Windows Server 2012 and R2, will officially reach its end of life on Tuesday 10^th October 2023.

Scary. End of life (EOL) means that Microsoft will no longer provide updates, patches, or security fixes for Windows Server 2012 R2. This termination of support poses several challenges and risks to businesses that continue to use this platform past the EOL date.

We explore the ramifications of this for your business and examine how Lineal can play a role in shaping the future of your server infrastructure.

So, what are the issues now facing clients?

Security Risks: Without regular security updates, Windows Server 2012 becomes vulnerable to new and evolving cyber threats. Hackers often target systems running on unsupported software, as they are more likely to find unpatched vulnerabilities to grant unauthorised access to company data. Using server hardware outside of its product lifecycle hinders the ability to detect and respond to security incidents in real-time, increasing the window of vulnerability to cyber threats.

Compliance Issues: Many industries and regulatory bodies require businesses to maintain up-to-date and secure systems. Using an unsupported operating system like Windows Server 2012 can lead to compliance violations under Cyber Essentials and ISO Accreditations. 

How can Lineal resolve them?

1. Upgrade to a Supported Server: The most straightforward option is to upgrade to a newer and supported Windows Server operating system. Windows Server 2019 or the latest version 2023 offers enhanced security, performance improvements all supported by our technical expert team.
2. Migrate to the Cloud: Many of our clients are adopting cloud solutions like Microsoft Azure. These offers scalable, secure, and managed server solutions that eliminate the need for on-premises hardware alongside reducing the burden of server maintenance costs through pay-as-you-go and reservations payment models.
3. Virtualisation: If a full server upgrade is not feasible immediately, consider virtualisation solutions like VMware. These allow you to run Windows Server 2012 in a controlled and isolated environment while planning your migration strategy meaning each virtual server can run its own operating systems independently.

The end of life of Windows Server 2012 signifies the importance of staying current with technology to ensure security, compliance, and compatibility. Our team is ready to assist your business in transitioning away to a more appropriate solution for securing your company’s data.

Apple has announced the next major operating system release – macOS Sonoma – at WWDC 2023.

Apple’s most advanced operating system yet brings new personalisation features via integrated desktop widgets, stunning screensavers, increased iPhone connectivity, improvements to Safari, smart video conferencing, enhanced accessibility features and a new focus on an optimised gaming experience.

The annual developer conference is Apple’s opportunity to pitch a plethora of new hardware – including M2 Ultra chipsets, new Mac Studio, MacBook and updated Mac Pro models – and feature-enhancements to flagship operating systems including MacOS Sonoma, iPadOS 17, and WatchOS 10.

However, there is also an announcement on end of support on legacy hardware dating earlier than 2017 – which given the remarkable longevity of many Apple devices, is likely to affect a large number of users:

The affected operating systems include:

– iOS 11 to iOS 11.2.6

– macOS High Sierra 10.13 to macOS 10.13.3

– watchOS 4 to watchOS 4.2.3

– tvOS 11 to tvOS 11.2.6

You can read more about the features of the newest system release here.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has released its annual ‘Cyber Security Breaches Survey’.

The survey is used to inform government policy on digital security, educate British businesses, and ensure UK cyber space remains safe.

Data collected across over 2,400 business and 850 charities produced some startling statistics concerning the ever-looming threat of cyber-attacks infiltrating UK businesses’ digital footprint.

The report discovered that 39% of UK businesses detected an incoming cyber-attack during 2021. Phishing attacks made up a fifth of all threats identified – the most frequent type of malicious attack.

Organisations also revealed that ransomware was being recognised as a serious digital threat with 56% of businesses stating they have installed or will be introducing a company policy to not pay ransoms to cyber criminals.

Whilst 58% of small and medium businesses disclosed to outsourcing their IT Support service, only 23% of surveyed businesses had a cybersecurity incident management strategy in place that is more advanced than a basic endpoint antivirus.

NCSC promote a blend of regular cyber security learning and training processes within your business to better inform the deployment of traditional cybersecurity software measures across all the organisation’s IT systems.

This multi-layered approach aims to counteract the report’s discovery that a lack of cyber technical expertise amongst UK businesses is to blame for threats going undetected.

Similarly, a company-wide policy of digital hygiene erodes the false assumption that managed cybersecurity strategies are a cost to the business rather than a strategic, protective investment.

31% of business admitted being attacked at least once a week showing that any weak link in an organisation’s cyber defence can have grievous financial implications.

To mitigate this, we recommend organisations follow the NCSC’s guidance and adopt Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials +. The scheme requires businesses to meet or exceed an assured set of security requirements each year to protect against common forms of online crime, technology dangers and digital threats.

It is estimated that a Cyber Essentials certification can reduce your organisation’s risk of a cyberattack by 98.5% – contact Lineal to assist with your organisation’s application and to help you meet the requirements for a successful certification or re-certification today.

UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has urged the public to check the security of their email addresses and passwords after they uploaded 225 million unique passwords to hack-checking service Have I Been Pwned (HIBP).

With this addition of 225 million passwords obtained from cyber criminals, the NCA are urgently encouraging people to search for their own passwords on the website to check if their details are in the hands of hackers.

The 225 million passwords that were found in a compromised cloud storage facility were an accumulation of datasets both known and unknown.

HIBP is a free online service allowing users to search the now updated 853 million strong Pwned Password service database to see if their email or password has been compromised and in which specific historic or current data breaches their data was listed in.

Troy Hunt, owner of Have I Been Pwned, received a statement from the NCA reporting:

“During recent NCA operational activity, the NCCU’s Mitigation@Scale team were able to identify a huge amount of potentially compromised credentials (emails and associated passwords) in a compromised cloud storage facility”

Hunt further revealed that Have I Been Pwned’s new data ingestion pipeline is now live. The service allows law enforcement agencies across the globe to upload compromised email addresses and passwords directly to the Pwned database and has already seen collaboration with the FBI. Hunt goes on to explain:

“During the course of their investigations, they come across a lot of compromised passwords, and if they were able to continuously feed those into HIBP, all the other services out there using Pwned passwords would be able to better protect their customers from account takeover attacks”

Compromised passwords present significant security vulnerabilities for UK businesses as identified in a National Cyber Security Centre study which revealed that UK businesses experienced 777 cyber incidents in 2021, up from 723 in 2020.

Protection of network login credentials and identification of breached passwords is essential to ensure companies’ data remains secure and to avoid ransomware attacks as exemplified in July’s devastating ransomware attack on Kaseya and the 500 million affected by data breaches on Facebook and LinkedIn In April.

Being Cyber Essentials Plus Certified, Lineal has identified the growing need for a managed cybersecurity solution for businesses of all sizes. Our cybersecurity package aims to safeguard your business’ data against a host of cyber threats across multiple platforms including password encryption keys.

For more information of how we can help secure your business, visit our Cybersecurity page

Apple has unveiled ‘Self Service Repair’ (SSP) giving hope to individual consumers to complete their own repairs with genuine Apple parts and tools.

