Items tagged with security
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Paul Lilly - Wed, Jun 14, 2017
The notion that Mac systems are immune to malware is just plain wrong. Sure, Macs might be less susceptible to malware than Windows-based PCs, but they are certainly not exempt from security threats. Proving otherwise, two different...
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Paul Lilly - Wed, Jun 14, 2017
Microsoft is not wavering on its decision to stop supporting Windows XP as a whole, though apparently it will on occasion release security updates for the legacy operating system, presumably for the greater good. We saw this just last...
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Paul Lilly - Wed, Jun 07, 2017
Most wireless routers are equipped with a series of LEDs to indicate things like network connectivity and activity, though if a router has been compromised with malware, those blinking lights could reveal more than the owner bargained for...
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Paul Lilly - Thu, Jun 01, 2017
The nasty WannaCry outbreak has us all a little bit on edge. It also serves as a sobering reminder that a simple phishing scam can still create quite a bit of havoc. Sure, savvy PC users know better than to click on mysterious URLs in...
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Paul Lilly - Wed, May 31, 2017
In a perfect world, we would not have to worry about intruders breaking into our homes and pilfering our belongings. Of course, we do not live in such a world, and the sad reality is that burglars and thieves exist. Fortunately there are...
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Paul Lilly - Tue, May 23, 2017
Now that the dust has settled on a global ransomware outbreak that could have been much worse than it ended up being, we can all breathe a sigh of relieve. Meanwhile, security outfits are busy analyzing the outbreak to uncover as much...
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Rob Williams - Fri, May 19, 2017
The Wanna Decrypter ransomware that began floating around the Internet late last week, or WannCry as it's commonly known, has made a lasting impact, with hundreds of thousands of PCs worldwide being affected. What the malware does is even...
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Marco Chiappetta - Thu, May 18, 2017
We took part in an interesting demo this week that was both eye-opening and somewhat alarming. We met with representatives from Synaptics to discuss what we thought would be its latest sensor technology or HCI device, but were treated to a...
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Paul Lilly - Sun, May 14, 2017
The Internet community was able to breathe a temporary sigh of relief after a 22-year-old security researcher accidentally discovered a way to thwart WannaCrypt, a fast-spreading strain of malware that was stolen from the National Security...
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Rob Williams - Fri, May 12, 2017
Last fall, we reported on a somewhat humorous report of a mere "reply all" email that managed to bring down email servers of the UK's National Health Service. Unfortunately, we have something a bit more severe to report on today: an...
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Paul Lilly - Tue, May 09, 2017
A vulnerability researcher at Google is giving props to Microsoft for issuing a quick fix to what he described as a "crazy bad" remote code exploit in the company's malware protection engine. He also said it was the worst of its kind in...
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Paul Lilly - Mon, May 08, 2017
Intel last week finally got around to plugging a security hole that existed for decades affecting platforms with Active Management Technology (AMT), Intel Standard Manageability (ISM), and Small Business Technology (SBT). Consumer systems...
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Paul Lilly - Tue, May 02, 2017
Some things are better late than never, right? Chicago Cubs fans who watched their team win the World Series last year can certainly attest to that, but it does not only apply to sports. Case in point, Intel has finally plugged a security...
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Brittany Goetting - Sat, Apr 29, 2017
Windows 95 is alive and well in the United States Pentagon. Daryl Haegley, program manager for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations and Environment reported at an event hosted by OSIsoft that 75% of...
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Rob Williams - Tue, Apr 25, 2017
We can't seem to go a single week without news of a severe vulnerability out there in the wild, and it looks like our streak isn't about to end. Not too long ago, a number of NSA-derived tools were released online, giving us an idea of how...
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Rob Williams - Mon, Apr 17, 2017
In 2013, security research firm DefenseCode revealed a major issue that plagued a large number of wireless routers, and because the number of affected devices was in the millions, the company held off on revealing the specifics...
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Paul Lilly - Mon, Apr 17, 2017
If you're using Google's Chrome browser as your primary vehicle to surf the web, you may want to think about temporarily parking it and puttering around in something else. That's because the most recent version of Chrome is vulnerable to a...
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Paul Lilly - Fri, Apr 14, 2017
In less than a month from now Microsoft will stop dishing out security updates for the original version of Windows 10 (build 1507) that was released back in July 2015. Microsoft had actually planned to stop supporting Windows 10 Version...
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Rob Williams - Thu, Apr 13, 2017
Microsoft made headlines early last year when it announced that users of Intel Skylake (and newer) processors, would need to run Windows 10, as support would be dropped on older versions of Windows. After that initial announcement, there...
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Paul Lilly - Mon, Apr 10, 2017
As always, be wary of opening email attachments, especially from untrusted sources. Security outfits FireEye and McAfee have both observed malicious Microsoft Office RTF documents in the wild that are exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in...
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Rob Williams - Sun, Apr 09, 2017
As our world becomes increasingly connected, the risk of exploitation continues to rise. Last October, we wrote of an issue that could become an all-too-common occurrence in the future: exploitation of our emergency systems.
A hot topic...
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Paul Lilly - Sun, Apr 09, 2017
New and used games retailer GameStop has found itself in a bit of a rough patch these days. The company recently reported less-than-stellar fourth quarter results and is planning to close at least 150 brick-and-mortar locations, and...
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