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November 6, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft recently reported on the existence of an unusual phishing campaign designed primarily to harvest the passwords of unsuspecting victims. One of the things that makes the campaign so unusual is the fact that it appears to be built by using bits of code copied and pasted from the work of other hackers. Call it […]
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November 5, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Researchers from Microsoft have reported the discovery of a new variant of macOS malware called WizardUpdate. The new version should worry all Mac users because it has been upgraded to incorporate enhanced evasion and persistence tactics that will make it more difficult to track, locate and ultimately stop. WizardUpdate is also known as UpdateAgent and […]
November 2, 2021 by Vertical Axion
In a bid to further bolster security Microsoft has recently announced the roll-out of end to end encryption for one to one Microsoft Teams calls. Teams already encrypts user data both in transit and at rest and it allows IT admins to establish automatic transcription and recording of all video calls. Microsoft had this to […]
November 1, 2021 by Vertical Axion
YouTube has long been a hunting ground used by hackers and scammers to push all manner of hoaxes, scams and malicious code onto unsuspecting users. A security researcher known only as Frost is working for Cluster 25. Frost has reported a significant uptick in the number of malware campaigns orchestrated from YouTube. Overwhelmingly these campaigns […]
October 30, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Internet ads are annoying. People tend to go to great lengths to avoid them if possible which is why ad blocking software and browser extensions are so popular. One of the more popular options is AllBlock which is a Chromium extension that is widely promoted on YouTube and Facebook. The extension touts its ability to […]
October 27, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Do you use LibreOffice or OpenOffice? If so be aware that security updates have recently been issued due to the recent discovery of a major security flaw. This vulnerability allows an attacker to modify and manipulate documents so that it appears they have been signed by a trusted party. Although the flaw that makes this […]
October 26, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Phishing attacks tend to focus on executive level targets. They focus on high ranking targets who have considerable system access. That appears to be changing. A recent trend tracked by researchers from Avanan has revealed that nearly half of all phishing emails analyzed in recent months were crafted to impersonate non-executives. Additionally more than three […]
October 22, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Are you a gamer or do you broadcast on Twitch for some other reason? If so be aware that the platform was recently hacked and the amount of information the attackers made off with is much more substantial than was originally estimated. Some of the data has now been leaked by an anonymous user on […]
October 20, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Google recently announced that they’re planning to auto-enroll some 150 million user accounts into two factor authentication (2FA). The company prefers the term two-step verification (2SV). The company had this to say about the planned move: “…because we know the best way to keep our users safe is to turn on our security protections by […]
October 19, 2021 by Vertical Axion
With the release of Firefox 92 back in September Mozilla made a change that may well doom the browser. If you use Firefox you have probably already noticed it. When you start typing an address you will find sponsored Firefox contextual suggestions in a drop-down list. In simplest terms companies pay a premium to get […]
October 18, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Medical equipment provider Medtronic has issued an urgent recall order for insulin pump controllers belonging to their “MiniMed Paradigm” family. The company cited serious cyber security risks as the reason for the recall. The models in question are MMT-500 and MMT-503 which is used in conjunction with the Medtronic MiniMed 508 pump. Overall more than […]
October 16, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Researchers from Zimperium zLabs have detected a nasty, dangerous, global malware campaign that has managed to infect more than 10 million Android devices from around the world in more than 70 different countries. As with most malware campaigns this one relies on social engineering to spread. The first stage of the infection process is that […]
October 15, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Are you a gamer? Do you have an account on Steam, EA Origin, or the Epic Games Store? If so there’s an emerging threat you should be aware of. A new strain of malware is now being sold on the Dark Web. Discovered by researchers operating out of Kaspersky Labs the new malware strain has […]
October 14, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Do you have an iPhone? Do you make use of the Apple Pay service? If so there is a security issue you need to be aware of. Researchers have discovered a means by which fraudulent payments can be made from a locked iPhone. Two conditions must be true for the flaw to be exploited. The […]
October 11, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Hackers around the world are flexing their muscles. For reasons that aren’t yet clear they have been launching distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks against Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers and it is leading to widespread voice outages. VoIP provider Bandwidth.com is the latest company to fall victim to these attacks. On the afternoon […]
October 9, 2021 by Vertical Axion
A new Zero Day vulnerability in macOS has been discovered. The flaw impacts all macOS versions up to the latest release Big Sur. The bug was found by Park Minchan an independent security researcher and is tied to the way that macOS processes inteloc files. The processing methodology allows an attacker to embed malicious commands […]
October 7, 2021 by Vertical Axion
A new study recently published by the digital identity firm Beyond Identity contains a number of surprises relating to passwords and password security. This is information that IT professionals and small or medium-sized business owners should be aware of. While it is not a rigorous and scientific study the results of the company’s survey are […]
October 6, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic online dating sites have seen a tremendous surge in memberships. People are seeking romance online since in person dating was sharply curtailed by lock downs. Naturally this proved to be an irresistible lure to scammers around the world. So much so that the FBI has recently issued a […]
October 4, 2021 by Vertical Axion
You know you’ve hit the Big Time when you get a scam named after you. That’s exactly what has happened to Elon Musk. The latest scam that’s making the rounds is called the “Elon Musk Mutual Aid Club” or the “Elon Musk Club” for short. If you’re an experienced IT professional it is easy to […]
October 1, 2021 by Vertical Axion
A new strain of malware which has been dubbed ‘Capoae’ has been spotted in the wild. It was written in Go and this strain targets Linux systems and WordPress installations. It was discovered by Larry Cashdollar. Larry is a senior security researcher at Akamai. Capoae is quickly becoming a favorite among threat actors because of […]
September 30, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Apple released a very important security update today. The update fixes a pair of zero-day vulnerabilities that have been spotted in use in the wild to attack both Macs and iPhones. One of the two has been used to install the Pegasus spyware onto iPhones. These two vulnerabilities are being tracked as CVE-2021-30860 and CVE-2021-30858 […]
September 29, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Some malware strains are built with robust protections in order to avoid detection. Zloader goes a step further and actually disables Microsoft Defender AV (formerly known as Windows Defender). That’s significant because according to stats provided by Microsoft Defender AV is preinstalled on more than a billion PCs running Windows 10. The hackers behind the […]
September 28, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Not long ago Microsoft patched a critical MSHTML remote code execution security flaw being tracked as CVE-2021-40444. Beginning on August 18th of this year (2021) the company spotted hackers exploiting this flaw in the wild. So far there have been fewer than ten attacks made that exploit this flaw but it’s inevitable that the number […]
September 27, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Do you own an HP Omen, Envy, or Pavilion gaming laptop or desktop? You’re certainly not alone if you do. It’s a wildly popular and incredibly versatile model that has sold millions of units worldwide. Unfortunately there’s a problem. A serious security flaw in a driver used by the Omen gaming software. It comes pre-loaded […]
