​Wellington, New Zealand – July 4, 2018 – Microsoft New Zealand has celebrated its outstanding local business partners at the 11th annual Microsoft Partner Awards. The Laptop Company was a winner in the Surface Partner Award category.
 
The Laptop Company have been working with Microsoft to help change the way businesses and government think about technology in the modern workplace.  With their solutions team, they’ve worked with organisations across New Zealand to help enhance their users’ satisfaction and productivity while reducing the risk and cost of introducing new software and hardware platforms.
 
The Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards recognise innovative partners who are demonstrating inventive use of digital technology, with the awards open to all Microsoft partners big and small. The streamlined ceremony saw the awards pivot to a greater focus on customers.
 
Phil Goldie, Microsoft New Zealand One Commercial Partner Director says, “We congratulate The Laptop Company for winning in the Surface Partner Award category. This year the judges were incredibly impressed by the high calibre of entries. It was a genuine challenge to pick the winners in so many closely contested categories. The Laptop Company is a Microsoft Partner that is delivering solutions and innovations that are optimising businesses as well as improving people’s lives.”
 
“Our partners play a crucial role in New Zealand’s IT sector. Whether they are creating new solutions to meet customer demands or providing insightful IT advice, every day they are realising Microsoft’s mission by empowering New Zealand businesses to be trail blazers,” says Goldie.
 
The Partner Awards took place at Shed 10 last week, with over 400 in attendance across a range of sectors.
 
About The Laptop Company
The Laptop Company is a leading provider of computer hardware and fleet management solutions, as well as being a Microsoft Gold Partner. Working with corporate, government and education providers, The Laptop Company is a trusted partner for many of New Zealand’s most successful workforces. 
 
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.
 
For additional information:
Mark Mayo, CEO
Mark.Mayo@laptop.co.nz
04 499 2353
 
Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Intel has released a security alert for their management engine interface that is likely to affect all 6th, 7th, and 8th generation of their Core i series CPUs.

The summary of the problem that is outlined on Intel's website;
Intel® Management Engine (Intel® ME 11.0.0-11.7.0), Intel® Trusted Execution Engine (Intel® TXE 3.0), and Intel® Server Platform Services (Intel® SPS 4.0) vulnerability (Intel-SA-00086)

In response to issues identified by external researchers, Intel has performed an in-depth comprehensive security review of the following with the objective of enhancing firmware resilience:

• Intel® Management Engine (Intel® ME)
• Intel® Trusted Execution Engine (Intel® TXE)
• Intel® Server Platform Services (SPS)

Intel has identified security vulnerabilities that could potentially impact certain PCs, servers, and IoT platforms.

Systems using Intel ME Firmware versions 11.0.0 through 11.7.0, SPS Firmware version 4.0, and TXE version 3.0 are impacted. You may find these firmware versions on certain processors from the:

• 6th, 7th, and 8th generation Intel® Core™ Processor Family:
• Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1200 v5 and v6 Product Family
• Intel® Xeon® Processor Scalable Family
• Intel® Xeon® Processor W Family
• Intel Atom® C3000 Processor Family
• Apollo Lake Intel Atom® Processor E3900 series
• Apollo Lake Intel® Pentium® Processors
• Intel® Celeron® N and J series Processors

Intel has released a  downloadable tool that will help you discover whether your hardware is affected or not. Technical details are also available on their website.

Within the zip file download is a GUI tool, running the tool will result in a pass or fail on the vulnerability for the system you run it on.

In Brief
Researchers have discovered a serious vulnerability in Infineon Trusted Platform Module (TPM) cryptographic processors used to secure encryption keys in many PCs, laptops, Chromebooks and smartcards.

In cryptographic terms, the flaw in the way the public key encryption key pair is generated makes it possible for an attacker to work out private 1024-bit and 2048-bit RSA keys stored on the TPM simply by having access to the public key.  This would allow an attacker to remove encryption or alter information otherwise protected by the keys stored on the TPM.

What is TPM?
A TPM is a cryptographic chip built on to the motherboard of many (but not all) PCs and laptops as a secure place to store system passwords, certificates, encryption keys and even biometric data (e.g. for fingerprint login or Windows Hello).  The principle is that storing keys inside the TPM is a lot better than keeping them on the hard drive or letting them be managed by the operating system, both of which can be compromised.

Microsoft’s BitLocker uses a TPM. They can also be used for authentication (checking a PC is the one it claims to be) and attestation (that a system’s boot image hasn’t been tampered with), for example on Google’s Chromebooks.

Remediation for Windows Devices
Step 1: Apply all Microsoft Windows Operating System Security Updates
Step 2: Determine devices in your organization that are affected using event log entries.
NOTE: After the applicable Windows update is applied, the system will generate Event ID 1794 in the Event Viewer after each reboot under Windows Logs - System when vulnerable firmware is identified. On devices running Windows 10 that have the October 2017 security update installed, in a CMD prompt, type "TPM.MSC" to open the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Management snap-in. Devices with affected TPM modules will display the following error message: (Shown Below)

• "The TPM is ready for use. The TPM firmware on this PC has a known security problem. Please contact your PC manufacturer to find out if an update is available. For more information please go to https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=852572."
• If you determine that you do not have an Infineon® TPM capable system then no further action is required.
• If your PC is affected, go to Step 3 below to locate your PC model and firmware availability. 
• If your firmware is not yet available, Microsoft has provided the following mitigation process that is recommended until the release of the firmware update package.  
  • https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-us/security-guidance/advisory/ADV170012

Step 3: Download and run the firmware update tool provided by the Hardware Vendor (Toshiba, HP, Lenovo, etc).
Step 4: Once the firmware update has been applied to vulnerable devices, additional steps may be required (e.g. devices where BitLocker is in use)

Links to firmware updates
The best source for up-to-date firmware links appears to be Infineon's website;
Information on TPM firmware update for Microsoft Windows
Direct manufacturer links from that page are;

• HP
• Lenovo
• Toshiba