Cyber Security

Whenever there’s a big data dump, the security experts at Aetna jump on it and use analytics to scan and identify any credentials that are the same as those of a current user. A match means there’s an opportunity for hackers to take advantage of those credentials. The team immediately forces a password reset and […]

It appears that Verizon is looking to get at least a $1 billion discount on its acquisition of Yahoo. Originally they were hoping to buy the company and merge it with AOL to compete with Google and Facebook, but the recent revelations involving hacking and spying have Verizon wary. Two week ago Yahoo admitted that […]

Unfortunately for Mac users that believe their computers to be safer than one running Windows there a new piece of malware that is adding to the mounting evidence that that is no longer true. This particular program allows hackers to monitor and record video or audio using the built in camera and microphone without the […]

A Romanian man has been arrested in that country by City of London Police working on the London Regional Fraud Team. The man, Emanual Leahu, has been charged for his participation in a campaign involving ATM malware. Authorities believe Leahu to be part of a European hacking gang. The thieves broke into ATMs and installed […]

According to reports, Yahoo developed software in order to scan the emails of hundreds of millions of its users on behalf of US intelligence services. Additionally, installing this software appears to be the result of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court order. The program was originally designed to scan for child pornography and emails […]

Turkey’s reputation is less than sterling when it comes to censorship.  Their latest foray into censorship targets cloud storage services and information hosting services including Dropbox, GitHub, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Most of the affected sites were returning SSL errors, which points to traffic being intercepted one some macro level, such as the national level. […]

Last week, the United States formally accused Russia for cyberattacks involving the Democratic Party.  It looks like the hack was actually much deeper than that, involving Republicans as well, and targeting people whose work the Russian government considers strategically important, and it’s been going on for longer than initially suspected. The hacking appears to mostly […]

The US government has formally accused Russia of recent cyberattacks.  The Obama administration claims confidence that the Russian government was behind the attacks that targeted the Democratic Party, which may have been an attempt to interfere in the upcoming presidential election.  Russia has denied the claims. The statement was released by the Department of Homeland […]

Think about how integral a router is to a modern home.  It provides internet for your computers, wifi for your mobile devices and, increasingly, helps control thermostats, refrigerators, security cameras, lights and just about anything else electrical.  You can even order products you’re low on by pushing a button, all from the internet-magic of your […]

It looks like there could have been another hack of federal employee records.  This time the Health and Human Services Department is checking into the possibility of a hack compromising the data of 6,700 doctors, nurses and other health workers under the Surgeon General. A problem was discovered in the system on September 20.  It’s been fixed, […]

From Progressive Law Practice: Since legal matters necessarily involve the client sharing sensitive financial and personal information with their lawyer and support staff, the attorney should ensure the client understands: Who from the firm may communicate with the client to obtain the information Appropriate methods for disseminating information to the law firm The steps the […]

Everyone has heard of Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who leaked documents detailing NSA secrets.  Some hail him as a hero, some call him a traitor.  And now, the NSA has arrested another contractor for data theft. Harold Thomas Martin was contracted to the NSA through Booz Allen Hamilton, the same firm that employed Snowden.  Martin […]

You may remember a few months ago when we reported that 68,680,741 Dropbox accounts had been compromised.  You could buy all that information for $1200 as of last month, but now you can get it for free. The password information was uploaded to a website run by Thomas White, who goes by the handle Cthulhu.  He […]

Every now and then an idea comes along and you think, “Wow, that’s really, really cool.” Here’s the problem: when you send a password through wifi, that signal can be picked up by anybody.  That means hackers can potentially capture your password and like that, your account is compromised. A team at Washington University recently […]

Last month, the world found out that employees at Wells Fargo created millions of credit cards and bank accounts in their customers’ names without their knowledge in order to get bonuses.  As a result, thousands of employees were fired, CEO John Stumpf resigned and the bank was hit with $185 million in fines. We should […]

It’s known that Trump Hotel Collection suffered a data breach and credit card theft last year.  Generally, when a company suffers such a breach, they redouble their cybersecurity efforts.  Not so in this case, and because of the carelessness, it’s happened again. Owned by Donald Trump, real estate mogul and Republican presidential nominee, Trump Hotel Collections […]

When’s the last time you changed your Yahoo password?  If you haven’t done it since 2012, now is the time to do it. Yahoo is expected to confirm a massive hack that’s been rumored to have happened since August, when a hacker known as Peace claimed to have hacked them back in 2012.  The data […]

In the war between cybercriminals and cybersecurity, the good guys are losing, and it’s not even close. In 2015, over $3 billion was sunk into startups with the aim of battling hackers in one way or another.  The European Union is investing $2 billion in cybersecurity.  The United States is going to spend a whopping […]

The September 2016 Threat Report from McAfee Labs had some sobering statistics. Ransomware continues to grow, which is no big surprise given how easy it is for people with limited programming experience to partake in it.  Instances of ransomware have increased more than 125% from last year, up to around seven million. Not to be outdone, […]

Have you wanted to get in on the ransomware craze?  Infect a few computers, hold their files for ransom and make a few hundred bucks real quick?  Well now you can, and you can customize it to your heart’s desire. The Philadelphia Headquarter, a version of the Stampado strain of ransomware, was developed by a malware […]