With the introduction of ‘Self Service Repair’, individual customers will now join 2,800 Independent Repair Providers (IRPs) and 5,000 Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs) in receiving authorisation to fix their Apple devices using genuine parts, tools and documentation guides.

The move comes after growing pressure on tech providers to support a public ‘Right to Repair’ in the interests of environmental and consumer protection.

Over 200 Apple OEM parts and tools along with manual documentation will be made available for the iPhone battery, display and camera functions initially with additional repair opportunities being added during 2022. SSP will see first light in the United States with global expansion planned throughout 2022 facilitated via an online store for technical consumers with the knowledge and experience to fixing their own damaged devices.

Prices for these genuine parts are yet to be officially released, but the online store will be managed by an unnamed third party provider with repair manuals being made available through the Apple Support website.

This announcement now positions Apple as the central hub for consumers who desire to access genuine parts and how to manuals for out of warranty, damaged devices. However, the scheme is only aimed at new and future models of Apple products and will not help customers who own older generations of iPhones or Mac devices. SSP is initially being rolled out across the iPhone 12 and 13 line-ups with future plans to include Mac computers with M1 Chips.

Responsibility for fixing their own Apple devices has been shifted onto the consumer from IRPs permitting wide public access to the tightly guarded Apple ecosystem. Examples of the devolution of repairs to the masses include new software availability for ‘True Tone’ allowing for replacement display parts to be used on iPhone devices and customers who return their broken Apple ‘core’ device parts will receive credit towards their original purchase order.

The self-service repair program is just one pillar of a multi-pronged approach by Apple for increasing the longevity of their endpoints’ lifecycles including the introduction of a ceramic chassis shield and the replacement of plastic with steel on the iPhone 12 and 13 alongside crack resistant crystal for the Apple Watch 7’s display.

However, Apple and associated commentators warn of the dangers of consumer self service repair where DIY by Apple device owners can lead to further damage of the device through misrepair where tampering of the lithium-ion battery can cause serious bodily harm.

For the majority of Apple device owners, visiting a professional repair provider such as Lineal with our experienced technicians who use genuine Apple parts is the most reliable and safest way to ensure a successful repair:

For apple device expertise and IT support, please contact our team today.

Lineal are proud to announce that we have officially achieved Cyber Essentials Plus certification.

Our operations passed a number of essential vigorous vulnerability tests of our cyber security with flying colours. Cyber Essentials Plus is the advanced level of certification offered by the government-accredited Cyber Essentials scheme; supported by the UK National Cyber Security Centre – a public facing arm of GCHQ.

The external audit of a sample of our systems saw a 100% pass rate across all PC and devices – thanks to the hard work of our in-house Cybersecurity team who worked tirelessly to ensure our success.

Attainment of CE Plus certification showcases our dedication to protect and respond to the needs of our customers. This allows us to not only have peace of mind about the high standard of Lineal’s cyber protection, but also presents opportunities for us to more effectively assist your business in achieving the Cyber Essentials certificate.

Hackers’ methods have evolved in recent years, leading to a huge rise in phishing and malware attacks with over 86% of businesses experiencing some form of cyber attack since 2017. The need for a comprehensive cyber security standards within your organisation has never been greater.

Suitable for businesses of all sizes and sectors, Cyber Essentials certification helps to demonstrate that your organisation takes cybersecurity and its clients’ data protection seriously – ensuring trust from your customers.

Contact us today to assist with your organisation’s application and ongoing compliance. You can refocus on your core business, safe in the knowledge experienced technicians will be able to help you meet the requirements for successful certification or re-certification.

Openreach’s progression to phase out the PSTN network as “End of Life” and cease it by 2025 has picked up speed, with new test switch off locations revealed.

The network subsidiary of BT have continued their transfer of customers away from legacy analogue Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to a new fully digital network. The rollout aims to shift all clients to phone lines operating on the Internet Protocol (IP) route by 2025.

A list of services being decommissioned include analogue phone lines, ADSL and FTTC ‘superfast’ broadband connections, ISDN phone lines and other services such as traffic lights, motorway signs, analogue fax and alarms lines.

The IP routing system is in correlation with the nation-wide shift to fibre to the premise (FTTP) broadband to around 15 million homes and businesses that will rely on fibre optic cabling for the entire journey from the exchange.

Although 2025 feels a long time away, many businesses have already made the switch to an all-digital model with their communications setup moving to the cloud, calls being conducted over IP routing and enabling the opportunity for advanced video calling.

Lineal are here to make this migration over to a digital future as smooth as possible. Check with us to assess which analogue phone line services your business or organisation still uses and to find out whether your area is part of a published FTTP roll out in the near future.

Additionally, Openreach have announced 86 new copper network switch-off locations covering approximately 500,000 UK premises. This marks a rapid expansion from the original two test locations of Mildenhall and Salisbury where legacy PTSN services and its associated WLR hardware were removed from the commercial market.

James Lilley, director of managed customer migrations at Openreach stated that “ultimately, the plan is to withdraw all services that rely on the old PSTN by December 2025 and, from that point on, communications providers will own the delivery of voice services. We are upgrading the UK’s digital infrastructure as we build our full-fibre network to 25 million homes and businesses by 2026”.

To learn more about how Lineal can help your business or organisation’s migration to the digital future, follow the link for details or drop us a message on [email protected]

Microsoft have delivered emergency out-of-band patches for the PrintNightmare zero day print spooler vulnerability with more on the horizon.

The bug, CVE-2021-34527, is existent in all versions of Windows and exploits a remote code execution vulnerability where the Windows Print Spooler service improperly performs privileged file operations.

This vulnerability means that a cyber attacker could run arbitrary code leading to instilling programs; view, change or delete data and even go so far as to create new accounts with full user system rights for exploitative purposes on the system.

A cautionary Microsoft statement released outlined the situation with “the security updates released on and after July 6, 2021 contain protections for CVE-2021-1675 and the additional remote code execution exploit in the Windows Print Spooler service known as ‘PrintNightmare’, documented in CVE-2021-34527.”

Patches released are available for Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, a variety of supported versions of Windows 10 and the no longer supported Windows 7.

However, Microsoft announced that security updates are not currently available for Windows 10 version 1607, Windows Server 2012 or 2016 and urges prompt installation of its patches to deter any attacks via the domain controller when made available in due course. Microsoft also offer workarounds to those unable to download the July patches including the shutting down of the Print Spooler Service and the disabling of inbound remote printing through group policy.

The proof of concept (PoC) was accidentally released by Chinese technology group Sangfor on GitHub, but was cloned and cached before the researchers realised their mistake and took down the PoC. The group were under the impression that the exploit had already been patched as part of Microsoft’s CVE-2021-1675 patch – a patch that Microsoft confirmed was distinct about a different attack vector and vulnerability issue associated with RpcAddPrinterEx.

The situation is continually updating and the latest news on Windows patch releases can be found here.

