Typosquatting – When Domain Name Typing Errors Produce Unfortunate Results

Registering common misspellings of popular website domain names is a big business.  A recent study found that 80% of all possible one-character typographical variants of Facebook, Google, and Apple are registered.  Registering close misspellings of domain names is know as “typosquatting.”

Security company Sophos recently analysed all the possible one-letter variations of six popular websites, a whopping 2249 unique site names.  Of the 2249 possibilities, 67% or 1502 domain names were actually registered.  Many ...

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Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, social engineering

Sunday Funnies – Artificial Intelligence

Since we take an interested in AI and robotics in this blog, the following church sign seemed a good candidate for Sunday Funnies.  The most recent articles on the subjects of AI and “machine learning” seem to be saying the threat of AI is overblown, and is no match for the abstract reasoning prowess of human intelligence.  This sign brings us a sobering wake up call.

From Pinterest

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artificial intellegence, robotics, Sunday Funnies

Weekend Update

A quick Saturday digest of cybersecurity news articles from other sources.

Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week

File early or an impostor may get your refund.  Especially now that the Equifax credit trove is in the wild.

01/29/2018 08:27 AM EST  Original release date: January 29, 2018

Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week is January ...

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Android, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Internet of Things, News and politics, Security, smartphones, Software vulnerability, Weekend Update

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Do You Accept Credit Cards? How Credit Card Breaches Happen

If your business accepts credit cards for payment, then your a subject to the regulations of the Payment Card Industry.  This is known as PCI-DSS Compliance.  PCI compliance company Security Metrics recently released an infographic that shows the main compliance failures that lead to credit card breaches in 2017.  Here are some of the startling take-aways:

  • Businesses that took credit ...
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compliance, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Identity Theft, law and policy, Security, Software vulnerability

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Phishing Sites Using HTTPS Too

When you see the secure HTTPS protocol at the beginning of a web address, or see the green “secure site” padlock symbol, does this mean that the site is safe?  Unfortunately, the answer is NO.  There is some confusion among computer users about what HTTPS really means.  This confusion is being exploited by cyber-criminals running phishing exploits.

HTTPS or secure hypertext ...

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Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Phishing, Security, Web Design, WordPress

Super Blue Blood Moon

The rare Tuesday post to advise about an impending event.  Tomorrow there is a triple lunar event.  A blue moon, which is when the moon appears twice in the same calendar month, a super moon, which is when the moon is closest in its rather wobbly orbit around the earth, and a blood moon, which is a lunar eclipse event when the moon passes through earth’s shadow, and the color ...

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Entertainment

How Email Accounts Are Hijacked

The most devastating exploit that can happen to you is to have your email account hijacked.  We have spilled a lot of pixels on this subject (see below).  The reason we find this so dangerous is that it is that this is the attack most likely to happen to you.

Google recently released a study that analyzed how Gmail accounts are hijacked.  If you have an Android smartphone, you have a ...

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Android, authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, passwords, Phishing, Security

Weekend Update

A quick Saturday digest of cybersecurity news articles from other sources.

 Famous cryptographer’s tombstone cryptogram decrypted

A paper at Schmoocon DC over the weekend revealed a delightful cryptogram on William and Elizebeth Friedmans’ tombstone.  This is a fun story and will introduce you to the Bacon cypher.

Cryptocurrency as the lure, an ISO as the attachment – why not open it?

Phishers are using the hot ...

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malware, Phishing, ransomware, social engineering, Weekend Update

The End of Passwords?

Every year some pundit declares that the password will soon be dead.  I have been proclaiming for several years now that the password, by itself, is no longer a suitably strong form of security, and have been a champion for two-factor authentication.

Microsoft has recently stated that their Windows Hello facial recognition system is a suitable replacement for passwords.  Windows Hello ...

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authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Identity Theft, passwords, Security, Windows 10

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