1. Patch ASAP Multiple Security Updates Released for Exchange Server – updated March 8, 2021 – Microsoft Security Response Center
2. Check for 8 character aspx files in C:\\inetpub\wwwroot\aspnet_client\system_web\
3. Scan Exchange Server logs with Microsoft’s IOC detection tool: Microsoft IOC Detection Tool for Exchange Server Vulnerabilities | CISA
4. More technical information to determine if systems are compromised: Mitigate Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerabilities | CISA

Unfortunately, none of these will remove the threat actors, web shells or backdoor trojans left behind. An estimated 60,000 organizations worldwide have been impacted.

Unfortunately, there have been some errors when trying to claim Game Pass Ultimate included on the console.

1. It’s not showing in the settings titled, “Included with this Xbox”:

• • If you’re not seeing the claim now button after setting up your new Xbox, try logging out and logging back in.
  • If that doesn’t work,  restore by pressing Home > Profile & System > System > Console Info > Reset console > Reset and keep my games & apps
  • If it still doesn’t work, the Xbox might have been shipped out without the retailer registering the serial number with Citizens One. Call them at at 1-888-824-3783 with your account number and serial number (Citizens One handles the line of credit for Xbox All Access)

1. When clicking the Claim Now button, “Try that again – Something happened on our end. Try again later” error occurs. Followed by a long App Error code:

• • The best option for this error is to contact Microsoft phone support. Use these steps:
    • Xbox Status | Xbox Support
    • Click Contact Us button
    • Select Hardware & network, then select I need help setting up my console
    • Chose the option to call back
    • Tell the agent a new X Box Series X with Game Pass Ultimate, gave an error message when clicking on the Claim Now button, “try that again, something happened…”
    • They’ll check your account. You likely already have an active Xbox Live account, and they will have to cancel it to make the new subscription work. Remaining months will be added to the new Game Pass Ultimate subscription. While upgrading your gaming experience, enjoy the thrill of judi bola terpercaya for even more excitement.
    • Click Claim Now button again, and Success!
  • You could also wait for your current Xbox Live subscription to expire, then activate the new one on your console (you have 2 years). In the meantime, enjoy link slot games, offering exciting gameplay and chances to win in just a few moments.
  • Or, if you don’t have much time remaining, cancel the active Xbox Live subscription yourself, and then activate the new one.

Enjoy your new Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass Ultimate!

You may have noticed a not too subtle pun in the title. So, let’s address the Flex’s biggest shortcoming — the speaker. It’s okay for listening to Alexa’s speech. Horrible for music. If your idea of an Echo device is that you’re going to communicate from across the room, listen to some music, and control devices. You’ll be 1/3 happy.

So why buy a Flex with a tin(n)y little speaker? First reason is the price. You can buy one right now on Amazon for $9.99, shipped free with Prime. However, because a good percentage of these are likely being returned, there appears to be an ample supply in the Amazon Warehouse from only $6.99 Amazon.com: Buying Choices: Echo Flex – Plug-in mini smart speaker with Alexa

Second reason, there’s no external adapter. There’s a built-in plug on the back and adapter inside. Which means this Echo can go places others can’t. There’s also a USB-A port on the bottom. Not only could this be used to charge your phone, it could power a Bluetooth speaker.

Which brings us to the third reason, connectivity. The Flex comes with a 3.5 mm stereo plug. Connect an RCA audio adapter to the input of your home audio system, and you can listen to Amazon music with BIG sound. Or, use the built-in Bluetooth to sync to a speaker. With the Flex’s USB port used for power. Finally, the Flex connects over Wi-Fi, so no cables are needed.

Fourth reason, it has a great microphone. Is there’s an area of your house that doesn’t have a Dot, but you want to control smart devices? Simply plug in the Echo Flex. Now you have coverage in your garage, or a hallway. It also works great for changing the song or the volume when connected to a Bluetooth speaker, or audio system.

Oh, I almost forgot. There are add-on devices that connect to the USB port on the bottom. There’s a motion sensor, night light, and clock. They’re priced about $15 each. I don’t see a compelling use case for any of them. Maybe if you wanted to motion control a light without rewiring the switch?

I’ll admit, I was a skeptic. Bought one for $7 anyway. Plugged it in on a bathroom counter. Sync’d a small Bluetooth speaker I already had near it. Connected a short cable to the USB port for power. Now the family can listen to music while in the shower, or getting ready. With much better sound than an Echo Dot. Since then, we’ve added one on our home audio system. It’s connected unobtrusively in a nearby outlet. Also one in a bedroom, just to control lights and devices. Total investment, under $25. How can you Flex your Echo skills with this handy little device?

