Hackers Are Exploiting Home And Small Office Routers
Akamai has discovered a nasty new hack that’s allowing cybercriminals to move beyond simply compromising routers, but also, in some instances, to use the compromised routers to take control of other machines sitting behind it on your network. The hack, known as UPnProxy exploits weaknesses in the design of the UPnP services installed on many […]
Data On Millions Of Americans Leaked Through Open Server
Bob Diachenko, the Director of Cyber Risk Research for Hacken, recently made a disturbing discovery. He found an ElasticSearch server open and vulnerable on the internet, without so much as a password to protect it. Unfortunately, the server was leaking a staggering 73GB of data and had a number of databases cached inside the server’s […]
USPS Vulnerability May Have Exposed Millions of Users
Do you have an account on USPS.com? If so, you’re not alone. Tens of millions of Americans use it daily for a variety of purposes. Unfortunately, if you do have an account, it may have been compromised. Recently, the USPS announced the discovery of a critical security vulnerability that exposed the account information of more […]
Uber Gets Hefty Fine From The EU For Data Breach
In recent years we’ve seen several companies suffer from hacks of various magnitudes. Over time, we’ve witnessed the growth of what could be described as best practices in terms of how to respond. The typical arc goes something like this: The hack is discovered. Immediately thereafter, the company discloses the pertinent details about the hack, […]
Hackers Target Users Of Google Maps With Bank Phone Scam
Google relies on crowd sourcing to help keep its maps up to date. There’s no other approach that even comes close to being feasible. Sure, Google has employees on the job, roving the nation’s highways, byways, and back streets. Even if the company employed ten times the number they’re currently using, their maps wouldn’t be […]
Amazon Accidentally Leaked Customer Names And Email Addresses
There’s trouble brewing at Amazon, although details are sketchy about how much trouble there might be. Recently, the company sent the following message to some of its customers: “Hello, We’re contacting you to let you know that our website inadvertently disclosed your email address due to a technical error. The issue has been fixed. This […]
Google Continues To Battle With Malware In Play Store
In recent months, Google has taken steps to tighten up its processes so that fewer poisoned apps find their way into the Google Play Store. In addition to that, the company has stepped up its efforts to ruthlessly track down and remove malicious apps whenever and wherever they are found. By most accounts, that effort […]
Fraudulent Payments Are Hurting Venmo And Its Users
The mobile payment platform Venmo (owned by Paypal) has a fraud problem. That’s not exactly new. The company has struggled with fraud issues for a long time, but recently, things have gotten out of control. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company reported losses of $40 million in just the first three months of […]
Are Graphics Processing Units Vulnerable To Hacker Attacks?
Bad news for computer users everywhere. Researchers at the University of California in Riverside have discovered that GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are vulnerable to side-channel attacks like Spectre and Meltdown, which have been plaguing Intel CPU’s for the better part of a year. The team, (consisting of two computer science professors and two PhD students) […]
You Should Be Worried About Cryptocurrency Mining Malware
In the world of data security, cryptocurrency mining software is often overlooked or discounted as a threat because it doesn’t do serious harm to the infected system. It bleeds off computing resources, putting them to work for the miners who control the software, working for them to solve complex cryptographic puzzles which generate revenue for […]
Most Travelers Are Oblivious To Security Risks During Travel
Over the course of the holiday season this year, more than half of the working adults in the United States will be traveling with one or more of their work devices. Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of those fully appreciate the data security risks inherent in travel, which is a grim reality that could put […]
Target’s Twitter Gets Hacked And Hackers Post A Scam Tweet
Target is the latest company to fall victim to a simple but effective Twitter-Bitcoin scam. The scam is about as straightforward as it gets: A tweet gets sent out by a well-respected brand or prominent individual. It contains a link which is likely to be clicked on, given that it’s from a prominent individual or […]