Gmail improves security, important patches from Apple and Microsoft and a warning about a Western Digital storage device
We’re bringing you the latest cyber security news. Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Friday April 27th.
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Do you use Gmail, or your company use GSuite? The good news is this week Google announced new security features. One is confidential mode. It protects sensitive content in email you create by setting expiration dates or revoking previously sent messages. Because you can require additional authentication via text message to view an email, it’s also possible to protect data even if a recipient’s email account has been hijacked while the message is active.
A new Rights Management control will allow you to remove the option to forward, copy, download or print messages. This helps reduce the risk of confidential information being accidentally shared with the wrong people.
These and other features will start rolling out to users shortly.
This week Apple released patches to address security vulnerabilities in macOS, iOS and the Safari browser. I hope all you Apple listeners install patches quickly.
Speaking of patches, Microsoft this week released more of them to fix the processor bug called Spectre for more Intel CPUs. The Spectre problem is in the microcode of the processors. It allows an attacker to get at sensitive data held in memory. To see if your computer or server is eligible go to the Windows Update site.
Finally, consumers and small business owners who have the Western Digital My Cloud EX2 drive as a media server or for backup are being warned of a vulnerability. Trustwave says default configuration allows any unauthenticated local network user to grab any files from the device if they know how to issue the right command. The problem is in the media server, which serves up music, movies and photos. Trustwave told Western Digital about the problem. However, it says the manufacturer declined to fix this insecure default setting. Instead it recommends disabling the media server, which leaves the device only useful for backup. Another solution is to not allow remote access to the server.
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