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Best Western hack and data leak phishing emails "Your booking is currently being held for you, but it still requires a quick confirmation"

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There is an active phishing campaign targeting Best Western customers using stolen booking data. Victims receive WhatsApp messages containing their real name, booking reference, hotel, and dates. I have: Contacted the hotel chain for further clarification and to find out why they are still leaking data a month or two after the original breach. Reported the business number to WhatsApp Reported the malware to CloudFlare. Here’s what the scam looks like and how to protect yourself. Shortly after making a booking I received a WhatsApp message from a US number +1 (564) 261-8249 asking me to confirm the booking, I clicked the link before realising it was a phishing scam which was obvious when presented with a form asking for payment. The reason it was convincing was that  They send the message on WhatsApp so you'll receive it on your mobile while on the move and won't scrutinise the same was as you would an email. It comes from a business account that WhatsApp referred to as a "...
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Create a subsite in SharePoint Online in 2026

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Microsoft recommends a flat hiearchy in SharePoint however if you need to create a subsite this can be done from the New  menu in the Site Contents . If you find that Subsite isn't available on this menu it may be disabled at the tenant level. You can enable this by going to  SharePoint Admin Center > Settings > Classic settings page https:// you-admin-site /_layouts/15/online/TenantSettings.aspx  
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SOLVED: Error installing Nuget Package "Could not find a part of the path "...Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions.targets"

When you try and install Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions package (or something that depends on it such as  Microsoft.SqlServer.SqlManagementObjects you may see the following error: Could not find a part of the path ' path \packages\Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions.8.0.2\buildTransitive/net461/Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions.targets'. This error can occur if the path  is too long. A quick fix is to move the entire project folder higher up to the root path of the drive, install the packages and then move it back to the previous location.
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SOLVED: You can't open the Windows Notepad application - Check your account 0x803F8001

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I've recently had an issue whereby trying to run Notepad gives the following error: Check your account Notepad is currently not available in your account. Make sure you are signed in to the Store and try again. Here's the error code, in case you need it: 0x803F8001.   I tried the following: Log in and out of the Microsoft Store No effect Reset the Microsoft Store with the wsreset.exe command. No effect Go to Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > Notepad > ... > Advanced Options > Repair No effect Go to Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > Notepad > ... > Advanced Options > Reset No effect Run notepad directly from  c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe This did successfully run the class (non-App version of notepad). The solution in the end was to  Go to Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > Notepad > ... > Uninstall Then goto the Microsoft store and search for Windows Notepad and click the  Get button.
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Get the Password Hash Sync setting for Entra Cloud Sync using Microsoft Graph and PowerShell

I've recently blogged about how to Get the "Password Hash Sync" setting for Entra Cloud Sync using Microsoft Graph and PowerShell as part of a bigger blog "Get the Cloud Sync configuration for an Entra directory using PowerShell and Microsoft Graph" https://www.centrel-solutions.com/blog/get-entra-cloud-sync-configuration-with-graph-powershell The Password Hash Sync setting isn't a boolean value but actually an attribute mapping within the "user" object mapping. # Determines whether password hash sync is enabled for the job. This only applies to "User and group sync" jobs. function   Get-IsPasswordHashSyncEnabled  {      param  (          $Job     )      $schema   =   Get-MgServicePrincipalSynchronizationJobSchema   -ServicePrincipalId   $configuration . Id  -SynchronizationJobId   $Job . Id;      foreach  ( $objectMapping   in  ...
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SOLVED: Pressing the CTRL key sometimes displays a white circle around the mouse pointer (Windows 11 and PowerToys)

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You may find that pressing the CTRL key sometimes displays a white circle around the mouse pointer. This can happen because of the following reasons: Control Panel Settings Open Control Panel (Start > Run > Control.exe). Select Mouse . Check whether "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key" is checked. A screenshot of the mouse control panel PowerToys Open PowerToys Start > PowerToys (Preview) Locate and disable  Mouse Highlighter   A screenshot of PowerToys - While you're here - Why not check out our Windows Server Documentation and Audit Tool?
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Get the effective license mode for an Entra directory using PowerShell and Microsoft Graph - for example "Microsoft Entra ID P1"

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You might find yourself needing to know the license mode of an Entra Directory tenant - as seen in the "Overview" screen of the Entra Admin UI - for example "Microsoft Entra ID P1". This seems like it would be quite simple - install Microsoft Graph PowerShell  and run  Connect-MgGraph and then perhaps Get-MgOrganization ... Unfortunately it's not that simple, if you look for a Get-MgLicense command you'll also have an issue the cmdlets match the names in Graph which is subscribedSku. It gets more complex because Entra licenses are actually per user whereas Entra displays the license as if it were a tenant (organization) wide license. So what is actually happening is that the Entra Admin UI looks through all of the subscribed skus (licenses) and finds ones that are active and has one of the "AAD_*" service plans enabled. It then shows the best  (most expensive) license that it finds. The following PowerShell script performs that function.   functio...
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