By now you’ve probably read that Congress passed and President Trump signed legislation undoing measures that would have prevented internet service providers (ISPs) from sharing or selling your web browsing history without your permission. That signature means companies such as Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T – who already can see your every online move – can profit from your private search data by selling it to advertisers.
Names like Locky and CryptoLocker are familiar due to numerous news reports, but if you haven’t heard of the growing threat of ransomware, here’s a quick summary: Ransomware is a type of malware that locks you out of your devices by encrypting your files. In return for access with the decryption key, it demands a payment, typically in bitcoin. In many cases, victims of ransomware cannot recover their files, so a backup is essential.
Have you ever been tempted by one of those ads promising “You can earn $20,000 a month by working from home just 4 hours a day!”? Most of us probably have, even for a moment.
Late February 2017, a new type of ransomware for Mac was discovered. This ransomware, called FindZip, infects users by pretending to be a cracked version of commercial applications, such as Adobe Premiere Pro. Once it infects a Mac, it utilizes a ZIP encryption to encrypt documents – the exact same scheme used by the Windows ransomware, Bart, which we decrypted last summer.
Avast is a fantastic employer, we have offices around the world, and a cool company culture . More than 20% of Avast employees are women, which means there are 435 of us! For International Women’s Day on March 8th, we asked our female colleagues a few questions to find out why they like working for Avast.
That little black home router with the funny antennae and shiny lights could be part of an army of devices conscripted to take down the internet. It sounds dramatic, but regular people’s internet-enabled devices – routers, webcams, printers, and so on – were used in a massive online attack that shut down a huge part of the internet for hours one Friday morning last October. With the number of connected devices estimated to reach 50 billion by 2020, you can be guaranteed that cybercriminals will attempt it again.
When computers were still relatively new, antivirus software defended against the only existing threat at the time – viruses. Today, users must protect themselves and their devices from viruses and from malware such as ransomware, as well as malicious activities carried out by cyber crooks, including Wi-Fi snooping to steal personal information, account breaching, and infecting Internet of Things (IoT) devices to perform DDoS attacks. You may be wondering, then, how to protect yourself from so many – and such diverse – threats.
In cooperation with researchers from CERT.PL, we are happy to announce the release of another decryptor tool, for the ransomware,CryptoMix. CryptoMix has multiple aliases, including CryptFile2, Zeta, or the most recent alias CryptoShield.
Facebook, the social giant that many people check obsessively, is testing a new, handy feature to help their users find free public Wi-Fi directly via their Facebook mobile app. The tested feature is available only for selected iOS users in various countries.
“To help people stay connected to the friends and experiences they care about, we are rolling out a new feature that surfaces open Wi-Fi networks associated with nearby places,” a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable.
We believe that being connected gives us flexibility and great opportunities, but before you actually connect to any public Wi-Fi recommended by Facebook, double check its security and speed. You can do it for free, using Avast Wi-Fi Finder.
How does Facebook’s Find Wi-Fi work?
Once you click on the Find Wi-Fi feature, you will see an actual map with a Wi-Fi spots, showing you the distance and directions towards the public free Wi-Fi hotspots available in your area.
Image source: Venturebeat
At this point there is little information available about the Find Wi-Fi feature. There are many speculations on why Facebook is even releasing it. One of the strongests is related to the company’s mission to help people access the internet (even if it’s through its platform). Other theories involves collecting information about business and its users.
And then there’s the whole targeted advertising thing — getting you to free hotspots around the city could impact the ads that you’re shown within your Facebook experience, selling you on hanging out at more popular local merchants and restaurants, comments Ken Yeung
We don’t want to speculate, we just follow the available facts. One of our tasks as a security company is to raise questions about safety and privacy of users’ data. Facebook will use this feature to collect data about users for advertising purposes.
It will not only show you the business offering free Wi-Fi, but also how long it’ll take to get there and the network you can connect to. Facebook recommends that you give the app permission to access your location history, claiming it will “allow Facebook to build a history of precise locations received through your device.”
We know that open Wi-Fi hotspots are great: they allow you to access the Internet when you travel to new places. But losing your personal data is not worth it.
“Many of us have found ourselves in situations when traveling or working remotely in which we’re unable to find reliable and secure Wi-Fi. With the Avast Wi-Fi Finder, consumers are now able to find a safe and fast Wi-Fi connection whether you’re at the gym, hotel, airport, bus station, library or café.” said Gagan Singh, president of mobile at Avast.
What is the added value of the Avast Wi-FI for the users? Our technology checks for the vulnerabilities of the Wi-Fi Hotspot such as:
Last but not least: for the maximum protection of your data, we recommend you use VPN protection.
In February 2016, we ran an experiment at the Barcelona Airport and gathered more than 8 million data packets, proving that open Wi-Fi hotspots are risky. We learned the following information:
“Many individuals recognize that surfing over open Wi-Fi isn’t secure. However, some of these same people aren’t aware that their device might automatically connect to a Wi-Fi network unless they adjust their settings,” said Gagan Singh, president of mobile at Avast.
To make sure that your connection is secure regardless of the Wi-Fi hotspot settings and avoid looking extensively for recommended, secure hotspot, we recommend that you use Avast SecureLine VPN.
