Category Archives: Security Threats and Solutions

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PC security warning: That out-of-date software is putting you at risk

Over half of applications installed on Windows PCs are out-of-date, potentially putting the security of users at risk through flaws in software that have already been patched by vendors. … running out-of-date software can provide an open door for hackers to take advantage of holes left in programs that haven’t had critical security updates applied….

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Facebook entering Crypto: plans to issue a stable coin

Facebook has been actively pursuing the blockchain space for the past few months, with the news of fiat-backed Crypto being recent in a string of initiatives taken to explore & eventually harness the DLT. Stable coins have been the latest buzz word for the Cryptoverse with a bunch of them launched this year alone…

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Configuring Your iPhone for Maximum Privacy and Security

In this article, it’s my goal to help you focus on security and privacy (two different but equally important matters) on the iPhone, specifically with regard to your phone’s data connection—the internet connection you use for surfing the web or using apps. … there is no such thing as perfect security or perfect privacy online, only best practices and best tools. Anyone who promises you otherwise is lying or ignorant….

betterhumans.coach.me click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Chinese Facial Recognition Will Take over the World in 2019

The best facial recognition startups are in China, by a long-shot. As their software is less biased, global adoption is occurring via their software. … A computer system that can track and identify any face anywhere is coming to global citizens. This is because capitalism isn’t regulated, it’s bullish on AI in an exaggerated sense where profits matter and efficiency fits the crime. As Chinese innovation start to get ahead, so too will Chinese ethics infiltrate the rest of the world. …

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

What should be done to protect our privacy?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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Cyberattacks now cost $1.1M for the average business

The report found… the top impacts being operational/productivity loss (54%), negative customer experiences (43%), and brand reputation loss (37%).  … These IT leaders perceive the goals of the attacks to be service disruption (45%), data theft (35%), unknown reasons (11%), or espionage (3%). …Some 21% of businesses experience daily cyberattacks, up from 13% last year, the report found. Another 13% said they were attacked weekly, 13% said monthly, and 27% said once or twice a year. Only 7% of organizations said they have never been attacked…

TechRepublic.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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‘Apple support’ phishing scams are getting really good

You know those voice mails you get claiming to be from “Windows support”? It looks like scammers are upping their game with convincing phishing calls claiming to be from Apple, security expert Brian Krebs said in a report Thursday.

The scam starts an automated call showing Apple’s logo, address and legitimate Apple phone number that warns the user to return the call because of a data breach, according to the security website. The message then gives a 1-866 number to call back. That number is “a known phishing source,” the security analyst said.

CNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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New Trojan attack adds a backdoor to your Windows PC to steal data

A well-resourced and prolific hacking group is distributing a new strain of malware that gives the hackers remote desktop access as part of an information-stealing campaign targeting banks, retailers and businesses. … The remote access trojan capabilities of FlawedGrace mean it allows attackers to gain almost full control over an infected device. Given how the campaign targets banks and retailers, it’s likely that acquiring money is the ultimate goal of the attacks…

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

How are you protecting yourself from these attacks?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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How Amazon knows so much about you – and how to regain your privacy

If you are not happy with the amount of information Amazon holds about you, click through this gallery to find out what you can do to control how much of your private data it has.

ZDNet.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Five emerging cyber-threats to worry about in 2019

We’re going to see more mega-breaches and ransomware attacks in 2019. … But cyber-defenders should be paying attention to new threats, too.  Here are some that should be on watch lists:

Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, it’s now possible to create fake video and audio messages that are incredibly difficult to distinguish from the real thing. These “deepfakes” could be a boon to hackers in a couple of ways. AI-generated “phishing” e-mails that aim to trick people into handing over passwords and other sensitive data have already been shown to be more effective than ones generated by humans. Now hackers will be able to throw highly realistic fake video and audio into the mix, either to reinforce instructions in a phishing e-mail or as a standalone tactic.

