Android Users Need To Watch Out For Teabot Trojan

If you have smart devices in the Android ecosystem, there’s a new threat to be aware of in the form of a malware strain called Teabot.  This bit of malicious code is a Remote Access Trojan or RAT for short. The group behind the code is making a big push to see it spread worldwide. […]

Scammers Cost Americans Billions Of Dollars In 2021

The US Federal Trade Commission reports that Americans lost almost six billion dollars to fraud last year.  The $5.8 billion total represented a catastrophic 70 percent increase compared to the losses reported in 2020. The FTC maintains a database of millions of consumer records it uses to track such information. Based on the statistics gleaned […]

New Phishing Emails Target Citibank Account Holders

Are you a Citibank customer?  If so, be aware that a group of scammers is specifically targeting Citibank account holders. The campaign is incredibly convincing, and the emails look just like official communications from the company.  All logos have been copied and are positioned correctly.  The sender address appears genuine at first glance and the […]

Malware Hidden Inside Games Found In Microsoft Store

Security experts tell people all the time to never to download apps from anywhere other than official sources like the Microsoft Store, the Google Play Store, and the Apple App Store. It’s good advice but unfortunately, even those sources aren’t perfect when it comes to keeping malicious apps that have been poisoned with malware off […]

Employee Information Was Leaked At Cookware Company Meyer

Meyer Corporation is a California-based company and a giant in the cookware industry. Meyer is the latest victim in a seemingly never-ending parade of hacking attacks. The full extent of the attack has not yet been disclosed because an investigation into the matter is ongoing. However, we do know at this point that the attackers […]

New iOS 15.4 Update Addresses AirTag Stalking Issue

Apple AirTags are handy.  They’re an incredibly convenient way to help keep track of your stuff. If you lose something that has been tagged you can easily locate it using the “Find My” app, which will point the way to whatever it is that you have tagged. The only problem is AirTags can be misused […]

 Skype Gets New 911 Calling Feature In The U.S.

Recently, Skype announced a change to its 911 calling feature.  Previously the feature was only useable in the UK, Finland, Denmark, and Australia. Now, the company has unlocked it for the United States as well and will even allow the software to share the location of the caller with emergency services. It’s a welcome change […]

Zoom Bug With Some Macs Leaves Microphone On After Meetings

If you’re a Mac user and you also use Zoom be sure to check to see what version of Zoom you’re running.  Recently a bug in the Mac version of the software was found that could cause your computer’s microphone to remain on even after leaving a meeting. Mac Zoom users have been complaining about […]

Windows 11 Is Now Able To Run Some Android Apps

Recently, Microsoft announced that they were adding support for Android Apps to Windows 11.  The company first began testing that new functionality back in October of last year (2021). Now, the public preview has been unveiled in the US, allowing users to run some Android apps acquired from the Amazon store right from their Windows […]

Update This WordPress Plugin Immediately To Prevent Security Risks

Do you have a WordPress site?  Do you use the PHP Everywhere plugin? If so, you’re not alone.  More than 30,000 site owners have installed it.  It’s an excellent plugin that dramatically enhances websites using it, because it allows webmasters to place PHP pretty much anywhere on the page to display dynamic web content. Wordfence […]

Puma Sportswear Recently Impacted By A Data Breach

We have recently learned that Puma Sportswear was impacted by a data breach in the waning days of 2021. It’s important to note that Puma’s networks were not attacked directly.  The attack was made against Kronos which is one of the company’s North American workforce management service providers. In a recently filed data breach notification […]

Microsoft Teams Gets Optimizations To Use Less Resources

Do you use Microsoft Teams and do you have an older PC that struggles with Teams video meetings?  If so there’s good news.  Microsoft has recently upgraded Teams and halved the power used by Teams video meetings to make life easier on people with older hardware. Of course, even if you’ve got newer hardware this […]

Medusa Android Banking Trojan Steals Sensitive User Information

There are two new forms of malware spreading rapidly among people with Android devices according to researchers at ThreatFabric. This latest campaign involves the FluBot malware (also known as Cabassous) and the Android banking trojan called Medusa.  What’s disturbing about this most recent spate of attacks is that both forms of malware share the same […]

