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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, […]
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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, […]
March 9, 2016 by Vertical Axion
There are a lot of things we do on the internet that we take for granted, but in some cases, and in certain parts of the world, there are things that can actually land you in jail. Take a look at the list below, and beware. It pays to be mindful of where you are […]
March 7, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Has your network ever been attacked or successfully hacked by a rogue refrigerator? That sentence sounds silly, but believe it or not, it has actually happened! As the number of smart, internet-connected devices continues to grow, and the “Internet of Things” (IoT) takes on increasing importance in our daily lives, the risks to those devices […]
March 5, 2016 by Vertical Axion
LG has a problem, and if you own an LG phone, you’ve got a problem too. The reason? LG phones come with an app called “Smart Notice” preloaded and activated on literally every phone the company makes. This Smart Notice app is a handy feature, to be sure, but it comes with a critical flaw. […]
March 4, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Landry’s has been in the news recently because like so many other companies, they recently fell victim to a successful hacking attack. The company has released additional details about the incident, and it sheds some light on the root causes of the problem they faced. In their particular case, the hack manifested itself in the […]
March 3, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Windows 10 has seen the fastest rate of adoption of any OS in Microsoft’s history. It’s unquestionably a good product, and even better, at least for a limited time, it’s a free product. That’s a hard combination to beat, but for a variety of reasons, some people just don’t want to upgrade, and that’s their […]
March 1, 2016 by Vertical Axion
How long has it been since we’ve seen a full week go by without another headline of yet another data breach? Far too long, and this week is no exception. The latest victim? High-end retailer Neiman Marcus. Fortunately, at least in terms of scope and scale, this breach is a relatively small one. A spokesman […]
February 25, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Have you been hacked? Has your personal information been compromised? If so, what are you worth? What’s your information selling for? If you’re curious, take a trip to the Dark Web to find out. The Dark Web is the “underground” internet. All of the servers are hidden and encrypted. The only way to access them […]
February 24, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Have you heard of Hot Potato? It’s the latest security exploit that Windows-based machines are vulnerable to. Note that this doesn’t target a particular version of Windows, but rather, spans everything from Windows 7, forward to Windows Server 2012. The exploits take advantage of hooks and weaknesses built into the core of the OS itself, […]
February 23, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Ransomware is shaping up to be the most significant threat from the hacker community in 2016. Over the last few days, Locky, a new piece of malware has been spreading like a wildfire across the Internet. The problem began February 16, when Locky was sent to 400,000 unlucky potential victims. In its first form, it […]
February 20, 2016 by Vertical Axion
A health insurer based in St. Louis, called Centene, has “misplaced” six hard drives. Normally that would not be a big deal, but these particular hard drives happened to contain the personal data of around a million patients. The missing data includes patient names, addresses, birthdays, and social security numbers, but thankfully, not payment information. […]
February 19, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Since 2011, a company called SplashDash has posted a “Worst Password List” based on data mined from hacks and data breaches. What’s remarkable about the annual list is how little it changes from one year to the next. In the age of weekly, high profile hacks, in the age of rampant identity theft, one would […]
February 17, 2016 by Vertical Axion
As almost everyone is aware, Email was the first “killer app.” It very quickly went from being an expensive, idle curiosity, where users had to buy digital stamps in order to send each and every email, to something so ubiquitous that on average, people have 3 email addresses, even if they don’t regularly use them. […]
February 12, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Is your company considering “going wireless?” If you haven’t taken the plunge yet, then it’s something you should strongly consider. It’s not as simple as just buying something off the shelf and plugging it in though. There are a number of considerations, and we’ll go over the basics just below: Security With security being on […]