Windows’ latest operating system offering was unveiled today at their virtual event, boasting the arrival of the “next generation of Windows”.

The announcement comes somewhat of a shock to the tech world who were told that Windows 10 would be the final version of the Windows OS with over 1.3 billion user devices.

However due to the rapidly changing, hybrid working environment emerging from the pandemic and the announcement that Windows 10 would no longer receive extended support past 2025, it appears that Microsoft are updating the OS platform to incorporate the working from home demands from its users.

Microsoft CEO Natya Sadella agreed saying “We need to be empowered to choose the applications we run, the content we consume, the people we connect to, and even how we allocate our own attention”. He further stated that “operating systems and devices should mould to our needs, not the other way around.”

New centralised task bar interface layout in night mode

These demands are being met with features such as tighter integration with Microsoft Teams directly into the centralised task bar (a significant shift away from the attachments to Skype) and the blending of the Xbox Series X’s Auto HDR graphical enhancements along with Xbox Games Pass; both come pre-installed.

The focus of Windows 11 revolves around the simplification of the standard Windows user interface whilst increasing performance and multitasking functionality. Microsoft executive, Panos Panay revealed that Windows 11 Updates are 40% smaller that its OS predecessors and gone are the days of work being interrupted by Windows Updates as they now are downloaded and installed without the need for system shutdown.

Snap Layouts for compartmentalisation of multiple screens

Additionally, the new ‘Snap Layouts’ promote easier movement of apps to defined compartments of the screen for easier multitasking and the OS will remember collections of apps open on external monitors when the PC/Laptop is unplugged thanks to ‘Snap Groups’ – mirroring certain characteristics of the cancelled, dual screen Windows 10X project.

A further major change comes as part of the Microsoft Store which, through Microsoft’s partnership with Intel and Amazon, now allows developers to distribute their apps through the Microsoft Store without sharing revenue and Windows systems will be able to support Android apps using the Amazon AppStore. Developers can even use their own payment systems within the Microsoft Store.

Before today’s virtual launch, a first build of the OS was leaked allowing for a quick glimpse of the evolved ‘Sun Valley’ interface – with a Start Menu in the centre of the main task bar with a return of Windows Widgets in the form of an AI-powered personalised feed. Widget types include a news feed, maps and weather. This evolution of Widgets signals the quiet removal of the controversial Live Tiles introduced with Windows 8.

Windows 11 will be available as a free update to existing Windows 10 users requiring 64 GBs of storage and 4GBs of RAM, but only for ‘eligible PCs’ – those with two or more cores and a clock speed of 1GHz or higher.

A preview early test version of the new system will be released for app developers as part of the Windows Insider beta testing programme in the beginning of July 2021. A public access version is expected to be made available in October 2021 without new hardware speculated to be released alongside.

Google Workspace, previously known as G Suite, was launched back in October 2020 and served as a combination of Google’s apps such as Docs, Slides and Gmail which was only available for businesses and enterprises initially who paid a subscription fee for a G Suite business account.

The standard Workspace productivity site service has now been made free to everyone with a Google account and this is set to see growth to the already three billion strong Workspace users currently as Google attempt to rival both Microsoft Teams and Zoom in the videoconferencing and workplace collaboration market spheres.

Workspace’s recent updates have included a plethora of new functionalities including changes to Google Meet to enable collaboration equity, the development of ‘Rooms’ in Google Chat to ‘Spaces’ and new privacy/security settings across Workspace.

A highlight of the new security features introduced is that Google will offer users client-side encryption where they will be able to shield their data with encryption keys they possess making the data indecipherable to Google themselves or potential cyber criminals.

One major feature of the 14^th June update rollout was the announcement of Google Workspace Individual. Priced at $9.99 per month, Workspace Individual expands the productivity suite’s availability to small businesses with options to upgrade their Gmail accounts for calendaring, email newsletter and video chat capabilities.

Google states that Workspace Individual allows the user to “create a secure collaboration space in Google Chat to keep everyone up-to-date, share ideas, and keep track of all your important info in one place, from videos and pictures of your last trip to a Google Sheet of your family’s annual budget”

Workspace Individual is deploying out soon to six markets, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Japan.

A number of retail, news and social media websites experienced internet downtime caused by an outage at the global website cloud hosting service, Fastly.

For an hour from 11am BST today, users of Fastly’s hosting service including gov.uk, PayPal, Amazon and a whole host of other major company websites were greeted with and “Error 503 Service Unavailable” detailing problems with the cache server.

By 12.09pm BST, Fastly released a statement saying that their global network was coming back online and that it had been “investigating potential impact to performance with our CDN [content delivery network] services”. However, users were still met with slow loading times and sporadic access to multiple companies’ websites.

Error 503 message that greeted those trying to access the affected websites

When functioning correctly, CDNs such as Fastly aim to improve website security from denial-of-service attacks and reduce loading time for images, videos and HTML pages whilst managing sudden web traffic clusters for their customers’ websites.

ESET commented on the outage and its implication going forward with “whether it be malicious or otherwise, this highlights the importance and significance of these vast hosting companies and what they represent” – adding weight to the growing responsibility that these CDN providers have over global Internet control and access.

The outage raises security concerns over the over-centralisation of the internet in the hands of a few major hosting providers and asks questions about its reliability in the future should a larger scale problem like this occur again – demonstrating that we have not learned our lesson from the past hosting service outages as exemplified by the Cloudfare crash of 2019.

Full list of all websites affected below:

AFR, Age, Amazon, Boots, BuzzFeed, CNN, Deliveroo, Etsy, Evening Standard, Financial Times, Giphy, Horse and Hound, IGN, Imgur, Independent, Kickstarter, Le Monde, New York Times, PayPal, Pinterest, Reddit, Royal Mail, SMH, Spotify, Taboola, The Guardian, The Verge, Twitch, Twitter, UK Government website (including HM Revenue and Customs), Vimeo and Weightwatchers

eBay has announced that from 1^st June, sellers will not be able to manage monthly billing statements or incoming payment transactions on PayPal after the two companies ended their 19-year partnership.

In a statement, eBay explained that they “now manage the end-to-end selling experience on our marketplace, including payments” and that sellers who do not update their payment details will “lose their eligibility for future selling fee promotions”.

Buyers will still have the option to make payments via PayPal, but the money will be sent directly to the bank account of the seller rather than their PayPal account raising concerns over the security of future online purchasing on the site. The move also means that buyers will automatically have access to every payment option available – including credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and PayPal Credit.

Sellers no longer have to pay attributed PayPal fees; however, eBay will increase its fees slightly as sellers need to connect their actual bank account to their eBay account. The new fee system is now 12.8% of the final payment amount including delivery plus 30p in the UK while the old system was 10% for eBay plus PayPal’s fees, plus UK 30p.

Additionally, one of the biggest impacts will be time for payments to clear – most payments will now take two business to make their way into the seller’s bank account rather than the PayPal standard of same day receipt.

