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March 15, 2018 by Vertical Axion
It looks like it’s going to be another bad month for Equifax. The company just can’t seem to get out of its own way. In 2017, the company announced a massive data breach that (it initially claimed) impacted some 140 million users. Several months after the official announcement, the company was forced to revise the […]
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March 13, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Do you have a Mi-Cam in your home? Even if you don’t have kids, you may have one. They’re a highly popular, inexpensive means of keeping tabs on the comings and goings inside your home when you’re not around. As with so many such devices these days, users have the option of installing either an […]
March 12, 2018 by Vertical Axion
By now, you’ve probably heard more than you ever wanted to hear about the critical Intel security flaw known as “Spectre.” The flaw is massive in scope and scale, impacting every chip that Intel has released over the past decade, and if exploited, would allow a hacker to take complete control over the vulnerable system. […]
March 9, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Depending on who you ask, Google’s Project Zero is either the thing that’s going to singlehandedly save the internet, or the bane of many companies’ existence. It’s easy to see both sides of the argument. On one hand, by uncovering previously undiscovered bugs in all manner of software and handing that information over to the […]
March 7, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Android users have a reason to cheer. According to the latest report by ESET, the number of ransomware attacks targeting Android devices declined in 2017. The decline represents a bit of an anomaly, given that in 2017, the most common type of malware attack (by a wide margin) was ransomware. Given that security researchers can’t […]
March 5, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Recently, another “exotic character” bug was found in iOS. If someone sends this particular character (a special character that’s part of the Indian language pack) to your phone via any messaging app, it will not only crash your phone, but cause a variety of messaging apps to stop functioning. When the bug was initially reported, […]
March 2, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Here’s a statistic that is as disturbing as it is frustrating. According to the latest “State of the Internet/Security” report for the fourth quarter of 2017, as published by Akamai, bot-traffic accounts for a staggering 43 percent of all login attempts. As bad as that figure is on its face, it’s far worse for companies […]
February 28, 2018 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new strain of the “Rapid Ransomware” making the rounds, and because of how it’s being transmitted, it’s destined to have a higher than average rate of infection. The new strain was first discovered by Derek Knight. It is disturbing because it claims to come from the IRS, and will feature subject lines like […]
February 26, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Google is poised to make an important change to its Chrome browser beginning in July 2018. Here’s the summary from Emily Schechter, the Google Chrome Security Product Manager: “For the past several years, we’ve moved toward a more secure web by strongly advocating that sites adopt HTTPS encryption, and within the last year, we’ve also […]
February 24, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Image theft is one of the biggest problems on the internet. If you’re a photographer, you’ve almost certainly lost money because people find your work online and make a copy of it rather than paying for the right to use it. Unfortunately, Google has made that incredibly easy to do, but that’s changing. Until recently, […]
February 23, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Hackers are picky about their victims. They’ll target just about any group or organization, including the 2018 Olympics. Cisco’s Talos Group recently identified a new strain of malware they’ve dubbed “Olympic Destroyer” which is wreaking havoc in Pyeong Chang’s computer networks and causing downtime to internal WiFi and television systems. This has impacted the games’ […]
February 21, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Do you own a smart TV? More than half of all television sales in the US last year were smart TVs, so chances are decent that you own one. If you do, be aware that it may be collecting far more data about you than you think. Recall that last year, Samsung, (one of the […]
February 19, 2018 by Vertical Axion
On February 2, Tavis Ormandy, a researcher on Google’s Project Zero team discovered a critical flaw in the popular online grammar checking app, “Grammarly.” Tens of millions of users make regular use of the app to improve the quality of their writing. The bug allowed a hacker to steal a Grammarly user’s authentication token and […]
February 17, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Menlo Security just released their third annual “State of the Web” report and it’s not pretty. The headline finding is that 42% of the top 100,000 sites as ranked by Alexa are more dangerous than you think. The report defines a risky site as one that meets one of three criteria: The site, or […]
February 15, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Sophos has released the results of their annual “State of Endpoint Security Today”, and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. A full 54% of companies surveyed reported having been hit by a ransomware attack in 2017. Another 31% reported that they expect to be on the receiving end of such an attack in the near […]
February 13, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Security researchers from around the web are reporting finding an increasing number of instances of proof of concept (PoC) code that incorporates the recently discovered Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. If you somehow missed those earlier reports, Spectre and Meltdown are a pair of critical security flaws recently discovered in literally every Intel chip set made […]
February 12, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Oracle is currently the third-largest provider of POS (Point of Sale) software on the market today, which means that there’s a fairly good chance you’re using an Oracle POS system. If you are, there’s trouble ahead. A recently discovered security flaw could put your system at risk. Oracle has already identified and patched the security […]
February 10, 2018 by Vertical Axion
If ever there were two phrases that didn’t seem to go together, they would probably be “Fitness trackers” and “National Security Risk.” The very idea that a simple fitness tracker could pose such a risk seems laughable on the surface, but this is no laughing matter. Recently, a popular fitness tracking app called “Strava” published […]
February 9, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Google recently released their Play Store stats for 2017. The results are both encouraging and disheartening. Overall, Google caught and removed more than 700,000 malicious apps from the Play Store, minimizing their impact on the company’s massive Android user base. That’s unquestionably good news, but it comes with a bit of a dark side. That […]
February 7, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Another day, another high-profile ransomware attack. This time, the victim was Allscripts, an EHR (Electronic Health Record) company that hospitals, pharmacies, and ambulatory centers around the country rely on. The company’s data was thought to be safe on the cloud, but that proved not to be the case. Disruptions of services were felt by Allscripts […]
February 6, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Recently a critical flaw was found inside every Intel chip made during the last decade. The flaw makes two different exploits possible. These exploits have been dubbed “Meltdown” and “Spectre.” The flaws are incredibly severe, and make it possible for a hacker to gain complete, unfettered access to the targeted PC or laptop. Although no […]
February 5, 2018 by Vertical Axion
All companies collect data on their customers, but some are better than others when it comes to being upfront about what kinds of data are collected. Over the past year, Microsoft has made many moves that have been well-received by their enormous user base. They’ve become increasingly transparent and offer an unprecedented level of control […]
February 3, 2018 by Vertical Axion
Do you play Blizzard online computer games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Starcraft II, or Overwatch? If so, there’s a potential problem you need to be aware of. Tavis Ormandy, a researcher on Google’s Project Zero team, recently discovered that the Blizzard Update Agent is vulnerable to hacking, via a technique known […]
February 2, 2018 by Vertical Axion
By now, we’ve seen enough large-scale Point of Sale (POS) credit card thefts that patterns are beginning to emerge. Some companies follow the general arc of the narrative better than others, and deserve credit for doing so, but in the end, the story is about the same. That’s certainly the case with Jason’s Deli. Recently, […]
