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January 16, 2021 by Vertical Axion
The Quaverse Remote Access Trojan–affectionately dubbed QRat–has been with us since at least 2015. It’s a good piece of malware because it’s notoriously difficult to detect and it provides high value information like passwords, sensitive files, screenshots and more. In addition to remotely offloading files, hackers can assume complete control over any infected system. In […]
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January 15, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Hackers and scammers have hit the ground running in 2021, launching an extensive new phishing campaign that targets the legions of PayPal users around the world. The campaign is being run on both text message and email channels and if you’re a PayPal user, you may have already seen it. If you haven’t, in the […]
January 14, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Hackers around the world didn’t waste any time. New Year’s celebrations have barely ended, and already, we have our first reports of a new malware strain to help ring in 2021. Dubbed Babuk Locker, the strain is aimed squarely at corporate networks. Based on an analysis of the code, security experts have concluded that the […]
January 13, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft has been moving toward a unified “single version” of Outlook that would offer a seamless user experience across all platforms and devices. Unfortunately, thus far, that objective has remained elusive. In late 2020, however, the company announced “Project Monarch” which seeks to create a new email/calendar client that will finally accomplish the company’s long-stated […]
January 12, 2021 by Vertical Axion
In the early days of the pandemic, several major groups of hackers pledged that their activities would not be aimed at institutions that were engaged in vaccine research. There was at least one high profile instance where the agreement was violated, but for the most part, the hackers kept their word. Research facilities were left […]
January 11, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Is your company’s website built around Adobe’s aging Flash Player? If so, be aware that you are officially on your own. Flash reached its EOL (End of Life) as of January 1st of this year (2021). From a business perspective, you don’t have to worry that your Flash-dependent website will suddenly stop working, but from […]
January 9, 2021 by Vertical Axion
There’s a new worm making the rounds on Windows and Linux-based servers that you should be aware of. This nasty bit of code has been spreading rapidly, using simple brute-force methods to break into public facing-services like Tomcat, MySQL, Jenkins, WebLogic and others. Unfortunately, the prevalence of weak passwords protecting these public-facing systems has made […]
January 8, 2021 by Vertical Axion
In 2020, there have been a number of high-profile data breaches, and as we move closer to the end of the year, we have yet another to report. This time, cellular carrier T-Mobile is the victim, having recently disclosed a security incident that exposed the phone numbers and call records of some of the company’s […]
January 7, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Various hackers around the world have found a new hobby. Recently, there has been a rise in “Swatting Attacks”, which have seen hackers take advantage of the notoriously weak or nonexistent security in “smart” devices built for home use. Hackers do this so they can call the police on you and then watch you and […]
January 6, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Japanese juggernaut Kawasaki Heavy Industries is the latest company to fall victim to a security breach. The company, which employs more than 35,000 people and has offices all over the globe recently disclosed the breach to its customers. The company discovered that one or more unauthorized parties accessed a company server in Japan from an […]
January 5, 2021 by Vertical Axion
In 2020, hackers around the world have increasingly gravitated to ransomware as their preferred method of attack. This year, there have been dozens of high-profile, successful attacks on companies around the world. Whirlpool, one of the largest home appliance manufacturers in the world, is the latest company to fall victim to this type of attack. […]
January 4, 2021 by Vertical Axion
One year ago, Microsoft officially ended support for the venerable Windows 7 operating system. No new security patches have been issued, which means that anyone running a Windows 7 machine at this point is taking a tremendous security risk. That is especially true if that machine is connected to a corporate network. It would be […]
January 2, 2021 by Vertical Axion
If you make extensive use of Google’s products, you almost certainly noticed the worldwide outage of Google’s services. As details continue to emerge about the outage, it’s increasingly clear that Google has some egg on its face and that the outage was an entirely self-inflicted wound. The failure was ultimately caused by the company’s Identity […]
January 1, 2021 by Vertical Axion
Researchers on the Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky Lab have recently discovered a new malware strain dubbed PyMICROPSIA, currently being used by a group tracked as AridViper. AridViper operates primarily in the Middle East, focusing mainly on Palestine, Egypt, and Turkey. Their malware was designed specifically to attack Windows-based machines. The group […]
December 31, 2020 by Vertical Axion
If you have a smartphone, and these days, almost everyone has at least one, you’re incredibly easy to track. That’s especially true if you have more than a handful of apps on your phone, because apps are notoriously bad about demanding access to details about you they don’t need in order to function. From the […]
December 30, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Is your company’s website built around WordPress? If so, you’re certainly not alone. WordPress is, to this day, the simplest way to get a site up and running quickly. It’s easy to use, has an intuitive interface and there are thousands of great plugins that extend its capabilities. Unfortunately, hackers are all too aware of […]
December 29, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Avast are the makers of popular antivirus software. Their researchers, recently found a total of twenty-eight different Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge extensions that were laced with malware. Worse, they found the extensions have been downloaded by more than 3 million users around the world. All of the extensions were designed to help facilitate the […]
December 28, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Are you working from home right now? If so, you’ve got plenty of company. Since the pandemic began, tens of millions of American workers have started doing exactly that, but there’s a problem. While working from home has its upsides, it also tends to be a bit noisier, especially if you have children, neighbors, or […]
December 26, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Scammers have a new way of ripping people off this year. If you’re not mindful of it, it could literally cost you. Gift cards have always been fairly popular, but this year, they seem to be more popular than ever. According to the online fraud prevention company, Bolster, thieves have been hard at work setting […]
December 25, 2020 by Vertical Axion
We’re drawing close to the end of an era. The writing has been on the wall for Adobe’s Flash player for quite some time, and the company has set a firm date of January 12th, 2012 as its official end of life. Recently, they took another important step closer by releasing what will be their […]
December 24, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Hackers have found yet another possible inroad they can use to infect the machines of unsuspecting users. This time, they’re infecting older versions of WinZip. If there’s one utility that’s nearly as ubiquitous as Adobe’s Acrobat Reader, it would probably be WinZip. In the 30+ years since its initial release, the handy tool has seen […]
December 23, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft has really struggled in recent years to make a browser that could compete with the most popular offerings on the market today. Internet Explorer was the early standard, but was quickly eclipsed, and slowly fell into obscurity. The company’s second attempt, Edge, was short-lived and never had time to fully mature before the company […]
December 22, 2020 by Vertical Axion
With the pandemic still raging, many schools around the world are still shuttered as tens of millions of school age children take to learning from home via remote or distance learning technologies. It is by no means a perfect substitute for in person learning but right now at least, it’s the only viable option available. […]
December 21, 2020 by Vertical Axion
Microsoft recently issued a warning about an ongoing malware campaign they discovered. It seeks to install a new browser hijacking, credential stealing malware strain called Adrozek onto as many PCs as possible. Based on Microsoft’s analysis of the campaign, at its peak, it was able to infect more than 30,000 devices every single day. Microsoft […]
