Image theft is one of the biggest problems on the internet. If you're a photographer, you've almost certainly lost money because people find your work online and make a copy of it rather than paying for the right to use it. Unfortunately, Google has made that incredibly easy to do, but that's changing. Until recently, if you did a Google image search, you'd get a list of images that matched your search phrase, and one of the buttons displayed was a "View Image" button that would take you to … Read more
Vulnerability Found In Popular Grammar Checker
On February 2, Tavis Ormandy, a researcher on Google's Project Zero team discovered a critical flaw in the popular online grammar checking app, "Grammarly." Tens of millions of users make regular use of the app to improve the quality of their writing. The bug allowed a hacker to steal a Grammarly user's authentication token and use that token to log on and access every document they've run through the Grammarly system. This along with that user's history, logs and other data. They were able to … Read more
Some Smartwatches May Be Able To Diagnose Diabetes
That smartwatch you're wearing might save your life. Literally. A new study conducted by the University of California San Francisco, and a healthcare startup called Cardiogram revealed that smartwatches and other wearables were able to detect diabetes in previously diagnosed patients an impressive 85 percent of the time. The study monitored health statistics of more than 14,000 smartwatch wearers (both Android and Apple) over the course of several months. All health data that was … Read more
Apple And Google No Longer World’s Top Brands
The latest Brand Finance Global 500 report out and contains some surprises this year. In the battle of the Brands, two companies have long topped the list: Apple and Google. This year, there's a new Sheriff in town. Amazon blew past the top two claiming the top spot for itself. It is now the most valuable brand in the world with an impressive $150.8 billion dollar value. David Haigh, the CEO of Brand Finance had this to say about the upset in the rankings: "Jeff Bezos once said that … Read more
Blizzard Games Vulnerability Could Leave Gamers Open To Hacking
Do you play Blizzard online computer games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Starcraft II, or Overwatch? If so, there's a potential problem you need to be aware of. Tavis Ormandy, a researcher on Google's Project Zero team, recently discovered that the Blizzard Update Agent is vulnerable to hacking, via a technique known as "DNS Rebinding." The update agent is designed to accept commands to install, uninstall, change settings, update and perform other maintenance … Read more
Mac Computers Battling New Malware For Hijacking DNS
It's official, the first macOS malware of 2018 is here. Discovered by an independent security researcher and dubbed "OSX/MaMi," the code is functionally similar to DNSChanger malware. The researcher posted his findings on the Malwarebytes forum and none other than Patrick Wardle (an ex-NSA hacker) analyzed it, having this to say: "OSX/MaMi isn't particularly advanced - but does alter infected systems in rather nasty and persistent ways. By installing a new root certificate and hijacking … Read more
Use Of Bots Has Increased Fake Account Creations
The ThreatMetrix Cybercrime Report 2017 is out, and is a troubling read for anyone who has anything to do with data security. As a fraud prevention company protecting nearly a billion and a half users around the world, they're uniquely positioned to know, and their insights on the threat landscape is invaluable. Their main finding is that hackers, scammers and fraudsters are moving away from using stolen debit and credit cards, given that these things have such a short shelf life. On the … Read more
Intel Chips Face Another Possible Vulnerability
Intel's year isn't getting off to a very good start. Just after the discovery of a pair of critical vulnerabilities that have been in their chipsets for more than a decade comes the discovery of yet another serious flaw that could impact millions of laptops around the world. A Finnish data security firm called "F-Secure" just reported an issue with Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) that could allow a hacker to completely bypass the machine's normal login procedure and take control … Read more
Inappropriate Ads Found In Some Game Apps for Kids
Normally, Google's robust series of checks and audits are pretty good at catching malicious code and preventing it from making its way to the Play Store. Sometimes, however, something slips through anyway despite the company's best efforts. This latest one is particularly bad. Researchers from Check Point have identified a new strain of malware called "AdultSwine" lurking in more than sixty gaming apps on the Play Store. Each of these apps has been downloaded between 3 million and 7 million … Read more
Must Know Info For Backup, Security and Disaster Recovery
The Importance of a Proactive, NOT Reactive Approach With the major role information technology plays in the way business is conducted in today's world, it's crucial that every business owner, both large and small, be able to see the big picture of protecting client and company data from disaster. Data backup disaster comes in many forms, from hackers to employee sabotage, to viruses and natural disaster, it's critical to your business operation that you understand the scenarios and solutions … Read more
