Woman reading a newspaper while the paper is on fire

Does the Pesky News and Interest Bar have you going Crazy?

Every once in a while a new Windows 10 feature comes along that sounds like a good idea but really becomes another thing we need to push out of our face so we can get some work done. The “News and Interests” feed showed up after an update (Windows 10 since version 21286) and has been a part of our day-to-day desktop experience ever since.
Picture of News and Information button on Windows 10 taskbar

You might think as a developer I might embrace new features, that I wasn’t so resistant to change? Part of me likes change so long as I’m the one with the idea! 😄

Not really, but, I don’t like it when things constantly pop up at me (I have enough distractions remembering where I left my cup of coffee). This brings me to this post. While I was working on a Windows 10 machine it seemed as though every time I even came within a 1/4 inch of the “News and Interest” button on the taskbar it would pop up, then it takes a few seconds to pop down 😡. It became maddening and a real distraction.

We Have Options…

So, after about 5 times this kept happening I went ahead and changed the settings to abate my frustration. Here’s how I did it.

“Right-Click” on an empty area of the “Taskbar” with your mouse cursor (this will pop up the taskbar settings), then select “News and Interests” which will open another flyout window, then UNCHECK “Open on hover” (see screenshot)

Picture showing Windows 10 taskbar settings

Peace is again restored to the universe

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Sextortion Bitcoin scam

Popular Scam Makes 2020 Return

Another aggravating email that is making its rounds. You get an email which may include recent pictures of places or people you were with. It then goes on to tell you that if you don’t pay a certain amount by a certain day these (and other pictures) will be uploaded to porn websites and be emailed to all your contacts to harm your credibility. But if you act fast and pay $$ to a certain bitcoin account by creating another email address and sending $, you will be spared the embarrassment.

Several Different Flavors

This same scam may come in different subjects. Breached password, etc. Here’s a sample of what it may look like:

I am well aware [REDACTED] is your pass words. Lets get right to point. Neither anyone has paid me to investigate you. You may not know me and you are probably thinking why you’re getting this e-mail? 

actually, i installed a software on the adult videos (pornographic material) web-site and do you know what, you visited this website to have fun (you know what i mean). While you were viewing videos, your web browser began working as a Remote Desktop that has a keylogger which gave me accessibility to your display and also cam. Just after that, my software gathered every one of your contacts from your Messenger, Facebook, as well as email . after that i created a double video. 1st part displays the video you were viewing (you’ve got a nice taste haha), and next part shows the recording of your cam, yeah its you. 

You have not one but two choices. Shall we read up on these options in aspects: 

First alternative is to just ignore this message. in such a case, i am going to send out your actual video to every single one of your personal contacts and think regarding the awkwardness you will definitely get. and definitely if you happen to be in a loving relationship, how it would affect? 

Number 2 solution is to pay me $889. Lets name it as a donation. in this situation, i most certainly will asap remove your video footage. You could carry on daily life like this never occurred and you surely will never hear back again from me.

You’ll make the payment through Bi‌tco‌in (if you don’t know this, search for ‘how to buy b‌itcoi‌n’ in Google). 

B‌T‌C‌ ad‌dre‌ss to send to: [REDACTED]

[CaSe sensitive, copy & paste it] 

if you are wondering about going to the law enforcement officials, well, this message can not be traced back to me. I have dealt with my actions. i am also not attempting to demand a huge amount, i would like to be compensated. within this%} emaiQUNdkpeC [SIC] if i do not receive the ‌bi‌tco‌in‌, i will send your video recording to all of your contacts including family members, coworkers, and so forth. Having said that, if i receive the payment, i will erase the recording immediately. If you really want proof, reply Yup then i will send out your video to your 9 friends. This is a non-negotiable offer, so don’t waste mine time and yours by replying to this e mail.

Very Sneaky

These people pray on you getting upset, excited, and then paying them money. Instead of an actual threat, they make one up to make money. People have even died because of scams like this. Please share this email with anyone that has an email account. This may save a life.

How did they get any of my information?

As we see in the news, many data breaches have occurred in places we do business (Target, Equifax, etc.) and these cowards use that information, locate our social media accounts, gather information, then use it in this scam to get money.

What can I do?

If you receive an email like this, report it if you can. Otherwise, just delete it. It’s a scam. If you need help and want some resources to help better protect your network, email and company infrastructure give me a call I offer flat rate pricing that can not only save you some IT dollars, but help from these scam emails getting to your inbox.

 

 

 

Breaking Up

The moment you realize you are not alone

Some years back when I first started setting up my first web servers. I built a domain server, a website server, an email server, and a database server. Everything was running smoothly. Then after about one month or so, I came into the office and looked over at the server monitor and noticed the mouse moving across the screen. I thought, “What’s going on?”. There were a couple of menu’s being clicked. Then it hit me, I’ve been hacked!

My first emotion was anger after all these are my machines, I spent many, many hours getting them configured just right. This was a big lesson for me. Instead of assuming that everyone is nice, and everyone respects your space that doesn’t mean anything when you put yourself out there on the internet. People will just hack, hold your work for ransom. Why, because you didn’t think that would happen to you.

I’ve had many, many calls when someone has come to work after a weekend, or a holiday suddenly something is just not the way it should be, or after an innocent restart there’s now ransomware.

Sure, some break-ups are hard to do, but this decision should be an easy one this time.

How can we protect ourselves?

Well, as I found out you have to be proactive about it. You have to make sure every machine that accesses the internet (and especially servers) have had every single patch/update installed all the time, then make sure you have a very good anti-virus, anti-spam, and a good firewall. Then make sure that the virus software runs daily, scans continuously and make sure you check each machine daily, weekly and monthly. Test your backups by restoring them to a physical or virtual machines, you don’t want a backup failing when you need it.

That’s just too much time, how can I do my job if I have to do this on all my employees’ machines?

Well, you certainly would find the time, if you got ransomware at a price of about 15 bitcoins ($45,000 dollars) or you’d certainly feel bad if you had the opportunity to do something and didn’t.

We offer “Managed Services” to help you as much as possible to avoid the bad guys

Our managed service plans offer several layers of protection. In every case when we start a new managed service customer the machines have been unpatched and unprotected with on average 50 or more needed security patches. In addition, anti-virus is non-existent, isn’t scanning on a regular basis or its freeware.

Neil was right, breaking up is hard to do

Sure, some break-ups are hard to do, but we need to break up with the hackers. This decision should be an easy one this time (a no-brainer). Want to know how much your outage would cost? We can tell you. Call us for a personal outage cost comparison you’ll be surprised. We’re waiting to help you.

So, what happened to the hacked server?

Well, I immediately unplugged it from the network and restarted it. It would not start, the hacker had done his job. I spend the next 70 hours straight (with just a few 1/2 hour naps), getting the email server back online. I make sure things are up to date, patched and cared for every minute now and you should too.