Patch Tuesday September 2024 - Make It Work Computer Solutions

Patch Tuesday September 2024: a harvest of security updates for your SMB. Many small business owners think they’re too small to interest hackers. Recently security researchers discovered a new ransomware group that targets small businesses.

If you’re not sure what to patch, read Patch Primer for Small Business.

Apple Bytes

Apple released updates for iOS and iPad September 16th. The update iPadOS18 has been pulled due to bricking M4 iPad Pro devices.

It’s a catch 22: do you get the security updates with the bugs on a new iOS or iPadOS or wait a week for fixes?

For iPhones, this time Apple offers a choice. You can get the security fixes with version 17.7 or go ahead and try iOS 18.

If you opt for iOS 18 be aware that it requires almost 4GB of free space.

Apple also released security updates for Safari, Watch, macOS Sonoma and Ventura.

Mac OS 15, dubbed Sequioa, also released September 16th. Details about the new mac OS here.

Find out more about the latest updates and if your device can handle them from the Apple Update Support page.

Microsoft Update Mayhem

This month is tough for updating Windows 10 and 11. Windows updates cause a lot of reboots and hiccups this month. A lot of devices seems to freeze on the reboot after installing. Some devices only recover after being shut right off for 5 minutes and restarting.

Recommend you schedule this month’s Windows updates for end of the working day or the weekend. But you need to do this.

This month Microsoft fixed a problem that left some Windows 10 machines unpatched against vulnerabilities.

Microsoft fixed over 79 vulnerabilities in total including fixes for Microsoft Office Publisher, Internet Explorer and a Windows Installer bug.

Adobe Autumn

Adobe released important security updates for Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Pro. While Adobe said these updates were not urgent, security researchers say Adobe neglected to mention that they patched a zero day vulnerability. Zero day vulnerability is a security hole that hackers are actively attacking.

Adobe is not the only software vendor that occasionally obfuscates the nature of their patches. Apple, Intel, Microsoft, they have all downplayed the security severity of patches on occasion.

Details on the Microsoft and Adobe patches from Krebs on Security.

Chrome Updates

Have you closed and reopened your Chrome lately? Updated Chrome? Google recently improved Chrome’s Safety Check to help protect passwords, autofill data and block bad extensions.

More about Chrome’s Safety Check here.

If you’re not sure if you need your Chrome needs updating, click on the three dots on the upper right hand side of the browser, Click Help and then click About Google Chrome. This will show which version you have and if you need updates.