In the world of hacking, steganography ranks as one of the most difficult methodologies to detect.

If you're not familiar with the term, it is the practice of embedding executable code inside images, which makes it virtually impossible to detect.

There's a new strain of ransomware making the rounds, and it's a nasty piece of work. Called Phobos by its creators, the latest threat on the ransomware scene first made an appearance in December of 2018.

While details are sketchy, what we know so far about it is grim indeed.

If you're like many seasoned 'Netizins, you probably rely on some type of VPN to help ensure your digital privacy. Unfortunately, based on research conducted by Simon Migliano, you could very well be wasting your time.

Mr. Migliano is the head of research at Metric Labs and is a respected name in the industry.

Most reputable businesses don't deal in illegal copies of commercial software, but there have been a few reported instances. There's always the possibility that a cash-strapped individual that's eager to do additional work from home might resort to installing a 'cracked' free copy of a program.

There's a new malware threat in the MacOS ecosystem called OSX.LamePyre.  If you haven't heard of it yet, it belongs on your radar.

At the moment, industry experts agree that it's more of a crude work in progress.  Unfortunately, the danger of crude works in progress is that the hackers continue to develop them, making them a threat that gets worse over time.

Bob Diachenko, the Director of Cyber Risk Research for Hacken, recently made a disturbing discovery.  He found an ElasticSearch server open and vulnerable on the internet, without so much as a password to protect it.

Unfortunately, the server was leaking a staggering 73GB of data and had a number of databases cached inside the server's memory.

In recent years we've seen several companies suffer from hacks of various magnitudes. Over time, we've witnessed the growth of what could be described as best practices in terms of how to respond.

The typical arc goes something like this:

The hack is discovered.

In recent months, Google has taken steps to tighten up its processes so that fewer poisoned apps find their way into the Google Play Store.  In addition to that, the company has stepped up its efforts to ruthlessly track down and remove malicious apps whenever and wherever they are found.

In the world of data security, cryptocurrency mining software is often overlooked or discounted as a threat because it doesn't do serious harm to the infected system.

It bleeds off computing resources, putting them to work for the miners who control the software, working for them to solve complex cryptographic puzzles which generate revenue for the hackers.

Over the course of the holiday season this year, more than half of the working adults in the United States will be traveling with one or more of their work devices.

Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of those fully appreciate the data security risks inherent in travel, which is a grim reality that could put your company and its data at risk.