Malware Disguised As Windows 11 Upgrade Targets Windows 10 Users

According to researchers at HP, there’s a new threat to worry about.  Hackers have recently begun disguising malware as Windows 11 upgrades and are using them to target Windows 10 users who are anxious to move to Microsoft’s latest OS. This new campaign begins like many others with an email informing the recipient that if […]

The San Francisco 49ers Recently Hit With Ransomware Attack

Hackers will attack absolutely anybody.  No one is safe and nothing is sacred.  Not even football is safe. The most recent high-profile attack was made against the San Francisco 49ers according to BleepingComputer which got confirmation from the 49ers. According to the information disclosed by the 49ers they are in the process of recovering from […]

iPhone Sales Edging Out Android In The US

It’s no secret that supply chain issues have impacted a variety of different industries.  Apple has been somewhat less impacted than others. Leveraging this and their massive infrastructure and marketing budget, they have flexed their corporate muscles and gained market share. According to statistics gathered by data analytics firm Kantar, Apple accounted for slightly more […]

Hackers Are Using NFT Excitement To Trick Users

Researchers from Fortinet are warning of a new threat to be on the lookout for. Right now, NFTs are all the rage.  Everyone is talking about them, and many are excited about them.  Hackers have been quick to take advantage of that fact, and the Fortinet researchers have stumbled across a poisoned spreadsheet that purports […]

Hackers Are Breaking Into Microsoft Teams And Dropping Malware

Researchers at Avanan are a Check Point subsidiary. They have recently issued a warning that anyone who uses Microsoft Teams should be aware of. According to the latest statistics, more than 270 million people use Teams every single month. According to Avanan, hackers are breaking into Team chats and attaching malicious files to ongoing conversations.  […]

Hackers Are Setting Their Sights On Linux Systems

For most of the history of the internet Linux has been able to stay below the radar of hackers around the world. While there have been some attacks that specifically targeted Linux users, they’ve managed to keep a low enough profile that it hasn’t been a major issue. According to a group of researchers from […]

New Malware Is Using CSV Files To Infect Users

Researchers have spotted a new phishing campaign you should be aware of. What sets this one apart is that the hackers are using a lowly but specially crafted CSV file to infect machines. They are installing the BazarBackdoor malware. If you’re not familiar with the term CSV stands for “Comma Separated Values” and it’s a […]

Last Year Microsoft Blocked More Than 25 Billion Hacker Attacks

Individual users often don’t have a good sense of the scope and scale of hacking attacks around the world.  The numbers may shock you. According to Microsoft, in 2021 the company blocked more than 25.6 billion brute force authentication attacks against Azure AD users. They also and intercepted a staggering 35.7 billion phishing emails with […]

More Scammers Are Using Social Media To Target Victims

An increasing number of scammers are using social media to target victims and relying on social engineering tricks to convince people to part with their personal information or money.  The problem has grown serious enough that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has issued a formal warning to consumers. According to a recently released FTC report: […]

Microsoft Defender Adds Cross Platform Mobile Protections

Microsoft recently announced an important upgrade to Microsoft Defender. It now supports vulnerability management for both Android and iOS. The company’s announcement reads in part as follows: “With this new cross-platform coverage, threat and vulnerability management capabilities now support all major device platforms across the organization – spanning workstations, servers, and mobile devices. Threat and […]

Mac Malware Is Becoming A Bigger Threat For Users

In late 2020 a new strain of malware called UpdateAgent appeared and began infecting Mac users. Initially the strain wasn’t all that worrisome.  It stole system information but it was by no means the worst threat on a Mac user’s radar. Since that time, the hackers behind the malicious code have been busy. UpdateAgent has […]

Additional Security Recently Added To Office 365

Back in September of 2020 Microsoft announced that it was experimenting with the addition of SMTP MTA Strict Transport Security (MTA-STS) support to Exchange Online. This was done in a bid to ensure the email communication and security of their Office 365 customers. In a recent statement by the company the Exchange Online Transport Team […]

