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Curious how to back up your PC? There are a few free options via Windows Live

Listening to you’re a local radio show today en route between building on our shuttle this morning about backing up your PC, I thought I’d note that a number of firms offer free and commercial options to back up your PCs. Microsoft does offer free ways for consumers to do this:

It’s also easy to back up (save copies of) your personal files, such as pictures, music, and documents, for safekeeping. More info at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/backup-and-restore.aspx – it’s easy to do this with an inexpensive attached or network accessible USB hard drive, or even a flash drive connected right to your PC (I rotate a few keychain-sized flash drives on my main personal computer at home).

If you’ve read this blog previously, you may also know that I rely on my Windows Home Server, including my HP MediaSmart EX470 as well as my recently added Acer Aspire easyStore AH340 Home Server.

Just a couple of thoughts.

 

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Tags: how to, Home Server.

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Announcement: Microsoft Security Advisory 2490606: Vulnerability in Graphics Rendering Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution

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 Graphics Rendering Engine. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in the security context of the logged-on user. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

We are not aware of attacks that try to use the reported vulnerability or of customer impact at this time.

We are actively working with partners in our Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) to provide information that they can use to provide broader protections to customers.

Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers. This may include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.

Affected Software:

  • Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Service Pack 2 
  • Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, x64 SP2 and SP2 for Itanium-based systems
  • Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and SP2, as well as Windows Vista x64 Edition SP1 and SP2
  • Windows Server 2008 RTM

Non-Affected Software: Windows 7 for 32-bit and x64-based Systems, Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based and Itanium-based systems.

As noted, teams are are working to develop a security update to address this vulnerability. The circumstances around the issue do not currently meet the criteria for an out-of-band release; however, we are monitoring the threat landscape very closely and if the situation changes, we will post updates here on the MSRC blog.

As always, we encourage Internet users to follow the “Protect Your Computer” guidance of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Additional information can be found at Security at Home.

For more details on the Security Advisory you can subscribe to our comprehensive alerts here to receive email when there’s new information.

 

Tags: Security, what I read, Microsoft, Windows 7.

MSRC references: Security Advisory, Workarounds, Defense-in-depth, Exploitability

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Announcement: Microsoft Windows December 2010 Updates to Daylight Saving Time and Time Zones

Check out Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 2443685, “December 2010 cumulative time zone update for Windows operating systems”, which the Windows team just posted.  This is the December Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone (DST & TZ) Cumulative Update (CU), and the current KB/blog text focuses on the less common changes, such as adding the timezone for Magadan. 
 
The good folks in Windows (thanks, KC) provided some additional commentary and clarifications to the posts…

  1. Explaining that the Namibia DST support changes begin in 2011
  2. Listing other regions with dynamic support which get routine annual updates

The December 2010 DST Cumulative Update for Windows operating systems focuses on the following changes:

Magadan

  • A new timezone has been created for Magadan. The Magadan timezone has support for Daylight Saving Time, with 2011 DST running from March to October.
  • The existing timezone “(UTC +11:00) Magadan, Solomon Islands, New Caldonia” has been renamed “(UTC +11:00) Solomon Islands, New Caledonia”.   This is only a  displayname update – the rules for this timezone have not changed. As before, this timezone does not have DST support.
Namibia: The offset has been changed from UTC +2:00 to UTC +1:00. In addition, for 2011 and forward, the DST start date will occur in September, and the DST end date will occur in April.
Egypt :  the 2011 DST start date is set to occur in April and the DST end-date is set to occur in September. This is provided to address cases in which 2010 Fix-its for temporary DST changes were only partially applied.
In addition to these changes, the December DST CU contains 2011 adjusted DST start and end-dates for the following timezones:
·    Israel Standard Time
·    Morocco Standard Time
·    Pacific SA Standard Time
·    Samoa Standard Time
·    Syria Standard Time
For more information on these adjustments, refer to this Microsoft KnowledgeBase article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2443685 
The following blogs have been updated  – the KB updates are coming :

For more information about how daylight saving time changes may affect other Microsoft products, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 914387  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914387/ ) How to configure daylight saving time for Microsoft Windows operating systems.

