An interesting finding was made by Houston (go TX!) leos. They saw car thieves break into and steal a 2010 Jeep Wrangler and steal it from the owner’s drive way. No big news…except that the thieves plugged a laptop into the car…and accessed its computer and probably married up a generic ‘key’ to disarm the car’s alarm system and start it up. “We don’t know what he is exactly doing with the laptop, but my guess is he is tapping into the car’s computer and marrying ...
Another report of malware and theft out of China. This time? A Chinese company called Yingmob has infected about 10 million Android devices all over the world and exploits them for some $300,000 per month. “In February, Check Point discovered a malware called HummingBad. The malware makes ads pop up on the screen of an infected device and blocks the user from any other options except for clicking on the ad. It then steals the money that an ad agency pays for the click-throug...
Symantec was revealed to have a security problem this past week ( Travis Ormandy – Project Zero ). “This vulnerability is particularly bad—exploiting the vulnerability requires no user interaction. The vulnerability exists in a default configuration, and code execution occurs at the highest privilege level, if not the kernel itself. According to Ormandy, open source libraries used in the products such as libmspack and unrarsrc had not been updated "in at least 7 yea...
Via Justin Luna at Neowin… nothing new about social media and scamming, but this one is nes. “Malware has recently been seen spreading to Facebook users on Google Chrome, which takes the form of an innocent-looking notification. According to Hackread , a user will be notified of what seems to be a friend who tagged them on a certain comment on a Facebook post. If the user clicks on the notification, malware will be downloaded to the computer. While downloading the file isn'...
OK…James Comey and Mark Zuckerberg (FBI Director and Face book CEO) have taped their cams. Why? Well, since Stuxnet and Trojan-viruses, it’s been common knowledge that the microphone and webcam (remote or built in) can be activated and tapped without the user knowing it. Why? To listen in and to peek, of course. So, there are various ways to do it. Putting tape over the cam is one way…but messy, and leaves residue. Whether it blocks the mike is another question…but, you can...
Seeing a pop up claiming to be your ISP sayng that a system scan has revealed spyware on your computer and gives you a number to call for assistance – usually a 1-800 number like this one: 1-866-601-3127 – please don’t call it. That number is changed as soon as it’s reported. This scam’s hook is successfully identifying your ISP. How do they know it? By rogue ads on websites…background redirecting and IP identification. Then a customized scam message is delivered to the perso...
Tech Republic put out an article about replacements for WTM. Strictly speaking, four are replacements, and one is a tool to repair WTM after viral infections which are designed to do that to prevent stopping their related processes. The one with security options (security Task Manager) is a paid app which identifies suspicious processes and allows you to scan them with a link to the net. I don’t know it works with the really sophisticated polymorphic and metamorphic viruses...
This just in from our Canadian reporter Hankers: “Unfortunately, for Acer customers, the company suffered a data breach of its own which has affected its US e-commerce site. Customers who have used the site between May 12, 2015 and April 28, 2016 may have had their personal information accessed by an unauthorized third party. …information affected by the breach potentially included names, addresses, credit cards, expirations dates and CCV security codes.” – Neowin
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Apple has been ordered to stop selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in the capitol – get this – because the phone’s design is too similar to the Shenzhen 100C smartphone. Horses and carts, that. There are six counterfeit iPhones produced in China. Apple is playing in a casino where the only decks are the stacked decks. Not enough they’re stealing brazenly, they’ve even ripped off the iOS, and Apple stores. But things aren’t coincidental in China, which is Apple’s largest market ...
So…what is a Polymorphic Virus? Quoting the technopedia: “A polymorphic virus is a complicated computer virus that affects data types and functions. It is a self-encrypted virus designed to avoid detection by a scanner. Upon infection, the polymorphic virus duplicates itself by creating usable, albeit slightly modified, copies of itself.” – technopedia So, perfect. Your AV works by recognizing defined viral signatures…so the coders who created the virus know this an...
At this point, very little surprises me, but this really does. PC makers (yes, even the big ones – Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo) install crap/bloatware on your brand new device, to profit from both ends. They install programs of little value to you, but plenty to them as they are paid to install them by the programs’ makers in the hope you’ll subscribe, after a “trial period”. Well, when you try the programs for the first time, and subsequently, their “automatic updaters...
If you have KeyPass2 – or any version of it, you’d best disable automatic updates if you want the security of your accounts on the sites where you use the password manager to remain protected. Apparently, while it checks for updates, they aren’t automatically downloaded and installed. It notifies you whether updates are available and you have to click on an additional link to get to the download page. Unfortunately, this update page is http, not https as it sh...
If The Register is correct, the newest “Upgrade tool” will not offer a choice of not upgrading to W10. “As the screenshot above shows, a new version of Microsoft's upgrade tool no longer offers the option of cancelling installation entirely. Instead, users are presented only with the choice of setting a date and time - being able to defer the Windows 10 installation by no more than a few days - or "start the upgrade now". The 'schedule your upgrade'...
Remember them. It’s about those great activities we’re all doing with the ones we love, today…and it’s about so much more. Let’s be grateful…my dad would always put a paper plate with a hot dog and a beer at an empty place at the table on this day. When I was old enough to be curious, I asked why. He told me…and I never forgot. Thank them this day, for all the other days.
Ben Willmore did LightroomCC: The Complete Guide about a month ago, and next he’ll be teaching PhotoshopCC. Ben’s a great instructor, and this will be a three week course as well. It will be (if I can use LightroomCC as a guide), an hour to two hour lesson every day, which will repeat during the day and then the week’s lessons will repeat over the weekend. I think. ANyway, the lessons will be free and if you purchase anytime access, you’ll get files and...