New Android Malware Steals Data And Factory Resets Phones

BRATA malware was first spotted in the wilds by Kaspersky back in 2019. Its earliest incarnation saw it targeting e-banking users and it was designed to steal banking and login credentials of anyone infected.  That’s undeniably bad but according to researchers the latest version of BRATA has gotten downright nasty. Security professionals have discovered a […]

Suspicious Files Get New Warnings In Google Drive

If you have Google Drive, there’s good news.  The company has recently announced that soon they’ll be rolling out a new feature to help alert users to the presence of suspicious documents. Google Drive users will soon start seeing banners alerting them to possible dangers This will serve as an additional layer of defense that […]

High Profile Instagram Accounts Being Held For Ransom By Hackers

Hackers have recently hit upon a new money-making scheme.  Some groups have started breaking into Instagram accounts belonging to people with high numbers of followers. They are then holding those accounts hostage until the owner agrees to pay the ransom.  In some cases, the hackers are charging as much as $40,000 USD to return an […]

Dark Herring Subscription Scam Affected Millions Of Android Users

Google partner Zimperium zLabs has recently discovered a sophisticated scam targeting more than 100 million Android users. The scam has been in operation right under Google’s nose for nearly two years. The scam has now been shut down by Google but while it was in operation, it spanned some 470 Android apps on the Play […]

Apple Released A Fix For Multiple Zero Day Exploits

There’s good news for Apple users. The company has been busy and has recently released security updates that address two Zero-Day vulnerabilities. These are security flaws that could be exploited by hackers to cause no end of trouble to anybody running macOS or iOS. The first Zero-Day addressed is being tracked as CVE-2022-22587 and is […]

Android Apps Are Coming To Windows 11

One of the most persistently frustrating aspects of our highly interconnected world is that we seem to exist in at least three different distinct ecosystems. Apple users live in the Apple ecosystem which encompasses both its mobile products and its PCs. Windows users live in the Windows ecosystem which encompasses both laptops and desktops but […]

E-Mail From Department Of Labor Could Be Phishing Attack

There is a new phishing campaign to keep a watchful eye on according to email security firm INKY. It’s a particularly fiendish one. The attackers have designed an email template that does an admirable job of imitating the look and feel of emails sent from the US Department of Labor. These are being sent out […]

Vulnerability In This Cisco Software Could Allow Hackers Access

Cisco recently discovered a critical security flaw in their Cisco Redundancy Configuration Manager (RCM) for Cisco StarOS.  The vulnerability allowed an attacker to execute code arbitrarily and gain root-level access on any device suffering from the vulnerability which is being tracked as CVE-2022-20649. The good news is that Cisco responded with blistering speed and this […]

This Plugin Could Put Your WordPress Site At Risk

The WP HTML Mail plugin has been installed on more than 20,000 websites. If you’ve built a WordPress site for your business and you use that plugin,  be aware that you are at risk.  A high severity security flaw was recently discovered in the plugin that could allow an attacker to perform a code injection […]

Support Comes To An End For iOS 14 For iPhone Devices

When Apple first released iOS 15 they posted a promise on their website. That promise was: “If you’re using iOS or iPadOS 14.5 or later, you might now see the option to choose between two software update versions. This option allows you to choose between updating to the latest version of iOS or iPadOS 15 […]

Top 10 Brands That Phishing Attackers Use To Scam Users

Scammers delight in impersonating government agencies and well-known brands to lure email recipients into giving up their personal information. That information is then either exploited directly or sold to the highest bidder on the Dark Web. Have you ever wondered which agencies, companies or brands are the most imitated by these attackers? Whether you have […]

Apple Safari Bug May Leak Personal Information And History

There was a recently discovered issue with the way the IndexedDB API was implemented in Safari’s WebKit engine. This is giving IT professionals who work in an environment dominated by Apple products heartburn. The faulty implementation allows or could allow an attacker to intercept leaking browser activity in real time including the user IDs associated […]

