Patch Tuesday August 2020: monthly roundup of patches you need for your small business. Software breaks when you don’t keep it up to date.
Apple Bytes
Apple released updates for all its iDevices and Mac OS X Catalina, Mojave and Sierra this month. If you need your iPhone to communicate with your computer you need to update both, the phone to iOS 13.6 and for Windows iTunes 12.10.8. Mac OS X updates included important security updates. Info about Apple updates here.
Keep watching for iOS 14 to come out. There will be major privacy upgrades that will keep apps from siphoning off your private data and give you more granular control over what the apps are doing.
Microsoft Mayhem
Microsoft just announced they finished fixing the Outlook/Office 365 problems caused by their July updates. This is why I always wait for at least three days before installing Microsoft updates (they usually arrive the 2nd Tuesday of the month).
August updates included plugs for 120 security holes including 17 rated as critical. Microsoft dragged its feet for two years before patching a serious certificate problem. More details here.
And always back up before you do the Windows updates. And make sure System Restore is on. You can pause the updates via the System settings as well.
WordPress
WordPress 5.5 has been released with updates designed to improve speeds, search and security. Accordingly there have been a slew of plugin updates including Yoast SEO, BackupBuddy and JetPack. With WordPress 5.5 you can set the plugins to auto update. I would be careful about using this feature as the plugin update could break parts of your web site depending on how customized it is. Standard plugins like Akismet and JetPack should be okay to auto update. More details about WordPress 5.5 here.
Adobe Updates
No hot Flash security update again this month but updates to Adobe Acrobat and Reader. Also updates for the Creative Cloud desktop last month. If you don’t update Creative Cloud desktop, Adobe products start getting really cranky and slow and even log you out of the programs.
Patch Tuesday August 2020, spend some time patching. I fixed two different clients’ problems by running updates on their computers. An ounce of patching is cheaper than a pound of hacking.