MITTechnologyReview.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Why you should switch to Signal or Telegram from WhatsApp, Today

WhatsApp and Facebook will start tracking everything you do on your phone to tailor ads to you. They will see your contacts list (which they already are, actually). This is a clear betrayal, for many users. But for some of us who are (kind of ) paranoid about security and privacy online, this was an obvious next step after Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp. So what should you do?…

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Why you should be using encrypted email

Email leads users to share highly sensitive information in a seemingly private way when, in reality, it’s everything but private. Case in point: see the image below and note a typical unassuming email containing a person’s credit card information. This may seem like a stupid mistake, but you’d be surprised at how common these type of emails get sent on a daily basis (I’m looking at you, mom). The only factor taken into consideration by the sender in these cases is that they trust the person on the receiving end. The problem here is…

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Cybersecurity in 2018: the bad, the worse and the downright nasty

Just like in the previous years, 2018 had its fair share of data breaches. However, it’s rather impressive of how those breaches have evolved over those years. Because of the increased awareness, breaches seldomly go unnoticed anymore. And that’s a good thing.

Medium.com  click the link to read the rest of the story.

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How Our Data Got Hacked, Scandalized, and Abused in 2018

This year tech giants, governments, and even the humble sandwich chain have proved that we can trust no one with our personal data. At best, these companies were woefully underprepared to keep our data safe. At worst, they allowed the data we gave them to help others influence our fragile democracy.

When it came to data scandals and breaches in 2018, the only good news was…

FastCompany.com  click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Why cryptojacking will become an even larger problem in 2019

Cryptojacking attacks will continue to grow in 2019, topping the list of ESET’s annualCybersecurity Trends report, released on Tuesday. Cryptojacking is the practice of surreptitiously using the compute resources of target computers to mine for cryptocurrency, which is a computationally complex task.

TechRepublic.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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2019 Cyber Security – What to expect next

During 2019 we expect to see an increase… If a sophisticated attack involves not one but five top-notch threats synergistically working together, the defense panorama could become very blurry. Security experts have a recipe for disaster. …

The purchase of cybersecurity has led to expanding attacks that will become more sophisticated in 2019 and beyond. We will continue to influence societal expectations on security, which will trickle down to companies through hundreds of thousands of vulnerable and easy targets for attackers to profit. Driven by many falling victim to feature misconceptions, more will become key targets. Cyber products that provide consolidated feature sets have a hard time understanding each customer’s specific pain points and the bad guys know this.

In 2019, even more high-profile breaches will push the security and privacy, finally. Security is argued about until we die. That’s a particularly terrifying threat.

Medium.com  click the link to read the rest of the story.

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How My Email Account Got Hacked and the Steps I Took

Warning: this story gets very cringeworthy.

How did I find out? Well I got an email saying that some malicious software had been downloaded on my computer and had obtained some scandalous information about me. The email threatened to release the information they captured if I did not pay them with Bitcoin.

Apparently this is a fairly common email scam that goes around. …

Hackernoon.com  click the link to read the rest of the story.

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How to Tell If A Website Is Dangerous

These days it can be very difficult to tell if a site is trustworthy or not. Many nefarious sites are being designed to look respectable. Thus you should always make sure that a site is not dangerous by using multiple approaches. This is especially important to consider before providing a site with sensitive information such as credit card numbers, banking information, your email address, etc…

In general you may want to be wary of a site if it asks you for unnecessary personal information, a credit card number, or a bank number when it’s not necessary.

TechSupportAlert.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Cryptocurrency 101 – What it is and why you need to know more

Let’s start with a quick history lesson about bitcoin. Bitcoin was officially unveiled to the public in a white paper published October 31st, 2008. The white paper is actually extremely readable, very short (just 8 pages), and incredibly elegantly written. If you want to understand why bitcoin is so compelling straight from the horse’s mouth, you must read this paper. It will explain everything better than I or anyone else likely ever could.

I won’t delve too much into the technical details of how bitcoin works (which are better elucidated in the white paper), but will instead focus on a broader exploration of its history and implications.

Medium.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Think You Have Cybersecurity Taken Care Of? Think Again

If you learned that homes with your same model of alarm system were being broken into 32 percent more often this year than last, you might no longer think your system is secure enough. Yet many companies assume their IT infrastructure is still secure, despite the fact that cyberattacks jumped 32 percent between the first quarters of 2017 and 2018…

Forbes.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Got ransomware? These tools may help

There may be a way to get those files back without paying a ransom. But first a couple of basic questions…

infoworld.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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How to spot fake, scam or fraudulent websites

This guide will teach you how to recognize secure websites you can trust and how to spot fake ones run by fraudsters looking to scam you.

comparitech.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Passwords Might (Finally) Go Away Soon, Here is why

There’s hope that we can finally ditch long, complex passwords thanks to a series of regulations and open standards that ease and encourage the implementation of passwordless authentication methods in online applications.

