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November 30, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Unless your firm is directly connected to the banking industry, you may not be aware of this, but the biggest ATM-related crime that banks have to grapple with is ATM Skimming. It has become a major problem, especially for ATMs that are in areas where they can be accessed 24/7, but that have low security […]
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November 29, 2016 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new attack vector to be worried about called “Windtalker.” It allows a hacker to take control of a WiFi hotspot and reverse-engineer keystrokes made by users who are typing via their touchscreens. While that sounds like magic, there are some simple principles involved, and the hackers are merely taking advantage of these. One […]
November 28, 2016 by Vertical Axion
If recent events are any indication, Botnets are going to be in the news a lot more in coming months. Less than a month ago, a massive army of hacked internet devices broke records when it attacked a French Internet Service Provider, OVH, which hit them with traffic peaks of over 1 Terabyte per second. […]
November 26, 2016 by Vertical Axion
The year of 2016 continues to break new records in terms of massive security breaches. According to LeakedSource, last month, hackers gained access to the FriendFinder Network, which includes the adult dating and swinger site, “Adult Friend Finder.” User accounts, passwords and an assortment of other sensitive information were stolen, and while the bulk of […]
November 25, 2016 by Vertical Axion
If you own your own business, then odds are good that you’ve taken advantage of the “Sign in With Facebook” (or Google) API. It’s fast, it’s convenient and it’s one less thing to worry about. It gives your users an automatic way to sign onto your site, meaning that they don’t have yet another password […]
November 24, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Back in the good ol’ days before the rise of the iPhone, Apple devices were largely considered to be more secure than their Wintel counterparts. There was a time when Apple used this as a major plank in their marketing efforts. These days, it is increasingly clear that that’s no longer the case. A recent […]
November 21, 2016 by Vertical Axion
You’ve seen this before, right? Be prepared for it to get worse in January. There is a little-known upgrade going on world with with the browsers we all use to navigate the Internet. I say “little known” because while we geeks know all about it, most normal computers users don’t know and don’t care about […]
So far as is known, no hacking attack to date has resulted in death, but the day is inevitably coming. One day in the not-too-distant future, a hacker will be charged with murder, in addition to their other crimes. The reason is simple, and two-fold. First, hackers have turned their attention to hospitals in a […]
November 19, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Tech giants Google and Microsoft are at odds, thanks to a recent announcement made by Google about a vulnerability in Windows’ Operating System. Google’s longstanding policy has been to inform the company that owns the software when a security flaw is found. Google’s thresholds are seven days for an announcement, and ten days for a […]
November 18, 2016 by Vertical Axion
No matter how good, expensive or robust your security system is, your employees are always the weakest link. In fact, in some cases, your own policies might be pushing them to “rational noncompliance,” a situation in which your employees break the rules in order to make their jobs easier. The statistics are alarming. According to […]
November 17, 2016 by Vertical Axion
There is some big news out of the FTC recently. The agency has announced that they are relaxing the rules governing what is and isn’t allowed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). As of today, you can legally hack the devices you own, including cars and TVs. This is a huge policy shift that […]
November 16, 2016 by Vertical Axion
This is how something as innocuous as a thumb drive can become a major security issue. Recently, it has come to light that a soon-to-be retiring regulator at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) had downloaded work files onto a thumb drive, but now, seems to have misplaced it. The files were […]
November 15, 2016 by Vertical Axion
What percentage of your employees know how to properly handle sensitive information? The answer is “probably a lot less than you think.” In a recent survey conducted by MediaPro, it was discovered that nearly 90% of employees lacked security and privacy awareness. Only 12% of respondents knew how to properly identify and dispose of information […]
November 12, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Researchers at a cyber security company called EnSilo have found a new vulnerability in Windows PCs, and it’s about as bad as it could possibly get. The new attack vector does not exploit a bug in the code, but rather, the design of the OS itself, which uses Atom Tables to store data that’s being […]
November 10, 2016 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new viral link making the rounds on Twitter that you should advise your staff to steer clear of. If you see a link that begins with “goo.gl,” don’t click it. If you do, not only will it crash your Twitter app if you’re on your smartphone, but after it does that, it will […]
November 9, 2016 by Vertical Axion
It has been widely reported that cybercrime is one of the fastest growing types of crime on the planet today, but new statistics published by MarkMonitor’s Online Fraud Barometer indicate that it’s a lot worse than previously imagined. Close to half (45%) of all consumers have, at some point, fallen victim to cybercriminals. Fraud is […]
November 7, 2016 by Vertical Axion
The Internet of Things has been getting a lot of bad press in recent weeks. Not long ago, an army of enslaved smart devices was used to bring much of the internet in the United States to its knees for several hours. A few weeks before that, an exploit in a “smart” insulin pump was […]
November 5, 2016 by Vertical Axion
You probably noticed that at various points during a day not long ago, you couldn’t get on the internet. If you could, a lot of the sites you’re used to visiting were simply unavailable for extended periods of time. The reason you couldn’t get on the internet was because a company you’ve probably never heard […]
November 4, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Yet more evidence that the federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is cracking down on HIPPA violations, the agency recently levied a hefty $2.14 million dollar fine against St. Joseph Health System for what it describes as an egregious breach of security. The company reported earlier in the year that action on […]
November 3, 2016 by Vertical Axion
The Linux exploit called Rowhammer is back in the news. This time, it’s targeting Android devices. If you missed the news about Rowhammer, or need a refresher, the exploit basically works like this: if you can engineer a piece of malware that will consistently access the same row of memory on an installed chip, hammering […]
November 1, 2016 by Vertical Axion
File this one under “public service warning.” If you’re a fan and regular user of Facebook, beware of a new virus that’s making the rounds inside the social media giant. If you see a video on your wall titled “My First Video,” don’t click on it to play it. If you do, it will tag […]
October 31, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Are you a Spotify user? If so, you may have been infected. Recently, the company reported that one of its advertising partners had displayed an ad containing malware. As with most software of this type, it wrests control of the user’s browser, opening additional tabs on its own, and directing users to web pages loaded […]
October 29, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Some credit card companies have begun using selfies as an alternative to traditional, text-based passwords in order to provide enhanced security. No system is perfect, though, and hackers have already begun experimenting with various exploits to the new paradigm. Far and away, the most successful exploit so far has been the Acecard Trojan. This malware […]
October 28, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Online security has become increasingly important to rank and file users in recent years, and with good reason. 2015 saw the largest number of hacks and successful data breaches in the history of the internet, and 2016 is on track to surpass it. Even worse, it’s not just the number of attacks that are increasing, […]
