Bad news is on the horizon if you're one of the surprising number of people still using Windows 7.  Microsoft is only offering one more year of free support.  As of January 14th, 2020, you'll no longer have access to critical security updates.

While support will end entirely for individual consumers, businesses will still be able to get support.

Last year, the FBI issued a warning regarding BEC (Business Email Compromise) scams.  Unfortunately, security professionals report that those types of scams are increasing in frequency, and worse, the most recent ones come with a disturbing new twist.

A recent court ruling handed privacy advocates a big, and much needed win.  Prior to the ruling, law enforcement officials were in the habit of compelling "persons of interest" to unlock their phones via their face scan or fingerprint so that investigators could examine it.

Microsoft has angered a portion of their user base with a change that's coming in the next build of Windows 10.  As of the next build, the OS will reserve a whopping seven GB of space on your hard drive, so that big updates don't fail for lack of space.

Here's some disturbing news:  Hackers around the world are actively trying to exploit Valentine's Day. This is according to new research from the Emerging Treats team at the security firm ProofPoint.  The team has detected a massive new mal-spam campaign they've dubbed "The Love Letter Campaign.

Cryptominers are among the most common type of malware in the wild today, based on the latest research by digital security company Check Point.  While there are dozens of variants deployed by hackers, the cryptojacker "Coinhive" is the malware of choice this year.

Are you a Firefox user?  If so, be advised that in Mozilla's next release, Firefox 69, the company will be disabling support for the beleaguered Adobe Flash plugin.

The change has been on the radar for quite some time, so it should not come as a surprise to anyone.

Here's a side-effect of the government's continuing shutdown that many people had not anticipated:  Expiring TLS Certificates used for web security. Most people clearly see the impacts of national parks closing and the like.

It's worth remembering that the government's IT staffed as been classified as 'non-essential' too, which means they're currently sitting at home twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the politicians to decide what's next and get the doors of government opened up again.

There's a new strain of ransomware being deployed with increasing frequency.  Believe it or not, it's even more dangerous than the strains we've seen in recent months.

Unlike other types of ransomware, this one not only encrypts your files and demands payment (which is bad enough) but it also attempts to steal your credit card information via a PayPal phishing page included in the code.

Recent Windows 10 updates have been giving the company's user base heartburn lately, with their tendency to delete files and cause at least as many problems as they solve.  If you're among the frustrated ranks, good news is on the horizon.

The company is currently readying an update that will allow you to pause the update function so that they no longer occur automatically.