ComputerWorld – Page 176 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Matt Hamblen| Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2017 13:06:00 -0700

At this weekend’s Final Four college basketball tournament, sophisticated technology is in place to help public safety officials monitor crowds, vehicles, social networks and unauthorized drones from a command center at an undisclosed location in downtown Phoenix.

An array of thousands of cameras and other sensors are already in place across public venues and roadways in the Phoenix area. The games will take take place Saturday night and Monday night at the University of Phoenix Stadium in suburban Glendale, Ariz., nine miles from downtown.

In the stadium alone, more than 700 video cameras are likely to be used to monitor vendors and crowds. Thousands more video cameras and motions sensors are ready to watch vehicles on highways and crowds at 20 Final Four special events, at the four hotels where college teams are lodging and in parking areas.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 31, 2017 admin

Google's Android hacking contest fails to attract exploits

Credit to Author: Lucian Constantin| Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2017 11:32:00 -0700

Six months ago, Google offered to pay $200,000 to any researcher who could remotely hack into an Android device by knowing only the victim’s phone number and email address. No one stepped up to the challenge.

While that might sound like good news and a testament to the mobile operating system’s strong security, that’s likely not the reason why the company’s Project Zero Prize contest attracted so little interest. From the start, people pointed out that $200,000 was too low a prize for a remote exploit chain that wouldn’t rely on user interaction.

“If one could do this, the exploit could be sold to other companies or entities for a much higher price,” one user responded to the original contest announcement in September.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 31, 2017 admin

Top 5 VPN services for personal privacy and security

Credit to Author: Paul Mah| Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2017 09:28:00 -0700

Virtual private networks (VPNs) encrypt internet connections between two points, to secure them from casual snoopers and hackers. These VPN services are particularly useful when accessing the internet from an untrusted location, such as a hotel, café or coworking space.

A plethora of modern VPN services, with dedicated connectivity apps, have put an end to the maddening manual configuration VPNs once required. No two VPN offerings are alike, however, and it can be a challenge to find the right VPN. Here’s a look at some of the top VPNs for privacy and security.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 31, 2017 admin

What to look for in a VPN to protect your privacy

Credit to Author: Darlene Storm| Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2017 07:09:00 -0700

If you haven’t already, then it is time to embrace a virtual private network.

Our lawmakers recently voted to remove regulations which would stop ISPs from selling your online life, manipulating your search results and controlling what you see online. Even if you don’t care about highly targeted advertising being thrown your way, it’s the principle of the profiling. You wouldn’t run a computer without some type of protection such as anti-malware and a firewall; sadly, the day has come when you shouldn’t connect online without using a VPN.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 31, 2017 admin

IDG Contributor Network: Insiders — the invisible threat lurking in your office

Credit to Author: Robert C. Covington| Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2017 06:23:00 -0700

With all of the focus in the business world recently related to hackers, we have tended to overlook a group of potential bad actors who have already penetrated our perimeter security, and have access to our facilities — our employees and contractors. While our security teams usually monitor firewall and intrusion prevention logs, the threat from insiders is, in many cases, completely ignored.

While some insiders are intent on stealing data or damaging systems for profit or some other motive, many more expose their employers to harm just by making mistakes. Whether intent exists or not, the damage is just as bad.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 30, 2017 admin

Review: Consider VPN services for hotspot protection

Credit to Author: Eric Geier| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 13:41:00 -0700

Virtual private networks have many uses. Typically, businesses deploy VPNs so employees can securely access the corporate network from outside the office. However, we’ve seen a rise in third-party VPN services that use the same underlying technology, the encrypted tunnel, to simply provide a secure Internet connection.

Why would you ever need to do this?

When connected to a VPN service, the websites you access think you’re at the location where the VPN server is located. This can help anonymize your Internet traffic so it’s much harder for websites to track your personal browsing history.

This also allows you to access websites, services, and content that’s restricted where you are currently located, such as Netflix or Hulu when traveling overseas.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 30, 2017 admin

Senator: Russia used 'thousands' of internet trolls during U.S. election

Credit to Author: Grant Gross| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 13:13:00 -0700

The Russian government used “thousands” of internet trolls and bots to spread fake news, in addition to hacking into political campaigns leading up to the 2016 U.S. election, according to one lawmaker.

Disinformation spread on social media was designed to raise doubts about the U.S. election and the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat.

“This Russian propaganda on steroids was designed to poison the national conversation in America,” Warner said Thursday during a Senate hearing on Russian election hacking. The Russian government used “thousands of paid internet trolls” and bots to spread disinformation on social media.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 30, 2017 admin

Google patches Chrome bug from fizzled Pwn2Own hack

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2017 12:03:00 -0700

Google yesterday updated Chrome to patch several vulnerabilities, including a bug in the browser’s JavaScript engine that a Chinese team tried to exploit at a recent hacking contest.

The update to version 57.0.2987.133 contained fixes for five vulnerabilities, one marked “Critical” — the most serious rating in Google’s system — and the others tagged “High.”

Of the four vulnerabilities ranked High, one was attributed to “Team Sniper,” one of five groups from Chinese company Tencent Security that participated in this year’s edition of Pwn2Own, one of the world’s best-known hacking contests. Pwn2Own ran March 15-17 alongside the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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