Blog
Hackers Can Now Change What You See On Your Monitor
Do you trust what your eyes tell you? If you’re looking at a computer monitor, that trust might be misplaced. At a recent DEFCON presentation in Las Vegas, researchers demonstrated how it’s possible to hack into a monitor’s firmware and make changes to what a user sees on their computer, without actually breaking into the […]
Oracle Micros Point of Sale Customers Reset Your Passwords
Does your company rely on Oracle Systems’ Micros to handle point of sale transactions? If so, you should change your password immediately. The company has recently reported that a sophisticated Russian cybercrime syndicate has successfully breached their system, exposing the account information of more than 330,000 Micros users. The potential impact to your business cannot […]
New Bluetooth Is Coming And It Sounds Awesome
In late 2016 or early 2017, Bluetooth 5.0 will be released, and by all indications, this will be the version of the technology we’ve all been waiting for. It’s about to take a giant leap forward in terms of functionality. At present, Bluetooth’s primary purpose is to wirelessly connect devices, and to track Bluetooth beacons, […]
The WiFi of the Future May Consume Much Less Power
Battery life for mobile devices is their single biggest weakness. The greatest challenge in growing and managing the exploding “Internet of Things” isn’t the devices themselves, but rather, the power required to wirelessly transmit the data they’re reporting. Energy is money, and even as research continues to extend battery life to new horizons, there is […]
Many Android Phones May Be Vulnerable To QuadRoot Hack
Security researchers from Check Point have unearthed a new vulnerability dubbed QuadRoot that leaves potentially 900 million or more Android-based smartphones vulnerable. The attack manifests when a user unwittingly installs specially designed malware which executes the attack. This is often disguised as an app, which the user can be directed to via a variety of […]
Frequent Password Changes May Compromise Security
By now, it’s a familiar story. Conventional wisdom holds that you want to use a different password on every site or service you log into and that you want to change your passwords regularly, in order to maximize security. What if conventional wisdom isn’t true though? There’s a growing body of evidence that it isn’t. […]
Ransom Hackers Are Targeting iPhone Users
Ransomware has made some inroads into the realm of smart devices, but until quite recently, Android devices were the target of choice. That seems to be changing now. Increasingly, we’re seeing iPhone users targeted by this type of attack. This particular attack can manifest when the hacker gains a user’s Apple ID account information. Once […]
Your Microsoft Account Credentials May Be Vulnerable
In fact, your Microsoft Account Credentials are almost certainly vulnerable, but until the rise in popularity of Windows 10, it hasn’t been nearly as big an issue as it is today. The unfortunate reality is that Microsoft has known about the flaw in their software that allows this bug to function since 1997, and in […]
Don’t Plug In That USB Drive!
USB drives. They’re ubiquitous. They’re everywhere. You probably have several floating around your office, or nearby. We tend to use them so often that we don’t even think about it, and that’s a potential problem. At a recent Black Hat hacking convention, a demonstration was performed that proved just how easy it is to gain […]
Yahoo User Information Breached: 200 Million Accounts Affected
If you have a Yahoo email account, you’re not alone. The company is one of the largest free email account providers on the internet, which unfortunately means that when they suffer a data breach, it tends to impact a lot of users. Back in 2012, Yahoo reported a data breach which they estimated impacted about […]
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.