This is the latest in a long line of eBay’s decisions that has been accused of favouring buyers – in this case at the expense of the seller. Fearful sellers have speculated over the worry over eBay having direct access to their bank account and the increasing potential bias that eBay has towards protecting buyers thus further opening the door for fraudsters to buy a product on eBay, swap it for a damaged or different item, and return the package demanding a refund.

The video below demonstrates the ‘simplification’ of the eBay payment process:

A new set of fragmentation vulnerabilities have been discovered which have the capacity to affect all WiFi enabled devices dating back to 1997.

There have been 12 identified separate vulnerabilities discovered by New York University Abu Dhabi researcher Mathy Vanhoef, named FragAttacks (fragmentation and aggression attacks) which have a dangerous data exfiltration potential to gather information about the owner of a WiFi enabled device and export it to a within-range attacker or to run malicious code to compromise the device; bypassing WEP and WPA security protocols.

Vanhoef announced that more than 75 tested Wi-Fi devices are affected by at least one of the FragAttacks vulnerabilities, but a majority of the devices are impacted by multiple CVEs. These tested devices included Huawei, Google, Samsung and Apple for mobile devices; computers from Dell, Apple and MSI; Xiaomi and Canon IoT devices; Asus, Linksys and D-Link routers; and Aruba, Lancom and Cisco access points.

Furthermore, the identified CVEs had the capacity to erroneously reassemble fragments encrypted under different keys, process fragmented as full frames and not clear fragments from memory when (re)connecting to a network. These vulnerabilities are named ‘FragAttacks’ due to the issues on how the WiFi network dissipates and then reorders data for easier transmission before reassembly at the receiving endpoint device.

Despite the existence of these unearthed vulnerabilities, WiFi Alliance released a statement saying that “There is no evidence of these vulnerabilities being used against WiFi users maliciously” and suggests protection methods to users through downloading “routine device updates that enable the detection of suspect transmissions or improve adherence to security implementations”

The video below demonstrates how the 12 discovered vulnerabilities can be used as a stepping stone to launch advanced malware attacks:

Adobe is warning customers of a critical zero-day bug that is active in the wild affecting its Adobe Acrobat PDF reader software.

The bug, tracked as CVE-2021-28550, affects eight versions of Adobe software (full list below) and exploits vulnerabilities in the software including arbitrary code execution, memory leaks and exposure of private information.

10 critical and four important vulnerabilities were addressed in Adobe Reader and Acrobat in addition to five critical flaws in Adobe Illustrator that were resolved by Tuesday’s security patch release. The technical specific details of the bug were not available to Adobe software users until after the 43 patch fixes were downloaded which meant that before manual user installation, the zero-day bug allowed for hackers to execute virtually any command on targeted systems.

Users can download these new security fixes by initiating the auto update feature of Acrobat and Reader by going to Help –> Check for Updates and installing via the Adobe Download Centre. This will remove the user intervention necessity to manually install security updates and allows Adobe products to update automatically upon detection of patch releases.

List of affected Adobe software versions:

– Acrobat DC, 2021.001.20150  and earlier versions - Windows

– Acrobat Reader DC, 2021.001.20150  and earlier versions – Windows

– Acrobat DC, 2021.001.20149  and earlier versions - macOS

– Acrobat Reader DC, 2021.001.20149  and earlier versions – macOS

– Acrobat 2020, 2020.001.30020 and earlier versions – Windows & macOS

– Acrobat Reader 2020, 2020.001.30020 and earlier versions – Windows & macOS

– Acrobat 2017, 2017.011.30194  and earlier versions – Windows & macOS

– Acrobat Reader 2017, 2017.011.30194  and earlier versions – Windows & macOS

Consumer watchdog Which? have investigated 13 legacy router models supplied by leading UK internet service providers (ISPs) including EE, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Vodafone – a report discovered that around 7.5 million internet users are at risk from out-of-date hardware.

Out of the 13 router models investigated, 9 presented pressing security flaws that are unlikely to be in compliance with upcoming UK government legislation around tackling the security of connected devices.

The new legislation is in response to government figures showing that 49% of UK residents have purchased at least one smart device since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Due to this huge increased national scope of vulnerability to potential cyber-attacks, the proposed legislation will ban easy to guess default passwords across all, enforces policies to make it easier to report software bugs that can be exploited by hackers on legacy or modern hardware.

Kate Bevan, Which?’s Computing Editor, commented that “proposed new government laws to tackle devices with poor security can’t come soon enough – and must be backed by strong enforcement.” Which? are simultaneously pushing for increased transparency from ISPs about how customers automatically or manually update their routers and how they should actively upgrade existing customers who are identified as being in the ‘at risk’ category.

Of those 7.5 million affected, 6 million users currently possess ISP hardware that has not been updated since 2018 and a few instances even as far back as 2016 – meaning that these vulnerable devices have not received security updates for defence against the latest threats posed by cybercrime.

A cluster of three main problems with ISP legacy hardware were identified by Which? ranging from weak default passwords that allow cybercriminals unlimited access to a router from anywhere, a lack of firmware updates and a local network vulnerability issue with EE Brightbox 2 giving potential hackers full control of the router to install malware or malicious spyware.

In response, Virgin Media have openly rejected Which?’s report conclusions; saying that 9 out of 10 customers are using their latest router models and are benefiting from regular router security updates. This sentiment was mirrored by BT Group (owners of EE), TalkTalk and Vodafone who announced that the HHG2500 device included in the Which? report has not been supplied since August 2019.

Devices with weak default passwords: TalkTalk HG635, TalkTalk HG523a, TalkTalk HG533, Virgin Media Super Hub 2, Vodafone HHG2500, Sky SR101 and Sky SR102.

Routers affected by lack of updates: Virgin Media Super Hub, Virgin Media Super Hub 2, Sky SR101, Sky SR102, TalkTalk HG523a, TalkTalk HG533 and TalkTalk HG635.

Routers that passed the Which? security tests: BT Home Hub 3B, BT Home Hub 4A, BT Home Hub 5B and Plusnet Hub Zero 2704N

Microsoft, continuing the trend of growth in online communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, has informed on social media that their telecommunications app Microsoft Teams now has over 145 million daily users.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Microsoft Teams amassed an estimated 32 million daily active users – with an increase to 75 million users as the reliance on digital tools from the need to work at home dramatically amplified.

The figure is estimated to be about a 26% growth since October 2020 where there was an average of 115 million active users daily. This rapid growth in users has been paralleled with the expansion and inclusion of new features to the telecommunications app including the continual development of Teams Connect which allows the user to share channels with anyone internally or externally to their organisation, virtual meeting whiteboards and background effects for working at home environments; to name a few.

In relation to its competitors, Zoom revealed they had 300 million daily participants and Google Meet displayed 100 million daily participants. It must be noted that both these apps do not record daily users individually, but rather daily participants which implies that a single user could be logged several times if they attend multiple meetings during one given day. However, all these apps have undoubtedly experienced a rapid upsurge in user counts throughout 2020 and 2021 regardless of their user calculation systems.