New Malware Can Infect Linux, Mac, Or Windows Users

There’s a new strain of malware called SysJoker to be mindful of. It’s especially dangerous because it can target Windows, Mac or Linux systems.  That makes it an equal opportunity strain. Researchers at Intezer are credited with discovering the malware in the wild in December of 2021 during an investigation of an attack on a […]

Report Says PC Sales Went Up Ten Percent In 2021

According to the latest Gartner’s statistics, a total of 339.8 million personal computers were shipped in 2021. That was up from 309.1 million in 2020 which amounts to about 10 percent growth in the market. The company noted that the fourth quarter of 2021 saw a 5 percent drop compared to last year, which may […]

Ransomware Attack Wreaks Havoc On Prison Employees And Inmates

Chalk up another first for the hackers.  For the first time that we know of, a successful hacking attack caused prisoners in New Mexico to be confined to their cells for a time. The Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County, New Mexico went into lockdown on January 5th of this year (2022) when hackers infiltrated […]

New PCIe 6 Standard Brings Speeds Two Times Faster

For those that aren’t aware, PCI SIG is short for the PCI Special Interests Group. They have just announced the release of the latest PCI Express (PCIe) specification which is called PCIe 6.0. It has the entire industry abuzz. Standards aren’t usually all that exciting but, in this case, it’s a very big deal. That’s […]

Live Captioned Language Translation Comes To Google Meet

Google is once again raising the bar where messaging and team meeting software is concerned.  The company just rolled out the first phase of its new live translation service for Meet users after months of beta testing the feature. Naturally this is the first step in a long process, so there are some limitations and […]

New iOS Update Provides Fix For HomeKit Brick Issue

If you have an iPhone by now you’ve almost certainly heard of the security flaw in the HomeKit protocol which allows Apple users to discover and control a wide range of Smart Devices in their home from the HomeKit dashboard. The recently discovered security flaw dubbed “DoorLock” allows an attacker to essentially brick your phone […]

Blackberry Device Support Is Now Officially Gone

You may find many people who would argue that the iconic Blackberry was ahead of its time.  It was in many ways the godfather of the entire smartphone industry. When it was initially released it was an absolute game changer. Of course, time allowed other companies including tech giants Apple and Google to catch up […]

Purple Fox Trojan Delivering Malware Via Popular Messaging App

A research team from Minerva Labs are working in conjunction with the MalwareHunterTeam. They have recently been tracking a Trojan called Purple Fox and have published a warning about it. The group behind the Trojan is now distributing their malicious code disguised as a Telegram installation file. If you’re not familiar with that name Telegram […]

FTC Enforcing That Businesses Patch Log4j Java Security Issue

By now you’re almost certainly aware of the Log4j Java issue. It’s a serious and fixable flaw relating to java logging. Recently the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a chilling warning to anyone who hasn’t yet fixed the flaw and protected against the vulnerability. The FTC’s statement reads in part as follows: […]

Google Working Towards Easier Integration Between Android And Windows

If you’re managing a company of any size and interested in copying from some other firm’s playbook, Apple is almost always a good choice.  Even the folks at Google seem to think so. The search giant recently announced a plan to tighten the integration between Android/Chrome and Windows to create a seamless and hassle-free user […]

New Data Breach Hits US Cellular Company

It’s the dawning of a new year and the hackers of the world have been busy.  This time it’s US Cellular caught in the crosshairs. The company recently reported that their billing system was hacked and they sent breach notification letters to more than four hundred impacted individuals. US Cellular is the fourth largest carrier […]

A New iPhone Bug In HomeKit Could Brick Your Phone

Thank Trevor Spiniolas’ sharp eyes if you own an iPhone.  The independent security researcher recently discovered a critical security flaw in iOS that impacts all version from 14.7 to 15.2. If exploited, this flaw can turn your fancy phone into a very expensive paperweight, so it’s one to take seriously. Trevor discovered that by changing […]

