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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) […]
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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 […]
November 15, 2018 by Vertical Axion
The Radisson Hotel Group joins the ranks of globally-recognized brands to be on the receiving end of a successful hack. According to the company, a small percentage of their loyalty club members had some of their personal information accessed by an unauthorized and as yet unknown third party. The company reports that no credit or […]
November 14, 2018 by Vertical Axion
A research team has found an exploit that allows hackers to decrypt and view encrypted files on a number of well-known SSD drives. They include: Samsung T5 Portable Samsung T3 Portable Samsung 850 EVO Samsung 840 EVO Crucial MX 300 Crucial MX 200 Crucial MX 100 According to the research team: “We […]
November 13, 2018 by Vertical Axion
In recent months, hackers around the world have been finding new ways to invade people’s privacy, hijacking an increasing number of cameras and microphones attached to smartphones and PCs. Apple is responding to the evolving threat by introducing a new layer of physical security to their latest MacBooks. The company has created a custom security […]
November 12, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Intel just can’t seem to catch a break. By now, almost everyone has heard about the dreaded Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities which have been plaguing the chip maker since they were first discovered. Now, it seems there’s a new chip-based threat. This latest threat has been dubbed PortSmash by the research team from the Tampere […]
November 10, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Researchers have discovered a security flaw in MS Office 2016 and older versions that leave the door open to hackers who can take advantage of it to run malicious code on a target computer. This latest hack exploits a flaw in the software’s online video option, which allows users to embed a YouTube video via […]
November 9, 2018 by Vertical Axion
If you own Apple devices that use iOS, watchOS, tvOS, or macOS, there’s good news. The company just released major updates for all of those. They’re available right now, and here are a few of the highlights: For iOS 12.1, the big changes are as follows: Group Face Time, with support for audio and video […]
November 7, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Yahoo has the dubious honor of having been on the receiving end of the largest data breach in history. As a consequence, the company has recently agreed to pay $50 million in damages and provide free credit monitoring services to its impacted users. The company actually suffered a pair of breaches in 2013 and in […]
November 3, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Security in the Android ecosystem is awful. There’s just no other word to describe it. In large part, the blame for that can be placed at the feet of Google. Although they have succeeded in creating a wildly successful platform, their management of OEM devices (in particular, security updates for them) have been virtually nonexistent. […]
November 2, 2018 by Vertical Axion
As far as hackers are concerned, no target is safe. Not even the Girl Scouts. Recently, one of the Girl Scouts’ official email accounts was accessed by an “unauthorized third party” and as a result, as many as 2,800 girl scouts in Orange County, California may have had their personal information compromised. Gaining access to […]
November 1, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Do you use Tumblr? If so, be aware that your personal information may have been exposed. Tumblr recently added a feature called “Recommended Blogs” that presents you with a list of blogs you might enjoy based on your past viewing habits. It’s a great idea in theory, but unfortunately, there were problems with the way […]
October 31, 2018 by Vertical Axion
McAfee has long been a popular target of scammers, but recently, they’ve changed the nature of their game. In years past, they’d display a webpage informing you that any McAfee products on your computer are out of date and provide a link to the company’s virtual storefront where you could renew. Unbeknownst to the people […]
October 30, 2018 by Vertical Axion
If you take a lot of photos with your Android device, you’re probably constantly on the lookout for a better way to organize them and access them. That’s exactly what the authors of the malicious app called “The Album, by Google Photos” are hoping for. The app put in a brief appearance on the Microsoft […]
October 29, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Anthem is one of the largest insurance providers in the United States. Unfortunately in 2015, they had the dubious honor of suffering the largest health data breach in history. It left protected health information of nearly 79 million of their customers exposed. As a result, a division of the US Department of Health and Human […]
October 26, 2018 by Vertical Axion
You probably haven’t heard of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Systems. They’re a low-profile division of the Department of Health and Human Services responsible for administering the Affordable Care Act. Recently, the company announced that they detected anomalous activity in the systems related to the healthcare.gov website that brokers and insurance agents use to […]
October 24, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Google is taking additional steps to bolster user privacy and better secure the data of the company’s legions of Android device owners. The company recently announced a change to the Android Backup Service that will encrypt all user backup data stored on its cloud servers, such that even Google itself can’t read it. Google has […]
October 23, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Gamers take the games they play seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they’re not above resorting to dirty tricks to score a win. Recently, social media has been abuzz with reports of a messaging app bug on Sony’s PlayStation devices. Specifically, there’s a bug in both the Android and iOS messaging apps that allow malicious […]
