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Panda Security

Are you willing to gamble your company’s security with the new iPhone 7?

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Apple has taken the world by storm once again with the release of the latest version of its top-of-the-range smartphone. Two new iPhones, the 7 and the 7 Plus, are on the Smartphone market with some standout novelties: the absence of the classic headphone Jack and the addition of two new and improved cameras. Unfortunately, the topic of cybersecurity was absent from the keynote presentation, in fact, Tim Cook and his team did not devote a single minute to this important issue.

This isn’t to say that the lack of conversation regarding security in the brand new iPhones makes them a danger to your business or your employees. In fact, if businesses decide to use it as a corporate phone, users could actually benefit in regards to security thanks to some of its new standout characteristics and changes.

Novelties in Apple Mobile Security

The new Home button, for example, is not a button at all.  On the new version the Home button is actually a touchpad with a Haptic system that permits users to perform various functions—from exiting applications to using the multitasking function—while some of the other features were designed specifically for user convenience, security and privacy such as the Apple Pay or Touch ID.

Unlike the original iPhone button, the new Haptic button is designed to last over time.

iphone panda securityIn addition to the physical iPhones, a new operating system is also added to the new 7. The iOS 10 is presumed to be more robust in terms of cybersecurity (this is great news, especially after discovering various faults in the beta operating system).

It also permits users to respond to messages without introducing a security code or having to use Touch ID to unblock the device.

In conclusion, although Apple has given little or no attention to cybersecurity in their keynote, the combination of the iPhone 7 with the new operating system continues to be an excellent option for preventing IT risks in the corporate mobile sphere. If these devices become a growing danger for your company, make sure to combine them with the best advanced security solution.

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Panda Security

Top 5 things you are revealing to the world when downloading torrents

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Top 5 things you are revealing to the world when downloading torrents

Downloading torrents is certainly not as popular as it used to be but people still do it. The fact you may be able to watch a movie free of charge before it is even available in your town’s movie theatre may sound appealing, we wanted to highlight that this is illegal and your actions will have consequences.
In this blog post we are not going to focus on the consequences, we are sure you already know what happens to the bad guys. We want to stress on the type of information you are sharing with the world while downloading torrents;

Username and Password

Very often torrent websites require you to create a profile before you are able to download a torrent. Therefore you are forced to come up with a username and password. Having in mind people don’t enjoy using multiple passwords some folks end up literally giving their username and password without a fight. Imagine what hackers who crack software for fun could do with your personal information. It feels like getting a wolf pack to guard your sheep.

IP Address

You are sharing your IP address with both seeders and leechers. Almost every torrent client has the option to see details about the peers you are connecting with. Sharing your personal IP address with complete strangers is not the safest thing. Not all peers are there to help you, hackers masked as seeders/leechers are lurking around harvesting IP addresses.

ISP – Internet Service Providers

Your ISP knows what you are doing. Even though it is NOT in their interest, sometimes they are forced to share information with the law enforcement. Your ISP provider will not hesitate to share information about you when pressured by the authorities. After all torrents can be heavy and ISP providers are certainly not very happy when they see you abusing the unlimited data stream they offer you.

Traffic Information

Getting to download an actual torrent is not an easy task. You have to go through a whole bunch of shady websites so you can get to the point where you will download the torrent you want. There are a whole lot of ‘download’ buttons that download everything else to your device but the desired torrent. Even if the content you want to download may not be illegal, you share all your traffic information with the website admins. Remember what we discussed about the wolf packs.

Social Media channels

Torrent websites sometimes offer you perks when following them on social media. This immediately gives an idea to everyone interested about the type of people that support those websites. Even if you are not downloading or distributing any illegal content, engaging with them on social media channels and being active on torrent forums may drag you towards a group of people you don’t want to be in.
Peer to peer file sharing is not always illegal but you have to keep in mind that very often cheap things end up being expensive. You should be fully aware about what you exposing to the world on your journey to the next episode of the Big Bang Theory.

If you are in store you don’t just go and grab a DVD and walk out, you pay for it. The reason why you don’t steal is not only because you are a good person but also because you are afraid that your action may ruin your life. Nowadays, being on internet is similar to walking on the street or in the store, your actions are being monitored – let’s make sure you don’t embarrass yourself before the whole world.

The post Top 5 things you are revealing to the world when downloading torrents appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Panda Security

Links that endanger your cyber-security

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On any given day, employees at your company click a multitude of links and many of them come from unknown sources. But clicking these mysterious URLs endangers more than your security, it can also threaten your business.

Curiosity can cost you. The sole purpose of these links is to transfer malware onto your system. What’s worse is that, as demonstrated in a recent study, the majority of internet users click these unknown links.

Zinaida Benenson, a professor from the University of Erlangen-Núremberg, and her team of investigators sent 1,700 students messages (from both Facebook and email) containing a shortened link in order to access a photo album. To do this they created fake accounts and profiles to see if the students trusted and clicked the unknown sources.

But, of course, a photo album did not appear when the link was clicked. Luckily for the study’s participants, there was only an error page that allowed for the investigators to count how many of them clicked the bait. The study’s results speak for themselves: 56% of those that received the link via email and 38% via Facebook clicked the links.