CEO Natya Sadella states that the “digital adoption curves aren’t slowing down. They’re accelerating and it’s just the beginning”.

Future plans for feature incorporation into Teams include the interoperability with the new Microsoft Mesh, powered by Azure, which promises to be the office meeting’s digital leap into mixed reality technology combining both the physical and virtual world into one shared interactive environment.

For the Teams app itself, Microsoft has promised a host of new capabilities including end to end user encryption for one-on-one voice calls, ability to lock meetings to prevent unauthorised guests from attending and business branded lobbies where admins will be able to add custom logos to their Teams experience.

In yesterday’s Spring Loaded Event, Apple unveiled its 2021 offering to the world of technology: including the new iMac, iPad Pro and AirTag.

The iMac 2021, starting a $1499, arrives with Apple’s M1 chip which replaces the Intel Comet Lake processors from the previous year’s model – boasting 4 FireStorm and separate IceStorm CPU cores, 16 billion transistors and promises up to 3.9x faster video processing and 7.1x faster image processing.

Furthermore, the chassis has been completely redesigned with a 50% reduction in width at only ‘11.5 mm thin’ which comes in a spectrum of vibrant colours. The display is at an all-new generous 24 inches consisting of 11.3 million pixels on a 4.5k retina display – a 1080p camera is also included within the new chassis design.

Similarly, the iPad Pro 2021, now functions with the M1 Chip powering a Liquid Retina XDR display; exhibited on a 12.9-inch model screen. Starting at $749, the iPad Pro now has Thunderbolt and USB4 support which allows for increased manual connectivity to external storage, camera and accessories. The 2021 model also boasts a 12MP Ultra-Wide front camera with a 122-degree field of view enabling face tracking and camera panning for enhanced video calling.

The launch of the highly anticipated AirTag was an event highlight. AirTags are clip on accessories to track the items you attach them to using the Find My Network on Apple devices. These are set to be released on April 30th, 2021 and to have a price tag of £29. Apple pitch this as an expansion of the ‘Find My’ biome where the “AirTag will provide customers with another way to leverage the power of the Apple ecosystem and enhance the versatility of iPhone” – Kaiaan Drance, Vice President of Apple’s Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing.

Apple Card now allows spouses to share and merge their credit lines, have equal rights on their account and allow for over 13-year-olds to be added into the account with optional spending limits as part of the Apple Card Family. It must be noted that the Apple Card currently only operates in the US.

Apple Podcasts received a redesign of its app interface alongside a new feature: Apple Podcast Subscriptions for new podcasts, ad free listening, early access and content creator support opportunities.

The iPhone 12 and 12 Mini are now available in a purple spray colour – this is in addition to launching the MagSafe Leather Case and new Leather Sleeve in the same Deep Violet Colour Scheme.

The NHS COVID-19 app, run by the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), has had its latest update blocked due to a breach in the privacy terms outlined by Apple and Google.

NHS Coronavirus app, available on Apple and Android devices, was designed to include a new feature that would allow users (upon showing a positive COVID test result) to upload a list of all locations and establishments they have visited using a phone scan QR code.

The Exposure Notification System built into the app’s software would then alert other users who had entered the same venue to monitor their symptoms or to immediately be tested. This update relies on location tracking for its function – a tracking type heavily reliant on Bluetooth monitoring of surrounding devices with the app installed – outlawed by Apple and Google privacy agreements.

This is the latest in a calamitous string of COVID app mishaps by the UK Government who had only recently scrapped plans for their own rival system to the Apple and Android contact tracing system.

Total development of the UK based rival tracking app cost £12 million over a 3 month period, but was eventually rejected due to battery life issues, privacy concerns over Bluetooth’s potentially invasive interaction with, and data collection from, other apps installed on the device such as Facebook and Twitter. As a consequence, the Apple and Android app was adopted even with the concerns over restrictions of location data.

As the UK returns to a quasi-normal state with Phase 2 of lockdown lifting measures being rolled out today, this news comes as a blow for the Department of Health who have released a statement reassuring the public that the update blockage does not affect the overall functionality of the NHS COVID-19 app and that there are “discussions ongoing with our partners to provide beneficial updates to the app which protect the public”

Instead of the updated version, the previous form of the app will still be obtainable in both the Google Play and iOS App Stores.

Microsoft has announced that up to 92% of all stand-alone Exchange servers have been patched, following a mass data breach by Chinese state-sponsored Hafnium cybercrime group.

A mass attack on zero-day Exchange servers through four security vulnerabilities was identified and exploited by Hafnium in early March. Those with at risk servers, according to Microsoft VP Tom Burt, are recognised as 400,000 on-premise Exchange servers belonging to multiple government and corporate data centres including defence contractors, schools and other entities globally.

Consequently, the ProxyLogon security fixes released on 2^nd March have mitigated this number significantly with 92% of Exchange servers now protected under the new patches. Nevertheless, Microsoft states that around 32,000 servers remained unpatched and vulnerable to Hafnium cybercrime including theft of confidential sensitive data together with installation of ransomware and ‘corrupted web shells’, such as China Chopper, allowing unrestricted external access to the unpatched Exchange servers.

These security fixes are in conjunction with Microsoft’s Exchange on-premises mitigation tool (EOMT) which installs defender scripts and dependency downloads whilst automatically running the Safety Scanner; troubleshooting any identified problems on the Exchange servers.

However, the patches do not protect servers that have already been compromised from further exploitation, therefore Microsoft has advised that organisations administrators scan their stand-alone networks for potentially installed malicious software and scripts in addition to the scans of EOMT.

The attacks themselves have raised questions over the security maintenance of in-house email servers and adds weight to the growing adoption of cloud-based internet email.

Mesh, powered by Azure, is Microsoft’s latest in fourth wave mixed reality amalgamating both the physical and digital world into one multi-layered interactive, shared environment.

Mesh has the capacity, through the use of head mounted units (HMDs) or on-screen devices, to allow multiple individuals across different spatial-physical environments to conduct collaborative meetings, host virtual social events, and allow for group exploration of development ideas.

Individuals ‘log in’ to the shared holographic space as virtual avatars that, upon wearing the HoloLens headset, can interact with the digital project world in front of them, and their changes can be seen by other members of the Mesh meeting. The scope of Mesh’s application in the medical healthcare and engineering industries is phenomenal – especially in their retrospective education and learning sectors. Mesh allows for real-time capture of moving 3D images and utilises visual cartographies to map those images into a functional skeletal model with tracking for key points.

Microsoft CEO Natya Sadella explains that this new digital leap in mixed reality technology is in parallel to that of the “jump from single player to multiplayer gaming” for the world of business meetings. Mesh provides huge potential for cost saving and ease of access for content sharing as company developers can create apps within the software to tailor Mesh to suit their social or business requirements.

