2016 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for ransomware. Just look at the attack campaigns we have witnessed thus far. Back in February, news first broke about Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, a hospital located in southern California that temporarily suspended its computer systems following a ransomware attack. The medical center ultimately...

Last summer, we celebrated BSides as a growing and well respected institution in the field of information security. Each BSides event emphasizes interaction between speakers and topics, a focus which makes for a uniquely collaborative atmosphere among security professionals. In this type of setting, each event's organizers are more than happy to...

Sprouts Farmers Market confirmed on Thursday that a phishing email scam resulted in the retailer inadvertently handing over its employee’s payroll data to cyber criminals. The Phoenix, Arizona-based supermarket chain has approximately 21,000 employees across its 200 U.S. stores. Sprouts spokeswoman...

Security software is designed to keep users safe from malware and other online threats. As such, it enjoys great affect among ordinary users, the majority of whom feel antivirus solutions have helped protect them along each episode of their digital lives. People worry they would be exposed to considerably greater risk online without it. That's a...

Earlier this year, I published a guide on five common types of scams that fraudsters use to prey upon LinkedIn users. One of those schemes involves a scammer tricking a job seeker into accepting a seemingly legitimate, high-paying "work from home" job that in actuality offers no compensation. In most instances of the scam, the fake company either...

On Friday, Yahoo! announced the company is “moving fast in its mission to ‘kill the password’” with a stable release of its two-factor account login tool, Yahoo Account Key. The Sunnyvale, California-based tech company said the feature allows users to securely access their Yahoo account by sending a push notification to their mobile device when...

A former employee of the U.S. State Department has been sentenced to close to five years in prison for an online sextortion scheme targeting young women. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross sentenced 36-year-old Michael C. Ford to 57 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, reports the Washington Times. ...

Early February is when Red River College puts on its Directions conference, which I attended twice as a student. The purpose of this conference is to connect students and businesses and to assist the former in the transition from student to professional. This year, I had the privilege to speak about my journey of starting out with little experience...

Data breaches at large companies, such as Target or Home Depot, call to mind concerns about cloud infrastructure security. However, does the media do these cases justice, or is security in the cloud actually better than ever? How do medium and large businesses – enterprises – perceive cloud security systems? Cloud security is both a benefit and...

Researchers have tied the propagation of a new type of ransomware to a TeamViewer user. TeamViewer is a cross-platform service that enables remote computer access for tech support calls, meetings, and other purposes. It has been installed on more than a billion devices, which makes its potential attack surface quite extensive. On March 9th, someone...

The scourge of ransomware is by far today’s biggest computer security concern. By stepping into the crypto realm, cybercrooks have thrown down the gantlet to antivirus labs around the globe that are still mostly helpless in the face of this challenge. While many experts have been busy reverse-engineering obtained ransomware samples and posting...

SCENE: A man and a woman stare at a computer screen. They are both visibly stressed. The man is sweating through his shirt. The woman grips a fistful of her own hair. MAN This DDoS attack is bad. Really bad. WOMAN Almost as bad as this DDoS attack script pun. If only actual DDoS attack scripts could be so anti-climactic. In reality, DDoS attack...

These days, consumers are constantly being pushed to move away from paper correspondence and communication to an electronic alternative. Every time I sign into my bank account, I’m reminded of my option to forego the physical receipt of my monthly statement and go paperless. While the benefits of going paperless are clear to both businesses and...

I found a USB stick in the street the other day. This is not the first thumb drive I have found, and apparently this is not an unusual event, as some reports indicate that dry cleaners find thousands of them (along with some more unsavory items) each year. These reports are consistent with news stories about unusual items left in the back of taxis,...

Some of the world's most popular news and entertainment websites have been spreading poisoned adverts to potentially hundreds of thousands of visitors, putting innocent readers at risk of having their computers hit by threats such as ransomware. Famous sites which displayed the malicious ads and endangered visiting computers include MSN, bbc.com,...

A hacker has been charged with illegally accessing the nude photos of several celebrities in the "Fappening" or "Celebgate" scandal. On Tuesday, Ryan Collins, 36, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania signed an agreement in which he agreed to plea guilty to a federal violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse...

On November 3, 2015, ProtonMail, a Switzerland-based encrypted email service, tweeted out that it had been taken offline by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The attack was so massive that it spread to the datacenter where the email service kept its servers, causing several banks and some tech companies to be knocked offline. For days,...

Recently, I read an article that suggested the 'human firewall' is broken and that it cannot be fixed. This observation comes from a company that provides commercial technical solutions to assist with mitigating cyber threats. The first aspect of this comment I would like to address is the element referred to as ‘the human firewall.’ Let's call it...

21st Century Oncology, a Florida-based chain of 181 cancer treatment centers in the US and Latin America, announced earlier this month that an unauthorized intrusion into one of its databases may have exposed patient information. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the clinic said it is...

China has called for increased cooperation with the FBI on matters pertaining to internet security and counterterrorism. Reuters reports that Guo Shengkun, China's minister of public safety, recently told FBI Director James Comey in a Beijing meeting that his country was willing to enhance its mutual trust and respect with the United States with...