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November 4, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Google does an admirable job of keeping its sprawling Play Store free of apps containing malware. Their verification system is world-class. That said, no system is perfect, and that includes Google’s. In recent months, the company has removed nearly a hundred apps that made it through their various gateways and checkpoints while containing all manner […]
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November 3, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Not all ransomware strains are created equally. Some are designed as slow burns that will infect a target system, expanding its reach for days, or even weeks before striking and locking your business critical files. Others are designed to hit fast and hard. Lockbit definitely falls into this latter category, based on a detailed analysis […]
October 31, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Malware comes in all shapes and sizes. Some strains copy and encrypt files. Others serve annoying ads. Still others work quietly in the background, mining this or that cryptocurrency using your computer’s processing power to do it. GravityRAT is a different sort of creature. It has been actively developed since at least 2015 by Pakistani […]
Deep Fakes are becoming an increasingly large problem. If you’re not familiar with the term, a Deep Fake is an advanced photo or video technique in which an existing person in a video is digitally overwritten by some other person. Want to make it look like a wholesome actress has a porn video on the […]
October 30, 2020 by Vertical Axion
WordPress tends to take a light-handed approach when it comes to managing the legions of plugins that are compatible with the most popular blogging platform on the planet. This time, however, they’re taking a different approach. They’re forcing a security update to counter a dangerous bug in a wildly popular plugin that’s being used by […]
October 29, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Score one for the good guys. A team led by Microsoft’s DCU (Digital Crimes Unit) that includes Symantec, NTT Ltd, ESET, and Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs is working on something new. They have launched a sustained, coordinated attack on Trickbot’s infrastructure in a bid to destroy it, preventing the hackers who control it from making […]
October 28, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you make frequent use of Adobe products, then you’ll definitely want to give priority to applying the latest security update offered by the company. It’s an out of band patch that impacts ten different products in the Adobe lineup and is aimed squarely at addressing a number of critical security flaws. Since this is […]
October 27, 2020 by Vertical Axion
A great many malware strains are designed to engage quietly during a PC’s startup process and then idle in the background. They are in the system logging keystrokes, taking screen shots at periodic intervals and uploading them to a command and control server, or doing other nefarious things. Microsoft wants to limit malware’s ability to […]
October 26, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you haven’t yet installed the latest Windows 10 or Windows Server update, here’s something to be aware of before you do. You may not be able to update or install some third-party drivers. When you try, you might receive an error message that reads ‘Windows can’t verify the publisher of this driver software.’ In […]
October 24, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Skynet just took a step closer to becoming a reality. The word, of course, refers back to the hit movie, ‘Terminator,’ in which a computer network gained sentience and decided to do away with the human race. While Microsoft’s latest advances in AI aren’t Skynet, their new, and recently touted AI image description routine is […]
October 23, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Intel has had more than its share of challenges over the last couple of years. Not the least of which included a whole family of new attack vectors that made headlines and caused panic around the world. This happened as hackers discovered new ways to attack machines with ‘Intel Inside,’ which globally, is a lot […]
October 22, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Selling network access is big business on underground hacking websites. Even worse, the business is growing at an alarming rate, according to a report recently published by cyber security firm KELA. According to their report, the number of ads found on hacking forums advertising ‘Network Access’ tripled between August and September, 2020. The value of […]
October 21, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Since Google introduced Google Analytics back in 2005, it has become the industry standard. A simple, free method of getting a bird’s eye view into who’s searching for what on the internet. Millions of business owners around the world rely on Google Analytics to make informed decisions about how to position and present the products […]
October 20, 2020 by Vertical Axion
The year 2020 could well be described as the Year of Ransomware. Security researchers around the globe who monitor such things have noted a sharp uptick in the use of ransomware this year, with well known threats like REvil, Ryuk, and Maze being the most common variants deployed by hackers. That’s bad enough by itself, […]
October 19, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you an Office 365 user? If so, be aware that Microsoft is adding some powerful new protections to the software suite, designed to make you safer. Hackers commonly target Office 365 users with a type of attack known as “Consent Phishing.” That basically means that the hacker in question will use a variety of […]
October 17, 2020 by Vertical Axion
What do you primarily use your PC for? It’s a more important question than you might think, because different use cases for your PC require it to be configured in different ways to optimize your user experience. Until now, that’s something that each individual user has attended to, making tweaks as necessary to the core […]
October 16, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Do you own a newer HP laptop? If so, do you make use of the HP Battery Health Manager? If you don’t know what that is, then the answer to the second question is probably no, but you’re about to find out what it is. Windows has partnered with HP, and has released an update […]
October 15, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Hackers are relentless when it comes to testing the boundaries of software for potential weaknesses to exploit. It seems that an unknown group of hackers has found a new one. Based on what researchers at Malwarebytes are seeing, a group of hackers has developed a new fileless attack technique designed to abuse Microsoft’s WER (Windows […]
October 14, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Security researchers at Netlab have recently reported on their discovery of a terrifying new botnet on the web. Dubbed HEH, this botnet is a different sort of threat. Unlike most others, this one is not designed to launch DDOS attacks or install malicious code. Its purpose is much simpler, and it only does two things. […]
October 13, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you’ve got an NVIDIA graphics card in your PC, and odds are pretty good that you do, be aware that the company recently released a security update. It patches a number of high severity vulnerabilities in the Windows GPU display driver that could allow a hacker to gain complete control over your system via […]
October 12, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Do you have a solid state drive (SSD) inside your PC? An increasing percentage of newer models are including them, taking advantage of their better speeds, relative to HDDs. Unfortunately, a recent Microsoft Windows 10 update wasn’t very kind to SSD owners, and caused SSDs to defrag much more frequently than is recommended, which had […]
October 10, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Hackers have long used the lure of software cracks to infect unsuspecting users, but recently, a new group is making waves and finding significant success in using the Exorcist 2.0 ransomware to lock a user’s files and extort them. It’s a nasty combination. The user thinks he’s getting a free unlock for some piece of […]
October 9, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Does your business rely on QNAP NAS storage devices? If so, be aware that the company recently issued an advisory, stating that an unknown group of hackers has begun targeting them specifically with ransomware attacks. The advisory reads, in part, as follows: “QNAP Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) has found evidence that the ransomware […]
October 8, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you’re a fan of the luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton, be advised that the company recently and quietly fixed an issue on their website that may have been exploited by hackers before the company became aware of it. The problem was discovered by independent researcher Sabri Haddouche, who, following proper responsible reporting protocols, reached […]
