Independent – Page 62 – Computer Security Articles

US legislators continue to press for the creation of a digital dollar, raising questions about whether the move could make it easy for the federal government to track business and consumer transactions.

Putting all the digital dollars on one electronic ledger operated by the Federal Reserve would also be a tempting target for cyber criminals.

In March, lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow the US Treasury to create a digital dollar and pilot it to determine its viability. That same month, President Joe Biden called for more research on developing a national digital currency through the nation’s central bank. The order highlighted the need for more regulatory oversight of cryptocurrencies, which have been used for nefarious purposes such as money laundering and other criminal activities.

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ComputerWorld Independent

October 12, 2022 admin

EU-US data sharing agreement: Is it a done deal?

The thousands of companies waiting for a new US-EU data-transfer agreement to go into effect soon and ease the burdensome legal work necessary for cross-border data transfer shouldn’t get their hopes up. US President Joe Biden’s executive order to implement rules for the Trans-Atlantic Data Policy Framework agreed on earlier this year is a move in the right direction, but the new pact won’t go into effect until next spring at the earliest, and even then it is bound to face legal challenges, say public policy and legal experts.

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Independent Krebs

October 11, 2022 admin

Microsoft Patch Tuesday, October 2022 Edition

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2022 21:06:23 +0000

Microsoft today released updates to fix at least 85 security holes in its Windows operating systems and related software, including a new zero-day vulnerability in all supported versions of Windows that is being actively exploited. However, noticeably absent from this month’s Patch Tuesday are any updates to address a pair of zero-day flaws being exploited this past month in Microsoft Exchange Server.

Independent Krebs

October 7, 2022 admin

Report: Big U.S. Banks Are Stiffing Account Takeover Victims

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2022 18:46:12 +0000

When U.S. consumers have their online bank accounts hijacked and plundered by hackers, U.S. financial institutions are legally obligated to reverse any unauthorized transactions as long as the victim reports the fraud in a timely manner. But new data released this week suggests that for some of the nation’s largest banks, reimbursing account takeover victims has become more the exception than the rule.

ComputerWorld Independent

October 6, 2022 admin

Online privacy: Best browsers, settings, and tips

“You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it,” Scott McNealy said of online privacy back in 1999, a view the former CEO of the now-defunct Sun Microsystems reiterated in 2015. Despite the hue and cry his initial remarks caused, he’s been proven largely correct.

Cookies, beacons, digital signatures, trackers, and other technologies on websites and in apps let advertisers, businesses, governments, and even criminals build a profile about what you do, who you know, and who you are at very intimate levels of detail. Remember that 2012 story about how Target could tell a teenager was pregnant before her parents knew, based on her online activities? That is the norm today. Google and Facebook are the most notorious commercial internet spies, and among the most pervasive, but they are hardly alone.

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Independent Krebs

October 5, 2022 admin

Glut of Fake LinkedIn Profiles Pits HR Against the Bots

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2022 21:20:53 +0000

A recent proliferation of phony executive profiles on LinkedIn is creating something of an identity crisis for the business networking site, and for companies that rely on it to hire and screen prospective employees. The fabricated LinkedIn identities — which pair AI-generated profile photos with text lifted from legitimate accounts — are creating major headaches for corporate HR departments and for those managing invite-only LinkedIn groups.

ComputerWorld Independent

October 5, 2022 admin

Coming soon — a resume-validating blockchain network for job seekers

An online resume-validating network has garnered support from than a dozen board members from companies whose ranks include Aon, Oracle, SAP, UKG and ZipRecruiter with the aim of reducing the time and cost of vetting job candidates.

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Independent Krebs

September 30, 2022 admin

Microsoft: Two New 0-Day Flaws in Exchange Server

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2022 16:51:57 +0000

Microsoft Corp. is investigating reports that attackers are exploiting two previously unknown vulnerabilities in Exchange Server, a technology many organizations rely on to send and receive email. Microsoft says it is expediting work on software patches to plug the security holes. In the meantime, it is urging a subset of Exchange customers to enable a setting that could help mitigate ongoing attacks.