There’s great news in your immediate future if you’re one of the legions of Excel users. Recently Microsoft made some behind the scenes changes to the venerable spreadsheet application that allows developers to code their own custom data types for use inside the program. The upgrade isn’t aimed at business executives but rather at developers who need to incorporate metadata into Excel cells.
Excel is very good at organizing text and numeric values and since the earliest days of the application that has always been enough. As time has passed and technology has advanced needs began changing. These days users need to be able to do more than just sort, parse, and organize text and numbers.
During the 2020 Ignite Conference the company showed off how the expanded capabilities could be used. It can be used by introducing dynamic arrays and array formulae along with support for Geography and Stock data types via the search engine Bing.
Not long after the company expanded their number by incorporating Wolfram data types. If you’re unfamiliar with them, Wolfram data types are a science-focused search engine.
The company had this to say about Excel’s expanded capabilities:
“Countless solutions have been built with Excel. Many of these solutions are powered by cells that most often contain (or evaluate to) just text or numbers.
With the addition of data types, Excel has evolved to a world where cells can contain something much richer. Linked data types (Stocks, Geography, Wolfram and Power BI) entity values, dynamic arrays, improved errors, images in cells, lambdas, and formatted number values are all new types that have delivered on this promise and back many of the experiences you have seen introduced in the product today.”
That humble spreadsheet application you’ve come to rely on is capable of doing a lot more than you may have realized. It has additional capabilities well worth exploring that could add tremendous value to your company whatever business you’re in.
Are you a OneDrive user running Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1? If so be aware that on January 1st, 2022 your OneDrive desktop application will reach end of support.
The company offered the following by way of explanation:
“In order to focus resources on new technologies and operating systems and to provide users with the most up-to-date and secure experience beginning January 1, 2022, updates will no longer be provided for the OneDrive desktop application on your personal Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 devices.
Personal OneDrive desktop applications running on these operating systems will stop syncing to the cloud on March 1, 2022. After March 1st, 2022 your personal files will no longer sync and should be uploaded/accessed directly on OneDrive for web.”
The good news is that your OneDrive files aren’t going anywhere. So you don’t have to worry about finding a new cloud-based file storage system. This is definitely more than a minor inconvenience and yet another reason to strongly consider upgrading your PC and your OS to something more modern.
As things stand the clock is ticking for extended support for the OSes mentioned above. It won’t be long before you lose the protection offered by periodic security updates. Before that happens you need to be thinking in terms of steps to protect yourself and all your data regardless of where it lives.
Although it is highly inconvenient for people running those older Operating Systems it’s completely understandable that Microsoft is taking this stance. Though the company has deep pockets it also has a sprawling catalog of products to maintain. At a certain point they simply have to say goodbye to older applications. Upgrade before the clock runs out.
The folks of Microsoft have been busy quietly making improvements to their venerable MS Office Suite.
Recently Excel got some intriguing updates that expanded the number of data types cells could accept. That is with a bit of programmatic help of course. At this year’s Ignite IT conference Microsoft announced some exciting new tools and capabilities coming to the suite as a whole.
At the center of all of it is what the company describes as a “natively integrated AI experience” that spans the whole of Microsoft 365’s architecture.
Currently there is a nominal amount of AI incorporated into Microsoft 365. For instance spelling and grammar corrections and word recommendations.
This is the merest tip of the iceberg. What’s coming has been dubbed “Context IQ.”
Here’s what it does:
In the editor Context IQ will provide predictive assistance. When you’re using the editor you may get a prompt to consider certain documents when attaching or sharing files with colleagues. That is if the AI determines that these would add value based on the other files you’re sending or sharing.
In a similar vein if you tag someone using the “@” symbol Context IQ will recommend others you may want to tag as well. When you schedule a meeting in Calendar Context IQ will help you auto-complete the meeting subject and recommend the best times for hosting the meeting. It does this by using your participant list and their scheduled availability (assuming that data is also in Calendar).
All of this is designed to help you get more done more quickly and efficiently and that’s amazing.
You may have already seen some Context IQ elements as the company has taken a phased approach to its implementation. If you haven’t you certainly will see it in action soon. Kudos to Microsoft for incorporating such high value changes.
