So, this post has nothing to do with our technology, but as any IT Pro knows, you have to be prepared for just about anything. From time to time, I offer other advice that will hopefully ring true, and I think that this is such a case. Following the recent events in New Zealand and Japan, I thought to...

This just published on TechNet's Microsoft Security Advisories and notred on the MSRC Blog: details on Microsoft Security Advisory 2490606 , Vulnerability in Graphics Rendering Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution... Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a vulnerability in the Windows...

The Microsoft Malware Protection Center has a post noting security bulletin MS10-087 , which addresses a number of critical vulnerabilities in how Microsoft Office parses various office file formats. This was addressed in November, in the MS10-087 update . One of them is CVE-2010-3333 , "RTF Stack...

So, you may be asking yourself: why is the EFTPS contacting me? And who the heck is EFTPS? It's likely a phishing atempt. The EFPTS is a service offered free by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to help business and individual taxpayers conveniently pay all their federal taxes electronically...

I was asked today… I received a message in my email on behalf of Microsoft from the National Lottery International [stating] "A certificate of winning and other certificates including your winning cheque of Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great Britain Pound Sterlings has been sent to us by the...

  A friend noted today that their online email account was compromised over the weekend. I thought about my post on creating strong passwords (and passphrases) in six easy steps , which is still relevant today… There's a good article that was recently posted on on the Microsoft Security At Home...

Earlier this week, I posted a link to the Security Advisory 979352 Posted: Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution . As noted on the MSRC blog, there's an advance notification for an out-of-band release for MS10-002… "Today we issued our Advanced Notification Service...

Yesterday, Jerry Bryant announced here on the MSRC blog that Security Advisory 979682 Released . Click on the link for the details: essentially Security Advisory 979682 addresses an Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerability in the Windows kernel, affecting all currently supported versions of 32-bit...

As noted in Mike Reavey's posts on The Microsoft blog and The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog today , we have just released Security Advisory 979352 . Here's the detail from Mike Reavey's post … Based upon our investigations, we have determined that Internet Explorer was one of the vectors...

If there is data on your PC that you need to protect, BitLocker encryption can help to protect your files with encryption. (As noted on the Windows 7 site, BitLocker "helps keep everything from documents to passwords safer by encrypting the entire drive that Windows and your data reside on. Once...

Well, Black really isn't the new Blue this season, as some may have you believe. Over at the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog , Christopher posted a note on the reports of so-called “Black Screen” issues that some customers might have experienced with their systems as a result of issues...

As I Tweeted today, over the weekend I read Paul Cooke's Windows Security Blog post on Windows 7 Vulnerability Claims. (I've added a few links if the terms are unfamiliar to you.) "…most people don't knowingly have and run known malware on their system. Malware typically makes it onto a system through...

Now available (US and Canada) is the new Microsoft Security Essentials suite , available for free, providing protection from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software for your PCs at home. Just installed the release version on my home PCs today. (Security Essentials will replace Windows Live OneCare...

The Windows Security Essentials beta is now available for download on a new Microsoft site dedicated to Security Essentials. Windows Security Essentials will replace Windows Live OneCare. The new software package will provide a basic level of antimalware and virus protection, defenses against worms,...

As I recommended today, friends don't let friends download bad things from peer to peer . So wait until the official downloads to the Release Candidate (RC) of Windows 7 are available. As noted online today, the Windows 7 RC posted today (April 30th) for TechNet and MSDN subscribers. Materials provided...

Of interest today: Learn about the Conficker computer worm on Microsoft.com. In short, most antivirus software could detect and prevent infection. Here's more info from the page Protect yourself from the Conficker computer worm : The Conficker worm is a computer worm that can infect your computer and...

There's a new article and interview up on Microsoft PressPass with my friend and fellow Canuck Peter Cullen from Microsoft on Data Privacy Day & online privacy. (Also available at http://tinyurl.com/pcullen013009 .)  The kids are in school today… did I miss a bank holiday somewhere? When asked...

I noted on Twitter today that @nytimesscience reported on Worm impacting computers around the world (as noted here by John Markoff , January 22, 2009)…  "A new digital plague has hit the Internet, infecting millions of personal and business computers in what seems to be the first step of a...

In the last few weeks, I've noticed an increase in phishing and email fraud as I noted a few days ago in my post The new year rings in another bonus: a rise in bogus electronic greeting cards . (More on what a phishing scam looks like is available here on Microsoft.com .) Although one Microsoft study...

It's that time of year again when fake online greeting cards increase in the daily Outlook mailbox and in web based mail as well). A common give away? The sender is often listed only by first name – no last name – and includes links to various e-card sites: this was from Michelle offering "Happy...

Going though customer and partner feedback today, I was interested to see this appear in my mailbox (thanks to the several people who forwarded this today), an excerpt from an article by Larry Seltzer on PC Magazine’s blog, Why Vista Looks Good After The MS08-067 RPC Bug - Security Watch ... One of the...

Be alert as you read your mail today: fake ecards with loaded exe's are once again making the rounds... Oooh, look at the mail that's piling up: "You've received a greeting ecard" How exciting. Not. Today, several mails on my email accounts at home reportedly from greetingcard.org (which Outlook displayed...

Of interest... OneCare to be preinstalled in new PCs from several PC manufacturers... To address the growing security and management needs of today’s new PC user, Microsoft Corp. is working with 11 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including Sony Corporation of America and Toshiba Asia Pacific...

As noted in this security advisory on TechNet ... Microsoft released Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-037 on July 8, 2008, offering security updates to protect customers against Windows Domain Name System (DNS) spoofing attacks. Microsoft is not currently aware of active attacks utilizing this exploit...

After the release of MS08-037 , Microsoft became aware of reports of ZoneAlarm customers experiencing issues after applying the security updates. According to Christopher on the post on the MSRC blog ... "We started investigating these reports as soon as we heard about them and have been working...