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September 27, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Recently, Google’s engineers introduced a small but important feature to their Calendar app. If you haven’t used the “known senders” option, you owe it to yourself to check it out. It allows you to toggle a setting that will filter out invites from people you don’t know, with an eye toward eliminating or drastically reducing […]
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September 26, 2022 by Vertical Axion
DuckDuckGo has a reputation for protecting the privacy of its users far more than most other companies. Last year, the tiny search engine announced that they were experimenting with a free service designed to dodge email trackers as a means of further protecting the privacy of its users. The company’s Email Protection service works by […]
September 24, 2022 by Vertical Axion
On September 7, 2022, Apple hosted its annual product release event at one pm Eastern Time (ET). Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, took the stage at the Far Out event held at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, to unveil a slew of brand-new and significantly enhanced devices. The iPhone 14 and several new smartwatches and […]
September 23, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft Teams is a part of the 365 product family and is used by more than 270 million people for exchanging text messages, videoconferencing, and file storage. In August of 2022, the team at Vectra Protect discovered a post-exploitation vulnerability in the plaintext storage disk used by Microsoft Teams while conducting research for a client. […]
September 22, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Lenovo issued a security notice informing customers of multiple serious BIOS vulnerabilities affecting hundreds of Lenovo devices across various models (Desktop, All in One, IdeaCentre, Legion, ThinkCentre, ThinkPad, ThinkAgile, ThinkStation, ThinkSystem). Exploiting the vulnerabilities might result in the disclosure of sensitive information, an increase in privileges, a denial of service, and possibly even the execution […]
September 21, 2022 by Vertical Axion
An unknown hacker, who claims to be eighteen years old, acquired administrative access to Uber’s corporate network and proprietary internal tools on Thursday, September 15, 2022. On September 15, 2022, at 6:25 pm PT, Uber issued a statement on Twitter that it was “responding to a cybersecurity incident.” An attacker gained access to the account […]
September 20, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Tech giant Google recently announced that it’s closing the doors on its IoT Core service. Their stated reason for doing so was that their strategic partners can better manage customers’ IoT services and devices. Time will tell if the company’s decision was a good one. Another tech giant, Microsoft, is wasting no time and is […]
September 19, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Are you the type of person who is in the habit of keeping all their apps open? If so, you’re going to love a recent addition to Windows 11. In a bid to make finding your open apps easier, once you’ve run out of room on the Windows Taskbar, they’ve introduced a new “taskbar overflow” […]
September 17, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Smaller companies often struggle to develop and invest in robust IT security systems, which can leave them relatively more vulnerable to cyber attacks. If that’s the situation you’re in and you’re trying to decide what to invest in and where to use the money that you have to spend on IT security, here’s a quick […]
September 16, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Recently Zoom, a popular, cloud-based communications platform used for online meetings and video conferencing, experienced an outage that impacted tens of thousands of users worldwide. The issue began shortly after 8:00 am PDT on Thursday, September 15, 2022, when users reported that they could not log in or join meetings. At 8:17 PDT, the company […]
September 15, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Even if you don’t consistently install Microsoft’s security patches as soon as they’re released, the September 2022 patch released this week deserves immediate attention. Dozens of bugs, flaws, and vulnerabilities were addressed in this iteration, including fixes for: *30 Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities 18 Elevation of Privilege vulnerabilities 16 Edge/Chromium vulnerabilities 7 Information Disclosure […]
September 14, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Hackers are increasingly adopting practices that legitimate business owners will immediately recognize. Recently, a new PhaaS (Phishing as a Service) operation has surfaced that specifically targets major banks. These banks include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Capital One, PNC, US Bank, Lloyds Bank, Santander, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Snarkily named “Robin Banks,” […]
September 13, 2022 by Vertical Axion
If you’re a Gmail user and you haven’t seen the change already, be aware that Google has freshened up their email interface. Don’t expect a radical change, however. This update is more of an evolution than a revolution. Chiefly, you’ll notice that the Chat, Spaces, and Meet buttons have all been drawn closer together. This […]
September 12, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Do you have a MacBook with a Butterfly Keyboard? If so, keep an eye out for an email regarding the Butterfly Keyboard class action lawsuit. Recently, Apple has agreed to pay out $50 million to settle the suit that alleged that Apple knew about flaws with the butterfly keyboard’s switches it built into several MacBook […]
September 10, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Recent Windows 11 updates have been problematic in several ways. That’s not the end of the world, but it has been more than a little frustrating for those in the test group getting a first look at the new operating system. One recently introduced bug has been a sore spot for Windows 11 users. The […]
September 9, 2022 by Vertical Axion
A small but important feature was recently incorporated by the Windows 11 design team. A new Account Lockout Policy enabled by default has been added. This policy automatically locks user accounts (including Admin accounts) after ten failed sign-in attempts. The account remains in a locked state for ten minutes, requiring users to wait that amount […]
September 8, 2022 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new threat to be aware of if you own an android device. Microsoft recently warned that their researchers had spotted a new toll fraud malware strain wreaking havoc in the Android ecosystem. Toll fraud is a form of billing fraud. It is a scheme whereby bad actors attempt to trick unsuspecting victims into […]
September 7, 2022 by Vertical Axion
If you haven’t heard of DuckDuckGo, it’s a tiny browser that only gets a fraction of the traffic that Google does. If we’re being honest, it gets only a fraction of the web traffic that Bing does. The search engine does have some pluck though and bills itself as the engine of choice for those […]
September 6, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Researchers at Defiant authored the popular Wordfence security solution for WordPress users and they have detected a massive campaign that has seen hackers actively scanning for websites employing the Kaswara Modern WPBakery Page Builder plugin. The plugin was recently abandoned by the creative team behind it before receiving a patch for a critical security flaw. […]
September 5, 2022 by Vertical Axion
If you haven’t heard of the UK startup Speechmatics, it may come as a surprise to learn that the company may be on its way to becoming a globally recognized brand. The company’s ambitious goal is to leapfrog over the progress made by America’s tech giants in speech recognition by using AI and machine learning. […]
September 3, 2022 by Vertical Axion
There’s interesting news in the world of Windows 11 development. Microsoft recently began testing a new Kiosk feature that will enable IT administrators to limit which applications users can use while logged into their user profiles, blocking all other functionalities. Even better is that the kiosk approach allows you to create multiple different apps and […]
September 2, 2022 by Vertical Axion
If you eat out or are in the habit of ordering take-out on a regular basis, be aware. Recently, a large, well-organized web-skimming campaign has been uncovered that allowed hackers to swipe the payment card details for more than 300 restaurants, impacting more than 50,000 customers. Web-skimmers are sometimes called Magecart malware and they are […]
September 1, 2022 by Vertical Axion
Quantum computing is on the horizon. Unfortunately, it’s been on the horizon for at least two decades. It’s one of those technologies that’s always “just around the corner.” In recent years, however, several important strides have been made. Although quantum computing isn’t exactly mainstream, great strides have been made where the technology is concerned. There’s […]
August 31, 2022 by Vertical Axion
According to ongoing research by Group-IB, a massive phishing campaign is currently underway. This is a campaign that has impacted no less than 130 organizations across a broad range of industries. These include but are not limited to professional recruiting firms and companies connected to finance and technology. Some of the companies targeted include giants […]
