Antivirus Vendors
Cybercrime is victimizing US companies and consumers, but a gap in cybersecurity skills presents a problem for the federal government. ESET’s Stephen Cobb investigates.
The post Desperately seeking cybersecurity skills appeared first on WeLiveSecurity
Many businesses are actively encouraging their employees to use social media at work, hoping that they will become “brand advocates”, talking about the company’s products and services. Employers also hope that their worker’s accounts will help to give the company a “human” face.
But as good as these intentions are, you should carefully consider whether you really want to use your social media accounts at work. Because there are a few potential issues to be aware of.
Social media is a brilliant tool for sharing links, videos and interesting information with your friends online. But not all those links go to good places – quite often those pages will have adware, malware or computer viruses lurking in the background, trying to download themselves onto your computer.
If malware does install itself on your work computer, it could cause serious damage to the rest of the network. The time and costs associated with fixing these issues could seriously hurt your company – and maybe even lose you your job, even if it was an accident.
There are dozens of examples of situations where someone has made a joke online, but one of their followers has taken offence. The issue quickly escalates, as strangers offer criticisms – and sometimes even threats.
The fall-out from these incidents also affects that person’s employer – some people wrongly assume that the individual and their company are inextricably linked. So the company must act to regain control of the situation – including sacking the employee involved.
With so much interesting information available on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc, it is very easy to spend hours catching up on what people are sharing. But if you spend too long on non-work related tasks, you will run into problems getting your actual work done.
When the quality of your work starts to decline, you could be disciplined by your employer – and potentially sacked if things go too far.
Before you start using your personal social media accounts at work, you should have a conversation with your boss. You should ask how your employer expects you to behave:
It is only by establishing these guidelines up front that you can hope to avoid accidentally breaking one of them, risking your job. By being smart, both you and your business avoid trouble and gain the benefits offered by social media.
The post The risks of using personal social media at work appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.
With all the data breaches that happened during 2016 – just think back to the 32 million Twitter passwords on the Dark Web or the time we found out that Mr. Zuckerberg’s password was ‘dadada’ –one should think that people have managed to notice that password security is a good idea and somewhat important. Think […]
The post The 25 worst passwords of them all appeared first on Avira Blog.
Kaspersky Lab today announced the availability of its Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation Online training (KIPS Online).
Kaspersky Lab announced today it will host a cybersecurity seminar, titled “Think Security,” which offers MIT students an opportunity to learn about the challenges of protecting today’s critical infrastructure against the sophisticated cyberattacks emerging around the world.
Could the Internet of Things spark the Ransomware of Things? ESET’s Stephen Cobb examines how ransomware and jackware are evolving.
The post RoT: Ransomware of Things appeared first on WeLiveSecurity
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into whether Yahoo could have been quicker to tell investors about two record-breaking data breaches.
The post Yahoo faces SEC probe into its two record-breaking data breaches appeared first on WeLiveSecurity
Last year is proof that stories about Kim Kardashian and Pikotaro’s PPAP song were not the only things able to break the internet, 2016 was a year full of news about data breaches, stolen sensitive information, hackers extortion and DDoS attacks that in some cases had a significant impact on the lives of many Americans. Phew, it’s all gone, and we are already in 2017!
Hopefully, reputable tech giants such as LinkedIn, Verizon, Google and Microsoft will be a bit more vigilant about keeping our sensitive information safe. Luckily there are anti-virus companies who have our backs even when tech companies’ security fail.
Having anti-virus software is similar to having a second layer of clothes in the winter. You like being prepared, don’t you?
After such a turbulent 2016, we’ve developed a little list of cyber threats to watch out for in 2017.
Currently, there are billions of connected devices all over the world – the revolution of self-driving cars is just about to kick in too. Drones, doorbells, kitchen appliances, thermostats and health gadgets – all sorts of new technology is now able to be monitored and controlled over the internet. The power of IoT gives us an unparalleled convenience, things we’ve never experienced before, but also poses a grave danger.
The potential threat is no longer about getting your fridge or printer hacked, but cracks in the system of such technology which if penetrated by criminals could cause significant security risks. No one would want a self-driving car or a drone hacked and operated by hackers.
This poses a great concern for our safety. We are expecting a wild 2017 for the consumers out there, as more attacks throughout the year are likely to follow. Currently, it is easier for cyber trouble-makers to create and control an IoT army of devices, than to develop new spyware. We hope to see the security features of IoT devices advance in 2017.
It’s just the beginning of the New Year, and multiple sources have reported innovative and more sophisticated phishing attacks targeting Gmail accounts in the US. Sources say these phishing attacks can fool even experienced internet users. What is so different about these phishing attaches from the regular ones?
Not much, except for the fact that the design of the landing pages is getting better and better. Another difference worth mentioning is the URL bar. Anti-virus software companies have been preaching for years to always look at the URL bar and never input your login details in websites of whose URLs are not https or/and marked in red color.
In the new case of phishing attacks, the URL bar is in plain text, its’ not green nor red. Apparently, this tends to confuse people so be aware if you don’t want to be in the news as the next victim of a well-executed scam.
The New Year will surely bring us news of state-sponsored cyber espionage. Mainstream media still finds it hard to accept the legitimacy of the new president of the United States, and the means he used to make it to the chief commander of the free world role. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange argued that the emails which revealed information about Secretary Hillary Clinton were part of a leak, not a state-sponsored campaign designed to elect Donald Trump. We will most likely never know the full truth but what we are aware is that state sponsored cyber-attacks will become a norm in 2017.
Last year a California hospital paid $17,000 in Bitcoin to hackers, a well-known university in the US also became a victim of an attack where cyber criminals installed ransomware on the company’s systems and demanded payment to unlock it. In all known hacker extortion cases, the victim ended up paying up the criminals. The main problem is that not only companies are under threat, but individuals too. There have been reported cases of senior citizens who have been held up by cyber bullies, demanding payments so they can regain access to precious family imagery. Or celebrities ending up paying to stop sensitive photos from being released into the world. Having in mind that most of all known occurrences of cyber extortion have been successful, and the fact that governments tend to lose the battles against it, the occurrences of such incidents are very likely to continue into this year.
Digital fingerprinting is getting popular among consumer devices. We saw tens and probably hundreds of them at CES 2017. Currently, all major cell phone manufacturers have it as an option to unlock their phones. Now there are home locks, padlocks, deadbolts and USB sticks that could be unlocked/opened with a simple touch. Even some car manufacturers are integrating the technology into their new car models. Sadly, a Japanese researcher recently came out with a statement that your fingerprints could be stolen when posing for a photo doing the piece sign. Criminals are getting creative, what a surprise! Facial and iris recognition may soon become a norm too so protecting the databases that store this information will become a challenge.
However, these issues are now real and protecting our data in all its forms is vital. The convenience the new technology is bringing us opens backdoors for criminals to take advantage. Luckily there are anti-virus specialists such as Panda Security, who make sure your data stays safe and provide you with that extra layer of security that we all need.
The post Top Cyber Risks of 2017 appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.
You alone hold the key to making a secure Master Password.
The post One master password to rule them all appeared first on Avira Blog.
“The case against this employee does not involve Kaspersky Lab. The employee, who is Head of the Computer Incidents Investigation Team, is under investigation for a period predating his employment at Kaspersky Lab. We do not possess details of the investigation. The work of Kaspersky Lab’s Computer Incidents Investigation Team is unaffected by these developments.”
