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December 11, 2020 by Vertical Axion
A new ransomware strain burst onto the scene in September of this year (2020). Dubbed ‘Egregor’ by the research team at Digital Shadows who discovered it, it has already claimed more than seventy victims in nineteen countries around the world. Worse, the hackers controlling it appear to just be getting started. The malware is expertly […]
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December 10, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Researchers at Check Point have recently discovered a new malware threat that targets mobile device users. Dubbed WAPDropper, this is a multi-function bit of code that’s capable of being outfitted with a variety of payloads. At present, the hackers controlling WAPDropper have seen fit to include a premium dialer module, which gives the code the […]
December 9, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you a Spotify user? If so, you’ve got plenty of company. It’s one of the shining success stories on the web, and has grown to become one of the most popular music streaming services available. Unfortunately, that also makes it a target, and recently, researchers at VPNMentor discovered a database of more than 300,000 […]
December 8, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Unless you’re a regular Home Depot shopper, you may have missed the fact that back in 2014, the company was the victim of a successful hacking attack that saw malware installed on the company’s POS (Point of Sale) system. The attack allowed them to collect more than 40 million records belonging to customers in both […]
December 7, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you’re a US citizen, scammers have found a new way to make money at your expense, using the global pandemic as a ‘hook.’ Since the start of the pandemic, there have been a number of campaigns designed and run by scammers to spread misinformation, steal vaccine research, and scam people out of money. The latest […]
December 4, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you employ a number of Chrome web extensions to enhance your browsing experience, be aware that change is afoot. Google recently announced that as of early next year, the company is adding a “Privacy Practices” section on each extension’s listing on the Web Store, which will outline exactly what data they will collect from […]
December 3, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Hackers have increasingly gravitated to ransomware attacks in 2020, as being one of the best and most reliable paths to a payday. That brings to mind an interesting question though. Naturally, the viability of this type of attack comes down to what percentage of victims are willing to actually pay the ransom, and what is […]
December 2, 2020 by Vertical Axion
It’s time once again for a survey of the worst passwords of 2020, brought to you by Norpass and associates. The company has been analyzing passwords retrieved from the Dark Web to study them. They are trying to locate trends and see just how well we’re doing overall, in terms of picking passwords that aren’t […]
December 1, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you a Pluto.tv user? If so, you’re not alone. The internet television station boasts an impressive user base of nearly thirty million users who enjoy a wide range of free TV shows, with the caveat that they have to put up with commercials. Unfortunately, security researchers recently found a vast trove of Pluto.tv login […]
November 30, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Researchers from cybersecurity company Morphisec have recently discovered a new strain of malware they believe has been in the wild of the internet since at least May of this year (2020). Dubbed Jupyter, this strain is classed as an Info Stealer. It focuses on getting into user names, passwords and other private systems and exfiltrating […]
November 28, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you’re a diehard Chrome browser user, be aware that as of November 17th, 2020, Chrome 87 has now been ported to the Stable desktop channel, and it’s an upgrade well worth getting. It adds a raft of performance improvements that will increase your overall browsing speed, in addition to offering some new security features. […]
November 27, 2020 by Vertical Axion
For several years now, most of the big tech companies have been using the lure of free to grow their respective user bases. Free unlimited data on phone plans. Free, unlimited storage on cloud drive plans, and the like. Free can get expensive for these firms, however. Over time, most of them have slowly backed away […]
November 26, 2020 by Vertical Axion
File this away under the least surprising announcement ever. Actually, it’s not so much an announcement as a reminder that on January 26, 2021, when Mozilla releases Firefox 85, the option to re-enable Adobe’s Flash Player will be gone, effectively eliminating Flash on the browser. Firefox is the latest in a string of browsers to […]
November 24, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you run Windows 10, version 2004, you may have noticed some unusual shenanigans going on where your system’s monitor is concerned. If you’re using a tablet or laptop, with a display that’s built into the machine itself, it may flicker periodically. If you’re using a desktop PC with a standalone monitor external to the […]
November 23, 2020 by Vertical Axion
By now, just about everyone is aware of the importance SSL certificates play in keeping data away from prying eyes on the web. After some scares in recent years, it has thankfully become the standard, and according to Google’s latest statistics, more than 95 percent of the traffic passing through its network is encrypted. Unfortunately, […]
November 21, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you use an Apple device running iOS, then you’ll want to update to the latest version (14.2) immediately. In the latest update, Apple has patched a trio of ‘Zero Day Vulnerabilities’ known to have been used by hackers to exploit unpatched systems. The three issues addressed are as follows: CVE-2020-27930 – This issue is […]
November 20, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Luxottica is the latest company to fall victim to relentless hackers. Even if you’re not familiar with the name, if you wear glasses or contacts, you might have dealings with the company even without realizing it. As the world’s largest eyewear company, they produce all the best-known brands, including: Ray-Ban Oakley Oliver Peoples Ferrari Michael […]
November 19, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Do you have a free Yahoo email account? If so, be advised that beginning January 1, 2021, you will lose the ability to set up automatic email forwarding from that account, and any automatic forwarding rules you’ve already got in place will stop working. Yahoo Mail’s new owner, Verizon, announced the change in October 2020 […]
November 17, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Do you own gold? If so, and if you purchased it online, then odds are good that you bought it from JM Bullion, which is one of the largest precious metal retailers on the web. If so, be aware that the company recently announced that their network was breached, and as a result, some customer […]
November 16, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Hackers are always looking for a new angle, and recently, they’ve found a particularly good one. Image recognition software is becoming increasingly sophisticated. So if hackers are interested in building a fake landing and login page designed to spoof some other company, they have to get it exactly right, including the background image, or most […]
November 14, 2020 by Vertical Axion
When you were growing up, your parents probably bought you all sorts of toys made by Mattel. From Hotwheels to Barbie to the full line of Toy Story toys and more, Mattel is a global force in the world of toys. In fact, they are the second largest toy maker in the world, with more […]
November 13, 2020 by Vertical Axion
How good is your IT staff at staying current when it comes to applying all the latest security patches? Unfortunately, the answer for most businesses is, “probably not as good as you think.” According to research conducted by Bitdefender, a staggering 64 percent of un-patched vulnerabilities discovered on corporate networks in 2020 involve bugs that […]
November 12, 2020 by Vertical Axion
A lot of people have a complicated relationship with Adobe Acrobat reader. On the one hand, it’s an undeniably useful piece of software and one of the most widely installed and used on the planet. There’s simply no better and more convenient way to view PDFs, no matter what kind of device you’re using. On […]
November 10, 2020 by Vertical Axion
During the 2019 Microsoft Ignite convention, the company announced a new feature they were planning to add to Exchange Online. The new feature, dubbed “plus addressing” would give Office 365 Exchange users the ability to create a potentially unlimited number of disposable email addresses using a + delimiter. That’s handy, given that so many sites […]
