The Internet on devices continues to be a major problem when it comes to security. Unfortunately, a big part of the reason why comes down to end users. Recently, Bitdefender released a new report entitled "The IoT Threat Landscape And Top Smart Home Vulnerabilities in 2018," and it paints a grim picture indeed. The average home now contains twenty smart devices, and most of them contain security vulnerabilities. 95 percent of those vulnerabilities reside in the firmware. While the majority … Read more
Microsoft Outlook is Rolling Out New Design Changes
Microsoft is making some long overdue and welcome changes to Outlook to include the Windows and the Web-based version. People who use either one will now see a "Coming Soon" option that allows users to toggle between the version they've got now, and the new and improved version with the changes. As to those changes, they fall broadly into three groups: Better Organization - The improved Outlook offers intelligent technology, specialized icons, visual changes and a "highlights" feature … Read more
Another Chrome Extension Is Stealing Passwords
Do you use the Chrome browser extension for the MEGA file storage service? If you do, please read this article carefully. The official extension for that service has been compromised. It has been replaced with a malware version that has the capability to steal user login data for a number of popular websites, including Github, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and more. The extension was compromised on September 4th, when an unknown attacker breached MEGA's Chrome Web Store account and uploaded the … Read more
Name Of Utility Company That Leaked Information Just Released
In 2016, an unnamed US energy company left some 30,000 records (containing information about its security assets) exposed for more than two months (a total of 70 days), in violation of energy sector cyber security regulations. When the incident was initially reported, the name of the company was withheld. That company has now agreed to a $2.7 million-dollar settlement, and its name has now been made public, along with some additional details about the incident. Initially, the company … Read more
Tech Support Scammers Are Advertising Online
Tech Support scams are nothing new, but they are getting increasingly sophisticated. Worse, tech giants like Google are finding it notoriously difficult to detect them. A report recently released by the venerable data security firm, Symantec, indicates that tech support scammers are increasingly integrating call optimization into their schemes, which allows them to insert phone numbers into web pages dynamically. Among other things, this allows the scammers to display the phone number of … Read more
New Versions Of Ransomware Continue To Wreak Havoc
2017 was "The Year of Ransomware." It saw an incredible number of ransomware attacks and infections, paired with a tremendous number of innovations. Although 2018 hasn't seen quite the same level of ransomware activity, it's still a major threat with one company coming under attack about every ten minutes. Although there haven't been as many innovations so far this year, that doesn't mean they're not occurring, and some of the new ransomware strains are particularly nasty. Of interest, … Read more
Most Small Businesses Can’t Recover From Cyber Breaches
A new study recently published by Sitchfast Technologies paints a grim picture of the threat landscape for small and medium-sized business. Their key finding? A staggering 60 percent of small businesses that suffer a data breach of any magnitude go out of business within six months. Worse, one business owner in three does not have a plan or safeguards in place to prevent a breach. The single biggest weak link in the small business landscape is the fact that most employees who work for smaller … Read more
Some Apple iPhone 8’s May Have A Manufacturer Defect
Do you own an iPhone 8? If so, you may have problems. Apple has recently reported that a small percentage of iPhone 8s "contain logic boards with a manufacturing defect. Affected devices may experience unexpected restarts, a frozen screen, or won't turn on." The company has isolated the defect to phones manufactured between September 2017 to March 2018, in Hong Kong, India, Japan, China, New Zealand, Macau, and the United States. To find out if you've got one of the impacted iPhone 8s, … Read more
Vulnerability Found In Major Manufacturers Of Android Phones
Researchers operating out of the University of Florida, Stony Brook University and Samsung Research America have made a disturbing discovery. Millions of Android smartphones manufactured by eleven different OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) were found to be vulnerable to attack via AT Commands. If you're not sure what an "AT Command" is, you're not alone. Part of the Hayes Command Set, ATtention Commands were developed in the early 1980s and designed to be transmitted via phone lines to … Read more
Security Issues Abound – Texas Voter Registration Records Leaked
The great state of Texas has 15.2 million registered voters. Unfortunately, personal details belonging to nearly all of them (14.8 million) have been compromised, but don't blame the state's election officials. This staggering breach was caused by the carelessness of a conservative-focused data firm, ironically named "The Data Trust." They left their research file completely exposed and unprotected on a server that anyone could access with no password required. It's hard to see how the … Read more
