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March 5, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Recently, another “exotic character” bug was found in iOS. If someone sends this particular character (a special character that’s part of the Indian language pack) to your phone via any messaging app, it will not only crash your phone, but cause a variety of messaging apps to stop functioning. When the bug was initially reported, […]
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March 3, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Do you own a Mac? Do you use APFS “sparse disk images?” If so, be aware that under certain conditions, your trusty computer may allow you to copy important data into the void where it will be lost forever, without giving you a heads up first. This unusual error was recently discovered by Mike Bombich, […]
March 2, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Here’s a statistic that is as disturbing as it is frustrating. According to the latest “State of the Internet/Security” report for the fourth quarter of 2017, as published by Akamai, bot-traffic accounts for a staggering 43 percent of all login attempts. As bad as that figure is on its face, it’s far worse for companies […]
March 1, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Rumors of the death of HDD technology have been greatly exaggerated. The advancement of solid state technology and its increasing rate of adoption has been largely responsible for this, but don’t count old school HDDs out just yet. They still have many important advantages, and recent breakthroughs should add further to the longevity of the […]
February 28, 2018 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new strain of the “Rapid Ransomware” making the rounds, and because of how it’s being transmitted, it’s destined to have a higher than average rate of infection. The new strain was first discovered by Derek Knight. It is disturbing because it claims to come from the IRS, and will feature subject lines like […]
February 27, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Last year, Apple had to fix a “special character” bug in their Message app that was more of an annoyance than anything. This year, a new special character bug has been found, but this one is much more serious and could allow an attacker to crash your phone and block access to a variety of […]
February 26, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Google is poised to make an important change to its Chrome browser beginning in July 2018. Here’s the summary from Emily Schechter, the Google Chrome Security Product Manager: “For the past several years, we’ve moved toward a more secure web by strongly advocating that sites adopt HTTPS encryption, and within the last year, we’ve also […]
February 24, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Image theft is one of the biggest problems on the internet. If you’re a photographer, you’ve almost certainly lost money because people find your work online and make a copy of it rather than paying for the right to use it. Unfortunately, Google has made that incredibly easy to do, but that’s changing. Until recently, […]
February 23, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Hackers are picky about their victims. They’ll target just about any group or organization, including the 2018 Olympics. Cisco’s Talos Group recently identified a new strain of malware they’ve dubbed “Olympic Destroyer” which is wreaking havoc in Pyeong Chang’s computer networks and causing downtime to internal WiFi and television systems. This has impacted the games’ […]
February 22, 2018 by Vertical Axion
There are big changes coming to MS Office which you need to be aware of, given how widely used “Office” is in most companies. First, the headline change: When MS Office 2019 is released, it will only run on Windows 10. If you’ve still got machines on older operating systems, and you want to keep […]
February 21, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Do you own a smart TV? More than half of all television sales in the US last year were smart TVs, so chances are decent that you own one. If you do, be aware that it may be collecting far more data about you than you think. Recall that last year, Samsung, (one of the […]
February 20, 2018 by Vertical Axion
That smartwatch you’re wearing might save your life. Literally. A new study conducted by the University of California San Francisco, and a healthcare startup called Cardiogram revealed that smartwatches and other wearables were able to detect diabetes in previously diagnosed patients an impressive 85 percent of the time. The study monitored health statistics of more […]
February 19, 2018 by Vertical Axion
On February 2, Tavis Ormandy, a researcher on Google’s Project Zero team discovered a critical flaw in the popular online grammar checking app, “Grammarly.” Tens of millions of users make regular use of the app to improve the quality of their writing. The bug allowed a hacker to steal a Grammarly user’s authentication token and […]
February 17, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Menlo Security just released their third annual “State of the Web” report and it’s not pretty. The headline finding is that 42% of the top 100,000 sites as ranked by Alexa are more dangerous than you think. The report defines a risky site as one that meets one of three criteria: The site, or […]
February 16, 2018 by Vertical Axion
The latest Brand Finance Global 500 report out and contains some surprises this year. In the battle of the Brands, two companies have long topped the list: Apple and Google. This year, there’s a new Sheriff in town. Amazon blew past the top two claiming the top spot for itself. It is now the most […]
February 15, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Sophos has released the results of their annual “State of Endpoint Security Today”, and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. A full 54% of companies surveyed reported having been hit by a ransomware attack in 2017. Another 31% reported that they expect to be on the receiving end of such an attack in the near […]
February 14, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft is getting tough on so-called “registry cleaners”, and it’s about time. The company recently announced a planned change to Windows Defender (the anti-malware program that comes standard with every Windows installation). The change will see to the deletion of an increasing number of these registry cleaners. It’s a great move, and the company deserves […]
February 13, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Security researchers from around the web are reporting finding an increasing number of instances of proof of concept (PoC) code that incorporates the recently discovered Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. If you somehow missed those earlier reports, Spectre and Meltdown are a pair of critical security flaws recently discovered in literally every Intel chip set made […]
February 12, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Oracle is currently the third-largest provider of POS (Point of Sale) software on the market today, which means that there’s a fairly good chance you’re using an Oracle POS system. If you are, there’s trouble ahead. A recently discovered security flaw could put your system at risk. Oracle has already identified and patched the security […]
February 10, 2018 by Vertical Axion
If ever there were two phrases that didn’t seem to go together, they would probably be “Fitness trackers” and “National Security Risk.” The very idea that a simple fitness tracker could pose such a risk seems laughable on the surface, but this is no laughing matter. Recently, a popular fitness tracking app called “Strava” published […]
February 9, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Google recently released their Play Store stats for 2017. The results are both encouraging and disheartening. Overall, Google caught and removed more than 700,000 malicious apps from the Play Store, minimizing their impact on the company’s massive Android user base. That’s unquestionably good news, but it comes with a bit of a dark side. That […]
February 8, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Recently, Apple found itself in hot water with its normally adoring user base. This happened when it became known that the company was intentionally throttling (slowing down) the speed of older iPhones. The company’s intentions were good. They clearly meant well. The move was designed to even out performance in older equipment. As cellphone batteries […]
February 7, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Another day, another high-profile ransomware attack. This time, the victim was Allscripts, an EHR (Electronic Health Record) company that hospitals, pharmacies, and ambulatory centers around the country rely on. The company’s data was thought to be safe on the cloud, but that proved not to be the case. Disruptions of services were felt by Allscripts […]
February 6, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Recently a critical flaw was found inside every Intel chip made during the last decade. The flaw makes two different exploits possible. These exploits have been dubbed “Meltdown” and “Spectre.” The flaws are incredibly severe, and make it possible for a hacker to gain complete, unfettered access to the targeted PC or laptop. Although no […]