Mesh is protected by a comprehensive host of security features including privacy compliance, session management and secure sign-ins with a reliance on Microsoft Live ID for admittance. Additional Mesh security software will be released in conjunction with Mesh emerging from its preview phase in future updates.

Microsoft offers, in current preview form, two apps that are compatible: HoloLens 2 and AltSpaceVR which both act as support applications for the Mesh – providing graphical and administrative enhancements. There are further upcoming plans to integrate current Microsoft apps such as Teams and Dynamics 365 to include the Mesh experience.

Mesh is available in preview form, along with its supporting software apps at: Microsoft Mesh

The technology in the world has advanced that a new supercomputer has been built to forecast, the clement and the weather for airports to see when incoming storms are coming in. It’ll collect mass amount of data to help predict storms, floods and changes to the global climate.

With the government saying it’s the year to change the world and of climate action with this new supercomputer, they’ll be able to make a change to the world and make it better for everyone stopping floods and storms without any preparation.  The government will be making even more upgrades to the computer at the end of 2022.

With technology over the last 30 years getting better, it’s easier to measure the weather forecast as the capacity of data being transferred faster and more at a time.  It’ll also be better for the UK as its going to increase the capability of the UK data storage and transfer speed, this will increase broadband therefore faster Wi-Fi.

network overhaul

Lineal recently rescued a London-based business from its own private cabling nightmare, with a complete network overhaul.

In a 48-hour marathon rebuild, network engineers from Lineal replaced dozens of faulty cables, analysed every area of the network, adding new switches and other network equipment.

The picture above shows just one of several cabinets, before (left) and after (right) Lineal’s rebuild. The equipment had previously been patched and re-patched over ten years without clear planning, resulting in slower internet access and overheating rooms.

Network engineer Martyn Kay explained: “This company rightly realised that they had to address the problem rather than ignore it – and fortunately we were able to overhaul the entire system.”

The team quickly discovered other unexpected problems, including mystery fibre-optic cables that led nowhere, stray power cables, long-dead switches and improvised cabling ‘borrowing’ internet access from neighbouring departments.

Lineal reconnected every cabinet, replaced every cable with new lines, standardised the colour scheme for data and phones, and added reliable backup switches to improve network resilience and business continuity.

For expert network, cabling and IT infrastructure support, click here.

We at Lineal are proud to be the first sponsors of Ilfracombe Academy U14 Girls football team!

The high-flying team who have been Devon County Champions for the past two years running, will play in the new blue ‘Lineal’ team kit, produced by MJM Sportswear of Bideford, as they seek to continue their winning streak.

Lisa Norris, second in PE at Ilfracombe Academy thanked Lineal: “We’re delighted with the kit. We really promote girls getting into and continuing to participate in all types of PE. Having a fantastic kit (which they don’t have to share with the boys!) gives them a real sense of pride and is a real boost for the team. They have already had superb success in winning the North Devon Friendly Tournament, and we have no doubt that there’s no stopping them now!”

Terry Schofield, Managing Director at MJM Sports explained ‘’The kit is a very technical fabric used by some professional Clubs. We are delighted Lineal selected us as their preferred supplier, and we wish Ilfracombe Academy further success in the future’’

Mike Matthews, Managing Director at Lineal, praised the team: “We wanted to give something back to Ilfracombe Academy and sponsoring new kit for this fantastic team was perfect – they are yet to lose a single league match! Lineal have personal connections to the academy through our own staff, and via the North Devon Employment Skills Board: we think local businesses ought to do more to kick-off engagement with young people.”

“We wish the whole team the very best of luck at the Devon County Finals.”

Lineal Software Solutions have launched of our new website for our SQLWorks Business Management Software (www.sqlworks.co.uk).

Managing Director of Lineal, Mike Matthews, explained: “This is a big year for SQLWorks, as we’re due to release Version 8 in conjunction with the release of Omnis 8, and we wanted to overhaul our SQLWorks website too.”

“We always aim for our software to work how you work: we’ll now be offering 3 different delivery models to suit different businesses’ needs, with SQLWorks available in on-premise, hosted and cloud versions.”

SQLWorks, Lineal’s leading software for Accounting, CRM & Stock Control was first developed for manufacturing in 1983, and has evolved substantially over 33 years.

Keeping up with the times, the new website has been designed to be fully responsive, for use on mobile and tablet devices. More and more people will use SQLWorks on the move in the future, from a variety of devices, so the SQLWorks website should mirror this.

Existing SQLWorks users will also receive additional support, accessing learning materials via the SQLWorks News page. Extra features, including a live SQLWorks demo and our SQLWorks help guide, will be available soon – watch this space!

Discover SQLWorks today: visit www.sqlworks.co.uk or call 01271 375999

Over Christmas 2015/16, Lineal launched a technical trial to provide free, public-access Wifi across Barnstaple Town Centre.

The pilot scheme, which took place during the busiest shopping period of the year, saw our team solve a number of technical challenges: scoping sites for Wifi access points, installing suitable hardware and managing network connectivity for shoppers and visitors to the town.

With generous support from Barnstaple Town Centre Management (BTCM), North Devon Council and M&E Alarms, we delivered a free wifi network connected to by more than 400 people each day at peak usage.

To build the network itself, we used Cisco Meraki MR-66 ruggedised outdoor routers, fixing a ‘mesh’ grid of interconnected access points high on selected buildings owned by local businesses who agreed to take part. Visitors to the town could connect from any smartphone or other wirelessely enabled device, via a special ‘splash’ page.

Managing Director of Lineal, Mike Matthews, explained: “We wanted to attempt an ambitious project which would benefit our local area. Wider connectivity opens up new ways for people to find out information about upcoming events, for local businesses to advertise, and for visitors to our town to share their enjoyment of Barnstaple with friends and family over social media. There are many possibilities.”

Throughout the trial period each access point also collected anonymised location data in real-time. With as many as 20,000 wirelessly enabled devices moving within Barnstaple town centre during a 24 hour period, the free Wifi Project was also successfully used to measure footfall patterns in public places, which could one day be used to help local authorities plan for busy periods.

Although the pilot project has now ended, team members from Lineal presented the initial findings to the Barnstaple Town Centre Management, North Devon Council and Devon County Council in February 2016, with a view to launching the network as a more permanent asset for the town in the near future.

For more information on cabling & network infrastructure services from Lineal: click here or call us today on 01271 375999

Telephone Systems on Show

Lineal recently showcased ShoreTel Connect Telephone systems at the first Blue Frog Business Group Show at Cedars Inn, Barnstaple.

ShoreTel’s cloud telephony operate over a business’s internet connection making the system more flexible for mobile working, more cost effective, and more accessible to small businesses.

Head of Technical Support services Matt Norris explained: “We were delighted to get the chance to exhibit ShoreTel at the North Devon business show. ShoreTel is a phone system designed for small teams looking to grow, or for those whose workplace is not a single location – so we knew it would be of great interest to small businesses at the show.”

The business group, run by Blue Frog Media, are planning for the trade show to be the first of many in the region.

