When Microsoft first released Windows 10, the company boasted that it would try to get its new OS running on a billion devices by 2018. Time and circumstance have conspired to make that lofty goal unlikely, and the company has since retreated from it. However, according to statistics released at a recent shareholder's meeting, there are now more than 600 million devices utilizing it, including PCs, tablets, HoloLens headsets, Surface Hubs and Xbox One consoles. It's an impressive number, … Read more
Look And Feel May Change In Future Windows 10 Update
Microsoft is experimenting with a new feature that may change the look and feel of Windows 10 in some future update. The new approach is referred to as "Sets," which borrows from the playbook of modern web browsers and groups related applications into tabbed sets, with the groupings defined by project type. The applications you need to make use of on any given project will be grouped together, even if the last time you used a given app was several weeks prior. Essentially, this approach is … Read more
Fake Symantec Blog Post Is Spreading Mac Malware
Sometimes hackers opt for a stealthy approach. Other times, their attempts are downright brazen. That's definitely the case with a newly launched malware campaign that seeks to spread "Proton Mac," a strain of malware designed to steal passwords from Mac users. The hackers registered a domain very similar to Symantec's blog, mirrored its content and then created a fake post about a new version of CoinThief, which was moderately successful back in 2014. After going into a bit of faux … Read more
Bug in macOS Could Allow Hackers Root Access
Do you own a Mac? Is it running Apple's latest macOS, the "High Sierra?" If so, be extra careful with who you allow access to your machine. A security flaw recently discovered by a developer named Lemi Orhan Ergin can easily allow anyone unfettered access to everything on your machine, and by extension, give them an easy "in" to whatever network it's connected to. All they need is physical access. Exploiting this vulnerability is a lesson in simplicity. All a hacker has to do is enter … Read more
A Million Imgur Users Affected By Breach
Do you use the image hosting service, Imgur? If you do, there's a slight chance that you'll be prompted to change your password the next time you log on. That's because the company's servers were breached in 2014, and the hackers made off with 1.7 million usernames and passwords, which represents just a tiny fraction of the company's 150 million users. Although the breach happened a few years ago, the company only found out about it on Thanksgiving Day of this year. Their response was … Read more
Apple Devices Can Get Viruses
Are you under the impression Apple devices are exempt from viruses and hacking? A great deal of Apple users consider Apple systems safer to use than Windows because of the "built-in" security Apple programs into their devices. But Windows operating systems also come with similar existing security to prevent hackers and viruses. So why is there a difference in virus vulnerability? So here's the deal: In their advertising, Apple markets its systems as not needing third-party antivirus … Read more
Breach Of Health Data Gets California Company $2M Fine
Cottage Health System, a company that operates five hospitals in the Santa Barbara area of California, is the latest firm to have been hit with a hefty fine for losing control of PHI and PII for patients that it serves. In this case, more than 55,000 patients were impacted between 2013 and 2015. Cottage Health discovered the breach late in 2013. The company received a voicemail message informing company officers that there was a large file containing PHI of an unspecified number of its … Read more
Uber Paid To Hide Massive Data Breach From Public
It has recently come to light that the company was hacked in 2016 in a massive breach that exposed the personal information of more than 57 million Uber users and drivers. A wide range of data was stolen. Where users were concerned, names, email addresses, and phone numbers were compromised. As bad as that is, the problem was even worse for more than 600,000 of the company's drivers who had their driver's license numbers hacked, too. Standard protocol is that when a breach like this … Read more
Ransomware Is Spreading Through Macros In Word
Security researcher Jaromir Jorejsi of Trend Micro has discovered a disturbing new strain of ransomware named qkG that spreads by way of macros inside MS Word. The ransomware strain targets only Office documents, encrypting them and infecting the Word default document in order to propagate to newly created documents opened via the Office suite on the infected computer. This new threat is unusual in the world of ransomware because it abides by a completely different and much more tightly … Read more
Known WordPress Malware Is Back For Second Round
This past summer, an Italian security researcher named Manuel D'Orso discovered a nasty malware attack aimed at WordPress sites. Dubbed "Wp-Ved," after the name of the .php file bearing the malicious payload, the attack was relatively small in its scope and scale, with a few scattered attacks starting in the summer and continuing in sporadic fashion to this very day. Apparently, the hackers who own the code learned what they needed to, and recently an updated variant of the malware has … Read more
