Using Group Policy to Deploy Software Packages (MSI, MST, EXE)

Outline of the article: 

1. Deploy Windows MSI or MST package Using Group Policy Software Installation
     1.1 Create a distribution point
     1.2 Create a Group Policy Object
     1.3 Assign an MSI package
     1.4 Publish an MSI package
     1.5 Redeploy an MSI package
     1.6 Remove an MSI package 

2. Deploy Software using Startup script via GPO
     2.1 Create the Organizational Unit (OU) for each script.
     2.2 Create a Group Policy Object (GPO) for the newly created OU.
     2.3 To add the per-computer startup scripts
     2.4 To deploy Software using Startup Script for Windows per-computer
     2.5 To remove Software for Windows per-computer

https://blog.51sec.org/2019/05/using-group-policy-to-deploy.html

- Kayla R.

Court rules against warrantless searches of phones, laptops

A federal court in Boston recently ruled that warrantless U.S. government searches of international travelers' phones and laptops at U.S. airports and other ports of entry, violate the Fourth Amendment. 

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on behalf of 11 people whose smartphones and laptops were searched without individualized suspicion.

ACLU attorney Esha Bhandari says border officers must now demonstrate individualized suspicion of contraband before they can search a traveler's device.

Jessie Rossman, a staff attorney at ACLU's Massachusetts chapter, said the ruling is a victory for constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Rossman said two of the plaintiffs were stopped as they tried to re-enter the U.S. after a visit to Canada. Both are U.S. citizens and live in Massachusetts.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sns-bc-us--government-searches-electronic-devices-20191112-story.html

-Kayla R.

Seattle-based angel investor Gregg Bennett is suing Bittrex, a crytpocurrency exchange, for allegedly violating its own security standards, allowing hackers to steal 100 Bitcoin using a SIM-swap back in April 2019.

Bennet also says he thinks staff at At&T were involved, since his account PIN and SSN had been changed.

-Kayla R.

https://www.coindesk.com/bittrex-target-of-latest-1-million-crypto-sim-hack-lawsuit

https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2019/11/04/bittrex-sim-swap-hack-cryptocurrency-blockchain-exchange-att/

Avast target of cyber-security attack, company and Czech counterintelligence say

Czech-based Avast and Czech counterintelligence service BIS detected a network attack. BIS suspects the attack originated in China, but Avast is saying they don't know who was behind the attack.

The company found suspicious behavior on its network Sept. 23, and opened an investigation with the BIS, Czech police, and an external forensics team.

BIS said their investigation suggests the threat came from China and was targeting the tool CCleaner to take control of users' computers.

Avast's CISO said the intruder used compromised credentials through a temporary VPN to access the network, and there were several attempts between May 14th and Oct. 4th. They kept the VPN profile open to track the intruder. The company says no malicious changes were made to previous releases and they stopped new updates, pushing a "clean" update to users on Oct. 15 and revoked a previous certificate

[url=Avast target of cyber-security attack, company and Czech counterintelligence say  Czech-based Avast and Czech counterintelligence service BIS detected a network attack. BIS suspects the attack originated in China, but Avast is saying they don't know who was behind the attack.  The company found suspicious behavior on its network Sept. 23, and opened an investigation with the BIS, Czech police, and an external forensics team.  BIS said their investigation suggests the threat came from China and was targeting the tool CCleaner to take control of users' computers.  Avast's CISO said the intruder used compromised credentials through a temporary VPN to access the network, and there were several attempts between May 14th and Oct. 4th. They kept the VPN profile open to track the intruder. The company says no malicious changes were made to previous releases and they stopped new updates, pushing a "clean" update to users on Oct. 15 and revoked a previous certificate  https://www.reuters.com/a

This article goes over many commands that save time when using Bash. Commands include a few regarding history, like ctrl + r to reverse search, or !! to rerun your last command used. It also lists a few file/navigation commands. There are also a few commands listed to help add color to Bash. There are many shortcuts listed, like shopt -s cdspell to correct typos, ctrl + t to swap 2 characters, and ctrl + x + ctrl + e to open the command string in an editor so that you can edit it before it runs.

https://opensource.com/article/18/5/bash-tricks

Kayla R