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.

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.

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.

LTE Networks May Be Vulnerable To Hacking

July 10th, 2018

Researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and New York University in Abu Dhabi have discovered serious security flaws in 4G LTE networks that allow hackers to spy on, listen in on, intercept, and disrupt phone calls and text messages.

Given that billions of people rely on 4G LTE networks for cellphone communications, it's a serious issue, and there are no easy fixes.

Mobile Users Gain Privacy Protection In Supreme Court Ruling

July 6th, 2018

There's some good news from a recent Supreme Court ruling where privacy is concerned, but take it with a grain of salt.

In a recent 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement agencies must obtain a warrant before they can get access to data collected and stored on mobile devices.

New SSD Drive Can Hold 8TB of Storage

July 5th, 2018

Good news for the business world in general, and the owners of data centers, in particular.

Mass storage is about to get vastly more efficient thanks to Samsung's recently launched solid state drive, which manages to pack an impressive 8TB of storage into a delightfully small footprint, measuring just 11cm x 3.05cm.

Vulnerability In Mac OS Went Unnoticed For Years

July 3rd, 2018

Researchers at Okta Security have stumbled across something big.  Recently, they discovered a flaw in Apple's OS that would have allowed hackers to completely undermine Apple's code signing process.

While at first glance that doesn't sound so bad, the implications are terrifying.