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Chili’s Is The Latest To Suffer A Credit Card Breach
Brinker International (the parent company of the Chili’s restaurant chain) formally announced that on May 11, they discovered malware on an undisclosed number of their point of sales terminals. Details are sketchy at this point, because the investigation is still ongoing, but the company had the following to say about the incident: “If you used […]
Vega Stealer Malware Goes After Your Saved Credentials
There’s a new security threat to be worried about, and security professionals are warning that it could be very bad indeed. The new malware is known as the “Vega Stealer,” and is currently being used in a relatively simplistic phishing campaign designed to harvest financial data that has been saved in both Google Chrome and […]
Your Kids’ Personal Info May Have Been Compromised
An identity threat company called 4iQ has recently published a report called “Identities in the Wild: The Tsunami of Breached Identities Continues.” Unfortunately, the information in the report contains all bad news. Some of the details are simply confirmations of things we already knew, and some are shocking statistics that will leave you feeling dismayed. […]
Fitbit and Google Partnership May Raise Privacy Concerns
Depending on which side of the privacy debate you’re on, you’re either going to love or hate this announcement: “Fitbit intends to use Google’s new Cloud Healthcare API to help the company integrate further into the healthcare system, such as by connecting user data with electronic medical records.” Rarely has a single sentence been so […]
Hulu To Soon Offer Episode Downloading and Offline Streaming
Hulu recently announced that it would join both Netflix and Amazon Prime in allowing its users to download content to watch offline, but in Hulu’s case, it comes with a twist. If you subscribe to the $7.99 a month tier, in addition to downloading the content you want to watch, you’ll also be downloading the […]
Lego and Alexa Team Up For Storytelling Through Device
In terms of toys, what could possibly be better than LEGOS? How about LEGOS, combined with Alexa? That’s the latest idea from Amazon, who has paired the unlikely duo in a newly announced service called “LEGO Duplo Stories.” The new service (“skill,” in the parlance of Alexa) will be available on any device that offers […]
Firefox To Start Showing Ads On Tab Page
Before Google released its Chrome browser, Firefox felt pretty good about their arrangement. They got a handsome reward in exchange for making Google.com their default search engine. It was a win-win. These days though, Firefox’s position is a bit more precious. The Google deal is still the main source of the company’s income, but they’re […]
Having Chrome Issues Since The Latest Windows 10 Update?
Microsoft has been having some “issues” of late. It’s April Windows 10 rollout had to be delayed on account of some mysterious BSOD (“Blue Screen of Death”) issues. This month’s rollout is plagued by similar problems, trading the BSOD issues for problems with both “Hey Cortana” and Google’s Chrome browser. The problem is that when […]
Facebook Is Adding New Features, Including Dating
At this year’s F8 Developer’s conference, Facebook announced a raft of changes and updates it will be rolling out later this year. Some are fun, others practical, but they’re all interesting. Here are the highlights: Get Ready for “FaceDate” This announcement is interesting. Not so much because the idea of using Facebook to meet someone […]
Healthcare Sector Facing Rise In Ransomware Attacks
The Department of Health and Human services has issued a warning to healthcare providers to be on high alert for the SamSam strain of ransomware, which has been used to attack eight different health care entities so far this year. SamSam made its first appearance in 2016 and is seeing increasingly widespread use so far […]
A Visionary Approach to Your Security
The purpose of an IT partner isn’t just to fix something when it is broken, it is to keep your people working and your data secure. Astral moves beyond traditional managed services by addressing all the key areas of cybersecurity in today’s complex landscape.
