August 2025 News & Updates

  • We will be closed on Monday, 1 September 2025 for Labor Day.
  • Uptick in phishing and malspam – Email has been a preferred method of attack for years but we’re starting to see some really creative techniques that are proving a challenge for email filtering tools. Additional information on one of these methods is available here.
  • Upcoming End of Life for Windows 10 – As the deadline gets closer, more and more organizations are starting to refresh their fleet and we’re definitely seeing that uptick in demand impacting supply. We are encouraging all of our clients to plan to have all of their Windows 10 computers either upgraded or replaced by no later than the end of September with the understanding that supply problems may push that up to or beyond the end of life. Additional information is available from Microsoft here.
  • Upcoming End of Life for Windows Server 2016 – We’re officially under two years before the Windows Server 2016 End of Life (EOL), currently scheduled for 25 January 2027. This may seem like a long way off but, in most cases, the upgrade from Windows Server 2016 will require not only additional software licenses but also Client Access Licenses (CALs) and hardware and extensive planning to transition older systems off of the current Windows Server 2016 platform.
  • FortiGate 60E End of Service – The FortiGate 60E firewall / UTM will be out of service on 29 December, 2026. Clients who currently have a FortiGate 60E will be able to renew their security services until December of 2025 but will not be able to renew next year. Our recommendation for those with FortiGate 60E devices currently deployed is to renew for this year and plan to replace it prior to the expiration next year. The current replacement is the FortiGate 60F but there has been chatter that the FortiGate 60G may be released this year.
  • Client Forms – In an effort to make requesting support easier for common tasks (onboarding and offboarding users, for example), we are launching a number of forms that clients can use to request support. Links to the forms are located at the top of our website under Client Forms.

Updates

MicrosoftMicrosoft dropped updates for more than 100 bugs and at least 13 of those bugs are rated critical. Some of the vulnerabilities were in Exchange server which, with the proliferation of Microsoft 365, was interesting (to me). A few others, specifically CVE-2025-53779 and CVE-2025-53778, are pretty nasty vulnerabilities affecting multiple Windows versions and offering free privileges over the network and, if that wasn’t bad enough, we’ve got CVE-2025-53766 and CVE-2025-50165 that give remote attackers remote code execution on vulnerable machines and CVE-2025-53733 in MS Word that can be exploited with zero user interaction that may explain the recent flood of Word documents being included in phishing emails.

Microsoft releases regular updates the second Tuesday of each month, often referred to as ‘Patch Tuesday’. These updates are categorized as Low, Moderate, Important or Critical. Details on the categories are available here. The updates can include any supported Microsoft product from Windows to Office to Internet Explorer and server products like Exchange and SQL Server. If you have one or more of these products installed, especially if the update is listed as Important or Critical, it’s important that the updates are installed.

Additional details on this months Microsoft updates are available from SANS Internet Storm Center, Krebs, AskWoody.com and Bleeping Computer .

Adobe, possibly shooting for consistency, released another 13 security again this month affecting Commerce, Substance 3D Viewer, Modeler, Painter, Sampler and Stager, Animate, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, InCopy, FrameMaker and Dimension. All of these updates are rated critical and users are encouraged to update as soon as possible.

Like Microsoft, Adobe now releases updates to their products on the second Tuesday of each month. Adobe will also release ‘out of band’ updates if necessary to address critical vulnerabilities in their products. Adobe products include Adobe Reader (for viewing PDF files), Adobe Flash Player (often used to watch videos, for interactive content like games, etc.), Adobe Shockwave and the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Lightroom, etc

Additional details are available from Adobe Here including links to download the update(s) and instructions for installation.

Need IT Support for your Home or Business? We’d love to help!

Are you a small to medium sized business looking to leverage technology and enable your business and workforce to work smarter and more efficiently?  Do you already have computers, servers, firewalls, VPNs or other technology that you’re not taking full advantage of?  Are you looking for an IT Service Provider who understands small to medium sized businesses needs and the challenges that we face that can work with you to grow your business rather than just sell you time?

Cyber Tech Cafe an  IT Service Company with a focus on helping small to medium business get the most out of their technology investment.  As a small business ourselves, we understand the challenges you face and have designed our service offerings to help you get the most out of your technology dollar.  We offer on-call, as needed support if you just need a quick fix or extra set of hands right now.  We also offer maintenance plans that we call “MyIT” that are designed to address the most common concerns (patch management, disaster recovery / backup, log review, etc.) that are based on the number of workstations and servers that you have and have no term contract.  We believe that, if you find value in what we’re doing, you’ll find a way to keep us around without contract saying that you have to.

If you have questions about the MyIT plans or have an IT need that you need addressed right now, let us know.  We look forward to the opportunity to earn your business.

Article Submitted by Nathan J. Underwood, CEH