Call 980-407-5488
Blog
October 31, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Companies are getting better at detecting and fending off brute force attacks. Depending on how big, and how hard-hitting the attack is, it can still get through, of course, but the main problem with such an attack is that it’s impossible to miss. The moment it starts, security professionals know what’s going on, and can […]
Read more »
Tagged
October 30, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you own a smartphone made by Chinese manufacturer OnePlus, you can thank security researcher Chris Moore for making a discovery that the manufacturer wasn’t going to tell you about. It turns out that OnePlus phones running the OxygenOS are recording a disturbing amount of user data and sending it back to a company server. […]
October 28, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The hits just keep coming, with Disqus being the latest company to issue a breach disclosure. If you’ve never heard of it, Disqus is an incredibly popular, plugin-based comment service for blogs. Although the breach was only just discovered, it occurred five years ago in July 2012, and impacted more than 17.5 million users. Evidence […]
October 26, 2017 by Vertical Axion
You’ve probably heard about Equifax’s recent troubles. More than 145 million consumer data files were exposed, including names, addresses, social security numbers and more. The problem was viewed as so serious that Equifax’s CEO stepped down and congressional hearings were launched, but then, a funny thing happened. Equifax got awarded a no-bid government contract worth […]
October 24, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Another week, another data breach, and this time, popular fast food chain Sonic found itself in the crosshairs. The breach came to light when a Brian Krebs, a journalist for Infosec, spotted a large batch of credit card data for sale on an underground website. IBM’s “X-Force” division confirmed Krebs’ findings, and later that same […]
October 20, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Open source tools offer a lot of compelling advantages, with one of the biggest and most important being that they tend to have relatively fewer bugs and security flaws. The reason is that they’re open source initiatives, and anyone can dig into the source code and tweak it to make it better. Unfortunately, there are […]
October 19, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Data security is no laughing matter, and even small exposures can lead to hefty fines, no matter the size of your company. Last year, the federal government sent shockwaves through the industry when they began an aggressive campaign of investigating and punishing companies for HIPAA infractions, logging more than a dozen high profile settlements. While […]
October 18, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Recently, we wrote an urgent article about a serious security flaw in the current WiFi standard that could impact almost every wireless router and smartphone on the planet. Dubbed the “Krack Attack,” this flaw allows a hacker to make a carbon copy of your WPA2-encrypted network, spoof its MAC address, change the WiFi channel and […]
October 17, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Security researchers have found a new critical security flaw dubbed “Krack” (Key Reinstallation Attacks) that affects literally every WiFi router and smart phone in use today. The reason? The security flaw resides in the WiFi standard itself, rather than in a third-party product. In addition to being vast in scope and scale, Krack is a […]
October 16, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Unless you’re a computer geek for a living you probably have no idea of the mind-blowing news that just hit the wire this morning. And even if you are, the titles of the news articles might not catch your attention as something you should be concerned with. Articles with titles such as “WPA2: Broken with […]
October 14, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Hackers are the new bank robbers in a very literal sense. Increasingly, hackers have taken to infiltrating bank networks specifically for the purpose of infecting ATMs attached to their network with malicious code that makes stealing from them a snap. Once the malware has been installed on a target machine, a lower level member of […]
October 13, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Equifax’s problems just keep getting worse. Not long ago, the company suffered a major data breach that ultimately resulted in the CEO stepping down and a painful congressional grilling. Initial estimates placed the number of impacted users at some 143 million, but as the investigation has continued, it turns out that the numbers are even […]
October 12, 2017 by Vertical Axion
It seems that hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear about another high-profile data breach. This time in the hot seat, we find Amazon-owned Whole Foods. Specifically, we find Whole Foods Market locations. The company is reporting that hackers were able to gain unauthorized access to credit card information at an undisclosed number […]
October 11, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Researchers at the security firm CyberArk have discovered a new attack vector they’ve dubbed “Illusion Gap.” While it’s somewhat tricky for a hacker to implement, when it works, it can be devastatingly effective, completely bypassing Windows Defender, which is security software that comes pre-loaded on all Windows-based computers. To successfully execute the attack, the hacker […]
October 10, 2017 by Vertical Axion
One of the first, best pieces of advice computer owners get is to always keep their operating system up to date. It’s sound advice, because OS manufacturers generally do a good job of responding to new attack vectors and releasing security patches designed to make sure that hackers don’t have an easy time breaking into […]
October 9, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Deloitte is not exactly a household name. In fact, unless you use the company’s services, you may not have ever heard of them, even though they’re one of the largest accounting firms in the world. The company has the distinction of having been named the best cybersecurity consultant company in the world in 2012, and […]
October 7, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Google’s latest Transparency Report is out, and the results have raised concerns with privacy advocates from around the world. This time last year, Google received 44,943 requests relating to 76,713 user accounts from the governments around the world. This year’s figures have increased to 48,941 requests relating to 83,345 accounts. The company acceded to 65 […]
October 6, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Late last year, Yahoo announced that it was the victim of the largest data breach in history. It impacted, by their initial estimates, fully one third of their user base, some one billion users. As it turns out, Yahoo’s estimates were wildly inaccurate. Literally every person who had a Yahoo account in 2013 was impacted, […]
October 5, 2017 by Vertical Axion
By now, you’ve probably heard that Equifax recently suffered a massive data breach which left them with a considerable amount of egg on their faces. The investigation into that matter is ongoing, and the company issued a video-based mea culpa to its customers, but unfortunately, the situation for the company just got worse. Here’s the […]
October 4, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The hackers of the world have been busy recently, but this latest report from the SEC shows that not only has the number of their attacks been increasing, but also that the level of sophistication continues to grow by leaps and bounds as well. Specifically, the SEC reported that hackers may have gained access to […]
October 3, 2017 by Vertical Axion
For a time, it seemed we had reached the high-water mark where Locky Ransomware was concerned. After the big, global attack earlier this year, interest in that particular strain of ransomware seemed to wane as hackers went off in search of the “next new thing” to deploy against the unwitting public. Unfortunately, rumors of Locky’s […]
October 2, 2017 by Vertical Axion
We’ve seen a lot of hacking attacks so far this year, but the successful breach of SVR Tracking may take the prize as the most invasive attack of 2017. If you’re not familiar with the company, SVR Tracking provides a vehicle tracking service. This is accomplished by mounting a small, unobtrusive device on your car […]
September 29, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Google’s Project Zero Team has created a new tool for testing web browsers in order to gauge how secure they are. The team recently conducted an extensive test on the top five web browsers in use today: • Chrome • Firefox • Safari • Edge • Internet Explorer The results weren’t pretty. The new tool, […]
September 28, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Things continue to worsen on the smart medical device front. Recently, the USDA issued a recall order on six different models of pacemakers, all of which were vulnerable to hacks that would have allowed the hackers to literally kill the patients who relied on them. This is hardly a new development, and the government has […]
