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August 9, 2018 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new, surprisingly elaborate phishing scam targeting iPhone users. The scam starts with an email informing users that their phones have been locked due to “illegal activity” and instructing them to call “Apple Care” to get the problem fixed. Of course, there is no such company as Apple Care, but it’s an official enough […]
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August 8, 2018 by Vertical Axion
A dark day for Lifelock, the Identity Theft Protection company. It has recently come to light that the company may have accidentally exposed their customers to additional attacks. They recently fixed a vulnerability on their website that allowed anyone with a browser to index email addresses associated with their entire customer database. The vulnerability can […]
August 6, 2018 by Vertical Axion
File this away under things you already knew. Coronet recently released a report entitled “Attention All Passengers: Airport Networks Are Putting Your Devices & Cloud Apps At Severe Risk,” and the news is about what you’d expect. The report was more than five months in the making. The analysts poured over oceans of data on […]
August 4, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Twitter has long had a reputation for being at the mercy of bots that have been used to sway public discourse and opinion. Often, these bots are controlled via Twitter API apps that allow the authors to automate most of their actions, such as tweets, follows, and likes. In the face of Facebook’s recent grilling […]
August 2, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Mimecast’s 2018 “State of Email Security” report is out, and although it’s contents are hardly a surprise, the news it contains is mostly bad. For starters, it confirms what most IT professionals already know: Email continues to be a big threat for organizations of all sizes. Unfortunately, the C-Suite (CEO’s, CIO’s, CFO’s, and the like) […]
August 1, 2018 by Vertical Axion
There is a small but significant change from Google, with the release of Chrome 68. The updated browser will now prominently notify browsers when they surf their way to non-HTTPS websites, displaying them as “Not Secure.” This is Google’s latest step in a long campaign to try and make the web a safer and more […]
July 31, 2018 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new Bluetooth security vulnerability to be aware of, tracked as CVE-2018-5383, and it’s a nasty one. It’s a cryptographic vulnerability that affects firmware or operating system software drivers from a number of major vendors, including Qualcomm, Broadcom, Intel and Apple. At this point, the implication of the bug on Linux, Android, and Google […]
July 28, 2018 by Vertical Axion
If you’re like most people, you probably rely heavily on the GPS function of your phone. Type in an address and your phone helpfully guides you, turn by turn, to your destination. It’s one of the most often utilized features of a smartphone, and of course, the hackers are very interested in interfering with it. […]
July 27, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Positive Technologies has just released a new report that paints a grim picture for IT professionals. If your sense is that the number of cyberattacks are increasing, you’re not wrong. In fact, it’s probably worse than you realize. So far this year, we’ve seen a staggering 32 percent increase in the total number of cyberattacks […]
July 26, 2018 by Vertical Axion
A majority of business owners from around the world (68 percent) feel that they’re better prepared to ward off a cyberattack and prevent a data breach than their competitors. This is a figure which is up 8 percent over last year’s statistic for the same question. This, according to a recent survey by FICO. In […]
July 25, 2018 by Vertical Axion
According to the Kremlin, Russia prevented almost twenty five million cyber-attacks during the World Cup this year. President Vladimir Putin praised the nation’s digital security forces by saying the following: “I expect that your close and constructive interaction will continue and will contribute to ensuring the security of our states and our citizens […]
July 24, 2018 by Vertical Axion
On May 14th, the Billings Clinic in Montana issued a breach notification statement, which explained that they detected unusual activity within one of its employee’s email accounts. The employee in question was traveling overseas on a medical mission when the email account was compromised. “As a result of the forensics investigation, we learned that an […]
July 23, 2018 by Vertical Axion
As if there weren’t enough ways for hackers to steal your passwords, now, there’s thermal imaging. If that sounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie, think again. Researchers from the University of California at Irvine recently discovered and demonstrated a technique that involves the use of a thermal imaging camera to capture […]
July 21, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Do you use Timehop? If you’re not sure what that is, it’s a popular, clever little app that reminds social media users about posts they’ve made in the past. It can be quite handy, especially if you’re active on numerous social media accounts. Unfortunately, the bloom is off the rose for Timehop. Recently, the company […]
July 20, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Researchers from the digital security firm ESET have recently spotted a new malware campaign with a nasty twist. It was created using a legitimate security certificate stolen from D-Link. The malware appears to be the work of an Advanced Persistent Threat group known as BlackTech, which primarily targets high profile users and firms in Asia, […]
July 19, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Apple recently released an updated version of iOS, 11.4.1. They did so quietly, and without much fanfare, but the update includes one very powerful and exciting security update that’s deserving of special attention. Specifically, the new version of iOS introduces what the company is calling “Restricted Mode.” It was created to protect iPhones against USB […]
July 18, 2018 by Vertical Axion
There’s a lot to like about the contents of Adobe’s most recent “Patch Tuesday” update. It’s well worth downloading and installing, even if you normally take a pass on all but the most critical updates. Included in this release are security patches for 112 vulnerabilities across four different products, including: Flash Player Acrobat and […]
July 17, 2018 by Vertical Axion
It’s no secret that there are legions of scammers and spammers haunting the virtual halls of Facebook. As the world’s largest and most influential social networking site, it’s a natural target, making its masses of users natural targets, too. Facebook is taking steps to counter the threat posed by these nefarious actors, after being somewhat […]
July 16, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Internet security researcher Vinny Trola recently made a huge and disturbing discovery. A marketing firm called Exactis had left a massive database unsecured, allowing anyone who stumbled across it to access it. As a marketing firm, Exactis collects simply mind-boggling amounts of data on consumers all over the globe. The database in question was a […]
July 14, 2018 by Vertical Axion
While a significant percentage of Americans are suspicious of government spending beyond the essentials, there’s at least one notable exception, according to a recent survey conducted by SecurityFirst. A majority (74 percent) of Americans want their local governments to spend more money on cybersecurity. Here are a few of the highlights from the survey: […]
July 13, 2018 by Vertical Axion
File this one away under “watch your permissions.” It’s recently come to light that an unknown number of third party apps have access to read emails sitting in your Gmail account. While the practice is not new, things like this are coming under increased scrutiny in the wake of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica incident. Here are […]
July 12, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Another week, another high-profile data breach. This time, Adidas and their online store was the target. The company became aware of the incident on June 26th, and immediately began notifying “certain customers” that their data had been compromised. The official statement from the company reads in part, as follows: “Adidas is working with leading […]
July 11, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Facebook recently announced a site bug that impacted the privacy settings of more than 800,000 of its users. If you’re one of the unfortunate souls who has been affected, then people you had formerly blocked may have become unblocked, and can now see your posts. For many people, that’s not a huge deal. In some […]
July 10, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and New York University in Abu Dhabi have discovered serious security flaws in 4G LTE networks that allow hackers to spy on, listen in on, intercept, and disrupt phone calls and text messages. Given that billions of people rely on 4G LTE networks for cellphone communications, it’s a serious issue, and […]