This New Malware Steals Passwords From Popular Browsers

A new threat has appeared on the horizon. Even if the name is not familiar to you this malware strain is bad news indeed. Called RedLine it is an information-stealing malware that specifically targets popular web browsers including Opera, Microsoft’s Edge browser, and Chrome. Unfortunately, many people have come to rely on their trusty web […]

Popular Digital Photo Company Shutterfly Hit By Ransomware Attack

Recently digital media giant Shutterfly was hit by a major ransomware attack. The attack disrupted broad swaths of the company’s services including those offered under their GrooveBook, BorrowLenses, and Lifetouch brands. According to a report received by BleepingComputer, Shutterfly was targeted by the Conti gang. That group was able to encrypt more than four thousand of […]

New HDMI Spec May Cause More Confusion

The great thing about standards is that they provide a standard.  A common framework that the manufacturers in any given industry can design around.  That’s amazing when everything works the way it’s supposed to but sometimes the system goes haywire. Sometimes things just don’t work out as planned. Take the world of HDMI.  The HDMI […]

LastPass Says There Is No Evidence Of Data Breach

There are strange events swirling around LastPass. LastPass is a popular password safe and identity protection service. Recently Twitter exploded with reports from around the world of people who received a notification from LastPass regarding a string of suspicious login attempts. Most of them came from countries other than the ones the impacted users lived […]

New Windows 11 Bug Found With Displaying HDR Content

If you’re one of the early adopters of Windows 11 then you may have already experienced the latest bug that crept into the mix as of build 21H2. Apps that utilize Win32 APIs to render colors on some HDR (High-Definition Range) displays may not work as expected. HDR displays are noted for their rich incredibly […]

FCC Approves Plans For WiFi 6 To Open Wireless Spectrum

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gets a lot of bad press.  Sometimes there are good reasons for that but much of the time there are not really any good reasons.  As the nation’s lead spectrum regulator their primary job is to balance all needs and factors. They are supposed to arrive at decisions that do […]

Skype Adds Zoom Feature And Additional Modern Updates

Are you a Skype user?  If so be aware that Microsoft (the company that owns Skype) just added a handy new feature you may want to start taking advantage of right away. The next time you update your software you’ll be able to zoom in on a screen shared by the user you’re communicating with. […]

T-Mobile Reports Scam Calls Have Increased 116 Percent Since 2020

If you’re like most cellphone users,  you absolutely love the automatic call blocking feature that most companies offer as part of their standard service.  A call comes in from a “suspicious” number and the phone just blocks it. That’s awesome and even better is you can add new numbers to it.  So on those occasions […]

New Remote Access Trojan Virus Hides In Windows Registry

There’s a new malware strain you should make sure your IT staff is aware of.  Called the Dark Watchman, it is a well-designed and highly capable RAT (Remote Access Trojan) paired with a keylogger written in C#. First discovered by researchers at Prevailion this piece of malware likes to lurk in the Windows Registry and […]

Hackers Are Using Big Brand Surveys To Scam Victims

Surveys have long been a playground of hackers and scammers. That’s true at any time of the year but it’s especially true around the Holidays when such scams seem to attract even more unwitting victims.  In fact, some estimates place scammer profits revolving around fake surveys as being nearly $80 million a month. So it’s […]

New Ransomware Named AvosLocker Uses Multiple Tricks In Attacks

There’s a new strain of ransomware to be concerned about in the form of AvosLocker. This is from security firm Sophos who warns that the new strain of human-operated ransomware is one to watch. AvosLocker burst onto the scene over the summer of this year (2021). Having enjoyed some success with their product the gang […]

Update Your All In One SEO Plugin For Security Patch

Do you own and operate a WordPress website?  Do you also use the “All in One” SEO plugin? If you answered yes to both of those questions, then be aware that you’ll want to update that plugin as soon as possible. Recently security researcher Marc Montpas from Automattic Security discovered and reported a pair of […]

Reasons The Log4j Java Library Security Issue Is Concerning

Haven’t heard of Log4j before right now? If not, you’re certainly not alone but unfortunately it’s something you’re likely to hear more about in the weeks ahead. It may wind up being the cause of a few headaches for you. “Log4j” is a Java library.  Its function is to log error messages in applications.  Consider […]

