(Photo credit should read Rob Engelaar/AFP/Getty Images) 2019 is going down as the year ransomware wreaked havoc on the public sector. In the US, the attacks impacted at least 103 US government agencies largely at the state and municipal levels, according to antivirus provider Emsisoft, a leading provider of ransomware decryption tools. On Thursday, the […]
All of your passwords will now automatically get checked against data breaches and phishing protection will be available for all your login credentials. If you use Chrome for browsing the web, expect your passwords to come under much closer scrutiny from now on. As the Google Security Blog explains, Chrome has had breached password warnings […]
UPDATE 12/5: Avast CEO Ondrej Vlcek tells PCMag’s Neil J. Rubenking that “We have already implemented some of Mozilla’s new requirements, and we will release further updated versions that are fully compliant and transparent per the new requirements.” He also noted that the extension takedowns occurred just 12 hours after Mozilla’s announcement of its new […]
Federal investigators have charged a 32-year-old Russian national for running “Evil Corp,” a massive cybercrime ring that used phishing emails and malware to break into bank accounts across the globe. On Thursday, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment against Moscow resident Maksim Yakubets for a “decade-long cybercrime spree” that involved distributing two infamous malware strains: […]
It’s no secret that state-sponsored hackers want to break into email accounts to steal people’s sensitive files. But on Tuesday, Google shared some intel on the scale of the hacking activities. From July to September, the company sent out more than 12,000 warnings to users across the globe that government-backed attackers were trying to break […]
Federal investigators have charged a man in Austin, Texas, for hacking a music producer’s social networking account in an effort to steal unreleased songs from more than 20 recording artists. On Monday, federal agents arrested 27-year-old Christian Erazo for his role in stealing 50GB of content and then leaking more than 100 unreleased songs online. […]
Facebook and Twitter are both warning users about a number of mobile apps that were secretly collecting people’s personal information from their social media profiles. The apps were loaded with malicious software development kits (SDK) that pulled details such as email address, names, and people’s genders from their Facebook and Twitter accounts. The same SDKs […]
Is it wrong to collect everyone’s public information and put it in one place? At the very least, it’s extremely creepy. On Friday, two security researchers reported uncovering a 4-terabyte database that held the records on a whopping 1.2 billion people. The same database was also openly exposed on the internet without any security. “The […]
Are your kids online too much? If so, Comcast’s Xfinity broadband service is introducing a new feature to help parents better control when their children can access the web on their various electronic devices. Comcast is rolling out a new “Downtime Scheduling” mode for the Xfinity xFi service, which lets customers control Wi-Fi access in […]
Two Massachusetts men have been arrested for using “SIM swapping” attacks to help them steal cryptocurrencies from victims and take over access to social media accounts. On Thursday, federal agents arrested 21-year-old Eric Meiggs and 20-year-old Declan Harrington for the suspected crimes, which involved duping cellular providers into handing over access to victims’ mobile phone […]
