The Human Factor

employee_trainingOn Monday we discussed the effect that living in a code yellow world has on creating security fatigue.  Peter Herzog, in his blog Dark Matters expanded on this theme recently, giving examples of how teaching your employees how to stay secure in an insecure world may be counter-intuitive to the way we usually accomplish this.

Here are his recommendations:

  • Teach your employees to say “I don’t want ...
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25
NOV
0

cybersecurity, training

Extended Vigilance and Security Fatigue

It seems like we are being barraged with a never ending string of news stories about cybersecurity events, breaches, and lapses.  Often these stories will provide helpful tips or advise us how to avoid or recover from these security incidents.  This author, in our own humble way, is contributing to the constant ringing alarms about cybersecurity.  Maybe it is getting to be too ...

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23
NOV
0

cybersecurity

Facebook Hardens Authentication

facebookFacebook recently announced an improvement to it’s logon system.  Login security seems to be taking a position from and center lately.  Wednesday we wrote about Yahoo’s new authentication system, and today we will move on to Facebook’s Login Approvals.

Previously, Facebook users were able to get Login Notifications. When you entered your user name (usually your email address) and password from a new location, browser, or device, Facebook Notifications would send users ...

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20
NOV
0

authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Facebook

New Yahoo Email Needs No Password

YahooYahoo is introducing some enhancements to its email service, including actively replacing the traditional password with something more secure that a password alone, and easier than two factor authentication a la Google Authenticator.  The new Yahoo feature is called Yahoo Account Key and use a push notification to an email customer’s cell phone or smart watch to verify a user’s identity.

This feature ...

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18
NOV
0

General

Anonymous Declares War on ISIS

anonymous-isis-550Can we stop calling this terrorism, and call it what it is – warfare!

The day after ISIS claimed responsibility for the acts of war carried out in Paris by trained members of the ISIS military, members of the hacker collective Anonymous declared war on ISIS.

“On Friday 13 November our country France was attacked in Paris for two hours, by multiple ...

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17
NOV
0

hacktivism, News and politics

Google Apps Features Single Sign-On

google-logoIf you are having trouble managing “all those passwords” for your online resources, one solution would be to use a password manager like LastPass or Dashlane.  Google has come up with a single sign-on (SSO) product that not only will log you into all your Google apps (Gmail, Voice, Blogger, YouTube, Apps, Drive, Analytics, AdWords, etc) but  also integrates access into 17 ...

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16
NOV
0

authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, passwords

Sunday Funnies: Smart Toaster Disrupts Internet of Things Keynote

burned-toastI’ve been warning about the dangers of self-aware machines for some time.

Here is a story about how a toaster disrupted a keynote address by ARM CEO Simon Segars at the annual ARM TechCon Conference.  It seems that the toaster was toasting a bagel which got stuck, and started burning.  The smoke caused the fire alarms to go of in the ...

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15
NOV
0

artificial intellegence, Computers and Internet, Sunday Funnies

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Comcast Subscribers: Change Your Password

comcastAccording to a post on Sophos, Comcast has reset the passwords on 200,000 customers after a security researcher discovered an advertisement on the Dark Web offering to sell 500,000 Comcast passwords in pain text for $1000 in BitCoin.  Investigation by Comcast found that “only” 200,000 of there accounts were active and proactively reset the passwords on all the affected accounts. ...

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13
NOV
0

authentication, cybersecurity, Dark Web, Identity Theft, passwords, Security

Buy Your Password From 11-Year Old Girl?

Would you buy your password from an 11-year old girl?  I would, and maybe you should, too.  Mira Modi, an 11-year old New Yorker, has very very cool service called Diceware.  Using a technique developed by Arnold Reinhold, Mira uses dice to come up with a unique 6 word passphrase, which she will send to you in the US Mail.  Her fee is two bucks.

Understanding that passwords are cracked by cyber-criminals one of two ways, either ...

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13
NOV
0

authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, passwords, Security

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