Tag Archives: privacy

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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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What Google’s CEO Couldn’t Explain to Congress

As the hearing got under way, Pichai struggled to make sense of the questions that lawmakers put to him. Even friendly Democratic queries asking him to explain how search-engine rankings worked were met with hesitation and stilted rhetoric. If a rep said a keyword he was prepared for, he gave a scripted response, even if it was only sort of responsive. …

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

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How I Quit Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon

Going into the experiment, I realized that there was a good chance I’d come crawling back to some of the Big Five services when it was over. Yet as I discovered over the four weeks, switching to independent alternatives didn’t negatively affect most parts of my life, but it did take a little getting used to.

Before diving into the nitty gritty of what worked and what didn’t, however, let me explain the limits of the experiment.

Motherboard.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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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.

Are you concerned that hackers could destroy your business?

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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.

Which type of hacker has caused you the most damage?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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Data Breaches Keep Happening. So Why Don’t You Do Something?

Experts caution that the stream of news about such breaches can set a new normal and instill a sense of fatalism — and complacency — in consumers.

Anthony Vance, an associate professor and director of the Center for Cybersecurity at the Fox School of Business at Temple University, said last year’s breach of information held by the credit reporting company Equifax, which affected 145 million Americans, was “a game-changer.”

The information gleaned could be used to fraudulently open new credit accounts, he said, adding, “That should give even the most jaded American consumer pause and prompt them to do something.”

But evidence suggests that high-profile breaches don’t typically change consumers’ behavior.

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

What should we do?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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How Do Customers View Businesses After a Data Breach?

Nothing can be quite as devastating to a business’s customer base than a data breach.

How do customers perceive businesses after a data breach? What was once a highly-trusted, well-regarded company could be quickly downgraded to an untrustworthy, irresponsible company after a data breach.

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

If you have been breached, what did it cost your firm?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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Cybersecurity Is About Much More Than Hacking

There is growing concern among professionals that cybersecurity firms are seriously understaffed, and there aren’t nearly enough of them to combat the growing number of cyberattacks. Making matters worse, the continued drive toward accelerated training programs for software developers means that more developers are deploying code who have not had any formal security training.

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

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Terrifying new email scam & what to do

People are being victimized by a terrifying new email scam where attackers claim they stole your password and hacked your webcam while you were watching porn — here’s how to protect yourself. The attacker probably took your password from a publicly available database of old leaked passwords and email addresses.

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

I have seen this, have you?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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The New Cryptojacking: Victims’ Computers Mine Cryptocurrency

Computers infected with cryptojacking malware run much slower, and often victims are not even aware that their computers are being attacked, as “coin mining” malware is difficult to detect. Once a machine is compromised, a malicious app runs silently in the background with just one sign: performance degradation.

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

Want to have your computers checked?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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Mobile Privacy Now Easy – Cloudflare’s New Android and iOS apps

Cloudflare has guaranteed user privacy and improved look-up speed. … Activists and journalists have used it to bypass blocklists in oppressive countries, and regular users have also used it to improve their day-to-day Internet connections. Furthermore, funneling DNS traffic through Cloudflare’s DNS server also prevents internet service providers from watching over a user’s traffic…

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

Will you use a service like this?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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OK, panic—newly evolved ransomware is bad news for everyone

There’s something inherently world-changing about the latest round of crypto-ransomware that has been hitting a wide range of organizations over the past few months. While most of the reported incidents of data being held hostage have purportedly involved a careless click by an individual on an e-mail attachment, an emerging class of criminals with slightly greater skill has turned ransomware into a sure way to cash in on just about any network intrusion.
And that means that there’s now a financial incentive for going after just about anything. While the payoff of going after businesses’ networks used to depend on the long play—working deep into the network, finding and packaging data, smuggling it back out—ransomware attacks don’t require that level of sophistication today. It’s now much easier to convert hacks into cash.

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

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How to Do Passwords Right in 2018

Modern-day browsers can not only save your passwords for you—they can recommend new, secure passwords whenever you need to create a new one, and can even warn you when you’re using the same password across multiple accounts.

gizmodo.com  click the link to read the rest of the story. Image via bitsfrombytes.com

Do you use a password manager?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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China to Control the Internet of Things to Spy on Business?

China is aggressively seeking to dominate the Internet of Things and plans to use access to billions of networked electronic devices for intelligence-gathering, sabotage, and business purposes, according to a forthcoming congressional report.

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

Do you really think your business is safe from this?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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12 signs you’ve been hacked — and how to fight back

Here are 12 sure signs you’ve been hacked and what to do in the event of compromise. Note that in all cases, the number 1 recommendation is to completely restore your system to a known good state before proceeding.

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

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Your Coffee Shop Wi-fi Can See What You Are Connecting To

We connect to public wi-fi systems and think that we are not giving away the sites we are visiting, as we are using HTTPs connections. But think again, our DNS requests reveal the sites we are connecting to. Also the start of the TLS connection actually reveals the site we are connecting to. … so Cloudflare have just announced that they have implemented ESNI (encrypted Server Name Indication (SNI) TLS extension). This aims to stop ISPs and public wi-fi providers from snooping on your Web accesses (or anyone else who listens to your network packets).

