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April 1, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Nobody likes CAPTCHAs. They’re annoying. They slow you down when you’re trying to log into a site that has data you need. Unfortunately, CAPTCHAs themselves proved necessary to help weed out bots and keep them at bay. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but in Google’s case, they began using text digitized […]
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March 31, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you’re a business owner, and you haven’t yet heard of BEC scams, it’s a term you owe it to yourself to get familiar with. The acronym stands for Business Email Compromise, otherwise known as CEO fraud, and it’s growing in popularity. The basic idea is that a hacker spends time studying your business, how […]
March 30, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The security company Checkpoint recently found a critical security flaw in both the Whatsapp and Telegram services that could have spelled big trouble for their users. Fortunately, it has already been patched with no apparent damage done, but below, the details of the flaw are outlined because this may not be the last time we […]
March 29, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Google Maps has, for years now, been the savior of directionally challenged people everywhere, and it just got even better. Thanks to a new update that was made without fanfare, it will now help you remember where you parked. When you get wherever you’re going, if you’ve got the app pulled up, you can simply […]
March 28, 2017 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new technology being developed by researchers at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) that stands to be a game-changer. Dubbed “lip password,” the new tech utilizes machine learning to recognize lip motion, shape and texture for each user when you speak your password. Of significance, your voice has nothing to do with the password […]
March 27, 2017 by Vertical Axion
A brazen group of hackers calling themselves the “Turkish Crime Family” claims to have more than half a million user names and passwords for a variety of Apple-based services, including mac.com, me.com and icloud.com. Unless their demands are met and the company pays a hefty $150,000, the group is threatening to erase everything in all […]
March 25, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Everyone who knows anything about computers knows that Windows won the war for the desktop a long time ago. Even today, it holds an impressive 84.1 percent of that market. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the battlefield has shifted. In 2012, Android could claim just 2.2 percent of the total OS market (desktop PCs, laptop PCs and […]
March 24, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you’re one of the relatively few people still using Windows Vista, you should know that the OS is on life support. As of April 11, Microsoft will no longer be providing any kind of support. This means no critical security updates, no tech support and no patches of any kind for any reason. You’ll […]
March 23, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The internet is beginning to resemble the wild west, thanks to this latest data breach, which has exposed almost a billion and a half email addresses and a full range of other personal information. The two things that make this particular incident noteworthy are its sheer size and the target of the hack. In this […]
March 22, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Have you recently purchased an Android phone? Depending on the brand and where you got it, you may have purchased a device pre-loaded with malware. So far, two unidentified vendors have been found selling smartphones from a variety of manufacturers containing malware from two different and particularly nasty families of malware: SLocker and Loki. In […]
March 21, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Given the fact that smart phones are about to eclipse PCs as the King of the digital world, threats against smart devices are garnering increasing attention, and the biggest players in the smart device market are taking an active stance against them. The Google Play Store is already one of the most secure online app […]
March 20, 2017 by Vertical Axion
With all its potential, the Internet of Things has problems. The single biggest one of these relates to privacy. This came into sharp focus last year when a smart TV producer revealed that their products were always on and could easily record private conversations. If the servers housing those recordings were hacked, it could put […]
March 18, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Should it be legal to hack a hacker who is intent on attacking you? It’s an interesting, touchy debate, with powerful opinions on both sides. On the one hand, hacking is universally regarded as an illegal act, even when conducted in self-defense. After all, it invariably involves breaching a network you do not own. Furthermore, […]
March 17, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Dahua, a Chinese manufacturer of DVRs and Smart Cameras, has security problems. In fact, on the Dark Web, the company is commonly referenced as building products that are particularly easy to hack, and as such, hackers gravitate to them. In practice, what this means is that Dahua devices make up a disproportionate share of most […]
March 16, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Unless you have kids, you may not have even known about CloudPets, or the MongoDB, much less the recent hack or the shocking lack of security. Firstly, yes. Smartpets are a “thing.” They are a new type of stuffed toy for small children connected to the internet. Parents and grandparents can record messages for their […]
March 15, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The next big thing is going to be really small, at least if Microsoft has anything to say about it. They’ve been experimenting with storing data in what some might call the most unlikely of places…DNA. The process is mind-bendingly complex, but the potential is simply too great to be ignored. A single gram of […]
March 14, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Last week, Amazon’s AWS (Amazon Web Services) suffered an 11-hour outage that resulted in dramatic slowdowns and complete unavailability of more than 100 large internet retailers and a number of the web’s top sites, including Amazon itself, Netflix, Imgur, Reddit and a host of others. The situation has now been resolved, and Amazon has published […]
March 13, 2017 by Vertical Axion
While Cloudflare isn’t a household name, it is one of the titans of the internet, having a massive presence as a reverse proxy service. It provides security and serves optimized content to many Fortune 500 companies and a whole host of smaller ones. From September of last year to Feb. 20 of this year, thanks […]
March 11, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Remember in the ancient past, two years ago, when Ransomware first made its appearance, infecting hospitals and banks? That’s still happening, of course. But now, the hackers have a new target: mobile devices. Increasingly, hackers are shifting their attention to smartphones. The idea is that although there’s not as much money in them individually, with […]
March 10, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Not long ago, the first instance of ransomware was designed to effect Macs. This was greeted with an even mix of shock, surprise and dismay among the ranks of Mac users, and it did a lot to dispel the Mac Mystique. After all, it has been held as an article of faith that Macs are […]
March 9, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Another week, another big problem for the Internet of Things. This time, it’s smart cars and the apps that surround them. There are an increasing number of apps available for a growing number of makes and models of vehicles that can do everything from unlocking your car to starting it remotely. Unfortunately, as researchers at […]
March 8, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Are you still using Yahoo mail? If so, your account may have been one of the billion or more accounts hacked in recent years. Yahoo’s email servers have been on the receiving end of two of the largest breaches in the history of the internet as recently as 2013, and for many users, it destroyed […]
March 7, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you have a Gmail account, then you probably already know that you can’t attach .exe, .jar, or .pif files to any emails you send. Until recently, Javascript files were allowed, but Google has changed their policy. If you try to send a Javascript attachment, you’ll get a “this file type not allowed” message. The […]
March 6, 2017 by Vertical Axion
No matter how good your digital security system is, and no matter how much you’ve spent on it, your weakest link is and always will be your employees themselves. A careless or disgruntled employee can easily circumvent even the most elaborate system and cost you big money in the process. Fortunately, the courts are coming […]
