Ransomware economy grows 2500 percent since 2016
We all know that ransomware is a big problem, but a new report from cyber security company Carbon Black reveals that it's increasingly big business too.
According to the report, there are currently more than 6,300 dark web marketplaces selling ransomware, with over 45,000 product listings.
The future of tape storage
The story of tape goes back to the very first computers, the original mainframes from the 50s and 60s. These early computers made use of magnetic tape drives with a capacity of 1-2 MB and transferred data at less than 10 KB per second. Current LTO tape drives can store up to 6 TB (that’s approximately 1,500 movies or 1,200,000 songs) at speeds of 300 MB per second.
Amid a flurry of new trends, technologies and buzzwords in the storage industry, this article revisits tape and its current role. What is tape and how does it work? Where does it fit in to today’s digital universe? And most importantly, what is the magic formula that continues to put this storage medium at the forefront when it comes to preserving the largest volumes of the world’s most important data?
The 10 phishing subject lines you're most likely to click
Phishing is still a key tool for cyber criminals as they seek to insert malware onto machines and to get hold of personal details.
Although most people are aware of the threat there are still some subject lines that are much more likely to deliver results for the phishermen than others, according to security awareness training specialist KnowBe4, which has released its Top 10 Global Phishing Email Subject Lines report for the third quarter of 2017.
Endpoint data is increasingly critical for organizations
In a world where more systems are in the cloud or virtual environments, you’d expect the importance of endpoint data to decline, but a survey conducted at this year’s VMworld US suggests this is not the case.
The survey by data security and recovery company Code42 reveals that 42 percent of organizations are storing between 50 and 100 percent of their data on endpoints. In the higher education sector it's noticeably higher, with 81 percent storing half or more of their data on endpoints.
AOMEI PE Builder Free 2.0 released, now supports Windows XP through to Windows 10
Three years ago, AOMEI unveiled the first version of PE Builder. We were thrilled, because it provided a simple -- yet flexible -- way of creating the Windows equivalent of a "live" Linux CD, whereby you can run a graphically friendly operating system direct from CD/DVD or USB flash drive.
After a few updates, the software appeared to have died -- with only support for Windows 7 and 8. Imagine our delight, then, when we were informed that AOMEI PE Builder 2.0 had been released.
73 percent of CFOs trust the cloud for financial data
Chief finance officers are becoming more confident about the use of the cloud to store their company's data according to a new survey.
The study from cloud performance management company Adaptive Insights finds that just three years ago only 33 percent of CFOs trusted the cloud for their financial data, but today 73 percent do so.
Twitter introduces Happening Now to keep you up to date with sport and more
Twitter may have a bookmarking system in the works, but there are new features that are already rolling out to users. The latest addition is called Happening Now which will be used to highlight tweets about a particular topic.
It's a feature that's not a million miles removed from the existing Moments feature, but Twitter seems to think it's what people want. To start with, Happening Now is rolling out to Android and iOS users in the US and it will highlight sports. Over time, however, it will expand to other parts of the world and cover different events as well.
Twitter not only changes its mind about 'inflammatory' ad, it's going to change its policies too
Twitter was accused of censorship after banning an "inflammatory" ad campaign by Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn. But just one day after implementing the ban, the company has backed down, saying the video -- which sees Blackburn talking about fighting to stop "the sale of baby body parts" -- can be promoted on Twitter.
Despite maintaining its belief that the video contains inflammatory language, Twitter now says that it is permissible within the context of the ad. Furthermore, the company says that it will "refine" its policies around the issue.
Telemetry: OxygenOS secretly collects user data, sending OnePlus a wealth of information
OxygenOS, the customized version of Android used by OnePlus on its smartphones, has been found to be collecting data about users -- and it's not anonymized. Telemetry is something that has been associated with Windows 10, but now the Chinese smartphone manufacturer has its fans concerned.
That a phone collects certain information about usage is not particularly unusual -- it helps to identify problems and speed up software development. But a security researcher's discovery that his OnePlus 2 was sending highly detailed information back to OnePlus without consent has set privacy alarm bells ringing (the issue also affects more recent OnePlus handsets). OnePlus might prefer that you spend your time thinking about the upcoming OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 6, but this tale of telemetry is going to dominate for a little while.
Hackers using websites to mine cryptocurrencies
Cyber-security experts are warning that criminals are hacking into other people's machines to mine cryptocurrencies for them.
According to a Trend Micro report, school, charity and file-sharing websites have been found infected with a particular code that makes the visitor's machine mine cryptocurrency.
Newegg makes it easier for consumers to build a PC
Once you build your first PC, it is hard to go back to buying pre-built machines. Not only is building a computer a great learning experience, but it is very personal too. You get to pick every component of your PC, piece by piece. It is super rewarding and very fun.
Unfortunately, a first build can go very wrong. It is not uncommon for first-timers to buy the wrong parts. Compatibility aside, they can dedicate too much of their budget on a certain component, when they should be putting more money towards another. If you have an unlimited budget it can be quite easy, but come on, not many people can claim that. Thankfully, online retailer Newegg is launching new kits that put "newbies" on the right track.
FormBook malware attacks target US and South Korea
High-volume FormBook malware distribution campaigns have targeted businesses in the aerospace, defense contractor and manufacturing sectors according to new research from cybersecurity company FireEye.
The attackers behind these campaigns employed a variety of delivery methods to distribute this information stealing malware including PDFs with download links, DOC and XLS files which contained malicious macros and ZIP, RAR, ACE and ISO archive files containing executable payloads.
Email is scammers' favorite platform
Email is still the number one cybercrime infection vector, but it's far from being the only one you should be paying attention to. A new whitepaper from Symantec, entitled ISTR, says business email compromise as well as spam are also dangerous players in the game.
Here are the numbers: email is the most popular platform among scammers. One in nine email users have had a malicious email sent to them in the first six months of this year. And that's just the global average. In the Wholesale Trade industry, that figure jumps to one in every four users.
PornHub users hit by sustained, targeted malvertising campaign
Millions of PornHub users in the US, UK, Canada and Australia were targeted by a malicious advertising campaign lasting for more than a year. The malvertising attack tried to trick users of the world's most popular porn site into installing fake browser updates.
Security researchers from Proofpoint found that PornHub users had been exposed to Kovter ad fraud malware for over a year. The KovCoreG group is believed to be responsible for distributing the Kovter ad fraud malware, so if you've visited PornHub recently, it might be a good idea to check your system for signs of infection.
How to check that you're using the real Adblock Plus Chrome extension
News broke recently that a fake version of the Adblock Plus browser extension had made its way into the Chrome Web store. It is thought that 37,000 people installed the phony version, and now Adblock Plus -- the real one -- has responded to the news.
While acknowledging that the fake extension was removed from the store fairly quickly, Adblock Plus questions how it got there in the first place. It also provides instructions for anyone who is concerned that they may have a malicious version of the extension installed.
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