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November 28, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The new version of Firefox is out, and if you’ve moved away from the browser in recent years, it may be time to give it another look. Dubbed “Quantum,” Firefox’s latest offering has been completely redesigned, and has a lot to like, not the least of which is its raw speed. This latest version is […]
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November 27, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Google’s Play Store is under siege. In recent month, there has been a sharp spike in malware campaigns launched against the store, with a shocking number of poisoned apps slipping past Google’s robust system of checks designed to prevent, or at least minimize such occurrences. The spike in poisoned apps has been reported by three […]
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November 25, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Retailers are gearing up for the year’s busiest shopping weekend, which runs from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, but another group is also gearing up. Scammers. Security experts are warning that retailers should brace for impact because the best estimates are that there could be as many as fifty million fraud-based attacks between those spectacularly […]
November 24, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Recently, Apple’s stock closed at $175.88, giving it a market valuation slightly above $900 billion. A Drexel Hamilton analyst named Brian White predicts that over the course of the next twelve months, the company’s stock could be trading as high as $235 per share, and at that price, Apple’s market valuation would be over one […]
November 23, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Tech companies of all shapes and sizes have been on the hunt for the “Holy Grail” of security features since before the rise of the internet. So far, a number of strategies have been developed, but none have proved to be successful. Hackers have found ways around each and every one to date. Apple recently […]
November 22, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft has introduced a new set of standards designed to make computers running Windows 10 more secure. Obviously, these standards are not industry requirements, and most of the off-the-shelf PCs you can buy will struggle to meet all of these requirements. In time, of course, that could change, but as things stand now, if you’re […]
November 21, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Apple’s new iPhone X is a technological marvel that boasts the best display in the industry today, featuring Super Retina OLED display technology and offering a mind boggling 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio. Unfortunately, there’s a problem, as revealed by a new support document the company released on the iPhone X. In it, Apples states […]
November 20, 2017 by Vertical Axion
When an operating system reaches the end of its supported life, such as Windows XP, NT and Vista have, it’s big news. It makes headlines. When other forms of software reach the end of the line, there’s just not as much fanfare. It’s not that it’s not important; it’s just not something people think or […]
November 18, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you’re using an Apple device running iOS 11.0.3 or 11.1, you may have noticed some oddities when sending text messages. For reasons that aren’t quite clear, the letter “I” is being replaced by the characters “A[?].” It’s not a game-breaking bug, but it is annoying, and if you’re not paying attention, it can make […]
November 17, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Last month, a new WiFi security vulnerability known as “Krack” was discovered by a security researcher named Mathy Vanhoef. It was about as serious as a security flaw could be, enabling hackers to clone a router and funnel traffic through it, either monitoring all the activity on the network, or, if they wanted to be […]
November 16, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Facebook has been in hot water with evidence mounting that hordes of fake accounts were used to spread misinformation about the recent presidential election. In addition to sparking congressional hearings, it also prompted Facebook and the other major social media companies to do a deep dive into their own active accounts and get a better […]
November 15, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Researchers at Rutgers University have hit upon a novel idea that could be a game-changer in terms of biometric identification. The team published a paper entitled “VibWrite: Towards Finger-input Authentication on Ubiquitous Surfaces via Physical Vibration,” and demonstrated a prototype of the device at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) conference in Dallas, Texas. The […]
November 14, 2017 by Vertical Axion
You may not have heard of the new strain of ransomware known as BadRabbit. If you haven’t, it’s because the overwhelming percentage of BadRabbit attacks have been occurring in Russia, which accounts for 71 percent of all known infections at present. Unfortunately, there have been a few infections reported in the United States, which may […]
November 13, 2017 by Vertical Axion
An Austrian software engineer named Felix Krause has made a disturbing discovery about iPhones using iOS11. Once an app has been given permission to access the device’s camera, it can take pictures and videos without alerting the user and upload them to the internet in real time. Unfortunately, there are a lot of apps that […]
November 11, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The statistics are alarming. Ransomware is fast becoming the favored hobby horse of hackers worldwide. Barely a week goes by that a new strain isn’t introduced into the wild, with expensive, and often tragic consequences. Right now, the average amount paid by office workers impacted by a ransomware attack is $1400, a figure that continues […]
November 10, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Hilton Hotels is in hot water, having recently been fined a hefty $700,000 in an agreement with the states of New York and Vermont over the company’s mishandling of a pair of recent data breaches. According to official statements released by investigators, the company was found to have made two glaring errors: failing to maintain […]
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 […]
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 […]