We had a great turnout for last week’s April 2014 Vulnerability Expert Forum (VEF) webcast. BeyondTrust Research experts, Carter and DJ, provided in-depth knowledge about the latest vulnerabilities and their potential impacts on network environments. Below are highlights from the Forum, plus an on-demand video of the presentation.
Latest critical vulnerabilities, vendor patches, and zero-day threats
This month, Microsoft released four security bulletins and patches that repair a total of 11 remote code execution vulnerabilities. These patches affect Microsoft Word and Office Web Apps, Internet Explorer, Windows File Handling Component, and Microsoft Publisher.
Patch criticality and prioritization
The two most critical patches include MS14-017 (Microsoft Office 2010) and MS14-018 (Internet Explorer, all versions except IE 10) -- administrators should deploy these patches immediately to prevent exploitation by attackers, following up with patches MS14-019 (Windows File Handling) and MS14-020 (Microsoft Publisher 2003, 2007).
Security in the news
The experts also provided insight into the following security news topics:
- The Global security phenomenon Heartbleed, the OpenSSL bug, which allows hackers to disclose 64KB of memory.
- The new threat of remote USB attacks for USBs running remote USB redirection.
- Banks to be hit with Microsoft costs for running out-of-date Microsoft XP on ATMs.
- The NSA using inactive Botnets for their own purposes.
- The Tesla Model S pleasantly surprises users with a few IT-tweaks.
