The year in Ransomware:

2020 started out with a number of #Ransomware incidents that were occurring over the New Year period. Ransomware became a greater threat throughout the year, with increased demands by the criminals looking to extort from their victims. So I continue to hopefully offer advice and guidance to you, on how you can protect your business from these threats.

The end of Windows 7:

We also saw the end of support for Windows 7. So if you’re continuing to use a #Windows7 machine in your organisations, you really need to get off that platform and move on to the more recent Windows 10 or other operating systems.

The COVID-19 Pandemic:

And of course 2020 brought us the biggest news of all with the #COVID19 pandemic. I provided lots of advice and guidance on how you can get your staff working from home safely and securely. Protecting both themselves and your business from the threats that were out there.

The Zoom Bombing phenomenon:

And one of those threats of course was #ZoomBombing, which I dedicated an entire video to, on how you can protect yourself from that.

All the rest in the Review of 2020:

There’s lots of other little bits and nuggets of information which I thought were maybe interesting and useful. I hope you found them similarly and I hope to continue to provide these to you in 2021.

Happy Christmas:

So with that, I would just like to wish you and yours the very happiest of Christmases and I hope you have a safe and secure New Year.

So that’s it for this year. Let’s be careful out there and we’ll talk to you again next year.

How can L2 Cyber Security help you?

We offer a full range of training programmes, which can be delivered online or in-person*.

L2 Cyber Security are also a partner of CyberRiskAware for online self-directed Cyber Security Awareness training and Phishing testing.

Contact us for more information at info@L2CyberSecurity.com.

*With appropriate social distancing and other health and safety measures adhered to.

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The post #WeekendWisdom 059 A Review of 2020 appeared first on L2 Cyber Security Solutions Ltd..

What’s happening?

On Tuesday the 14th of January 2020, Microsoft issued the last set of security patches for the Windows 7 Operating System. This is not some kind of Armageddon event. The world will not end because of this. But just from that point onwards, if you continue to use the Windows 7 Operating System, you’re at an increasing risk of being compromised going into the future.

Can we upgrade?

You could try to upgrade your computer to Windows 10, maybe even possibly for free. But if your hardware is incompatible with Windows 10 you will get rolled back to Windows 7.

Can we spend money to fix this problem?

You can pay Microsoft for continuing extended support for Windows 7, to get security patches for the next few years. That will cost something like $60 or $70 per year, per PC, for the first year. That price will probably double next year and again in year 3. It does also take some bit of setup to get that put in place.

I don’t care about Windows 7 End of Life. I’m going to use it anyway.

But if you really do have to continue to use a Windows 7 machine, you should try to restrict what you are using it for. Don’t do normal day-to-day banking or web browsing things like that. As I say you are at increasing risks and if possible, we talked about network segmentation two weeks ago, any Windows 7 machines should really be separated from the rest of your hardware estate.

So that’s it for this week. Let’s be careful out there and we’ll talk to you again next week.

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The post #WeekendWisdom 011 Windows 7 End of Life appeared first on L2 Cyber Security Solutions Ltd..