Ever since Microsoft released Windows Vista, the Redmond giant has made it possible for users to disable Microsoft Defender by way of the Registry.
Unfortunately, by granting that ability, it gave well-designed malware strains the ability to do the same.
That is now changing.
As the company explains in a recent blog post:
"DisableAntiSpyware is intended to be used by OEMs and IT Pros to disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus and deploy another antivirus product during deployment. This is a legacy setting that is no longer necessary as Microsoft Defender antivirus automatically turns itself off when it detects another antivirus program.
This setting is not intended for consumer devices, and we've decided to remove this registry key. This change is included with Microsoft Defender Antimalware platform versions 4.18.2007.8 and higher KB 4052623. Enterprise E3 and E5 editions will be released at a future date.
Unless you live within a couple hundred miles of the town of Sparta, NC, you may not be aware of the fact that recently, a 5.1 earthquake struck the area.
It damaged a few homes and rumbles could be felt as far away as north Georgia and parts of Virginia.
It is doubtful that the earthquake in North Carolina was the inciting event that prompted Google to announce a new earthquake detection and alert system on Android devices, but it is timely.
The system relies on the accelerometers that are built into all smartphones to detect signals for earthquakes. If one is detected, it will send a signal to Google's detection server, along with the GPS location. The server combines all such notifications and use the aggregate data to confirm that an earthquake is indeed occurring.
Cruise operator Carnival Corp is the latest to fall victim to ransomware-wielding bandits. The filing says that on August 15th the company "detected a ransomware attack that accessed and encrypted a portion of one brands information technology systems. The unauthorized access also included the download of data files."
Thousands of Canadians affected by recent cyberattacks on the Canada Revenue Agency and federal government computer systems could be vulnerable to other attacks, warn cybersecurity and privacy experts.
"They have to be very scared if they have another account with the same password," said Ali Ghorbani, director of the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity at the University of New Brunswick. "If it doesn't happen now, it would happen tomorrow."
Former Ontario privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian said the risk to those whose accounts were breached shouldn't be underestimated.
The Coupa Business Spend Index (BSI) has been volatile over the past several months as the pandemic shredded business confidence and sent budgets into a downward spiral. Some business spending has barely been touched at all, and has even increased.
It's true that the nature of the spending has changed. Spending on travel has pretty well dried up.
However, companies all across the nation have made a significant investment in technology to allow employees to work from home, and make their working from home faster and more efficient. This has caused tech spending to be surprisingly robust, and as tracked by Coupa, now stands at 82.8, which is slightly higher than it was last quarter.