Managing Director Mike Matthews praised the show, adding: “It was fantastic to see so many firms from the wider North Devon area represented in one place and doing business.”

“We’re hoping Lineal can contribute even more to the group in the near future.”

To learn more about how ShoreTel can transform your business communications, get in touch with us today: email [email protected] or call 01271 375999

Lineal are pleased to announce the launch of our new website for 2016.

The new website comes with additional features, and has been carefully designed to improve the user experience of our technical support customers and new users.

Managing Director Mike Matthews added: “We wanted the new website to give a fast, stress-free experience for those needing IT help, and to simplify the process of finding information on Lineal’s eight product areas.”

As ever more of our customers are taking up mobile working through their mobile or tablet device, the new website has been designed to be responsive to different screen sizes.

Web designer & developer Stephen Stanbury explained: “Downtime costs money, so Lineal needs to deliver IT solutions quickly. Our challenge was to build a website which was convenient and clear, to help all our users find what they need easily.”

“We’ll be adding new features in the near future, so please get in touch with us if you have any suggestions.”

Lineal’s flagship business management software SQLWorks is also set to relaunch a fresh website in the new year.

For help and assistance with all your IT needs, please contact Lineal today: 01271 375999 or [email protected]

Office for Mac 2016 has now been released and we’re not sure how popular it is going to be.

Continue reading…

As always, the answer depends on your needs.  For sharing work, such as documents, presentations and other data between team members working remotely, the Cloud is great.  But if your entire team is physically located together in an office, then it might not be the right choice for you.

If you have a small team, some or all of whom work remotely, then Cloud working is a convenient, cost effective solution which means you don’t have the cost of buying and maintaining central server resources.

The benefits are agility and flexibility, both in work and financial terms.

Continue reading…

Well, that depends what you want it for and whether you can actually get it. One is very fast and relatively expensive; the other can be mind-numbingly slow, but is cheap – sometimes free. There are two broadband delivery methods: ADSL and fibre optic. ADSL comes down copper wires, fibre optic reaches you through a glass fibre. Certainly fibre is more expensive over standard ADSL, even when you take away any ‘new user’ incentives, but how fast do you need emails to come into your Inbox?

For many small users, if your current ADSL set up is giving you speeds is in excess of 2MB/s, and you don’t run a business or have two teenage sons on Call of Duty, then what you’ve got is probably fine. Continue reading…

A Somerset client’s basement was flooded, not, as you might have expected, due to the Levels flooding, but due entirely to a catastrophic failure of a very large nearby water main. If the basement had been used for storage it might not have been too bad, but unfortunately the basement rooms are used as offices, with a lot of IT equipment in use.

Lineal was able to provide same day support, with the loan of equipment, network setup and new telephones.  Extra room was made available upstairs, and by the end of the next day, our client’s office was working back to full capacity again.

Continue reading…

Windows 10 is being launched on 29th July 2015 in 190 countries. Volume licensing customers will be able to download Windows 10 Enterprise and Education via the Volume Licensing Service Centre from the 1st of August.

Continue reading…

Adware is a piece of software that automatically displays or downloads advertising materials such as banners or pop-ups when a user is online. Aside from being really irritating, it can slow down your computer and, with serious cases, can make it almost unworkable when connected to the internet. Adware is different from malware, the latter being a kind of unwanted software that often has malicious intent and may be designed to harm your computer. There are a plethora of adware removal tools available, some paid and some free. You have to be careful when downloading an adware removal tool as some programs purporting to remove adware may actually contain adware or malware themselves.

AdwareMedic is a Mac app from the Thomas Reed (“The Safe Mac”) for removing sneaky software that modifies your Mac system against your wishes for commercial gain and which is difficult to remove. The utility does a quick scan and cleanup of this nasty garbage after connecting to the company’s website and downloading adware signature definitions. (The utility is not an anti-virus program, per se, only an adware remover.) The latest versions fix Chrome glitches. AdwareMedic 2.2.6 is distributed freely as shareware for OS X 10.7 and up.

For more assistance in adware or malware removal on your Mac or Windows PC, or to discuss any other specific problems, please call Lineal or use our contact form.

Google has been stealth downloading audio listeners onto every computer that runs Chrome, and transmits audio data back to Google. Effectively, this means that Google had taken itself the right to listen to every conversation in every room that runs Chrome somewhere, without any kind of consent from the people eavesdropped on. In official statements, Google shrugged off the practice with what amounts to “we can do that”.

Continue reading…

This picture shows the latest batch of Apple iMacs going to one of our customers in Wales for a system refresh!

Continue reading…

Lineal is delighted to announce that our apprentice George Ward was successful in being awarded Best Apprentice at the North Devon Journal Business Awards on Friday.  George was joined for the presentation evening by Doug Matthews, Matt Norris, Ian Meredith, Mike Matthews, Will Adkin and Martyn Kay who were proud to be there as the winners were announced.

Continue reading…

With an emphasis on performance and reliability, OS X El Capitan is expected to be a great system software update for Mac users. Of course, updating to the next version of Mac OS X will only be possible if the Mac hardware supports the new version. Fortunately for those wanting to update to OS X El Capitan, the system requirements are quite forgiving, and basically if your Mac can run OS X Yosemite or OS X Mavericks, it will almost certainly be able to run OS X El Capitan as well.

Continue reading…

Lineal now have invested in 2 new fibre lines with different providers so if there is a problem on one of the lines then we can still have a superfast connection to our customers!

This means that we can now expand our Disaster Recovery Service so that your backup data can be continuously uploaded to us with no usage limits.

Unlike any other cloud based disaster recovery, we bring the storage device to you for the initial synchronisation and in the case of a restore, personally restore your system back to how it was. Which makes restoring and backing up much faster, especially if your business works with large data files. The Disaster Recovery Plan comes in three options, Gold, Silver and Bronze so you can choose the perfect package to suit your business.

Contact Lineal if you would like more information about our disaster recovery packages.

#fibre #itsupport #northdevon

If you’ve ever hit “Send” on an iMessage or text message that you wish you could take back, or perhaps you’d just like to cancel a sent picture because it’s stuck on ‘Sending’ and taking forever to send the message due to a congested network connection, then you may find this iPhone “cancel send” trick to be handy.

Continue reading…

Technology giant Apple sold 61.1 million iPhones in the first three months of 2015, driving profit up 33% from a year earlier.

Continue reading…

After July 14, Microsoft will no longer issue security updates for any version of Windows Server 2003. If you are still running Windows Server 2003 in your datacenter, you need to take steps now to plan and execute a migration strategy to protect your infrastructure. By migrating to Windows Server 2012 R2, Microsoft Azure or Office 365, you can achieve concrete benefits, including improved performance, reduced maintenance requirements, and increased agility and speed of response to the business.

Contact Lineal if you need help migrating to a newer server!

