New Data Breach Affected Some Bank Of America Loan Applicants
If you’re like many business owners, you may have recently applied for a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) which was one of the COVID-19 relief funds established by the Federal government in response to the global pandemic. If you applied for that loan through Bank of America, be advised that the company recently […]
Microsoft Phasing Out 32Bit Windows 10 Support Starting With OEMs
Be advised that Microsoft has announced it will begin phasing out support of the 32-bit version of Windows 10, beginning with OEM’s. The change is effective as of the May 2020 release. Microsoft had this to say about the recent change: “Beginning with Windows 10, version 2004, all new Windows 10 systems will be required […]
Home Chef Company Data Breach Affected 8 Million Customers
Are you a Home Chef customer? If so, be advised that the company recently announced a data breach. It was discovered after the hackers who broke in sold more than 8 million user records on the Dark Web. The group, calling themselves “The Shiny Hunters” has been busy of late. They’ve been selling databases containing […]
iPhone Update Includes COVID-19 Contact Tracing And Mask Detection
The latest release of iOS and iPadOS (13.5) is out, and contains the usual variety of bug fixes and modest improvements. In addition to the usual fare though, it also makes an important change to the way FaceID works for users wearing a mask. Also, it contains an important new COVID-19 Contact Tracing feature. Some […]
New Chrome Feature Stops Ads That Use Excessive Resources
Recently, Google announced a change that should be a welcome relief to many users, especially those who surf primarily on laptops or handhelds. Beginning in late August, the browser will automatically unload ad iframes that soak up an excessive amount of computing resources. Advertising is, of course, ubiquitous on the web. There’s little you can […]
Update WordPress Pagebuilder Plugin To Avoid Potential Hack
Do you use SiteOrigin’s Pagebuilder plugin for WordPress? If so, you’ve got plenty of company. The intuitive, widget-based plugin has been installed more than a million times and is used by webmasters all over the world to create responsive grid pages for websites. Unfortunately, a pair of security flaws in the plugin’s code recently came […]
Bandwidth Limits For Updates Coming To Windows 10 Soon
Some Windows 10 updates are big. Most of them range in size from 200-500MB, but some are even larger. This month’s, for example (May 2020), is more than 2GB in size, which is big enough that downloading and installing it can hog all the bandwidth you’ve got. That can easily bring your system to a […]
Preview Now Available For Microsoft’s New Family Safety App
Family safety features have been a part of the Windows 10 experience since its release, and those tools were made available on the Xbox in tandem with the release of Windows 10. You may, in fact, already be using them on your home computer and your Xbox. Unfortunately, similar protections were simply unavailable from Microsoft […]
Hackers Are Demanding Extra Ransomware Payments From Victims
Hackers who use ransomware to conduct their attacks have a new trick up their sleeves. A ransomware family has begun employing the tactic of not only demanding payment to unlock infected systems, but also demanding an additional payment. They’re demanding an extra payment to keep them from publishing copies of the files they stole before […]
Google Added A Video Conferencing Tool For Users
Google Meet is a video conferencing tool the company originally designed for Enterprise users. There are serious security issues with some of the more popular free or low-cost options available for the masses. So, Google made the decision to make Meet free to anyone with an email address. The rollout took two weeks to complete, […]
Facebook’s AI Might Be Able To Find Offensive Memes
Facebook recently released an intriguing research paper called “The Hateful Memes Challenge: Detecting Hate Speech in Multimodal Memes.” It’s well worth the read and a closer look at the database developed over the course of the research. The idea is simple: Use machine learning to help identify ‘mean’ and hateful memes. If such a tool […]
Xiaomi Phones Track Your Data When Using Their Browser
Do you have a Chinese-made Xiaomi phone? If so, you should be aware that there is a security issue. According to research conducted by Forbes, the Mi Browser that comes built into the phone sends your internet searches to Xiaomi servers located in both Russia and Singapore. Worse, it sends search data associated with incognito […]
Emails Saying Your Antivirus Is Expired Are Likely A Scam
A great many companies selling antivirus software have affiliate programs that help them expand their reach. Each time an affiliate sells a copy of the software, they get a cut. It’s a good business model used in a wide range of industries, and antivirus software companies have strict rules governing how their affiliates can market. […]
Update NinjaForms In WordPress To Avoid Potential Hack
