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April 12, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Browser extensions are in the news lately, and not just for Firefox. Recently, hackers have corrupted several Google Chrome extensions, and are using them to display unwanted ads to unsuspecting users. For Firefox though, matters are a fair bit worse. It’s not just ads that Firefox users have to worry about, it’s the possibility of […]
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April 11, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Your employees are your biggest, most important, most valuable asset. Everybody who knows anything about business understand that. Unfortunately, your biggest asset is also your biggest liability, at least when it comes to data security. Recently, SailPoint conducted its annual Market Pulse Survey, a part of which explored various aspects and dimensions of enterprise data […]
April 9, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Recently, internet security companies have been reporting increasing incidents of large numbers of emails being sent out with strange and distinctive subject lines. Typically they’re crafted as file names, and have image extensions like .tiff, .jpg and .png. They’re designed to lend the appearance that they’ve been sent from someone’s smartphone, which has tempted a […]
April 8, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Recently, CNBC ran an article on password security. Embedded in the article was a tool they invited readers to use to test the strength and integrity of their passwords. The tool was supposed to estimate how long it would take a hacker to “crack” your password, and the tool was given with assurances that passwords […]
April 7, 2016 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new threat lurking just beyond the periphery of your network. It’s called USB Thief, and while it doesn’t quite measure up to the most sophisticated attacks currently making the rounds, it is definitely top-tier, and is raising eyebrows as security professionals attempt to analyze it. That analysis is surprisingly hard to conduct, actually. […]
April 6, 2016 by Vertical Axion
It seems that Google never stops innovating and striving to improve the services it offers. Gmail, for instance, recently got some impressive upgrades that build on those rolled out previously, which aims to keep Gmail’s billion plus active users safer than ever before. Not long ago, the company began warning Gmail users when they sent/received […]
April 5, 2016 by Vertical Axion
There’s another new attack vector to beware of if you own an iPhone. This new attack, called AceDeceiver MITM is quite possibly the most convoluted attack the hackers have come up with yet, and stands as an excellent example of just how far the hackers will go to get to your personal information. To set […]
April 4, 2016 by Vertical Axion
April 1, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Another week, another critical security flaw in Adobe Flash. This one isn’t quite as bad as the flaw found last year, but it’s close. If you haven’t been following the trials and tribulations of Adobe’s beleaguered Flash Player, last year, the company unearthed so many critical security flaws in their system that the best advice […]
March 31, 2016 by Vertical Axion
In recent months, Apple has been increasingly on the receiving end of unwanted attention from the hacking community. Apple’s OS offerings have long been touted as being more robust and secure than Microsoft’s Windows, and so far, the company is living up to that reputation. The reality, however, is that given the sheer number of […]
March 30, 2016 by Vertical Axion
If you haven’t heard the term “whaling attack,” as it relates to the hacking community, you’re not alone. It’s a fairly recent phenomenon, and is a subset of the standard phishing attack, where hackers will contact employees of a company in an effort to get user IDs, passwords, or other sensitive information out of them. […]
March 29, 2016 by Vertical Axion
One of the nation’s largest firms engaged in assisting other companies in dealing with data breaches has now confirmed that they themselves have suffered a data breach, this one affecting 1.5 million business clients. In a formal statement, a company spokesman announced “Verizon Enterprise Solutions recently discovered and fixed a security vulnerability on our enterprise […]
March 26, 2016 by Vertical Axion
File this one away under things not to do. Not that you’d ever have a need to do this, but whatever you do, do not set your iPhone’s date to January 1, 1970. If you do, you stand a good chance of turning your cherished smartphone into a very expensive paperweight. News of this “bug” […]
March 25, 2016 by Vertical Axion
The short answer to the question posed by this article’s title is yes. Yes, your smart TV is listening to your personal conversations. It’s simply a part of the way the technology works. If you spend the money to buy a smart TV, then you’re going to want to use its voice activation features. Unfortunately, […]
March 24, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Is nothing safe from the hacking community? It seems as though everything is under assault these days. Antivirus and malware blocking software is struggling to keep pace. When those security holes get plugged, the hackers simply shift gears and switch tactics, going after SSL or other core components of the internet itself. When the corporate […]
March 23, 2016 by Vertical Axion
MasterCard has been experimenting with a new facial biometrics app, and is poised to roll it out in force later this year. The basic idea behind the technology is that it will employ facial recognition in the place of traditional passwords, on the thinking that while it’s possible to guess at your password, a hacker’s […]
March 22, 2016 by Vertical Axion
The magnetic stripes on the backs of credit and debit cards are problematic. The root of the problem is that they contain absolutely nothing in the way of security. The information they contain is completely unprotected and vulnerable to a type of attack known as “skimming,” where someone with a bit of technical savvy can […]
March 21, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Have you secured your Wi-Fi connection yet? If not, your neighbors may be “borrowing” your internet connection. That poses some potential dangers to you, and could even set you up for some legal trouble, but how can you tell? There are a number of indirect indicators that someone may be borrowing your connection. Of these, […]
March 19, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Remember last year’s “Heartbleed” scare? If you don’t, or if you need a refresher, Heartbleed was a flaw in the security of SSL, which is the technology employed by just about everyone on the web to make financial transactions secure. It is essentially the technology that makes people feel comfortable about conducting business on the […]
March 17, 2016 by Vertical Axion
The US Department of Health and Human Services is having a tough time of it. They are the latest government agency to report a significant data breach, but this time, with a twist. In this instance, it wasn’t a nefarious plot by a group of hackers, but simple human carelessness and error. The case in […]
March 14, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Remember the ‘Good ol’ days,’ when all hackers would try to do is breach your security, steal your files and crash your servers? Well, things are about to get a lot messier, and more expensive. Over the last few years, there’s been a marked increase in Ransomware. If you’re not familiar with the term, the […]
March 12, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Hardly a week goes by that there’s not some or other high profile hacking attack or data breach in the news. These headline making attacks get the lion’s share of the attention because of their scope and scale, seeing the hackers making off with sensitive personal and financial information of hundreds of thousands, and often […]
March 11, 2016 by Vertical Axion
It finally happened. Ransomware has officially made its first appearance on OSX. Anyone who downloaded version 2.90 of the “Transmission” App (which is a legitimate Bittorrent app available in the Apple Store) on or around March 4 should delete it immediately and install the clean 2.92 version. If you’re not familiar with the term, ransomware […]
March 10, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Software companies seem to be losing their longstanding battle with the hacking community. In a recent blog post, Eric P. Maurice, who is the director of Software Security Assurance for Oracle, reported a devastating new software vulnerability that, while somewhat complex to execute, can result in the complete compromise of a user’s system. Designated CVE-2016-0603, […]
