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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 […]
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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 […]
February 10, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Security firm Fire Eye has reported on a new and disturbing Trojan making the rounds, called SlemBunk. Unlike so many of the other Trojans we’ve heard about, this one specifically targets handheld devices, and Android devices in particular. Most often, the app is downloaded by users visiting certain websites. It is especially prevalent on pornography […]
February 8, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Most credit card companies are hastening to replace their old style magnetic stripe cards with the new EMV chip-embedded ones. The new embedded chips are designed with one purpose in mind: to add an extra layer of security to credit card purchases and to make fraud much less likely. The good news is, the new […]
February 6, 2016 by Vertical Axion
2016 is off to a rough start in the world of internet security. Just seven days into the new year, and Time Warner has reported that a small subset of its customer data was hacked. Unfortunately, since Time Warner has a massive customer list, their “small” breach is at least 320,000 accounts in size. Granted, […]
January 30, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Comcast might be best known for its cable service, but they also sell home security systems. Many businesses use Xfinity, or a comparably engineered security system. That’s why recent developments are so troubling. Security vendor Rapid7 recently tried to contact Comcast about a potential flaw in the security systems they sell. This flaw allows the […]
January 25, 2016 by Vertical Axion
With all the prominent hacks making headlines last year, it just makes sense to start looking around for security solutions you can use every day in order to better secure your own data. That way, in the event of a major company getting hacked, exposing the data of their millions of customers, even if you […]
January 23, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Another day, another report of a large company data breach. The victim this time was Hyatt, and the breach impacted a total of 318 of their 627 properties. The culprit in this latest successful hack was malware found on hundreds of payment processing systems, which exposed customer names, addresses, and credit card numbers. Since the […]
January 15, 2016 by Vertical Axion
There’s no telling how many massive data leaks we’ll see in 2016, especially considering the staggering amount of exposure last year. One hack that is frightening, and that has recently come to light, involves voter registration data that has been hacked on a massive scale. This hack affects some 191 million voters in the US. […]
January 12, 2016 by Vertical Axion
A year and a half ago, Microsoft drew a line in the sand, making the pronouncement that January 12, 2016 would be the date of the last security patch for Internet Explorer versions lower than IE 9. Their recommendation is that all users upgrade either to Internet Explorer version 11, or the new Microsoft browser, […]
January 11, 2016 by Vertical Axion
As internet devices go, PCs, laptops, and handhelds are all pretty secure, which may sound strange, given the number of successful hacks we’ve seen this year. They’re loaded with security features that make them relatively robust, and able to fend off a variety of attacks. By comparison, the rapidly growing army of Internet objects are […]
January 6, 2016 by Vertical Axion
By now, almost everyone knows and understands how important security is at every level, from your network as a whole, to your individual PC. What many people may not know is that if you upgraded to Windows 10, your new OS was pretty generous in terms of allowing applications to access…well, pretty much anything they […]
January 5, 2016 by Vertical Axion
Landry’s Has Been Hacked Landry’s Restaurants, owner of more than 40 well-known brands around the world, such as Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Chart House, Claim Jumper, Landry’s Seafood, Mastro’s Restaurants, McCormick & Schmick’s, The Steakhouse, Rainforest Café, and others, was hacked, adding their name to the ever-growing list of companies breached in 2015. The company […]
January 1, 2016 by Vertical Axion
The short answer is yes. V-Tech and Hello Kitty join the depressingly long list of companies to have been hacked in 2015. This time, however, the data taken were overwhelmingly about children – their usernames, passwords, addresses, birthdays, photos, and other personal information. At first glance, you may be wondering why hackers would bother, but […]
December 28, 2015 by Vertical Axion
There’s always a risk for personal belonging loss whenever you are traveling. Airports are never as secure as you would hope, and travelers going to unfamiliar places are always easy targets for thieves looking to make a quick steal. Laptops are good targets for thieves since they are small, light, and easily taken with little […]
December 25, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Can You Trust Siri? Apple has long claimed that one of its chief advantages over Android and Windows devices is greater security. There’s a lot of truth to that, but there seems to be one glaring flaw in that claim. Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant. Siri’s problems are both well-known and well-documented. As invaluable as she […]
December 23, 2015 by Vertical Axion
Sometimes, no matter how careful you are and how many precautions you take, the worst happens. Your company is successfully hacked. Given the number and sophistication of hacking attacks in recent months, odds are good that at some point, you’re going to be faced with this very situation. How you respond, especially in the hours […]
December 19, 2015 by Vertical Axion
In recent months, there’s been a tremendous amount of attention focused on upgrading corporate IT security, and with good reason. Hacking attacks are growing in both number and sophistication, and breaches are becoming increasingly commonplace. The hackers appear to be winning, at least in the short term. With all of the attention being placed on […]
