Blog
Information Sharing Rules Change Affects Internet Service Providers
A new FCC ruling changes the game for Internet Service Providers around the country, which limits their ability to share or sell the information they have on the people who use their services. The new rules were approved in a 3-2 vote, with the three Democratic committee members approving the changes and the two Republican […]
AtomBombing Attack Could Be Huge Threat To Windows PCs
Researchers at a cyber security company called EnSilo have found a new vulnerability in Windows PCs, and it’s about as bad as it could possibly get. The new attack vector does not exploit a bug in the code, but rather, the design of the OS itself, which uses Atom Tables to store data that’s being […]
Sad Day For Vine Video Users: Service To Shut Down
Vine, one of the many properties owned by Twitter, is dead, after the company tried unsuccessfully to find a buyer for the struggling service. If you’re a Vine regular, you’ve probably sensed the move coming for quite some time. As part of Twitter’s constellation of products, it was one service among many, and never really […]
New Twitter Link Hack Calls 911 From Your Mobile Device
There’s a new viral link making the rounds on Twitter that you should advise your staff to steer clear of. If you see a link that begins with “goo.gl,” don’t click it. If you do, not only will it crash your Twitter app if you’re on your smartphone, but after it does that, it will […]
Cybercrime Has Affected 45% of Consumers: Are You Next?
It has been widely reported that cybercrime is one of the fastest growing types of crime on the planet today, but new statistics published by MarkMonitor’s Online Fraud Barometer indicate that it’s a lot worse than previously imagined. Close to half (45%) of all consumers have, at some point, fallen victim to cybercriminals. Fraud is […]
New DSL Type May See Faster Speeds In Near Future
If you’re a VDSL user, there’s good news on the horizon. Recently, Nokia has announced some amazing increases in its XG.fast speeds, achieving up to 5Gbps (about 625MB per second) over 70 meters of conventional copper telephone wire. That’s huge, but it gets even better. The company was also able to coax 8Gbps over 30 […]
More Medical Devices Under Attack, Some PaceMakers May Be Vulnerable
The Internet of Things has been getting a lot of bad press in recent weeks. Not long ago, an army of enslaved smart devices was used to bring much of the internet in the United States to its knees for several hours. A few weeks before that, an exploit in a “smart” insulin pump was […]
How Denial Of Service Attack Took Down Part Of The Internet
You probably noticed that at various points during a day not long ago, you couldn’t get on the internet. If you could, a lot of the sites you’re used to visiting were simply unavailable for extended periods of time. The reason you couldn’t get on the internet was because a company you’ve probably never heard […]
HIPAA Hits Hard, Health Company Receives 2 Million Dollar Fine
Yet more evidence that the federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is cracking down on HIPPA violations, the agency recently levied a hefty $2.14 million dollar fine against St. Joseph Health System for what it describes as an egregious breach of security. The company reported earlier in the year that action on […]
Android Users Should Be Aware Of New Drammer Hack
The Linux exploit called Rowhammer is back in the news. This time, it’s targeting Android devices. If you missed the news about Rowhammer, or need a refresher, the exploit basically works like this: if you can engineer a piece of malware that will consistently access the same row of memory on an installed chip, hammering […]
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.
