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Are you a Windows 7 user? If so you need to read this.

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Organisations & Charities – Cyber Protect Advice from Kirsty Jackson Cyber Protect & Prevent Officer – Nottinghamshire Police

Cybercrime can be one of the biggest threats to any organisation & therefore Cyber security should be taken very seriously. Please take the time in reviewing the NCSC Small Business Guide & Small Charity Guide. It’s also good for an organisation and its employees to understand the threats of Phishing (Phishing Guidance) & Ransomware risks. Ensure key members of staff have comfort in being able to check verbally to verify unusual financial requests, even if it looks like it’s been emailed by what appears to be the a senior manager, director or CEO, regardless of the urgency from the request or if they are away on holiday.

For more helpful Cyber Security advice please visit: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/

 Are you a Windows 7 user? If so please read:

Google have reported Windows 7 is at risk from a serious bug that could let malicious hackers take over their computer.

Cyber-thieves are “actively exploiting” the vulnerability by combining it with a separate flaw found in the Chrome browser.

Google has issued an update for its Chrome web browser to close the loophole and Microsoft have said it is also working on a fix for the problem in Windows 7.

Squashing the Bug!

The Windows flaw exists in core elements of the operating system that are supposed to stop data in one program interacting with anything outside that application.

Google said it had seen evidence that criminal hackers had found a way to make attack code jump from Chrome into other applications to help them compromise a machine.

 

A patch has been produced for Chrome and users should ensure that they have updated their browser to close the loophole, said Google engineer Justin Schuh.

“Seriously, update your Chrome installs… like right this minute,” he tweeted.

 

The serious nature of the flaw in Chrome meant the software had to be shut down and re-started for the patch to take effect, he added.

“To date, we have only observed active exploitation against Windows 7 32-bit systems,” wrote Clement Lecigne from Google’s threat analysis group in a blog exploring the flaw.

One way to avoid falling victim was to upgrade to Windows 10, said Mr Lecigne.

Microsoft has not given a date for when its patch for Windows 7 will be released, but said it would be “as soon as possible”. Millions of machines still run Windows 7 despite it being almost 10 years old.

Writing on the Sophos security blog, Paul Ducklin said: “There doesn’t seem to be a workaround, but if you make sure you’re up-to-date, you don’t need one because the bug will be squashed.”