As most people know, Microsoft Edge was the company's "reboot." After trying for years to patch and update their beleaguered Internet Explorer, Microsoft ultimately decided to scrap it and start fresh. Since Edge's launch, it has struggled to gain traction with users. Recently, Microsoft has upped the ante, at least where Edge for iOS and Android devices are concerned. A recent update sees the browser outfitted with a built-in ad blocker. Prior to the update, if you wanted an ad blocking … Read more
Mobile Users Gain Privacy Protection In Supreme Court Ruling
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. Of special significance, the court rejected the "third party rule," which dates back to the 1970's and asserts that any data collected by third-parties is automatically devoid of Constitutional … Read more
Watch Out For Rise In Microsoft Office Attacks
Menlo Security has recently published a new report that will probably dismay you if you're a business owner. Microsoft Office has been named as the attack vector of choice for hackers around the world. The most common form of the attack is a malicious Word document or other office document attached to an innocent looking email. There are, of course, plenty of other ways to take advantage of various security weaknesses in MS Office and Office 365. These include the use of remotely hosted … Read more
New SSD Drive Can Hold 8TB of Storage
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. Not only do the new drives deliver twice the storage capacity of the SSDs used in high-end servers and slim line laptops, but it also has an impressive read speed of 3100 MB/s, … Read more
Vulnerability In Mac OS Went Unnoticed For Years
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. In a nutshell, code signing uses cryptographic "signatures" to verify and validate code. If code bears the digital signature, it is considered trusted. If it's trusted, then it's given an automatic free pass, … Read more
Turn Cortana Off At Lock Screen To Avoid Potential Hack
Do you use Cortana? It's a handy virtual assistant (like Siri) built into Windows 10. Unfortunately, as useful as she is, there's a problem. Even if you don't use Cortana yourself, take heed: Microsoft has recently issued a security update based on findings by McAfee researchers. It turns out that Cortana can be "summoned" from the lock screen of your PC and used to execute attacks by tricking the ever-helpful Cortana into indexing files from a USB drive, then executing them. To … Read more
New Trick Lets Hackers Bypass Office 365 Email Security
What's old is new again. Hackers have recently begun re-deploying a decade-old trick called 'ZeroFont' to get around Microsoft's security filters and deliver phishing and spam emails to Office 365 email accounts. The gimmick? Zero-point fonts. As anyone with even passing familiarity to Office 365 knows, if you're drafting a document, you can change the font size to suit your tastes and preferences. What few people realize is that you can use html code to set your font to zero-point … Read more
Google Cracking Down On 3rd Party Browser Extension Installs
Malicious code can wind up on your PC or phone by any number of roads. Companies do their best to guard the digital passes, but invariably, things get missed and the hackers find a way in. It's a constant battle, and sadly, one that the good guys are losing. Recently Google has stepped up its efforts, this time by focusing on Chrome browser extensions installed by third parties. By the end of the year, no extensions will be allowed on Chrome except for those acquired via the Web … Read more
Another Vulnerability Found In Intel CPU’s
More bad news for Intel. Yet another security flaw has been identified in the processors the company makes. This one is so newly discovered that the full technical details have yet to be released. Here's what we know so far, from a recent Intel announcement: "System software may opt to utilize Lazy FP state restore instead of eager save and restore of the state upon a context switch...Lazy restored states are potentially vulnerable to exploits where one process may infer register values of … Read more
G-Mail Users Will Soon Have To Use New Design
Change is coming, and not everyone is happy about it. Recently, Google redesigned its G-mail interface, and since then, they've allowed their free users to opt into the new changes. G-Suite users may or may not see the option to try the new interface, depending on whether their administrators have enabled the option and made it visible. The company just announced that beginning in July, 2018, administrators will be required to give all users the ability to opt into the new interface. Then, … Read more
