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October 3, 2018 by Vertical Axion
If you use the GovPayNet portal, be advised that your personal information is currently at risk. Although at this point, there’s no indication that any hacker has made use of it. The portal is run by Government Payment Service, and is used by many Americans to pay fines, fees and bills generated by more than […]
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October 2, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Google is making a small but pivotal change as it relates to calls placed to 911 operators. Having recently finalized a complex partnership with RapidSOS and West (two emergency technology companies) and T-Mobile, Google will now send location data from its “Emergency Location Service” when an Android user places a 911 call. If the caller […]
September 28, 2018 by Vertical Axion
A new piece of legislation is making its way through the halls of Congress that could standardize and streamline the data security and breach notification process for financial institutions. This is something that most people in the industry tout as an improvement over the current situation. The Consumer Information Notification Requirement Act (H. R. 6743) […]
September 27, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Users of Apple tech have a new reason to worry. A security researcher named Sabri Haddouche, who works for an instant messaging app called “Wire,” has published a proof of concept web page. It contains a fatal exploit that can crash and restart iPhones, iPads and any Mac. Essentially then, the entire Apple ecosystem is […]
September 26, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Western Digital has a big problem, and if you use the company’s “My Cloud” network-attached storage (NAS) storage devices, you’ve got one too. The WD My Cloud service is enormously popular because it’s so convenient, allowing both business owners and individuals to store their files, perform periodic backups, and of course, access their data from […]
September 25, 2018 by Vertical Axion
We’ve known for some time now that the next big crisis the internet will have to come to grips with is the dramatic rise of the Internet of Things (IOT). The problem isn’t with the devices themselves, which are enormously helpful and rapidly growing in their popularity. Rather, it lies in the fact that the […]
September 24, 2018 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new report out, authored by ProofPoint, and its findings for business are grim. It’s no secret that businesses of all shapes and sizes are coming under increasing fire from hackers around the world. Now we have hard data that shows us exactly how big of an increase we’re seeing. Here are some of […]
September 22, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Google is taking yet another important step to help save us from ourselves. The company is releasing a complete redesign of their Chrome browser, which is exciting. There’s one feature in particular, however, that bears taking a special look at. Perhaps the most significant change to the browser is the addition of a new password […]
September 21, 2018 by Vertical Axion
The Internet on devices continues to be a major problem when it comes to security. Unfortunately, a big part of the reason why comes down to end users. Recently, Bitdefender released a new report entitled “The IoT Threat Landscape And Top Smart Home Vulnerabilities in 2018,” and it paints a grim picture indeed. The average […]
September 18, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Do you use the Chrome browser extension for the MEGA file storage service? If you do, please read this article carefully. The official extension for that service has been compromised. It has been replaced with a malware version that has the capability to steal user login data for a number of popular websites, including Github, […]
September 15, 2018 by Vertical Axion
In 2016, an unnamed US energy company left some 30,000 records (containing information about its security assets) exposed for more than two months (a total of 70 days), in violation of energy sector cyber security regulations. When the incident was initially reported, the name of the company was withheld. That company has now agreed to […]
September 14, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Tech Support scams are nothing new, but they are getting increasingly sophisticated. Worse, tech giants like Google are finding it notoriously difficult to detect them. A report recently released by the venerable data security firm, Symantec, indicates that tech support scammers are increasingly integrating call optimization into their schemes, which allows them to insert phone […]
September 13, 2018 by Vertical Axion
If you fly Air Canada and use their mobile app, it may be time to change your password. The company recently announced that between August 22nd and August 24th of this year, they detected “unusual log-in behavior,” and that a small fraction (some 20,000) of their 1.7 mobile app users may have had their data […]
September 12, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks are a major threat, costing business nearly three billion dollars a year. This form of attack primarily targets the C-Suite in order to impersonate them. In the world of BEC attacks, those that employ requests for wire transfers are almost devastatingly effective. Asaf Cidon, the Vice President of Content Security […]
September 11, 2018 by Vertical Axion
2017 was “The Year of Ransomware.” It saw an incredible number of ransomware attacks and infections, paired with a tremendous number of innovations. Although 2018 hasn’t seen quite the same level of ransomware activity, it’s still a major threat with one company coming under attack about every ten minutes. Although there haven’t been as many […]
September 8, 2018 by Vertical Axion
A new study recently published by Sitchfast Technologies paints a grim picture of the threat landscape for small and medium-sized business. Their key finding? A staggering 60 percent of small businesses that suffer a data breach of any magnitude go out of business within six months. Worse, one business owner in three does not have […]
September 7, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Researchers operating out of the University of Florida, Stony Brook University and Samsung Research America have made a disturbing discovery. Millions of Android smartphones manufactured by eleven different OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) were found to be vulnerable to attack via AT Commands. If you’re not sure what an “AT Command” is, you’re not alone. Part […]
September 6, 2018 by Vertical Axion
The great state of Texas has 15.2 million registered voters. Unfortunately, personal details belonging to nearly all of them (14.8 million) have been compromised, but don’t blame the state’s election officials. This staggering breach was caused by the carelessness of a conservative-focused data firm, ironically named “The Data Trust.” They left their research file completely […]
September 5, 2018 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new threat to point of sale (POS) systems coming out of Russia, according to security researchers from Booz Allen Hamilton. The malware, which they’re calling “RtPOS” isn’t bleeding edge technology, and does not approach the level of sophistication of other recently discovered strains, but that doesn’t mean it should be taken lightly. These […]
September 4, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Quick question – how much do the world’s cyber criminals make every sixty seconds? If you guessed a quarter of a million dollars, you’d be wrong. If you doubled that value, you’d be wrong again. According to research conducted by RiskIQ, cybercriminals are raking in a cool million dollars per minute, compared with businesses spending […]
September 3, 2018 by Vertical Axion
It may sound like something straight out of a science fiction movie, but recently, researchers have made a disturbing discovery. Using nothing more than an off-the-shelf microphone, it’s possible for an attacker to determine what content you’re viewing on your computer monitor. The researchers tested a variety of LCD screens (with both LED and CCFL […]
September 1, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Telecommunications giant T-Mobile is the latest victim of a large-scale data breach, with personal data belonging to more than two million of its customers having been leaked. The exposed information included customer name, phone number, email address, billing zip code, account number and whether the account was pre-paid or post-paid. As bad as that is, […]
August 31, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Android users have a new threat to contend with, according to a sixteen-page whitepaper outlining a new malware strain. The paper was published by a group of security researchers working for Bitdefender. They identified a robust new strain of malware called “Triout.” According to the report, although they just discovered the malware a month ago, […]
August 29, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it had entered into a partnership with Open Whisper Systems, the makers of the Signal app. The purpose of the partnership was to bring Signal’s open source, end-to-end encryption protocol to Skype. As of the latest Skype builds, that is now a reality. Stable versions of Skype have been […]