Issue #  41 | May 19, 2017
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This Week in Tech

This week the world went bonkers over the Wannacry Ransomware invasion. Tens of thousands of computers all over the globe were locked down by this fast spreading cyber-threat. We we there to cover what was going on and how you can protect yourself. This threat was so bad that Microsoft released an emergency patch for their retired operating system, Windows XP.

All of this & much more.
Bill
Protecting Yourself Against WannaCry
The  WannaCry 2.0 ransomware is turning out to be one of the biggest security threats of recent times. It has spread in over 150 countries and affected more than 200,000 computers. This situation could’ve been avoided if the users had downloaded Windows security patch released in March. Well, you can still download the update and follow some basic safety measures to keep yourself away from such attacks.


Mastering Password Managers
With this past week’s WannaCry ransomware scare I thought I would take a little time,  again to write about how incredibly important password management is to the security of your data. Passwords are of course, inconvenient, time consuming and memory challenging which is why many people do not handle them seriously. However without good password management you are seriously taking a chance with your security.

I also wrote earlier this week that Microsoft is looking to kill passwords altogether for their services.
However we are not exactly sure when that is going to happen and Microsoft not withstanding passwords are going to be around for quite a while yet… so you might as well master them.
Tip! Saving Your Work - Made Easy

Have you ever thought you saved a file and didn’t? It happens to everyone from time to time – but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Losing your work is incredibly frustrating. All’s well and good if you remember to constantly save, but that’s an unnecessary hassle. We’re going to show you how you can auto-save your work across a variety of popular Windows applications.

Auto-save functions can be really useful if your software or system crashes, if you forget to save when closing an application, or if you simply don’t want to have to remember to save.

Learn all of the amazing "saving your work" tips by reading the full article.

Microsoft Provides Emergency Windows XP Patch
If you are still using Windows XP (which you shouldn’t be) Microsoft actually released an emergency patch for the retired operating system.

This week Microsoft took the unprecedented step of issuing patches for unsupported operating systems, including Windows XP as a result of the massive  WannaCrypt ransomware attacks against organisations across the globe.

Star Trek: Discovery Trailer Launches
This is very exciting for us here @ The West Chester Technology Blog.

It’s been 12 years since we have had any new Star Trek grace our television screens. Thankfully this dark age of no new Trek is about to end.

This week we got our first glimpse into what CBS’ streaming-exclusive  Star Trek: Discovery series will look like. The trailer promises a “fall” release window, and the accompanying  press release reveals its run has been extended from 13 episodes to 15.

It's Time to Change Your Password... Again
Looks like it’s time to change passwords again. Security researchers have discovered a massive database of login credentials, over 560 million emails and passwords  to be exact, put together by an unknown person. All of the information is unsecured.

The database was discovered by the Kromtech Security Research Center. Most of the information is already easily available, which allows users to see if their accounts have been compromised in previous data breaches.


William Mann | Borough of West Chester | wmann@west-chester.com | www.wctechblog.com