Posts Tagged ‘Security’
Phone scams – some current examples
In the last few days, I’ve received a couple of attempted phone scams. The first was a new one on me, but the second was an old favourite.
Read MoreHow a typo can cause you problems.
Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes. One of the most common mistakes, in particular with mobile phones and their small keyboards, is the simple typo. Did you know that the evil doers have got sneaky ways that they try to capitalise on your fumbling fingers? It’s a technique called “Typosquatting“.
Read MoreFireball – 1,000 times bigger than Wannacry.
Have you seen the news reports and headlines about Fireball? No? That’s odd. 250 million PCs are infested with it. That’s a thousand times more machines around the world than WannaCry (you do remember WannaCry don’t you, or was it sooo two weeks ago ?). So you would think the news organisations would be all…
Read MoreSick subtitles can infect your media player
Do you use a media player like VLC, Kodi, Popcorn Time or Strem.io? Perhaps you are using one of those “dodgy” Android boxes? If so you will want to update them to their latest version ASAP because it is possible that they might pick up subtitles that can compromise the machine that you are playing…
Read MoreWannaCry no more. At least for now.
I’m just going to have a short article this week, just to close off the WannaCry story and counter any of the misinformation that was spread by some supposed “experts”. WannaCry is still circulating and affecting machines, but thanks to the kill switch discovered by @MalwareTechBlog, it is more or less neutralised now. Those machines still…
Read MoreDo you WannaCry? I didn’t think so.
I delayed this week’s blog, just to let some of the dust settle on the whole WannaCry (also known as WCry or WannaCrypt) furore and see if we can learn anything from it that will help protect my readers going forward. I’ll start with some easy background on Ransomware and them explain what was special…
Read MoreGMail had a bad case of the phishers.
About 1 million GMail users were subject to a very clever phishing campaign last week. “What’s phishing?” I hear you ask. It’s basically an e-mail that persuades you to take an action, which ends up compromising you in some way. In this case, you receive an e-mail with an apparent Google Docs attachment. If you follow…
Read MorePayment card breach at nearly 1,200 hotels in the US.
The InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) were hit by a payment card breach at some 1,175 of their franchise hotels, virtually all of which are based in the USA. This breach occurred between September 29th 2016 and December 29th 2016 and was as a result of malicious software (malware) somehow being installed on systems that were…
Read MoreHackers released NSA hacking tools … World continues to turn ?.
You probably missed it – but don’t worry, I’m here to give you the simple low-down ?. The Cyber Security world was in meltdown for some of last weekend about the fact that a hacking group known as Shadow Brokers had released a load of NSA hacking tools to the internet and this meant everyone was…
Read MoreReally – Don’t open that Word attachment! It is malware.
It was reported over last weekend that there was a Microsoft Word vulnerability that allowed a type of Word malware (malicious software) to infect a persons PC/Laptop simply by opening the document. Even having macros disabled would not protect the victim. So what happens?
Read MoreEvil e-mail has your name and address!
Reports today are somewhat concerning. Below are two examples of evil e-mail that has been doing the rounds in the last day or so. The greeting addresses you by your first/given name and the file that is attached to the e-mail is called after your surname. The postal address shown IS also your address. I’ll…
Read MoreCompany that makes smart Teddy Bear’s leaked data.
It has just been reported that up to 800,000 people who owned a Smart Teddy bear made by Spiral Toys, under the CloudPets banner have had their account data stolen by hackers. Now this blog is about this particular toy, but this could easily apply to other types of “smart toy” so do read on.…
Read MoreScary new way to have your GMail password and account stolen.
This is an incredibly easy way for the evil doers to steal your GMail ID and GMail password. This one could even catch out security people like me! ? So what happens is you receive an e-mail from somebody you know, who also had a GMail (note the emphasis on had).
Read MoreWhat will 2017 bring in Cyber Security?
5 Cyber Security Predictions for 2017 Lots of people do these type of lists, but since this is the end of my first year in business, I might as well be no different.? 1. Ransomware levels will plateau, but constantly change This might be an easy one to get right. Ransomware is already embedded in…
Read MoreDon’t ignore that e-mail from Lynda.com
I received two e-mails in recent days from online training provider Lynda.com customer care, this is because I have had two accounts with Lynda.com in the past. Both were set-up when they had a 30 day free trial offer, which I made use of. I’m one of the 9.5 million customers/former customers of Lynda.com who have…
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