If you’re one of the legions of Windows 10 users you may have recently noticed a new application on your machine. Rest assured that you didn’t get infected with some type of malware. The new app is part of a Windows 10 update. Specifically KB5005463. If your system is set automatically receive Windows updates it may have appeared that the new app showed up by magic.
PC Health Check is a new tool designed to help with troubleshooting Windows issues. A diagnostic suite to help keep your machine running smoothly. Although the new app is being designed for inclusion in Windows 11 Microsoft has made the decision to roll it out to Windows 10 users and force install it on users’ systems.
The company’s implementation here hasn’t been well received. Many users have taken to Reddit, Twitter, and other popular internet portals to blast the company for installing software they didn’t ask for and don’t necessarily want on their devices.
Microsoft’s response has been rather nonchalant responding that if people don’t want the new app it’s as simple as uninstalling it via the Settings app.
While that’s technically true users have been pointing out that it’s not a one time thing. They have to keep uninstalling the unwanted app because it keeps getting reinstalled every time a new OS update is applied. Worse there’s an issue in the Windows 10 uninstall app where the OS indicates that the update is not installed when it obviously is.
In short Microsoft hasn’t handled the situation terribly well.
The good news is that if you really don’t want the offending app there is something you can do though it involves modifying the Windows Registry.
Simply look for “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftPCHC” and set the value of this entry to ‘1.’ Doing this will ensure that the next Windows update won’t reinstall the app once you’ve uninstalled it.
There’s a nasty new strain of malware you need to be aware of that targets Android devices. Don’t let the funny name fool you because AbstractEmu is a serious threat. Not only will it root an infected device but it will allow the controller of the malware to take total control of the device. It will alter its settings and attempt to evade detection via a combination of anti-emulation checks and code abstraction.
The new strain was discovered by security researchers at Lookout Threat Labs. They discovered it bundled with a collection of legitimate utility apps distributed via the Google Play Store and other third-party app repositories.
Google has removed the malware from the Play Store at this point but not before several thousand people had already downloaded it. The malware remains available on a few different third-party repositories. If you’re in the habit of picking up apps outside of the Play Store an extra measure of caution is prudent.
The team that discovered the new strain had this to say about it:
“AbstractEmu does not have any sophisticated zero-click remote exploit functionality used in advanced APT-style threats, it is activated simply by the user having opened the app. As the malware is disguised as functional apps, most users will likely interact with them shortly after downloading.
By using the rooting process to gain privileged access to the Android operating system, the threat actor can silently grant themselves dangerous permissions or install additional malware — steps that would normally require user interaction.”
Needless to say the group behind AbstractEmu has some skill and some serious coding chops. Although the malware strain’s removal from the Google Play Store has limited the rate of its spread you can bet the threat group will be on the lookout for other opportunities.
Windows XP recently turned twenty. Two decades is an eternity in the world of computers. Yet despite its age the venerable OS still has a surprising number of loyal users.
The problem is that Windows XP stopped receiving security updates in 2014. That means those who are still clinging to it run a very real risk of having their systems compromised.
It’s actually worse than the dates above indicate because mainstream support for Windows XP ended in 2009. However a small number of users were able to get extended support which lasted for an additional five years.
Microsoft has in a handful of cases issued emergency security patches to deal with critical security threats. However the bottom line is that there are a whole host of serious security flaws in the OS at this point and further help is not coming.
So who are the Windows XP users and why haven’t they upgraded to a more modern OS yet?
Broadly speaking they fall into two categories. The first group resides in the public sector. Public sector agencies tend to be notoriously slow where upgrades are concerned. Given how long public sector employees have been using it there’s a significant re-training cost to consider that many public agencies simply don’t have the budget for.
The second major category are agencies that have legacy applications that are incompatible with more modern operating systems. In these cases upgrading the OS requires a total rewrite of those legacy applications which may be ruinously expensive. On top of that a total rewrite of business critical applications would result in massive hardware and retraining costs on top of the software development.
It’s a tricky proposition which has left a small but significant number of users in a vulnerable position. The sooner these remaining holdouts find a way out of their situations the safer and better off they will be.
If you’re not an Instagram user you may not have heard of ‘Stories.’ They are vertical photos or videos with a duration of no more than fifteen seconds per clip. You can post multiple 15 second clips in a row as well.
