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December 28, 2018 by Vertical Axion
The annual list of the worst passwords in use during 2018 has just been published by SplashData. This year’s list features a number of the usual suspects, but there are also a few new entries. Here are the ten worst passwords in use, according to the data: 123456 password 123456789 12345678 12345 111111 […]
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December 26, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Are you a Quora user? If so, you’re certainly not alone. It is the internet’s most popular question-and-answer website, which makes it a unique property in the social media ecosystem. Unfortunately, the site recently suffered a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of about one hundred million of the site’s users. The Quora […]
December 25, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Marriott now has the dubious honor of having suffered one of the worst breaches in history. Granted, the 500 million customer records recently stolen from the company pales in comparison to Yahoo’s loss of nearly three billion customer records, but Marriott’s number is certainly nothing to scoff at. In 2016, the company acquired rival Starwood […]
December 24, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Are you one of the legions of Americans who run on Dunkin’? If so, be advised that your DD Perks Reward Account may have been compromised. The company reported that they were recently breached by a currently unknown third party, and that at least some customer information was compromised. Dunkin’ (formerly known as Dunkin Donuts) […]
December 21, 2018 by Vertical Axion
It’s no secret that ransomware attacks have been on the rise over the last couple of years. Many companies, desperate to get their files back, have resorted to simply paying the ransom and hoping the hackers act in good faith and keep their word where unlocking the files is concerned. That approach just got a […]
December 19, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Most people use Google Chrome. In fact, according to the latest statistics, Chrome has more than half the browser market share, with the rest dividing the smaller portion of the market between them. That’s relevant because recently, Google has made important changes to their browser that provide visual cues when a website you’re visiting doesn’t […]
December 18, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Have you ever created an account on Dell’s website to purchase computer equipment? If so, your account may have been compromised. As a precaution, Dell has forced password resets for every account on their site. You’ve likely already got a notification sitting in your inbox with a password rest link and additional instructions and information. […]
December 17, 2018 by Vertical Axion
In recent months, security researchers have unearthed all sorts of new hardware vulnerabilities. Several of them allow hackers to quietly assume control of your PC’s built-in camera or microphone, giving them the ability to spy on you and invade your privacy at will. Normally this is accomplished when a hacker can trick you into downloading […]
December 14, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Akamai has discovered a nasty new hack that’s allowing cybercriminals to move beyond simply compromising routers, but also, in some instances, to use the compromised routers to take control of other machines sitting behind it on your network. The hack, known as UPnProxy exploits weaknesses in the design of the UPnP services installed on many […]
December 13, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Bob Diachenko, the Director of Cyber Risk Research for Hacken, recently made a disturbing discovery. He found an ElasticSearch server open and vulnerable on the internet, without so much as a password to protect it. Unfortunately, the server was leaking a staggering 73GB of data and had a number of databases cached inside the server’s […]
December 12, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Do you have an account on USPS.com? If so, you’re not alone. Tens of millions of Americans use it daily for a variety of purposes. Unfortunately, if you do have an account, it may have been compromised. Recently, the USPS announced the discovery of a critical security vulnerability that exposed the account information of more […]
December 11, 2018 by Vertical Axion
In recent years we’ve seen several companies suffer from hacks of various magnitudes. Over time, we’ve witnessed the growth of what could be described as best practices in terms of how to respond. The typical arc goes something like this: The hack is discovered. Immediately thereafter, the company discloses the pertinent details about the hack, […]
December 10, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Google relies on crowd sourcing to help keep its maps up to date. There’s no other approach that even comes close to being feasible. Sure, Google has employees on the job, roving the nation’s highways, byways, and back streets. Even if the company employed ten times the number they’re currently using, their maps wouldn’t be […]
December 7, 2018 by Vertical Axion
There’s trouble brewing at Amazon, although details are sketchy about how much trouble there might be. Recently, the company sent the following message to some of its customers: “Hello, We’re contacting you to let you know that our website inadvertently disclosed your email address due to a technical error. The issue has been fixed. This […]
December 6, 2018 by Vertical Axion
In recent months, Google has taken steps to tighten up its processes so that fewer poisoned apps find their way into the Google Play Store. In addition to that, the company has stepped up its efforts to ruthlessly track down and remove malicious apps whenever and wherever they are found. By most accounts, that effort […]
December 5, 2018 by Vertical Axion
The mobile payment platform Venmo (owned by Paypal) has a fraud problem. That’s not exactly new. The company has struggled with fraud issues for a long time, but recently, things have gotten out of control. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company reported losses of $40 million in just the first three months of […]
December 4, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Bad news for computer users everywhere. Researchers at the University of California in Riverside have discovered that GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are vulnerable to side-channel attacks like Spectre and Meltdown, which have been plaguing Intel CPU’s for the better part of a year. The team, (consisting of two computer science professors and two PhD students) […]
December 3, 2018 by Vertical Axion
In the world of data security, cryptocurrency mining software is often overlooked or discounted as a threat because it doesn’t do serious harm to the infected system. It bleeds off computing resources, putting them to work for the miners who control the software, working for them to solve complex cryptographic puzzles which generate revenue for […]
November 29, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Over the course of the holiday season this year, more than half of the working adults in the United States will be traveling with one or more of their work devices. Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of those fully appreciate the data security risks inherent in travel, which is a grim reality that could put […]
November 23, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Target is the latest company to fall victim to a simple but effective Twitter-Bitcoin scam. The scam is about as straightforward as it gets: A tweet gets sent out by a well-respected brand or prominent individual. It contains a link which is likely to be clicked on, given that it’s from a prominent individual or […]
November 22, 2018 by Vertical Axion
SailPoint has recently published some new research that will probably give you a headache, if you’re a business owner. It’s been common knowledge for at least a few years now that employees are a company’s weakest link when it comes to data security. From weak passwords, to using the same password across multiple web properties, […]
November 21, 2018 by Vertical Axion
How long does it take from when hackers steal credit card data from a given company until it appears for sale on the Dark Web? The answer varies from one hacker to the next, but the short answer is ‘not very long.’ The more precise answer, at least in the case of New Egg and […]
November 17, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Researchers from the Israeli security firm Armis have discovered a new security flaw in BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) chips that expose millions of access points and networking devices around the world. This opened the door to a new hack. The flaw has been dubbed “BleedingBit” and is actually two separate vulnerabilities that could allow a […]
November 16, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Bots make up a shocking percentage of internet traffic. In fact, in some industries, there are far more bots trolling sites than there are humans. Keeping bots from interfering with a website’s functionality and impacting human user experiences is an ongoing challenge that Google and many other companies are struggling to address. Google’s first attempt […]
