2019 has flown. As we head into 2020, we’ve collated some of the most memorable stories and more from 2019. We wrote compelling IT Hero Stories, reported on Vulnerabilities & Patch Tuesday Updates, released engaging lists and a variety of other fascinating content. Last but not least: we had some serious fun through our Friday Fun posts on Facebook & Twitter.
Are You Prepared for Windows 7 End of Life?
Windows 7 is due to reach End Of Life (EOL) on 14 January 2020, but a large number of the world’s computers, most in corporate environments, are still running the nine-year-old system. With Windows 7 EOL coming up, we’ve created an Audit Report which provides an overview of all workstations and if they are closing on EOL. If your organization is unable to complete the transition prior to January 14, you can purchase Extended Security Updates from Microsoft. Run our ESU Readiness Check to see if the devices in your network are eligible to receive ESUs.
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Windows 7 is by far the most discussed End Of Life in 2019, but let’s not forget to give honorable mentions to Windows Server 2008/2008R2, Windows 10 (1703) which was discontinued on October 9, 2019, the upcoming Skype for Business End Of Life in 2021, and -last but not least- Office 2010’s End of Extended Support on October 13, 2020.
19 Essential SysAdmin Subreddits You Should Follow
If you’re in tech, you’re probably quite familiar with «The Front Page of the Internet». Here’s a rundown of 19 of the most useful subreddits geared toward IT professionals and System Administrators.
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IT Heroes in Action: Leveraging Reports for Cybersecurity
One of our team members knew Lansweeper from his previous job and introduced us to Lansweeper. We installed the trial version on a monitoring server. 10 days later, Lansweeper was our main reporting service for IT assets. It gave us a quick insight into vulnerabilities and helps us now to keep us on track on our IT-Security roadmap.
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Microsoft Urges You to Stop Using Internet Explorer
Believe it or not, there are still people using Internet Explorer – and Microsoft would like them to stop. Microsoft security expert Chris Jackson recently published a post on the Windows IT Pro blog, titled «The perils of using Internet Explorer as your default browser». Jackson recommends users that it’s time to stop using its old web browser.
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The Top 7 Worst Tech Nightmares Haunting IT Pros
October is known as Cyber Security Awareness Month and ends with a bang on Halloween, where the adults dress up in scary costumes and the children run wild on a sugar rush. But just like any other time of the year, your network faces nightmares from cybercriminals, system errors and more. Time to shine a light on the seven most sinister terrors that haunt sysadmins.
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IT Hero in Action: Tackling CIO Questions Like a Boss
Episode 1 – From 0 to 26,000+ Assets in No Time. Like many other users of Lansweeper, my story begins with «How can we find out how many – insert device type here – we have in the enterprise?». It was a question my CIO asked me to uncover regarding printers, average page count per month and a few other items. I started with some basic scripting to determine this and quickly realized the task was much bigger than that.
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Top 10 Must-Have IT Tools for SysAdmins & IT Pros
Everyone knows how important it is to have the right tools for the job. To help IT professionals get their jobs done better and more easily, we’ve listed 10 of the SysAdmin communities’ favorite IT tools.
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Monthly Patch Tuesday Audits
Every second Tuesday of the month, Microsoft releases a scheduled security fix, also known as ‘Patch Tuesday’. Every month, we create a Patch Tuesday Audit Report which checks if the assets in your network are on the latest Windows update. It gives you an easy and quick overview of which assets are already on the latest Windows update, and which ones still need to be patched.
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Security Vulnerabilities
Lansweeper holds more than 450 built-in network reports in the report library, but ad-hoc vulnerabilities mostly require a custom vulnerability report to assess if your devices are at risk and need to update. We regularly create custom hardware and software reports to address known issues. The list below highlights some of the most noteworthy vulnerabilities of 2019.
- New Plundervolt Attack Hits Intel Processors. Audit Now!
- SWAPGS Attack – The Newest Spectre for Intel CPUs
- Microsoft Fixes Critical BlueKeep Vulnerability
- Discover Intel CPUs Vulnerable to Zombieload MDS Attacks
- WhatsApp Zero-Day Vulnerability Allows Spyware Installation
- Google Patches Actively Exploited Chrome Zero-Day Flaw
- Emergency Patch for Internet Explorer Zero-Day Vulnerability
- Linux Sudo Open Root Access Vulnerability Discovered
- 19-Year Old Critical WinRAR Vulnerability Discovered