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Windows 10 Will Be a Free Upgrade

Office IT, Softwaresoftware, Upgrade, WindowsOphtek, LLC

Mar 2015

Microsoft will soon offer free upgrades to Windows 10. We’ll explain everything you need to know and how to properly prepare for the upgrade.

An overview

We would have never thought we’d see the day that Microsoft announces a “free” upgrade to their operating systems!

So what is the catch? It appears to be that the upgrade will be free for one year and will only be offered to Windows 7, 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 systems.

That’ll leave enough time for Microsoft users to test out the new OS features and functionalities for glitches, even past the technical preview version. Or could it be that they’re keeping up with Apple’s trend of free upgrades to fit in more with the flourishing mobile market?

Whatever the reason may be, we know that the announcement officially came through Terry Myerson from Microsoft. Myerson had conveyed the notion of moving towards a close-knit product, with the aim of leaving behind the problem of having to worry about multiple OS versions.

Either way, it’s a safe decision for Microsoft to make as they’ll gain a better foothold on various pies in market whilst maintaining consumer loyalty.

Since Microsoft’s operating systems are still predominantly used in many companies and businesses across the globe, the possibility for a free upgrade will also ensure compatibility with their existing systems, making it simpler for IT to implement upgrades.

What you need to know

Windows 10 is designed be even more robust than the previous versions, and it’ll include an exclusive voice control technology known as Cortana.
It’ll be an all-in-one platform supporting PCs, phones, tablets, laptops, and games consoles.

After the initial year is up, Windows 10 may possibly be priced as a premium OS, so be prudent with your budget and allocate a little more than you would on your existing Microsoft licenses.

It’s yet to be disclosed if any discount will be given after using the free one year upgrade. At present, an upgrade to Windows 10 from version 8.1 is priced at $199.99.

The system requirements for Windows 10 will be good on most desktops and laptops built within the past 5-7years.
According to the Windows Insider website the minimum requirements are a 1 GHz processor, 16 GB of disk space and 1 GB of RAM.
Microsoft reassures users that computer systems running Windows 8.1 will be good enough to run Windows 10.
Another consideration is Microsoft not raising their system requirements since 2006; You could even run Windows 10 from a Windows 7, Vista, and even possibly XP system!

Although Microsoft released their Technical Preview of Windows 10 last October, the wait still continues for the official “bug-free” version of Windows 10. We can only speculate that it’ll be out sometime in 2015.

For more ways to update business networks and systems, contact your local IT professionals.

0-Day Flash Player Vulnerability Yet to be Patched

Security, Software0-day, Flash, vulnerabilityOphtek, LLC

Mar 2015

Learn all about the latest 0-Day Flash Player Vulnerability. By following this practical advice, you can improve your chances of staying protected.

An overview

Adobe has recently released a security update for Flash Player that fixes the exploited vulnerability in the attacks. Adobe investigated the threat and reported that an exploit has been developed, which gets around the latest update.

Kafeine, a security researcher, posted on a blog to convey the Flash vulnerability discovered by exploit kits. These kits are software tools that work on automation. The actual exploit packs help hacked sites to send out the malicious code. Kaffiene’s blog disclosed the Angular Exploit Kit, a popular crime-ware package that targets Flash player vulnerabilities. It’ll cleverly adapt to work in a certain way according to the version of Internet Explorer it detects in a Windows system.

The Flash Vulnerability

The vulnerability also exists in the Linux and Mac versions of Flash Player; however, the attackers targeted Windows and Internet Explorer users as well. Flash users must update the player as soon as possible. It is possible that the update might not fix all the holes in Flash.

An Adobe patch was developed to address the exploited Flash vulnerability; however it doesn’t address another active vulnerability that’s available for it.

Although the exploit, known as CVE-2015-0310 was downgraded, it was still used in the attacks related to the previous versions of Flash. The earlier versions of Chrome are also safe to use. Internet Explorer 10, IE11 and Firefox were supposed to update automatically to the latest versions of Flash. As for Google Chrome, its latest version is 40.0.2214.91, and currently runs Flash version 16.0.0.257.

Internet Explorer users would need to apply the patch twice. For instance, one on IE and the other on any alternative browser such as Opera or Firefox.

A word about dynamic website content

Since many websites rely on Flash player to display dynamic content, it would be easier if such sites opt to only use HTML5 to load multimedia. The click to play is one option to limit Flash content on the browser whilst it automatically renders.

An example of Flash click to play.

At the same time, it’s impractical for most web users to remove Flash player completely, except for Internet Explorer which usually blocks Flash from rendering its content. The click to play feature is often preferred by many users. It allows users to see the blocked content with only a click over the boxes. However, this will enable Flash content but bear in mind that the click to play feature will also block JavaScript from loading.

Stay updated

It is important to keep Flash Player updated to avoid being a potential target of attack. The latest versions of Flash are available, but be cautious of the unwanted add-ons that come with the Flash player versions. Once you un-check the pre-checked box, before downloading the Flash Player, the potential ad-on will not be included in the download.

For more ways to secure your data and systems, contact your local IT professionals.

Onsite PC Solution Is Now Ophtek

Company UpdatesOphtek, LLC

Feb 2015

In an effort to continue providing our clients with the latest office technology security and support, Onsite PC Solution is changing its name to Ophtek.

Among the existing services being provided, Ophtek has evolved into the following wide array of business IT security and support services:

Desktop and Laptop Support
Mobile Device Management
Networking and Wifi
Knowledgeable IT Support Staff
Regular IT Support Visits
Dedicated Client Web Portal
24/7/365 Hardware/Software/Network Monitoring
Pro-Active Hardware Monitoring
Server Management
Secure Cloud and Local Secure Backup
Disaster Recovery Planning
Security Patch Management

To learn more about how Ophtek can secure, support and improve your business technology, contact us today.

