[German]Microsoft has started to implement multifactor authentication for its cloud offerings. Among other things, the Microsoft Authenticator app is used as a second factor for authentication. A blog reader got in touch because he ran into a problem with a customer. The use of the Microsoft Authenticator app is to be enforced there. But the Microsoft Authenticator app has long been in use there.
[German]Brief information that may be of interest to administrators. Developer Grzegorz Tworek has now released his Offline SAM Editor, which was announced some time ago. The Offline SAM Editor is intended for IT professionals, researchers and security enthusiasts who want to access and edit SAM databases of offline operating systems. However, the package is subject to a charge (available for 39 euros) and the developer provides the source code.
[German]In the Netherlands, a network malfunction in the data center of the Dutch Ministry of Defense have had drastical results. As a result, several Dutch authorities wasn't able to use their IT systems anymore. And even more serious: Eindhoven Airport was down for several hours on August 28, 2024. I immediately thought "was that a cyberattack" – but from what I know, this has been denied. Now the malfunction is fixed and everything is back in operation.
[German]Microsoft has released the optional cumulative (preview) update KB5041587 for Windows 11 version 22H2 and 23H2 on August 27, 2024. This is an optional update whose fixes will be generally rolled out in the following month. For Windows 11 22H2, only the Education and Enterprise versions will receive the update. A new feature is a share function with Android, which will be rolled out in stages. Continue reading
[German]Hewlett Packard (HP) has released a broken BIOS version 01.17.00 that turns notebooks of the HP Probook 445 G7 and 455 G7 models from 2020 into expensive paperweights. An affected reader has subsequently contacted us again and described some advice on how to return the broken devices to the manufacturer for repair.
[Sponsored Post]In the rapidly evolving IT world, choosing the right remote desktop software is critical for organizations that value security, ease of use and reliability. One provider of secure remote access that has been on the market since 2001 is ISL Online, which presents some considerations for choosing such software below. More ...
[German]Brief information for Wise account holders, which I'm posting here on the blog as a precaution. There seems to be a phishing campaign targeting Wise users at the moment. I've noticed that my SPAM folder has been flooded with corresponding emails over the last few days. I'll briefly address the issue below.
[German]Microsoft has fixed some security issues with the August 2024 update KB5041585 for Windows 11 (version 22H2 – 23H2). Under Windows 11, however, systems can suddenly become very slow and CPU utilization can increase. Microsoft has now been informed about the problem. The remedy is to uninstall the update or deactivate the flow control (Control Flow Guard, CFG) in Defender.
[German]Small addendum regarding Windows Server 2019 and problems with the August 2024 patchday. Microsoft has now confirmed the performance problems caused by cumulative update KB5041578 for Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC and Windows Server 2019 that I mentioned in the blog. Furthermore, a Known Issues Rollback (KIR) has been released to remove the fix causing the issue. I will extract the relevant information in a separate blog post.
[German]A short note for administrators of Microsoft Exchange Server 2016: Both Microsoft Exchange 2016 and Microsoft Exchange 2019 will reach the end of support in October 2025. Microsoft has published a Techcommunity article with information on "decommissioning Microsoft Exchange 2016" in an environment with Microsoft Exchange 2019. Here a few details and thoughts about that.
[German]The August 2024 updates for Windows have caused collateral damage for Linux users. By switching the boot mechanism to Secure Boot Advanced Targeting (SBAT), the Linux boot loader refused to start on dual-boot systems following the update installation. Microsoft has now commented on the reasons and tried to explain the whole thing.
MVP:
2013 – 2016
WIMVP:
2017 – 2020
