Items tagged with security
Sony can't seem to catch a break when it comes to hackers. If cyber criminals aren't infiltrating the company's PlayStation Network (PSN) and wreaking havoc there, then they're breaking into the company's movie division, as they did last week when Sony Pictures became the victim of a massive ransomeware hack. As a...
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The chip business has been good to Intel, but it's not the only product in the Santa Clara semiconductor firm’s portfolio. Among other things, Intel is also entrenched in the security market. The company spent billions of dollars acquiring McAfee several years ago and this week scooped up PasswordBox, a relative...
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If you have Flash Player installed, and chances are pretty overwhelming that you do, you'll want to make sure that you're equipped with the latest and greatest version. Last month, Adobe issued a Flash update that blocked certain exploit kits from being able to take advantage of a user's PC, but as it turns out, that...
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It appears that Sony has become the victim of a massive ransomware hack which has resulted in the company shutting down. An unnamed source spoke to Business 2 Community claiming that the company shut down after its computers in New York and around the nation were infiltrated.
The source, according to the website...
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Symantec made the unsettling announcement today that it has discovered sophisticated malware that has been operating successfully on and off since 2008. Named Regin, the malware launches in a series of stages and is designed to avoid detection at each stage. Symantec hasn’t identified the organization that created...
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It's sad that we can't go more than a day lately without learning more about how governments love to eavesdrop on us, removing whatever privacy we have left. Just yesterday, we talked about the continued pressure law enforcement is putting on companies like Apple and Google regarding encryption on their respective...
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The 1980s taught us many things, one of them being that robot guards don't mess around. Remember the ED-209 Enforcement Droid in RoboCop? That's a prime example of why we don't want armed robots in charge of keeping the peace. But what about unarmed robots? You'll find them patrolling Microsoft's Silicon Valley...
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It's been no secret that most law enforcement, including the biggest US government agencies, would rather encryption didn't exist outside of its own use. Just this past week, we saw the Department of Justice defend its stance on scooping up user data en masse, and in September, we talked twice about the 'major...
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is bringing the legal hammer down on tech support scammers who trick people into thinking there's something wrong with their computer that they're able to fix, or otherwise offering to speed up your PC. What they're really doing is charging for services that aren't necessary, though...
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We're constantly being reminded that our government has a great interest in our private lives, whether it's flying specially equipped planes over densely populated areas to trick tens of thousands of phones into forking over sensitive data, or snooping on Internet traffic, big brother's watching us. One of the few...
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Government agencies are prime targets for many hackers (particularly those funded by other governments), so it’s not surprising that the State Department was recently attacked. What makes the attack unusual is that it appears to have been successful, with unclassified systems being compromised, including...
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A recently discovered vulnerability in iOS set off panic alarms due to the nasty nature of it. Security researchers warned that malicious apps installed using enterprise/ad-hoc provisioning would be able to replace legitimate apps on a user's iOS device. Dubbed "Masque Attack," it prompted a warning from the U.S...
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The Department of Justice's U.S. Marshals Service division has reportedly been employing fake cellphone towers on planes in an effort to stay one step ahead of criminals such as drug dealers and terrorist organizations operating in the United States. Unfortunately for law abiding citizens and privacy advocates at...
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Are you sure that app on your iPhone is legitimate? If you've been careful not to fall for phishing scams, then chances are you're right. However, there's a new malware targeting iOS that's capable of spoofing and even overwriting legitimate apps you've downloaded from Apple's App Store, such as Gmail, for example...
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The more time that passes, the more details come to light regarding a major security breach at Home Depot that exposed 53 million customer email addresses on top of compromising 56 million credit and debit cards. There's an ongoing investigation into the incident, and one of the latest tidbits is that Home Depot is...
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Home Depot disclosed this week that around 53 million email addresses were taken during a recent security breach, which is in addition to the approximately 56 million compromised customer credit and debit cards previously disclosed by the hardware chain. The updated findings are the result of weeks of investigation by...
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Here's a not-so-fun fact for your Friday workday -- there are 9 incidents per million users per day involving "manual hijacking," which is when professional attackers spend considerable time exploiting a single victim's account, often causing financial losses, Google says. Though they're not the most prominent types...
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Just how secure is your favorite chat app? The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) found out and is sharing the results of its research as part of its battle against NSA surveillance. As you’d probably expect, it has some complaints about the security of certain mainstream chat programs, but there are a few...
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When people think about Internet security, they still think of the various bugs, flaws, and malware that pervade the online world as a Windows problem. Macs have long enjoyed special status thanks to limited market share, while smartphones aren't generally considered to be an attack vector, no matter which OS you...
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There's a fine line to balance when it comes to providing users with a comprehensive backup service and providing that service in a manner that fundamentally compromises the security of the people it's supposed to be protecting. According to security researcher Jeffrey Paul, iCloud has thoroughly breached that barrier...
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We've talked a lot in the past about the rather large number of security risks that have existed on Android, and Google's Play Store in particular. While part of the reason that so much bad can happen on Android is due to its openness, something I appreciate a lot, Google still takes security and privacy on its platform extremely seriously....
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Apple recently posted a security bulletin alerting iCloud users to the presence of "intermittent organized network attacks using insecure certificates to obtain user information," and though the company didn't publicly point a finger at China, several reports suggested that's where they're coming from. In response to...
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