A holiday nod of thanks to the good folks across our company working on our effort to help manage time (particularly in daylight saving time and time zone changes) — documented and followed at http://www.microsoft.com/time and over at the blog at http://blogs.technet.com/dst2007 — and to the folks coordinating the efforts on our daylight saving time and time zone updates and releases for current products across the various product groups at Microsoft.  As noted, this is a tough job, to say the least.

Tags: Windows, Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST; 18,600,000 (up a bunch from just six months ago); 18,800,000 (down ~2M)

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Is that really an email from the EFPTS? Don’t get caught buy a phishing attempt

animals,boys,children,fishes,fishing,fishing nets,fishing poles,leisure,persons,Photographs,sports,sports equipment 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 (as noted on their website). This time of year, people receiving an email from the EFPTS may be concerned as they may make Federal tax payments on line in the States

But, as noted on their home page the EFTPS, this is someone trying to get your bank information and other personal identifying information, also known as “PII”. This from their home page at https://www.eftps.gov/:  

Remember! EFTPS values your privacy and security and will never attempt to contact you via e-mail. If you ever receive an e-mail that claims to be from EFTPS or from a sender you do not recognize that mentions a payment made through EFTPS, forward the e-mail to phishing@irs.gov or call the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1.800.366.4484.

After reporting a phishing attempt, you will receive an email from the IRS confirming your submission:

Please note that the IRS does not contact individuals by email.
Therefore, if you received an email claiming to be from the IRS it is a phishing attempt and should be reported to us.

Additional information on IRS phishing can be viewed here:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=155682,00.html

Additional information on avoiding phishing scams can be viewed here:
http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html

So, if you receive a mail from someone at the EFPTS, it’s likely not genuine. You may forard the mail (as an attachment is best) to the EFPTS as noted above.

For more info to avoid getting caught in a phishing scheme, see my post “Did you win £450,000 in a “Microsoft Lottery”? Think again: it’s a phishing attempt“.

 

Tags: Windows Vista, Security, what I read, twitter, Microsoft, Windows 7, Microsoft Security Essentials.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, how-to, Security, download, Microsoft Security Essentials.

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Of interest: Daylight Saving Time Issues with Alarms on Apple iPhones

As I noted earlier today, It’s Time To Fall Back An Hour in the US and Canada as Daylight Saving Time Ends This Sunday.

I know of several customers who use Apple iPhones in their Windows environments and of note is an issue in Apple’s iOS that impacted their European customers recently…

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/iphone-bug-leads-to-mass-european-sleep-in/10187

Apple notes this issue in their article on iOS 4.1: Repeating alarms may trigger incorrectly before or after DST change (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3542):

Symptoms: In some regions, shortly before or after the daylight saving time (DST) change, repeating alarms created in the Clock app may work incorrectly.

Products Affected: iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (3rd generation), iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch (2nd generation)

Resolution: To resolve this behavior for existing alarms, set the repeat interval to Never. You will need to reset these alarms for each day you need them. After November 7th, 2010, you can set your alarms to repeat again.

Users of the iPhone and iOS should please note that there may also be a problem for systems over this coming weekend (thanks, Will) with the move to DST in North America: 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/11/05/apple.alarm.daylight.savings/index.html

Users who depend on the iPhone to wake them up should create one-time alarms specifically for Monday morning, said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison.

"We suggest customers set nonrepeating alarms for now and reset after November 7 to resolve the issue," she told CNN.

Of course, good to know that “Later this month, Apple will release an updated version of its mobile software, iOS 4.2, which will permanently fix the problem, Harrison said.”

It’s not clear whether or not this update will be available prior to the upcoming "fall back".

 

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time,DST:

References to DST on Bing: 15,400,000 (up several million items); 15,500,000; 2,890,000.

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