Some Lenovo Laptops Have Admin Level Security Vulnerability

Do you own a Lenovo Yoga or ThinkPad laptop?  If so be advised that a pair of critical security flaws have recently been found that could allow an attacker Admin level access to your machine. The flaws are centered in the IMControllerService and are being tracked as CVE-2021-3922 and CVE-2021-3969.  They impact all Lenovo System […]

This Android Banking Malware Is Back

We haven’t heard much about Anubis in recent months. Anubis is the nasty Android-based banking Trojan that has made headlines on more than one occasion. If history is any guide at all Anubis will soon be making headlines again.  It’s back and based on the findings from researchers at Lookout the hackers controlling the malware […]

Microsoft Teams Gets End To End Encryption

Two months ago, Microsoft began rolling out support for end-to-end encryption for all Teams calls.  Given the pandemic and the increased demand for Teams and services like it, that was a very big deal. The good news is that Microsoft recently announced that the rollout is complete and all Teams calls now support E2EE which […]

AWS Outage Caused Major Headaches For Businesses

If yours is one of the thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS for short) then you’re already aware that recently there were issues. Even if your business doesn’t rely on AWS directly if you do business with anyone who does rely on Amazon’s Flagship digital service you’re probably at least aware […]

Android Can Track AirTags And Similar Devices With New App

The Apple and Android ecosystems just took another step toward melding together with the release of a new App built by Apple. The app allows Android devices to track any nearby device that is “Find My-enabled.” From Apple’s perspective the move is less about creating a user experience that spans ecosystems and more about user […]

Website Ranking Company Alexa Will Be Shut Down

It’s the end of an era.  Alexa.com is an iconic website run by Amazon that ranks and analyzes the popularity of other sites on the web. This site is soon to be retired. Alexa.com is actually a subsidiary company wholly owned by Amazon. They offer an impressive suite of SEO services to webmasters interested in […]

Voice Commands Getting New Attention In Windows 11

For a few years now Microsoft has been experimenting with voice commands.  Their early experiments were limited to contexts that resided wholly inside specific applications however. For example, once you opened Word you could use voice commands to activate a few of the software’s features. Recently the company decided to take voice controls to a […]

QNAP Still Dealing With Attacks On NAS Devices

QNAP has recently warned its customers of an ongoing campaign that is targeting QNAP NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices and infecting them with cryptomining malware.  This particular campaign is deploying software designed to mine Bitcoin and using your computing power to generate profits for them.  If you are infected, you’ll see a new process running […]

Study Shows People Are Spending More On Mobile Apps

App spending in 2021 grew by an impressive 25 percent in 2021 and has increased to an impressive $135 billion.  Even better is the growth shows no signs of slowing down. That is surprising because the industry at large has come under increased scrutiny and both the Apple and Google App Stores have introduced new […]

Hackers Stealing Credit Card Info Are Targeting E-Commerce WordPress Sites

With the holiday shopping season in full swing shoppers are descending on virtual storefronts in droves seeking the best deals.  Naturally this means that hackers are also circling like sharks watching for an opportunity to steal data and profit from it. Their most recent trick?  To infect random WordPress plugins with malicious code that can […]

WhatsApp Now Provides Disappearing Messages Feature To Improve Security

Whatsapp has had a tough year from a security standpoint and has suffered losses in the size of its user base as a result. To their credit, the company has been working hard to make their product more secure. Recently they took another powerful step in that direction with the introduction of disappearing messages. These […]

Cox Communications Reports Recent Data Breach

Cox Communications is a major provider of cable, internet, and phone service in the United States.  The company is the latest in a seemingly unending parade of companies to fall victim to a hacking attack. In this case, the hacker gained access to company servers by impersonating a member of Cox Communication’s Customer Support team.  […]

