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Another Major Data Leak Has Occurred – 1.4 Billions Users Affected
The internet is beginning to resemble the wild west, thanks to this latest data breach, which has exposed almost a billion and a half email addresses and a full range of other personal information. The two things that make this particular incident noteworthy are its sheer size and the target of the hack. In this […]
Many Popular Smartphones Are Shipping With Malware
Have you recently purchased an Android phone? Depending on the brand and where you got it, you may have purchased a device pre-loaded with malware. So far, two unidentified vendors have been found selling smartphones from a variety of manufacturers containing malware from two different and particularly nasty families of malware: SLocker and Loki. In […]
Google Fights Back Against Adware On The Google Play Store
Given the fact that smart phones are about to eclipse PCs as the King of the digital world, threats against smart devices are garnering increasing attention, and the biggest players in the smart device market are taking an active stance against them. The Google Play Store is already one of the most secure online app […]
Concerns Over SmartHome Eavesdropping Have People Worried
With all its potential, the Internet of Things has problems. The single biggest one of these relates to privacy. This came into sharp focus last year when a smart TV producer revealed that their products were always on and could easily record private conversations. If the servers housing those recordings were hacked, it could put […]
New Bill Would Let You Hack A Hacker Back
Should it be legal to hack a hacker who is intent on attacking you? It’s an interesting, touchy debate, with powerful opinions on both sides. On the one hand, hacking is universally regarded as an illegal act, even when conducted in self-defense. After all, it invariably involves breaching a network you do not own. Furthermore, […]
More Security Cameras Found To Be Easily Hackable
Dahua, a Chinese manufacturer of DVRs and Smart Cameras, has security problems. In fact, on the Dark Web, the company is commonly referenced as building products that are particularly easy to hack, and as such, hackers gravitate to them. In practice, what this means is that Dahua devices make up a disproportionate share of most […]
Exposed Database For CloudPet Toys Included Information And Voice Recordings
Unless you have kids, you may not have even known about CloudPets, or the MongoDB, much less the recent hack or the shocking lack of security. Firstly, yes. Smartpets are a “thing.” They are a new type of stuffed toy for small children connected to the internet. Parents and grandparents can record messages for their […]
Your DNA May Be Next Place Your Data Is Stored
The next big thing is going to be really small, at least if Microsoft has anything to say about it. They’ve been experimenting with storing data in what some might call the most unlikely of places…DNA. The process is mind-bendingly complex, but the potential is simply too great to be ignored. A single gram of […]
Recent Major Website Outage Was Caused By A Simple Mistake
Last week, Amazon’s AWS (Amazon Web Services) suffered an 11-hour outage that resulted in dramatic slowdowns and complete unavailability of more than 100 large internet retailers and a number of the web’s top sites, including Amazon itself, Netflix, Imgur, Reddit and a host of others. The situation has now been resolved, and Amazon has published […]
Popular Website Image Optimization Service Cloudfare May Have Exposed Data
While Cloudflare isn’t a household name, it is one of the titans of the internet, having a massive presence as a reverse proxy service. It provides security and serves optimized content to many Fortune 500 companies and a whole host of smaller ones. From September of last year to Feb. 20 of this year, thanks […]
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.
