The #UmbrellaMovement, #OccupyHK movement, and others fighting for democracy in Hong Kong have encountered a new threat: Remote Access Trojans (RATs). Many of the websites owned by these organizations have been infected with malware, thus slowing down their fight for revolution. Who could have done this and why? It doesn’t take a detective to list the Chinese government as the primary subject. For more details and insight on this story, click here.
Why Protecting Business Information is an Entry Level to Executive Effort
No business in this day and age can survive without an online element. Protection from trojans, malware, and hackers is imperative whether you’re in charge of payroll at a multi-level corporation or just a small business owner updating the Facebook page for your café. It is important that all workers take steps to ensure the cyber-safety of their place of work.
In large companies, obviously the brunt of the responsibility is on the IT security team but they can’t defend against everything alone. Management needs to discern what information they need and what information is the highest risk to the company if it’s tampered with or stolen in order to properly review and safeguard it. They also need to decide where to put restrictions on certain access for different levels and departments.
On the other end, employees need to adhere to the guidelines set for them regarding business confidential information. They also need to govern themselves and not share passwords with other coworkers or allow their subordinates access to confidential information. With everyone working together, it beefs up security for the entire company at all levels.
For more detailed information and insight, click here.
Another Reason to Hate YouTube Ads
Trend Micro researchers have been following a “malvertising†trend that has been affecting more than 113,000 U.S. internet users each month. The criminal’s main target? YouTube visitors.
The criminals have been successful in their latest campaign by making their ads appear on the more popular YouTube videos. They get away with this not by directly leading to the malicious sites, but passing it through two advertising sites to keep a lower profile and not get fully discovered. In other words, the criminals bought traffic from legitimate ad providers.
Fortunately, if you keep Internet Explorer updated there should be a patch installed to block them and Google is aware and will likely put a stop to it. For more information, click here.
Hackers Already Got Your Credit Card, Don’t Let Them Get Your Medical Records
Over the past year, many retailers have suffered from hackers obtaining the credit card information of several customers. In fact, the hackers have done so well that the black market on credit care info has become inflated. Miscreants are paying LESS MONEY to other miscreants for credit card information than ever before.
So where do they go next? Probably your doctor’s office. Medical information is some of the most private material a person can have (which also includes your address, birthdate, social security number, etc.) and most hospitals still use machines and software that are several generations old. That older software cannot protect itself from modern day hacker techniques.
So what’s the solution? While HIPAA regulations and other organizations are doing what they can, their security is still at risk. Write to your congressmen, contact local hospitals to see what you can organize, find out where to donate funding for newer computers and securer software. Read more about this issue and other solutions here.
The British Are Trying to Make Google Forget Them
Over 18,000 British citizens have approached Google with a single request: “Forget about me.â€
Ever since a European court on May 29th ruled that internet-savvy citizens had the “right to be forgotten†in certain circumstances, many throughout England, Germany, and even France have issued takedown requests and have links to outdated or “irrelevant†information removed from Google. As of this writing, Google has only been able to remove nearly half of those who submitted a takedown request with more coming in daily.
The real question is what other websites will be effected in Europe now that Google, one of the biggest ever, has to comply to this ruling. Learn more details about this and how this law could change the future of web browsing here.