Do you use any of the following Chrome browser extensions? Change HTTP Request Header Nyoogle - (a custom logo for Google) Stickies - (a Post-It note for Chrome) Lite Bookmarks If so, you're not alone. These four extensions have a combined user base of more than half a million. Recently, security researchers from ICEBRG (a US cyber-security company) have discovered malicious codes embedded in copies of these on the official Chrome Web Store. The code allows hackers to … Read more
Weird Sounds Coming From Your Speakers? Could Be A Hacker
Have you been hearing strange, otherworldly sounds on your Bose or Sonos speakers? If so, rest assured that your speakers aren't haunted. They've likely been hijacked by hackers. Researchers at Trend Micro have confirmed that some models (the Sonos Play:1, the Sonos One and the Bose SoundTouch) of both brands of speakers are vulnerable to hacking if the speaker is connected to a misconfigured network. If the hackers find such a speaker, they can take control of the speaker and direct to … Read more
Virus Spread Through Facebook Messenger Mines For Cryptocurrency
Facebook scams are fairly common occurrences, owing to the sheer size of the platform's user base. It's no surprise that there's a new one making the rounds that you should be aware of. This latest threat was discovered by researchers at Trend Micro, and makes use of Facebook Messenger. If you get a message containing an embedded video file saved as a zip (the file name usually appears as "video_xxxx.zip"), don't click on it, even if it's from someone you know. This file is a modified … Read more
Ransomware Attackers Are Increasing Their Attacks On Businesses
The ransomware ecosystem is maturing. Strains are divided into "families" and the number of new families that have been discovered in 2017 is half what it was in 2016. Even so, the total number of attacks targeting businesses have risen by 26 percent over last year's totals, according to the latest statistics released by Kaspersky Lab. Rather than inventing wholly new software strains, hackers around the world seem content to modify existing strains, with the number of modifications growing … Read more
Many Consumers Would Withdraw Business From Companies If Data Breached
You've probably heard the phrase "the customer is always right" a thousand times. It's a truism in the business world, except when it isn't. A recent survey released by Gemalto reveals a dismaying dichotomy that's costing businesses around the world big money. Only 27 percent of consumers surveyed feel that businesses do enough to protect customer data, and an overwhelming 70 percent of them say that they'd take their business elsewhere if a company suffered a data breach. Unfortunately, … 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
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
Malware Infections Grow 4X In Just One Quarter
The world's hackers have been busy according to the latest report by Comodo security, which tracks the total number of threats around the globe, quarter by quarter. The latest statistics are alarming, showing a massive jump in the total number of malware infections reported in the third quarter of 2017. Reports show nearly 400 million infections. What's worse is that the infections have spread to literally every corner of the globe. No nation is completely safe. Digging more deeply into … Read more
Report Shows Small Percentage Of Employees Know About Ransomware
The statistics are alarming. Ransomware is fast becoming the favored hobby horse of hackers worldwide. Barely a week goes by that a new strain isn't introduced into the wild, with expensive, and often tragic consequences. Right now, the average amount paid by office workers impacted by a ransomware attack is $1400, a figure that continues to creep higher. What's perhaps even more alarming, however, is the fact that although companies the world over have made a concerted effort to sound the … Read more
