Archive for January 2017

Privacy has been on the endangered species list for a while now, but the growing number of smart devices in people’s homes is putting an increasing amount of pressure on what little privacy remains. Last year, electronics giant Samsung came under fire when it was revealed that its smart TVs recorded everything you said when…

Darren Cauthon, a software developer, got a Christmas present this year he didn’t ask for and didn’t want. On Christmas day, his family downloaded and installed an app on their Android-based LG Smart TV and wound up getting a ransomware infection. He took a photo of his TV screen and published it as proof. It…

A very strange and disturbing case of the theft of protected health information has come from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The department recently reported on an incident that occurred in October 2015, in which a former psychiatric patient was able to access non-confidential information from a computer located in…

Microsoft has been hard at work experimenting with various ways to optimize performance. One of the most recent experiments to come to light is the advent of “Windows Gaming Mode.” Slated to be released to Windows Insiders users in January of this year, and the rest of the installed base sometime in the spring, the…

File this one away under “it should go without saying, but…” One of the most amazing and disheartening aspects of internet use is that after all this time, a shocking number of people are still getting taken in by the lure of installing a “crack” for popular software. It should go without saying that installing…

The government is taking a more active hand in establishing security protocols for at least one part of the Internet of Things. Specifically, new guidelines are being drafted by the FDA to set minimum security standards for ‘smart’ medical devices. In recent months, a number of security researchers have demonstrated the ability to hack into…

Hardly a week goes by that a new exploit or attack vector doesn’t come to light that your IT staff has to try to defend against. The most recent threat comes from a vulnerability in the PHP Mailer Library, which is code used by most of the websites in existence today to help manage the…

If you use Netgear routers in your home or office network, you should be aware of the latest security threat. The company has confirmed that three lines of its routers may have these issues: • R6400 • R7000 • R8000 series At this time, it has not been confirmed if or whether the R7000P, R7500,…

Super Mario Run is taking the internet by storm and has replaced Pokemon Go as the hottest app on the market today. It’s so popular that many Android users, eager to start playing the latest craze, aren’t waiting for the app to show up in the Google Play Store and are looking instead to third…

The fortunes of Mozilla’s Firefox browser continue to improve thanks to the company’s ongoing efforts to improve their product. With Microsoft Edge hemorrhaging users at a record pace, Firefox has been picking up significant numbers of Microsoft’s former users as they look for a more stable browser solution. In recent months, Firefox has been testing…