Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

Leaked DNC Email Thumbs Nose at Article Questioning DNC Cybersecurity

Monday, July 25th, 2016

What is the definition of irony? Writing an email that mocks a news report, questioning your cybersecurity, just two months before your system is hacked, and said email is mass-leaked to the media. Cue up the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Almost 20,000 emails from seven senior DNC staff members (sent between January of last year […]

Snowden Unveils Device to Help Keep Phone Secure

Saturday, July 23rd, 2016

Now that Lindsay Mills has reunited with her exiled boyfriend, Edward Snowden, in Russia, the NSA whistleblower blower seems to be content. But after his announcement yesterday, we can see that there might be one other little aspect of his life that he is missing from his pre-leaking days; something that would be missing from […]

Offline Locky

Friday, July 22nd, 2016

You may have heard about the Locky strain of ransomware due to it being one of the most pervasive brands of malware. Its success rate is due in no small part to it being constantly updated and recently it got a new one: it can encrypt files when a computer is offline. Previously, Locky worked by […]

Police 3D Print Fingerprint to Unlock Phone

Friday, July 22nd, 2016

We all remember the dispute Apple and the FBI had over unlocking the phone of one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack. Authorities have found a new way to get around all that using a new technique: 3D printing fingerprints. Michigan police recently approached professors at the University of Michigan to see […]

Fake Wifi Networks at the RNC

Friday, July 22nd, 2016

By now people should know not to jump on untrusted Wi-Fi networks, but unfortunately there are a lot of people who either still do it. In order to test this out, security researchers at Avast Software went to the Republican National Convention and set up a series of fake Wi-Fi networks. Despite opening themselves up […]

OHSU Agrees to Pay $2.7 Million in HIPAA Fines

Wednesday, July 20th, 2016

Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) was accused of violating two HIPAA data breaches involving protected health information (PHI). The first breach revolved around a stolen laptop. The second breach occurred when OHSU contracted cloud storage usage without securing a business associate agreement. Although these violations have not yet caused harm to any OHSU patients, […]

Update iPhone ASAP to Avoid Being a Victim

Wednesday, July 20th, 2016

If you are an iPhone owner who felt smug last Summer after learning that Stagefright bugs were found to be silently spying on almost a billion Android devices, you may want to consider hiding that smile of yours before your Android brethren read this article… Tyler Bohan, a senior security researcher at Cisco Talos, released […]

Pokéscam Go

Tuesday, July 19th, 2016

ATTENTION: New Pokescams Exploiting Pokeman Go Gamers In case you were hiding out in the far reaches of Siberia or have been deep-sea fishing for crabs in Alaska, you have probably heard of the newest Pokémon craze sweeping the globe, called “Pokémon Go.” And in case you do not have children, or are not among […]

New Satana Malware

Thursday, July 14th, 2016

What happens when ransomware developers combine two already-aggressive viruses into one Mega Strain? Satana. Satana is the Italian word for Satan, and the title is apropos. It is a devastating two-step combination of malware-strain, Petya, and ransomware, Mischa. And though the two have a shared history, with Mischa playing backup in case Petya fails, it […]

HIPAA Audits and Ransomware

Wednesday, July 13th, 2016

Unfortunately for medical practices the transition and reliance on digital patient records have brought with it a new set of problems. Between hackers stealing patient data or holding it for ransom with ransomware and the increased chances of a HIPAA audit, smaller medical practices run the risk of being forced to close down. In 2011, […]

Update Windows ASAP

Wednesday, July 13th, 2016

If your computer is supported by Windows Vista or any later version (including the most recent one, Windows 10), do not postpone your next Microsoft update. The software behemoth announced yesterday that its next monthly security update will include a patch for a “critical” flaw that, if exploited, would allow a hacker to take control […]

Amazon Server Hack

Monday, July 11th, 2016

When Amazon didn’t take a hacker’s warnings of vulnerabilities seriously, he released the usernames ad passwords to over 80,000 of their users. The hacker, who goes by the handle ox2Taylor, claims to have beached one of the retailer’s servers. After attempting to contact Amazon to notify them and getting no response, he felt the best […]

YouTube Can Hack Your Phone

Monday, July 11th, 2016

Hackers are continuously looking for new ways to steal your personal data and sell it on the black market. Thanks to a group of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Georgetown University have uncovered a new method of hijacking your phone simply by streaming videos with hidden voice commands. Everybody knows YouTube and […]

Record 11 Million Patient Data Breaches in June

Thursday, July 7th, 2016

June saw the most patient data breaches for 2016 so far, with over 11 million patient accounts compromised, according to a new report.  Over ten million of them came from one single breach. Hackers are not the sole cause of all the data breaches, though they caused a significant portion at just over 40%.  The same […]

New Ransomware is a HIPAA “Crysis”

Wednesday, July 6th, 2016

A new strain of ransomware has surfaced that is targeting hospitals. Being called “Crysis”, this new malware not only encrypts a hospital’s files, it then uploads that data to the hackers’ servers. As you can imagine, this has hospitals less concerned about if they should pay the ransom, but the HIPAA nightmare this creates. This […]

War on Ransomware Just Got Real

Wednesday, July 6th, 2016

In the great schism that is the 2016 election year, bi-partisan participation may seem like a thing of the past, but believe it or not, it is not quite dead just yet. A letter sent by Congressmen Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Will Hurd (R-Texas) this week not only praised Deputy Director for Health Information Privacy […]

Five Tips to Help Protect Your Identity

Wednesday, July 6th, 2016

The biggest threat in the United States when it comes to property crime is identity theft. It surpasses all other property crimes combined with a total of over $10 billion dollars in losses. With that in mind here are five easy steps that will help you protect your identity. Use silly answers for security questions. […]

“Legitimate” Website Steals Governmental Credentials

Wednesday, July 6th, 2016

When purchasing online software programs, it is important to do your research. Case in point? The now defunct commercial keylog developers at hawkeyeproducts.com. Rodel Mendrez, a researcher for Trustwave, became suspicious of the company after catching a poorly-constructed email in his spam trappers. Cached copies revealed a website offering superior keystroke monitoring, that also had […]

New Android Malware Nets Hackers $500K a Day

Saturday, July 2nd, 2016

We have warned before about Android malware that mimics the user interface of apps like Facebook, Uber, and WhatsApp in order to steal victim’s personal information. Now there are reports of a new Trojan virus that attacks Android devices that was earning the hackers behind it $500,000 a day. In the first half of this […]

Ransomware for Mobile Devices

Thursday, June 30th, 2016

By now, you are probably aware that ransomware started running rampant this year. No computer is safe. And now, neither is your smartphone. A report released yesterday by Kaspersky Lab shows that they detected and protected around 35,000 Android users around the world from attempted ransomware attacks between April 2014 to March 2015. The same […]