Blog
Mac Is The Focus of New Malware
In the old days, before the rise of the iPad and iPhone, hackers were mostly content to leave Apple alone. They had such a tiny slice of the computer market that it was generally deemed as being more trouble than it was worth to create a virus that would only impact such a small number […]
Identity Thieves Use Social Media To Gain Personal Information
Identity theft is a large, pervasive, and growing problem. In fact, statistics show that the instances of identity theft jumped a staggering 57% last year alone, this, according to figures from the fraud-prevention service Cifas. The firm’s research into the increase of identity theft found that much of the growth has seen fraudsters targeting a […]
Android Users Infected By Malware Threat Known As Hummingbad
Most people engaged in legitimate business have no idea just how profitable hacking can be. Hummingbad is a case in point. Part of the “Hummer” family of Trojans, this bit of malware is the most widely installed Trojan on the mobile device ecosystem, impacting more than two billion Android users worldwide. The Trojan originated in […]
Emails With Zepto Ransomware On The Rise
Security researchers from Cisco’s Talos Group have discovered a huge and disturbing spike in spam emails containing a widely used ransomware called Zepto. In fact, the team has uncovered 137,731 such emails over just a four-day period, containing more than three thousand unique samples. These emails use simple social engineering tricks to give them a […]
Ransomware Is Now Hitting Mobile Phones
Ransomware has become one of the fastest growing cybercrimes of 2016. Worse, these attacks are growing in their sophistication, and the hackers deploying ransomware have been upping their game by branching out onto different systems. As evidence, according to data provided by Kaspersky Lab, the number of users being attacked by mobile ransomware has quadrupled […]
Las Vegas Casino Hit With Credit Card Data Theft
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has had some hard luck when it comes to data breaches. Last year, the company admitted that hackers had breached their POS (Point of Sale) credit card processing system from September 2014 through April of 2015, swiping credit card numbers, expiration dates, and card holder names. Now, they’ve admitted a […]
Microsoft Will End Free Windows 10 Upgrade Offer July 29th
By now, you’ve almost certainly heard the news. Microsoft’s latest OS, Windows 10, is free for the moment, but that’s ending as of July 29. After that point, if you want to upgrade, you’ll have to pay. There is no doubt that the launch and adoption of Windows 10 has been wildly successful. Hundreds of […]
New Malware Is Attacking Smart TV’s And Android Devices
Ransomware is becoming an epidemic. It’s one of the fastest growing kinds of attacks we’re seeing in 2016, and the hacking community has shown a tremendous appetite for expanding the scope and scale of their operations. PCs and laptops were, of course, obvious targets for this kind of attack, but we’re now seeing strains of […]
Employee Connected Devices Could Put Network At Risk
Security company ForeScout has some disturbing new statistics about the state of digital corporate security. According to their research, 85% of IT professionals surveyed said they lacked confidence in their ability to spot a new device, imported by a user as it appeared on, and connected with the company’s network. The danger here is that […]
20 Percent of Small Businesses Take CyberSecurity Seriously – Does Yours?
Barclaycard, one of the giants in the industry of global payments, has some disturbing new data to share about the state of cybersecurity in small and medium-sized businesses. Less than one in five of the businesses surveyed viewed cybersecurity as their top priority. What makes that fact more disturbing still is the fact that nearly […]

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.

