Samsung Testing Iris Recognition

As the age of password authentication falls to newer and faster password cracking hardware, software, and list building tools, technologists have been looking at other authentication methods.  Many of these techniques we have covered here: two-factor authentication (2FA), secure key, smartphone authentication apps, Google’s USB security dongle, fingerprint readers, and other biometrics.

Recently, Samsung, together with SRI, have started working on an iris recognition authentication methodology called IOM or “Iris On the Move.”  The human iris, the colored part of the eye, ...

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17
APR
0

authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, passwords

Dyre Wolf Banking Malware Poses Threat To Your Bank Balance

Modern cyber criminals are using more sophisticated blended attacks to achieve some pretty spectacular monetary hauls.  The Dyre Wolf malware exploits is currently be combined with a spear-phishing approach, a telephone based social engineering middle, and a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack on the back end to access corporate bank accounts and wire transfer large sums of money.  Originally uncovered by IBM’s security team in 2014, this exploit had netted on cyber-crime group over $1 million dollars.  The IBM ...

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15
APR
0

cybersecurity, malware, Trojan

Ransomware Kidnapped Your Files – Should You Pay The Ransom?

CryptoLocker and CryptoWall are largely defunct now, but there are new strains of encryption malware at large on the Internet.  If you fall victim to any of the new ransomware exploits such as Teslacrypt or Ophionlocker, there is bad news, and there is OK news, and there may be good news.

The bad news is that once the encryption malware has finished encrypting all of your personal files in the Documents, Pictures, Music, and Video folders and other stuff in your User ...

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14
APR
0

cybersecurity, malware

Is Your Computer Part Of A Botnet?

computer-zombieA “bot-net” is a robot network comprised of hundreds, thousands, or even millions of “zombie hosts,” as computers that are infected with bot malware are called.  Botnets are created by a type of professional cyber-criminal known as a “bot-herder,” and generally rented out to other criminals for sending millions of spam messages daily, running huge parallel processing tasks such as password cracking operation, or used by extortionists, hacktivists, and government ...

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8
APR
0

botnet, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity

Smartphone Kill Switches Are Here

kill-switch-170Minnesota’s new smartphone “kill switch” law takes effect on July 1, 2015.  It requires that all smartphones sold in Minnesota come with a preinstalled kill switch or a free app which provides the same function.  A similar law in California takes effect on the same date, but requires all phones come with the app preinstalled.  Federal legislation has been proposed, but so ...

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6
APR
0

cybersecurity, Identity Theft, Security, smartphones

D-Link Wireless Routers Need Security Update

D-LinkAre you using a D-Link wireless router in your home or business, D-Link has released a firmware upgrade for several popular router models to fix a security vulnerability that would allow remote access and DNS spoofing.  By changing the DNS settings on a router, an attacker can forward your traffic to a proxy server where your communications could be monitored for useful content, as well as redirecting your to malware-laden ...

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3
APR
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Wi-Fi, wireless

Personal Information: What is the Worst to Lose?

anthem-250I was reading an article on Sophos about the Anthem Healthcare breach, and putting this information together with some other articles I have read recently, and this question came to mind: what personal information is the worst to lose?  In the Anthem breach, people lost information that included their “names, dates of birth, member ID/social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, ...

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27
MAR
0

cybersecurity, Identity Theft, passwords

1.2 Billion User Names and Passwords For Sale

Is it time to change your password?  Now that security researcher Alex Holden, of Hold Security in Milwaukee has uncovered a huge trove of stolen user credentials on the Dark Net, you might as well assume that yours are in this mammoth collection.

Alex Holden was born in the Ukraine, and his current surname is not the one he was given at birth.  But he discovered that Russian cyber-criminals had gathered 542 million email addresses and 1.2 billion unique email and ...

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23
MAR
0

cybersecurity, passwords, Spyware

Post-Snowden Paranoia Causes Changes in Communication

“Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they are not out to get you.”

Since Edward Snowden’s revelations about the domestic surveillance activities of the NSA and other US and foreign government agencies, it turns out that many people have changed their online and telephone communication behavior.  accord to a recent post on Sophos:

“Out of those surveyed who are at least somewhat aware of the NSA’s surveillance programs (30% of adults), 34% have taken at least one step to ...

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18
MAR
0

cybersecurity, News and politics, NSA, surveillance

What To Do If Your Identity Is Stolen

Identity theft is becoming commonplace, and many people are still confused about what to do when it happens to them.  Last year we had a couple of things happen that were concerning. The first instance was when we received a T-Mobile debit card that was ordered in a Safeway store in Silver Springs, Maryland, made out in my wife’s name, and mailed to our address in Bayport, MN.  We cancelled the card with T-Mobile off course and checked the three credit bureaus. ...

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10
MAR
0

cybersecurity, Identity Theft

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