The unique part is that they vanish after 24 hours of posting. Stories are not displayed in a user’s feed but rather at the top of a user’s app when they’re logged in. Users “tap through them” to view the set.
When Stories were first introduced the company limited their access making them available only to users with verified accounts who met a certain number of followers threshold. Instagram has now removed those restrictions by opening Stories up to all user accounts.
This is great news indeed if you’re an Instagram user or if you own a small business and you’re looking for a way to leverage the power of Instagram to expand your business. ‘Stories’ is a good tool to leverage.
Instagram has been pushing hard to innovate. Increased pressure from upstarts like TikTok prompted them to develop ‘Reels’ for Instagram which are short 15-second video clips that can be posted with other clips and introduced to your feed. And now Stories can include video clips created and shared as a Reel but they have a shorter lifespan.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg had this to say related to the change:
“Reels is already the primary driver of engagement growth on Instagram. It’s incredibly entertaining and I think there is a huge amount of potential ahead. We expect this to continue growing and I am optimistic that this will be as important for our products as Stories is. We also expect to make significant changes to Instagram and Facebook in the next year to further lean into video and make Reels a more central part of the experience.”
If you’re not currently leveraging the power of Instagram you might want to consider. Its certainly worth doing a demographics study of your customers to see if they’re present in significant number on the platform and if so taking advantage of that fact.
Do you buy stocks via the no-cost RobinHood platform? If so be advised that the company has recently disclosed a massive data breach estimated to impact more than seven million customers.
The attack against RobinHood’s networks occurred on November 3rd.
It happened after an unidentified threat actor called the company’s customer support line and utilized some in-person social engineering techniques to gain access to the customer support system.
This threat actor was able to access a wide range of customer information including:
- The full names of clients
- Email addresses
- Date of birth
- And Zip code
Based on the company’s disclosure statement the attacker was able to exfiltrate more than 5 million email addresses, the full name of some two million customers, birth dates, and zip codes for about 300 people. Even more extensive account information was taken for around 10 people.
An investigation into the matter is ongoing at this point. The company does not believe any customer social security numbers, bank account numbers, or debit card numbers were exposed.
On the heels of the attack RobinHood received an extortion demand. The company has declined to make the details of the demand public but the nature of the threat was that unless the company paid a ransom in BitCoin the stolen information would be released to the public.
If you use the platform out of an abundance of caution you should change your password immediately. Be on the lookout for phishing emails sent to the address you used when you signed up on RobinHood in case the attacker tries to contact you to steal other credentials.
Finally if you haven’t already done so the company recommends two-factor authentication as soon as possible. If you need to contact the company for support from inside the RobinHood app simply tap “AccountHelpContact Us.”
Hackers have a new tool in their toolbox you should be aware of. Called SEO Poisoning or sometimes “search poisoning” the attack relies on Black Hat SEO techniques to optimize web content.
Researchers from Menlo Security have spotted two separate campaigns one linked to the SolarMarker backdoor and the other leveraging REvil ransomware to infect unsuspecting netizins.
Here’s how the attacks work:
The hackers gain access to legitimate sites that rank well on Google and inject them with a variety of specific search terms.
Because the site is respected and ranks highly on its own surfers who find their way onto the site are more likely to accept that anything on the site is legitimate. The hackers leverage this trust by adding poisoned content to the site. This poisoned content appears in search results to be a PDF file requiring a download in order to view it.
When a user clicks on a download link they seal their fate. Behind the scenes they are redirected multiple times ultimately winding up at a poisoned site controlled by the hackers where a malicious payload is dropped onto the visitor’s device.
Both of these campaigns have leveraged respected WordPress sites taking advantage of an undisclosed flaw in a plugin called ‘Formidable Forms.’ The hackers install their malicious PDFs in the wp-content/uploads/formidable/ folder.
Most attackers who deploy ransomware demand exorbitant fees to regain access to your files. These two campaigns are notable for making much smaller demands ranging between $1,500 and $7,500.
If you have a WordPress site and you use the Formidable Forms plugin download the latest version as soon as possible. The plugin’s developers moved quickly to address the issue and a fix is available. As long as you are running version 5.0.10 or later you should be fine.