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

Are you using Cloudflare services?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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Quantum computers will break the encryption that protects the internet

Encryption has plenty of uses. It defends state secrets, and the corporate sort. It protects financial flows and medical records. And it makes the $2trn e-commerce industry possible. Without it, credit-card details, bank transfers, emails and the like would zip around the internet unprotected, for anyone so minded to see or steal. Nobody, however, is certain that the foundation of all this is sound.

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

Are you concerned about your business privacy?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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Open Source Intelligence Gathering: The Techniques

One constant throughout my career has been my fascination with what can be learned about an organization from basic public records. The aggregation of a multitude of small pieces of information can paint a picture that is sometimes startling in its completeness. Then some holes can be filled-in with small logical leaps and inferences.

specterops.io click the link to read the rest of the story.

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Don’t Let Big Tech Get Rich Off Your Info

More of your data is available for the taking than you might imagine. Here’s a primer on the best products for securing your digital privacy and tips for taking back control of your info.

 

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

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What is 2-Factor Authentication and Why Should You Care?

In the traditional flow, there is just 1 layer of security, that is your password. You enter your password and voila, you can access your account. But as stated above, this process is good but not great.   2-factor authentication (2FA) adds another security layer to the login process, reducing the chances of account hacking. In this, just knowing and entering your password is not enough. This new layer can be anything like an OTP sent to your mobile, an auto-generated code, or biometric verification on a device you own.

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

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This cryptojacking mining malware pretends to be a Flash update

Crooks are attempting to spread their cryptojacking malware to unsuspecting victims by disguising it as an update for Flash.  This particular mining operation is thought to have been operating since August this year with a big spike in activity in September and looks to trick potential victims into downloading an XMRig cryptocurrency miner — the malicious software runs in the background and secretly uses the power of the infected PC to acquire Monero for the hackers.

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

Could you have this malware on your computer and not know it?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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A big tech company is working to free the internet from big tech companies

Components of the decentralized web may already be emerging, but they are not ready for prime time. Cloudflare, a company that makes its money by hosting the internet’s contents on far-flung servers and uses algorithms to deliver them to users as fast as possible, wants to help change that. The first step is what the company calls a “gateway,” to which anyone can connect a website and begin serving data stored in a peer-to-peer file-sharing network called the Interplanetary File System(IPFS).

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

Are you looking for ways to succeed outside of the mega-platforms?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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U.S. warns of new hacking spree from group linked to China

The U.S. government on Wednesday warned that a hacking group widely known as cloudhopper, which Western cybersecurity firms have linked to the Chinese government, has launched attacks on technology service providers in a campaign to steal data from their clients.

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

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Forget the new iPhones: Apple’s best product is now privacy

Apple makes its hundreds of billions every year by selling physical products that have a high markup. Facebook and Google, on the other hand, have a business model built around advertisers who want as much data about users as possible so they can better target them. This is why, for example, Google would never build the types of anti-tracking and privacy protections into the Android OS that Apple has done with MacOS and iOS. Google–and Facebook–aren’t going to cut off their access to all that black gold.

 

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

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Radical new plan to upend the World Wide Web by its inventor

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web … is working on a plan to radically alter how all of us live and work on the web.  “The intent is world domination” … “It’s a historical moment.” Ever since revelations emerged that Facebook had allowed people’s data to be misused by political operatives, Berners-Lee has felt an imperative to get this digital idyll into the real world. …

The difference here is that, on Solid, all the information is under his control. Every bit of data he creates or adds on Solid exists within a Solid pod–which is an acronym for personal online data store.

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

Would you like a decentralized internet, where you control your own data?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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Hackers peddle thousands of air miles on the Dark Web for pocket money

Air miles are easily available online which are issued by airlines including Delta, British Airways, Emirates, and Alaska Air, among others.  After investigating Dark Web marketplaces including Dream Market, Olympus, and the Berlusconi Market, Bischoff found that sellers are flogging hundreds of thousands of frequent flier points.

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

Have you checked to see if your rewards are on the darkweb?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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8 Smart Ways To Maintain Your Digital Privacy

Regardless of how you use the internet, it’s nearly guaranteed that you are being tracked in some way. Natalie Triedman recently shared how people, often unknowingly, are sharing their location. We aren’t saying that you should freak out and stop using the internet, but it’s a good idea to be smart about your browsing.

Follow these tips to start protecting your information online. We’ve included some quick steps that everyone can do, as well as some more difficult and advanced methods for keeping your web data secure.

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

Are you concerned about your browser tracking you?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

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This new tech makes it harder for ISPs to spy on you

With the exception–perhaps–of your therapist or significant other, no one has more power to learn your secrets than your internet service provider. An ISP can see every website that you choose to access. …But new tech fixes are plugging the privacy holes that the government won’t.

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

Are you concerned about your ISP tracking you?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!

 

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This powerful off-the-shelf phone-hacking tool is spreading

Researchers at internet watchdog Citizen Lab have found that a sophisticated piece of spyware designed to break into most commercially available smartphones is now in use in 45 countries. Pegasus, designed by Israeli security firm NSO Group, has been pitched as a so-called “lawful intercept” tool for governments with highly questionable human rights records like Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

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

Are you concerned about someone hacking your phone?Join the conversation on our Facebook Page!