Archive for August 2017

“Sometimes the wheel turns slowly, but it turns.” That quote, made famous by Lorne Michaels, certainly applies in the case of the government’s involvement in securing internet-connected devices. By now, almost everyone has at least one “smart” device in their home or driveway. Projections are that there will be more internet-connected devices than computers and…

Smart device manufacturers are learning a lesson that most internet-based service companies know very well. At least half of the consumer market is willing to trade their personal information, and trade it cheaply, according to a recent study conducted by Parks Associates titled, “The Value of Data – New Smart Home Business Models.” The key…

The British Government has had enough. The past several years have seen a large and growing number of high-profile data breaches with every year breaking the last year’s records in total number of attacks and total number of compromised records. Even so, a shockingly low number of companies seem to have gotten the memo that…

The IRS is being proactive. With tax season fast approaching, they’re warning filers to beware of email scams designed by hackers to steal your information. In fact, they’re ramping up a 10-week “Don’t Take The Bait” campaign to heighten awareness of what is fast becoming an extremely sophisticated scam. It works like this: You get…

It’s not often that you read the words “Disney” and “trouble,” in the same sentence, but the company’s reputation is taking a big hit, thanks to a class-action lawsuit recently filed in California. The claim is that a number of Disney’s apps, many that target kids under the age of 13, are being married to…

Recently, employees and contractors working for Virgin America Airline (now owned by Alaskan Airlines) received notification from the company that hackers may have gained access to their login and other personal data. The company’s cybersecurity team discovered the intrusion attempt on March 13 and immediately put their response plan into action, informing law enforcement and…

A few low-end Android phones have been found to be infected with the Triada Trojan, according to the Russian Cybersecurity firm, Dr. Web, which discovered a variant of the malware lurking inside the Android OS Zygote core process. In this instance, the likeliest point of insertion was via a third-party vendor, somewhere in the phone…

Despite getting off to a somewhat rocky start, USB Type-C cables have been a boon to computer users everywhere by providing bidirectional transfer capabilities, which essentially gives Type-C cables two “lanes” to work with. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group recently announced that things are about to get even better and faster when they released the…

Several tech giants have plans in the works to expand the number of people who have access to broadband. Google’s plan would use a series of low-orbit satellites to beam wireless signal all over the globe. Facebook has plans on the drawing board that involve gliders. Microsoft’s plan is a bit different, involving the “white…

The third-party Chrome extension Copyfish recently got hacked. As a result, the hackers were able to inject malicious JavaScript code into the code base and use it to display ads on all the pages users who had the extension installed viewed. It took Copyfish’s developers a full day to realize they had been breached, and…