We could argue whether you should buy a new generation console at launch. The lack of games, software and hardware bugs, an expected price drop — but that’s for another article. If you’re one of the few lucky enough to get a next generation console, the first thing you’ll probably notice is faster loading times. What if you could get your Xbox One S or X to load games faster? Help ease the pain of having to watch all the videos of lightning fast load times on new consoles.

The answer is simple, and best of all you can still use it when you get your next-gen Xbox. Get an external solid state drive, or SSD. If you’ve ever upgraded your PC from a standard hard drive to an SSD you know it’s probably the most impactful upgrade you can make. Load your games on an external SSD and they will load much faster. Especially as the external USB 3.0 connection is faster than the internal.

The best part is that it won’t break the bank. A highly reviewed Samsung 1TB SSD on Amazon will set you back about $130 as of this writing. Or, is the best part that you can still use it when you get that next generation Xbox? The Xbox Series One S and X come with a super fast internal SSD drive.  Save that for your new, large games. Load smaller games designed for your previous console from the external SSD! Or, is the best part that it just takes seconds to install? You don’t need a screwdriver, or any technical skills. Plug it in and your done. Plug and play!

The point of this post is not to analyze these trends, as there are plenty of articles and blog posts already out there. I simply want to explain why I still teach malware removal in GeekU, over 10 years after I became involved with the malware removal community. The number of computers running obsolete operating systems are a large part of the reason. The need for security on these systems has not gone away, and neither has the need for malware removal. There have been no security updates for Windows XP in 4 years, and after January 2020, Windows 7 will no longer receive them either. That means a lot of PCs remain vulnerable even as malware becomes more sophisticated. The best advice I could give to someone running Windows XP is to stay off the Internet, but that’s not realistic, so I continue to teach trainees the specifics of the XP operating system and how it differs from that of Windows 7 and above. I teach that Windows XP should have a 3rd party firewall installed, as the embedded version doesn’t block outbound traffic. That’s why I teach how to use an elevated command prompt in Windows XP. That’s why I teach using Chkdsk from a command prompt on Windows 7. We have a lot of GeekU students who are younger and more conversant with Windows 8.1 and 10, but many are in college and may enter a workplace in which Windows 7 is still prevalent, so maybe I’m even teaching skills that will benefit them as a professional.

Realistically, Windows 10 is not completely safe either, so what I’m doing will remain relevant for some time. As long as there are users, as long as there are people who choose to exploit the vulnerabilities of both software and users, there will be those who fall prey to malware and exploits.

If you were just to install the plugin and forget about it, you’d still see benefits. Yoast rewrites page titles and creates an XML sitemap for search engines. Beginners often get hung up on Yoast’s mechanism for grading your SEO per post. It works like this: you specify a keyword (only one with the free edition), and then it displays the colors of a stoplight to rank your post—red, yellow, and green. It’s tempting to tweak every post until you have all green lights, like a deserted street at 3 a.m. However, if you’re serious about enhancing your SEO strategy, considering professional services like Marketix Digital can be a game-changer. They go beyond the basics, ensuring your SEO efforts are truly effective. Most importantly, you should consider investing in tools for email customer support.

Digital content may also help promote various businesses on the internet. AI-powered photo editing tools like an Undress AI software can generate photos and content that can be used for marketing purposes. If you work from home or manage your website using your home wifi, you may want to utilize free residential proxies to keep your online data private.

Yoast has “live” recommendations, that change with your content. So we can’t cover every recommendation here. Let’s review some of Yoast’s most common content analysis recommendations, and see which are worthy of your time.

Before we start, we do need to address the albatross around the neck of Yoast. All analysis recommendations are based off a single keyword. As Yoast uses the freemium business model, it makes good business sense. An incentive to get users to upgrade. However, there’s rarely a single keyword I want to target, and I find it very crippling. Chances are you can zero on a single word, but take the results as they are, limited.

We’re going to group a bunch of the recommendations, and then explain why:

• The focus keyword does not appear in the page title.
• The focus keyword doesn’t appear in the first paragraph of the copy. Make sure the topic is clear immediately.
• A meta description has been specified, but it does not contain the focus keyword.
• The keyword density is 0%, which is a bit low; the focus keyword was found 0 times.
• The images on this page do not have alt tags containing your focus keyword.
• The focus keyword does not appear in the URL for this page. If you decide to rename the URL be sure to check the old URL 301 redirects to the new one!
• No subheading tags (like an H2) appear in the copy.

