Independent – Page 173 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2018 10:13:00 -0700

Mozilla this week said that its Firefox browser will soon start to automatically block some ad tracking technologies that the company claimed impact page load performance and shadow users wherever they go.

“In the near future, Firefox will — by default — protect users by blocking tracking,” wrote Nick Nguyen, Mozilla’s top Firefox executive, in an August 30 post to a company blog.

Mozilla added what it dubbed “Tracking Protection” to Firefox 57, a.k.a. “Quantum,” last fall. Since then, the feature has remained opt-in, meaning people must manually enable it from the browser’s Preferences display if they want to use it. When switched on, Tracking Protection blocks a wide range of content, not just advertisements but also in-page trackers that sites or ad networks implant to follow users from one website to another. Such trackers are the reason why an ad for underwear from a specific vendor seemingly pops up wherever one goes after one has browsed the underwear selection at the seller’s website.

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ComputerWorld Independent

August 31, 2018 admin

Apple insists developers ramp up their privacy commitments

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2018 06:45:00 -0700

Apple recently told the U.S. Congress that is sees customer privacy as a “human right”, though the explanation didn’t at that time extend to how third-party developers treat data they get from iOS apps. Now it does.

Privacy for the rest of us

Starting October 3, Apple will insist that all third-party apps (including new apps and app updates) submitted to the App Store include a link to the app developer’s own privacy policy.

This is a big change as until now only subscription-based apps needed to supply this information – and it also extends to the privacy policy itself, which Apple insists must be clear and explicitly in explaining:

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ComputerWorld Independent

August 31, 2018 admin

Windows and .Net finally get their 'D Week' patches, as Intel microcode fixes go wacko

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2018 05:02:00 -0700

Time for the final August patching shoe to drop.

Late last night Microsoft released a flurry of patches, posting them on the Microsoft Update Catalog. Some are available through Windows Update, some aren’t.

As of early Friday morning, the Win10 patches are not available through WSUS, the update server service. It’s not clear if that’s a mistake, a hesitation — or if somebody just went home last night and forgot.

Let’s hear it for patching predictability. And transparency.

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ComputerWorld Independent

August 31, 2018 admin

You've got malware!

Credit to Author: Sharky| Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2018 03:00:00 -0700

Flashback to the early 2000s, when this non-IT pilot fish works in a building where the level of computer literacy is hovering near absolute zero.

“I was the only person in my department who had any computer skills at all,” fish grumbles.

“One day we all got an email notice from management about a virus that was going around, spread by email. We were warned about clicking links and opening pages and all the other standard warnings.”

Fish suspects that most people in the department will just delete the warning, since they don’t use their computers for anything but the bare minimum required by company business — and they barely understand even that.

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Independent Krebs

August 29, 2018 admin

Instagram’s New Security Tools are a Welcome Step, But Not Enough

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2018 22:59:39 +0000

Instagram users should soon have more secure options for protecting their accounts against Internet bad guys. On Tuesday, the Facebook-owned social network said it is in the process of rolling out support for third-party authentication apps. Unfortunately, this welcome new security offering does nothing to block Instagram account takeovers when thieves manage to hijack a target’s mobile phone number — an increasingly common crime.

ComputerWorld Independent

August 28, 2018 admin

University-customized Alexa devices will answer students’ questions

Credit to Author: Matthew Finnegan| Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2018 08:17:00 -0700

Saint Louis University (SLU) has rolled out 2,300 Alexa-powered Echo Dot virtual assistants to all of its student living spaces to provide answers to university-related queries about events, speakers on campus and more.

The university also plans to extend use of the artificial intelligence assistant into classrooms and meeting rooms in future and aims to use the technology to support workplace productivity for its faculty staff, according to CIO, David Hakanson.

Students arriving at SLU this month can access a custom skill that answers questions relating to university services, such as “When does the library open?” or “Where is the registrar’s office?”

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Independent Krebs

August 28, 2018 admin

Fiserv Flaw Exposed Customer Data at Hundreds of Banks

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:27:55 +0000

Fiserv, Inc., a major provider of technology services to financial institutions, just fixed a glaring weakness in its Web platform that exposed personal and financial details of countless customers across hundreds of bank Web sites, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

Independent Krebs

August 25, 2018 admin

Who’s Behind the Screencam Extortion Scam?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2018 23:35:40 +0000

The sextortion email scam last month that invoked a real password used by each recipient and threatened to release embarrassing Webcam videos almost certainly was not the work of one criminal or even one group of criminals. Rather, it’s likely that additional spammers and scammers piled on with their own versions of the phishing email after noticing that some recipients were actually paying up. The truth is we may never find out who’s responsible, but it’s still fun to follow some promising early leads and see where they take us.