I am dating myself here. I know it. But those of us of a certain age remember the earliest days of Saturday Night Live. With a multi-talented cast including Chevy Chase, Dan Ackroyd, Jane Curtin and John Belushi, one of the most memorable characters was Rosanne Rosannadanna, the creation of the one and only Gilda Radner.
Rosannadanna was the Andy Rooney (dating myself again) of the Weekend Update news team, offering commentary on the events of the week. One of her catchlines that became a part of the pop culture of the day was this:
It just goes to show you, it’s always something.
I don’t know about you, but that’s how I felt earlier this week when news broke about the Meltdown and Spectre chip flaws that, according to all experts make virtually every PC, laptop, Macbook, phone and tablet—and all the information contained on each—vulnerable to hackers.
Cue Rosanne. “…it’s always something.”
If you’re asking “what should I do?” read on.
As with all of these occurrences which, to our constant discomfort seem more frequent with each passing day, there’s a short answer and a longer answer.
The short answer is, as a client of Carolinas Net Care, we’ve got you covered as covered can be. Patches have all been applied, updates conducted and available fixes put in place.
So you can rest easier than most. Unfortunately, the longer answer is none of us can rest easy just yet. And to compound matters, the problems likely affect all platforms and operating systems including Apple, Google and Microsoft.
If there’s any good news it’s that the flaw is not new. It’s been around awhile, just unknown to any of us. While that may not sound like good news, it is because during that time there has yet to be a documented case of anyone taking advantage of the flaw.
The best news is Carolinas Net Care is your trusted partner!
We were on the news as soon as it became public. And while we can’t just say “never mind,” the line delivered by another of Radner’s characters Emily Litella, we can say we’re still working behind the scenes to make this as much a non-event for you as possible.
One final note of caution.
Unlike other breaches we’ve written about and worked on earlier, this one also affects smartphones and tablets. Since Carolinas Net Care does not work with every employee of every client with regard to smartphone access to internal networks, it’s important each employee take his or her own necessary steps. If you make your network available to employees, even password-protected, your systems can still be vulnerable. Encourage all employees to update operating systems on all mobile devices as soon as they are available. Since many of those fixes have not even been developed yet, it’s going to be risky for some time. But as much as possible, continue to encourage personal-device hygiene for all active users.
It just goes to show you, it’s always something.
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2018