Category Archives: Blog

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Microsoft Paint Gets New Look In Windows 11

MS Paint has had a long and interesting history. It is one of the oldest apps bundled with Windows and has been present for literally decades. Microsoft made plans to retire Paint and replace it with Paint 3D. When the company actually began moving toward retiring Paint they faced an unexpected uproar from their massive user base. It seems that the company sorely underestimated the application’s popularity.

In the face of the user revolt the company decided to keep the app andgive it a long overdue upgrade. If ever an application needed one that application would be Paint because the code has remained essentially unchanged since 2009.

The latest iteration of Paint is not yet available for download but Microsoft is planning to incorporate the redesign into Windows 11. The new version will feature a Dark Mode. The company is updating its available brush assortment and text tools. That begins to take steps to modernize the venerable app.

The upgrades are welcome indeed. Microsoft stopped well short of transforming Paint into a full-fledged photo editing app though. The new version doesn’t offer layers or any advanced effects tools. So it still lags far behind other readily available image editing options including a few entirely web-based options.

Even though it doesn’t have many features Paint is one of the most popular casual meme making and doodling apps in existence. Microsoft was absolutely correct in its decision to stay the program’s execution.

Kudos to Microsoft for showing the ancient app some love and giving it a few long overdue updates. Any improvements at all are sure to be appreciated by Paint’s die hard user base. If you haven’t dusted off Paint in a while fire it up and play with it. It’s surprisingly addictive.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Microsoft 365 Getting Button To Easily Report Phishing Emails

We’re beginning to see increasing collaboration between giant tech companies and government agencies around the world. In the UK the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) launched its Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) back in April of 2020. The agency has received nearly 7 million reports since its launch. These include more than 50,500 reported scams and in excess of 97,500 suspicious URLs.

Microsoft is getting in on the action and has recently added a new button to its Microsoft 365 service. This new button offers one touch reporting convenience. At the touch of a button users can report scam emails directly to SERS.

Modern email systems have gotten quite good at detecting and deleting phishing and other scam emails before the user even sees them. As good as most systems are though they do have limits. This new button adds an additional layer of protection and puts the control firmly in the hands of the users.

It’s a good addition because hackers and scammers are always on the lookout for new methods. They look for ways to trick email systems and get past the automated detection routines that stop so many of their malicious emails.

To gain access to the new reporting button you’ll want to head to the company’s AppSource site and install it as a Microsoft 365 add on.

Once installed and enabled, the new reporting button will appear on your Microsoft 365 toolbar. Any time you click the button, it will send the questionable email to report@phishing.gov.uk

If you have any difficulty downloading the add on from AppSource or you’re unable to install it for any reason you can manually report suspicious emails to the NCSC using the email address above.

Kudos to Microsoft for their collaboration with the NCSC. Here’s hoping their efforts ultimately result in far fewer phishing scams and poisoned emails.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Magnetic Stripes On Credit Cards May Be Phased Out Soon

The magnetic stripe on the back of credit and debit cards has been a standard feature for as long as most people can remember. MasterCard recently made a rather surprising announcement concerning those stripes and are planning to phase them out of most markets beginning in 2024.

The company will no longer require US-based companies to issue chip cards with magnetic stripes beginning in 2027 as an intermediary step. Another intermediary step on MasterCard’s road map is to phase out the magnetic stripe in the US on all cards except for pre-paid cards.

The process will take quite some time to complete and the company doesn’t expect to have the magnetic stripes fully phased out until 2033. The magnetic stripe is surprisingly old technology. It was developed in the 1960s by IBM.

Time and technology have advanced and the magnetic stripe and card swipe is no longer the preferred payment method. Recent surveys show that only 11 percent of the consuming public preferred the swipe methodology to chip based cards. That number plunges to just 9 percent when the people being surveyed have experience with totally contact-less payment systems.

The company’s plan represents the best of both worlds. The tide of consumer attitude is shifting away from the magnetic stripe so MasterCard will be giving today’s consumers what they want by making the switch.

In addition to that, the magnetic stripe is no longer “best in class” in terms of payment execution. By phasing them out the company is positioning itself to be better able to focus on more modern and robust payment options.

Change can be difficult. This is one of those rare instances where it really isn’t. Kudos to MasterCard for taking the another important step down the road of modernizing its payment processing infrastructure.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Lockbit Ransomware Is Trying To Become Unstoppable

Over the last couple of years ransomware has become the malware of choice for hackers around the world. It’s easy to understand why. Hackers using malware win in two different ways. If they successfully breach a corporation they can steal copies of important files and sell them on the black market. They can simultaneously demand a fat payout from the company itself.

A strain called Lockbit has been around since at least 2019 and is aiming to become the ransomware of choice in the hacking world. The code talent behind Lockbit has been working hard to upgrade their malicious code with increasingly advanced capabilities that make it more effective, more efficient, and harder to stop.

Even more troubling is the fact that Lockbit’s owners have been offering their code as ‘ransomware-as-a-service’ on the Dark Web. This allows hackers to rent the code for a relatively modest price which increases its usage rate.

This ‘ransomware-as-a-service’ scheme has also accelerated the pace of the malware’s development. This is as the coders get suggestions and requests from their rapidly growing user base which are quickly incorporated into the code.

According to researchers at Trend Micro Lockbit’s popularity is booming and it is now one of the most popular and widely used ransomware strains on the market today.

Trend’s researchers indicated that a lot of Lockbit’s current success stems from the fact that the hackers behind the code emulated the moves of the most successful cyber gangs of the past. The group also seems to have benefited from the recent disappearance of a few high profile gangs taken down by law enforcement officials from around the world.

The bottom line is that the people behind Lockbit know what they’re doing. They’ve got a growing body of experience and are committed to updating their code. That means Lockbit will be a serious threat for the foreseeable future.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

iCloud For Windows Adds Cloud Password Access And Management

Version 12.5 of iCloud for Windows is now out and features a small but important upgrade. The new version adds password access and management features. These allow users to manage passwords that have been saved in the iCloud from a Windows-based machine.

The management features you will find here are pretty bare bones which makes it similar to Apple’s Chrome extension which syncs iCloud passwords. Bare bones or not the new feature is a godsend for users who live primarily in the Apple ecosystem but do occasionally have to do something in the Windows ecosystem.

Prior to the addition of this new feature, you had to pull out your Apple device to look up your password and type it manually on the Windows device. Apple users now no longer need to jump through those hoops. That is highly convenient.

Here’s a snippet from Apple’s release notes outlining the addition:

“What’s new in this version:

View and manage your saved passwords on your Windows PC with the new iCloud Passwords app

Sync your passwords across devices and PC in Edge using the iCloud Passwords Extension”

Unfortunately this is all the app does. So if you were hoping for or expecting a more robust cross-platform password management system, you will be decidedly underwhelmed by Apple’s latest. Even so the company did deliver and give their massive user base what they had been asking for.

Kudos to Apple for making it easier and more convenient to manage iCloud passwords in the Windows ecosystem. It should help streamline and simplify the lives of those who have to spend part of each day switching back and forth between the two ecosystems. That is great news indeed.

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