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May 4, 2016 by Vertical Axion
When you surf the web, do you use a VPN (Virtual Private Network)? More than half a billion of the web’s users do, which is about a quarter of the web’s population, so you may be one of them. If you’re not, you should consider it, because it makes your browsing experience safer and more […]
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May 3, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Google takes security more seriously than most companies, and it’s no wonder, given that the company’s Android Operating System is currently in use by more than 1.4 billion users worldwide. The latest version of Android (version 6.0, dubbed Marshmallow) includes such things as support for fingerprint scanners, a built-in patch level checker, verified boot functionality, […]
May 2, 2016 by Vertical Axion
You may not have heard much about USB-C cables, but you will. They are the future of USB connectivity, and will ultimately replace both USB-A and USB-B cables, which are the ones you’re likely using right now to connect your various devices. A few months ago, Google Engineer Brian Leung had a nasty encounter with […]
April 30, 2016 by Vertical Axion
If you have a Windows-based PC (and you probably do), then you’ve almost certainly had the dubious honor of seeing the dreaded BSOD, or Blue Screen of Death. Unfortunately, since the first appearance of that screen, it has had a history of being less than helpful. Mostly, what you get is a long string of […]
April 29, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Remember the good old days, when all Adware did was make your web browsing experience inconvenient by bombarding you with annoying popups? Sadly, those days appear to be over. There’s a new generation of Adware that goes far, far beyond that. Recently, a particularly nasty variant called VLMiner was found. It’s clever, and is programmed […]
April 28, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Our first Two for One Managed Services Special, and $5 off Exchange Accounts! How long: May 1st – May 31st, 2016 Who is eligible: Any current Business and Residential customers, including employees of business customers. How it works: For every new customer we sign up during the month of May, we will credit you (or your […]
So, it turns out that the “Badlock” Samba exploit wasn’t quite as bad as it was originally cracked up to be. If you haven’t heard of Badlock, you’re not alone. It made the rounds in Internet security circles, but wasn’t widely publicized because it is a fairly specific, narrow threat, unlike some of the other […]
April 27, 2016 by Vertical Axion
If your company has one or more of millions of PCs still running Windows XP, your options are collapsing around you rather quickly, making it more important than ever to finally get around to upgrading to a more current OS. Microsoft formally ended all support for XP last year, and now Google has decided to […]
April 26, 2016 by Vertical Axion
It’s been a busy week at Oracle. The company has recently released a massive flurry of patches that fix a staggering 136 security issues for a wide range of the products it sells. This release comes in tandem with the decision to switch from CVSS 2.0 to CVSS 3.0 (the Common Vulnerability Scoring System). The […]
April 25, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Last year, an IoT (Internet of Things) security firm called Bastille Networks uncovered an attack from an unexpected vector. Hackers can actually take control of your wireless mouse, which has no on-board security, and use the device to spoof keyboard inputs to the computer it is attached to. The hope was that by revealing details […]
April 23, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Are you still using single factor authentication in your business? If so, you are taking an unnecessary risk. If the only thing standing between the hacking community and your company’s data is a password, then no matter how robust those passwords might be, it’s just a matter of time before someone slips up, and your […]
April 22, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Toy manufacturing giant Mattel was recently the target of a whaling scam that could have been both highly embarrassing and extremely costly, if not for a single stroke of luck. If you’ve not heard the term, “whaling” is a subset of the phishing scams that hackers commonly run, with the key distinction being that whaling […]
April 21, 2016 by Vertical Axion
More problems for the Adobe Flash player, and a new type of hacking attack that security experts are referring to as “Typosquatting.” If you’ve not yet heard the term, you’re not alone, but you can bet that it will be making headlines in the months ahead. So far, this type of attack is limited to […]
April 20, 2016 by Vertical Axion
If you have Apple QuickTime installed on a Windows-based PC, you should uninstall it immediately. In a public statement issued on 4/14/2016, the US-CERT recommends the removal of QuickTime for Windows. Apple announced that they’re no longer supporting the product in any way, including issuing security updates. On the heels of this announcement, the Zero […]
April 19, 2016 by Vertical Axion
The statistics are both shocking and dismaying. Even in the face of innumerable high profile data breaches, people still aren’t serious about personal data security. In fact, a shocking 95% of people admit to sharing between one and six passwords with friends. Most of these seem innocuous. After all, it’s not too much of a […]
April 18, 2016 by Vertical Axion
“What’s old is new again.” The simple truth is that tastes and trends seem to repeat. We’ve seen it countless times in the world of fashion, and now, we’re seeing something similar in the hacking community. Over the past year or so, hackers around the world have come to rely increasingly on a type of […]
April 16, 2016 by Vertical Axion
The hacking community seems to have found another viable business model, this time, in the form of ransomware. Given the success that hackers have been finding with this type of attack lately, they’ve upped their game, and have begun to experiment with and vary their approach when getting ransomware onto target machines. Samsam, a variant […]
April 15, 2016 by Vertical Axion
If you use Google Chrome, you might have the “Better History” extension installed. If you do, and you’ve upgraded it recently, you’ve probably seen a large influx of advertising on your screen. Yes, you guessed it, hackers have found yet another avenue of attack, this time, co-opting browser extensions. In this particular case, the browser […]
April 14, 2016 by Vertical Axion
You’ve probably heard that last year, Trump Hotels were successfully breached, and an unknown number of customer credit cards compromised. In fact, what makes last year’s breach of Trump Hotels remarkable as compared to the breaches of a number of other hotel chains last year is the almost complete lack of information about the incident. […]
April 13, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Apple reports that it has fixed a security issue you may not have known existed. The problem occurred only with the iPhone 6 and 6s Plus devices, and was specific to images. Here’s how it worked, prior to the fix: Your phone, as you know, has a lock screen. Your phone also has Siri. Siri […]
April 12, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Browser extensions are in the news lately, and not just for Firefox. Recently, hackers have corrupted several Google Chrome extensions, and are using them to display unwanted ads to unsuspecting users. For Firefox though, matters are a fair bit worse. It’s not just ads that Firefox users have to worry about, it’s the possibility of […]
April 11, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Your employees are your biggest, most important, most valuable asset. Everybody who knows anything about business understand that. Unfortunately, your biggest asset is also your biggest liability, at least when it comes to data security. Recently, SailPoint conducted its annual Market Pulse Survey, a part of which explored various aspects and dimensions of enterprise data […]
April 9, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Recently, internet security companies have been reporting increasing incidents of large numbers of emails being sent out with strange and distinctive subject lines. Typically they’re crafted as file names, and have image extensions like .tiff, .jpg and .png. They’re designed to lend the appearance that they’ve been sent from someone’s smartphone, which has tempted a […]
April 8, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Recently, CNBC ran an article on password security. Embedded in the article was a tool they invited readers to use to test the strength and integrity of their passwords. The tool was supposed to estimate how long it would take a hacker to “crack” your password, and the tool was given with assurances that passwords […]