Apple Rolls Out Digital Keys For Hotels With Partnership

Apple Wallet just got a powerful new feature that’s sure to make it more attractive to busy travelers.  Thanks to an agreement with Hyatt your Apple Wallet is now capable of serving as a digital hotel key. This counts as a promise kept.  At the 2021 WWDC Apple promised that it would be adding digital […]

New Emotet Malware Found A New Way To Distribute

Emotet is one of the most feared malware strains circulating right now. The team behind it has managed to infect a staggering array of targets all around the globe. To say that it is a major threat would be an understatement. Recently the group behind Emotet just upped the ante even further. Researchers have recently […]

Microsoft Office Is Rolling Out A New User Interface

Microsoft is making a few UI changes across its entire product line in anticipation of rolling out Windows 11.  Early this year (2021) the company announced that they were updating the UI for Office 365 and Office 2021. Over the summer small groups of users participated in an open beta and began playing with the […]

Twitter Increasing Privacy With Stricter Picture And Media Sharing

Recently Twitter’s CEO stepped down. Since then, the company has been gearing up to make some changes that many of the industry’s insiders regard as long overdue. The first of these changes has now been rolled out with the company modifying its privacy policy and outlining new rules related to the sharing of pictures and […]

 Security Vulnerabilities Were Found In These Popular WiFi Routers

Most people have a home network these days which connects their computers and tablets, allows them to stream video from their Smart TVs, and surf the web from their phones using their home network rather than their cellphone’s data plan. If you have a home network then you should keep reading. Recently security researchers tested […]

 Microsoft Paint Got A Makeover After Recent Update

Microsoft has had a long and interesting relationship with its venerable “Paint” app. Most people are familiar with Paint.  It’s been around since the earliest versions of Windows and let’s be honest it was never a great application. It allows users to do the basics but it was quickly eclipsed by more robust and feature-rich […]

Microsoft Really Wants People To Use Their Edge Browser

It’s no real secret that Microsoft has never been a big fan of Chrome, FireFox, or any other web browser that it didn’t build.  The company clearly hasn’t gotten over the fact that it lost the browser wars and lost them handily. That’s why it keeps trying periodically to reinvent the wheel offering up new […]

Latest Corporate Data Breach Hits Panasonic Servers

The Japanese electronics juggernaut Panasonic is the latest company to fall victim to relentless hackers. In a recent press release the company indicated their servers had been successfully attacked on November 11th, 2021. The statement reads in part as follows: “As the result of an internal investigation, it was determined that some data on a […]

DNA Testing Company Was Hacked And Data Was Breached

Have you had your DNA tested by DDC (DNA Diagnostic Center)? If so be advised that the company was recently hacked and that the attackers were able to make off with data impacting 2,102,436 people.  According to the company’s disclosure statement the breach occurred between May 24th and July 28th 2021 and the company’s internal […]

Over 4,000 Online Shopping Retailers Hit With Data Breach

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has identified more than 4,000 different retailers that have been compromised by hackers exploiting known vulnerabilities on checkout pages in order to divert payments and steal payment card details. The NCSC has been quietly alerting vulnerable retailers over the past 18 months. Based on the data gathered by […]

Latest iPhone Update May Fix Dropped Calls Problem

Do you own an iPhone 12 or 13? Have you been dealing with dropped calls? If so then Apple has good news and a fix for that. Simply upgrade to iOS 15.11 and you should be good to go. 15.11 is a minor update that only contains a single entry in the change log. Literally […]

Hackers Hit Wind Energy Provider With Ransomware

Vestas Wind Systems is one of the leaders in wind turbine manufacturing in North America with 40,000 MW currently installed and another 36,000 MW under service in both the US and Canada. Recently the company published a breach notification indicating that they had been the subject of a successful cyber attack which occurred on Friday, […]

Large GoDaddy Data Breach Involves WordPress Customer Email Adresses

Are you a GoDaddy customer? Do you maintain a WordPress blog with the company? If so be advised that the company recently announced a breach of their network. An as yet unidentified third party accessed GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress hosting environment. Based on the investigation to date the intrusion began on September 6, 2021. While taking […]

What is a SOC?