Much of Yoast is based on a well-traveled, and well studied theory that for a page to rank well with search engines, the keyword or keyphrase must be repeated in the following areas:

• The page title
• The first paragraph
• The meta description
• It must be repeated throughout the copy (keyword density)
• In the alt tag of an image
• In the URL of the page
• In an H1 or H2 tag

While this is still considered an accepted practice, and “basic SEO”, it’s no longer especially relevant with modern search engine algorithms. It may or may not help improve your search engine result positioning. Now, or in the future it may even be considered over-optimized, or spammy. It may be wise to consider using variations of a word or concept.

What happened to make this proven strategy less effective? In a word, RankBrain, Machine learning and artificial intelligence now look at the context of the query, and the topical authority of the result page. Search engines (including Bing with RankNet) have moved beyond simple keyword indexing, to understanding the query, and the pages indexed. For additional guidance, you can consult SEO Agency Newcastle.

So if the simple formula Yoast uses for content analysis is no longer relevant. Is it worth considering?

With a grain of salt. I like the snippet editor because it provides an approximation of what Google may display in search results. It’s a good reminder to use descriptive titles of an appropriate length, and edit meta description if needed. Some more content analysis recommendations from Yoast:

• The page title contains the focus keyword, but it does not appear at the beginning; try and move it to the beginning.

The idea is the earlier the word(s) appears in the title and URL the more important it is. It’s been mostly proven false that order matters in page title. Order does matter in the URL.

• The copy scores 54.2 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered fairly difficult to read. Try to make shorter sentences to improve readability.

Including “reading level” as a key factor may be among the more debated suggestions from Yoast, suggesting it shouldn’t be overly emphasized. There’s no definitive evidence to suggest that reading level directly impacts SEO performance. However, this does serve as a useful reminder about the clarity of content. Opting for concise and straightforward content can enhance readability, making it quicker for audiences to digest. This is where SEO content writing services can play a crucial role, crafting content that’s not only SEO-friendly but also accessible and engaging for readers.

• This page has 1 outbound link(s).

The internet was built on hyperlinks. If all the links in an article are back to your site, you’re probably going to frustrate the reader. If not search engines.

• The page title is between the 40 character minimum and the recommended 70 character maximum.

Page title used to one of be the most important ranking factors. Recently Backlinko published a study of 1 million searches, finding it has little correlation. So again, probably a best practice, but of little overall value.

• You’ve never used this focus keyword before, very good.

Um, okay. Not sure what to say about this one.

• The text contains 589 words, this is more than the 300 word recommended minimum.

A recommendation of 300 minimum is likely far too few. I’d say 700 a better benchmark. The study of 1 million searches referenced above, found that the number 1 search result had an average of 1,890 words.

So if Yoast’s content analysis isn’t relevant today, what is? Backlinks are as important as ever. The more sites that link, the more authority those sites have. The higher your site will rank in search results. The best way to get backlinks? Long-form, quality, original content that’s topically relevant. Stick to a single topic. Include at least one image. Finally, keep the page light and fast. If your pages load in 2 seconds or less, you’ll be rewarded.

If you have a Facebook account, you’ve probably seen, or shared, at least one urban myth. Maybe it’s this image:

Or this:

Today, 12/01/2014 in response to the Facebook guidelines and under articles L.111, 112 and 113 of the code of intellectual property, I declare that my rights are attached to all my personal songs, lyrics, literary excerpts, data, drawings, paintings, photos, texts etc… published on my profile. For commercial use of the foregoing my written consent is required at all times……

Or even this:

I just found out that should you ever be forced to withdraw monies from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse. The machine will still give you the monies you requested, but unknown to the robber, etc, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.
The broadcast stated that this method of calling the police is very seldom used because people don’t know it exist, and it might mean the difference between life and death. Hopefully, none of you will have to use this, but I wanted to pass it along just in case you hadn’t heard of it. Please pass it along to everyone possible.

There is no validity to any of these posts, and none of them are new.  In fact, the third one started circulating in an email as early as 2006, before migrating to Facebook. The first one has been circulating since at least 2010. The Facebook privacy one surfaces in a new form every time Facebook announces changes to its privacy policy. These are just a sample of the many myths that are out there. All of these have been discredited, and the validity can be easily checked. The next time you see a Facebook status like that, stop and think about it. How will sharing a picture 100 times provide a free heart transplant? If entering a PIN backwards would summon police, don’t you think that information might actually be shared by your bank? Who decided stating your rights in a Facebook status would provide any legal protection whatsoever? (For the record, you agree to Facebook’s Terms and Conditions when you create an account. Stating otherwise publicly doesn’t change anything). Gaining insight into online strategies, such as those discussed on Themarketingheaven.com, can help clarify the realities of social media trends.

