📲 Don’t forget to do your quarterly App-housecleaning

G’day ladies & gentlemen. It’s been a week filled with life tormenting agony FUN, FUN, FUN!
If I had to describe it with one picture, it would definitely be this one:

Anywaayyy, that didn’t stop me from selecting the best and most interesting news from this week.

So find a cozy seat, and take some unplanned time out of your schedule and read up!
(let’s be honest here, that schedule wasn’t going to work anyways)

In this week's edition:
📲 Don’t forget to do your quarterly App-housecleaning
📰 This week in cybersecurity
❓ Disable User explains:
🔥 meme of the week

Reading time: 2:41

📲 Don’t forget to do your quarterly App-housecleaning

The quarter (or as my bussiness-peeps call it: Q2) is almost over, and that means:
TIME FOR THE APP CLEAN-UP!

Yes, this does get me excited. And yes, I do this every quarter.

But what is it?

Apps - meaning browser extensions, mobile apps and smaller desktop apps - make up a very big part of our life.
They tend to make things easier, bringing functionality in our lives that make things easier, automate stuff.

But with that, a lot of clutter comes. And with clutter, comes lack of insight - and that’s where danger hides.

• Apps with too much permissions

• Apps by unknown publishers

• Apps with 99% same functionality as other we use, but we “need it for that 1%”

We all have them. And now it’s time to get rid of them.

Here are 4 steps you need to perform for our quarterly app clean-up:

read em’, study em’, know em’ by hearth by next quarter

• Keep your browser extensions to a minimum - longtime readers know the numbers, there are A LOT of unsafe browser extensions. Delete what is unneeded. You can always reinstall if need be.

• Delete all your unused mobile apps - Yes, even that food tracker you were planning on starting next month. *wink wink*

• Be selective with apps who can read your social profiles - check below links to clean your socials.

• Free bonus: Clean your browser cookies from time to time - yes, your mobile browser too. Not specifically for apps, but that’ll clear up your ads, and other clutter

Check what apps have access to your Facebook
Check what apps have access to your Twitter
Check what apps have access to your LinkedIn

For businesses:

• Check what apps you allow/are installed on devices - Most businesses have 4 PDF readers/editors, as many file archivers etc. Pick 1 per category, delete the rest.
  It’s hard enough keeping everything up-to-date as it is.

• Don’t forget about extensions - block users from installing them. They don’t require admin privileges in most cases.

This week in cybersecurity

• Android Spy App LetMeSpy Suffers Major Data Breach, Exposing Users' Personal Data - queue Ironic by Alanis Morissette

• Microsoft fixes bug that breaks Windows Start Menu, UWP apps - I’m glad that, between al de DDOS attacks Microsoft suffered, they still managed to break the start menu, again. Thanks Bill.

• North Korean Hacker Group Andariel Strikes with New EarlyRat Malware - Sadly Log4j is still pretty much out there.

• VPN and RDP Exploitation the Most Common Attack Technique - Infosecurity Magazine - an area with less and less experts, but still the most vulnerable. Don’t skimp on good infrastructure, and people who know how to manage it.

• Microsoft Teams Flaw Sends Malware to Employees' Inboxes - a good reminder to check if you’re blocking external domains.

• Pornhub Accused of Illegal Data Collection - Yikes, this is getting close to home now.

Social Engineering special: Phishing

A form of social engineering in which you ask someone for a piece of information that you are missing by making it look as if it is a legitimate request. Commonly sent via email.

The most common of social engineering attacks. Also the most successful one.
Stay alert, Disablers.

Meme of the week