It was announced today the CCleaner was hacked and distributed malware hidden inside their program during the month of October. It is current estimated by Avast (owner of CCleaner) to have affected over 2 million computers.

If you have CCleaner installed, we recommend removing it and installing an alternative PC cleaner like My Faster PC from ConsumerSoft.

Well known antivirus company Kaspersky has been banned from use on U.S. federal Government computers. The Department of Homeland Security expressed "[concerns] about the ties between certain Kaspersky officials and Russian intelligence and other government agencies, and requirements under Russian law that allow Russian intelligence agencies to request or compel assistance from Kaspersky and to intercept communications transiting Russian networks.

In the past, Kaspersky has been well regarded as an antivirus company and has helped fight against hackers and expose notable zero-day hacks.

If you are a Kaspersky users, you may want to consider these new security warnings seriously.

Equifax announced a major hack into their system - possibly exposing data on approximately 143 million U.S. consumers. Equifax is one of the three major credit rating companies in America, having access to data like social security numbers, addresses, credit history, income, etc.

It is recommended that you use the Equifax "Potential Impact" tool to see if you may have been affected.

If you have been compromised, you may want to either freeze your credit (at Equifax, Transunion, and Experian) or sign up for a credit monitoring service to watch for fraudulent activity.

Over 200,000 computers were hit by the WannaCry ransomware attack. WannaCry was a worm that would encrypt a user's data and demand a bitcoin ransom for the data to be decrypted.

Your best defense against WannaCry is to install all critical Windows updates which should close some of the zero-day vulnerabilities that WannaCry was using to infect computers.

This is also an important reminder for having both a local backup and a cloud backup of all your important files, documents, and photos.

If you need assistance with ransomware, making system backups, or other PC problems, please reach out to My Phone Support for assistance.

ArsTechnica reports that in Illinois a class-action lawsuit is being brought against Microsoft for their confusing and sometimes deceptive attempts to get users to upgrade to Windows 10. The law firm Edelman, Combs, Latturner & Goodwin are representing a class of people who suffered hard drive failures, data loss, and various other problems.

While Windows 10 is now regarded an improved and more stable operating system, the many attempts to entice users into upgrading generated significant controversy.

Microsoft announced today the end of support for all versions of Internet Explorer older than IE 11. This means if you have Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, or 10 than your software is no longer supported.

Microsoft warns that "security updates patch vulnerabilities that may be exploited by malware" which may leave these old browsers susceptible to attacks and exploits.

If you need help upgrading your browser or simply want a system security review, please call My Phone Support today for assistance.

Additional information can be found on the Microsoft webpage for IE End of Support.

Are you having problems with your Windows 10 upgrade? You're not alone. Many users have experience black screens, endless updates, driver issues, and wide range of problems when upgrading.

Since Windows 10 was released as a free upgrade for some many Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems, it exposed end users to a host of problems with driver and software configuration. Microsoft is working quickly to patch many of these problems.

So if you haven't upgraded yet, it might be best to wait a few months for some of the major issues to be patched.

If you have upgraded and are having problems - please contact My Phone Support today. We've been helping many people get their systems upgraded, drivers patched, and PC's working correctly.

Microsoft just release a critical hotfix for a serious security issue with Internet Explorer. The vulnerability could allow attackers to gain user or administrator access to the target computer.

To make sure you are safe, ensure that your Windows updates are running and that one of the following updates has been installed: KB3081444 or KB3087985.

On your PC, this is in: Start > All Programs > Windows Update

(or just type "Windows Update" into the Start menu)

Today Microsoft released Windows 10 - the latest version of the Windows operating system. Supposedly all future versions of Windows will be part of the Windows 10 moniker.

Windows 10 includes a brand new faster web browser called "Edge," although Internet Explorer is still available for legacy usage. It also has brought back a version of the Start menu that incorporates the Windows 8 live tiles design language. Windows 10 has a number of other enhancements like Cortana voice recognition, a new photos application, and improved notes.

Best of all, Windows 10 is free for users of Windows 7 and Windows 8, but upgrades will be rolled out on a staggered basis. If you're interested in upgrading and want some assistance to make sure your upgrade goes smoothly, contact My Phone Support today for help.

Microsoft announced that the zero-day bug affecting all versions of Internet Explorer will be fixed with a security update on May 1st. To update your IE browser, click "Check for Updates" in the Windows Update area in your Control Panel.

The surprising news is that Microsoft is also patching old versions of Internet Explorer running on Windows XP, despite the fact that they official have ended support for Windows XP. Adrienne Hall, GM of Trustworthy Computing, at Microsoft writes "even though Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft and is past the time we normally provide security updates, we’ve decided to provide an update for all versions of Windows XP." Read more from the Microsoft Blog.