The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued a public service announcement regarding the growing number of Social Security related scams they've been getting reports about.
In 2017, just 3,200 people called to report instances of SSA Voice Phishing (called 'vishing'), with total 2017 losses amounting to some $210,000.
In 2018, that number swelled to more than 63,000 with losses in excess of $16.6 million.
If you haven't heard of the GrandCrab ransomware strain, it's something you should put on your company's radar. It first emerged as a viable threat in early 2018.
Since that time, its creators have been constantly tweaking and honing their approach, turning it into a devastatingly effective strain.
If you've installed Microsoft's March 1st update for Windows 10, version 180G, be aware that a growing percentage of users are reporting performance issues that impact graphics quality and mouse movement. Granted, the issues seem to have the biggest impact on games, with gamers who play games like Destiny 2 and Call of Duty 4. Of course, performance issues are likely to crop up in a variety of other applications as well.
How big of a problem do you imagine identity theft to be? What percentage of Americans do you think have been impacted by it? If you're like most people, whatever number you selected probably underestimated its impact. In a recent survey conducted by nCipher, it was discovered that nearly 29 percent (17.6 percent) of respondents admitted that their identities had been stolen.
The Federal Trade Commission just issued an enormous fine to a Chinese app developer for illegally collecting the personal data of the children who used it.
The company was handed a staggering $5.7 million fine when the FTC filed a complaint alleging that the video-sharing app was in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
We knew fairly early in the year that 2018 was on track to beat 2017 and set a new record for the number of data breaches in the year.
Afterall, 2017 had shattered 2016's record the year before. Now that the final numbers are in though, we can see just how big an increase we've seen in the number of data breaches from one year to the next.
A new vulnerability was revealed to the world at the 2019 NDSS security conference. It's a grim one with the potential to impact FreeBSD, Linux, Windows and Mac systems worldwide.
Dubbed 'Thunderclap,' the flaw can be exploited to impact the way that Thunderbolt-based peripherals connect and interact with a target system.
If you use a Nvidia graphics card, be aware that the company has recently released their first security patch of 2019, bearing the ID # 4772. It's an important one in that it addresses eight security flaws that leave un-patched systems vulnerable to attack.
If you have a need for speed, you'll be thrilled to know that USB 3.2 is on its way. It offers incredible transfer speeds up to 20GB per second, but there's a catch that could throw a wrench into the works, or at least make things more complicated. At the most recent Mobile World Congress, it was announced that the new USB 3.2 specification will encompass both USB 3.0 and USB 3.1, which creates three different tiers of speed.
If you own a retail business, an attack known as "credential stuffing" is the latest online threat to be concerned about. If you're not sure what that is, read on and prepare to be dismayed. According to the 2019 State of the Internet, Retail Attacks, and TPI Traffic Report published by Akamai, there has been an surge in large scale botnet attacks against businesses, with retail outlets being the hardest hit.
