Clinic Employee Learns That Traveling Increases Data Theft Risk

July 24th, 2018

On May 14th, the Billings Clinic in Montana issued a breach notification statement, which explained that they detected unusual activity within one of its employee's email accounts.

The employee in question was traveling overseas on a medical mission when the email account was compromised.

Thermal Imaging Could Help Thieves Steal Your Passwords

July 23rd, 2018

As if there weren't enough ways for hackers to steal your passwords, now, there's thermal imaging.  If that sounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie, think again.

Researchers from the University of California at Irvine recently discovered and demonstrated a technique that involves the use of a thermal imaging camera to capture heat traces left by human fingertips as they type passwords into a keyboard.

Massive Breach Affects 21 Million Users Of Timehop App

July 21st, 2018

Do you use Timehop?  If you're not sure what that is, it's a popular, clever little app that reminds social media users about posts they've made in the past. It can be quite handy, especially if you're active on numerous social media accounts.

Unfortunately, the bloom is off the rose for Timehop.

Malware Created Using Stolen Legitimate Security Certificate From D-Link

July 20th, 2018

Researchers from the digital security firm ESET have recently spotted a new malware campaign with a nasty twist.  It was created using a legitimate security certificate stolen from D-Link.

The malware appears to be the work of an Advanced Persistent Threat group known as BlackTech, which primarily targets high profile users and firms in Asia, with a

particular emphasis on Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

iOS Adds New Restricted Mode In Latest Update 

July 19th, 2018

Apple recently released an updated version of iOS, 11.4.1.  They did so quietly, and without much fanfare, but the update includes one very powerful and exciting security update that's deserving of special attention.

Specifically, the new version of iOS introduces what the company is calling "Restricted Mode.

Adobe Releases Massive Update To Patch Its Products

July 18th, 2018

There's a lot to like about the contents of Adobe's most recent "Patch Tuesday" update. It's well worth downloading and installing, even if you normally take a pass on all but the most critical updates.

Included in this release are security patches for 112 vulnerabilities across four different products, including:

 

Flash Player
Acrobat and Reader
Experience Manager
Adobe Connect

We've provided more details below:

Updates For Flash Player

The security update includes patches for both desktops and browsers, including a patch for one critical issue (CVE-2018-5007).  This is a new, worrisome attack vector that exploits "type confusion", allowing an attacker to execute commands on a targeted system in the context of the current user.

Facebook Messenger Getting Feature To Help With Fake Accounts

July 17th, 2018

It's no secret that there are legions of scammers and spammers haunting the virtual halls of Facebook.  As the world's largest and most influential social networking site, it's a natural target, making its masses of users natural targets, too.

Facebook is taking steps to counter the threat posed by these nefarious actors, after being somewhat slow to act initially.

Open Database Exposes Info Of 340 Million People

July 16th, 2018

Internet security researcher Vinny Trola recently made a huge and disturbing discovery.  A marketing firm called Exactis had left a massive database unsecured, allowing anyone who stumbled across it to access it.

As a marketing firm, Exactis collects simply mind-boggling amounts of data on consumers all over the globe.

Americans Want Local Governments To Spend More On Cyber Security

July 14th, 2018

While a significant percentage of Americans are suspicious of government spending beyond the essentials, there's at least one notable exception, according to a recent survey conducted by SecurityFirst.

A majority (74 percent) of Americans want their local governments to spend more money on cybersecurity.

Apps In Gmail Have Full Access To Read Your Emails

July 13th, 2018

File this one away under "watch your permissions."  It's recently come to light that an unknown number of third party apps have access to read emails sitting in your Gmail account.

While the practice is not new, things like this are coming under increased scrutiny in the wake of Facebook's Cambridge Analytica incident.