When repairing things you own may make you an outlaw

When repairing things you own may make you an outlaw

How do you balance the right to repair with the requirement to remain secure? Images of jackbooted, militarized cops descending into dimly-lit basements where appliance techs slap grimy, roughshod parts of doubtful lineage together come to mind in the still-simmering fight – yes, it’s a fight – to allow people to work on the tech…
Almost  billion lost to BEC scams in 2020

Almost $2 billion lost to BEC scams in 2020

Nearly half of reported cybercrime losses in 2020 were the result of BEC fraud, according to an FBI report Losses emanating from Business Email Compromise (BEC) and Email Account Compromise (EAC) scams surpassed US$1.86 billion last year, which is more than the combined losses stemming from the next six costliest types of cybercrime in the 2020…
PayPal fraud: What merchants should know

PayPal fraud: What merchants should know

From overpayment to shipping scams, what are some of the most common threats that merchants using PayPal should watch out for? With a total payment volume of US$247 billion, PayPal remains one of the more popular online payment providers among major brands and a variety of smaller businesses and vendors. Indeed, the payment giant boasts…
Google fixes Chrome zero‑day bug exploited in the wild

Google fixes Chrome zero‑day bug exploited in the wild

The latest update patches a total of five vulnerabilities affecting the browser’s desktop versions Google has rolled out an update for its Chrome web browser that fixes five security flaws, including a zero-day vulnerability that is known to be actively exploited by malicious actors. The bugs affect the Windows, macOS, and Linux versions of the…
Women in cybersecurity: Gender gap narrows but not enough

Women in cybersecurity: Gender gap narrows but not enough

The number of women joining the ranks of cybersecurity practitioners is steadily increasing, but a lot still needs to be done to close the gap The race to even-up the gender disparity in many industries is steadily gathering steam – and for all the right reasons. A diverse workforce offers a more level playing field…
WhatsApp may soon roll out encrypted chat backups

WhatsApp may soon roll out encrypted chat backups

While chats are end-to-end encrypted, their backups are not – this may change soon WhatsApp is said to be working to add encryption for chat backups that will allow users to easily secure their conversations when storing them in the cloud. While the company does currently offer end-to-end encryption for messages, calls and other forms…
Online health security – when ‘opt out’ isn’t an option

Online health security – when ‘opt out’ isn’t an option

What happens when you try to opt out of e-health to avoid issues in the event of a breach? Healthcare hacks are particularly insidious. When hackers get the data, they hack you – or at least the closest facsimile there is of you. And unless you lie on your health records (and even then, there…
Exchange servers under siege from at least 10 APT groups

Exchange servers under siege from at least 10 APT groups

ESET Research has found LuckyMouse, Tick, Winnti Group, and Calypso, among others, are likely using the recent Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities to compromise email servers all around the world On 2021-03-02, Microsoft released out-of-band patches for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, 2016 and 2019. These security updates fixed a pre-authentication remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability chain (CVE-2021-26855,…
Sex in the digital era: How secure are smart sex toys?

Sex in the digital era: How secure are smart sex toys?

ESET researchers investigate what could possibly go wrong when you connect your bedroom to the internet of things As internet of things (IoT) devices continue to seep into our homes and offer an increasingly wide range of features, new concerns are beginning to arise about the security of the data processed by these devices. Although…
Facebook ramps up fight against child abuse content

Facebook ramps up fight against child abuse content

Two new tools will warn users about the risks of searching for and sharing content that exploits children, including the potential legal consequences of doing so Facebook has announced a pair of new tools to help combat child abuse and exploitation content on its platform and apps. While one tool aims to curb the potentially malicious…