As you're probably aware, Microsoft has officially pulled the plug on Windows 7 support for everyone except those who are paying for the privilege via the company's ESU (Extended Security Updates) policy.
The final Windows 7 update was KB4534310. After that, unless you've paid for ESUs, no further updates are coming, no exceptions.
Not long ago, security researcher Brian Krebs discovered an issue with the iPhone 11. It contains a chip dubbed U1, which functions on UWB (Ultra Wide Band). Due to international regulatory requirements, the U1 chip has to disable itself at certain locations, which means that the phone has to periodically check for a user's location, even if you have that functionality turned off on your phone.
Another week, another high-profile data breach. This time, it's a big one that has affected 30 million people from the Wawa data breach.
In December 2019, the convenience store chain Wawa disclosed that they had discovered malware on their point of sale system and that tens of millions of customer records were at risk.
If you're a Mac user, you may have heard of the malware known as Shlayer. It first made headlines in the early part of 2018.
The malware is primarily used to install malicious adware on infected systems that spam an unreasonable number of popups. The popups generate ad revenue for the malware's controllers.
As you may have heard, Microsoft is getting out of the browser game. Recently, the company announced that they were redesigning their Edge browser, which never quite caught on and replacing it with Microsoft chromium edge.
Rather than trying once more to reinvent the wheel, the company has opted to build the re-imagined Edge browser on Google's Chromium technology.
Over the last twelve months, we've heard reports from companies of all shapes and sizes that have suffered from data breaches. Now, Microsoft has experienced its own customer service database data breach.
Many of them were caused by an act of carelessness on the part of an employee that accidentally left an important database exposed to the world.
A new TrickBot malware has some new tricks up its sleeves. Recently, TrickBot malware has compromised 250 million email accounts. Additionally, TrickBot has new capabilities that allow it to target the Active Directory database stored on compromised Windows domain controllers.
According to a recent FBI alert marked "TLP: AMBER," businesses should be on high alert for ransomware attacks.
The alert reads, in part, as follows:
"Since January 2019, LockerGoga ransomware has targeted large corporations and organizations in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Norway, and the Netherlands.
As 2019 draws to a close, we can say definitively that the year has been another record-breaking one where data breaches are concerned. Hackers around the world have been busy in recent weeks, with a trio of high-profile cases making headlines.
In late November, one of China's largest manufacturers of smartphones (OnePlus) reported that an unauthorized third-party accessed their user data.
For decades, futurists have been promising a cashless shopping society and all the convenience that comes with it. So far though, the technology we have available hasn't lived up to the promise.
Sure, we're moving inexorably in the direction of a cashless society, but we're doing so at a snail's pace.