Are you one of the million-plus website owners making use of Ninja Forms for WordPress? If so, be aware that the company has recently patched a serious security flaw that allowed hackers to inject malicious code and take over websites. The attack is accomplished via a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) that leads to a Stored […]
Tweets Can No Longer Be Sent From SMS To Twitter
If you use Twitter on a regular basis, then you probably saw the official tweet from the company. Effective immediately, they’ve shut down the functionality that allowed users to tweet via SMS, something that has been a part of the platform since its earliest days. For the time being, the company is keeping SMS-based two-factor […]
Microsoft Edge Update Will Benefit Security And Remote Workers
Microsoft is working hard to improve its Edge browser, and the latest beta build (Dev version 84.0.495.2) has a lot to be excited about. Most of the benefits are aimed at security and remote employees. There are three new updates, and they involve a security improvement, ease with profile switching, and a few miscellaneous improvements. […]
SBA And CDC Phishing Emails Can Carry Malware
According to Microsoft, its machine learning threat detection models have helped its research teams uncover multiple mal-spam campaigns. These campaigns have been tied together by the common theme of incorporating poisoned disk image files used as attachments. Each campaign has been aimed at a different target population, but all use some variant of COVID-19 in […]
PC Users Beware Of Downloader For Zoom Created By Hackers
Are you working from home right now? If so, you’re certainly not alone. Tens of millions of people are doing the same, and there are untold millions around the world doing likewise. Working from home presents a host of new challenges, not the least of which is finding ways of communicating face to face without […]
Illegal Movie Downloads Can Give Your Device Malware
If you’re like a lot of people stuck at home during the pandemic, you probably ran out of Netflix titles to watch a couple of weeks ago. As a result, researchers have noted a huge surge in traffic to torrent sites as more and more people are drawn to downloading movies illegally in search of […]
WiFi 6e Should Be A Big Improvement To Crowded Wifi Spaces
If you’re like a lot of people, right now, you’re doing what work you can from home. If that’s the case, you’ve probably noticed that your home WiFi network is struggling. The current signal spectrum is getting awfully crowded, and its beginning to impact performance. That’s exactly why the FCC recently approved a new connection […]
Payment Protection And Stimulus Programs Are Being Used By Scammers
Just about everyone in the country has been negatively impacted by the pandemic. That is why the government is sending relief via the Payment Protection Program, the stimulus program, and other programs. These programs are aimed directly at small and medium sized businesses to help keep them afloat until life can get back to normal. […]
Microsoft’s Edge Browser To Release New Features
Microsoft recently re-reinvented its web browser. After finally giving up on bug-plagued Internet Explorer, the company introduced Microsoft Edge, which it hoped would take the internet community by storm. When that didn’t happen, they re-introduced Edge, this time as a Chromium-based browser, which essentially made it a Google Chrome clone. The company is clearly not […]
Google Is Adding Verification Policy For Online Ads
Recently, Google announced they were making some important changes to their rules governing online ads. They’re adding verifications that they normally reserve for political advertisements,. This step is in a bid to combat what many industry experts are calling an ‘Infodemic’ of bad information, fake cures, and false hopes arising from the chaos surrounding the […]
Microsoft Stopped Hackers Using GIFs To Access User Data
Microsoft Teams (which is the company’s Enterprise chat app) isn’t all business. Like most other chat apps, it allows those who use it to send amusing animated Gif images. Unfortunately, that proved to be problematic. Recently, researchers from CyberArk discovered a serious security issue with Teams that allowed hackers to exploit the Gif function to […]
Another Text Bug Could Crash Your iPhone
The more things change, the more they stay the same. When Apple released iOS 11 a few years back, the company had a serious issue revolving around text messages and foreign language character sets. In that earlier case, the problem revolved around a certain string of Sindhi characters that had the result of locking the […]
Trickbot Leads The Pack In COVID-19 Malware
Recently, security companies all over the world have seen a surge in spam, hacking, and scam campaigns that are taking advantage of the fear and confusion surrounding the global pandemic. They’re using promises of COVID-19 information and access to pandemic-related equipment as hooks to lure people into clicking on links or downloading poisoned files. Although […]