“The vast number of passwords needed in our daily lives have become a burden, which is why we see so many reused or weak static credentials,” says Stina Ehrensvard, CEO and Founder of Yubico, which manufactures physical security keys like the Yubikey 5 NFC. “We needed to think about how to address this problem in a way that simplifies the login process while adding the highest level of security. Up until now, there hasn’t really been a way to do both of those things successfully.”

pcmag.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Identity Theft 101 – What is Identity Theft?

What is identity theft? It is simply when someone uses your identity as their own. But there’s nothing simple at all about the damage left in their wake. There are close to 10 different types of identity theft, which we’ll detail below. …

I will dig into the identity theft basics, including how it happens, some of the most common types of identity theft, and what you can do to protect yourself.

Libertyid.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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How to Spot and Avoid Fake Virus & Malware Warnings

As you use your computer and browse the Web, you may occasionally run into infection warnings that appear to be legitimate but aren’t. These anti-malware warning messages — appropriately called “scareware” — are designed to scare you into installing fake anti-malware programs that are actually malware in disguise.

So how can you tell between real and fake warning messages? It can be tough, but as long as you stay calm and take your time, there are a few signs you can look for that will help you distinguish between the two.

makeuseof.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Hackers Aren’t Afraid of Us – This is why

Commander of the United States Cyber Command, Gen. Paul Nakasone was asked whether our adversaries think they will suffer if they strike us with cyberweapons. “They don’t fear us,” General Nakasone replied.  So while the United States remains the greatest cyberpower on earth, it is increasingly losing daily cyberconflicts. The range of American targets is so wide and deep that it is almost impossible to understand all of the vulnerabilities. And because most of those targets don’t belong to the government…

NYTimes.com click the link to read the rest of the story.

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SplitSpectre – new Spectre-like CPU attack discovered

A SplitSpectre attack is far easier to execute than an original Spectre attack. Researchers explain:

Although Spectre v1 is powerful and does not rely on SMT (Simultaneous Multithreading), it requires […] a gadget to be present in the victim’s attack surface. Google Project Zero writes in their original blog post on Spectre v1 [46] that they could not identify such a vulnerable code pattern in the kernel, and instead relied on eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter) to place one there themselves.  In this point lies the strength of our new Spectre v1 variant, SplitSpectre. As its name implies, it splits the Spectre v1gadget into two parts Researchers say the second half of this improved exploitation scenario can be run within the attacker’s own malicious code, instead of the target’s kernel, simplifying the exploitation procedure.

ZDnet.com  click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Cybercrime and cyberwar: A spotter’s guide to the groups that are out to get you

The bulk of cybercrime is carried out by the equivalent of real-world opportunist thieves. These are the petty criminals of the online world, the crooks you’re most likely to come across, or at least feel the impact of, as an individual.

ZDnet.com  click the link to read the rest of the story.

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A Cybersecurity Moonshot – Inside Chronicle & Alphabet and Project Lantern

Fifteen years ago, cybersecurity could be boiled down to a simple strategy: Secure the perimeter. [Today]…

Many businesses use 10, 20 or 30 different security products to protect their systems. They all have advantages, and security practitioners will use different combinations to investigate a potential threat. If a team has access to 15 tools, for instance, one engineer might think to use three of them while another tries a completely different subset. There isn’t enough time to try them all, so experts pick products based on their experience and what they believe will be best suited to the task.

It’s a messy problem that doesn’t have a simple answer.

Engadget.com  click the link to read the rest of the story.

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New online service will hack printers to spew out spam

A new service has spawned over the weekend advertising the same type of functionality, but for everyone.

Going under the generic term of “Printer Advertising,” this new service claims it can hack printers all over the world to print out messages on demand, similar to the PewDiePie promo hack that took place over the weekend.

“We have the ability to reach every single printer in the world,” claims a website launched on Sunday. “Reservations are limited.”

ZDnet.com  click the link to read the rest of the story.

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