24Aug 2017 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Half of Windows 7 machines do not run AV software

Microsoft Development, Software Events
Half of Windows 7 machines do not run AV software It has been disclosed by Microsoft that Windows older desktop operating systems remains more vulnerable to malware as of today.  The majority of users are still running older versions of Windows, without necessarily using up to date security software which is Anti-Virus packages. In its latest Security Intelligence Report, the company revealed that among all Windows 7 and Windows Vista PCs reporting statuses other than “Protected” to Microsoft, more than half of them have no type of protected software installed at all, which is pretty massive. Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft decided to turn on Windows Defender by default when no other anti-malware software is present. The majority of unprotected Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 PCs have their anti-malware software turned…
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24Aug 2017 by richard@baronsoftware.com

C# 8.0 Previewed

Software development Concepts, Software Events
C# 8.0 Previewed Originally written in www.infoq.com, some amazing stuff coming down the pipe for C#. Nullable Reference Types We’ve covered nullable reference types in the past, but briefly the idea is that reference types would no longer be nullable by default. Instead, you have to explicitly mark them as nullable using the same “Type?” syntax that you use for nullable value types. Assigning a null to a non-nullable reference type will be a compiler warning. Likewise, reading from a nullable type would be a compiler warning unless the variable in question was explicitly checked for null ahead of time. So theoretically the only change developers need to make is to sprinkle question marks where appropriate. Since our report, a new syntax was added to this feature. Consider a scenario where you know…
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23Aug 2017 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Kaspersky Lab Has Been Working With Russian Intelligence

Software Events
Kaspersky Lab Has Been Working With Russian Intelligence U.S.  intelligence agencies have turned up the heat in recent days on Kaspersky Lab.  The Moscow-based cybersecurity giant long suspected of ties to Russia’s spying apparatus. It has been announced that Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab boasts 400 million users worldwide. As many as 200 million may not know it. The huge reach of Kaspersky’s technology is partly the result of licensing agreements that allow customers to quietly embed the software in everything from firewalls to sensitive telecommunications equipment—none of which carry the Kaspersky name. Now, official Kremlin documents reviewed by McClatchy could further inflame the debate about whether the company’s relationship with Russian intelligence is more than rumor. The documents are certifications issued to the company by the Russian Security Service, the spy agency known…
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23Aug 2017 by richard@baronsoftware.com

HotFix for RAD Studio 10.2.1 and iOS

Rad Studio Delphi Development
RAD Studio 10.2.1 HotFix for iOS AdHoc Deployment Embarcadero released a hotfix to address a regression (reported as https://quality.embarcadero.com/browse/RSP-18813) in RAD Studio Tokyo Release 1 related with AdHoc deployment for iOS. The fix available for download is at:  https://cc.embarcadero.com/item/30797 The fix (which is a single file to add to your system) provides support for building iOS Ad Hoc Applications.  Only using RAD Studio 10.2.1 and Xcode 8.2, 8.3.2 or 8.3.3. Extremely important if you are developing for the iOS platform with Delphi.
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17Mar 2017 by richard@baronsoftware.com

How to handle Open Source Software and Security.

Computer PC Tips - bits and bytes
How to handle Open Source Software and Security. Open source has always left so many questions unanswered on whether your comfort level for software security is high or you have sleepless nights. The keys for open source have the following open questions, can someone else view the source and modify it  or do you rely on internal software developers fix the security flaws.   Open source is mostly freely written software by developers who love to write software code and do not mind submitting their projects for all to use. When using open source, the internal developers need to test the piece out and whether it can be used in the production systems.  It is up to the developer to test the code on a machine that can be safely…
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