#technology #windows #server #support

Some advanced Mac users require having the root user enabled in OS X for administrative or troubleshooting purposes. While many will keep the root user account password the same as their general administrator password, this is not always recommended for some situations, and thus these Mac users may wish to change the root user account password in OS X.

Continue reading…

If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on a larger screen iPad, you’ll need to wait a bit longer. Apple is said to be delaying the release of a larger screened 12.9″ iPad model until later in the year, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

Continue reading…

Rarely, when you plug an iPhone or iPad into a particular Lightning charger cable you’ll see a pop-up or lock screen message on the device that says something to the effect of “This cable is not certified and may not work reliably”. This usually prevents the lightning cable from charging the device as well. Though most users will never see this error, if you do see that message, there’s almost always a reason why.

Continue reading…

US technology company has used proceeds of previous sales to pay dividends to investors and increase its share buybacks.

Continue reading…

This free utility automatically hides unused windows after a set amount of time!

Continue reading…

Most problems with iPhone are fairly simple to explain and resolve, but a somewhat rare outlier is the case of the spontaneous continuously vibrating iPhone. You’ll know it if you encounter it, the iPhone will basically seize up and do nothing but vibrate with a black screen, and the vibrations aren’t even pulsed like a message, it just buzzes nonstop.

Continue reading…

When you properly set up TouchID to unlock your iPhone or iPad, many users add several different of their fingers to the configuration so that they can unlock the iOS device in different orientations. That’s a good idea, but sometimes you may want to change which fingers (or whose fingers) are allowed to access and unlock the Touch ID sensor, and to do so you’ll probably want to delete old finger prints from the Touch ID database in iOS.

Continue reading…

If you choose a full-size magic keyboard for your mac you have the advantage of a PC-style number keypad, alignment and full-size arrow keys – but no PC-style ‘Num Lock’ key.

So if you discover your number keypad isn’t working, it can be hard to tell if this is due to a hardware failure or a setting to disable the numberpad in software. Never fear – here’s the answer:

Before you begin testing the settings as you go, it’s worth opening your favourite text app and the onscreen keyboard – via the ‘Show Keyboard Viewer’ option on the menu bar of modern macOS versions.

Where is ‘Num Lock’ on a Mac Keyboard?

Without the Num Lock key, you’ll need to tap either Clear or Shift + Clear on your hardware keyboard (depending on the version), and then test your numpad number keys again in your text app.

However, it’s also worth checking you don’t have a setting called ‘Mouse Keys’ enabled. This setting allows a user to move their mouse using the number pad as direction keys, and is intended as an accessibility option for those who find it difficult to use a mouse or trackpad.

If this is turned on, you may notice your mouse cursor move slightly when you tap one of the number keys on your number keypad.

You can check for Mouse Keys via the Apple Menu, choosing ‘System Preferences’ and clicking on ‘Accessibility’. Select ‘Pointer Control’ from the left hand menu and ‘Alternative Control Methods’. Here you can untick ‘Enable Mouse Keys’, and hopefully return your number pad to its expected function.

In some rare situations, reinstalling OS X on a Mac may be required. This is made fairly easy as all modern Macs include the OS X Internet Recovery feature, which lets you reinstall OS X through a netboot type of mode that is accessed from the internet rather than a local drive. This is helpful in the event you need to reinstall Mac OS X whether for fun, because something has gone truly haywire, or because you need to replace the system software for whatever other reason.

Continue reading…

Sony has developed a watch made from e-paper as part of an initiative to experiment with the use of the material for fashion products.

Continue reading…

A leading computer security company says it has discovered one of the most sophisticated pieces of malicious software ever seen.

Continue reading…

Users whose phone numbers have been ‘held hostage’ by iMessage can now reclaim them with a new online tool!

Continue reading…

A prototype of the world’s most advanced flying car has taken to the skies. AeroMobil 3.0 which features a high-tech cockpit and wings that can fold in behind the cabin, was unveiled at an innovations conference in Vienna.  AeroMobil’s chief executive Juraj Vaculik said it could “change personal transport on a global scale”.

Continue reading…

Microsoft is ditching the Nokia brand name from new smartphones, less than a year after acquiring the Finnish firm’s mobile Devices division.

  Continue reading…

Apple reported fourth-quarter earnings of $8.47bn (£5.24bn), a 13% rise from the same period a year earlier, beating analysts’ expectations.

Continue reading…

At its special media event on Thursday, Apple is expected to release a highly-anticipated 27-inch iMac with Retina quality display that will ship before the end of 2014, as well as a next-generation iPad Air that could see limited initial supply, says one well-informed analyst.

Continue reading…

Technology giant Hewlett-Packard, known as HP, is to split itself into two separate companies.

Continue reading…

Microsoft has disclosed the first details of Windows 10 – its next operating system (OS).

Continue reading…

Do not attempt this!!

Putting your iPhone in the microwave will COOK IT and not charge it!

Continue reading…

Despite not being available in China, sales of new larger devices set record!

Continue reading…

German cyber-criminals used UK front companies to target sensitive computer networks for 12 years before they were detected.

Continue reading…

Almost five million password combinations are published, but Google says only 2% would have actually worked.

Continue reading…

Apple has warned software developers that it will ban apps that are “plain creepy” from its online store.

Continue reading…

A super-intelligent robotic “brain” that can learn new skills by browsing millions of web pages has been developed by US researchers.

Continue reading…

FSB Chairman for North Devon, Mike Matthews, spent 25 minutes with Prime Minister David Cameron, Agricultural Minister Owen Patterson and PPC Peter Heaton-Jones, guiding them around the FSB tent at the North Devon Show on Wednesday 7th August.  They discussed problems for small business owners and the role of the Federation of Small Businesses.

David Cameron and Mike Matthews can be seen talking to Grace Rodgers at her table displaying products from her Bideford company – On The Horizon.

The FSB show tent was one of 2 chosen by the Prime Minister at the North Devon show yesterday.  Mike Matthews, who is Managing Director of IT company Lineal Software Solutions, had organised the tent to showcase a variety of North Devon Businesses and their products / services.  Mike took the PM and other VIPs around the displays, introducing them to the FSB members and highlighting the problems faced by small businesses in North Devon today.

Mike Matthews said “It has been 25 years since I first set up Lineal so that I could concentrate on the development of my business software SQLWorks.  The rural location of North Devon has its benefits, but manufacturing problems, increasing employment issues and the slow roll out of superfast broadband have all been seen as barriers to growth by the FSB members.”

At his party’s spring conference, David Cameron said “There’s only one strategy for growth we can have now and that is rolling up our sleeves and doing everything possible to make it easier for businesses to grow, to invest, to take people on….Back small firms. Boost enterprise. Be on the side of everyone in this country who wants to create jobs, and wealth and opportunity.”

Agricultural Minister, Owen Patterson, also accompanied David Cameron and Mike Matthews.  His interest was in the rural location and nature of many local businesses.  They discussed the obstacles presented to them, and how they are overcome with help from organisations such as the Federation of Small Businesses.