Enough of hacking and hackers. There’s no end to it in sight. There’s something amazing about photography, though. Want some great wallpapers? Well you can get them at National Geographic…even the winners of the annual contest. They come only in 1600 x 1200 for desktops, but there are Tablet and Phone walls available with each picture. You may not like the walls, as they come with NatGeo advertising at the bottom, but you can’t help but love the photos. So, some b...
This site is sponsored by IT Security companies and law enforcement ( https://www.nomoreransom.org/ ). It can help you prevent, identify and decrypt ransomware threats. “The website offers three core features: ransomware information, access to decryption tools, and a ransomware identification tool.” – gHacks Identifying the ransomware: https://www.nomoreransom.org/decryption-tools.html and ID Ransomware is another company offering that service, as is Crypto ...
MS has updated its KB3035583 in an effort to get folks to upgrade to W10. This is a patch which you might have ‘hidden’ in the past. So, their ‘updating’ that patch might well cause it to reappear. As far as I know, you can re-hide it with no problems, but according to sources, this patch has a very clear “decline” option, as opposed to earlier This sort of brings up some other stuff: If you make a ‘last minute’ decision to upgrade to W10, you might not succeed, due to servers ...
France (in its uniquely…French manner) has awakened, and the questions we all asked regarding W10 and “privacy” concerns. MS was “served” on 7.16 to comply with the French Data Protection Act within 3 months…while MS is probably more concerned with how it’s going to cope with the rush of last minute upgraders to W10 and overwhelmed servers. So, our oldest ally claims that “Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system is used for "coll...
On August second, the following features are being added (along with various ‘fixes’ for current bugs). They’re summarized in two articles from TechRepublic: The first cites “Windows Information Protection” (a.k.a. Enterprise Data Protection): “1. The feature uses containerisation file techniques to keep personal and enterprise data separate, as well as imposing various controls over who can access which data. 2. Windows 10 Defender Advanced Threat Prote...
W10 was a “Free for the first year” upgrade, which back then made me ask, “Are they going over to an Adobe model?"...i.e., "free trial, then pay per month" to continue using your computer? I believe I referred to it at the time as the 'dope pusher model'. Well, the end of the "First year free" is coming up, and I for one want to know what's in the "Anniversary Update". That isn’t true…yet. Except this: W10 Enterprise $84/yr. I am conce...
“Apple’s iCloud account appears to have been so severely hacked by some urbane hackers that some iPhones have essentially been held hostage for Russian ransomware. It is guessed that an astounding 40 million iCloud accounts (approximately) are rumoured to be at risk, according to CSO Online….At this point of time, there is no evidence to suggest that the Mac-Forums database has any relation to these ransom attacks. However, if you wish to tread caution, it is highly recommended t...
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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