that won't update due to Microsoft issues that they have not launched a fix for. I'm talking about the infamous checking for updates for an eternity and never completing any updates. I have research extensively trying to fix this problem which is one reason I went to a Windows 10 machine.

Just googled this and this was the first item. It was just updated this week.

http://plugable.com/2016/06/08/windows-7-wont-update-what-to-do/

[Eric]

On 5/17/2017 at 7:52 AM, JohnH said:

I decided to limit my work day on Monday by using only my Mac, mainly doing work in Excel and any online stuff such as checking email, web browsing, etc.  I wanted to see how things developed with the virus issues before even switching on the PC.  (I turn the computers off each night at my office)

But that still brings on an interesting issue.  Are Macs less vulnerable to viruses overall, or is it just that there are so few of them compared to PC's that hackers haven't yet taken a keen interest in them?  Is there really a reliable answer to this question?

I don't think you'll find a really satisfactory answer to that question anywhere, the two platforms are very different, and both are relatively secure.

Like you say, Windows is a more appealing target due to numbers alone... so a better return on investment for people looking to spread malware.

Apple does have one benefit though -- by default, macOS is configured to only accept software installs that are from apple-signed developers, which provides an additional layer of trust when installing new software.  So, if you attempt to install some application on your mac from a developer that isn't approved/signed by apple, you get a worrying message about it.  The software isn't necessarily bad, but the message that you're given is strongly worded to make you think twice about whether you trust that developer.

On the other hand, when you install Windows software, you get the same generic UAC dialog box no matter who provides the software.  People are trained to click YES without giving it much of a thought because it comes up every single time you install a program on Windows.

So, that's one way that the average user is slightly more protected from themselves when using a Mac.  It's not bullet-proof, though.  Bad things can happen to good software.  

Example: I use a well-known video transcoding application called Handbrake on both Windows and Mac.  It's legit software, and well-respected for the quality of the audio/video it produces when converting between formats.  Somewhere along the line, the latest version was replaced (on Handbrake's download site) with a copy that included malicious code.  Anyone who downloaded and installed it on their mac are infected with some nasty malware.

Thankfully, I didn't download a new version recently, so I'm unaffected.  However, I just read an article today that the developer (Panic Inc.) for another piece of software, Transmission (in my opinion, the best FTP Client available for macOS) did get infected by that malware-laced Handbrake download, and as a result a good portion of the soruce code for Transmission has been stolen.  Is there a chance that vulnerabilities will be uncovered in Transmission when the source code is examined? Idunno. I'm considering using a free open-source alternative on my Mac for a while, though.

If that wasn't a long enough post, here's some additional details about the two recent hacks in case you find these things interesting (ha)

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/mac-threat-analysis/2017/05/handbrake-hacked-to-drop-new-variant-of-proton-malware/

https://panic.com/blog/stolen-source-code/

[Lion EA]

Yes!  Both my laptop and desktop seemed to have stopped updating after last March, March 2016.

My techie gave me an article to help with my laptop issue of being ready to install 10, already downloaded, upon reboot.  I got through all the beginning stuff re removing three files.  It remains on 7, thank goodness, even after shutting down, after rebooting, after everything I needed to do this week.  But, I can't do the ending stuff in the article re making sure I get 7 updates but not install 10, because it still thinks it's ready to install 10 and won't search for new updates until I do that.  Talk about a Catch 22.

I'm sure I'm missing many important security updates.  I need to get my techie over here.  But, this week has been dental work, out-of-town concert for daughter, largest client having issues needing my time, etc.  Soon.