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May 18, 2017 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new phone-based scam making the rounds that you need to be aware of. In this case, the scammers are spoofing the number of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General’s hotline (HHS-OIG), which is in place to allow people to call in and report suspected cases of fraud […]
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May 17, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Manuel Caballero has been a busy man. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s a security researcher and blogger who made a name for himself identifying a variety of critical security flaws in the old Internet Explorer web browser. It would probably be overstating to say that he was instrumental in Internet Explorer’s eventual death, […]
May 16, 2017 by Vertical Axion
This past Friday, a new ransomware threat burst onto the scene globally in what was described as an attack “unprecedented in its scale.” Before the original version was stopped by a young, anonymous digital security expert, it had brought England’s National Health Service to its knees. It forced medical staff to resort to keeping paper […]
May 15, 2017 by Vertical Axion
IHG, The Intercontinental Hotels Group, which owns Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn, has recently announced a serious data breach that impacted 1174 of its franchise locations. The company reports that their Point of Sale (POS) system was found to have been infected with malware which intercepted and copied credit card transactions between September 29 and […]
May 13, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The landscape of ransomware attacks is changing. When the malicious software first hit the internet a couple years back, it did so in a big way, primarily targeting large hospitals, insurance companies or other health-related businesses. These high-profile attacks temporarily paralyzed a number of companies, many of whom opted to simply pay the ransom to […]
May 12, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services made headlines by issuing more than a dozen hefty fines to big companies that deal with Protected Health Information for noncompliance with HIPAA regulations. That trend has continued into 2017, but with a new twist. The agency is expanding the scope and scale of their investigations. […]
May 11, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft is in the habit of releasing regular security updates and patches on the second Tuesday of each month. This month, though, in addition to the regular patch, the company’s massive user base got a second update that was rushed through development. Security researchers at Google identified a critical vulnerability in a broad range of […]
May 10, 2017 by Vertical Axion
It’s not an overstatement to say that Linksys, to a large degree, powers the web. The company makes a broad range of routers that lie at the heart of everything from small home networks to keeping small and medium sized businesses interconnected. Unfortunately, a pair of researchers from IOActive recently discovered a total of ten […]
May 9, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Hackers have once again pushed the envelope. They’ve again come up with a new way to infect target computers and get around whatever detection software is in place. The latest twist is sending encrypted Word files to your employees. These files are accompanied by an email, describing the attachment as an invoice for some service […]
May 8, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Each month, hundreds of millions of people rely on Google Maps. It has become the replacement for GPS in most of our cars. We rely on the service for everything from getting simple directions to doing research on a new location you’re scouting out, finding a new restaurant to try out for dinner, looking for […]
May 6, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft is taking some heat, thanks to a nasty exploit in Microsoft Word that is being used to install malware on the PCs of unsuspecting users. The exploit was discovered by both McAfee and security firm FireEye, and based on the joint research by both firms, it has been in use since at least January. […]
May 5, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you shop at GameStop.com, keep an eye on the credit card you used for signs of suspicious activity. According to security researcher Brian Krebs, sources inside the financial industry are reporting that the company’s website was breached between September 2016 and February 2017. GameStop itself has confirmed that they’ve hired a third party to […]
May 4, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The city of Dallas, Texas is under siege by hackers. Not long ago, an unknown hacker took control of several of the city’s signal lights. Even more recently, another hacker commandeered all 156 of the city’s emergency sirens and activated them simultaneously for nearly two hours. Residents were startled all over town and frightened into […]
May 3, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you use torrent software to download advance copies of movies or your favorite TV shows, your machine could be part of a large and sprawling botnet called Sathurbot. The hackers behind the botnet upload infected torrent files that contain a small executable described as being a video codec you need in order to play […]
May 2, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you’re a small business owner, you may feel completely overwhelmed by the digital security threats you face, and you’re not alone. A recent survey indicated that more than 70% of all cyber-attacks are made against companies with fewer than a hundred employees. Unfortunately, those companies don’t have the deep pockets of the large multinationals, […]
April 28, 2017 by Vertical Axion
What’s old is new again. In the days before the internet, scammers frequently weaponized the telephone, but now, that’s considered old school. While telephone scams still exist, they’re not nearly as common as they once were. Recently, however, a new scam has been making the rounds that has even gotten the attention of the FCC. […]
April 27, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft hasn’t been making many friends, thanks to its rather invasive data collection policies. In fact, the sheer amount of data the company collects on you via Windows 10 is nothing short of alarming, and it has even caught the attention of government agencies. Several European countries have filed formal complaints about the types and […]
April 25, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Over the past two years, the hackers of the world have begun to shift focus. Previously, their preferred targets had been big credit card companies, and all over the dark web, interested parties could find as many credit card numbers (including all relevant account information) as they were interested in purchasing. Times and tastes change, […]
April 24, 2017 by Vertical Axion
If you use either an Android or Apple smartphone, which describes approximately 100% of the world’s smartphone-using population, then you’ll want to pay close attention to the security updates that both Google and Apple released recently. Four months ago, Google security researcher Gal Beniamini, a member of Project Zero, identified a string of critical security […]
April 22, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Samsung, the world’s largest cellphone manufacturer, has a problem with their flagship offerings, the new S8 and S8+ devices. Both were released with a new facial recognition software the company used as an advanced security measure. The idea was a thing of beauty in its simplicity. Advanced machine learning coupled with advanced image recognition routines […]
April 20, 2017 by Vertical Axion
In 2016, security firms Lookout and Citizen Lab identified a dangerous new type of malware, dubbed Pegasus, that surfaced in the iOS ecosystem. The software was developed and sold by the NSO Group, a licensed cyber-arms dealer operating out of Israel. Highly advanced, it was primarily sold to governments, including a number of oppressive regimes, […]
April 19, 2017 by Vertical Axion
WordPress remains the undisputed king of content management systems. It is the web’s most popular site-building platform, and odds are good that you either have a WordPress site or know someone who does. Legions of businesses use the open source CMS to build business-grade websites with a staggering degree of functionality. Unfortunately, the immense success […]
April 18, 2017 by Vertical Axion
The newest big problem with data security is the same as the old big problem with data security. It’s the users. Specifically, it’s the fact that most people don’t bother to change their passwords more than once a year, if that frequently. Data security is a major headache for all business owners, no matter the […]
April 17, 2017 by Vertical Axion
Nintendo recently released the Nintendo Switch, a new console system. On its heels, we’re seeing a new scam that’s tricking large numbers of PC users (both Apple and Windows-based) into downloading potentially harmful software. The scam seems to be driven largely by YouTube videos, and works like this: A user views a YouTube video talking […]