While it’s not possible to completely stop these things from circulating, you can become part of the solution. Don’t blindly share or post anything just because everyone else is. It’s possible to quickly check whether a post is valid or not. I use Snopes.com to check these items out. For example, here’s the Snopes link debunking the backwards ATM  PIN myth. If the story isn’t true, don’t spread it. While there’s not necessarily anything malicious about these myths, there’s no point in perpetuating them. Your friends will probably thank you for having a little less clutter in their feed, too.

If you haven’t seen this video, it’s worth 15 minutes of your time:

And if you’re really interested, here’s a longer read from the Pew Research Institute: AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs [pdf]

Can robots and artificial intelligence replace your job?

What Is It?

By now I’m certain you’ve heard of the Heartbleed bug. If you haven’t, then you should know that it is a flaw found in one of the most common open source SSL implementations on the internet that COULD allow an attacker to get sensitive information from the web server. A successful attack could expose the server’s SSL private keys that would allow the attacker to decrypt the data traveling to the site, such as usernames and passwords.

As of now there have been no confirmed attacks using this bug, but an exploit of the bug is completely untraceable so there’s no way to be certain if a site has been targeted.

Places to learn more:
General information
LastPass and the Heartbleed Bug
How Heartbleed Works: The Code Behind the Internet’s Security Nightmare

How can you tell if a site is affected?

First, you need to figure out how vulnerable your data might be. There are several  lists of vulnerable sites that you can manually search through and several online tools that can be used to check specific sites (lastpass and SSL Labs have two particularly useful tools, linked below). There is a Chrome extension that can help identify vulnerable sites as you visit them. The folks at www.Mashable.com have a “hit list” of sorts that lists several sites that they have had direct communication with and recommendations as to what you should do to protect yourself on those sites.

Since Google’s Android operating system is built on open source principles, it is heavily integrated with OpenSSL so any Android device may be vulnerable to this bug as well. Lookout Security has developed a tool to check your device for vulnerability (linked below). If your device is vulnerable you will have to wait for an update for the device.

How can you protect yourself now and in the future?

Once you’ve identified what sites you’ve used that contain sensitive information, you need to change your passwords. You should make sure that they have patched their systems before you change your password for good but many experts are saying that you should change the passwords now just to be sure that any data captured in the last 2 years is safe.

Many systems online were not affected at all because they run on server platforms that don’t use OpenSSL (like Microsoft IIS). These sites have not been compromised by this bug and you should make your own judgment as to whether or not you should change your passwords. If you have used the same username and password combination on an unaffected site as you have on an affected site, you should change your password on both, and make sure they’re different this time.

If you have two factor authentication in place (which you should on any service that supports it) you are at an advantage since even if someone has your username and password they don’t have your second authentication method (typically an app or a text to your mobile phone). You should probably still consider changing your passwords on these sites to be safe.

If you use a password manager (like LastPass or Keepass) then you should most likely regenerate new passwords for your important sites. If you’re using LastPass, they have updated their app to include a tool that will automatically alert you of the Heartbleed status of any sites that you have saved or generated passwords for and give you suggestions as to when you should change their respective passwords.

You should never use the same logon and password for two important sites (like your banking site and your email). If you are using the same information on multiple sites that are important to you, you should change them now so that they are different.

The best thing you can do is not panic and stay aware of the current status of this bug. Keep checking the status of your frequently visited SSL enabled websites and if any of your important sites aren’t patching their systems, find a different company to do business with.

Windows XP End of Support is on April 8th, 2014. Click Here to learn more.

Don’t show this message again

Microsoft is ending support for Windows XP, and it’s about to let every XP user know. On Saturday March 8th, and then the 8th of every month after, XP users will see the popup window shown above (unless they tick don’t show again). Many users may mistake this warning for a fake security alert, often used to trick people into installing malware. But this one is legitimate. Any computer connecting to Windows Update will display it. Most enterprise computers won’t, as they don’t get updates directly from Windows Update.

There are two more patch Tuesday’s left for XP, and then Windows Update will no longer offer updates for what may be the most successful operating system of all time. Many experts are predicting a spike in XP related malware as vulnerabilities go unpatched. Amazingly, XP still has a 29% market share. Not sure if you have XP? There’s a website for that: http://amirunningxp.com/

There is no direct upgrade from XP to Windows 7 or 8. However, Laplink has a free migration tool called PCmover Express that will help transfer files, settings, and profiles. If you want to also transfer programs, there’s a special offer on the professional version ($23.95).

Are you still running Windows XP? Will you be upgrading? What are you going to upgrade to?