Microsoft Word Gets Update To Disable DDE After Malware Concerns

January 3rd, 2018

In recent months, Microsoft Word has been getting a fair amount of bad press, thanks to an old-but-still-supported feature called DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange). This is the feature that allows Word to pull data from other MS Office applications. For instance, if you embed a chart into your Word document, each time you open the doc, it will automatically poll the spreadsheet the chart was created from and update it dynamically.

DirecTV Genie DVR May Have A Major Vulnerability

January 2nd, 2018

If you have a Genie DVR system, you should be aware of a major security flaw in the firmware that could allow a hacker to take complete control over the device.

At issue is the equipment offered by AT&T as part of their free DireTV WVB Kit.

Always Connected Laptops Could Be The Next Generation Of Hardware

January 1st, 2018

What's the next big thing for the PC world? If the industry's major players have anything to say about it, it will be the "always-on" PC.

Forget about plugging into your company's network. Forget about free WiFi Hotspots. With an always-on PC, you won't have to worry about either.

Data On 123 Million US Households Leaked Online

December 30th, 2017

Security researchers at UpGuard recently made a terrifying discovery in finding an unprotected Amazon S3 server containing several databases belonging to a data analytics provider called Alteryx.

While the server contained a variety of databases, the two that are of biggest concern belonged to Alteryx's business partners, Experian and the US Census Bureau.

USB Drives Could Be Huge Factor In Data Loss, Theft

December 29th, 2017

Most people agree that the use of USB drives increases efficiency and boosts productivity, which goes a long way toward explaining their popularity, but these handy little drives can also be problematic.

According to a recently published survey by Apricorn, 87 percent of employees surveyed report that they have lost or had a USB drive stolen and failed to notify their employer.

Large Number Of HP Models May Have Keyloggers

December 27th, 2017

HP is in the news again. If you missed the initial story, earlier in the year, it was reported that an audio driver that came pre-installed on a number of HP laptops contained keylogging code that stored every key stroke made by the person using the machine to a human-readable file.

New Facebook Messenger App For Kids Raises Privacy Questions

December 26th, 2017

On the surface, the new Facebook For Kids messenger app looks like a solid win that should put the minds of parents all over the world at ease.

The company conducted extensive interviews and assembled a Blue-Ribbon panel of experts to help them craft the new tool, aimed at children ages 6-12. The app itself is user friendly and filled with bright, cheerful primary colors that appeal to kids, but there are problems, or, at the very least, valid concerns.

Files Containing Nearly 1.5 Billion Passwords Leaked On The Internet

December 25th, 2017

Researchers from the security firm 4iQ have made a disturbing discovery on the dark web. A massive repository has been discovered that contains a staggering 1.4 billion usernames and passwords in plain text.

The repository is well organized, with each letter of the alphabet having its own directory to facilitate rapid search, and 4iQ has tested a subset of the data it contains and found an alarming percentage of the usernames and passwords to be viable.

New “MailSploit” Allows Email Spoofing

December 23rd, 2017

Phishing attacks just got a whole lot easier.

A German security researcher named Sabri Haddouche has recently discovered a set of email vulnerabilities that have been collectively dubbed "Mailsploit."  At the root, these vulnerabilities stem from the way most email systems interpret addresses encoded with a 1992 standard called RFC-1342.

The standard is that all information in an email header must be an ASCII character.