Independent – Page 205 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2018 05:05:00 -0700

The world of grey IT means both enterprise and consumer users frequently use popular social networking service Facebook on their devices. It makes sense, then, to stay safe while using it.

Manage Facebook Security settings

First things first: Always use a complex passcode with your account and do make sure to set up two-factor authentication.

Now that you’ve done that, you’ll find Facebook’s own privacy settings live inside Privacy Shortcuts in the iOS app. Get to these by tapping the three-line icon at bottom right of the Facebook app and scrolling down to Privacy Shortcuts. The first thing you should do is run Privacy check-up (at the top of the page). Facebook will guide you through your existing settings, change them for maximum privacy, and delete any Facebook apps you’ve forgotten about or no longer use.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 13, 2018 admin

Just one, um, great idea after another

Credit to Author: Sharky| Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2018 03:00:00 -0700

Sysadmin pilot fish is approached by the IT director, who tells fish to create an account for the director that has the same capabilities as the lead programmer’s account.

“Seems he had some kind of beef with the lead programmer,” sighs fish. “But I created the account, set the privileges and gave him the user name and password.

“Three months later, he came into my office accusing me of not complying with his directive.

“I told him that I had indeed complied with his instructions, including showing him that the login capability worked as advertised.

“He told me he couldn’t perform a certain operation when he logged in. I explained that neither could the lead programmer. Only system administrators could.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 13, 2018 admin

Turn Automatic Update off, temporarily, in anticipation of another round of pernicious patches

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2018 15:14:00 -0700

Microsoft has given us two messed-up patching months back to back, with January leaving blue screens and pandemonium in its wake, and February hitting the latest version of Windows 10 particularly hard. For those of you with some experience in the patching game, it’s more of the same-old same-old.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 12, 2018 admin

IT beware: University finds new 4G security holes

Credit to Author: Evan Schuman| Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2018 10:25:00 -0700

IT has enough to worry about with traditional data breach issues, but now researchers from Purdue University and the University of Iowa have found quite a few new security holes in the popular 4G mobile networks.

The potentially worst hole detailed in the study is an authentication synchronization failure attack. The danger? It allows bad guys to read incoming and outgoing messages from an employee, permits “stealthy denial” of selected services and “location of history poisoning,” which simply means it can manipulate location ready to give false information to systems using location for identity authentication.

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ComputerWorld Independent

March 12, 2018 admin

Warning as Mac malware exploits climb 270%

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2018 05:56:00 -0700

Reputable anti-malware security vendor, Malwarebytes, is warning Mac users that malware attacks against the platform climbed 270 percent last year.

Be careful out there

The security experts also warn that four new malware exploits targeting Macs have been identified in the first two months of 2018, noting that many of these exploits were identified by users, rather than security firms.

In one instance, a Mac user discovered that their DNS settings had been changed and found themselves unable to change them back.

This particular item of malware (OSX.MaMi) also installed a trusted root certificate on their Mac. The threat left the user vulnerable to fraudulent phishing websites posing as the real deal and man-in-the-middle attacks.

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Independent Securiteam

March 11, 2018 admin

VK Messenger (VKontakte) vk:// URI Handler Commands Execution

Credit to Author: SSD / Noam Rathaus| Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2018 10:51:34 +0000

Vulnerability Summary The following describes a vulnerability in VK Messenger that is triggered via the exploitation of improperly handled URI. VK (VKontakte; [..], meaning InContact) is “an online social media and social networking service. It is available in several languages. VK allows users to message each other publicly or privately, to create groups, public pages … Continue reading VK Messenger (VKontakte) vk:// URI Handler Commands Execution

Independent Krebs

March 11, 2018 admin

Checked Your Credit Since the Equifax Hack?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2018 18:51:08 +0000

A recent consumer survey suggests that half of all Americans still haven’t checked their credit report since the Equifax breach last year exposed the Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and other personal information on nearly 150 million people. If you’re in that fifty percent, please make an effort to remedy that soon. Credit reports from the three major bureaus — Equifax, Experian and Trans Union — can be obtained online for free at annualcreditreport.com — the only Web site mandated by Congress to serve each American a free credit report every year.

ComputerWorld Independent

March 8, 2018 admin

Android P in depth: An up-close look at what's new with security

Credit to Author: JR Raphael| Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2018 08:58:00 -0800

Google is slowly pulling back the curtains on its next-gen Android P release. Yesterday, we got our first glimpse at a work-in-progress, developer-focused preview of the software — and today, we’re getting a closer look at what exactly is new when it comes to Android P and the ever-evolving subject of Android security.

I had the chance to chat with Xiaowen Xin, Google’s Android platform security product manager, about some of the significant changes on the way with Android P. Here’s the inside scoop on what you can expect:

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