Independent – Page 34 – Computer Security Articles

Apple is at war with device fingerprinting — the use of fragments of unique device-specific information to track users online. This fall, it will put in place yet another important limitation to prevent unauthorized use of this kind of tech.

Apple at WWDC 2023 announced a new initiative designed to make apps that do track users more obvious while giving users additional transparency into such use. Now it has told developers a little more about how this will work in practice.

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Independent Krebs

July 26, 2023 admin

Russia Sends Cybersecurity CEO to Jail for 14 Years

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2023 17:29:40 +0000

The Russian government today handed down a treason conviction and 14-year prison sentence on Iyla Sachkov, the former founder and CEO of one of Russia’s largest cybersecurity firms. Sachkov, 37, has been detained for nearly two years under charges that the Kremlin has kept classified and hidden from public view, and he joins a growing roster of former Russian cybercrime fighters who are now serving hard time for farcical treason convictions.

ComputerWorld Independent

July 26, 2023 admin

Was Steve Jobs right about this?

Perhaps Steve Jobs was right to limit the amount of time he let his children use iPhones and iPads — a tradition Apple maintains with its Screen Time tool, which lets parents set limits on device use. Now, an extensive UNESCO report suggests that letting kids spend too much time on these devices can be bad for them.

Baked in inequality and lack of social skills

That’s the headline claim, but there’s a lot more to the report in terms of exploring data privacy, misuse of tech, and failed digital transformation experiments.

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Independent Krebs

July 25, 2023 admin

Who and What is Behind the Malware Proxy Service SocksEscort?

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2023 21:20:55 +0000

Researchers this month uncovered a two-year-old Linux-based remote access trojan dubbed AVrecon that enslaves Internet routers into botnet that bilks online advertisers and performs password-spraying attacks. Now new findings reveal that AVrecon is the malware engine behind a 12-year-old service called SocksEscort, which rents hacked residential and small business devices to cybercriminals looking to hide their true location online.

Independent Krebs

July 21, 2023 admin

Few Fortune 100 Firms List Security Pros in Their Executive Ranks

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2023 19:11:16 +0000

Many things have changed since 2018, such as the names of the companies in the Fortune 100 list. But one aspect of that vaunted list that hasn’t shifted much since is that very few of these companies list any security professionals within their top executive ranks. The next time you receive a breach notification letter that invariably says a company you trusted places a top priority on customer security and privacy, consider this: Only four of the Fortune 100 companies currently list a security professional in the executive leadership pages of their websites. This is actually down from five of the Fortune 100 in 2018, the last time KrebsOnSecurity performed this analysis.

ComputerWorld Independent

July 21, 2023 admin

Apple: Proposed UK law is a ‘serious, direct threat’ to security, privacy

New UK government surveillance laws are so over-reaching that tech companies can’t possibly meet all of their requirements, according to Apple, which argues the measures will make the online world far less safe.

Apple, WhatsApp, Meta all threaten to quit UK messaging

The UK Home Office is pushing proposals to extend the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) with a range of proposals that effectively require messaging providers such as Apple, WhatsApp, or Meta to install backdoors into their services. All three services are now threatening to withdraw messaging apps from the UK market if the changes move forward.

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ComputerWorld Independent

July 20, 2023 admin

Medical data sharing: Are we there yet?

Fifteen years ago, if you entered an emergency room a thousand miles from home, the ER doctors would not have had access to potentially lifesaving information in your medical records, such as your allergies or a list of drugs you were taking. Only 10% of US hospitals had electronic health record (EHR) systems, and health record requests were typically sent in paper form by mail or fax machine. Then the federal government stepped in, providing billions of dollars in EHR incentives to help hospitals get online.

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ComputerWorld Independent

July 18, 2023 admin

This is why personal encryption is vital to the future of business

Data encryption is threatened by government forces who haven’t yet recognized that without personal security, you cannot have enterprise security. Because attackers will exploit any available weakness to undermine protection — and if your people or your customers aren’t secure, neither is your business.

Get with the data

Attackers will always go where the money is. They will spend lots of it to mount attacks. They will delve deeper, and if they’re spending money, they also have the necessary resources to investigate absolutely anyone they can identify as a potential target.

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