Archives: April 2016
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Popular collaboration and communication firm Slack rushed to plugged a security hole in its platform Thursday that was leaking some of its users’ private chats and files for anyone to access. Slack, a leading tool used by companies to communicate internally, was alerted by security firm Detectify Labs who discovered Slack users were unwittingly sharing sensitive company...
Google updated its browser Thursday patching nine security bugs, labeling four as “high” and two as a “medium” risk to computer users. The update was tied to a new Chrome browser build (50.0.2661.94) that fixes the flaws. Google also shelled out $14,000 tied to bug bounty payouts addressed in this security updates, according to a Google Chrome...
Android users are being warned of a phony Google update that is pushing malware onto devices. The attackers behind this scheme are domain squatting URLs that are similar to ones used by Google for legitimate updates, hoping to snare less-than-vigilant users. Researchers at Zscaler said yesterday in a report that the attackers invested heavily in...
In the ransomware world, it doesn’t take long for today’s darling to become yesterday’s news. Case in point: Locky. Not long ago, Locky was at the core of debilitating infections at major hospitals in California and the Washington, D.C., area, affecting not only access to patient data but also patient care. That was in mid-February...
In a vote of 419-0 on Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Email Privacy Act that would require the government to obtain a warrant in order to access digital communications stored in the cloud. Privacy advocates cheered the victory and said it was a win for U.S. citizens and companies. The Email Privacy Act (H.R....
Hackers sympathetic to ISIS may lack the funding and talent of government-sponsored hackers, but they merit attention because of their promotion of physical violence and ability to incite others via social media to target individuals or groups. A report today by security company Flashpoint points out that while these groups are not official members of...
The black market for malicious Android software is heating up thanks to a rise in popularity of overlay malware, which can siphon credentials off Android devices and give crooks a tool to defeat two-factor identification schemes, according to security researchers at IBM’s X-Force. Overlay malware allows attackers to create an overlay to be displayed on top...
A severe vulnerability in the way Microsoft Office 365 handles federated identities via SAML put an attacker in position to have access to any account and data, including email messages and files stored in the cloud-based service. Microsoft pushed through a mitigation to the service on Jan. 5, seven hours after being notified by researchers...
Security experts are warning PC users of scareware computer utilities published by the French firm Tuto4PC that secretly bundle adware and spyware. Cisco’s Talos security research team said several of the company’s utilities, including OneSoftPerDay and System Healer, contain Trojans that exhibit “malicious intent and behavior.” Talos estimates 12 million users have been enticed to download one of...
Mozilla yesterday updated Firefox and patched 10 vulnerabilities, one which was rated critical. Firefox 46 also included patches for four vulnerabilities that Mozilla rated as high severity. Critical bugs enabled remote code execution without user interaction, while bugs rated high can be exploited to steal browser data or inject code into websites via the browser....