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April 9, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Late last year, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) issued a warning about some of the Solid State Drives they manufacture. The warning was that unless users downloaded a patch to the drive’s firmware, their drive could fail after more than 33,000 hours of running. Now, the company is back with a similar warning. A new flaw […]
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April 8, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you don’t normally prioritize updating your iPhone and iPad OS, you’re probably going to want to shift gears and grab version 13.4 as soon as possible. The latest versions of both OS variants contain a number of important bug fixes and convenience features that are simply too big and too significant to miss out […]
April 7, 2020 by Vertical Axion
It’s no secret that the global pandemic we’re all living through has changed a great many things about both work and home life. For one thing, work and home life are often the same now, with large numbers of people sheltering in place and working from home. Unfortunately, home networks aren’t anywhere near as secure […]
April 6, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you familiar with Astaroth? If you’re a data security professional, you’ve probably at least heard the name. The group gained some notoriety last year when it came to light that they had developed a means of spreading “fileless malware” using legitimate Windows tools to infect machines around the world. The Windows Defender ATP team […]
April 4, 2020 by Vertical Axion
In May of 2019, a Google blog post encouraged all web browsers to adopt the approach of blocking third-party cookies by default. Google announced their own plans to do so, outlining a development strategy that would see Chrome and all Chromium-based browsers defaulting to that by 2022. The TOR browser was the first to make […]
April 3, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Windows 10 is on a lot of devices around the world. In part, that’s because it’s a significantly better and more modern operating system than its predecessors. In addition, it’s partly because Microsoft has been aggressively pushing people to upgrade to Windows 10. While it took the company a bit longer to reach the magic […]
April 2, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Word has recently leaked out about an interesting project that’s ongoing at Intel’s research labs. The company has apparently built an algorithm that mirrors the brain’s activity to detect and identify smells. The company developed a computer chip for the project. Called a “neuromorphic” chip, it was designed to allow a computer to process information […]
April 1, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Noam Rotem, a researcher for vpnMentor, recently made a startling discovery. A database connected to a now defunct app called MCA Wizard was found unsecured on the web. It contained a staggering 425 GB of sensitive corporate financial data. The app, developed via a partnership between Argus Capital Funding and Advantage Capital Funding, is no […]
March 31, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Google Translate is one of the company’s most popular services, and most of the people who use it dream of the day when it’s a full blown Universal Translator. While that’s obviously still quite some distance away yet, the company has been steadily improving their offering. They recently upped the ante further with a new […]
March 30, 2020 by Vertical Axion
A Pakistani-based hacking group that goes by a variety of names, including “Transparent Tribe,” “APT36,” “Mythic Leopard” and others has been discovered to be behind a particularly nasty attack recently. Researchers with QiAnXin’s RedDrip Team discovered a phishing campaign bearing the group’s stamp. This new campaign utilizes poisoned files that appear to be health advisories […]
March 28, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Some people just want to watch the world burn. That seems to be the reason behind the recent attacks on the US Health and Human Services Department website, which serves as a clearinghouse for information relating to the Coronavirus outbreak. As the virus has spread, more and more people have been heading to the HHS.gov […]
March 27, 2020 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new strain of ransomware to put on your radar. This latest one was discovered by researchers working from SentinelLabs and it has been dubbed Nefilim. Based on the initial research, it seems to share significant portions of its code base with an older strain, Nemty 2.5. The two key differences between the two […]
March 26, 2020 by Vertical Axion
According to the latest statistics, there are more than 2.5 billion Android devices in use around the world. That’s a lot of devices by any reckoning. According to statistics gathered by Consumer Watchdog Which?, more than a billion of those devices are no longer receiving security updates. That is scary. That puts an awful lot […]
March 25, 2020 by Vertical Axion
The Paradise ransomware is like a bad penny; it just keeps turning up. The strain first appeared back in 2017, when it was spread far and wide via phishing emails. Then it seemed to fall out of favor for a while, and now, it’s back again. Even worse, it’s back with a new trick up […]
March 24, 2020 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new malware threat to be aware of, called “CookieThief,” which is an apt name that describes what the malware does. Honestly though, the Hackers missed the mark here. “CookieMonster” would have been a much better name option. In any case, it’s part of a growing new collection of malware strains that is able […]
March 23, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you have a personal computer that uses Intel technology, you’re not going to want to miss the update released in March’s Patch Tuesday. The latest update addresses a total of 27 vulnerabilities. Ten of them rated as high severity flaws that impact Intel’s Graphics Drivers for Windows. Also impacted is the Smart Sound Technology […]
March 21, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Google has recently rolled out a small but important change to its Chrome browser for Windows, Linux and macOS users. The most recent update adds a ‘Default to Guest mode’ to the browser that can be enabled via Enterprise policy or a simple command-line switch. When the new feature is enabled, any time a browser […]
March 20, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Remember the Rowhammer vulnerability that made headlines around the world last year? 2019 saw all sorts of unusual threats, so if you’re struggling to recall the details of that one in particular, here’s a quick review: Any time a modern RAM card handles data, it is saved in memory cells that are arranged in a […]
March 19, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you a Walgreens customer? Do you make use of the company’s mobile app, available for both Android and iOS devices? If so, be advised that the company recently disclosed a serious flaw in the app that inadvertently leaked both Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Personal Health Information (PHI). The information was in the form […]
March 18, 2020 by Vertical Axion
It’s notoriously difficult to get reliable statistics on web browser usage. While there are sites that purport to track such things such as StatCounter and NetMarketShare, the numbers coming from these sources have proved to be problematic and unreliable. Enter the US Government’s Digital Analytics Program (DAP, for short). While it doesn’t reveal anything about […]
March 17, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you a T-Mobile customer? If so, be advised, the company recently published a Notice of Data Breach on their website to inform all clients that an email vendor they utilize was hacked. The notice said that the hack exposed the financial and personal information of a small fraction of the company’s customers. In addition […]
March 16, 2020 by Vertical Axion
For the last couple of years, the primary means of communication when conducting phishing campaigns has been email. Phishing emails have been absolutely rampant. So much so that people are increasingly on their guard against them. Naturally, this prompts scammers to change their tactics, switching things up a bit to catch people by surprise. In […]
March 14, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Unit 42 is a research division of Palo Alto Networks. Their researchers have discovered a sneaky and surprisingly effective phishing campaign that appears to have been launched in January of this year (2020). When targeted by this attack, a user will get an email containing a braded document containing the name of a legitimate cybersecurity […]
March 13, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Unless you’re plugged into the world of social media, you may not realize it. There’s a war on, and until recently, it was a war that Facebook was losing. The war is being fought with billions of fake accounts being used to fundamentally alter the social media landscape. It is influencing the kinds of content […]
