Category Archives: Article

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Email scammers are now cost businesses $301 million monthly

The US Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has run an analysis on suspect transactions in the past year and found that US businesses in 2018 wired around $301 million per month to business email compromise (BEC) scammers.  The $301 million in average monthly losses is far higher losses than the FBI’s estimate…

fincen.gov click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Cybersecurity: Do these six things to protect your company online

Of those companies surveyed … over half of companies (53%) reported losses of between 3% and 10% following a cyber-attack or data breach. But the losses can also be much worse: 6% of businesses consulted in the report said they lost between 11% and 25% of revenue as the result of an incident. …

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Israel issues warning of a new type of cyber attack

Israel issued a warning warning of a new type of cyber attack, using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to impersonate senior company executives. In this method, instructions are given to the companies staff members to perform transactions such as money transfer to perform transactions such as money transfers, as well as malicious activity on the company’s network. …

Gadgetsnow.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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How to Start a Business with No Money

We all know that hard work can produce incredible results. But the prevailing rise-and-grind mythology often pushes founders into business before they’re ready. Many smart, ambitious people feel pressured to quit their jobs and go all-in. They work around the clock, sacrificing their health and happiness to chase a startup dream. For every founder who’s battling exhaustion and surviving on protein bars, I’d like to suggest a different path. …

Jotform.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Top 10 Common Network Security Threats Explained

Now that most of our daily procedures and activities are automatized and available for use on the Internet, we need to take the same level of precaution we did as children, crossing to the other side of the street… today we’re going back to basics — exploring and explaining the most common network security threats you may encounter while online…

Securitytrails.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Microsoft fixes zero-day flaw exploited by Russian hackers

This month, Microsoft patched 77 vulnerabilities, including two zero-days — security flaws that were being actively exploited in the wild. … The zero-day was discovered by ESET as part of the attack chain of a group of Russian state-funded hackers. The company told ZDNet it plans to publish an in-depth blog post about these attacks…

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Trying To Save Money On Programmers … Cost Boeing Billions

On October 29, 2018 Lion Air Flight 610, a 737 MAX 8 flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Pangkal Pinang, Indonesia, crashed into the sea 13 minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people aboard. Investigations into the precise cause of the crash are still ongoing, but investigators believe that the crash may have been caused by erroneous activation of commands from the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS)… To cut costs, engineering managers often rush developers, impose arbitrary unrealistic deadlines, or in the case of Boeing, outsource engineering to cheap contractors to try to increase production bandwidth.

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Microsoft adds OneDrive Personal Vault to secure your critical files

Microsoft’s OneDrive Personal Vault locks down a portion of your OneDrive cloud storage with time-limited two-factor authentication.  Personal Vault is designed for files you really hold dear: tax information, scanned passports, that sort of thing.  … Microsoft says that Personal Vault applies an extra layer of protection, essentially by reducing the timeout period. …

PCWorld.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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AI is changing the entire nature of compute

The world of computing, from chips to software to systems, is going to change dramatically in coming years as a result of the spread of machine learning. We may still refer to these computers as “Universal Turing Machines,” as we have for eighty years or more. But in practice they will be different from the way they have been built and used up to now. Such a change is of interest both to anyone who cares about what computers do, and to anyone who’s interested in machine learning in all its forms. … The rise of deep learning, starting in 2006, came about not only because of tons of data, and new techniques in machine learning, such as “dropout,” but also because of greater and greater compute power. … Machine learning is now poised to take over the majority of the world’s computing activity, …

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Ransomware attacks: Why and when it makes sense to pay the ransom

Whether you pay ransomware actors or not really comes down to some straightforward business calculations. Sometimes the ransom is worth it. … Yet another city is deciding to pay ransomware gangs to get their IT infrastructure back and you can almost feel the consternation among officials. That consternation may also be good business. Simply put, it can make good sense to pay ransomware.  In a recent research report, Forrester Research argued that paying ransomware should be viewed as a viable option…

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Only 1/2 of cloud vendors are giving businesses what was expected

While many cloud providers promise increased flexibility, cost savings, and customization, tech professionals must carefully consider factors including security, visibility, and automation when choosing a cloud vendor. However, many IT professionals have reported discrepancies between cloud expectations and reality: Only one third said they achieved cloud expectations around cost, speed, business enablement, and service levels after migration, according to a recent Accenture report.

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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The Worm That Nearly Ate the Internet

Just over 10 years ago, a unique strain of malware blitzed the internet so rapidly that it shocked cybersecurity experts worldwide. Known as Conficker, it was and remains the most persistent computer worm ever seen, linking computers with Microsoft operating systems globally, millions of them, to create a vast illicit botnet, in effect, a black-market supercomputer. That much power controlled by its unknown maker posed an existential threat not just to any enterprise connected to the web, but to the internet itself. … Surely something bigger was coming. But it never did. Why? Who created Conficker, and why bother if they were not going to use it?

NYTImes.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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US Cyber Command Issues Alert! Hackers Attacking Outlook

US Cyber Command has issued an alert via Twitter today about threat actors abusing an Outlook vulnerability to plant malware on government networks.  The vulnerability is CVE-2017-11774, a security bug that Microsoft patched in Outlook in the October 2017 Patch Tuesday.  The Outlook bug, discovered and detailed by security researchers from SensePost, allows a threat actor to escape from the Outlook sandbox and run malicious code on the underlying operating system. …

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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How to Avoid Windows 7’s End-of-Support Nags

Windows 7 has begun nagging you to upgrade to Windows 10—again. Specifically, you’ll see a message informing you that Microsoft will officially stop supporting Windows 7 on January 14, 2020. Here’s how to avoid it.  You can just click “Do not remind me again” and close the window to stop the nags. But you should think seriously about upgrading your computer… now!

