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November 9, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Do you use apps that employ the new “Adaptive Icons” feature introduced in Android Oreo? If so, be aware that there’s a serious flaw in the code that could send your device into an infinite bootloop, leaving you no alternative but to restore the device to factory default settings, which will almost certainly result in […]
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November 8, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Hotel giant Hyatt is in the crosshairs again, having suffered its second data breach in two years. Hyatt’s security team recently confirmed the breach as having occurred between March 18 and July 2 of 2017. While the company has yet to release any information detailing the number of impacted users, simply stating that it was […]
November 7, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you can’t trust your friends, who can you trust? No one, apparently. There’s a new scam on Facebook that’s making waves, and it’s one you should be mindful of. You may get an “urgent message” from someone you know, asking for your help in recovering their Facebook account. This is a tried and true […]
November 6, 2017 by Vertical Axion
For hackers around the world, success breeds more success, it seems. A company called KnowBe4 has released a report entitled “Top Ten Global Phishing Email Subject Lines For Q3 2017.” To prepare it, they analyzed email subject lines from simulated phishing tests to determine what the most effective approach was. Their findings were that “Official […]
November 4, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Hackers around the world are continuing to innovate at a terrifying, relentless pace, and that truth is reflected in the latest form of ransomware to be found in the wild. Dubbed “DoubleLocker,” this new strain targets Android devices. It uses and abuses the platform’s Accessibility Service, reactivating itself every time the user presses the phone’s […]
November 3, 2017 by Vertical Axion
File this one away under “obscure and terrifying.” Recently, a security researcher named Alfredo Ortega, speaking at a security conference in Buenos Aires, unveiled research revealing that the hard drive in your computer can be, with a bit of work, turned into a rudimentary microphone and used to spy on you. It should be noted […]
November 2, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Equifax just can’t seem to get out of its own way. Not long ago, the company suffered a massive data breach which saw the sensitive information of more than 145 million consumers exposed. As a result, congressional hearings were convened, and the CEO resigned in disgrace. Amazingly, though, despite these events, the IRS opted to […]
November 1, 2017 by Vertical Axion
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” as the saying goes. Unfortunately, Google has now been fooled by the same trick twice. For the second time in recent years, Google has allowed a malicious variant of the popular extension “AdBlock Plus” onto its Chrome Web Store. It was noticed by […]
October 31, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Companies are getting better at detecting and fending off brute force attacks. Depending on how big, and how hard-hitting the attack is, it can still get through, of course, but the main problem with such an attack is that it’s impossible to miss. The moment it starts, security professionals know what’s going on, and can […]
October 30, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you own a smartphone made by Chinese manufacturer OnePlus, you can thank security researcher Chris Moore for making a discovery that the manufacturer wasn’t going to tell you about. It turns out that OnePlus phones running the OxygenOS are recording a disturbing amount of user data and sending it back to a company server. […]
October 28, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The hits just keep coming, with Disqus being the latest company to issue a breach disclosure. If you’ve never heard of it, Disqus is an incredibly popular, plugin-based comment service for blogs. Although the breach was only just discovered, it occurred five years ago in July 2012, and impacted more than 17.5 million users. Evidence […]
October 27, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The Windows phone is officially dead, with the announcement from Joe Belfiore that there would be no new feature updates and no further development. The writing has been on the wall for a while now, with Microsoft gutting its phone division and laying off thousands of employees. But until Belfiore’s announcement, the company hadn’t made […]
October 26, 2017 by Vertical Axion
You’ve probably heard about Equifax’s recent troubles. More than 145 million consumer data files were exposed, including names, addresses, social security numbers and more. The problem was viewed as so serious that Equifax’s CEO stepped down and congressional hearings were launched, but then, a funny thing happened. Equifax got awarded a no-bid government contract worth […]
October 25, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Since ditching its beleaguered Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft’s latest offering, Edge, which is bundled with Windows 10, has been struggling to gain a foothold in the market. Yes, it comes preloaded on Windows 10 machines, and that fact alone has prompted significant use. However, the browser has its share of weaknesses and limitations, one of […]
October 24, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Another week, another data breach, and this time, popular fast food chain Sonic found itself in the crosshairs. The breach came to light when a Brian Krebs, a journalist for Infosec, spotted a large batch of credit card data for sale on an underground website. IBM’s “X-Force” division confirmed Krebs’ findings, and later that same […]
October 23, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Google Labs has produced some amazing ideas. Some of them have found their way to the market, and many others have not. The one thing they have in common, though, is that they’re all intriguing and exciting. That’s especially true of Google’s latest offering, Google Pixel Buds. If you’ve ever read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To […]
October 21, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP and Vista quite some time ago., Butbut so far, Firefox has been hanging tough, continuing to provide updates to their browser’s users on both platforms, doing at least something to extend their useful life a bit longer. That’s soon coming to an endgoing to change soon. Mozilla recently announced that […]
October 20, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Open source tools offer a lot of compelling advantages, with one of the biggest and most important being that they tend to have relatively fewer bugs and security flaws. The reason is that they’re open source initiatives, and anyone can dig into the source code and tweak it to make it better. Unfortunately, there are […]
October 19, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Data security is no laughing matter, and even small exposures can lead to hefty fines, no matter the size of your company. Last year, the federal government sent shockwaves through the industry when they began an aggressive campaign of investigating and punishing companies for HIPAA infractions, logging more than a dozen high profile settlements. While […]
October 18, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Recently, we wrote an urgent article about a serious security flaw in the current WiFi standard that could impact almost every wireless router and smartphone on the planet. Dubbed the “Krack Attack,” this flaw allows a hacker to make a carbon copy of your WPA2-encrypted network, spoof its MAC address, change the WiFi channel and […]
October 17, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Security researchers have found a new critical security flaw dubbed “Krack” (Key Reinstallation Attacks) that affects literally every WiFi router and smart phone in use today. The reason? The security flaw resides in the WiFi standard itself, rather than in a third-party product. In addition to being vast in scope and scale, Krack is a […]
October 16, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Unless you’re a computer geek for a living you probably have no idea of the mind-blowing news that just hit the wire this morning. And even if you are, the titles of the news articles might not catch your attention as something you should be concerned with. Articles with titles such as “WPA2: Broken with […]
Groove Music has had a short, troubled life. It started out as Zune Music, but Microsoft bought it in 2012, promptly rebranding it as Xbox Music before changing its name again to Groove. Now, the company has decided to get out of the music business altogether, and is sending all of its paying customers over […]
October 14, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Hackers are the new bank robbers in a very literal sense. Increasingly, hackers have taken to infiltrating bank networks specifically for the purpose of infecting ATMs attached to their network with malicious code that makes stealing from them a snap. Once the malware has been installed on a target machine, a lower level member of […]
