1. Security. Imagine an employee visits a website that causes a virus and infects all of your company's files. Getting those files back would be an absolute nightmare. That's why you should take a preventative approach and use web filtering. Web filtering protects your company's data from malware, phishing scams and other various cyber threats. It will block content and websites that could be potentially harmful. In turn, this will reduce the risk of a virus or security breach. 2. … Read more
Hard Drives Susceptible To Sound Waves, Can Double As Microphones
File this one away under “obscure and terrifying.â€� Recently, a security researcher named Alfredo Ortega, speaking at a security conference in Buenos Aires, unveiled research revealing that the hard drive in your computer can be, with a bit of work, turned into a rudimentary microphone and used to spy on you. It should be noted that this hack only works on HDDs and takes advantage of the way they are designed. Understand that this isn’t a flaw; it’s simply the way the technology … Read more
After Yet Another Equifax Hack, IRS Suspends Contract Worth $7.5M
Equifax just can’t seem to get out of its own way. Not long ago, the company suffered a massive data breach which saw the sensitive information of more than 145 million consumers exposed. As a result, congressional hearings were convened, and the CEO resigned in disgrace. Amazingly, though, despite these events, the IRS opted to award the company a contract worth $7.5 million for its help and expertise in verifying taxpayer identification to prevent identity theft. The irony did not … Read more
Popular Chrome Ad Blocker Faked, 30k Users Infected With Malware
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” as the saying goes. Unfortunately, Google has now been fooled by the same trick twice. For the second time in recent years, Google has allowed a malicious variant of the popular extension “AdBlock Plus” onto its Chrome Web Store. It was noticed by a security researcher going by the alias “SwiftOnSecurity.” Before Google removed it, it had been installed more than 37,000 times by unsuspecting users. This incident underscores a … Read more
New Hack Attempts To Access Office 365 Passwords
Companies are getting better at detecting and fending off brute force attacks. Depending on how big, and how hard-hitting the attack is, it can still get through, of course, but the main problem with such an attack is that it’s impossible to miss. The moment it starts, security professionals know what’s going on, and can immediately spring into action. Of course, the hackers know this, and have been looking for ways around the problem. How can they launch an attack that will go … Read more
OnePlus Mobile Phone Found To Be Collecting User Data
If you own a smartphone made by Chinese manufacturer OnePlus, you can thank security researcher Chris Moore for making a discovery that the manufacturer wasn’t going to tell you about. It turns out that OnePlus phones running the OxygenOS are recording a disturbing amount of user data and sending it back to a company server. The data being collected on users include, but are not limited to: • Any time the user locks or unlocks the phone • Any time the user launches, uses or closes an … Read more
2012 Disqus Hack Exposed More Than 17 Million Users
The hits just keep coming, with Disqus being the latest company to issue a breach disclosure. If you’ve never heard of it, Disqus is an incredibly popular, plugin-based comment service for blogs. Although the breach was only just discovered, it occurred five years ago in July 2012 and impacted more than 17.5 million users. Evidence of the breach was initially discovered by an independent security researcher named Troy Hunt. It was then reported to the company and disclosed 24 hours later … Read more
Disaster Recovery Plan: Preparing for the Storm Ahead
How Long Will It Take to Get Your House in Order When it comes to a proper disaster recovery plan for your business, do you feel satisfied and secure with simply having your data backup on a hard drive or in-house server? If you said yes, then you could be setting your business up for failure. Simply having your data backed up doesn't account for the time and effort it's going to take to get things back up and running again. Many business owners fail to take into account the time needed to … Read more
Microsoft Officially Pulls Plug On Windows Phone
The Windows phone is officially dead, with the announcement from Joe Belfiore that there would be no new feature updates and no further development. The writing has been on the wall for a while now, with Microsoft gutting its phone division and laying off thousands of employees. But until Belfiore’s announcement, the company hadn’t made it official. Microsoft was very slow to recognize how big a footprint smartphones would ultimately have on the market, and as such, paid little attention … Read more
The IRS Awards Security Contract To Equifax Even After Hack
You’ve probably heard about Equifax’s recent troubles. More than 145 million consumer data files were exposed, including names, addresses, social security numbers and more. The problem was viewed as so serious that Equifax’s CEO stepped down and congressional hearings were launched, but then, a funny thing happened. Equifax got awarded a no-bid government contract worth millions ($7.25 million, to be exact) to help the IRS verify taxpayer identities in order to prevent fraud. One might … Read more