Windows 8.1 bug Allows Administrator Access

Securityvulnerability, WindowsOphtek, LLC

Feb 2015

Google publicly disclosed a Windows 8.1 bug that allows administrator access to PCs. The disclosure highlight a vulnerability affecting millions of users.

This has left Microsoft outraged, especially considering that they were about to release a patch for it.

The news originated from Forshaw, one of Google’s researchers who found the bug and published it online. The bug is backed up by the Google’s POC (proof of concept) scheme, which was tested on an updated version of Windows 8.1. It’s not entirely clear whether earlier versions of Windows, such as Windows 7 operating systems, are also affected by the bug.

Microsoft went on to express their displeasure by stating that such bug reports shouldn’t be released until after a fix has been made available.

According to Microsoft, for such a bug to cause problems, the perpetrator trying to access the computer would need to know the password of the local machine. This is still a big enough risk to have over a network, as any hacker will use this simple fact as motivation to steal passwords and ultimately gain elevated user privileges.

An unpopular decision?

Google’s Project Zero carries out research and bug testing on various systems. Once they find a bug, their policy is to give 90 days for the vendor to fix the issue. The 90 days disclosure time had passed and Google went ahead and published their report a couple of days short of Microsoft releasing an update, on their patch Tuesday.

Patch Tuesday occurs on the second, and sometimes fourth, Tuesday of each month in North America.

It leaves little to guess why Microsoft recently pulled their ANS (Advanced Notification Service) from the general public and made it only available to paid Premier support clients. This means that only paying customers would know of the security issues before their scheduled release on Patch Tuesday.

The vulnerability: Briefly explained

An internal function exists within the Windows 8.1 operating system, known as AhcVerifyAdminContext. Google’s proof of concept tested this using a couple of programs and some commands to bring up the calculator in Windows as an administrator.

Vulnerability Overview:

The vulnerability in unpatched versions of Windows 8.1 has a function which consists of a token. The problem is that this token doesn’t correctly verify if the user logged onto the computer is an administrator.
It checks the footprints from user’s impersonation token and matches these between the user’s SID and the system’s SID.
What it doesn’t do is verify the token’s impersonation level against anything else.
This leads to the vulnerability where an identity token can be added from a local process on the system, and as a result, skip the verification stage.
This vulnerability only needs to be exploited by someone who knows that it’s available on an un-patched version of Windows 8.1.
The hack could be something like an executable that creates a cache, and uses a registry entry on the computer to reload itself.
All that would be required is to use an existing application on the computer to run and elevate these privileges.

The proof of concept Google used includes two program files and a set of instructions for executing it. This resulted in the Windows calculator running as an administrator. Forshaw states that the bug is not in UAC (user access control) itself, but that UAC is used as part of it to demo the bug.

Protecting Yourself and Your Business

We suggest keeping your anti-virus updated, along with Windows Security Updates to patch up known vulnerabilities on the computer. Depending on your office set-up, it is also a good idea to enable firewall on PCs too if not at least your network.

For more ways to secure your business data and systems, contact your local IT professionals.

What is Google Fiber?

Office Networkgoogle, internet, networkOphtek, LLC

Feb 2015

Google Fiber is a new Gigabit Internet provider that could be coming to your area. What is Google Fiber and what should you know to be ready?

Will Google have to step on anyone’s toes to roll out such service and what impact can Google Fiber have on businesses and private users? Before we delve into all of this, let’s first understand what Google Fiber is.

What is Google Fiber?

Google is expanding their service portfolio to provide fast Internet to the market and become an established Internet Service Provider (ISP), in hopes of joining the ranks of their competitors AT&T, Comcast and others.
Google is also pushing out the boat by claiming to provide 100 times faster internet speed than other ISPs, with Gigabit (1000 Mbps) download speed. Google Fiber also offers 1TB Cloud storage and TV packages, in addition to their Internet service, to make the plan more appealing and practical to their potential customers.

With Google Fiber, businesses and private users would benefit by having:

lightning speed access to the cloud storage
high speed access between office locations
generous cloud storage capacity
quicker cloud backup and recovery
smooth video-conferences over VoIP
fast internet browsing
seamless video streaming

The Roadblocks for Google Fiber

Google is looking to roll out their Google Fiber services across the United States, and have already planned to include metropolitan areas such as San Antonio, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Portland, Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham.

Since this covers a wide geographic area with different topology to contend with, Google needs to be able to access the utilities infrastructure in order to install the service, which has become their main obstacle. Therefore in efforts to overcome this obstacle, Google has filed a request to reclassify ISPs under Title II of the Telecommunications Act to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). If reclassification is granted by FCC, then Google will be able to run their Fiber installation on the same poles their competitors currently use to provide broadband.

This would be a huge victory for Google, but a nightmare for Comcast, AT&T and other broadband providers as they’ll need to adapt to newer regulations and give up a share of the market.

If Google has Title II rejected by the FCC to use the already established infrastructure, this would hinder Google Fiber’s roll out across the country as they’d need to literally build around it, making it even more costly business venture for them.

Where is Google Fiber Active?

At present, you’ll find Google Fiber rolled out and live in the area of :

Austin,
Kansas City
Provo

Google provides a website to check if your address is serviceable by Google Fiber.

If Google is granted Title II by the FCC, that’d make the infrastructure available to move the service quickly across to other cities and areas.

For more ways to speed up your office network to ensure business continuity, contact your local IT professionals.

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