It’s good to be nervous about the recent explosion of cybercrime, but it’s even better to be prepared. If you’re a business owner, now is the time to invest in your organization’s security posture, but deciding how much to invest, and which tools, strategies, and solutions to invest in, can be difficult, confusing, and stressful. […]

Beware Certain Sites Because Of TSA PreCheck Renewal Scam

According to a report recently released by Abnormal Security there’s been a huge upsurge of instances of people getting scammed after visiting what they thought were Global Entry, NEXUS, and TSA PreCheck service sites. The issue is that scammers are building very convincing fakes of these types of sites and charging busy travelers $140 for […]

Blue Screen On Windows 11 Could Be Audio Driver Issue

Sometimes the development process is smooth and sometimes it’s not so smooth. Right now Windows 11’s development is falling into that latter category. Recently Windows Engineers announced a serious issue plaguing the OS. The culprit was compatibility between the new OS version 21H2 and Intel’s SST (Smart Sound Technology) drivers. SST is a big deal […]

YouTube Will Start Hiding Dislike Counts From Public

Some months back YouTube announced that it would begin experimenting with the notion of hiding the number of down votes or dislikes that displayed content receives. At present for most of the content on the platform the number of “thumbs down” votes is displayed alongside the number of “thumbs up” votes that a given video […]

You Can Now Easily Block Users in Spotify

Are you a Spotify user? Have you found yourself wanting or needing to block another user? Until recently if you found yourself in that situation you had no choice but to contact customer support and have them block the user for you. Apparently it’s become a big enough and common enough issue that the company […]

Twitter Will No Longer Auto-Crop Photos On The Web

Twitter hasn’t had a very good relationship with auto-cropping. Images just haven’t historically displayed very well on the platform. Fortunately that is soon changing. The company recently announced that it is dropping crop on the web altogether on both its Android and iOS apps. It may seem like a small change but Twitter’s auto-cropping algorithm […]

Android Malware Named MasterFred Seeks User App Login Information

If you have an Android device be aware that there’s a new strain of malware out there. Called MasterFred this new malware utilizes well-constructed fake login overlays in order to steal the login and credit card information for Twitter Instagram and Netflix users. A sample of the code was submitted to VirusTotal in June of […]

Most Bait Phishing Attacks Target Gmail Accounts

A new report by Barracuda was recently published. It revealed that the vast majority of baiting email attacks conducted this year were done via G-mail accounts. The firm surveyed 10,500 different organizations and found that more than a third (35 percent) of them received at least one bait attack email in September 2021 alone. That’s […]

Legacy Contacts Shares Data From Those Who Have Passed

The internet has been around for a while at this point and it has brought to mind an issue we’ve never had to deal with until now. What happens to your digital “stuff” when you die? Does it just go away? Does it simply become inaccessible? In the here and now the answer has been […]

Twitter Rolls Out New Paid Plan Called Twitter Blue

One of the things that has allowed social media platforms to grow so quickly and utterly dominate the internet is the fact that they’re free to use. They’re not completely free however because users are required to give up a lot of personal information. The bottom line is that there’s no monetary cost involved which […]

Update Microsoft Exchange Server For Important Security Patch

If you use Exchange Server to handle your company’s email then you’re probably already aware that a critical security flaw has been discovered that puts the server at risk. The issue is being tracked as CVE-2021-42321 and impacts both Exchange Server 2016 and 2019. Even worse is that Microsoft reports that this issue has been […]

Linux Users Are Getting Some Security Help From Microsoft

Open-source applications don’t get much in the way of protection. However in recent years Microsoft has taken steps to change that and especially as it relates to Linux. A few months back the company expanded those protections by adding endpoint detection and response (EDR) to Defender for Endpoint. More recently Microsoft added that capability for […]

Firefox Is Now A Download Option In Windows Store

If you spend a lot of time browsing the Windows Store you may have noticed something unexpected. You can now download Mozilla’s Firefox browser from that source. Previously Mozilla was unable to upload its browser to the Windows Store because Microsoft’s policies required that all browsers on their platform had to use the engine provided […]