More than half of internet users click links without thinking.

Later on all of the study’s participants received a questionnaire. Once again, one of the conclusions drawn from the study was the most surprising: The number of those who clicked the unknown links totaled 78%. Why? For most participants, curiosity was to blame.

It is extremely important that employees are aware of the risks when clicking a link from an unknown source: this mistake can endanger all of the private data stored on company systems, including information stored in the Cloud.

However, if you see that curiosity takes flight, the best advice you can adopt is to begin using a solid protection service such as Panda Solutions for Companies, the only way to protect ourselves against these type of cyberattacks.

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Avast

Avast’s New Call Blocker App Helps Users Avoid Unwanted Calls

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Avoid spam calls with Avast Call Blocker

Keep calm and pick up the phone with Avast Call Blocker.

For many iOS users, spam calls have slowly but steadily become a regular and bothersome part of life. Although users can label specified numbers as spam on their device, this is time-consuming and quickly gets old. Many call blocking apps require access to users’ contact lists, which isn’t ideal, as private contacts shouldn’t need to be seen by companies in order to provide protection.

Panda Security

Webcams, Routers and Other Risks to your IT Security

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The fleet of computers in your business may be protected but that does not mean that your corporate information is safe. Beyond tablets, there are a number of devices such as mobile phones and smart watches that have joined the list of gadgets that every enterprise must control and protect to prevent IT risks. Every office contains a number of vulnerable devices that can pose a danger to confidential data.

Although we do not usually pay attention to webcams, they pose a danger to corporate privacy and security—even the founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, shared a photo on the social media site where we can see that the laptop’s camera is covered for security purposes.

Covering webcams at your office when they aren’t being used could help keep your corporate information private.  An example of this occurred two years ago when it was discovered that a Russian website issued a direct signal to more than 70,000 private webcams that were hacked.

Printers, routers and USB

However, there is more work to be done than just covering webcams. Every office has routers that are not generally given the proper attention. Without the proper security measures (like simply changing the standard password that comes with your computer), a router can easily be taken advantage of by cybercriminals. They can easily take over your bandwidth and build a network of malicious bots, or worse, link it with a DDoS attack on another website.

There’s more. Corporate printers can be one of the biggest cybersecurity problems in your corporate environment. Every document that is sent out to print has to travel through a network that can be attacked. It is worrisome to think what could happen to this private information on the way to the printer. As you can see, the security of these devices are just as important as any other computer in the office.

Any device with USB storage in the office could put the entire corporate structure at risk. Malware on pen drives can be transmitted using USB ports on computers or can be used as a storage device to steal information.

As you can see, beyond covering webcams and changing router passwords, it is important to have reliable anti-malware  protection for your business, devices and networks in your workplace.

 

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Avast

Ransomware doesn't sell itself: Marketing malware on the darknet

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My colleagues from the Avast Threat Labs published an interesting (and detailed) blog post about Petya ransomware and its little brother, Mischa. This duo works together to encrypt disks and files, pushing innocent victims to pay thousands of dollars to regain access to their computers and files. Particularly interesting is that the ransomware authors have an established marketing strategy to promote Petya and Mischa. They created a brand for the ransomware, as well as an affiliate program, making it possible for the IT-savvy average Joe to distribute the ransomware.

Panda Security

Yahoo Data Breach: Top 5 things you should do immediately

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Yahoo’s biggest nightmare was confirmed yesterday – back in late 2014, a copy of certain user account information has been stolen from Yahoo’s network. The story started developing in early August when a hacker named “Peace” was openly trying to sell personal information of more than 500 million Yahoo account users on the dark web.

According to Yahoo, the account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.

Even though the breach happened two years ago it is not too late to take action, especially if you haven’t changed your password in a while.

Top 5 things you should do immediately

Change your password now!

It is as simple as that. Change not only your Yahoo password on your Yahoo account, but also review all your online accounts on which you’ve used the same or similar information. The sooner you do it, the better!

Turn on the two-step authentication that Yahoo offers.

Two-step verification uses both your password and an extra security code to verify your identity whenever you sign in to your account. If someone else tries to access your account, even if they can guess your password, they still won’t be able to get in without using two-step verification.

Pick better passwords.

We cannot stress more on the fact that using the same passwords for many accounts is not recommended. As you remember Yahoo are not the only one who’ve had similar issues. Back in 2014 eBay asked 145 million of their users to change passwords after a data breach. Changing your passwords often must be a habit!

Update your security questions immediately.

Yahoo says about 1 billion people globally engage with one of its properties each month. The chances your password is in the wrong hands are not minimal and the risk is real. Take action and don’t wait anymore, time is key here.

Go through old emails and remove sensitive content.

If your Yahoo account information is indeed for sale on the dark web, someone can hack into your email at any minute. There is tons of document scans, tax returns, credit card details and invoices that may be laying around your inbox. All these documents contain information you want to keep for yourself.

Remain vigilant! After Yahoo admitted the data breach you may be approached by fraudsters pretending to be someone they are not. It is important for you to not engage with online fee-based, toll-free-number services. Even though the incident happened nearly 2 years ago and you may be off the hook, we advise you to remain cautious and spend some time making sure you are fully protected.

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