February 26, 2020
We can congratulate our Project Engineer Jack Sapsford on qualifying as a Cyber Essential Practitioner.
Also our Workshop Technician David Cater is now a fully-qualified PAT tester.
A PAT (Portable Appliance Test) is a routine inspection of some types of electrical appliances to check they are safe to use. Its purpose is to prevent electrical accidents in the workplace. It is the business owners’ choice to have computers and other equipment tested, although legislation strongly encourages this action. Ziptech is now able to offer this service.
Ziptech users must leave machines on during Maintenance Night. If you need a reminder on which night is Maintenance Night for your organisation, contact the service desk as soon as possible. You can also look out for our Red Z message to remind users to leave machines turned on.
National Security Agency (NSA) has discovered a critical vulnerability (CVE-2020-0601) affecting Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016/2019. The vulnerability allows attackers to defeat trusted network connections and deliver executable code while appearing as legitimately trusted entities. This may affect a user’s HTTPS connections, signed files and emails, and a broad range of exploitations. NSA assesses the vulnerability to be severe and that sophisticated cyber actors will be able to quickly deploy exploitation tools.
Rapid adoption of the relevant patch is the only known mitigation at this time and is Ziptech’s primary focus. In order for us to deliver this, it is vital that users’ machines are left on during scheduled maintenance night.
Skype for Business is to be retired by Microsoft in favour of Teams. If you are using Office 365 and need help moving over to Teams, please give us a call.
Microsoft Teams is the hub for team collaboration in Office 365 that integrates the people, content, and tools your team needs to be more engaged.
On January 14th, Microsoft ceased to support Windows 7. This means that users of the old operating system will no longer be supported or receive crucial security patches, cutting off protection against new vulnerabilities.
As we reported in the last newsletter, later this year BT will withdraw ISDN meaning all businesses must switch to internet-based telephony or VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). Again, please just call us if you need help updating your system or understanding the implications of this change.
