[German]Apple is currently (March 21, 2022, 18:00 CET) experiencing a major disruption of its cloud services, that is probably affecting the entire world. Many Apple services from the cloud such as iCloud Calendar, iCloud Mail, iTunes Store, Apple Music, Radio are currently unavailable. However, it looks like Apple is already working on fixing the disruption as the number of disruption reports are decreasing.
[German]The FBI and the U.S. Treasury Department have just released new Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) for the AvosLocker ransomware. These are indications of how to detect an infection with this ransomware. The information can be used in your own security information and event management (SIEM) systems, if necessary.
[German]U.S. manufacturer Solarwinds warns its customers of possible cyber attacks and recommends uninstalling Web Help Desk (WHD) 12.7.5 in a security message dated March 15, 2022. The background is attacks on Web Help Desk (WHD) 12.7.5 reported by customers. So far it is still unclear what exactly happened, it is probably a precautionary measure.
Microsoft issued a brief post last week reminding users of the end of support for Internet Explorer. The Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) desktop app will be retired on June 15, 2022 for certain versions of Windows 10 (version 20H2 and later). When users access the Internet Explorer 11 desktop app, they will be automatically redirected to Microsoft Edge. However, nothing changes for Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and older Windows 10 builds, where IE 11 will continue to be supported.
[German]The Cyclops Blink botnet has been infecting network devices around the world for several weeks. The botnet is operated by the suspected Russian Sandworm APT. Manufacturer ASUS has issued a warning this week, which is directed at users of its routers. The Cyclops Blink botnet is probably attacking ASUS routers in order to insert them into the botnet. Here is some information about it.
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[German]Microsoft has released the Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit 1.0 in Nov. 2021. This week I was asked if the Windows Policy Analyzer – a utility for analyzing and comparing Group Policy Objects (GPOs) – which has been available since 2016, is now being phased out. The download of the package is no longer available. It looks like the tool is now part of the Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit 1.0, so here are a few notes.
[German]Brief information for users of the Firefox browser in Windows, who also have the F-Secure antivirus solution in use. Since March 18, 2022, the browser has blocked the F-Secure Browser Protection add-on in versions up to 4.0.52, allegedly for violating Mozilla's add-on guidelines.
[Geman]A brief article about Microsoft's Outlook.com: There is a problem for users who want to collect mails from other email providers via Outlook.com. The feature in question has not been usable for some time now, with an error message stating that the settings cannot be loaded. And so far Microsoft does not seem to have addressed the problem.
Microsoft has released revisions to its security alerts and update descriptions as of March 17, 2022. Here is a summary of these revisions that I received by mail.
[German]The Trickbot gang infects IoT devices and MikroTik routers with malware to make them part of a botnet. The infected routers can then communicate with the Trickbot Gang's C&C servers and spread further malware or be misused for attacks. Microsoft has now released details on how Trickbot infections work, while also providing a free Python tool for detecting MikroTik Trickbot infections.
MVP:
2013 – 2016
WIMVP:
2017 – 2020