Howtogeek.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

Are you still on Windows 7? Why?

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Protect your online identity now: Stop hackers in 5 steps

Having your identity stolen can be a nightmare, and cleaning up the mess can take months. You can make life difficult for a would-be identity thief by locking down these five key aspects of your online life. … [In a recent case] hackers were able to convince T-Mobile to issue a replacement SIM that gave them access to his primary phone number. That in turn allowed them to reset passwords on his Gmail account, which pretty much gave them unfettered access to his entire identity. They then proceeded to shut down his Twitter account, wipe out everything associated with his Google account, and even access his online banking accounts.

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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How to Learn Digital Marketing for (Nearly) Free in 6 Months

This is a system that you can use to teach yourself digital marketing in a few months using mostly inexpensive resources and personal projects. I’d expect that anyone could take a game plan like this and go from zero to hireable digital marketer in 6 months or less, so long as you work hard at it and don’t get too distracted. …

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Here’s Why Time Off Work Actually Improves Your Work and Life

Leonard Mlodinow, a physicist, who also co-authored two books with Stephen Hawking, recently shared scientific research in his book Elastic about taking time off. He demonstrates that taking time off work improves our well-being:  “Though some may consider “doing nothing” unproductive, a lack of downtime is bad for our well-being, because idle time allows our default network to make sense of what we’ve recently experienced or learned.”

GetPocket.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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What is 5G? All you need to know about the next generation of wireless technology

Once complete, 5G will dramatically improve quality of service, and extend that quality over a broader geographic area, in order for the wireless industry to remain competitive against the onset of gigabit fiber service coupled with Wi-Fi.  The 5G transition plan, once complete, would constitute an overhaul of communications infrastructure unlike any other in history. ….

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Cyberwarfare escalation just took a new and dangerous turn

Smuggling malware into the power grids of rival states risks making tensions higher, especially when the rules of the game are yet to be established. … The New York Times has reported that the US has escalated its plans to place malware in Russia power networks, in response to similar and ongoing online incursions by Russia-backed hackers.  This is the latest development in online hostilities involving power grids; energy companies have long been the targets of cyber-espionage, but in recent years the intent has switched from spying to creating outages.

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Florida city pays $600,000 to hackers unlock their computers

The Riviera Beach City Council voted unanimously this week to pay the hackers’ demands, believing the Palm Beach suburb had no choice if it wanted to retrieve its records, which the hackers encrypted. … According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ransomware is the fastest growing malware threat…

CBSNews.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Stop Saying Privacy Is Dead

Some dismiss privacy concerns by saying they have nothing to hide, we shouldn’t accept that argument from anyone wearing clothes. Or anyone who closes the bathroom door, locks her home or car, or uses password-protected accounts. …

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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How hackers can permanently lock you out of your accounts

A young woman recently contacted me for help: a hacker gained access to her Instagram and Snapchat and started sending her friends “nudes” she  had taken. She tried many times to regain access to her account – often arduous efforts requiring she send social media companies selfies with dates and codes – but every time she regained access, the intruder locked her out again and forced her to start from scratch.

When I heard her story I was surprised; in these cases a password reset is usually sufficient. After digging a bit deeper I was astounded by the brutal effectiveness of the hacker’s strategy – so complete it left his victim with no recourse to regain her accounts.

TheGuardian.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Scranos Malware Returns With New Data Stealing Features

The group behind a malware campaign targeting both Windows and Android devices in an adware operation across both Europe and the US have altered its attack techniques and added new payloads including a cryptominer and a Trojan in an apparent bid to make more money from infected devices.

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Ransomware stops production at major airplane parts manufacturer

ASCO, one of the world’s largest suppliers of airplane parts, has ceased production in factories across four countries due to a ransomware infection reported at its plant in Zaventem, Belgium.  As a result of having IT systems crippled by the ransomware infection…

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Devastating Title Insurance Records Leak – First American

Orange County based real estate title insurance giant First American Financial Corp. [NYSE:FAF] leaked hundreds of millions of documents related to mortgage deals going back to 2003… The digitized records — including bank account numbers and statements, mortgage and tax records, Social Security numbers, wire transaction receipts, and drivers license images — were available without authentication to anyone with a Web browser. … this would potentially include anyone who’s ever been sent a document link via email by First American.

Krebsonsecurity.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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Why Traditional Antivirus Can’t Stop Next Generation Threats [Infographic]

There is a reason why 60% of computers are breached each year.  Traditional solutions no longer even see the newest threats.  The info-graphic below helps explain why this is.

Ingenious.News click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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What is cyberwar? Everything you need to know about the frightening future of digital conflict

Cyberwarfare could turn every gadget you own into a weapon on a virtual battlefield. And the damage will be felt in the real world.  Cyberwarfare refers to the use of digital attacks — like computer viruses and hacking — by one country to disrupt the vital computer systems of another, with the aim of creating damage, death and destruction. Future wars will see hackers using computer code to attack an enemy’s infrastructure, fighting alongside troops using conventional weapons like guns and missiles.

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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European mobile traffic was recently routed to China

For more than two hours on Thursday, June 6, a large chunk of European mobile traffic was rerouted through the infrastructure of China Telecom, China’s third-largest telco and internet service provider (ISP). … …But if any other ISP would have caused this incident, it would have likely been ignored. Alas, it was China Telecom, and there’s a backstory.

ZDnet.com click the link to read the rest of the story. Our FREE Tools can help!

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